Coney Art Walls continues to take shape before your lying eyes, ladies and gentlemen, snake oil salesmen, and painted ladies in fishnet stockings. Watch now as our intrepid camera wielding high wire walker slithers upward into the sky for his shot!
Constantly risking absurdity
and death
whenever he performs
above the heads
of his audience
the poet like an acrobat
climbs on rime
to a high wire of his own making.
In this amazing expanding collection you can see that the history and legacy of the location is clearly inspiring many of the artists who painted this week. From Miss Van’s “Gypsy With Stallions” to Aiko’s multi-ethnic mermaids to Jason Woodside’s clown-car of pop-optic patterning to Kenny Scharf’s amorphous fun-house characters, Buff Monster’s melty ice cream, and Ron English’s mutated funny/frightening grinning cartoon characters…this weeks additions are giving the place a cheerfully happy and vaguely creepy magic vibe.
One more week of this painting madness and many surprises are just behind this velvet curtain, Ladies and Germs.
All American Temper Tot is the name of the new installation by Street Artist Ron English on the Houston Bowery Wall in Manhattan, and the US flag-based design may be comforting to the average patriotic New Yorker until you realize he is offering a not-so-subtle critique of mindless consumerism that indicts probably everyone who passes it. Part of his Popaganda series, a sort of retrospective of it actually, the famous subverter of billboards has just delivered a one-two punch to the culture of comfortable consumerism that reduces all life experiences to a commodity.
The enormous nose-tweak is more ironic perhaps on this island that has raised its rents so high that most artists have had to abandon it and little genuine Street Art actually is on its walls anymore. This particular high-profile spot has become revered not only because of its lineage of Street Artists (Haring, Scharf, Faile, Fairey, HowNosm, Swoon among others) but because greed and gentrification has effectively wiped out the sort of organic scene that gave it birth.
While some passersby will see references to Jasper Johns here we are reminded of another more grassroots politically satirical flag. As early as the 1990s we began to see anti-corporate protesters carrying flags with the stars replaced by corporate logos and those may be a closer analogue to the stripes on display here.
In the last decade and a half as media was consolidated into a fewer hands and tabloid TV began serving up absurdity as normality, everything from pesticides to wars to gas fracking became slickly commercialized products to brand and sell and artists like Ron English has been drawing attention and alerting the public to the mindless consumers that we are becoming via his postering and illegal billboard “takeovers”. With playful parody on fast food purveyors, sugary cereal sellers, and right wing news channels, these were more comedic satire like those you may find in MAD magazine than the pointed approach of early 1970s takeover artists like “The Billboard Liberation Front” or the full frontal lobe subvertising of folks like the Adbusters.
In one more twist to this new wall story, a few will undoubtedly argue that this installation is also a billboard advertisement itself since a print of the piece went on sale this week on the artists website, and it’s central figure, the Temper Tot, is also a 3-dimensional vinyl toy that is highly collectible. But not everyone is scandalized by this — the print already sold out. This is the soup we are all swimming in – even while the little green hulking monster baby flexes his muscles and trembles with fury at what has been happening to that flag behind him.
Like his site says in the sales copy for the toy “The only thing worse than a toddler with a tantrum is a very STRONG one!” Terrifyingly strong and terrifically immature, don’t get in the way of this well armed boy nearly popping off the wall and running across Houston Street to punch someone’s lights out. English has poked his finger in the chest of popaganda and we all will see how it responds.
The power of advertising and propaganda is undisputed, whether it is for toothpaste or war. We are being acted upon daily by people who would like us to do (or not do) something. Usually it is to give money for a product or service, but more than ever it is to stand by and allow bombs to fall or laws to be eroded.
Artists have been parodying the methods of advertisement and our willingness to be swayed by it almost since it began, perhaps as a way of alerting us of the deleterious effects of unthinking consumerism in general, or to give us the tools to comprehend and analyze the methods that are effectively driving our behavior. Invariably, our actions as individuals, citizens, and consumers are all folded into the critique.
