We start 2010 with a bag of sea-shells and this bounty of inspiring Street Art images from warm sunny Miami – which was a break from the bitter coldness of BK for a bit. Heartfelt gratitude to Typoe for showing us what’s up and who, together with a dude named Books, has built the one-of-a-kind Primary Flight show on the streets of Miami’s Wynwood District over the past three years during Art Basel.
With a vision that speaks to the next decade of public art, these guys have coordinated with local businesses, galleries, graff/street artists, and the City of Miami to clear the way for what is turning into a global gallery on the street. Without self-aggrandizing rhetoric, these peeps are developing a model for building an art scene while keeping the edge and encouraging experimentation. So far the “collection” doesn’t risk the blanding that can happen when bureaucrats, committees, or self-appointed art critics insert themselves, or when corporate sponsors commodify the spirit.
It’s worth mentioning that this is just one more case of artists revitalizing abandoned blighted areas of the urban landscape, of their own volition, with grit, determination, and vision.
During a whirlwind tour last week of Primary Flight sites (and many others who have jumped into the game) we witnessed a diverse, energetic mix of graff, old-school, art school, graphic design, sculpture, illustration, surrealism… all part of the developing Street Art vocabulary that we’re witnessing in Brooklyn and NYC at large. Thanks to Typoe and Giovana for their kind hospitality and insight.
We hope you enjoy the Dade County Bounty: a past and present explosion of art on the streets of Miami.
After partially white-washing the image, Tristan retraces and pulls the subject forward.
Tristan Eaton of New York’s Thunderdog Studios was working last week in Miami during the Primary Flight exhibition with many of his peers and yet-to-meet friends. The show was an opportunity for people to show their skills, gain appreciation from a new audience, and enjoy the pleasures of a sanctioned wall.
“The background was wheat pasted, then white washed, then hand painted with enamel, brushes, markers and mop tops, ” says Tristan.
Brooklyn Street Art:How did you get this wall in Miami? Tristan Eaton: I got it from my pal Books who organized all the artists and walls for Primary Flight. It was on Easy Street Gallery which was founded by Crome of MSG.
A Wild Beauty, Indeed! (Tristan Eaton)
Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the inspiration behind the project? Tristan Eaton: It’s gonna sound really corny, but I was inspired by something my Mother said about ‘Wild Beauty’. Before painting, I had no pictures or layouts of the wall, so I couldn’t really plan what to do in advance. I had to make it all up on the spot over the course of 3 days and hope for the best.
Tristan Eaton
Brooklyn Street Art:What kind of preliminary work did you have to do before getting there? Tristan Eaton: I normally get my giant photocopies (for background) made here in the city then cut them out by hand at my studio in LIC. We prepared about 1,000 square feet of wheat paste graphics for this mural and general bombing and stuff.
Ron English stops by to talk and pose for a pic.
Brooklyn Street Art:Did you get hit by the rain or have other distractions? Tristan Eaton: Yes! We had torrential rain on and off over 2 days. We kept having to stop and wait it out. Luckily it only rains for about an hour in Miami! On top of that you have legends like Futura and Ron English are just walking around town all week at Art Basel, so we’d stop to BS every once in a while when someone came to visit our wall.
Brooklyn is always in the mix. (Tristan Eaton)
Brooklyn Street Art:Are you satisfied with your final project? Tristan Eaton: I think so. Working on that scale in that time frame, little things always go wrong. It’s not supposed to be perfect I guess, so I’m okay with a certain amount of messy mistakes. I’m most satisfied with the response from locals so far. Even if I could of done better, they love it!
Friends stop by for immoral support. Pictured are Phetus and KaNo in front, Alex of Easy Street, Tris, Den & Sket in back (photo courtesy T. Eaton)
Plus NohJ’s remarks on his
Personal Primary Flight in Miami last week.
NYC street artist NohJColey has been steadfast and focused in his determination to do his homework, refine his skills, and challenge himself artistically. In turn his art and the ideas behind them continue to surprise, perplex, and provide brain candy to the viewer. NYC video artist and director Lou Auguste started documenting art on the streets of New York in 2004, and this fall he approached NohJColey to capture the young artist’s new series, “Sprayed N Stone”, a wheat-pasted trio of graff writers who have passed.
Here’s the gorgeous and lyrical result that captures the influences and tempo of NohJ’s approach in only two minutes. The Thelonius Monk tune not only nails it, that’s exactly what you’ll hear in NohJ’s studio all day. Special Thanks to Lou for sharing it with BSA readers first.
Lou remembers the experience, “NohJ had been calling me all week, he kept reminding me we had to go film. I told him I’d be there no matter what on Friday, but it rained. So instead we met up around 6AM on Sunday morning to make this video. The light in his apartment was quite yellow I remember.”
“I started focusing on the small things; a pack of cigarettes, discarded paper, details of the work lying there on the table waiting. All of it was telling the story of the artist and his new Sprayed N Stone without words. Hope you enjoy it.”
