All posts tagged: Rice

Josep Fernandez Margalef x Rice Create Connection: “Esperança” (Hope) in Barcelona

July 23, 2020 Artists

Today we go to Barcelona in Spain, where the country held a memorial ceremony July 16 to honor more than 28,000 people who have died there from COVID-19. This new mural contemplates what it means to be connected, and considers what it takes to have hope.

Utilizing the architectural barriers as metaphor for the obstacles to connection, artists Josep Fernandez Margalef and Rice created ‘Esperança’ (Hope) in the Granollers area of Barcelona.

“Even at a distance, hope acts as a power that can bring us closer to each other, helping us to reach tomorrow. We honor connections, longing, and a feeling greater than ourselves when we are alone; love, friendship, and care all belong in this realm of being,” say the artists.

Josep Fernandez Margalef x Rice, *‘Esperança’.* Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Josep Fernandez Margalef)

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.01.19

December 1, 2019 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome December! Welcome final month of the decade!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week with 1 Up Crew, Bergero, Dirt Cobain, Disturbanity, Goal, Felix Gephart, Konozco, Lego Party, Leonardi, Lik Mi, HOAC, LOL, Phetus, Rice, Traz, TWC Krew, and Yard5 Festival.

Dirt Cobain . Butterfly Mush (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felix Gephart with Disturbanity for Yard5 Festival at Urban Spree Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Raval In Barcelona: A Magnet Of Small Treasures

March 3, 2018 Artists

Las Ramblas is a good place for rambling foot tours on a Saturday afternoon before reaching the ocean at El Raval. This neighborhood of Barcelona champions the small one-off Street Art piece – the antithesis of the large splashy murals that popular in other cities.

Rice (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

A barrio of narrow streets adorned with mysterious and grandly heavy wooden doors keeps the throngs of tourists at arms length. Windows and balconies with intricately and beautifully crafted iron work create an old world charm and invite smaller thoughtful portraits by Street Artists looking for a setting with character.

Turn the corner and there’s a genteel plaza buzzing with seniors in their golden years sitting on benches or at sidewalks cafes nursing a coffee or a brandy.

Rice (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Here in these secret niches, doorways, sidewalk level windows, lampposts, and just about any other surface you’ll discover small pieces of Street Art installed illegally. Multi-layered or one color stencils, one-of-kind, hand-painted wheat pastes, sticker multiples, fully realized acrylic portraits and posters; all small works waiting for a small audience.

BSA contributor and Barcelona native Lluís Olivé Bulbena recently took a stroll through the winding streets and found this treasure trove of goodies. Thanks to him and enjoy!

Hopare (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Guaté Mao (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Ecloz (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Raf Urban (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Nenao (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Pat Brazill (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Ozzy (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Ozzy . Fatal Fake (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Fake Banksy (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Bronik . Utah . Ether. (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Bronik (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Cane (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

El Rughi (photo Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Castellers, Correfocs, and Stencil Art in Barcelona Streets

November 29, 2017 Artists

We always say that Street Art reflects us back to ourselves and during a recent trip to the streets of Barcelona we found some great examples of regional traditions that build community and celebrate culture, even strengthen it. Of course we also found some great stencil art that we hope you’ll enjoy.

Ceaser Baetulo. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The above stencil is a part of a larger wall where multiple artists have gone up over the years. It depicts a human tower or Castellers a tradition unique in Catalonia that dates back to the 18th century. In today’s Barcelona the Castellers perform in competitions, usually in the Town Hall Square during the traditional holidays of the particular town or city.

Unidentified artist. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The stencil above is also on the same wall as the Castellers. This stencil depicts a Catalan tradition as well called the Correfoc. The Correfocs are a group of individuals dressed as devils playing with fire, mostly fireworks. As the Correfocs light their fireworks they get near the crowds, many spectators choose to participate by getting very close to the devils while others decide to watch the festivities from afar.

Akore. At La Escocesa in Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AKORE does Run DMC at The Hangar in Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BToy in Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rice in Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rice in Barcelona, Spain. Also, anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.19.17 : Barcelona Special

November 19, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Barcelona this week was a tale of many opinions, passionately expressed, even hammered home. Geographically at the epicenter of a fight for/against the secession of Catalonia this fall, the conversations about everything from futbol to Guaudi to tourists can take on great enthusiasm. Although, no one argues about tapas. Tapas are just always good.

