All posts tagged: San Francisco

Herakut says “Find Your Own Voice”

April 30, 2012 , , , , , , ,

German Street Artists and collaborators Hera and Akut have been in San Francisco recently for their solo show “Loving the Exiled” and while there they also had time to get up in the street. With roots in crews in the graffiti scene when they were both in their mid-teens, the two are twice that now and have a strong practice of fine and street art that takes them around the world. With distinctly different styles, the tension and contrast compliment one another in their mainly figurative work, and each considers the other a perfect counterbalance in an ongoing conversation.

Herakut (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

While preparing for their show at the 941 Geary Gallery, photographer Jennifer Goff captured some of the newest street work  for BSA readers. We had the opportunity to interview Herakut and learn about their process, their preferred materials, their prose, and the importance of finding your own voice as an artist.

Our thanks to Herakut for stealing away some time to speak with us and to Jennifer for her photography.

Brooklyn Street Art: Your work is truly collaborative and integrated. In what way does it seem like a conversation between two people?
HERAKUT: In every way. And there are more voices than just our two. We open up the dialogue when we come across a great thought, quote it and work with it, like we did in SF with the poem “LASH” by the exiled Iranian writer Mehrangiz Rassapour – a woman who has seen a lot of pain. She added some strong thoughts to our conversation and raised questions for us to come clear with.

Herakut (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

Brooklyn Street Art: There are a number of loners – single graff/Street Artists on the street today, as well as those who like to run with a partner or a crew. Which approach helps an artist to develop their own voice?
HERAKUT: Only when you have found your own voice you have something to contribute to a conversation, right? So, fit is probably best to find your own artistic identity first because then you know what it is that you are lacking. Akut and Hera are like Ying and Yang. That is what makes the work in our duo so effective. We don´t step on each other´s feet, because we have separate territories.

 

Herakut (photo © Jennifer Goff)

Herakut (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

Brooklyn Street Art: If you had very similar styles, do you think it would bore you? Do you think the tension between the more fine art approach of Akut and the raw expression of Hera is what we see in a finished piece?
HERAKUT: Yes, the contrast between our styles highlights each one. And the is another bonus to being so different from each other – there is no competition between the two of us. We don´t try to exceed the other, we try to add on to the other one´s work.

Brooklyn Street Art: It seems like your work has some of the same cadences and lyricism found in the written word. Have you illustrated a classic piece of literature or poetry? Do you want to?
HERAKUT: It´s like we are sitting in this boat in a stream and we grab and work with whatever happens to be floating close to us. We don´t stretch out too far, it has to find its way to us naturally. Therefore, we don´t even check for it´s qualities in terms of having a classic value. If it sounds good, we´ll work with it, like with this line “COWARDS DIE MANY TIMES BEFORE THEIR DEATHS”. Loved it, and then later found out it was something Shakespeare had written. Supposedly.

 

Herakut with Rusk (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

Herakut with Rusk (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

Brooklyn Street Art: Sometimes your pieces contain text – are those pieces of poems? A bit of inspiration?
HERAKUT: When we really quote, we always try to reference to the writer. Other then that we use our own words. They are the titles of each piece, but more so – it´s the words that add the twist to the painting. It is another layer of communication and we don´t want to miss out on that one, since communication is the whole reason for us to create art.

Brooklyn Street Art: Most favorite surface : wood, concrete, canvas, bricks, rusty metal.
HERAKUT: Brick is not a good one, because it causes too much disturbance on the realism bits. It´s too busy to begin with. Like wood. And wood is often so beautiful that it doesn´t need anything to it. Just like rust. Rust is actually a performance art created by water and air. Pretty good combo. For us concrete is probably the best one. There is something very frustrating about it. So many horrible walls and boundaries have been built of concrete. It´s not a friendly medium. It needs to be attacked, we think.

Herakut with Rusk (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

Herakut with Rusk (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

Herakut with Rusk (Photo © Jennifer Goff)

“Loving the Exiled” is currently on view at the 941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco. Click here for more details regarding this exhibition. With our sincere thank yous to Jennifer for sharing her photos with us.