Auguste has been documenting with video regularly since releasing his first work Open Air in 2006, which gave viewers an inside-look at studio life and the creative spirit while profiling Brooklyn street artists Faile, Dan Witz, and Skewville, as well as Espo, Mike DeFeo and Tiki Jay One. The artistic process is what drives the narrative for this life-long devotee of art and Lou broadened his scope to shoot his first feature length documentary, Day in the Life released two years later in November 2008. In addition to developing an “evolving canvas” project known as Concious Cycle, Auguste currently spends his time between London and New York, where he is gearing up to produce his first feature film.
Just last week NohJ reprised the Sprayed N Stone series inside a gallery setting for the BKMIA show in Miami Beach (part of Art Basel). In the full wall installation, NohJ very nearly re-created the New York City disarray that accompanies blighted parts of the city with found wood, metal, and disgarded street signs.
In addition to the BKMIAshow indoors he managed to pull off 3 murals outside too. In the artist’s tradition, street art veteran Logan Hicks reached out to the promising new dude and hooked him up with a very cool Primary Flight location surrounded by overgrowth and vines. NohJ killed it with portrait of a reflective musician holding her violin.
“Logan referred me to Slow and Slow gave me and amazing spot,” says NohJ. The piece is called “Th3 Violinist annd h3r Window of Opportunity” (NohJColey)
“Then Gaia gave me a call (with an offer) while I was working on an installation. I really wanted to paint this picture I had read an article about, so I dropped eveything and went to paint! ”
When you work on the street, you can expect to meet just about anybody. This guy insisted that NohJ take his portrait. ” He was just walking around and noticed the camera and became adamant about being in the shot,” says NohJ. This painting for the “Art Whino” show is called “3y3’ll l3ad you”, by NohJColey
Finally, a guy named Max, owner of AE District, approached NohJ to do a mural for him, so of course the hungry artist obliged by doing this piece of an older lady and a church.
The contrast between more formal subject matter and the dripping graff-inspired running of paint somehow makes my head hurt with hard thoughts. Where are the damn academics when I need them?? This one is called “o!p!p!”, which does not help matters, in all honesty.
Finally when he got back to NYC 7 lbs. slimmer (I told you he was hungry), NohJ told Brooklyn Street Art a little more about his Miami experience;
Brooklyn Street Art: These images – are they people you have known, or just people in your imagination?
NohJColey: These images are not of anyone I have known in this lifetime. All the murals I painted in Miami are all images that visually grab me.
Brooklyn Street Art: How many days did you spend painting these?
NohJColey: I did a little bit of each mural over the course of three days.
Brooklyn Street Art: Did people come up and talk to you, and what did they say?
NohJColey: For the most part everyone wanted to know where I was from. Some people actually want to know what the piece is about or who is the person that I was painting.
Brooklyn Street Art:How would you describe the vibe on the street in that part of Miami?
NohJColey: Miami in general is a great place to work. Everyone is pretty much supportive of the whole beautifying public space idea.
The Primary Flight Opening Party Wednesday night blast featuring Dr. Dre and Peanut Butter Wolf lasted late into the morning hours and Logan Hicks was on his hotel ledge contemplating a couple of manatees late Thursday afternoon with his head in his hands, quietly, while street artist Bask was working with some birdies of his own on a wall.
Take a look at some of the progress!
Thanks to Jeremiah Garcia for capturing some of the action!
Bask rendered a splashy orinthine trio with flair.
Tes One sends a mixed message in stark tone.
Lee Quinones considers hopping the fence just for old times sake.
Adam 5100 at work on an elongated form in the foreground of a foreboding scene. This can come to no good.
Ron English is knocking outlines for his giant animated wall.
No slouch in the magnificence - Ron English has bitten a big piece offa that street art cake.
A roster of 80 artists are participating in this years Primary Flight exhibition in Miami – which officially starts tonight. Last night preparations and discussions about the walls and the logistics began before the fans and otherwise curious folks show up.
In attendance in the empty lots and barren walls were Shepard Fairey, Kaws, and Ron English, each scoping out the size of their assignments.
A big pile of clamp lights in the empty lot augur some action for the cameras to come from Ron English
Shep will be smacking up a 200′ by 20′ tall wall, which seems pretty large. But what will he put there, that’s what I wanna know. Maybe it will be related to the pro-gay marriage “Love Unites” posters he did for a fundraiser last month.
Shepard Fairey makes a point with Kaws and an identified person.
Thanks to Logan Hicks for the pics!
And if you are there they have a totally fun and off the hooker opening with a couple people you may have heard of. Thanks but I just washed my hair…
The leaves are blowing wildly around in the wind and the rain – and on dry crisp sunny days you can rake them into a pile in the park and crash into them with other kids, pretending you are a subway rat climbing through a mountain of trash.
Oops, sorry if I killed that bucolic scene.
So, Chris Stain is getting ready, as are a number of street artists from New York, to go down south after Thanksgiving for the big Primary Flightevents at Art Basel in Miami Beach. Primary Flight will be the world’s largest site-specific street level mural installation. Aside from that it will be in MIAMI. In DECEMBER. Questions?
BSA will have special reports from the street from on-the-scene action reporters! If they’re not drunk! Or chasing bikini-clad models in Jimmy Choo stilletos down Washington Ave.
Kesh and the Gang by Chris Stain
Here is an inspired new print that Chris just finished for the show that incorporates his son and a couple of his school buddies, and a swirling bunch of leaves, adding a bit of light to a otherwise subdued-hued milieu.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