Street Artist Mauro Carmelino, who writes SEBS as his moniker, recently completed an entire campaign of his own that questions many things we do and wonders if we are even aware of the lines between citizenry and consumerism we traverse these days.
Entitled “Slaves ‘R’ Us”, this series of handmade works are on the walls of Ajuda, a civil parish in the municipality of Lisbon, Portugal. Bright and simple designs that are cheerful enough, even if they belie a less pleasant series of questions for pondering.
“Democracy, the environment, freedom, security, employment and corporatism are all portrayed as products of a ‘Progress’ that seems to reach the expiration date,” he says as he describes the various elements in the campaign. In Carmelino’s view, our free will is seriously in question today. “We look back to past societies and feel we came a long way. Did we? Are we free when all our lives can be crunched into zeros and ones, somewhere on a server in California?”
The work looks welcoming and cartoonish on these aged walls and buildings, and if the artists intentions are realized, his greater messages will have an affect on the mind of the viewer. It helps that some of the locations of the walls provides a bit of context, like the silo-shaped building that has a warning about cow milk, “Some of these are inspired by the personal stories of people or are somehow related to the intervened walls,” says the artist.
Special thanks to the artist for providing these exclusive photos for BSA readers.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. ROME in the Street and the Gallery by Dioniso Punk
2. Hendrik Beikirch (ECB): East Harbor in the Netherlands
3. Michael Beerens – “Master”
4. “Art As A Weapon” Trailer
BSA Special Feature: ROME in the Street and the Gallery by Dioniso Punk
The punk rock connection to graffiti is as strong as any subculture’s – or of any people who feel marginalized in effect or practice by the dominant culture preventing their voice. The narrative that graffiti belongs exclusively to Hip Hop has been posited and disproved over time; as Jesus said, “Graffitti belongs to everyone.” *
In “Street & Gallery” we see that the need for expression, illegal and otherwise, is as urgent as ever in the Street Art scene in Rome today and for many it is a means to express opinions and philosophies that they hope will in turn push greater society forward in some way. For others it is simply to fight the stagnation.
Billed as an “unofficial video” by Dioniso Punk, the short documentary takes you into the kitchen and studio and gallery and street as a variety of artists, academics, vegetable vendors and philosophers narrate the pragmatic and the existential. Call it activism, call it a yearning for freedom, call it being generally pissed off at institutional inertia – the spirit of graffiti and it’s multiple urban art corollaries will not die. Either will arena rock and roll, despite early punk’s best wishes.
Interesting to note that the globalization of capital has not globalized all banks accounts and has thrust the xenophobia of the Italian middle class into a harsh light here, as it has elsewhere in so-called developed countries. Here we see a modern Italy struggling with ideological self-beliefs about justice and equality and wondering how they apply to a new immigrant class who has no interest in their cogitations. Moving from the educated class studio environment, the trained artist suddenly finds a social/political role, and for the first time perhaps contemplates it. Meanwhile, many in the street have never seen the inside of a studio and have a slightly different take on the state of things. Let the conversation continue.
Support was also provided by Maam – Museo dell’Altro e dell’Altrove di Metropoliz, Dorothy Circus Gallery, M.U.Ro. – Museo Urban di Roma, Sacripante Gallery, SMAC – Segni Mutanti.
