All posts tagged: Roa

London Calling : Fresh Art from the Streets

January 28, 2013 Artists

London is looking alive and on top of things at mid-winter, with a great variety of materials and techniques, imaginative styles and of course varying results, according to your tastes. During a quick trip on a somewhat blizzardish day, photographer Geoff Hargadon found “tough conditions: snowy, cold as f***, and a camera battery that refused to stay charged.” Tough going for the intrepid Street Art photog you see. Of course the upside of inclement weather is that no one is outside to obscure your shot. Except the falling snow, that is.

Vhils (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

From the comfort of you warmly glowing flatscreen, this selection of pieces looks like Street Art in London is largely mural based, right now, as much of the scene continues to be. The players are more or less familiar to your eyeballs, with a few newbies on the scene.

Enjoy these exclusive shots just for BSA readers. And special thanks to Geoff for his heroism and for sharing these scenes with us.

Shok-1 with RemiRough (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Local favorite Stik shows what may be a lady in a burka in this coupling. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Stik (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Stik, simple, and effective. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Calm (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

This sculptural installation appeared during the London Olympics, the arrows of the gods falling like rain and piercing the side of this building. The installations around the city included javelins, shot puts, bows and arrows and is called “Gifts of the Olympic Gods”.(photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Nasa . Milo Tchais (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Obey looking completely graphic while the snow falls. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

This dude doing a head spin is by Run. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

finDAC (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Jimmy C (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

David Walker (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

El Mac (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

The Frenchman C215 is in the window (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Phlegm brings one of his creatures into the street dimension, looking like he is ready to inspect somebody’s backpack. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Phlegm (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Excellent use of the front of this bus by Phlegm. Might mess up the visibility though. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

ROA’s prickly friend looks startled. Could be excited about the new super sewer for London. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

D*Face crushes a car . Invader . Obey (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Burning Candy is awfully monochromatically romantic in a digital sort of way. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Burning Candy and a sliced screen series from BomK Liliwenn (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Canvaz. Sort of like Warhol portraits of Darger’s Vivian girls, but that’s just me. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Amigo . Malarky . Milo Tchais (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

What’s Up in Berlin: New Shots from Gilf!

January 15, 2013 Artists

The walls of Berlin are so slammed with graffiti and Street Art that artists and writers have no choice but to go over each other. While Germany (and France for that matter) have foresworn the laissez-faire approach of unregulated economics that led to the financial collapse, Berlin’s approach to graffiti and Street Art here is still relaxed.

Roa, Alec, Blec, Buve. (photo © Gilf!)

Since the fall of the wall nearly a quarter century ago, the sense of liberation is still exploding on a cellular level throughout Berlin’s creative scene; a pent-up energy of free expression that has given the city a truly magnetic quality which draws artists from around the globe. Each visitor seems energized by their experience here where artists continue to seed, germinate and grow a dynamic scene that continues to take surprising shape. As of yet, it hasn’t been capitalized on entirely, but you can be sure that it will be one day very soon, if the pattern of other artist-led movements in cities of the Western world are indicators.

Victorash Astronaut (photo © Gilf!)

“The walls of Berlin are heavy with an exclusive cultural history. A city once divided, now converges into a thriving epicenter of artistic expression,” says New York Street Artist Gilf!, who just got back from this place of relative artistic freedom. Even as she toured the blanketed walls she says she knows that it is a temporary condition, and wonders if the “the rattle of spray cans” will fall silent one day. Today on BSA we have exclusive insights and photos of the scene from her perspective as a New Yorker in the early twenty-teens.

Artist Unknown (photo © Gilf!)

“Layers upon layers of spray paint, wheatpastes, murals, and installations make this metropolis a street art mecca. The energy is contagious, inspiring, and thought provoking. When discussing art, often times people compare modern day Berlin to New York in the nineteen eighties: expressive, prolific, and all-encompassing.” – Gilf!

Evol miniature bombed building. (photo © Gilf!)

