All posts tagged: North Carolina

BustArt Pounds Pavement With Pop Crosswalk in Greensboro, NC

BustArt Pounds Pavement With Pop Crosswalk in Greensboro, NC

September 9, 2019

“As a European without a driver’s license it can be a task to get around in America.”

BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)

Walkable Neighborhoods? D. That’s one grade above F (Fail) – it’s the grade the United States gets on its own report card on walking safely in our towns and cities. Actually, that’s one of the better grades in the report, where in most categories the United States is failing, especially in comparison to the rest of the developed world.

We simply don’t make it easy, safe, or friendly for people to walk here.

BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)

Blame it on the oil, automobile, and highway industry, all of whom lobbied congress with overwhelming force after World War II to create a pro-business Interstate Highway system, actively discouraging public transportation and passenger trains – making us dependent on cars to do everything.  And its still happening now: oil and oligarchs like the Koch brothers have been using their money to shut down public transit plans all across the country in the last decade, according to The New York Times.

“As a European without a driver’s license it can be a task to get around in America,” says Street Artist BustArt, who shares with us his new colorful crosswalk in Greensboro, North Carolina. “Once you leave downtown the sidewalk becomes smaller and narrower, to the point where it is nonexistent. Same for the crosswalk, you get roughly19 seconds to make it over a massive stretch, while cars still pass over it due to the green light.”

Dude, here’s your report card from The 2017 Uhttp://physicalactivityplan.org/projects/walking/Walking-report-card-FINAL.pdfnited States Report Card on Walking and Walkable Communities

Invited by commercial real estate developer and brewery owner Marty Kotis to add to the 85 murals he has organized in the city over the past few years as part of a program called Kotis Street Art, BustArt says that he decided to paint something on the ground as a departure.

“After I arrived in Greensboro we looked at a few spots where a crossing would work,” he says. “Sadly there was not enough time to get the city onboard so the crossing had to be on private property.”

BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)

Even though it wasn’t painted across a city walkway, his crosswalk project of colorful pop/advertising inspired pavement was harder than he thought, he tells us. First, he painted at night when there was less traffic. Secondly, a heavy rainstorm damaged 40% of the work. “At 5am we were finished and extremely happy about the outcome . . . until two minutes later it started to rain heavily for a short yet frustrating 15 minutes.”

After another nine hours of painting, the project was finished – and BustArt says he wanted to make sure it actually could be used to safely protect walkers. “We added a non-slip varnish to roughen up the surface and make it safer for pedestrians.”

BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)
BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)
BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)
BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)
BustArt. Kotis Street Art. Greensboro, North Carolina. (photo © Peggy Butcher)

Bustart says he would like to thank: Keif for his knowledge, Skatin for his hard work and motivation, Kotis Street Art for making it possible, and photographer Peggy Butcher who provided the great images and documentation.

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BSA Top Stories 2017 – As Picked by You

BSA Top Stories 2017 – As Picked by You

December 14, 2017

Berlin, Kathmandu, Santa Fe, Brooklyn, Sweden, London, New York, the country of Georgia, Raleigh, North Carolina. The favorite stories of BSA readers spanned all of these places this year as we documented this global people’s art movement variously described as Street Art/ graffiti/ urban art. We put it out there daily and you react to it – sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – starting conversations and creating connections.

The topics of these 15 favorite stories run the gamut as well; From Banksy and Brexit, Marxism and Urvanity to a bodega completely made of felt, your voracious appetite was wide ranging. From a well crafted graffiti writing exhibition at a white suburban Pennsylvania college where the tuition is 50K to an attempt to bring reassuring cultural heritage art to the streets of Kathmandu where the museum was destroyed by an earthquake – the extremes and ironies only peaked your interest.

You loved seeing and hearing Martha Cooper getting her first solo exhibition in New York and the mania that queued thousands to see the transformation of a 5 floor bank in Berlin by graffiti writers, Street Artists, installation artists and performers. You care about the earth and its people, like the story of ICY an SOT in the country of Georgia making human sculptures of trash as a critique of globalized waste, and the story of Chip Thomas using his Street Art to draw attention to a traditional Hopi farming technique called “dry farming”.

And in 2017 the resonance of ‘Resistance is Female’ catapulted our story of the illegal campaign of phone booth takeovers to the top 15, showing that a uniquely impactful high-jacking of the advertising streetscape is always going to win fans.

No matter where we went in 2017, BSA readers were always invited to go along with us and discover people and art on the street and in the gallery or the museum whether it was in Scotland, Hong Kong, Berlin, Sweden, Mexico or Tahiti. We captured what we could and interpreted it – and you told us what you liked by re-Tweeting and re-Gramming and re-Facebooking.

From 365 postings over the last year, here are the 15 you liked the most.

No. 15

Marx and Engels Statues Re-Skinned & Re-Located : Various & Gould

Various & Gould. Berlin, June 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Why do you glorify and duplicate these two criminals?! They shouldn’t have a monument at all. Next you’re doing Hitler?”

Various and Gould try to paraphrase some of the comments they received from passersby in a park near the town-hall in centrally located Berlin-Mitte while working on their latest project with a statue of the creators of Marxist theory. Some imagined they were glorifying, others alleged defamation.

“It’s a shame how you treat Marx and Engels!”

