Veng and Chris of the art collective RWK worked two days (18 hours) back in September of 2009 to complete a brand new piece in which they paid tribute to the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are”, by Maurice Sendak, published in 1963.
Produced by Brooklyn Street Art, this was a concept they had wanted to paint for a while and their selected scene is a composite of both their painting styles and a few of the scenes in the book. The influential children’s book had figured strongly into the lives of these two artists, as well as many kids over the last 50 years.
We would like to pay tribute to Mr. Sendak and share a couple of images from the mural and a video of the process of making the mural.
Uh-Oh, should I be wearing a necklace of garlic today? It might not be too cool to wear it indoors. Oh snap it’s only a movie. Happy Friday the 13th everybody!
1. “Vice & Virtue” Shai Dahan (Stockholm)
2. “It Felt Like a Kiss”, Alexandros Vasmoulakis at Gallery Nosco (London)
3. “The Birds & The Bees” with H. Veng Smith and Gigi Chen (BKLN)
4. Isaac Cordal Solo tonight in Barcelona
5. Hellbent at C.A.V.E. Saturday (LA)
6. Buff Monster at Corey Helford Saturday (LA)
7. Sowat and Lek present: “Mausolee”
8. Arabic Graffiti and Egyptian Street Art in Frankfurt
9. John Crash Matos’ “Study In Watercolors” at the Addict Galerie in Paris
10. ARMO and his world of color, shapes and textures. (VIDEO)
11. Ana Peru Peru Ana “meanwhile, in new york city (VII)” (VIDEO)
“Vice & Virtue” Shai Dahan (Stockholm)
Shai Dahan’s solo show “Vice & Virtue” opened last night at the Scarlett Gallery in Stockholm, Sweden and is open today to the public. Are your virtues bigger than your vices?
For further information regarding this show click here.
“It Felt Like a Kiss”, Alexandros Vasmoulakis at Gallery Nosco (London)
An exploration of the seductive kiss and the female power of attraction – sounds like a valiant pursuit, doesn’t it? Alexandros Vasmoulakis’s solo show is open to the general public at Gallery Nosco in London today.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“The Birds & The Bees” with H. Veng Smith and Gigi Chen (BKLN)
A perfect theme for a show right now as the temperatures rise and skirts rise and shirts come off on the grassy knolls in Prospect Park. “The Birds & The Bees” H. Veng Smith show with Gigi Chen at the Mighty Tanaka Gallery opens today in Brooklyn as Spring time’s gallant breeze calls you hither to Dumbo.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Isaac Cordal Solo tonight in Barcelona
Curated by Street Art author Maximiliano Ruiz, this solo show gives platform to Isaac Cordal, a small-scale sculptor who has thus far used the street as the only necessary stage. Mr. Cordal’s little cement characters at RAS Gallery will stop you in your tracks and reconsider your giant self.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Hellbent at C.A.V.E. Saturday (LA)
New York Street Artist and fine artist Hellbent shares the space at C.A.V.E Gallery in Venice Beach, California this weekend with his offering “A Quilted Life”.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Buff Monster at Corey Helford Saturday (LA)
Buff Monster is back at his most mischievous at the Corey Helford Gallery this time all covered in delicious pink. His solo show “Legend of the Pink” opens tomorrow in Culver City as the monster celebrates 10 years of work on the street.
Peru Ana Ana Peru are Street Artists, jokesters, and film makers in New York. Here is their new mini-movie of unscripted New York scenes, sounds and soliloquies collected together for your amusement and befuddlement.
Featuring the artwork of Gigi Chen & H. Veng Smith
Spring is upon us early this year and with it brings longer days full of sun and warmth. The nice weather ushers in our next show, The Birds and The Bees, featuring the aesthetically pleasing artwork of Gigi Chen and H. Veng Smith. Together, these two artists exemplify an exciting direction of oil painting, unlocking elements of love and pain through their individual techniques.
The Birds and The Bees
Featuring the artwork of Gigi Chen & H. Veng Smith
Spring is the season for growth and renewal and with it, people come together in joyous celebration. Drunk off the familiar sensation of green grasses and blossoming flora, the world is alive and full of inspiration. A romantic essence fills the air with an intoxicating blend of rejuvenating aromas that tempts the body and plays with the mind. It is easy to lose oneself in the cacophony of reawakening, as senses are overloaded and forged into the memory. Through the enchanted feelings resides a notion of self-discovery that enables reckless abandonment, which leads to a multitude of outcomes. Mighty Tanaka is pleased to bring you our springtime show, The Birds and The Bees, featuring the fantastical artwork of Gigi Chen & H. Veng Smith.
The Birds and The Bees is a traditional metaphor for love, yet it also encompasses the sharp stinging pain of loss. It is a constant reminder of balance and desire as well as the shock of reality. As the warmth grows, so does the undergrowth and the tangle of vines and thorns, creating an ever-challenging terrain of hope and expectations to navigate.