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Kosbe: Under the Radar and in the Studio

Kosbe: Under the Radar and in the Studio

April 25, 2012 , , ,

Why One Brooklyn Stick Up Kid is Worth Watching

Sometimes on the street you get an inkling of the future. It could be an overheard excerpt from a cell-phone conversation about a club show the night before, or the color and texture of woman’s blouse as it flutters around her while she reads on a park bench, or the sight of the 3rd food truck this week selling spicy meatballs. Something tells you that you just got a glimpse of the future. And while it doesn’t completely reveal itself in it’s fullness, you can see a nascent potential, a storyline developing that may go far beyond it’s current self. Sometimes when you see a Kosbe sticker on a paper box, it feels that way too. In fact, each time you see one of his pieces on the street, it grabs you from above the fray. Yet it seems like he’s been under the radar. He may not stay there much longer.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In the ebb and the flow of the Street Art conversation in New York, you keep seeing Kosbe’s wacky characters popping up in doorways and paper boxes. They aren’t tossed off little marker drawings done while watching TV – they’re intense petite character studies. Packed into one slapped on sticker is a lot of cacophonic kineticism; near crazed city characters with primitive wild eyes staring or blinkered, with tight jaws and teeth squarely gritted. The folk faces and forms are framed by an ardent prose, non-sequitors of angst and inside jokes. “What’s the guy saying?” you could ask. And why is he yelling? “Is he okay, is he mocking me? It’s the bundled rage and cryptic cleverness of the court jester.  Layers of reapplied color and repeated lines trap multiple actions on one non-static figure. This is not simple tagging, it’s a stationary tornado.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist Kosbe has put in two good decades of practice, and has learned some lessons the hard way. He’s been hitting up New York for a half decade but he comes from a long graffiti history as a kid in his native Chicago. Now a practicing artist readying a solo gallery show for fall, he grew up in a very young single-parent home where his mom created a small studio for the boy in the back of their apartment. “My mom was really supportive of me as an artist. When I was a kid she gave me this little back room that she allowed me to use like a painting studio. So I was always grabbing stuff off the street and bringing it in there, painting it. I was very secretive with my stuff. A lot of people would come over and see my stuff and they were like, ‘Dude, I didn’t know that you painted’. I was very protective of it.”

That hasn’t changed. He still likes to use found materials as canvasses, as he shows us around his small studio hidden in a warehouse in New York. “I’m always using things that I find in the streets. Like this is an old grading book from 1919,” he says as he pulls out a tattered tome with pages ripped out.  “It has all these people’s signatures. I found this outside a high school in Brooklyn. It’s really cool. So that’s what I’ve been using for my drawings.”

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tough times at home got him in trouble at school and with the police as a youth. Describing himself as hard headed, he talks about running away as a young teen to San Francisco for a while in the early 90s, where he spent a lot of time on the street admiring a new kind of character-based and tattoo influenced graffiti on the street by people like Twist (Barry McGee), Mike Giant, and Reminisce. “I went out and there were these Reminisce horses everywhere and they were great because you were going down the street and you would see this horse like galloping down the street. This stuff really blew me away. So I think the same time this stuff was going on there, over here in NY you had like Cost and Revs posting bills and doing rollers. And back then there wasn’t the internet.”

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Years later here in this fluorescent lit studio filled with his drawings, paintings, books, ‘zines, assorted ephemera, a desk, and a loveseat, his excited retelling of stories reveals how much those childhood escapades running Chicago streets and exploring San Francisco formed his view of Street Art and prepared him for moving to New York eventually in the 2000s. A self-schooled student of graffiti, fine art, and street art, Kosbe can recount names of writers and crews, timelines, styles; drawing etymologies and stylistic connections and talking about migrations. With much fanfare he’ll also tell you the  stories about the famed Chicago “buff” – a citywide anti graffiti campaign in the mid-late 1990s that he says whitewashed the city’s history.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But now he’s an artist on his own, and his practice is daily. “Now I’ve learned more that the only way, as an artist, that you can kind of grow and come up with new ideas is you gotta keep giving them away. So that’s why street art is kind of funny. I have friends who are painters that have become painters because of me. They are like ‘Dude, I was totally influenced by your drawings’ and stuff like that.” But the practice of Street Artists putting fully formed works out on the street still confuses some of his peers, “They say ‘Dude you give all your art away’ – you know, they don’t understand the concept.”