Truthfully, this new project in public space that literally copies a monument and then transfers it to another location didn’t have much to do with the capitalist system that creates/allows very rich and very poor people, but it certainly adds stories to the overall experience of Various and Gould.

Various & Gould: Marx & Engels. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 14

“MADRID ME MATA”: Another Look at “Urvanity”

Roc Blackblock Milicians Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

MADRID ME MATA…in a good sense,”

says Fernando Alcalá Losa, the avid Barcelona based photographer of street culture. He doesn’t literally mean that the Spanish capital is deadly, but rather speaks of his devotion to Madrids’ energy, its possibility, its history, its people, and to its art. The torrid affairs of the heart are invariably complicated, as is the evolution of graffiti and Street Art from their outlaw illegal roots to their flirtations and trysts with other forms and venues; murals, in-studio practice, gallery representation, institutional recognition, or commercial viability.

We are pleased that Mr. Alcalá Losa comes to talk to BSA readers today and takes us to Madrid for the new art fair called “Urvanity” to see what he discovers with you, courtesy his words and his lovers’ view behind the camera.

Madrid Me Mata…in a good sense. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 13

Lucy Sparrow Opens an All-Felt Bodega in NYC : “8 ‘Till Late”

Lucy Sparrow 8 ‘Till Late (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s 8 ‘Till Late, artist Lucy Sparrows first all-felt store in New York, and it’s literally just under the Standard Hotel in the Meat Packing district. She’s made 9,000 items over roughly 9 months out of this soft fabric-like craft material – and at first impression it sincerely looks like everything you would have found in a New York bodega in the 1990s aside from the hard liquor, which is actually illegal to sell outside a liquor store in NYC, but relax, its all heartfelt.

“We sell quite a lot of self-help books as well,” chimes in Clare Croome, a cashier.

“Yes! Self-help books! Have you seen them?” says Brooks “They’ve got nothing in them on the pages, they’re just blank.”

Lucy Sparrow 8 ‘Till Late. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 12

“All Big Letters” Opens, Curated by RJ Rushmore

Faust. All Big Letters curated by RJ Rushmore at Haverford College’s Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery. Philadephia, PA (photo © Lisa Boughter)

“I wanted to exhibit the mind of a graffiti writer in a gallery, and make that mindset understandable to your average gallery-goer,” he tells us. “To me, that means appreciating not just the finished piece, but how and why it came to be.”

By showing artists, works, photography, and tools that judiciously span the 50 or so years that mark the era of modern mark-making in the public sphere, Rushmore threads a story line that he hopes a visitor can gain an appreciation for in this art, sport, and quest for fame.

All Big Letters. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 11

Anonymouse: Miniature Vignettes on the Street for “No Limit” Festival in Boras, Sweden

Anonymouse. No Limit Boras 2017. Boras, Sweden. September 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miniaturization on the street or in the museum (or in the street museum) causes you to focus on detail, draw closely, to recall your childhood ability to freely invoke a sense of fantasy.

“Since our visitors are mostly nocturnal, our opening hours are quite generous,” the artists known as Anonymous say in reference to their nighttime installations, sometimes glowing with electric light in the lee of a bridge column, or the shadow of a door. They reference the famous Swedish children’s book author Astrid Lindren in their work, and you can easily visualize a small mouse family or a business mouse or a house mouse or church mouse astutely moving through these vignettes, living their important lives.

Possibly one is currently occupied in a back room of one of these installations at the moment but they will be returning presently to greet their new visitor – you, with your big face. Don’t worry, they like you to get up close. They may even provide a magnifying glass for you to get a closer look.

Anonymouse. Minuature Vignettes. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 1o

Bunnies, Birds, Sexuality and VINZ Feel Free’s “Innocence” in Brooklyn

Vinz Feel Free. “Innocence” The Marcy Project. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. November 4th. 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Birds are associated with freedom, fish remind him of mindless consumerism, and frogs convey authority. He reserves reptiles for soulless soldiers of capital and authoritarian types. And the sudden preponderance of rabbits? Why sexuality and innocence of course.

“Innocence” is the name of the exhibition here curated by BSA and DK Johnston, and Vinz Feel Free has been preparing these works for many months. A project that has included his study of innocence, the show is meant to demarcate such shadings of the concept as to appear only subtly different from one another. To wit:

1. The quality or state of being innocent; freedom from sin or moral wrong.
2. Freedom from legal or specific wrong; guiltlessness.

Vinz Feel Free. “Innocence”.  Continue reading HERE

 

No. 09

Julien De Casabianca, Angry Gods, and Hacking Disaster in Kathmandu

Julien De Casabianca. Outings Project. Kathmandu, Nepal. January, 2017 (photo © Karma Tshering Gurung & Sanam Tamang/ Artudio)

If you are not going into the museum to see art, Julien De Casabianca is happy to bring it out to the street for you. Additionally, if the museum has been closed by an earthquake, he’ll make sure the art gets a public viewing nonetheless.

In Kathmandu recently Street Artist Julien de Casabianca continued his Outings Project by bringing a centuries-old painting outside to the side of the Artudio building in Swoyambhu on Chhauni Hospital Road with the help of Matt Rockwell of the humanitarian hackers group called DisasterHack.

