All posts tagged: Pixote

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.11.18

March 11, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Art was popping up like crokuses and animated robots all week here in NYC with a plethora of art fairs gathered under Armory Week, a number of fresh green gallery openings, and the welcome sign of perturbed perennials appearing on the street.

Although it is not surprising in any way any more, Street Artists are represented across all three of those options today, like Pixote, Swoon, and Ian Strange (Kid Zoom) at Spring/Break. Also John Matos, aka Crash One, and Lady Aiko in conversation with cultural critic and curator Carlo McCormick moderated by Harrison Tenzer of Sotheby’s at Scope. And you can’t forget the gallery openings of Buff Monster with Dalek, and the first solo show of Brendan Fagen (the artist formerly known as Judith Supine).

You try to see as much as possible, and of course a number of non-Street Art installations caught our eye like the top image of Fernando Orellana‘s animated “Robot Protest”, which you can participate in HERE, and see a video of at the end of this post. For the actual street we’ll mention some new art in ad places from Abe Lincoln Jr and Swiss Miss as a dominatrix in pink latex and Trump as the submissive on bus shelters.

Socio-political themes continue to erupt wherever you look, including the street-side demonstrations against the Sackler family and their connections with the opiod crisis and institutional art patronage that took place in front of (with a “die-in” inside) the Metropolitan Museum yesterday. If these are the early signs of spring, what will it look like in full bloom?

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets (and elsewhere), this week featuring Anna Kustera, Annette Bragasuma, Danielle Mastrion, Demsky, DrscO, Eric Mistretta, Fernando Orellana, Ian Strange, Jonathatn Rosen, Laura O’Reilly, Abe Lincoln Jr. LMNOPI, Megzany, Pixote, Praxis VGZ, Sarah Walkco, Screw Tape, Stick N Twisted, Stylist of the Lambs, Swiss Miss NYC, and Turtle Caps.

Top Image: Fernando Orellana’s “You’ll Never Know We Were Here” at Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Curated by Sarah Walko. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ian Strange. Burn Series at Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Curated by Zahra Sherzad. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#DOMMINGDONALD Phone booth ad takeover in collaboration with Abe Lincoln Jr., Swiss Miss NYC, NYC Hookerand Annette Bragas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#DOMMINGDONALD Phone booth ad takeover in collaboration with Abe Lincoln Jr., Swiss Miss NYC, NYC Hooker and Annette Bragas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lock Him Up: A custom made jacket worn by Stylist Of The Lambs. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meta messages collide in this new slap from Screw Tape. Andre the Giant wears a Shepard Fairey design in the style of Obey while Obey posters feature Fairey over “Defy”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jonathan Rosen. “Double Life” at Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Curated by Laura O’Reilly. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Turtle Caps and some classic cartoon characters (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote. “Future Primitive”. Detail. Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Curated by Zahra Sherzad. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote. “Future Primitive” Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Curated by Zahra Sherzad. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Praxis VGZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Demsky (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stick N Twisted (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eric Mistretta. “The Wrong Place” Spring/Break Art Show 2018. Curated by Anna Kustera. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Megzany (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. The Paramount Building. Times Square, NYC. March 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.23.17

July 23, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Alexis Diaz, Below Key, Bia Does NYC, Blox, Ceas, City Kitty, Donut, Drsc0, El Sol 25, Kimyon333, LDLR, Lego To The Party, Loa Jib Lazee, London Kaye, Lunge Box, Mr. Fijodor, Myth, Pat69, Pixote, Willow and Witch Christ.

Top image: Alexis Diaz. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexis Diaz. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexis Diaz. Coney Art Walls 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexis Diaz. Detail. Coney Art Walls 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Girls in their summer skirts strike a pose. London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentifed Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lunge Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty . Lunge Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentifed Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Below Key (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“No Clothing except socks 10 pm to 4 am. Underwear mandatory on Sun as required by Law” Did you get that? Thank you. Unidentifed Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Witch Christ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LDLR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Fijodor in Camposanto, Modena, Italy. July 2017. (photo © Mr. Fijodor)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Is this David Cho wearing a C215 stencil of Patty Smith? Just a guess. Unidentifed Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Not hard to visualize actually. Unidentifed Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kimyon333 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Donut . Pat69 . Ceas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Vegan Squad (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow comes back for a little Father and Son portrait (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bia Does NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blox . Lego To The Party (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lola Jib Lazee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Homelessness in NYC. Manhattan, NY. July 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queens Hit “Top To Bottom” by New Mural Project in L.I.C.

