Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. Swoon and Submerged Motherlands
2. Nuart PLUS features BSA FILM FRIDAY LIVE
3. John Fekner: NUART 2014 Teaser Video
4. ETAM CRU: NUART 2014 Teaser Video
5. DOT DOT DOT: NUART 2014 Teaser Video
6. ENTES Y PESIMO in Mexico City
BSA Special Feature: Swoon and Submerged Motherlands
This summer ended with the closing of Swoon’s “Submerged Motherlands” at the Brooklyn Museum; a nine month process that began for us by Jaime visiting her in studio during the cold January days when she began building much of the work that would be installed for the April opening. It has been a genuine pleasure to be associated with this show in some small way, including interviewing Swoon on stage at the museum, writing about the show as it opened, and documenting it. An integrated approach to life, biography, and the conversation on the street, Swoon’s work continues to inspire many others, including us, and we were pleased to see this thoughtful look some of the background of this artist and her work by the folks at The New York Times.
Tonight at Nuart 2014 – Nuart PLUS features BSA FILM FRIDAY LIVE
For all the Norwegian fans of BSA Film Friday and Street Art in general, join us tonight in a theater in downtown Stavanger to see about 18 of our favorites short video pieces from the last year. Explorers, Experimenters, and Anti-Heroes – today’s global Street Art scene is visually rich and full of life! Can’t wait to meet you!
Here are some new images from Entes y Pesimo of their latest mural work in Lima. Former graffiti artists, the duo are now invited around the world to do their richly saturated figurative pieces that contain symbols of culture, images of nurturing relationships, and the depiction of an overall interconnectedness of life systems.
This more complex work, which they say was difficult to photograph in its entirety, appears to be telling a series of stories related to ornithological and marine life, coupled with agricultural themes and symbols. If in fact it is about the impact of humans on Earths’ other systems, then it would explain why the expressions indicate the people here are transfixed, pensive, thoughtful, and somewhat worried. But this is just conjecture, so don’t hold us to it.
“Visionary” graffiti artist and entrepreneur, Montreal based artist Chris Dyer has crafted a style that synthesizes influences from astrology, spirituality, graffiti, Street Art, skater culture, and folk art into a modern representational style you may associate with glowing barefoot and shirtless celebrants at Burning Man or similar transformational / experiential festivals around the globe. But his work was not always strictly on the positive tip.
“I grew up in Lima, Peru till the age of 17, before I left for Montreal. It was there where I first used spray paint, as a tagger for my street gang ‘SepUlcro’,” says Chris to give a sense of his personal roots and evolution. Today he travels quite a bit and speaks about his philosophy and his art, encouraging others to express their inner world through creativity in a positive way. Along the way he has created a space in the commercial world with skateboard graphics for many brands and he markets prints, pins, hemp clothing, tapestries with his own company based in San Francisco.
Here are some recent walls he did in Lima during a trip, his first there in eight years, where he hung out and created collaboratively with local graffiti / Street Artists Entes, Pesimo and Jade. With the wisdom of a guy in his thirties, Chris revisited the land where he grew up doing a more transgressive form of work in the streets, and found a way to make it personally transformative. “This trip really healed a bunch of wounds I developed as a half-gringo in a aggressive latino city, and left me loving the country of my roots,” he says.
While prepping for a solo show at a gallery in Miraflores in December, he also did some travelling and “dropped some pieces here and there,” he says. Now back in the wintry north he is already looking forward to return to the land that formed his youth soon. “I’m pumped to return next year for “Latir Latino” festival and to drop a bigger mural for Lima to enjoy.”
Peru’s Entes & Pésimo are back in Lima after a nice few days painting in Miami last month and have brought their eye popping color palette to the side of a handful of homes that line the hills of this city. Local favorites who consider their work to be as close to the community as it can be, the graffiti artists are integral to the cityscape, telling the stories of its inhabitants one or two at a time.
Sometimes E&P consider themselves community activists because of their advocacy for people on the ground but even moreso they are poets in love with their culture. Using citric hues on forms that are serious yet resolute in their longing, perhaps the color acts as a lantern to shine a universal light on the struggle and joy intertwined with daily life in densely populated cities where populations outpace our will to meet their needs.