The organic Street Art scene in the city that was famous during the early 2000s has been calmed as a result of a crackdown on illegal works, but some still exists in pockets of stencils and stickers and one-off paintings. The legal stuff, or ‘permissioned’ murals, are more likely what you will find in the central city, with a little more illegal stuff as you move away from the center to Sant Feliu de Llobregat or L’Hospitalet de Llobregat,

In general the Barcelona scene feels alive, vibrant, varied; and the quality of execution can be quite high. There is also an elusive feeling of magic and history infused within the integrated street scene and a healthy amount of socio-political critique – a swirling mix of illegal murals, commissioned murals, and controlled chaos in the artist compounds. Our sincere thanks to our hosts on the streets this week, especially Fernando and Esteban.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1Up, Axe Colours, Escif, Hosh, Kenor1, Kwets1, Mina Hamada, Pantonio, Rice, and Zosen.

Miss Van at La Escocesa from 2012. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Escif at La Escocesa. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Axe Colours. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pantonio at The Hangar. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rice. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zosen and Mina Hamada. Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hosh. Contorno Urbano.12 + 1. Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenor1. Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew. Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist and muralist Kwets1 spent three months working on two monumental murals on two tunnel walls right across from each other in the immigrants friendly, working class town of Hospitalet de Llobregat in Barcelona. The obvious theme of the mural is nature, conservation and climate change. The underpass is located right next to a river that attracts a plethora of exotic birds that use as a sanctuary and a rest stop as they migrate south during the winter season. We were actually witness to several large parrots flying from tree to tree while we were there.

The artist says that he took his inspiration directly from the nature story, and the human one of immigration here as well.

The other source was the human immigrant stories in this town. In the late 60’s and 70’s the immigration to the town was from several regions of rural Spain, with agrarian families who left farmlands and came to Barcelona seeking job opportunities in the large manufacturing companies that had established themselves in Barcelona. Many of those original immigrants eventually left the town to retire within Spain or to other European countries – leaving room for a new wave of immigration coming from several parts of Africa and Central and South America.

Presently Hospitalet is a vibrant community of old and new residents, and these murals capture the feeling of colorful, tumultuous, exiting and difficult change.

BSA en Barcelona: Miss Van, La Escocesa, and Reskate! Dispatch 1

November 15, 2017 Artists

This week BSA is in Barcelona to participate in the Contorno Urbano competition to select an artist for a new community mural and residency in the municipality of Sant Feliu de Llobregat – and of course to see the famed Barcelona Street Art scene as it continues to evolve.

Fresh off the plane from New York at 7 am, BSA hit the streets with the talented Street Art photographer Fer Alcalá and the director of Fundacion Contorno Urbana, Esteban Marin – both amazing and generous hosts.

We covered a lot of terrain in this pretty, clean and relatively quiet European city (Catalonian referendum marches last month not withstanding) and there is a wide variety of sanctioned and unsanctioned art on the streets even today, years after the city began cracking down on an organic Street Art scene that flourished here in the mid 2000s.

You’ll find a lot of local Street Artists here as well as a few international names who are passing through, or who have settled here and have studios in addition to a street practice.

For lunch you may want to check out the regional special dishes like Escudella d’Olla , a hearty Catalan stew with poached meats and vegetables, or fideuà, a noodle dish that locals may prefer to paella – made with seafood like cuttlefish, monkfish, prawns all cloaked in alioli, a thick garlic and olive oil sauce.

Afterwards you can check out La Escocesa, a self-managed artistic production center that focuses on the visual arts with the public in mind. The artist spaces, performance spaces, gallery spaces – a real hothouse of invention and an art factory on the site of a former textile factory that reminds you of what artist communities can be like when the right elements are present and in balance.

A number of artists have residencies here at the moment, including muralists Mina Hamada and Zosen, who we just saw in Brooklyn at the Vinz Feel Free “Innocence” show while they were in town to paint a huge wall in Jersey City – it is a small world.

Unfortunately in two years La Escocesa will be demolished to make room for affordable housing – it’s owned by the city council which purchased it from the banks.

Also if you come here you’ll want to check out a new mural by Reskate, an artistic collective formed by Maria López and Javier de Riba, who have a workshop and studio in the Sants district of Barcelona.

With an illustrative style full of life, you can see influences from popular culture, graphic design, pop and traditional sign-painting. Our hosts tell us they often paint referencing social themes – and they certainly are loved here. Here’s a shot of our little touring group at one point. See you all tomorrow!

Fàbriques de Creació. La Escocesa from Barcelona Cultura on Vimeo.

For more about Jiser: www.jiser.org

For more about The Hangar: www.hangar.org/es

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