January 20, 2016 Artists

The spirit of New Yorks’ 5 Pointz graffiti/Street Art holy place has popped up in the same Queens neighborhood where it was demolished in 2014, and since last summer more than 50 local and international aerosol artists have been hitting a new project “Top to Bottom”.

brooklyn-street-art-icy-sot-arts-org-LIC-jaime-rojo-01-16-web

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The choice of “Top to Bottom”, a graffiti term that recalls 1970s trains painted their entire height, is no mistake as creative director James P. Quinn reveres the classic style and histories of those original writers like internationally and institutionally celebrated artists Crash and Daze, who have collaborated on a mural here.

Additionally, in yet another sign that the celebration of art on the streets is ever more ecumenical, Quinn and his project lead Geoff Kuffner are bringing the newer Street Artists who are expanding and defining the current era for art in the streets like Case Ma’Claim and Rubin 415. Not surprisingly, both of these artists started in graffiti, as did nearly every name here.

Case MaClaim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I felt like a comfortable amount of space should be allocated to certain styles,” says Quinn as he describes the process of parceling out spots for the façade and roof of the 124,000-square-foot former warehouse. Truthfully, he tells us, not all the surfaces and shapes are attractive to graffiti artists, so a variety of styles is best.

“I tried to fit them in where I felt that graff writers could enjoy themselves and do something expansive. There are only a couple of spaces here that fit the epic, horizontally spaced forms of style writing. There are a lot of strange shapes to navigate as a painter here, rather than easy space to develop style as a writer.”

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quinn and Kuffner give a couple of visitors a tour around the entire block on a gray day where heavy fog hangs in the air obscuring the top half of Manhattan and they excitedly recall stories about the many installations in this first project of their newly formed Arts Org NYC. Using the word “garden” often, Quinn reiterates that this project for them is a “proof of concept” for bigger projects that will spread further through the city. “Ultimately I’m approaching it as a mural project,” says Quinn, who has organized mural programs a number of times since the 1990s. “It’s just a beginning.”

Street Art has evolved into districts of murals in cities as a gentrification device in the last five years and despite the critique that it is often used for economic development, many urban art watchers would also agree that we’re in the middle of a renaissance of public/private art. Quinn says he wants to capture part of the public’s new interest and make it grow. “I’d like to leverage the current hype and acceptance of mural painting to open up doors to people – old women, young kids, everybody.”

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The neighborhood itself feels like it is in transition but it is not clear where it is heading. With Silvercup Studios and the number 7 subway line nearby and MoMA PS1 within a 10 minute walk, a quick survey reveals mixed light industry, sweatshops, corner delis, and the occasional strip club. Below the off-ramp of the Queensboro Bridge, which sweeps past the “Top to Bottom” exhibition, you will see first and second generation immigrants from the areas’ latin and African communities walking by, and Quinn reminds you that the Queensbridge Projects where Hip-Hop storyteller NAS grew up is just a short walk from here.

Conversation turns to plans for more focused programming on the walls in Phase II, possible fine art shows with local gallery spaces, and ultimately a city-wide mural project that offers art and art-making to greater audiences, including school kids.

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I do feel like murals get focused in certain locations but I feel like the entire city as a whole is still suffering. Huge demographics aren’t getting the painting,” he says, invoking the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. “I feel like my ‘I Have a Dream’ speech about this project is that I hope it gets to the point where 10 year-olds can have as much access to a neighborhood as developers.”