His new work on the street and in this studio now bends toward abstract expressionism and his years of comic book reading enlivens that rawness with a furtively bombastic character-driven personality. Almost every piece he does has some sort of commentary- a sort of helpful therapeutic narrative to explain what the character is thinking or feeling at the moment. “I like being bad for the sake of being bad”, “Tupac!”, “deathy”, “not good”, “astro zombie”,”power to the people”,“Kosbe don’t cry”.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe also credits the street as his formative and evolutionary art instructor. “When I took an oil painting class, my teacher was like, ‘Dude you already know how to paint. How did you learn this?’ and I was like, ‘graffiti.’ ” Even though graffiti still attracts him and captures his imagination, Street Art and fine art have occupied his efforts lately and the combined synthesis of a lifetime studying art on the street and plenty of experimentation is coming together very strongly aesthetically. Combine that individual vision with the maturity that hits a person in their 30s and you may think that you are seeing a sudden glimpse of the future.

Brooklyn Street Art: I want to talk about you and your art and your influences. What are these characters? Where did they come from?
Kosbe: I don’t know. I’ve been drawing since I was real young.  It’s always something that comes naturally. I don’t do any sketches, I don’t plan anything out. I just – for me it’s more a guttural, more natural thing. It’s good and bad.

Brooklyn Street Art: What’s the bad part?
Kosbe: The bad part is that I don’t focus on it, you know? I just have been doing it so long and I really enjoy it.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Is your experience kind of like a faucet that you turn on and it all comes flowing out and then you decide, “Okay I better turn it off”?
Kosbe: Exactly, right. So the thing with me is, I try to also look for other outlets. So I’m really into other things. Like I like music, photography, writing, all that stuff. But that stuff doesn’t come as naturally to me like this does. But it’s a great outlet for me and I feel really kind of lucky to have something like that – to be able to express myself in that form and manner. It’s helped me out tremendously to kind of learn how to communicate with people. Every year I realize new things – like this is how I communicate with people. Is it bad? Is it bad that I think that this is the only way I think that I can talk to people? Maybe I’ve gotta learn how to become better with talking with people verbally or something.

Brooklyn Street Art: You don’t seem to have great difficulty communicating verbally. But I’m interested in understanding a little more about how you think of this work and this practice as communication.
Kosbe: There is definitely a lot of emotional stuff in my work, you know,

Brooklyn Street Art: There is! Despair, anger …– you use a lot of descriptive words, verbal narratives throughout – whether it’s a sticker or a wheat paste.
Kosbe: Yeah it’s whatever is always popping into my head and so there are a lot of things that are on my mind and hopefully this is a good way to have an outlet for it. I’m trying to not be so negative anymore. And some people are like “Man, it’s so dark”. You know I use a lot of bright colors now, which has been phenomenal. That has really changed my work. Here you can see some of my earlier stuff and it’s really brown, dark. Actually this is beginning where I started experimenting with more color. And then as I got to New York, more and more color started getting into my stuff.

When you do graffiti you learn the fundamentals of color theory, you know. You learn what works.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You know WK Interact talks about New York being a violent city
Kosbe: I love that guy! You know when I first moved to New York he had that little shop on the Lower East Side and you’d walk in and it was like a locker, a desk, and some Japanese kids standing around. And it would be like, “What is this? Is this a store? Is this a studio?”

Brooklyn Street Art: What made me think of him was I was interested in how you describe the city because WK has said that when he makes work on the street, if it is violent in nature and people walk by it, they sometimes give him the thumbs up! And it runs longer. But if he were to paint a pink bunny it would get crossed out because New Yorkers don’t really respond to positive cheerful stuff.
Kosbe: Oh yeah, and New York has definitely had a profound impression on me in that sense because my work before I got here still had that weird dark edge but it was a little cutesy-er. But like as time has progressed I just think I have kind of matured a bit more, becoming more of an adult and my stuff is getting more serious. But with me everything’s gotta be fun. I think it’s supposed to be fun.

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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941 Geary Gallery Presents: Herakut: “Loving the Exiled” (San Francisco, CA)

April 9, 2012 , , , , ,

Herakut

gaze out at us with eyes both sad and resigned, asking nothing of us but a basic empathy.

From the Artists:

We like to see each Herakut piece as the sum of a dialogue between Hera and Akut, a synthesis, a conclusion. And often this final thought is the first line of a new discussion, a new dialogue that will lead up to a new piece of art. That is how we have worked ever since we teamed up in 2004. Over the past years of collaborating, our palette has changed, of course, and we have learned to blend our different techniques, my sketchy lines and Akut ́s realism, ever smoother. It’s actually pretty funny that we do not even talk about the actual painting process. We only talk about the content. Our discussions take place in the world of reason and philosophy. What our hands actually do with our spray-paint is left up to them really. We just focus on telling a story. If the piece turns out pretty or not, is just a side-effect. The thoughts they carry are what we worry about. The messages are what we spend our days on.