“The extreme censorship of decades past, contrasting with the current overwhelming display of personal expression on the walls of Mitte, Kruezberg and many other neighborhoods became my internal obsession as I walked the streets. As this art form becomes more and more censored in US cities like New York and Chicago, I can’t help but draw a reverse parallel with Berlin.” – Gilf!

Gilf! “Malala” (photo © Gilf!)

“The above piece in reference to Malala Yousufzai, the 15 year old girl in Pakistan who was shot in the head by the Taliban for promoting women/girls education. She was transferred to a hospital in the UK, where she was recently released. The QR code next to her sends the viewer to a BBC news page that explains her ordeal”

“I am trying to educate people with this piece. It’s funny how the Arabic really scares people, like it’s some sort of terrorist threat. Even with the translation “knowledge is the deadliest weapon” written in English on her body- it’s not enough to keep this piece up in certain places. People fascinate me. It’s almost subconscious, that choice of ignorant disregard for other cultures, hate is a strong word, but it feels like that sometimes.”-Gilf

Bananensprayer (photo © Gilf!)

Os Gemeos (photo © Gilf!)

Sheep 2 (photo © Gilf!)

Stik (photo © Gilf!)

Artist Unknown (photo © Gilf!)

Cake, El Bocho, Dscreet (photo © Gilf!)

Cake (photo © Gilf!)

Artist Unknown (photo © Gilf!)

Plotbot (Ken) at Tacheles. (photo © Gilf!)

DOLK (photo © Gilf!)

INTER . TANK! (photo © Gilf!)

BLO (photo © Gilf!)

Dede (photo © Gilf!)

Artist Unknown (photo © Gilf!)

Magnet Alley (photo © Gilf!)

(VIDEO) 2012 Street Art Images of the Year from BSA

December 19, 2012 Artists

Of the 10,000 images he snapped of Street Art this year, photographer Jaime Rojo gives us 110 that represent some of the most compelling, interesting, perplexing, thrilling in 2012.

Slideshow cover image of Vinz on the streets of Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Together the collection gives you an idea of the range of mediums, techniques, styles, and sentiments that appear on the street today as the scene continues to evolve worldwide. Every seven days on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present “Images Of The Week”, our weekly interview with the street.

We hope you enjoy this collection – some of our best Images of The Year from 2012.

Artists include 2501, 4Burners, 907, Above, Aiko, AM7, Anarkia, Anthony Lister, Anthony Sneed, Bare, Barry McGee, Bast, Billi Kid, Cake, Cash For Your Warhol, Con, Curtis, D*Face, Dabs & Myla, Daek One, DAL East, Dan Witz, Dark Clouds, Dasic, David Ellis, David Pappaceno, Dceve, Deth Kult, ECB, Eine, El Sol 25, Elle, Entes y Pesimo, Enzo & Nio, Esma, Ever, Faile, Faith47, Fila, FKDL, Gable, Gaia, Gilf!, Graffiti Iconz, Hef, HellbentHert, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Interesni Kazki, Jason Woodside, Javs, Jaye Moon, Jaz, Jean Seestadt, Jetsonorama, Jim Avignon, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Ka, Kem5, Know Hope, Kuma, Labrona, Liqen, LNY, Love Me, Lush, Matt Siren, Mike Giant, Miyok, MOMO, Mr. Sauce, Mr. Toll, ND’A, Nick Walker, Nosego, Nychos, Occupy Wall Street, Okuda, OLEK, OverUnder, Phlegm, Pixel Pancho, Rambo, Read Books!, Reka, Retna, Reyes, Rime, Risk, ROA, Robots Will Kill, Rone, Sacer, Saner, See One, Sego, sevens errline, Sheyro, Skewville, Sonni, Stick, Stikman, Stormie Mills, Square, Swoon, Tati, The Yok, Toper, TVEE, UFO, VHILS, Willow, Wing, XAM, Yes One, and Zed1 .