He tells us that the obstacles to getting this piece up seemed insurmountable at times due to the broken social and infrastructural systems in Nepal that still plague people even today, nearly two years since the catastrophic earthquake that killed nearly 9,000 and injured 22,000 more.

Julien De Casabianca/Outings Projects in Kathmandu. Continue reading HERE

No. 08

Rocking “THE HAUS” : A 5-Floor Berlin Bank is Transformed by Artists

Kaleido. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Normally we paint advertising – hand-painted advertising, mostly with cans. So we work all over Germany, with a lot of crews, “ says Kimo, a bearded, bald energetic and sharp witted guy who is lighting up a cigarette in this tattered, beige ex-conference room.  That explanation doesn’t prepare you for what you will see in the rooms upstairs.

The floors are piled with unopened paint buckets and brushes and cans and the walls in this organizing office are covered with scotch-taped project timelines, to-do lists, and floor plans of the old bank. Each former office space is plainly labled with names of German Street Artists or graffiti  crews, some you recognize, others you don’t. More recent Street Art names are next to classic Graff heads, installation  artists mix freely with Optic Artists, photographers, sculptors, even a live moss installation.

Case Maclaim is right next door to Turbokultur with Stohead out in the hall on floor 1.  El Bocho and Emess are in small rooms to either side of 1UP on the 3rd. Herakut in a corner room numbered 506 is right next to Nick Platt and Paul Punk in 505.

Rocking The Haus. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 07

Working the Cornfields on a Santa Fe Facade with Jetsonorama

Chip Thomas. Santa Fe, New Mexico, Earth Day 2017. (photo © John Donalds)

18 year old Hawthorne Hill has learned the traditional Hopi farming technique called “dry farming” from his mom, according to Jetsonorama, and he places seeds in shallow holes, while his sister Metzli creates rows of wind blocks using nearby brush.

The photos are taken on Second Mesa on the Hopi nation, but the artist brings them here to Santa Fe as part of a project he’s doing with Biocultura Santa Fe.

A project originally conceived of as part of Earth Day, with a focus on where our food comes from and traditional farming methods, its good to think of who works to bring food to your table.

Working The Cornfields. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 06

“A Real Turning Point” : Sculptures on the Art Mile at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art

Seth Globepainter. Art Mile. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think it’s a real turning point as far as seeing three dimensional things,” says Street Artist and fine artist Ben Frost while hand painting text on the side of the large facsimiles of pharmaceutical boxes that he’s creating for the UN Art Mile. “I think sculptures and installations have been paving a way forward for Street Art.”

In fact sculpture and all manner of three dimensional installations as Street Art have been a part of the current century for sure, from the variety of lego and yarn artists to the soldiered steel tags of REVS and eco-bird houses of XAM and small little men made of wood by Stikman – among many others.

For the opening of UN this weekend, the Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin this week, a curated selection of artists working in such dimensions were invited to create substantial pieces – including video installation, mobile, interactive, the purely static. Enjoy the variety of works by Street Artists who are working today.

Urban Nation Berlin. Art Mile. Continue reading HERE

No. 05

“Resistance is Female” Takes Over Phone Booths in New York

Gigi Chen for #resistanceisfemale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The decentralized Resistance, as it turns out, is a majority of Americans.

And leading the charge are women and girls.

So it makes perfect sense that a new grassroots takeover of telephone booth advertising in New York is a campaign called, “Resistance is Female”. Organizers and artists say that the ad takeover project is putting out a message that corporate controlled media seems to be quelling: keep fighting, keep speaking up, persevere.

The artists have put up a couple of dozen or so new art pieces in places where typecast women typically sell shampoo or fashions: a high-jacking of the advertising streetscape which the French and the Situationists would have called détournement in earlier decades.

Resistance Is Female. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 04

Street Artist OLEK and Volunteers Create NINA SIMONE Tribute in Raleigh, NC

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Nina Simone; Three of the women whom Street Artist Olek would like us to remember from U.S. history, and who have been recently featured in public crochet portraits. Her most recent portrait done with help from the community brings art made by the public to the public in a country-wide project called “Love Across the USA”.

Sparked a year ago leading up to the US national election where a woman was on the ballot, Olek says that despite the negativity that followed, “it inspired me to create a project that would celebrate the accomplishments of women, many of whom had been forgotten throughout U.S. history.”

Today we go to Raleigh, NC to see the most recent banner of Nina Simone crocheted by Olek and a small army of volunteers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone, the American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist in the Civil Rights Movement.

Olek. Here Comes The Sun. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 03

Icy & Sot and a Man of Trash in Tbilisi, Georgia

Icy & Sot.  “Human reflection on nature”. Tbilisi, Georgia. May 2017. (photo © Icy & Sot)

15 centuries old, Tbilisi may not last as long as this garbage man sculpture by Street Artists Icy & Sot.

“It took us only 10 minutes to collect all this trash because there was so much of it – including American brands – in the river by this village,” says Icy as he tells us about the trip he and his brother Sot made last month. A gorgeous and historically diverse city of 1.5 million people, Tbilisi reflects art, architecture, trade and culture that have given the Georgian capital a reputation as a crossroads for Europe and Asia.

During their stay with the Art Villa Garikula, a self organized community contemporary art center begun Tbilisi born painter and educator, Karaman Kutateladze in 2000, Icy and Sot did two pieces and an ad takeover that reflect the global problems posed by a consumer culture sold by corporations with little concern for its impact long term.