A nod to the artists whose work is shown in the video, including Nicola “Nic” Alessandrini, Jim Avignon, Gary Baseman, Mister Thoms, Eduardo Kobra, David “Diavù” Vecchiato, Veronica Montanino, Stefania Fabrizi, Danilo Bucchi, Mauro Maugliani, Ron English, Beau Stanton, Mr. Klevra, Finbarr “Fin” DAC, Omino71, David Pompili, Ray Caesar, Afarin Sajedi, Kathie Olivas, Pablo Mesa Capella e Gonzalo Orquìn, Massimo Attardi, Gian Maria Tosatti, Malo Farfan, Franco Losvizzero, Davide Dormino, Alessandro Ferraro, Mauro Cuppone, Leonardo “Leo” Morichetti, Mauro Sgarbi, Gio Pistone, Zelda Bomba, Micaela Lattanzio, HOPNN, Massimo Iezzi, Sabrina Dan, Jago, Giovanna Ranaldi, Santino Drago, Alessandro Sardella, Fabio Mariani, Marco Casolino, Veks Van Hillik, Hogre, Dilkabear, Lucamaleonte, Diamond, Alice Pasquini, Paolo Petrangeli.
Hendrik Beikirch: East Harbor in the Netherlands
Hendrik Beikirch traveled to Heerlen in the Netherlands to paint a new mural over three and a half days. Organized by Heerlen Murals, the wizened, troubled subject adds to the series of images ECB has been creating across many walls in the last handful of years.
Michael Beerens – “Master”
Last summer the Frenchman Beerens took a trip out into the mountains and created a piece on a a small abandoned building. Ah, summer, come thou near…
“Art As A Weapon” Trailer
From Breadtruck Films, the new documentary focuses on a school in Myanmar (Burma) that teaches street art as a form of non-violent struggle. Street Artists Shepard Fairey and JR figure into the story, as does the military, art as a weapon, and art as a tool for revolution.
* Quote from Jesus Cordero, aerosol sales associate at Near Miss Hardware store in Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Art Basel has wound up another successful year in Miami and artists, dealers, buyers and sun seekers have departed. In their wake the streets of Wynwood have sustained yet one more onslaught of murals from an international mix of graffiti writers, street artists, and large format illustrators as the Street Art scene’s thick syrup of spontaneity hardens into a slick shell of commercial opportunity. The average working person with two jobs (or no job) may not have noticed that there is a fabulous boom in this economy for some, and the bubbly is flowing all around fairs like this, out into the streets, into the galleries, receptions, cocktails, and celebrity DJ appearances. While it lasts Brock Brake takes BSA readers through the brand sponsored cloud of opportunity and keeps the focus on what made Street Art interesting to begin with; the artists and their work. We think you’ll dig his photos and for the first time here, an essay in his words:
Miami’s Art Basel might be the world’s largest summer camp for artists. Every year, artists, galleries and enthusiasts from around the world come together in one place to paint, party and socialize. With a never ending list of desired activities and events during the week, it’s impossible to see and do it all. And many of the artists whose work towers on the walls of Miami’s Wynwood neighborhood have been there a week or so longer than anyone.
You know you’ve made it to the right neighborhood coming from the airport when all you see from the highway are large murals and roadside graffiti…and you’re most likely stuck in traffic.
Every single street in Wynwood was filled with artists from various parts of the world who all share one goal: to create. Artist like Meggs, Word To Mother, Hush, Spencer Keeton Cunningham, Lauren Napolitano, Aaron Glasson, Pose, Cleon Peterson, Ron English, Rone, Swoon and many others were all present and active.
It was hard not to get distracted by all of their process while walking from event to event. I spent a total of three full days in Wynwood documenting, visiting some walls more than once. It’s impossible to see it all.
When the fairs close around 7pm, the streets of Wynwood and South Beach explode. There are live painting events like Basel Castle and Secret Walls, pop up galleries, live concerts by hotel pools and, of course, The Deuce; South Beach’s best dive bar beehive of visiting artists.
I’m grateful for my annual “camp” reunion trips to Miami. Reconnecting with old friends you haven’t seen in years while making plenty of new ones. It’s fun to see that as the years go by, everyone is just as much a kid as you remember them. You see the same friend throughout the week wearing the same shirt for four days covered in paint, with no shower or sleep. All of these artists work very hard to do what they do and that’s why I do what I do.