Images © Jaime Rojo and Brooklyn Street Art 2012

Fun Friday 11.30.12

November 30, 2012 Artists

It’s Friday yo! Tomorrow starts December but the tree is already up at Rockefeller Center and the city is flushed with wide-eyed tourists bumping into each other and we are busy touring graffiti covered abandoned buildings smashed with paint balls. It’s all good. Here’s some ideas for dope stuff to check out this weekend.

1. “Out of Chaos” Paul Insect (NYC)
2. “Organized Chaos” CYRCLE (LA)
3. The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum (NYC)
4. VINZ “Batalla” (Chelsea)
5. DALeast “Powder of Light”
6. ROA by Makhulu (VIDEO)
7. “Dominant Species” by ROA (VIDEO)
8. IBUg Festival of Urban Art and Culture (VIDEO)
9. “Eyez Open” with Peat Wollaeger (VIDEO)

Paul Insect “Out of Chaos” (NYC)

London based Paul Insect has his “Out of Chaos” solo show at Opera Gallery in Manhattan.

Paul Insect. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

While Paul Insect is advancing the idea of a world out of chaos …

CYRCLE is all about “Organized Chaos” (LA)

Street art collective CYRCLE opens their solo show tonight in Los Angeles, CA.

“Order and Chaos is a huge cornerstone concept we work with, and it’s one of our favorite examples of duality in life. It’s also a huge part of the way we work together.”

CYRCLE (photo © theonepointeight)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read our piece on a CYRCLE studio visit click here.

The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum (NYC)

The Childrens Museum of the Arts is a good place to go to see the innerworkings of the visionary graffiti writer who turned his imagination into a galaxy. This kind of art-making gives inspiration to adults and kids because he fashioned toys and warships and costumes from everyday objects that were not expensive, and his output of mythic Gothic Futurism gods, heros, villains and storylines over three decades lays bare your excuse for not being creative.

It’s about the same price as a movie but the comprehensive collection of the artists work and the self-esteem mission of the museum is priceless. The Rammellzee Galaxseum is a great place to visit for an afternoon with the kids in your tribe and explore free expression – inside where it’s warm and your imagination can fly.

VINZ “Batalla” (Chelsea)

The VINZ solo show “Batalla” opens Saturday night at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan. This Spanish Street Artist plays with the realities of humans, using his own photographs of nude models and animals to construct hybrids by playfully merging their bodies with striking results.

VINZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

DALeast “Powder of Light”

Chinese Street Artist DALeast is also at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery tomorrow with his own solo show titled “Powder of Light”.

DALeast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

ROA by Makhulu (VIDEO)

“Dominant Species” by ROA (VIDEO)

From Art in The Streets – MOCAtv

IBUg Festival of Urban Art and Culture (VIDEO)

From 2012 in Glauchau, Germany.

“Eyez Open” with Peat Wollaeger (VIDEO)

ROA In THE BONEYARD

November 19, 2012 Artists

Here are some new shots of the planes in the boneyard in Arizona and of ROA’s contribution to the project, exclusively for BSA readers. In the Tucson desert over the summer when the temperatures are at their highest, it’s really almost impossible to get work done during the daytime. Maybe that’s why ROA painting at night is what gives the video at the end of the post by Jason Wawro such an eerie clandestine quality, and makes the very act of painting seem illicit.

Also, calling it a boneyard helps.

ROA is the latest in this ever growing project by Eric Firestone and he follows some other names you will recognize like Retna, How & Nosm, and Faile. Stay tuned for more!

ROA. The Boneyard Project. Tuczon, AZ. 2012 (photo © ROA)

Video made by Jason Wawro from the Boneyard Project.

Special thanks to Eric Firestone.

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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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“I Art Joburg” with Monica Campana in South Africa

November 10, 2012 Africa, Artists, Johannesburg, On the Street, South Africa, Street Art Festival

Today we welcome Monica Compana to BSA to share with you her experiences during a recent Street Art/community program in Johannesburg, South Africa that took place in September. As one of the principal originators of Atlanta’s Living Walls festival, Campana brings a wizened eye to the events as they unfolded, and presents here what she observed and experienced. Special thanks to Martha Cooper, who shares with BSA images that display her personal vision of Joburg and some layouts from her new zine “Soweto/Sowebo”.