Icy & Sot. Human reflections on nature. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 02

“Martha Cooper” Solo Exhibition Reveals Many Unseen “Action Shots”

Martha Cooper signing the print of Futura 2000 whole car “Break”,  Steven Kasher Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An intrepid photographer who has launched a million dreams (and perhaps a few thousand careers) in graffiti and Street Art with her photography that captured crucial and seminal aspects of our culture that others overlooked.

That is just one way of seeing this brand new collection of images by Martha Cooper that is spread across one wall featuring artists at work, sometimes intimately. Here is where you see 102 individual shots of artists at work, a stunning testament to the range of art-making techniques that are practiced in the public realm, as well as a testament to the passion and curiosity of the woman behind the lens.

For Ms. Cooper’s first solo photography show in New York, Steven Kasher Gallery is featuring 30 new editions of her legendary street art photographs, the ones that have burned themselves into the collective memory of New York and of our streets in the 1970s and 1980s. While her photographs in the 1984 seminal “Subway Art” and her early Hip Hop street shots may be what she is most known for by artists and collectors and fans in cities around the world to which she travels, the new exhibit also contains more than a foreshadowing into the vast collection of important images she has not shown to us.

Martha Cooper Solo Show. Continue reading HERE

 

No. 01

Banksy Hits Brexit With New Piece, MaisMenos & BLU Used EU Flag Earlier

Banksy. Dover, England. Photo @banksy Instagram

The appearance of a new mural by Banksy in Dover, England caught the attention of many followers on his Instagram account and the mass media folks quickly reported on the new piece that comments on the current state of the EU.

10 months since the Brexit vote, the anonymous artist has created a thoughtful piece marking the crack in the European Union, depicting a white male worker on a ladder chipping away one of the stars on the EU flag, a fissure produced by the action reaching upwards and outwards toward the others.

Banksy Brexit. Continue reading HERE

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Street Artist OLEK and Volunteers Create NINA SIMONE Tribute in Raleigh, NC

Street Artist OLEK and Volunteers Create NINA SIMONE Tribute in Raleigh, NC

November 1, 2017

Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Nina Simone; Three of the women whom Street Artist Olek would like us to remember from U.S. history, and who have been recently featured in public crochet portraits. Her most recent portrait done with help from the community brings art made by the public to the public in a country-wide project called “Love Across the USA”.

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Sparked a year ago leading up to the US national election where a woman was on the ballot, Olek says that despite the negativity that followed, “it inspired me to create a project that would celebrate the accomplishments of women, many of whom had been forgotten throughout U.S. history.”

Today we go to Raleigh, NC to see the most recent banner of Nina Simone crocheted by Olek and a small army of volunteers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone, the American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist in the Civil Rights Movement.

We spoke with Olek about this selection of Ms. Simone, who coincidentally has been nominated this year in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

BSA: Nina Simon fought hard battles, she lost some and won many. She won her right to be recognized as an artist in the USA after having to prove herself in European capitals first. With this portrait you elected to highlight the bright side of her and her art. Is it because you also want to be optimistic about our future even during these dark times we are all experiencing?
Olek: Why, with Nina Simone, do we always have to think about the battles she lost?  I prefer to think about the positive things she accomplished both as an artist and an activist. I remember when I was in elementary school I was given one of her tapes. I had no idea who she was and didn’t understand a word, but I loved the music.

Later, when I learned her name and more about her story, I hated how the media tended to focus on the negatives.  As a black woman living in that time, fighting for what she believed in, she was exhausted and had little help.  Her husband, who was also her manager, exploited her and gave her drugs instead of helping her.  Despite everything, she positively influenced so many people around the world.

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

BSA: What kind of inspiration did you learn from Nina Simone and her feminist take with her music especially with her song “Four Women” which is considered by many to be a very influential song with the black feminist movement in the 60’s?
Olek: The song “Here Comes the Sun” has accompanied me through many difficult installations.  I played the song on loop while in Rochester, NY working on the Susan B. Anthony mural for Love Across the USA.  We worried the installation would be delayed because of bad weather, but after listening to the song all morning, we arrived at the site and the sun was shining.

Nina Simone has been so well known in Europe and is finally starting to gain the recognition she deserves in the U.S. with her nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  We had no idea about the nomination when we first began working on the piece, but when we found out a couple weeks ago, we hoped that this mural would help her to earn the votes needed to be inducted.

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

Olek. Nina Simone “Here Comes The Sun” Love Across The USA. Raleigh, North Carolina. October 2017. (photo © courtesy Olek)

To learn more about Love Across The USA click HERE

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Jetsonorama Wraps a House with Pots in Penland, North Carolina

Jetsonorama Wraps a House with Pots in Penland, North Carolina

April 17, 2017

When one thinks of pots and pottery and clay urns, you may imagine them with patterns and motifs wrapped around their exterior. Botanicals, animal life, figures, even architecture, all become decorative elements or patterns. Street Artist Jetsonorama is flipping the script in the North Carolina mountains this week by wrapping a house with photographic images of pottery, and sitting in the woods the presentation is striking, even provocative.