Does he think that projects like this are pawns for business interests to draw investments into the neighborhood and push poorer populations out? “You can debate whether or not we are opening the way for more shiny condos… but that shit is happening whether we do this or not. For me the importance is keeping us here; So we’re not totally pushed out 30-45 minutes away from here”

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Because of its proximity to the now destroyed 5 Pointz, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of urban artists painted a much larger block repeatedly for two decades, we ask Quinn if he’s concerned with comparisons.

“I’ve always managed other projects like this in my own style and my own way. There are comparable aspects and I have nothing but a huge sensitivity and respect for Meres and 5 Pointz,” he says, referring to the artist and de facto director of the hallowed spot. “It’s comparable only because it’s a building and it’s in Long Island City. But this is only a jump-off. I want to do way more projects like this across the city.”

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As the business partners walk past new pieces by DMote, Li-Hill, Icy & Sot, and Jick, the topic of the historically strained relationship between graffiti writers and Street Artists appears to be addressed head-on by the project by the inclusion of all manner of painter. The guys say that it is less of an issue than some people would have you think. As a long-time artist and muralist and curator of projects like this, Quinn says he’s over the supposed rivalry of the two camps, and sees mainly just one camp these days.

“I don’t know what the fans of graffiti or Street Art have any problem with. To me it’s all awesome.”

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexandre Keto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EGS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEVER and Dirty Bandits (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zumi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PORK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Key Details (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yes Two (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kans115 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze . Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erasmo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more about ArtsOrg please go to www.artsorg.nyc.

#ArtsOrgNYC and @artsorg on Instagram

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.25.15

October 25, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This is the harvest season when all the fruits of Street Artists labor are on display for everyone to admire – and just before the frost transforms all the leaves and turns the grass brown and your cheeks red, it is time for you to go outside with your camera. There is a new talented crop of artists on the street that has been maturing these last few seasons and of course there are the perennials on display as well. New York in the autumn is always dramatic; the perfect stage to unveil new productions, new art shows, new movies, new musical compositions, and new standards being set. If the pickings for this weeks BSA Images of the Week are an indication, Autumn is at full peak right now, pure splendor.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Billi Kid, City Kitty, City Rabbit, Danielle Mastrion, Dee Dee, Elbow-Toe, Ernest Zacharevic, Hiss, Kai, Myth, Olek, Phoebe New York, Pixote, Sean9Lugo, Spider Tag, Tom Fruin, Tony De Pew, WK Interact, and You Go Girl!

Top image above >>> Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hiss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tony DePew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Haring motif on vinyl sheets was applied to this doors apparently for a themed party inside the building. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic’s third collaboration with Martha Cooper. Mr. Zacharevic used one of Ms. Cooper’s photos as an inspiration for this piece, which includes a real paint brush. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Rabbit (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Billi Kid (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OLEK says “Rule #1 Never be #2. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

I hear that! Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KAI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe brings an old favorite back to the streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Homer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PIXOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phoebe New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Spider Tag in Athens, Greece. October 2015. (photo © Spider Tag)

Spider Tag. Detail from the piece above. (photo © Spider Tag)

Tom Fruin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. October 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Happy New Year 2015 – BSA Readers Choice Top 10

January 1, 2015 Artists

Happy New Year to All! Thank you for inspiring us to do our best and to those of you who continue to support our personal art project / cultural examination, we extend our gratitude more than ever.

Begun as an enthusiastic discovery of what was happening in a few neighborhoods in New York, we continued to expand our view into more cities around the world last year and into the history and future of the scene. We also aimed to provide you with a critical platform for examination of the street art/ graffiti / public art/ contemporary art continuum with interviews with artists, curators, collectors, organizers, observers and thinkers in the street, studio, gallery, and museum – trouble makers and taste makers alike.

In the end, it’s your observations and the conversations on the street that are most important. As we begin the year with over 300K fans, friends, and followers on social media platforms and 225 articles on the Huffington Post (thanks HuffPost team!), we feel like we get a valuable good survey of current opinions heading our way daily.