Considered one of the wealthiest cities in Africa, Johannesburg is not only rich in gold and diamonds, but also rich in arts and culture. In the month of September, Johannesburg hosted the largest mural project in the city and possibly even the continent.

I Art Joburg brought the artists Espo, ROA, Cameron Platter, Falko, Remed and graffiti photographer legend Martha Cooper to South Africa to create art in the streets, start a dialogue about street art in the city and to document a month where artists worked together alongside a commercial production team and community members to bring color to Joburg and Soweto.

ROA (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Color creates energy, energy creates inspiration and inspiration creates change. It is our responsibility to inspire ourselves to inspire others to inspire the change. Art is the remedy for this,” says Ricky Lee Gordon, organizer and curator of I Art Joburg.

Gordon’s carefully selected list of renowned street artists not only managed to put the festival amongst one of the best ones of the year, but also it created a chemistry between artists and community. With 6 murals installed around the Maboneng Precinct it hosted a night of lectures and the screening of Espo’s “Love Letters to You” documentary. The precinct is also referred to as “a place of light”, as it is a hub for young creatives and artists, and it also hosted a gallery exhibit by the participating artists.

ROA (photo © Monica Campana

To inspire kids from a local school, organizers created a workshop and a mural with kids in Soweto, a name synonymous in the northern hemisphere with the historic anti-apartheid black resistance movement that inspired so many artists in the 70s-80s around the world. The name Soweto has an auditory similarity to the neighborhood of Sowebo in Baltimore, which photographer Martha Cooper has been documenting as a personal passion for nearly a decade.

Already in Joburg to document all of the murals and exhibit her own work, she took the experience and project to a whole new level with the development of her zine titled: “Soweto/Sowebo.” Martha owns a house in South West Baltimore, also known as Sowebo, an area so affected by urban decay that it is often compared to Soweto in South Africa. Needless to say, when she arrived in Soweto she immediately saw the similarities and she decided to create a zine honoring the richness of both cultures. It was fascinating to see through her work how these two places, so far away from each other geographically in two completely different continents, could pass as one and the same.

ROA (photo © Martha Cooper)

Soweto/ Sowebo was not the only example of this wonderful dialogue. Each artist tried to leave something to the city of Joburg that would not only last for a long time visually, but something that could continue to spark some kind of dialogue. During my stay in Joburg I was able to spend quite a bit of time with ROA and Martha Cooper. It was amazing to see how their easily they interacted with the people on the streets of the city and even though they had been there for only about a week by the time that I arrived, Martha and ROA had already made dear friends in the neighborhood.

ROA and Falko (photo © Martha Cooper)

On the subject of friends we made: Bongani Mathebula, my Joburg tour guide, is the one that stole my heart. Seeing the city through the eyes of a local 25 year old artist was very inspirational. He told me that projects like I Art Joburg are what the city of Johannesburg needs – an outsider’s view and conversation starter to inspire the local community.

“Artists are like heroes. Art is crazy, people need to let that happen. More art, more crazy communication and growth,” says Bongani.

I hope to see more mural festivals happen in Joburg and Soweto. I know the artists who were part of the project were left wanting more. So, who knows? Maybe this really is just the start to a much bigger conversation in Joburg! Fingers crossed!

Remed (photo © Monica Campana)

Falko (photo © Monica Campana)

Espo (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martha Cooper’s “Soweto/Sowebo Zine” (photo © Martha Cooper)

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FUN FRIDAY 09.14.12

September 14, 2012 Artists

It’s a BSA Fun Friday and we’re gonna tell you all about some stoopendous Street Art shows this weekend from Brooklyn to Chicago to Paris to Vienna but first….Everybody get up and do some FF dancing like my homeboy PSY in Korea.

This sh*t is Gangnsta, bro.