Jetsonorama. Penland School or Arts. North Carolina, USA. April, 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

Jetsonorama told us about the project, which he calls “Clay pieces pretending to be contestants on The Apprentice.” But seriously he says it is about a curriculum that was developed to train people for a trade so that they could provide an income for their families. Here below is his description of the genesis for the new curious looking work;

Jetsonorama. Penland School or Arts. North Carolina, USA. April, 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

“I’m just completing a week long residency at the Penland School of Crafts which is nestled in the North Carolina mountains. The craft school was founded in 1929 by Lucy Morgan to teach local women how to weave in order to contribute to their families economically. Over the years Penland has added courses in metal smithing, glass blowing, printmaking, photography, clay and has expanded offerings in textiles.

The institution is recognized internationally as a leader in the crafts taught. I was offered the opportunity to spend a little time there to get a feel for the place and to then install work on a building that houses gardening equipment called Green Acres. Having only a day to decide upon an image before sending files to the printer I opted to use a photograph of pots waiting to be placed in a traditional Japanese kiln where the pieces are fired over 8 days.”

Chip Thomas. Penland School or Arts. North Carolina, USA. April, 2017. (photo © Chip Thomas)

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The Superior Bugout Presents: “Kids Eat For Free” A group Exhibition. (Brooklyn, NYC)

December 11, 2012 , , , , , ,

Kids Eat For Free

What: Kids Eat for Free
When: Thursday December 13, 2012 from 6 to 10pm
Where: The Tender Trap 245 South 1st street between Roebling and Havemeyer
How much: FREE

On Thursday December 13, 2012 The Superior Bugout presents the opening night of “Kids Eat for Free” with artwork from North Carolina’s infamous NGC crew.  Artists FISHGLUE, MTN, RODA and Thomas Bachman share their photos, sculptures, and diatribes of tales from their travels and mischief.  Much of the work appeared in Miles Michaels’ 1480 Gallery in Detroit, MI earlier this year in August, and has now traveled with additional new work to Brooklyn.

The artists’ work documents the past Summer, traveling across America’s northeast corridor, southern and mid-western states and New York City stealing freight train rides and paint.  Along the way they’ve reworked the visual landscapes of the towns they passed through with colorful signage, roller pieces, and urban scrawlings.  The show will be on display throughout the new year.

Accompanying the artwork will be an experimental sound set with MIND DETRGNT BKF playing eclectic samples and sounds from his vast collection of tape cassettes.

The Superior Bugout seeks to bring a synergy of sight and sound, combining visual elements of the streets with contemporary sound visionaries. The party aesthetic comes from Brooklyn based multimedia artist Andrew H. Shirley, who’s work “Fuck Bike #001” is currently on display in the window of The Museum of Sex in New York City.

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Best Miami Street Art: BSA Picks Awesomest for Basel ’12

December 5, 2012 , , ,

BSA Recommends: Where to Hit for the Best Street Art

Art Basel is set to whip Miami into a sea-foamy art-star laden froth this weekend, but art on the street is the unofficial engine that will be keeping it real. No one can doubt that the wave of Street Art, this first global grassroots peoples art movement, is sort of everywhere now, haters be damned.

The ugly streets of the Wynwood District easily get as much traffic as the big commercial art fairs even though there is no guest list or ticket price. It feels remarkably different to see the marbled horde exploring art in the public realm, posing for photos with each other in front of pieces, talking with the artists as they paint, sharing their favorite discoveries on Instagram.  This is the art of this moment, and there is just something more democratic about it all.

Our list, in no particular order, doesn’t even include the main fair actually. Hit the streets!

1. Wynwood Walls
2. Fountain Art Fair
3. The Factory Art Show
4. Scope Fair
5. Pulse
6. Miami Project Art Fair
7. Context
8. Primary Projects
9. BLADE at Adjust Gallery
10. A Box Truck Caravan from Klughaus
11. Snyder “Urban Pop Up Gallery”

We have sifted through the offerings in Miami for 2012, and made some selections to help you see Street Art inside and outside, by brand new artists and some with 40 years in the game.  Take your camera, take your sneakers, and take your love of the creative spirit.

Wynwood Walls

Arguably one of the main reasons that Street Artists began pouring into Miami in the late 2000s, Wynwood Walls opened the streets to the gallery world and increasingly galleries are opening doors to these artists from street. Wynwood Walls founder Tony Goldman would have wanted it that way and is credited by many artists as the first guy to give their art a chance to be seen.

WW doesn’t stop this year even as the recently departed real estate developer will be on many minds, not the least because of the huge wall installation by Shepard Fairey honoring him as a benefactor of the arts.

A well mixed list of internationally known and emerging names are featured on a slightly shorter list this year including: How & Nosm, MOMO, DAZE, Shepard Fairey, Jesse Geller (Nemel, IRAK), Faith47, Daleast, Santiago Rubino, POSE and Kenny Scharf. The out door walls are complemented with an indoor exhibition featuring new works on canvas by AIKO, Logan Hicks, How & Nosm and Futura.

How & Nosm. Wynwood Walls 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information about wall locations and all the artists click here.