Just over 50 years ago Cuban architect Hilario Candela designed the Miami Marine Stadium using modernist design to create a great open air theater along the water to watch powerboat racing. In the thirty or so years between its construction and Hurricane Andrew, the 6,566 seat stadium on Miami’s Virginia Key provided natural shade and entertainment including the races, orchestral music, popular music, political events, prize fights – all in a very original and unusual setting. And who can forget it was in “Clambake” with Elvis on skis!
Because of damage sustained during the 1992 hurricane storm, subsequent inspections have left it condemned by the city engineers and a six-year-old restoration and preservation project has been drawing attention to the site and raising money with the hopes of funding its return. While the restoration organization has received support from the original architect, local dignitaries, celebrities and even some corporate funds, the $30 million dollar renovation is still some distance away.
Recently a group of Street Artists and graffiti artists were invited to continue the visual adornment begun by many uninvited writers over the years. “Graffiti artists have been drawn to the stadium and its architecture,” says Street Artist/ fine artist Logan Hicks who participated in and helped organize many of the artists to check out the mid-century modern structure.
“While the city forgot about the stadium, artists continued to embrace it, illegally painting while the city left it to decay,” he says. In fact it is an irony to consider that one city demonizes the same behavior that another invites, but this isn’t the first time that a subculture is recognized for its contribution. Naturally, we know that the work of these artists will most likely be obliterated in the final design.
Now a part of an official campaign to draw attention to the restoration effort, artists from around the country and world have been traveling to the stadium to add their visual signature to the interesting venue. Today we share with BSA readers recent shots by photographer Martha Cooper, who spent some time with Logan and some of the artists for a few days this summer as they explored and hit up some spots in the stadium.
Artists invited to the site include Stinkfish, Axel Void, HoxxoH, Tatiana Suarez, Abstrk, Pixel Pancho, Logan Hicks, Joe Iurato, Rone, Elbow Toe, Risk, Doze Green, Evoca1, Ian Kuali’i, Luis Berros, Dabs Myla, Ron English, Tristan Eaton, The London Police, Crash, Johnny Robles, Reinier Gamboa, Jose Mertz, and Lucy McLauchlan.
A view from the stadium when it was doing live shows floating in the water offshore from the Miami Herald website (thus the watermark). To look at original photos the paper has for sale click on the photo or HERE.
Not quite spring, the Art Fairs are arriving in New York ahead of the tulips. We strolled the impossibly long aisles and peered into the booths to find the folks who have at other times been called “Street Artists”. This weekend they’ll be fine artists, and the list is quite a bit longer than years past as the professionalization of the street continues.
Shows like the Armory, Scope, Volta, and Fountain are good testing venues to see the commercial viability for many of these artists and some have foregone representation – preferring to foot the bill on their own. Since walking the streets to see their work requires multiple layers and hats and gloves – traipsing through the fairs can be far preferable than dirty old Brooklyn streets. It’s also nice to see how some of these folks look in a tie or a blouse – or even just hit a comb. Here below we include some possible gems for you to hunt down.
Today we jump right in to the warm Honolulu waters for a swim before padding barefoot up to the painted walls of Pow! Wow! where photographer Martha Cooper is waiting camera in hand and looking for a fly swatter to smack down a camera drone that is buzzing around her head and getting in the way of her shots.
Here’s part deux of some of Ms. Cooper’s pics from PW 2014, beginning with an aquatic version of the sort of poker-playing canines popularized by illustrationist and painter Cassius Marcellus Coolidge about a hundred years ago that still persist in the offices of law firms and investment banks today. This large scale variation is by street humorist Ron English.
“Ron English painted marine animals playing poker. His brother-in-law who lives in Hawaii (I think) had been begging for this wall for a long time so Ron finally did it,” says Martha.