With in-depth interviews, investigative articles, opinion infused examinations, plain celebratory reverie, occasionally silly non-sequitors, and public appearances where we get to meet you, we get a good analytical look at an ever-evolving movement, glittery polish and warts and all.

As the new year begins we take a look back at the top stories chosen by BSA Readers in the last 12 months. Among them are two takeover pop-up shows in soon-to-be demolished buildings, a story about commercial abuse of artist copyrights and the effort to fight back, a street art community’s response to the sudden death of an activist street artist, a Street Art tourist trip, and a few inspirational women, men, and Mexican muralists. Even though we published at least once a day for the last 365 days, these are the most popular pieces, as chosen by you, Dear BSA Reader.

10. Exploring Lisbon as a Street Art Tourist

Os Gemeos / Blu (photo © Stephen Kelley)

9. Kara Walker and Her Sugar Sphinx at the Old Domino Factory

Kara Walker. The artist portrait in profile with her sugary sphinx in the background. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

8. Women Rock Wynwood Walls at Miami Art Basel 2013

Fafi (photo © Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls)

7. A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

6. Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

5. It’s All the Rage, Street Artists Filing Lawsuits Left and Right

4. Shok-1 Street Art X-Rays Reveal a Unique Hand at the Can

Shok-1 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

3. 12 Mexican Street Artists Stray Far from Muralism Tradition In NYC

Sego (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2. Army Of One, Inspiration To Many : Jef Campion

Army Of One AKA JC2 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1. Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

Pixote in action. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.24.14

August 24, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Angelina Christina, Azores, City Kitty, Colettivo FX, Damon, EaseOne, Fidel Evora, F.S., Gone Postal, HDL Corporation, JR, Kraken, Love is Telepathic, Mark Samsonovich, Mesa, Never, Pixote, Rubin415, Seher, Smithe, Specter, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Wrdsmth, and X-O.

Top Image >> Smithe, Seher and Kraken new mural for Savage Habbit in Union City, New Jersey. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smithe, Seher and Kraken new mural for Savage Habbit in Union City, New Jersey. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

X-O (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smithe for Savage Habbit in Union City, New Jersey. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter for the Walk and Talk Art Festival in Azores, Portugal. August 2014. (photo @ Specter)

Specter and Mesa in Cadiz, Spain. August 2014. (photo @ Specter)

Fidel Evora for the Walk and Talk Art Festival in Azores, Portugal. August 2014. (photo @ Specter)

Specter Ad-Takeover (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WRDSMTH clearly knows his audience. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damon is caught in a lip-lock. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty has the four panel street exhibit for Woodward Project Space. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HDL Corporation in Detroit. August 2014 (photo © HDL Corporation)

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh clarifying things in case you were not sure. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415. Detail of both ends of his large new mural in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mark Samsonovich in Jersey City, New Jersey. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collettivo FX. Portrait of Abidi. Reggio Emilia, Italy. August 2014. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Collettivo FX explains the portrait above:

“In our city of Reggio Emilia in Italy there is a very big factory named Officine Reggiane that is completely abandoned. It was famous in Italy for its metal work production (they made the Orient Express train, the crane used for the Costa Concordia, and then there was the longest occupation of a factory in the history of Italy here).

Now this is a major venue for graffiti and a refuge for homeless people. We began going to the factory more that two years ago and some of the people living there became our friends; in particular a man named Abidi, who we named “the boss of the Officine Reggiane”.

So a few weeks ago Abidi announced to us that he is leaving the factory to go back to Tunisia: he had found a wife! So, we thought about a gift we could give him. We are poor, very poor, we just had the paint, so one night we went in the factory (usually we go during the day) and we painted a big portrait of Abidi in the principal part of the place. It’s a gift for Abidi but also for us and for our memories of the Officine Reggiane.”

Pixote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gone Postal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

F.S. We are intrigued by this bubble tag. Was the stencil work done by a different artist? Is this the original piece as first installed by the artist? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Angelina Christina, EaseOne and Never collaboration for Savage Habbit in Jersey City, New Jersey. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. August 2014. It looks like Spiderman has found a formidable adversary. Last time he saw him battling this monster hanging from wire cables in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.17.14

August 17, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This weeks “21st Precinct” show of graffiti and street art style mural / installation work did blow some minds for sure, as did last nights official opening – mostly because of the great display of work on four floors. But additionally all sorts of paranoia was afoot when people began writing on social media and to us that they really thought this was a sting operation of some sort.