Fountain Art Fair

A loosely spun ball of misfits and future art stars, Fountain Art Fair always flies just under the radar of it’s more tony neighbors with its somewhat haphazard staging and the kind of unpretentious collaborative punk flophouse environment that gives rise to many Street Artists on the scene today. If you don’t need your art spoon-fed, you’ll find a link to the future here in the motley D.I.Y. parade. Also, a few really strong talents. As usual Fountain is making certain to spill outside the white box, onto the streets and onto the walls. This year line up of Street Artists painting the Fountain Wall include:

Rone, Australia | LNY, New Jersey | PLF, Atlanta | Trek Matthews, Atlanta | Jaz, Argentina | Elian, Argentina | Ever, Argentina | Dal East, China | Faith 47, South Africa | Molly Rose Freeman, Tennessee | Dustin Spagnola, North Carolina | Pixel Pancho, Italy | Never 2501, Italy | Sam Parker, Atlanta | GILF!, NYC | EnMasse, Canada | Lauren Napolitano, Oakland CA | Joe Iurato, NJ | Anne Preece, LA | Nobody, NYC | Pastel, Argentina | Hec One Love, Miami.

RONE. Wynwood Arts District, Miami 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information and schedule of events for Fountain Art Fair click here.

The Factory Art Show

A little more on the commercial tip, Juxtapoz Magazine and its minion are leaders in blasting open minds to help you enjoy delicious tattoo art, graffiti art, Street Art, pop surrealist and dark pop, erotic art, and of course hypnotically animated gifs. Here Jux teams up with Mixed Media Collective to bring you an indoor and outdoor exhibition featuring a left coast imbued view of the street with national and international artists including: 131, Abstrkt, Alex Yanes, Myla (of Dabs & Myla), DALeast, Evoca1, Faith47, Jose Mertz, Lebo, Tatiana Suarez, Toofly, and La Pandilla among others.

Tatiana TATI Suarez at The RC Cola Factory in The Wynwood Arts District of Miami, 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information about THE FACTORY art exhibition click here.

Scope Fair

Scope Art Fair is a few steps removed from the street, even as it deeply mines that vein and packages it for sale. Big sale. Usually high quality and undoubtedly commercial, the fair aims for deeper pockets and the art trade while still trying to maintain the accessible, challenging works that accomplished GenX collectors are looking for.  Not surprisingly, artists once known exclusively as Street Artists are all up in there too.

Scope’s roster of galleries includes many that represent Street Artists from around the world including:  Cory Helford Gallery from Culver City, CA will be presenting D*Face and Buff Monster. Galerie Swanström from NYC will be presenting Gilf!  White Walls Gallery from San Fransico, CA. will be presenting C215, Herakut, Augustine Kofie, Logan Hicks and Niels Shoe Meulman. Andenken Gallery / The Garage from Amsterdam, Spoke Art Gallery from San Francisco and Thinkspace from Culver City, CA will also have booths at Scope. Scope Art Fair includes a large variety of programs along with their main exhibition including Red Bull Curates with artists Cosbe and Claw Money among others and Anthony Spinello curates TYPOE.

Buff Monster at Wynwood Arts District, Miami. 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a full listing of exhibitors, programs and other details click here.

Pulse

Pulse Art Fair insists on paring works on canvas with art installations as a way to engage the public and make the art viewing experience (and hopefully the art buying experience) far less clinical and more accessible. Detailed, immaculate, and approachable, Pulse is always a must to visit if you are doing the fair circuit. This year as in previous years Pulse has included some of the most important art galleries representing and promoting the work of internationally established Street Artists. Some examples: LeBasse Projects from Culver City, CA will be presenting Herakut, The Joshua Liner Gallery from NYC will be presenting Stephen “ESPO” Powers, and The Jonathan LeVine Gallery from NYC will be presenting a solo exhibition by French Street Artist and tilest INVADER.

Invader. South Beach, Miami. 2010 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a full listing of exhibitors, programs and other details click here.

Miami Project Art Fair

One to watch, The Miami Project Art Fair originates from peeps in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and has about 70 galleries in its inaugural showing with contemporary and modern art offerings.  We expect this fair to provide the already charged air with an extra bolt of energy. One worth hitting is the Cooper Cole Gallery from Toronto, Canada will be presenting Brooklyn’s own Maya Hayuk.

Maya Hayuk. Monster Island, Brooklyn, NYC. November, 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a full listing of exhibitors, programs and other details click here.

Context

Context is one of the newest fairs, and will feature French Street Artists RERO and Speedy Graphito, represented by the Fabien Castanier Gallery from Studio City, CA.

Speedy Graphito “Urban Dreamer” (photo courtesy of the gallery)

For a full listing of exhibitors, programs and other details click here.

Primary Projects

Honorable mention here for the originators of the Wynwood outdoor graffiti (and Street Art) exhibitions that pre-date the official Wynwood Walls and were run on a shoelace budget and lots of hustle, Primary Flight. This year as a gallery project they have refocused their scope and present a full installation by multidisciplinary artist Kenton Parker. He is planning to bring his “Taco Shop” to the 8th floor of the Soho Beach House in Miami Beach.

Kenton Parker. “Las Lucky’s” Taco Shop. (photo © Peter Vahan)

From the Primary Flight press release: “How do you encapsulate the underground, past-midnight culture of Los Angeles into a single structure? For multimedia artist Kenton Parker, his establishment stationed outside the fashionable Las Palmas nightclub brings the beautiful people back to their basic needs; everyone pays the same dollar for the same after-party, hangover fare. Sharply crafted from tile mosaic, Parker’s standalone shop offers patrons everything from sodas to recovered fake Louis Vuitton wallets, from spray paint to Nerds candy boxes”

For a full listing of Primary Projects exhibitions and other details click here.