Miami and the just-ended Art Basel 2013 is a holy magnet, a veritable showcase for big murals and pieces (and a few taggers here and there naturally) and we thought you’d like to see a few walls we missed before all the Miami excitement fades with the intense sun. If you get a chance to tour the works in Miami in the next few months we recommend the trip – and a skateboard.
New stuff here from Peter Kirill, Bezt, Jaz, Entes y Pesimo, and Nychos. Dang!
Naturally, there are a number of talented Street Artists who are currently working around the city also, and you’ve seen many of them here on BSA. On Noche De Los Museos, Street Artists Entes, Pesimo and Conrad collaborated on some walls together for the non-commercial event, painting directly on walls inside the gallery Sala Luis Miró Quesada Garland (see the video below).
From “Latido Americano” in Lima, Peru comes Part Two of our photo survey of a Street Art / Graffiti event that blasts vibrant color all over your keyboard and onto your desk. No amount of pollution and traffic congestion in this crowded city can get these Street Artists and their color palettes down, even as the metropolis itself can seem like it’s often enveloped in grey. Entes y Pesimo obviously have a sincere love for their city and the fortitude that it takes to get such a large group of walls and artists and resources organized to make this a success, and our hats are off to them.
From the 4th to the 15th of March in Lima “Latido Americano” took place courtesy of organizers and home-town artists Entes y Pesimo. Successfully putting it together for a second year, E&P are well respected among their peers as artists and social activists and they placed an international assortment of invited graff and Street Art people around the City of Kings, as it is called. With artists from Denmark and Mexico, Australia and Chile, “Latido Americano” exposed a number of cultures to one another in many neighborhoods in this city of immigrants and indigenous people where the sky is almost always grey and fried guinea pig is sold in the street markets.
During the event a number of process shots and finished pics were collected by Alqa Studio, and we gather them together here to give BSA readers an overview of the action. Our special thanks to Entes y Pesimo for their hard work and their contributions to BSA.
Included in the list of international and local artists participating in “Latido Americano”:
Benas (Mexico), Bien (Mexico), Charqui Punk (Chile), Cuore (Argentina), Fisek (Chile), Fog (Peru), Guache (Colombia), Hes (Chile), Inti (Chile), Jade (Peru), Jeanvi (Ecuador), KET (USA)Meki (Peru), Oz Montania (Paraguay), Pau (Chile/Germany), Phetus (USA)Saile (Ecuador), Saner (Mexico), Sego (Mexico), Soten (Denmark), Steep (Ecuador), Super (Peru/Germany), Tiws (Denmark), Toxicomano (Mexico), and Yuin (Australia), among others.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 4 Burners Crew, Bast, Billi Kid, Bunny M, Doug Nox aka the Harlequinade, El Sol 25, Entes y Pesimo, How & Nosm, JMR, Kobra, Rubin, and Stikman.
Peruvian Street Artists Entes y Pesimo collaborated with the Alegrarte Festival in Lima, Peru recently to bring color and art to an otherwise barren landscape on the hills of Lima. So much of the current building that spread across the sides of hills in the last two decades has been characterized as a veritable architectural chaos, especially in zones where poorer people live.
Entes y Pesimo really enlivened some of this neighborhood with their recent murals. The bright and cheerful colors of the one-story houses may make these mountains look attractive from a distance, but the daily life is very difficult.
“The festival takes place in very economically devastated and crowded areas where many are eager to leave,” says Entes, “For us, it’s purely a way to give a social support; to give color to a very grey area outside of town.”
Pesimo talks about the people who live here and why they participated, “These people represent the engine of our capital – that’s why we fully engaged ourselves in the project. We were only interested in giving color and joy to the families who traverse these hills every day.”
While the colors are bright, thematically the images depict a people who are submerged in water that comes up to their necks. It doesn’t take a master analyst to infer that Entes y Pesimo are painting their countrymen and women as people awash in a struggle with the perils of very hard economic and social challenges.
Happy Friday! Wipe that stain off your shirt from last nights office holiday party and brush your teeth and get to work so you can be a zombie all day. For our part – it’s time for a little Street Art roundup of some things that you might like.