“One of the craziest things I saw was the use of camera drones operated by remote control. There were a couple and they could fly high or swoop down to shoot.” -MC
1. Ron English “Crucial Fiction” at Opera (NY)
2. “Museum of Curiosity” at Black Rat (London)
3. “RELIEF” – A Brooklyn Fundraiser Tonight – Helping New Yorkers with an Art Auction
4. “High Class Trash”, Dotmasters at Reed Projects
5. “The Art of Comedy Art Crawl” (NYC)
6. Know Hope and “The Weight” (LA)
7. Lara Zombie and her “Blue Bird Lobotomy (NYC)
8. Krause Gallery has a new show featuring Hanksy (NYC)
9. “Once Upon A Time in The West” at Maximillian Gallery (West Hollywood)
10. JURNE has “Keys To The City” at Klughaus Gallery (NYC)
11. Jurne: “Keys to the City” (VIDEO)
12. OLEK “You Can’t Fool” (VIDEO)
13. Balai Seni Visual Negara (BSVN) (VIDEO)
14. HOPSCOTCH RHA RHA RHA 2012 (VIDEO)
Ron English “Crucial Fiction” at Opera (NY)
The new solo show by Ron English,”Crucial Fiction” is now open at Opera Gallery in Manhattan. The pop surrealist continues to mine the heroic and dark images of his childhood imagination and of those around him, technically masterful 3-D contortions pulsating with mischief and an attitude of play. Street Artist, commercial artist, anti-commercial artist, culture jammer, pop culture enthusiast; English continues to explore to the delight of his fans.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Museum of Curiosity” at Black Rat (London)
An unusual group exhibition titled “The Museum of Curiosity” is now open at Black Rat Projects and includes a new installation titled “Dream Reliquary” by Brooklyn based Street and Fine Artist SWOON. The show also includes American artist Butch Anthony along with Tessa Farmer, Candice Tripp, Nancy Fouts, Giles Walker, Jessica Harrison, Taylor Shepherd, Delaney Martin and Oscar Rink. A very personal show for Black Rat owner Mike Snell, you also get to see as well centuries old taxidermy and a hippo skull, among other curiosities.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“RELIEF” – A Brooklyn Fundraiser Tonight – Helping New Yorkers with an Art Auction
Making Deals Zine and Trumbull Studios have teamed to put together a silent auction and raffle with the proceeds to bring relief to Sandy’s victims. They reached out to dozens of artists and friends to donate art for this cause. The event aptly titled “RELIEF” will take place today at the Trumbull Studios in Brooklyn. Please come out, have fun, purchase art and help those that are in need. Click on the link below the image for a full list of participating artists.
All proceeds from the sales will go to designated charities for the victims of Hurricane Sandy: New York Cares (nycares.org), Red Hook Initiative (rhicenter.org) and the Red Cross (redcross.org).
For further information and full artists list click here.
“High Class Trash”, Dotmasters at Reed Projects
In Stavanger, Norway the Reed Projects Gallery new show opens tonight with The Dotmasters “High Class Trash” solo show.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“The Art of Comedy Art Crawl” (NYC)
Hit the streets with Vandalog and The New York Comedy Festival, who are teamed to produce a number of murals in Little Italy in the Lower Manhattan. There will be an art crawl, “The Art of Comedy Art Crawl” to be precise this Saturday, Nov. 10 where Street Art fans are going to be guided to appreciate the newly installed pieces by Ron English, Gilf! and Hanksy.
For further information regarding this event click here.
Know Hope and “The Weight” (LA)
The Israeli based Street Artist named Know Hope has a solo show called “The Weight” opening tomorrow at the Known Gallery in Los Angeles, CA. Know Hope unique characters and words come together on walls and found wood as entire poems. His art aims to lighten the burden of living, while contemplating it’s weight.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Also happening this weekend:
Lara Zombie and her “Blue Bird Lobotomy” solo show is now open to the general public at Broome Street Gallery in Manhattan, NY. Click here for more details on this show.
Krause Gallery has a new show featuring Hanksy called “Young Puns 2 – Now With More Pun”. Now open to the general public in Manhattan, NY. Click here for more details.