ALSO HAPPENING IN MIAMI THIS WEEKEND:

In addition to the perhaps 100 or so Street Artists participating this year in the established art fairs and galleries, there will be dozens of installations outside the sanctioned venues. So far Miami is still in love with it all – both legal and illegal installations provide the essential ethos of an art world invasion. Without these artists and independent stagings away of the glitzy openings and glare of cameras, these art fairs and  just feel like “commerce”.  Some other gigs to check out :

BLADE at Adjust Gallery

Adjust Gallery in Miami will be hosting an exhibition of legendary Graffiti New York artist BLADE. Vernissage: December 6 from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. at Adjust Gallery Miami, 150 NW 24th Ave (305) 458-2801.

Blade in MoCA Los Angeles for Art in The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Box Truck Caravan from Klughaus

Klauhhaus Gallery has been mounting some of the best graffiti/Street Art/tattoo/low brow shows in NYC since the gallery opened in Chinatown in 2011. We give it up for these ruggedly smart idea people who will be making their inaugural trip to Miami. With a caravan of box trucks parked strategically in the Wynwood Arts District their artists will be live painting on the trucks and the trucks will parade around showcasing a mobile gallery as the trucks will in fact be moving canvases. The trucks will feature art by: RIME, TOPER, DCEVE, WANE, SP, CES, OBLVN, STAE2, GOREY among others.

Rime . Dceve . Toper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information about live painting schedule and locations click here.

Snyder “Urban Pop Up Gallery”

And finally there is Snyder, who is just one of the intrepid D.I.Y. artists who inspire you with their will to succeed – even without being plugged in to the scene. From the artist’s press release: “Snyder, a Southern California based street artist, will be installing his ‘Urban Pop Up Gallery’ in the streets of Miami. With no contacts, no pre-arranged walls, no assistants and in a city never previously visited, Snyder attempts to install 30+ pieces of art in the streets of Miami over a 7 day period, ultimately curating his 2nd large scale ‘Urban Pop Up Gallery”.

 

 

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Gallery X AKA Elder Gallery Presents: Chor Boogie “The Divided State of America” (Charlotte, NC)

August 30, 2012 , , ,

Chor Boogie

“The Divided State of America” National Art Exhibition to Launch During Democratic National Convention

Featuring symposium to highlight solutions for an ideologically fractured America “The Divided State of America,” an innovative political art series, will make its national debut in a symposium for attendees of the Democratic National Convention at 12:00 PM ET on September 6, 2012, at Gallery X (aka Elder Gallery) in Charlotte, NC. The session will feature a roundtable discussion with prominent thinkers about the themes of the exhibition, asking them fundamental questions about why America is currently polarized and how to solve the crisis before the election.

The “Divided State of America” is a larger-than-life collection spray painted by world-renown artist Chor Boogie and commissioned by pharmaceutical and biotechnology entrepreneur Nirmal Mulye. The paintings depict universal issues that have affected Mulye’s life and the lives of many other Americans – policies affecting immigration, energy, the economy, class, and religion – to stimulate discussion and political discourse

The exhibition will be on show throughout the convention in the lounge of Gallery X, hosted by entrepreneur coalition StartUp RockOn, and later in a series of public events throughout the country in the run-up to the Presidential Election in November. More information is available at www.facebook.com/DividedUSA.

ABOUT NIRMAL MULYE:  Nirmal Mulye emigrated to the U.S. from India in 1987 – barely able to speak English, and without financial aid or assistance. After receiving his Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences from Temple University in 1992, Mulye went on to found seven innovative companies and employ over 400 people under the umbrella company, Nostrum Pharmaceuticals, LLC

ABOUT CHOR BOOGIE:  The work of artist Chor Boogie has been featured in numerous exhibitions worldwide, including a recent installation for the Smithsonian Institute on the National Mall in Washington D.C. His work has influenced and inspired a generation of young adults through his dynamic, positive message. Using the contemporary medium of spray paint, Chor Boogie’s soulful portraits and abstract elements combine in color therapy, inviting the viewer to see and think, internally and externally.

Elder Gallery

1520 South Tryon Street
Charlotte, NC 28203
704-370-6337

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Fun Friday 06.01.12

June 1, 2012

1.    Bushwick Open Studios Starts Party >> Live Street Artists Doing Live Street Art! (Brooklyn)
2.    El Celso and La Luz (Brooklyn)
3.    Don Pablo Pedro at English Kills (Brooklyn)
4.    Street Art Pop Up Store (Brooklyn)
5.    Bishop 203 “Happy Torments” (Brooklyn)
6.    Dennis McNett Invites You to the Wolfbat Studios (Brooklyn)
7.    Pink Cloud (Brooklyn)
8.    Olek at Flanders Gallery (Raleigh, NC)
9.    Darkclouds does the Same Old Same Old in Boston
10.    Jef Aerosol at 30 (France)
11.    “Pandamonium” at Signal Gallery in London
12.    Herakut’s “After The Laughter” at London’s Shea & Ziegler Gallery
13.    Jon Burgerman’s “I Want To Eat Myself” (Jersey)
14.    Black Book Gallery hosts Eelus “Curious” tonight in Denver, CO.
15.    L.I.C.K. Gallery “4 of a Kind” w/ REGA, EVOKER, MikeDie and Chris RWK (Queens)
16.    Andreco and Ericailcane in Morocco (VIDEO)
17.    Pixel Pancho in Mexico City with MAMUTT Arte by Filmaciones de la Ciudad (VIDEO)

In NYC there are certain rites of Summer that mark the onset of the new season. The beaches get cleaned of condoms and medical waste every year just in time for Memorial Day Weekend for example. Children playing in spraying fire hydrants on hot days – always splendid.