To the San Francisco show we will be bringing characters that have fallen from grace. We took a look to the banned and exiled, the abandoned child that first cries of fear and then of rage, flocks of scapegoats, a choir of arch enemies, the outlawed, the out- numbered, the ones that know they are very last of their kind, the extinguished. When will we end up in their place?

Herakut is an artist duo made of Jasmin Siddiqui, born 1981 in Frankfurt, West Germany, and Falk Lehmann, born 1977 in Schmalkalden, East Germany. Their artistic style is as symbiotic as their name, which in itself is the symbiosis of the two individual graffiti synonyms Hera and Akut. A love for traveling and painting for the public eye are just a few of the things of the things Akut and Hera have in common. Their work, however, is based on bringing together contrasting elements: masculine vs. feminine, Eastern vs. Western, the roughness of Street Arts vs. the detail of Fine Arts.

Since 2004, Herakut has painted and exhibited in prestigious big cities like London, Berlin, New York and Paris, but have also spent a lot of valuable time painting the dirty sides of less glamorous cities such as Ekaterinburg, Russia or Campeche, Mexico. Both of Herakut ́s publications, The Perfect Merge published in 2009 and 2011’s After the Laughter have received great success, with the two books selling over 10,000 copies worldwide.

Contact 941Geary

LOCATION

941 Geary Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

Alternate entrance through the alleyway:

60 Myrtle Street

San Francisco, CA 94109

Phone: (415) 931-2500

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Fun Friday 03.23.12

March 23, 2012 , , ,

Welcome to Friday! You made it!  It’s sunny and warm in New York this morning – time to hit the streets and parks and bookstores, before they’re all gone.

1. BOOKLYN in the House (VIDEO)
2. Adam Void “American Dream”
3. La Pandilla and Trek Matthews @ Living Walls Concepts
4. NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco)
5. Street Artist on the Street – Hugh Leeman (VIDEO)
6. Allan Dalla and Kero – Street Artists in Romania (VIDEO)
7. Slim Shady Mitt Romney (VIDEO)

BOOKLYN IN THE HOUSE

La Shea Delaney and Annabelle Quezada Go Hard on Books

Big Ups to these two serious readers. Read Books Ya’ll.

“(I) read so hard, libraries tryin’ to find me.”

“Animal Farm, Jane Eyre,
Barnes & Noble, FourSquare”

Adam Void Shares His American Dream (Baltimore)

Adam Void has a show called “An American Dream” at the MICA Decker Gallery in Baltimore, opening today. This is the artist’s MFA Thesis show. Congratulations Adam!

At work on an Adam Void piece on a wall in Venice, CA in 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

La Pandilla and Trek Matthews at Living Walls Concepts (Atlanta)

Saturday Living Walls Concepts in Atlanta will be at The Jane with a show featuring new works from Street Artists La Pandilla from Puerto Rico and Trek Matthews from Atlanta in conjunction with their participation in this year’s edition of Living Walls, The City Speaks.

La Pandilla in Miami for Art Basel 2011. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco)

941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco invites you to the opening reception of an NSM solo show entitled “Justified Scriptures” this Saturday.

(photo courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Street Artist on the Street – Hugh Leeman (VIDEO)

French videographer Clemence Demerliac filmed the San Francisco based Street Artist Hugh Leeman to understand his original thinking and in inventive approach to helping other with his work.

Allan Dalla and Kero – Street Artists in Romania (VIDEO)

Allan Dalla and Kero teamed up with Ion Bardaleanu for their most recent project.

Slim Shady Mitt Romney (VIDEO)

An INGENIOUS compilation of clips to create this parody of Eminem’s “Slim Shady”

 

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Fun Friday 03.16.12

March 16, 2012

Yowsah! It’s a Triple Header for Street Artist shows in Brooklyn tonight, with Haring at the Museum, Stikman at Pandemic, and JMR/See One at Mighty Tanaka. But that’s not all that’s happening this weekend.