Both Gigi Chen and H. Veng Smith utilize a host of inspiring techniques to create their individual work. Both artists create their work from oil paint, yet their achieved outcome differs greatly. As the days grow longer and the sun shines a little brighter, it’s the perfect setting for The Birds and The Bees to come out to play.
1. Play a New Holiday Video Game from Chris Uphues – “Holiday Jingle Rocket”
2. “Rezolution”, a group show at Hive Gallery Tonight (Phoenix, AZ)
3. “Paranormal Hallucinations” at Pandemic (Brooklyn, Yo!) (Saturday)
4. David Choe and DVS1 for Nuart 11 (VIDEO)
5. “Images of the Year 2011” From Brooklyn Street Art (Video)
6. VINZ FEEL FREE. Don’t be afraid. Feel Free (VIDEO)
Play a New Holiday Video Game from Chris Uphues – “Holiday Jingle Rocket”
Street Artist Chris Uphues uses his signature characters to create this very entertaining game for you to play with while chugging eggnog and rum today as you drink and drive at your keyboard. Try to keep your sled flying over the houses without being hit by giant blobs of snow! It’s a winter blast!
Make sure to click on the link below to play the game:
“Rezolution”, a group show at Hive Gallery Tonight (Phoenix, AZ)
Chip Thomas AKA Jetsonorama and a number of other artists open today in a group show that is getting a lot of pre-buzz here and on Twitter and FB. It should be a great scene tonight at The Hive.
A very fun group show to end out the season before everybody goes into the holiday haze, featuring some unsung gems in the Street Art and graffiti scene, as well as others, including CHARLIE MARKS R.I.P, LLEW payote, Deuce Seven, Egyptian jason, Matt CRABE, Josh and Amy Shandick, Mikey Big Breakfast, Conrad Carlson, G II, Ryan C. Doyle, Mikey I.T., Tamara Santibanez, Othello Gervacio, Mike. P, and Swampy (above).
For further information regarding this show click here
“Images of the Year 2011” From Brooklyn Street Art (Video)
It’s been an excellent year for Street Art all over the world and we’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of great stuff from big names to the anonymous. Eye popping, brain-teasing, challenging, entertaining, aspirational and inspirational – it’s all happening at once. We’ve been walking the streets, meeting the artists, going to shows, curating shows, speaking to audiences, providing walls, and asking questions. It ebbs and flows but never stays the same. With the rise of the Occupy movement this autumn, we’re already seeing an uptick in the number of people taking their messages to the street with a renewed intensity.
VINZ FEEL FREE. Don’t be afraid. Feel Free (VIDEO)
It’s been an excellent year for Street Art all over the world and we’ve had the pleasure of seeing a lot of great stuff from big names to the anonymous. Eye popping, brain-teasing, challenging, entertaining, aspirational and inspirational – it’s all happening at once. We’ve been walking the streets, meeting the artists, going to shows, curating shows, speaking to audiences, providing walls, and asking questions. It ebbs and flows but never stays the same. With the rise of the Occupy movement this autumn, we’re already seeing an uptick in the number of people taking their messages to the street with a renewed intensity.
Let’s take a look at some of our favorite shots, whether from a rooftop in Bushwick, Brooklyn, a block-long wall in Miami, or the “Art in the Streets” show at LA MoCA. As you sample this eye-candy platter, dig the staccato soundtrack made of sounds culled from Brooklyn’s streets by electro duo Javelin, who spent a day in the Red Hook neighborhood collecting sounds and then mixed them in the back of their car. This is the kind of D.I.Y. ingenuity that is fueling the fire in artists neighborhoods all over the world, with people taking their stories and skills directly to the streets. With Javelin as the perfect auditory partner here’s 90 shots by photographer Jaime Rojo from 2011.