Water related activities remind us of another favorite Summer rite of hormones; Wet T-shirt contests! Also, saucy libertinas with short, fresh sun dresses going up or coming down the subways’ stairs on a windy platform without knickers, that’s always a pruient plus. And shirtless boys showing off by doing tricks on bikes, skateboards, or anything really – generally making fools of themselves- another Summer tradition.

And of course Bushwick Open Studios.  This is the 6th Edition and we have loved every one.

Someone told us there are 500 open studios this year;
a. Bushwick has arrived, but you knew that
b. Artists can’t do math so don’t trust any numbers you hear for the next two days. Or is that three days?

Naturally, there will be plenty of Street Art as the scene continues to flourish and here are our recommendations …

Bushwick Open Studios Starts Party >> Live Street Artists Doing Live Street Art! (Brooklyn)

Street Artist Gilf! curates the BOS official opening reception with fellow Street Artists Bishop 203, QRST, Sheryo, The Yok, Willow, ND’A, Hellbent and Gilf! getting up live on the street. Dancing shoes are recommended. Also, clif bars.

Gilf! on the streets of Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information regarding the Official Opening Party click here.

El Celso and La Luz

El Celso invites you to his studio to give you a personal demonstration of his project La Luz.

El Celso on the streets of Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information on El Celso’s studio click here.

Don Pablo Pedro at English Kills

Loveably stylish and morally degenerate Don Pablo Pedro will be showing at English Kills Art Gallery at the Annex.

Don Pablo Pedro on the streets of Bushwick. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Street Art Pop Up Store

Robin Grearson presents a Street Art Pop Art Store with artists including ASVP, Bethany Allard, Chris Stain, Criminy Johnson, Daniel Feral, Elle, Enzo & Nio, Gilf!, Hellbent, Jon Burgerman, LNY, Moustache Man, Nathan Pickett, ND’A, QRST, Quel Beast, Royce B.

Enzo & Nio on the streets of Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding Street Art Pop Up Store click here.

Bishop 203 “Happy Torments”

Sharp, bold, independent Bishop 203 is one of Brooklyn’s Angels.

Bishop 203 on the streets of Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information on Bishop 203 show click here.

Dennis McNett Invites You to the Wolfbat Studios

Dennis McNett, the master printer, puppet maker, pied piper, and maker of magic has scared many with his Street Art creatures popping out as you turn a corner. Now you are invited into the magical kingdom of Dennis McNett Wolfbat Studios. You won’t be disappointed.

Dennis McNett on the streets of Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information on Dennis McNett’s Wolfbat Studio click here.

Pink Cloud

Visit Pink Cloud, Abel Macias’ studio and you might end up with free art. Who knows?

Pink Cloud on the streets of Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information on Pink Cloud’s studio click here.

BOS has so much more than we can list here; Performances, music, fashion and a plethora of studios to visit. For a complete listing of events, calendar, schedules and BOS Directory click here.

Olek at Flanders Gallery (Raleigh, NC)

Well-behaved women rarely make history and Street Artist Olek is a prime example of that axiom.  She’s part of a group exhibition aptly entitled “Make Ends Meet” at Flanders Gallery in North Carolina. Show opens today.

Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Darkclouds does the Same Old Same Old in Boston

The New York Street Artist Darkclouds travels to Beantown to open a new show at the Lot Gallery. Check it. “Same Old, Same Old”.

Darkclouds (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Jef Aerosol at 30 (France)

Street Art Icon and Master, Jef Aerosol celebrates 30 years of stencils at Collégiale Saint-Pierre-Le-Puellier at Mairie d’Orléans, France.

Jef Aerosol on the streets of Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

“Pandamonium” A Group Exhibition at Signal Gallery in London is now open to the public. Click here for more details on this show.

Herakut‘s new solo show “After The Laughter” at London’s Shea & Ziegler Gallery is now open to the public. Click here for more details on this show.

Jon Burgerman‘s new show “I Want To Eat Myself” opening tonight at Carmine’s Pizza Factory in Jersey City, NJ. Click here for more details on this show.

Black Book Gallery hosts Eelus with a solo show titled “Curious” opening tonight in Denver, CO. Click here for more details on this show.

The new group show at L.I.C.K. Gallery in Long Island City, Queens titled “4 of a Kind” includes REGA, EVOKER, MikeDie and Chris RWK and it opens tomorrow. Click here for more details on this show.

Andreco and Ericailcane in Morocco (VIDEO)

 

Pixel Pancho in Mexico City with MAMUTT Arte by Filmaciones de la Ciudad (.

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