1. Keith Haring: 1978-1982
2. Stikman “20” at Pandemic
3. JMR and See One @ Pandemic
4. SANER @ Fifty24SF (San Francisco)
5. Chris Stain “Long Story Short” at Wooster Social Club
6. Sickboy, White Walls Gallery new show “Wonder Club”
7. Asbjorn Skou AKA Armsrock “Stedfortrædere” at  Mosh Gallery in Copenhagen
8. “My Turn” at Carmichael Gallery with Bumblebee, Hyuro, Interesni Kazki, Jaz, Klone, LineLineDot, Moneyless, Penny, Stinkfish, Zeus.
9. KEMP “Behind her Disguise” at Artsee.
10. Kid NES in Dallas. Time Lapse (VIDEO)
11. Mimi The Clown turns Superhero by OAOFB. (VIDEO)
12. Mimi The Clown turns Superhero by OAOFB. (VIDEO 2)
13. Ben Eine getting up in London by Abbie Brandon (VIDEO)

Keith Haring: 1978-1982

“This exhibition shows you how much fun New York City used to be” – Mare 139

Opening to the public today Keith Haring: 1978-1982 at the Brooklyn Museum and while Mare 139 has a point, we contend that Brooklyn is still tons of fun, if Manhattan has lost much of it’s edge. Regarding this exhibit, GO! Exquisitely curated, it welcomes the viewer to Mr. Haring’s early days in NYC when the “downtown” scene was the scene.

Keith Haring. Pia Zadora subway installation. Courtesy of Mugrabi Collection. © Mugrabi Collection. The Brooklyn Museum (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The curators have included pieces rarely or never before viewed including an amazing slide show of images taken by Kwong Chi showing the artist illegally putting work in the subways. Combined with some of Harings journals, his Cipher chart, videos and 155 works mostly on paper, it is informative, accessible and fun to see.

Keith Haring. A photo taken from the Slide show at the exhibition of images taken by Kwong Chi. Courtesy of and © The Keith Haring Foundation. The Brooklyn Museum (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more information regarding this exhibition click here.

To read our article on the Huffington Post of this exhibition with a complete photo essay and and written overview click here.

Stikman “20” at Pandemic

One of the most prolific and hermetic Street Artists working today on the streets of New York, sometimes literally melted into the street, Stikman has a gentle legend to his name. His solo show “20” opens today at Pandemic Gallery today, offering a rare glimpse into his world of secrecy and continuous invention. The little stick character he’s been leaving for two decades is synonymous with the symbol-based tagging of graff writers and the re-inventive practice of a fine artist continuously exploring new techniques of expression.

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

JMR and See One @ Pandemic

Fresh off their showing at Fountain last weekend, Mighty Tanaka is not skipping a beat by unveiling a brand new dual show in Dumbo tonight. If you thrill to “Color and Motion” then check out new works by JMR and See One tonight.

JMR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

SANER @ Fifty24SF (San Francisco)

Mexican Street Artist SANER has been impressing Street Art and graff fans in the last couple of years with his near magic interpretations, incredibly rendered. A down to earth fellow who often teams up with SEGO for collaborations, the artist makes his debut solo show in San Francisco tonight at the Fifty24SF Gallery.

Saner with Sego in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Chris Stain “Long Story Short” at Wooster Social Club

At the crowded opening for Chris Stain’s new show and book launch Wednesday, the vibe was a testament to his working class roots and real people charm, with Billy Mode on the turntables and Ray Cross from Bushwick Print Lab screen-printing some fresh Occupy Wall Street posters for people to take to the streets. It’s the the kind of kindred community that fostered “Long Story Short”, his new monogram on Drago, and the kind of environment that makes Stains work resonant in these times where the working person feels like they have a boot to his/her neck. Stop by The Wooster Social Club anytime to see Mr. Stain’s new body of work and catch an intimate look into his influences both as an artist and as a person.

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

  • San Francisco’s White Walls Gallery new show “Wonder Club” opens tomorrow. This is Sickboy‘s first US major solo show. Click here for more information about this show.
  • Asbjorn Skou AKA Armsrock new show “Stedfortrædere ” at the Mosh Gallery in Copenhagen, Denmark opens today. Click here for more information about this show.
  • Bumblebee curates the new show “My Turn” at the Carmichael Gallery in Culver City, CA opening this Saturday with artists including: Bumblebee, Hyuro, Interesni Kazki, Jaz, Klone, LineLineDot, Moneyless, Penny, Stinkfish, Zeus. Click here for more information about this show.
  • KEMP solo show “Behind her Disguise” is marks his New York debut at Artsee. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more information about this show.