Aside from the fact that we clearly said in our postings on BSA and Huffpost that the building had long since been decommissioned as a precinct and we were simply focusing on the irony of the facts, minds and nerves were blown nonetheless. Truth is, this is a good show with some thoughtful pieces and installations and not surprisingly, many thematically addressed the contentious relationship some have with the police traditionally. But there is lots of other stuff too and it is worth your time. Just don’t get arrested. Kidding!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring APC Crew, Art is Trash, Bishop203, Castellaneta, Chekos, Cruz, Foxx Face, Franksy, Gaia, Hek Tad, JJ Veronis, Lorenzo Maza, Mark Samsonovich AKA Love is Telepathic, Melty Cats, Mr. PRVT, Mr. Toll, Nekst, Opiemme, Pixote, Shantell Martin, Skrew, UR New York and Wolfe Metal Work, Tommy Wolfe.

Top Image >> Mark Samsonovich says open your mind, although it looks like someone blew this guys. See the video of the Delfonics at end of posting if that song is running through your brain now. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JJ Veronis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolfe Metal Work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skrew, Nekst taken from a fast moving train:-) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HEK TAD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Art Is Trash with some friends in the background. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Foxx Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Deconstructed Beauty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. We won’t open it until 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Franksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Melty Cats (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opiemme and Chekos for Street Like Rainbow Festival in Castellaneta, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artists)

“Who is he? Who is that other one?”

“These are the questions that people asked most often while Chekos and I were painting in Castellaneta.
Ernest Hemingway, Sean Connery, Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs, Padre Pio, Van Gogh, Giuseppe Verdi, George Clooney, Lenin, Cavour, Garibaldi…are some of the guesses.

The work came from Chekos’s idea, a reflection on the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. We tried to bring the spectator to have an experience close to a personality test, with an iconographic work that recalls the Rorschach test. The words “Stereotype” in the center of the composition refer to the process that brings people to recognize different famous people.” ~ Opiemme

Mr. Toll at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop203 x Lorenzo Maza x APC Crew at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

URNewYork at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phil at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cruz x URNewYork at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. August 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Didn’t I Blow Your Mind? The Delfonics

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Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

August 14, 2014 Artists, Interview

This weekend the NYPD police precinct is hosting a graffiti and street art show, and the public is welcome to see every floor completely swimming in aerosol and plastered in wheat-paste.

Admit it, it is not often you receive an invite like that.

Pesu (center), Pixote (left) and Bill Claps Morse code writing the history of the building on the walls. (right) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When this precinct was built it was a very bad, very poor neighborhood. When the cops came in there was a lot of brutality and there was a lot of corruption,” says curator Robert Aloia of this building architected for the NYPD in 1863 and closed down fifty years later. A quick search on the web shows a history of thuggery born of Dickens. Records at the time of closure indicated there were 9,500 arrests annually and this tiny slice of Manhattan alone had 37 brothels.

So why not have a graffiti show here before tearing it down, right?.

Savior, El Mundo, Ben Angotti, Depoe, Esteban Del Valle and Chris Soria. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: So you literally could hit every wall here and it wouldn’t matter because it is coming down at the end of the month?
Robert Aloia: Yeah the inside walls. The outside walls they don’t want us to touch.

In a twist of events pulled from a satire, one of the artists on display this weekend was arrested this month in Brooklyn and spent the night in jail before seeing a judge. The following day he came to this precinct and hit up some walls with impunity.

Savior, El Mundo, Ben Angotti, Depoe, Esteban Del Valle and Chris Soria. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It’s just amazing that these artists can put their time, their money, and their talent into something that is just coming down,” says Aloia while touring us through rooms and stairways during one of the four visits we made for these exclusive first images, “ and it is only going to be seen for a certain amount of time.”