The scenes and scenester included here: 5 Pointz, 907Crew, Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO, Aakash Nihalini, No Touching Ground, Aiko, Martha Cooper, Anthony Lister, Boom, INSA, Miami, Primary Flight, LA Freewalls, Los Angeles, Kim West, Kopye, L.E.T., Purth, Lisa Enxing, Baltimore, Banksy, LA MoCA, Barry McGee, Blek le Rat, Broken Crow, Albany Living Walls, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, AD HOC Arts, Chris Uphues, Monster Island, Wynwood Walls, Creepy, Brooklyn Street Art, Jaime Rojo, Steven P. Harrington, Dabs & Myla, How & Nosm, Vhils, Dain, D*Face, ECB, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, EMA, The London Police, Kid Acne, Will Barras, Enzo & Nio, Faile, Bast, Faith 47, Gaia Clown Soldier, General Howe, Hellbent, Herakut, Invader, JA JA, Jaz, Cern, Joe Iurato, Welling Court, John Baldessari, JR, Kenny Scharf, Knitta Please!, LMA Cru, LUDO, Mosstika, ND’A, IRGH, Labrona, Overunder, Nick Walker, NohjColey, Nomade, Occupy Wall Street, Os Gemeos, Veng, Chris, RWK, QRST, Radical!, Rambo, Retna, Gifted, Demon Slayers, Read, Booker, Read More Books, ROA, Shepard Fairey, Shin Shin, Wing, Skewville, Specter, Swampy, Sweet Toof, Swoon, Toofly, Various & Gould, VHILS, XAM, YOK, Pantheon Projects
1. Last Day to Enter “BSA Holiday Giveaway”
2. “Tokyo Tattoo 1970” Martha Cooper and Aiko in Brooklyn
3. Robots Will Kill & Friends Tonight in Brooklyn
4. Photographer Birdman Show tonight in Los Angeles
5. C215 at Shooting Gallery (SF)
6. Geoff Hargadon “Dealers Protected” (Boston)
7. GAIA Saturday @ Irvine Contemporary (DC)
8. “Home For The Holidays” group show at Klughaus Gallery
9. DD$ show “Everything Popular is Wrong” at Lab Art
10. Nick Walker’s Large Mural, “See No Evil”, in Bristol (VIDEO)
11. The Installation of David Byrne’s Giant Globe under the High Line in NYC (VIDEO)
Last Day to Enter “BSA Holiday Giveaway”
Folks today is the last day we are accepting submissions for our Holiday Giveaway Contest “12 Wishes for 2012”. Hurry! The prizes are great plus you can be featured on BSA along some great artists working today on the streets.
“Tokyo Tattoo 1970” Martha Cooper and Aiko in Brooklyn
Tonight at Urban Folk Art Gallery/Brooklyn Tattoo, a dual show of photographer and artist and friends.
Martha Cooper will be exhibiting photos from her book, and Aiko, internationally renowned stencil artist will be displaying work inspired by Martha’s work directly related to the book.
For Further information regarding this show click here
Robots Will Kill & Friends Tonight in Brooklyn
Mighty Tanaka ‘s new show “ROBOTS WILL KILL & FRIENDS” brings together an eclectic group of artist from different disciplines. The gallery is also celebrating 2 years.
For further information regarding this show click here
Photographer Birdman Show tonight in Los Angeles
In Los Angeles, esteemed photographer and BSA collaborator Bryan Mier AKA Birdman’s show “Wish You Were Here” opens today at Novel Cafe. Wish we were there!
Birdman’s exhibition, “Wish You Were Here,” will feature his adventures in the art world. Including shots on roof tops, night sessions and rare images of artists up close working on murals.
For further information regarding this show click here
C215 at Shooting Gallery (SF)
French Artist C215 new solo show “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” opens on Saturday at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco.
Christian Guémy, also known as C215, is a Parisian street artist known for his intensely emotive stencil portraits. C215 began painting six years ago, and has since brought his work all over the world, from New Dehli to Istanbul.
For further information regarding this show click here
Geoff Hargadon “Dealers Protected” (Boston)
Geoff Hargadon invites you to the reception of his solo show “Dealers Protected” on Saturday at the Gallery Kayafas in Boston.
For further information regarding this show click here
Also Happening this weekend:
“Home For The Holidays” A group show that includes works by Faust, Moody and Katsu among other artists at the Klughaus Gallery in Manhattan. Click here for more details.
DD$ show “Everything Popular is Wrong” at Lab Art in Los Angeles. Click here for more details.
Nick Walker’s Large Mural, “See No Evil”, in Bristol (VIDEO)
The Installation of David Byrne’s Giant Globe under the High Line in NYC (VIDEO)
Mc Fitti – Strap on Traumschiff (VIDEO)
Have no idea what he is rapping about but there are some sick tricks here.
Here in New York everybody is still out kickin around the streets because the weather is warm and to welcome the oceanic flood of tourists who are here to see the big parade, the Rockettes, The Book of Mormon, and to buy fake Louis Vuitton bags on Canal Street. After Thanksgiving, it’s a tradition that we get mobbed by shoppers from all over the place, and it’s a tradition to complain about slow moving wide people in sweatpants slowing us down, even though secretly we’re happy to see cousin Bruce and Aunt Ida again. Also, if you slow down a little, you might even see some new Street Art and appreciate it.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Anthony Lister, Betten, CID, Dr. Za, Erik Berglin, Jaye Moon, Leidy, OverUnder, Phil, RWK, Sise, Veng, and Willow.
This weekend in Albany very important Street Art presentations were made at the New York State Museum during “Living Walls: Albany”, including one from Street Art duo Broken Crow, pictured here in custom made aluminum foil head gear that reflected light rays all around the Clark Auditorium.