 

Kid NES in Dallas. Time Lapse (VIDEO)

Mimi The Clown turns Superhero by OAOFB. (VIDEO)

Mimi The Clown turns Superhero by OAOFB. (VIDEO 2)

Ben Eine getting up in London by Abbie Brandon (VIDEO)

 

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941 Geary Gallery Presents: NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco, CA)

February 22, 2012 , , , , ,

 

NSM

 

941 Geary is pleased to present the solo exhibition of Amsterdam-based artist, Niels Shoe Meulman (NSM), opening March 24, 2012 at 941 Geary. The new works of the show have been shaped by the wide variety of artistic paths NSM has traveled. The opening will be free and open to the public, and the show will run until April 21, 2012.

Before running his own design company, and later an advertising agency, NSM apprenticed with Anthon Beeke, a Dutch graphic designer considered at the top of his field. Through a classic master/pupil education NSM developed the required skillset needed to be a designer and typographer. This mastery of the mechanical aspects of design can be seen throughout the body of works comprising ‘Justified Scriptures.’ Each work, form the small to the large, demonstrates NSM’s superb sense of space and precision. NSM has said that that he draws inspired from television programs about nature and science, explaining in an interview, “Most laws of graphic design and graffiti are universal laws. Balance, continuity, those kinds of things. In a way nature is our only reference.” NSM’s new work brings a harmonious organization to chaos, with bold free-form strokes repeating themselves over and over until a pattern is formed.

The trained eye can decipher words written in NSM’s signature fusion of calligraffiti amidst the patterns in a few of the works, including in the huge (dimensions) linen canvas titled Unknown, though most of NSM’s latest work is a painting style which is self-described as “Abstract Expressionism with a calligraphic origin.” The intricate curves of NSM’s linework are derived from a long interest in the beauty of the written word, referencing an impressive range of forms, from Arabic calligraphy of sacred texts to the vertical writing of East Asian scripts to the richly illuminated manuscripts of medieval times. These influences are then dismantled into abstracted compositions, where the main focus seems to be the integration of natural forms and structured design.

‘Justified Scriptures’ can be seen as following in the footsteps left by the multitude of incredible Modernist painters, whereas famed art historian Clement Greenberg once noted, “The excitement of their art seems to lie most of all in its pure preoccupation with the invention and arrangement of spaces, surfaces, shapes, colors, etc., to the exclusion of whatever is not necessarily implicated in these factors.”

From the Artist:

“If these works remind you of mass graves, bookshelves, military parades, meditative exercises, blocks of text or people in general (all different but the same), then I’m happy.

I’m starting to abandon the idea of telling stories but acknowledge the beauty of communication. I don’t believe anything anymore and what’s left is language itself. That’s what this work is about.”

Event Information:

Justified Scriptures, New Paintings by Niels Shoe Meulman

Opening Reception – March 24, 2012, 6-9 pm @ 941 Geary (www.941geary.com)
941 Geary St,
San Francisco, CA

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White Walls Gallery Presents: Sickboy “Wonder Club” (San Francisco, CA)

February 22, 2012 , , , , ,

Sickboy

Sickboy (photo © Joanna Dudderidge)

White Walls is pleased to present Wonder Club, a new body of work from famed UK- artist Sickboy. The opening reception will be Saturday, March 17th, from 7-11 pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through April 7th, 2012.

Hot off the heels of his critically acclaimed UK solo show last November, Heaven and Earth, comes Sickboy’s first US major solo show, Wonder Club. The title refers to a meeting place in the mind of the artist, where his cryptic street messages, surreal abstraction and comical illusions all come together. Sickboy’s new works reveal inspiration drawn from anatomical studies, the age of enlightenment, romanticism, comic books and fairy tales.

A solid body of work has been produced for Wonder Club, including eight large-scale (all measuring around four by three feet) surreally intricate, paintings, focusing on the inner workings of the human body. These large paintings, which bring the aesthetic of Sickboy’s street work into the gallery, are paired alongside installations which will act to transform the entire space into a dream world.

Sickboy’s always innovative installations will be outdone with this show, featuring a few surprises and the “Artists’ Refuge,” an enclosed space built within the gallery that visitors may enter.

Amidst the dream land that Sickboy constructs you can expect to find smaller works exploring a new direction in mixed media ephemera, adorned on locally found San Francisco surfaces to place the artist’s imagery into a local context as well as a video collaboration with well-known London photographer Viktor Vauthier, capturing the creative process in motion.