Hellbent has his own room. So does Rambo. Cash4 and Matt Siren are sharing one together, as are Sheryo and the Yok. Elle spent an entire night in hers watching her black wax sculpture melting away with the candles she planted in it. An unconfirmed story says it is a sculpture cast of the elusive Judith Supine.

“She painted it black, melted it and filmed it,” says Aloia.

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you thought of the irony behind the fact that this is a former police precinct and many of the artists would have been running away from this place instead of trying to get into it?
Robert Aloia: That is true, I didn’t think of that aspect of it really, but the gallery area was the actual holding cell.

Brooklyn Street Art: So how did you draw these people together?
Robert Aloia: Every show I’ve done I start with my friends, and then it’s friends of friends, and that’s it. It’s just about one degree of separation.

In the last three years the New York native has curated a number of shows heavily weighted with graffiti artists and Street Artists, primarily on Manhattan’s Lower East Side at bars, event spaces, and venues with downtown history like Fuse, White Box, and La Mama.

A bartender and DJ who has mixed with a lot of New York nightlife and street life without becoming hardened, Aloia and co-curators like Erik Foss and Ricky Powell have been doing sometimes star-studded yet unassuming one-off shows the past few years with Street Art names like Bast, Supine, and Aiko and some of the newer kids like N’DA and Icy & Sot.

“I am from New York and I always knew a lot of graffiti artists, that’s how I ended up getting into it. I was just lucky enough to have access to some venues to do stuff.”

Brooklyn born, Aloia’s been on the LES since the 80s, which explains his devotion to the memory of “outlaw parties” where people would set up an illegal bar and a pumping sound system in improvised celebrations at unsanctioned locations. Outlaw parties and pop-up speakeasies still exist of course, but more often they are in Brooklyn now as Manhattan is shoving artists out by the truckload.

For “21st Precinct” he’s called in nearly 50 artists from as far away as Japan, Australia, California, and nearby New Jersey. The mix of artists is eclectic and sometimes quite powerful like the tribute to SAMO (Basquiat) in the gallery by his co-conspirator Al Diaz, and the dark room built by Swedish photographer Jesper Haynes which features images from the downtown New York in the Reagan era.

“I definitely always have a mix with fine art, photography, installation, but you know I always have old-school graffiti artists and street artists,” he says as he looks over the four floors of thickly gritty splendor by renowned and unknown.

For those lucky enough to see the show in this venue this weekend or next, “21st Precinct” is a quintessential New York minute, a steamy grimy melting pot of authentic attitude that begs to differ and perhaps stick a finger in your chest just before the wrecking ball hits. Thank Aloia while you’re there. Not surprisingly, the new building that replaces this one will be for…..wait for it…. luxury residences.

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OUTLAW ARTS Presents: “The 21st Precinct”
Curated by Robert Aloia & VNA Mag

The show will be in the old 21st Precinct located on 327 East 22nd Street. More information HERE.

Contributing Artists:

Adam Dare, Al Diaz, Amanda Marie, ASVP, Bad Pedestrian, Ben Angotti , Bill Claps, Bishop203, Bunny M., Cash4, Chris RWK, Chris Soria, Coby Kennedy, Curtis Kulig, D. Gaja, Danielle Mastrion, Dasic, Dizmology, Duel, ELLE, Erasmo, Esteban del Valle, Faust, Ghost, GIZ, Hellbent, Hue, Icy & Sot, Iena Cruz, Jesper Haynes, Justin Carty, Ket, Lexi Bella, Li-Hall, Lorenzo Masnah, Matt Siren, Mr. Toll, N. Carlos Jay, Nepo, Nick Tengri, Pesu, Phil, Pixote, RAE, Rambo, Ricardo Cabret, SAE, Savior Elmundo, Shery-o & The Yok, Shiro, Tone Tank, URNY, Vexta, X-O.

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The 2013 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 18, 2013 Artists

Here it is! Our 2013 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year, snapped one second before he was singled out of a New York crowd, handcuffed, and stuffed into a police car – sort of like the Banksy balloons he was capturing.