The new group exhibition “Once Upon A Time in The West” at Maximillian Gallery in West Hollywood, CA opens tomorrow with new works by Andy Appleton, Mauro Caputo, John Carr, COL, COPE2, DD$, DeeKay, Dog Byte, Richard Duardo, Rene Gagnon, Gregos, Listak, Devin Liston, Septerhed, Smear, Steven Swimmer and Tazroc. Click here for more details on this show.
Klughaus Gallery in Lower Manhattan will give JURNE the “Keys To The City” at the opening of his solo show tomorrow. Click here for more details on this show.
Jurne: “Keys to the City” (VIDEO)
OLEK “You Can’t Fool” (VIDEO)
Balai Seni Visual Negara(BSVN), Malaysia for ART BOOK FAIR 2012 (VIDEO)
HOPSCOTCH RHA RHA RHA 2012 (VIDEO)
A good use of duct tape on the street in Indonesia. – And an effective way to engage the public.
November 10th at noon: The Art of Comedy Art Crawl starts at Caffe Roma on Mulberry and Broome streets and continues down Mulberry towards Canal Street as we check out Little Italy’s latest murals.
This was a tough week for New York and we’re still struggling to recover from the Hurricane whose name we’re tired of saying. We have every reason to believe New Yorkers will continue to pull together, as we always do. Go Brooklyn! Go Staten Island! Go Manhattan! Go Queens! Go Bronx! Go Long Island! Go New Jersey! Go Connecticut! New York, you are beautiful and we love you.
As ever, photographer Jaime Rojo was on the streets shooting a lot of stuff, and of course there was new Street Art to discover too. So here’s our weekly interview with the street, including 2501, Bast, Cash for Your Warhol, Classic, Cynthia von Buhler, FKDL, Gilf!, Hanksy, JR, Nick Walker, Pixel Pancho, Rene Gagnon, Ron English, and You Are Beautiful.
Opera Gallery NY is thrilled to present Ron English’s “Crucial Fiction”
from November 2nd till November 23rd 2012
Monday to Saturday 10:30AM to 7PM
Sunday 11:00AM to 7PM
115 Spring St. NY, NY 10012
+1 212 966 6675
“I want to tell my inner child, help me remember what you saw, and I will make it for you…”
Inspired by Andy Warhol, Ron English created his own movement and was baptized “The Father of Street Art.” One of the most important and respectable artists of our time, Shepard Fairey, referred to English as “an artist who can paint an advertising satire with the skill of a Renaissance Master (one who’s been to the future and witnessed surrealism and 1984!).”
While participating in illegal public art campaigns from the early 1980s, English developed the skills of a master painter to become one of the pioneers of Pop-Surrealism.
He is one of the very few contemporary artists who still uses his oil dipped paintbrush to create masterpieces like a Picasso on acid would do.
English’s Guernica is one of his most popular pieces. It is a piece which demonstrates that he does not see as the rest of us. The intensity of the Pop Surrealists’ explosion, including his brilliant use of color and his nightmarish creatures, surely leads the viewers eye and mind towards a feeling of tripping while standing in front of his works.
In “Crucial Fiction,” a series of paintings revealing an inspired collaboration with his former self, English seems to have made an important decision to prove that a true artist is able to use his imagination and transform it into reality. His vision is willing to offer us a unique experience with the excitement and vitality of a child, a child who cultivated a bountiful career that has been spread across streets, museums, movies, music, books and television.
“…Give me your imagination, and I’ll give you my skills.” -Ron English
English lives and works in New York. His art is in the collections of the Whitney Museum in New York, Museum of Contemporary art in Paris, Today Art Museum in Beijing, Wynwood Walls in Miami (Art Basel), MOMA: screening of his documentary “The Art and Crimes of Ron English.” His collaborations include Puma, Absolut Vodka and the album covers of artists Chris Brown and Slash to name a few.
Before “street art” became a globally recognized genre, Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen were charting their course—one rooted in graffiti, …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