From the Artist:

“I see art as escapism, it’s an addictive solution to the daily deluge of life, the ‘Wonder Club’ is a place I can visit in my mind to try and bring daydreams to life, I have been documenting ideas as they happen and making sure I capture their essence by developing them into highly intricate finished paintings, it has meant a progressive shift from earlier freestyle work and more towards structured pieces that focus on content and message. This exhibition is for me a revisiting of the inner child and questioning what my dreams represent today.”

A leading artist to emerge from Bristol’s infamous graffiti scene, Sickboy’s humorous work has cemented his place in the upper echelons of the British street art movement. He is one of the first UK artists to use a logo in place of a tag, and his red and yellow street logo known as ‘The Temple’ can be seen on walls and wheelie bins worldwide. Sickboy has built up one of the largest bodies of street art works in UK history. His work hit the big screen recently in Banksy’s Oscar-nominated film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, and he is tipped by the leading financial press as one of the movement’s most bankable artists. His temples, slogans and audacious stunts – including the caged heart installation dropped outside the Tate Modern in 2008 – have landed him global recognition.

Event Information:

Wonder Club, a Solo Exhibition by Sickboy Opening Reception – March 17, 2012, 7-11 pm On View Through April 7th, 2012,
@ White Walls (www.whitewallssf.com)
835 Larkin St
San Francisco, CA

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Hush Levitates in San Francisco

January 30, 2012 , , ,

Rising deities in a darkened house of worship, the new geisha-like figures silently rise above your earthbound concerns and hover, gestural hands signalling a blessing for all who enter. These new works by Street Artist and fine artist HUSH at 941 Geary impart a serenity even as they swirl in patchwork brocades and Maypole strips of holy aerosol tags. Well lighted and well appointed, these near theatrical figures pierce the veil, solemnly, in search of a shabby gilded cosmos as Hush’s marrying of styles ultimately creates a new one at this show.

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH installation shoot. (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

HUSH (photo © Rachael & Hugh @ Studio Hush)

For further information regarding this show, sales inquiries, gallery hours and location click here.

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Images of the Week 01.29.12

Images of the Week 01.29.12

January 29, 2012 , , , , , , , , , ,

The streets have been seeing an uptick in socio-political messages recently, whether because of the Occupy protests, or because artists are exercising their speech in low cost, low-tech, person-to-person methods. The very personal nature of this kind of messaging actually feels impactful when it catches your eye with a sense of intention, grabbing you by the ear and making you think. This week we have Street Art  commentary about housing, class inequality, the abuse of poser, erosion of privacy and fears of a police state. It makes sense that art on the streets is reflecting us back to ourselves.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street; this week featuring Buff Monster, Cash4, Cope, Dirty Teddies, Ema, Enzo & Nio, Essam, Faile, Hush, Ment, Shiro, XAM, and XXX.

ESSAM. A more conceptual culture-jamming series of new signs in certain New York neighborhoods is meant as a way to raise awareness by an Iraq war veteran turned civil libertarian, according to news reports published recently. This sign warns about alleged plans for Police surveillance drones could be ubiquitous in society. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolf rides, anyone? Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hush gets to know some of the local neighbors while busy at work in San Francisco (© courtesy Hush)

Hush has been on the street in San Francisco this week (photo exclusively for BSA © courtesy of Hush). Stay tuned for a Hush special feature on Monday of his current show.

Ema (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The billionaire Mayor of New York is taking a hit here from this Street Art poster by Enzo & Nio. Styled as Marie Antoinette, Michael Bloomberg is portrayed as a haughty royal who is disconnected from the rabble, and cares not a wit. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A masters graff wall in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM is addressing the ongoing bank mortgage crisis in the US with this street sculpture installation on Skid Row in Los Angeles (photo © XAM)

Cash4 with Ment (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You see! XXX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You can always spot the tourist dinosaurs with their fanny packs in Times Square. Dirty Teddies (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville’s “Playground” At White Walls in San Francisco

January 24, 2012 , , , , ,

“An idle mind is the Devils’ playground”

Why does that well-worn proverb remind us of Skewville? Check out the “Playground Tactics” on display at their new show in San Francisco’s White Walls Gallery and you’ll get a sense of these stickball kids and what it is like to grow up playing on the street. There aren’t any rubber mats to catch you before the pavement, the ball may smash the corner deli window and you may dent the hood of that car you’re standing on. But kids will be kids.

Mr. Deville shows BSA readers these cool pics of the opening of “Playground Tactics”, and you can see that play is an integral part of the Skewville process, where taking stuff too seriously is not advised, unless somebody sticks their bubble gum in your hair. Then you should chase them down and give them a beating.