There were so many moving parts in this large and easy going cultural festival this weekend, and we were really happy to meet so many people in the street, at the Marketplace encampment, in St. Joseph’s Church, at the tile factory, and during our keynote lecture at the New York State Museum Saturday. Thanks to Samson Contompasis for asking BSA to partner with him for LWAlbany and a quick shout out to other local partners James Shultis at Grand Street Community Arts, Sivan Shimoni, the staff at NYS Museum, and local blogger KC Orcutt at KeepAlbanyBoring.com along with photographers Andrew Franciosa, Bob Anderson, MC3, Frank Whitney, and Ken Jacobie. Also big ups to Monica Compana, who c0-spearheaded Living Walls Atlanta, which we covered a lot when it began last year. For all the locals mentioned, they are just the tip of the iceberg of a large committed creative and professional community in the Upstate New York region who helped to pull this thing off with almost zero dollars and tons of planning and hustling. For the first year, it is/was a major achievement.
Of course our main focus is always the Street Artists and the creative spirit that is alive and well on the streets so it was a total honor to see the artists and see brand new stuff going up, like the last one before catching a train last night – Broken Crow’s ram under a bridge. There are still some pieces being finished by NohJColey, Clown Soldier, Doodles, and one we missed from Michael DeFeo. Also coming up should be Hellbent and possibly some other artists this fall, so we’ll get back to you on that. Not all these pics are from Living Walls : Albany by the way — when you are combing the streets you find all kinds of stuff you didn’t expect.
Last Day of July! Just sayin’. Get outside because the streets are calling.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alice Mizrachi, Bast, Cern, Chris Stain, Hellbent, Jaz, Joe Iurato, LAZ, LMNOP, OverUnder, ROA, Robots Will Kill (RWK), Skewville, TrustoCorp, and Veng (RWK).
GONNA TAKE MY GUITAR (B. Hodge) BOBBY HODGE (Rebel 819)
Gonna take my guitar and leave this town
I’m gonna find me a new place to hang around
Baby, I ain’t coming back for a long long spell
This guitar wants to see a new place
You get a chance to go out to the park this weekend and sit under a tree or throw a frisbee? It’s not that far to walk really and its good to reacquaint oneself with nature and barking dogs and deviled eggs and other weird salad creations that Aunt Majiminy always forces you to try – even though you didn’t like it the last time she forced you to try it.
But we don’t know what has been in that jug of punch at these little picnics that Overunder, ND’A and Chris and Veng from RWK have been throwing this summer. The characters, the proportions, and the mixing of elements are ever more stretched and eccentric and colorful. These kids are seriously playing with their food – mixing the olives with the jello ambrosia and spreading it on a grilled hamburger and crumbling some ranch potato chips on top.
A distant Street Art relative from Berlin named IRGH is in town this summer and these Brooklyn based artists have put down the gingham table cloth and a wicker basket of aerosol cans in multiple locations to welcome their cousin and put him to work…painting walls. We’ve been chasing them around town in Brooklyn and Manhattan and here’s the wackiness we found:
“I’m so excited to have IRGH visiting and get to paint with him. We developed our painting style in the same direction, but in separate scenes, and different parts of the world and now get to combine forces” ~ Overunder
Joe Franquinha is creating an operetta of hardware-inspired art by 150 artists in his store before your eyes, and even the jaded cannot claim to have experience such a rich, relevant and comedic art show. “Joe, did you see the cat in the middle of the plants?” his mom asks about a sculpture during the last rush of installations that has run late into the wee hours every night this week.
In a Wiliamsburg hardware store opened by Joe’s dad and his uncle in 1962, even the curating of a 200-piece art show is a family affair. A light opera of jazz and syncopated rhythms and even burlesque, as you roll through the aisles the mostly local art sings arias and raps rhymes of the working people from every hook and particle board, dangled from the ceiling, and, in the case of Street Artist Olek, crocheted entirely around a shopping cart and hand truck.
For a decade Manny and his young son Joe, now in his late twenties, have thrown open the doors of the store to invite the artistic newcomers in this neighborhood to bring their creativity inside. What may be seen as a sly marketing maneuver to court a changing demographic actually morphed into a celebration of community, and comedy, with little tragedy. Cast on this leveling stage, Joe’s own passion for the arts enables a rare harmonic volley, where new talents never shown in a gallery before are hanging in the same aisle as more established performers with a global audience. As a participant in this real time interactive play, it’s up to you to discover them among the flat latex paint and gardening gloves.
BSA gives our thanks to Joe as a partner in provoking and invoking the creative spirit, and with this little sneak preview, encourages you to hop on the L train to Lorimer today and check it out. Follow the sound of bands and DJs and the smell of food vendors and walk past Jon Burgerman doodling all over a car on the sidewalk and you’ll be at the front door of Brooklyn’s own curious ode to hardware.