“Among all the thousands of photos I took this year there’s one that encapsulates the importance of Street Art in the art world and some of the hysteria that can build up around it,” he says of his final shot on the final day of the one month Better Out Than In artist ‘residency’ in NYC this October. It was a cool day to be a Street Art photographer – but sadly Rojo was camera-less in a case of mistaken identity, if only for a short time.

Released two hours later after the actual car-jumping trespasser was charged, Rojo was happy to hear the Chief Lieutenant tell his officer “you’ve got the wrong man”, to get his shoelaces back, and to discover this photo was still on his camera. He also gets to tell people at parties that he spent some time in the holding cell with the two guys whom New York watched tugging down the B-A-N-K-S-Y.

What’s everybody looking at? Jaime Rojo’s favorite image of the year at the very end of the Banksy brouhaha. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

When it came to choosing the 112 images for the video that capture the spirit of the Street Art scene in ’13, we were as usual sort of overwhelmed to comb through about ten thousand images and to debate just how many ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ pieces made it into the mix. Should we include only images that went up under the cover of the night, unsanctioned, uncensored, uncompromised, unsolicited and uncommissioned? Isn’t that what Street Art is?

Right now there are a growing number of legal pieces going up in cities thanks to a growing fascination with Street Art and artists and it is causing us to reevaluate what the nature of the Street Art scene is, and what it may augur for the future. You can even say that from a content and speech perspective, a sizeable amount of the new stuff is playing it safe – which detracts from the badass rebel quality once associated with the practice.

These works are typically called by their more traditional description – murals. With all the Street Art / graffiti festivals now happening worldwide and the growing willingness of landlords to actually invite ‘vandals’ to paint their buildings to add cache to a neighborhood and not surprisingly benefit from the concomitant increase in real estate values, many fans and watchers have been feeling conflicted in 2013 about the mainstreaming that appears to be taking place before our eyes. But for the purposes of this roundup we decided to skip the debate and let everybody mix and mingle freely.

This is just a year-end rollicking Street Art round-up; A document of the moment that we hope you like.

Ultimately for BSA it has always been about what is fresh and what is celebrating the creative spirit – and what is coming next. “We felt that the pieces in this collection expressed the current vitality of the movement – at least on the streets of New York City,” says photographer and BSA co-founder Rojo. It’s a fusillade of the moment, complete with examples of large murals, small wheat pastes, intricate stencils, simple words made with recycled materials or sprayed on to walls, clay installations, three dimensional sculptures, hand painted canvases, crocheted installations, yarn installations etc… they somehow captured our imaginations, inspired us, made us smile, made us think, gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it.

Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

A Dying Breed, Aakash Nihalini, Agostino Iacursi, Amanda Marie, Apolo Torres, Axel Void, Bagman, Bamn, Pixote, Banksy, B.D. White, Betsy, Bishop203, NDA, Blek le Rat, br1, Case Maclaim, Cash For Your Warhol, Cholo, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, Christian Nagel, Cost, ENX, Invader, Crush, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Dase, Dasic, Keely, Deeker, Don’t Fret, The Droid, ECB, el Seed, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Faile, Faith 47, Five Pointz, Free Humanity, Greg LaMarche, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Inti, Jilly Ballistic, John Hall, JR, Jose Parla, Judith Supine, Kremen, Kuma, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Love Me, Martha Cooper, Matt Siren, Elle, Mika, Miss Me, Missy, MOMO, Mr. Toll, Nychos, Okuda, Alice Mizrachi, OLEK, Owen Dippie, Paolo Cirio, Paul Insect, Phetus, Phlegm, Revok, Pose, QRST, Rambo, Ramiro Davaro, Reka, Rene Gagnon, ROA, RONES, Rubin, bunny M, Square, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swoon, Tristan Eaton, The Lisa Project 2013, UFO 907, Willow, Swill, Zed1, and Zimer.

Read more about Banksy’s last day in New York here and our overview of his residency in the essay “Banksy’s Final Trick” on The Huffington Post.