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (Photo © Adam DeVille)

The Skewvilles are reaching a milestone in their twin lives: They are turning 80. They grow up so fast! It seems like just yesterday they were 76. Join the Celebrations at Factory Fresh with a party and a retrospective of their work next week. For more information click here

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Fun Friday 01.13.12

January 13, 2012

 

1. “Lost and Found” Tonight in Brooklyn
2. “On the River…”, Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster Open Today
3. SuperTwins Skewville in San Francisco Employing “Playground Tactics”
4. “Hybrid Thinking” at Jonathan Levine Saturday
5. Muhammad Ali Hits 70, and the Show Begins Saturday
6. Klughaus Gallery, Jesse Edwards show “Dialogue of the Streets”
7. Le Salon d’Art, Fumero and Joseph Meloy , “90 Stanton Street Art Show”
8. Jesse Edwards by Tom Gould (VIDEO)
9. Kophns One: Kophenjoy by The Site Unscene (VIDEO)
10. Ben Eine Off Canvas by Studio Stare (VIDEO)

“Lost and Found” Tonight in Brooklyn

“Lost & Found” opens today at Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn with the participation of Adam Void, Alice Mizrachi, Curtis Readel, ELLE & John Breiner:

Avoid with friends in the wild. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“On the River…”, Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster Open Today

Her first New York solo show “On The River…” is actually the joining of two strong and handsome rivers into one. Her Street Art work finds a sister in this new wet-plate photograph collection at the cozy Kesting/Ray Gallery in Manhattan.

Robyn Hasty. New Orleans 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To read our interview with Robyn click here

For further information regarding this show click here

SuperTwins Skewville in San Francisco Employing “Playground Tactics”

The Queens natives and New York wiseguys are re-wiring an entire band from their imagined musical teen heartthrob youth – the one where Droo was adding more gel to his perfect hair and punishing his Fender onstage and Ad was getting high in the mop closet. White Walls in San Francisco takes the risk of letting the Street Art duo put on a show this time, and you can expect more “Playground Tactics” Saturday.

Skewville “Playground Tactics” (image courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here

“Hybrid Thinking” at Jonathan Levine Saturday

“There’s a growing creative movement that we’ve dubbed Hybridism: a blend of both street art and fine art – a hybrid – as the raw meets the refined,” as the 2009 group show at Brooklyn’s Mighty Tanaka observed while giving evidence of what was happening on the streets and in galleries in the Brooklyn show “Hybridism”. Of course, Daniel Feral’s diagram points to 2008 as the beginning of “Hybridism”.

Similarly a year ago at Hold-Up Gallery in LA there was the “Hi-Graff” show that excitingly merged many Graff and Street Art movements as we observed at the time, “Those Cold War years are being chopped away brick by brick like the Berlin Wall 20 years ago, and a new language borrowing vocabulary from graffiti, street art, fine art, advertising, and pop/punk/hiphop/skater/cholo/tattoo culture continues to emerge in ways we never thought of before.”

Now in 2012 Manhattan’s Wooster Collective continues the conversation to reveal “Hybrid Thinking”, their collection of an international roster (South Africa, Germany, Spain, Amsterdam, Beijing) of names that have been successful in the galleries and streets, illustrating what you have been seeing alive and expanding for the last decade. In the curators’ words: “Hybrid Thinking refers to the current zeitgeist of our time: disparate cultures coming together to create something completely new.”

This roster includes Dal, Herakut, Hyuro, Roa, Sit and Vinz.

ROA in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

Muhammad Ali Hits 70, and the Show Begins Saturday

An culturally interesting thematic show honoring the fighter Muhammad Ali called “Ali The Greatest”opens tomorrow at Evolve Gallery in Sacramento, CA. With new stuff from Joe Iurato and David Flores among others, the show is expected to travel to Vegas and New York and celebrates the 70th birthday of the man.

Joe Iurato. “Muhammad Ali: Almost Showtime” (photo © Joe Iurato)

For further information regarding this show click here

Also happening this weekend

At the Klughaus Gallery, Jesse Edwards show “Dialogue of the Streets” Click here for more details.

At Le Salon d’Art, Fumero and Joseph Meloy , “90 Stanton Street Art Show” is open to the general public. Click here for more details.

Jesse Edwards video by Tom Gould

Kophns One: Kophenjoy by The Site Unscene

 

Ben Eine Off Canvas by Studio Stare

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Featured Video | Martin Wong’s “Houston Street”

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