1. Miami in The House All Weekend
2. “Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
3. “Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
4. Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
5. Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
6. “Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
7. Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
8. Zombie Nation – Ezra Eismont
9. Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
10. SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)
Miami in The House All Weekend
This weekend the fun is for Street Art in Miami and check out some of our recommendations (Best Miami Street Art: BSA Picks Awesomest for Basel ’12) for hoofing it around that we posted Wednesday. Tonight of course there are a number of grand opening parties/after parties (including Fountain), but really just being on the street is equally fun if not funner! Thanks for that adverb from 7 year old Darnell Wilsen of Brooklyn.
For a full listing of Art Fairs, Events and Street Murals click here and here.
But not all the fun is in Miami here are a few picks of what’s happening elsewhere in the world:
“Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
Greeting cards are a nice way to say Merry Christmas to Grandma, and for suburban white middle class families to distribute photos proving that their kids are not on drugs. This is Stolen Space Christmas Show celebrates greetings cards and holiday cheer with D*Face, Word to Mother, Will Barras and David Bray among others putting their own imprimatur on Christmas. Come on, Uncle Bert and Aunt Dolittle will be there, so comb your hair, put some shoes on and get out of the house!
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
With a collection of Australian Graffiti and Street Art Artists, “Rinse & Repeat” finds its inspiration by taking a look at the Old Masters and re-interpreting them with their own styles and techniques. An interesting proposition albeit fraught with risks – there are a few good ones here though that will delight your academic/street sensibilities. Included in the line up are: Adnate (AWOL Crew),Bridge Stehli, Cam Wall, Carl Steffan, Deams (AWOL Crew), Fintan Magee, Guido van Helten, Phibs, Shannon Crees, Slicer (AWOL Crew) , Team and Teazer.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
Hope they realize what they have gotten themselves into, but Vertikal Gallery is hosting Brooklyn Street Art collective Skewville for a solo show entitled “Be Inside”. Considering we have had one or two Lillians in Brooklyn putting work up on the streets over the last few years, this sounds like a cultural exchange program of some kind, right?
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
New York Street Artist Jaye Moon is in Seoul, Korea on an Art Residency Invitation and tonight his her solo exhibition with her “Lego Tree House” opening tonight at the Paik Hae Young Gallery.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
“Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
The Art Collective Just Seeds new group exhibition titled “Sowing The Seeds of Love” opens tonight at the Munch Gallery in Manhattan. The artists in Just Seeds aim to put forth their world views on a variety of issues – looking to inform and bolster you through the power of art. Participating in this show are: Jesus Barraza, Kevin Caplicki, Melanie Cervantes, Santiago Doesntsitstill, Alec Dunn, Molly J Fair, Thea Gahr, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Fernando Marti, Colin Matthes, Dylan Miner, Roger Peet, Jesse Purcell, Pete Railand, Favianna Rodriguez, Shaun Slifer, Chris Stain, Meredith Stern, Mary Tremonte and Bec Young.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
Iranian expats and brothers Icy & Sot invite you to celebrate with them their first foray in the hospitality business. The brothers designed a room at the Nu Hotel in Brooklyn and you are invited to come over tonight for some refreshments.
Artist Ezra Eismont has a Kickstarter fundraiser to help publish his Zombie Nation book, which features his zombified portraits of icons and celebrities. Seems like a heartwarming holiday thing to do, doesn’t it? Please support your local artists and small family businesses.
Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)
Peruvian Street Art duo Entes y Pesimo move quickly like two cats in the back alley when the garbage truck rattles by. When not doing the occasional billboard remix intervention, they are painting large murals of silent and intense young men and women navigating in the river of life. In many of their recent aerosol paintings, the guys are wading and slogging and afloat in the O2. While the blue lapping waves look inviting and buoyant on the surface, it is unclear what movements are at work in the undercurrent and one is left to contemplate the expressions and positions of the smoothly complex figures.
Whatever the symbolic meaning of elements throughout their compositions, and there are many, Entes y Pesimo are clearly strengthening their style and developing a signature aesthetic. This time we catch them trotting around Chile for the Polanco Graffiti Festival, in Buenos Aires, Argentina and in Sarasota, Florida for the Chalk Festival.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