SEOUL, YOU THINK YOU GOT TALENT…

1. VIDEO “Gangnam Style” Dance Frenzy from Korea
2. Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)
3. “Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)
4. LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)
5. “All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)
6. “Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
7. GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)
8. Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)
9. Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope “Others’ Truths”
10. The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria
11. Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You”
12. “Permanence at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada
13. eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)
14. When Lucent Met Herakut (VIDEO)
15. Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)

Street Artist Bäst has always mixed a savory chopped image salad. With his dicing, cutting, collaging and stencilling work on the street over the last decade, a lot of his recent stencils are twisted Bodega style signs advertising basic staples for the pantry. But of all the collaborative advertising that Street Artists have been getting into, we never could have predicted this; Olive oil. You can actually go to snooty classist foodery Dean and Deluca and buy a bottle of Bast style olive oil right now. Only 500 were made in this limited edition and the oil smells better than the petroleum-spilled brownfields in industrial Bushwick where you usually see his work, so why not?

This Brooklyn native artist has been amusing, hijacking, and inspiring with his work on the streets of New York for well over a decade and it’s also cool to see his gallery work at his solo show “Germs Tropicana” opened last night at Opera in Manhattan. If the pieces are too pricey, Dean and Deluca is just a couple of blocks away!

Bäst (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)

Outside is the brand new wall piece by ND’A and Dirty Bandits. Inside this art store/gallery they are joined QRST and Gilf! in this new small show called “Just Your Type”, opening tonight.

ND’A (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)

Parisian Street Artist LUDO was in multiple shows around the world and blanketed the Paris Metro and bus shelters with his subvertisements for two years before a gallery in his native city invited him inside. Tonight Galerie Itinerrance will have LUDO’s first solo show entitled “Metal Militia”.

With a truly unique approach to social critique that serves as a cunning indictment of the advertising industry and the military industrial complex, you won’t find anything like the pretty disgust than the work of LUDO.

LUDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)

Ever the ballsy wiseguy, the Klaughaus Gallery in Manhattan continues to produce and present quality shows that challenge your possibly prejudicial pre-formed perceptions of propriety and pugnacity. This time they invited West Coast natives Reyes and Steel to exhibit at their space with a show titled “All Write You Scumbags”.

From the press release, “The New York debut for both artists and showcases a distinct chemistry cultivated over years working together as friends, creative partners and members of MSK, one of the highest regarded graffiti artist collectives in the world.” To find out what this means go to their show opening tonight.

Reyes (image © courtesy of the gallery)

Steel (image © courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)

Street Artist ROA concludes his US Summer Tour 2012 in San Francisco at his own victorious opening Saturday at 941 Geary Gallery. The show is aptly called “Dominant Species” and will feature many of the cast of creatures you have grown to expect.

“Here is a Street Artist who has very effectively escaped the street, an introvert traveling quietly in the extroverted world, with open eyes and an acute talent for observation; decoding the universe through study of the natural, and unnatural.” BSA

ROA at work on his recent stop over in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read BSA’s feature on ROA this week and to see beautiful images of his work in Mexico, Africa and Cambodia earlier this year click here.

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN are transforming the space at the Creative Alliance Gallery in Baltimore with a collaboration that promises to spill over the street and beyond. If you want to see what the trio is up to put the gameboy down and head out to the gallery for their opening tomorrow night with an exhibition titled Zim Zum.

MOMO at work on his recent participation on Baltimore Open Walls this Summer. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

See MOMO in GEOMETRICKS, presented by BSA and curated by Hellbent next weekend in BROOKLYN, baby.

Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)

Chicago based Street Artist Don’t Fret has a new solo show, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay” opening Saturday night at the Bizzare Gallery in Chicago. So if you are planning to arrive naked, BYOB and put your wallet under your armpit. Lo-fi comic book doodling that make most people look like family day at the tractor pull, Don’t Fret drawings are people you know and often dang hilarious.