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BSA Film Friday: 10.18.13

October 18, 2013 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:
1. Charlie Ahearn, Lee Quinones & Meres on “Wild Style” + 5 Pointz + Banksy
2. PIXOTE Outlaw
3. The Lurkers in Copenhagen
4. Anthony Lister is Never Odd or Even (Part 2)
5. Enzo & Nio Indoors in Cambridge

BSA Special Feature:
Charlie Ahearn, Lee Quinones & Meres on “Wild Style”, 5 Pointz, and Banksy

This week as Banksy continues his month-long “residency” in New York, three old-school heads from New York helped keep the current hype in perspective with this half hour interview with Ricky Camelleri at HuffPost Live right in the middle of Manhattan. Marking the 30th anniversary of the movie “Wild Style” and the current concerns around the announced razing of the graffiti/street art holy place 5 Pointz in Queens, the conversation includes 70s NYC train bomber Lee Quinones, Director Charlie Ahearn, and 5 Pointz organizer/artist Meres. It’s a good conversation.

PIXOTE Outlaw

Basically an ad for skateboards, this little video gives a look at a Pixote, a writer from Rio De Janiero whose large roller tags inspired by Brazil’s Pixação movement have been popping up on walls in New York for a year or two.

“Between adrenaline, chaos, enlightenment – its all these things together,” he says about his experiences on the street.

The Lurkers in Copenhagen

The newest travelogue video installment from The Lurkers is here featuring blonds from Copenhagen, a lot of lounging, and a reggae soundtrack. What?

Anthony Lister is Never Odd or Even (Part 2)

On a backdrop decidedly classical, the swelling and heaving of the orchestra heft, fillagreed with flute and french horn, your man Lister delicately paints the orbit across this wall. Later, as installing his show, he re-writes the introductory text on the wall with a bit of black pastel stick. How often have you wanted to do that? Significantly he crosses out ~~street art~~ and changes ~~movement~~ to “revolution”.

Enzo & Nio Indoors in Cambridge

Here’s a quick video of New York Street Artists Enzo & Nio doing an installation at a restaurant in Cambridge, Mass for a special event. Witness their appreciation for collage of appropriated pop culture imagery and watch as they employ the commercial vernacular of hand postering- that is how you describe it if you are in a gallery.

If you are on the street looking over your shoulder, one may call it “smacking my stuff up on a wall”.

Also, dancing!

Images of the Week: 02.17.13

February 17, 2013 Artists

Guess it shouldn’t surprise us when we find out that the sticker, wheat-paste, or mural we published of “Street Art” or graffiti actually turns out to be a logo or promotion for someone who is selling sneakers, t-shirts, lip-gloss, tampons, or toe fungus spray. That’s how people pay the rent, yo!

After all, we get press releases all the time from “Street Artists” who purport to get up all over the place in their home city of New Jesusville – but nobody we talk to has heard of them. Eventually word gets around and its not our business to trash people. And we all know at least one or two fine artists who have used the strategy of putting their stuff on the street to add some sort of “cred” to their “brand”. Fine. And look at the countless corporate names that have been inserting (or “integrating”) themselves into all manner of social/electronic media and “stories” in the last couple of years – just to leach off grassroots D.I.Y. culture and make the money and get the clicks but not actually support the art community that birthed it. It’s a complex story.

But it’s hard not to feel a little bit like you just got punked when you walk into a store and find the stuff you shot in a putrid garbage strewn alley is now silk-screened across a cheap flask or frisbee or truckers cap, giving it about as much meaning as a Kardashian wedding ring.

What are we going to do? Oh probably nothing – there is no purity test or reliable scale for measuring when someone has “sold out” and we don’t like pompous peeps who pretend otherwise. We’re just keeping an eye out, sister, and trying not to get fooled again.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alinic, ASK, BAMN, Chris & Veng RWK, Gilf!, Icy & Sot, Lambros, Meer Sau, Mosstika, MUDA, Pixote, Tripel, and WD.

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