Don’t Fret in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this Weekend:

If you are in Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope is releasing a new zine titled “Others’ Truths” and he’s mounted a small exhibition of the drawings that illustrate it. This exhibition will remain open all day today until 4:00 pm. Click here for more details on this show.
The 2012 Edition of The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria is now open. The festival has an important selection of Street Artists putting up works throughout an entire week of programs. Roster includes Blu, Evan Roth, Florian Riviere, Isaac Cordal, Mark Jenkins, and ZukClub. Click here for more details on this festival.
The film screening by Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You” is being hosted by the Joshua Liner Gallery in conjunction with their current show by the artist “A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures”. The screening will take place tomorrow at The Tribeca Grand Hotel. The artist will be in attendance along with the director and a Q & A will follow the film. Click here for more details on this event.
“Permanence” is the title of the new group show at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada. With an ambitious line up international and Canadian artists this show aims to juxtapose the “ephemeral nature of street art with the permanence of collectible art.” From their press release. Click here for more details regarding this show.

In the spirit of Unity, we present Street Artist eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)

This week there has been much news of sadness, discord, and suffering in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Street Artist and painter eL Seed gives us a moment to pull back and reflect on the beauty and poignancy that a religious belief system can contribute to the lives of some.

Here he creates ‘Madinati’ Calligraffiti on Jara Mosque in Gabes.

When Lucent Met Herakut by The One Point Eight (VIDEO)

“A short documentary which presents the show involving graffiti duo Herakut and the Lucent Dossier group, detailing both the rehearsal process and the final performance in a unique and different way.”

Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

ROA in Mexico, Gambia, and Cambodia

September 13, 2012 Artists

Globetrotting the Man-Made World, Listening to the Natural One

It’s sort of unprecedented to see how far ROA has gone this year, and how much work he has done. When people say that well-worn phrase “catching up with _____”, in his case you’d be out of breath. Here is a Street Artist who has very effectively escaped the street, an introvert traveling quietly in the extroverted world, with open eyes and an acute talent for observation; decoding the universe through study of the natural, and unnatural.

Today we debut new images taken by ROA from his travels in 2012 to three continents, leaving his footprints in the soil in villages and towns, studying creatures and the humans around them. As soon as he arrives at his host country he shakes hands of the people and smiles and sets his mind to observe his surroundings, taking interest in what roams free on the ground. He asks about available walls and when possible he selects a perfect one – the more imperfect the wall somehow the more perfect for him. From there it’s a simpler matter of immortalizing the critters and creatures that are all around and usually overlooked.

ROA here gives BSA readers these exclusive images of his travels to Cambodia, The Gambia, and Mexico with some of his observations, and we thank him.

MEXICO

In his second trip to Mexico City, ROA powerfully depicted struggle that commands attention across a large wall. “The snake with rats in her tail strangled. And as Jaime knows, the snake is very important for the pre-hispanic culture in Mexico,” says ROA.

ROA. Mexico City. All City Canvas Festival. 2012 (photo © ROA)

ROA. Cholula, Mexico 2012 (photo © ROA)

“Cholula is legendary known for the 365 churches to celebrate every day another saint,” ROA says in reference to this city in Puebla. Legendary is the right word, as there are actually only about 160 chapels in the town and surrounding haciendas, but the powerful influence of the Catholic Church here may account for the impression that there is one for each day of the year.

ROA. Cholula, Mexico 2012 (photo © ROA)

THE GAMBIA, AFRICA

ROA. Makumbaya, The Gambia. 2012. (photo © ROA)

ROA. Bakau, The Gambia. 2012 (photo © ROA)

“This was my second visit to the Makasutu Forest, The Gambia,” ROA explains as he describes getting his camera and computer stolen after his last trip – where many of the photos from that trip were lost. Thankfully he had retained some of his images from that trip, and here they are. “The choice of the animals was mostly inspired by the moment; I would walk there and see a beatle, toad, lizard, .. and just paint it. The mosquito is the insect that has the biggest impact on the people’s daily conditions and health,” he says.

CAMBODIA

Here on the invitation of TheSk8Room (Bruxelles) ROA also gave some workshops to local youth, and had the opportunity to create something special for the tower of a school in Phnom Peng called Pour un sourire d’enfant (PSE).

“Because we spent time in the jungle near Vietnam two days before, I chose to paint a firefly. After sunset we hiked up the hill and we got to see hundreds of them in the middle of the tropics. Magical!” , he exclaims. He says that the firefly is important because light pollution threatens her existence as that is the method fireflies use to communicate with one another. “They produce with their lower body a yellow/green luminescent light, and cancer researchers observing them have posited the possibility that they would could kill cancer cells. They are very magical bugs!”

“During our two days stay in the forest we visited Kep,” says ROA remembering his time in the small town near Vietnam. “It once functioned as the “French Riviera” of Cambodia, and you can see this in the villas they left behind, evidence of the former wealth of the area.” Unfortunately, many of the villas were destroyed during the time of the Khmer Rouge, he says. “Nowadays they are shelters for homeless people and for roaming animals.”

ROA wishes to thank the following people:

Gonzalo, Roberto, and Jalil, Jesus and Francisco in Mexico City. All City Canvas.

Christian Milamores in Cholula, Puebla.

Lawrence at Wide Open Walls, The Gambia.

The people at TheSk8Room (Bruxelles) for inviting him to visit Cambodia.

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941 Geary Gallery Presents: ROA “Dominant Species” (San Francisco, CA)

September 11, 2012 Afghanistan, Artists, California, Events, Opening, San Francisco

ROA

941 Geary is pleased to present “Dominant Species,” making San Francisco the latest home to ROA’s talent for the first time since his solo show at White Walls last year. “Dominant Species” will open Saturday, September 15^th, from 6-9pm, with the exhibition free and open to the public for viewing through November 3^rd, 2012.

Belgian-born artist, ROA, is known for his striking, and expressive depictions of animals, often stretching to multistoried heights. Even when not massive in scale, ROA’s animals are massive in impact, created with vivid details and the keen eye of a naturalist. Through a focus on local species, ROA reintroduces species that have been forced to the outskirts of urban areas back to the land they once inhabited freely. With this selection of creatures natural to the area, ROA is able to create a powerful sense of intimacy between the viewer and the animals represented. ROA’s paintings often show multiple anatomical layers of the same representation. The work is interactive and the depicted animals can be manipulated by the viewer.

ROA cemented his reputation as one of the world’s most prolific and recognizable street artists by painting members of the animal kingdom throughout major cities of the world, including Mexico City, New York City, Los Angeles, London, Paris, Sydney and many more. His work has now become a global affair, reaching between the Andes and the coast of Chile, the Australian Outback, the African Savanna, the Asian tropic, the American prairie and back to the abandoned factories in the backyard of his hometown in Belgium.

ROA’s “Dominant Species” is his latest body of work created directly after his road trip from the East to the West of America. Driving through the states he experienced and observed a diversity of habitats and species, including the American eagle, the historic symbol of imperialism. Even the icon of the American country is endangered by nature’s most combative intruder: humans. “Dominant Species” refers to humanity aside the history of the States, from the Spanish conquest that consequentially, and brutally, changed the native life up to the contemporary human invasion of the landscape. Travelling throughout the tragically magical landscape of Northern Arizona, ROA was fascinated by the illustrative examples of the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, seen in the paradox of the harmony of the Navajo with Mother Earth alongside the chaos of commercial feed lots, bear hunting, and landfills.

ROA’s site-specific process gives his art the ability to conform to the dimensions of a space and grow from within it, and 941 Geary will be entirely used by the artist to create his installation. “Dominant Species” will be constructed from found objects and salvaged materials, with the large-scale installation guided by a dystopian narrative and ideas of how civilization can run down the land it grew from. Aging wood, rusting metal and skeletal remains come together to remind us of the interrelated workings of our manmade cities and the natural world, with ROA’s mastery of anatomical form and beautiful renderings making these discarded objects something to value anew.

Event Information:

ROA: “Dominant Species”

Opening Reception September 15^th, 2012, 6-9 pm

@ 941 Geary (www.941geary.com)

941 Geary St,

San Francisco, CA

“See No Evil” in Bristol Brings Thousands to the Streets

August 29, 2012 Artists, Bristol, Events, Features, On the Street, Street Art Festival, U.K.

Basking in the warm glow of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the “See No Evil” festival unabashedly celebrated Street Art in Bristol with thousands of fans thronging through the street while London was scurrying to deal with the threat of the unofficial Street Art of the Olympic kind.

In its second year, the one-week festival invited about 40 Street Artists from around the globe to hit up the walls of one long street while visitors traveled great distances to watch. In yet another sign of the full emergence of this first global art form, people witnessed live painting day and night, took photos, visited pop up galleries, attended graffiti workshops, danced to live music on six stages, and ate huge mountains of food at what organizers called a “New York Style” block party.

On the map for the Street Art scene since the early 1980s, Bristol was known for its own style then, eventually giving rise to some of todays’ better known names. With this expansive celebration initiated by locally raised graffiti star Inkie, many styles from the worldwide scenes of graffiti and Street Art exist alongside one another in this grand thoroughfare. Notably only 3 of last years 72 or so works survived into this year (by Nick Walker, Aryz and El Mac), suggesting a very slim chance that many of these new pieces will last for long, but few seemed to mind this month.

The 2012 crop includes painters from Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Poland, Austria, and across the UK who used an estimated 3,500 cans of aerosol to collectively create a massive gallery of public art. With roots in what was once strictly illegal, it’s mind-bending to imagine how occasionally even a police officer or mayor has been photographed proudly adding to the artworks at festivals like these. Within the space of one small decade or so, the appreciation for this form of expression has skyrocketed and in fact this month thousands in Bristol are seeing no evil in it.

Our special thanks to the talent of photographer Ian Cox, who shares these images with BSA readers. Also thanks to Ben Merrington for his photo of the ROA piece.

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ROA in The Navajo Nation Desert with Sleeping Enemies

August 27, 2012 Arizona

Don’t be fooled by a coyote playing “dead”. He’s not really playing.

They say that rabbits comprise about 1/3 of a coyotes’ annual diet, and yet one of them is right here sitting by the door on this desert plain, so unimpressed is he with the fast moving varmits. ROA has just painted the long eared napper at the entrance of this one story building just around the corner from a couple of equally sanguine and predatory kit foxes, their reddish hue desaturated by the Belgian Street Artist’s monochromatic aerosol treatment. It hardly seems like a coyote could mover faster than ROA has across the US this summer and now we catch him for you on the Navajo Reservation with Jetsonorams’s project, “The Painted Desert”.

ROA’s parade of wildlife is equally striking in these wide-open rural areas as they are climbing multi-storied city buildings. Just last year he was in the Australian Outback, before that he was in Mexico’s highlands and Chile’s coastal towns. It is good to see ROA here and with future visits he may find time to paint more animals from the coyote’s buffet, since they’ll eat anything it that they can catch among the low-rise bushes and brush – rabbits, mice, squirrels, gophers, lambs, calves, goats, small pigs, ducks, magpies, crows, buzzards, quail, grasshoppers, and other coyotes.

Thanks to Jetsonorama for sharing these exclusive pics for BSA readers.

ROA and a Half-Eaten Carcass in Chicago

August 13, 2012 Artists, Chicago, On the Street

Belgian Street Artist and painter ROA continues his USA Summer 2012 tour and his next stop after New York was Chicago last week. Hosted by the folks at Pawn Works Gallery, ROA was invited to participate in their ongoing outdoor project “Art in Public Places” in the Pilsen neighborhood.

ROA’s unsentimental fascination with animals goes well beyond the wild realm to give the urban fauna spotlight on public walls. He reprised this bit of visual trickery that we first remember him doing in Miami last year – an engaging image goes very wrong when you turn the corner. It demonstrates the duality of nature and one we shouldn’t get freaked out by, but a carcass is still kind of gross, right?

The project continues to bring new artists in conjunction with the Mexican Museum of Fine Art and The Chicago Urban Art Society.

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