BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
The Street Art world was shaken this week by the announcement and group action by BLU and friends in Bologna buffing/chipping away his street pieces in reaction to the opening of a new show there Friday night that contained BLU works done on a derelict building owned by someone else.
The ironies are rampant when a city chases down vandals, sponsors graffiti/street art clean-up programs, and then heralds the exact same works in a formal museum show with good lighting, cocktails, elegant suits, a press conference, and invited guests. Aside from the various contingencies trying to hi-jack these events to put forth other agendas or establish their opinion as sacrosanct, the psychological and philosophical rifts have been self-evident long before this show and this astounding act of self-destruction.
We’re all wondering what is an amenable solution to interests that are by nature in conflict yet are so intertwined as to appear fused, and the list of questions to consider continues to grow. See our questions from a posting earlier in the week HERE. Normally the press ignores these stories which we talk about regularly, but BLU mastered the PR game this week (and you know that serious money is involved) so it was in Le Monde, The Guardian, and ArtNet, among others. See some images from the opening and press conference are here.
Meanwhile the street can’t stop, won’t stop.
Here’s our our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adam Fu, ATOMS, Butt Sup, El Sol 25, Fish With Braids, KEO Xmen, Knon, London Kaye, Nipper, Persue, Reed B More, Sean9Lugo, Scott Marsh, Self-Indulgence, SGNL, Skewville, Tara McPherson, The Yok & Sheryo and Zola.
Our top image: Reed B More. — Finding this handmade wire mobile hanging from electrical wires somewhere in Brooklyn made us very happy this week because; a. mobiles are cool, b. It’s hand made, one of a kind, and c. artists like Skewville and others were doing them at the turn of this century and we haven’t seen many lately. It is fashionable to bash muralism at the moment for usurping the spirit of Street Art, or some other silliness. It’s mucho mas dopetastic to just do good work and put it out there and let the hackneyed non-debate rage without you. We’re keeping our eyes open for small, often hidden, fresh, well placed, unexpected, unpredictable, original, one of a kind, non-derivative, non-hash-tagged pieces. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Speaking of Skewville…these new dogs have suddenly been flying in Brooklyn skies. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
It’s not just Pi. It’s octopi. London Kaye forever and ad infinitum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
London Kaye. Here is our guess with this installation. The graff by Knon was already on the wall and she decided to collaborate. What do you think of the results? (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Butt Sup under a Pear. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SGNL (photo © Jaime Rojo)
KEO Xmen on the other side… (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tara McPherson (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sean9Lugo in collaboration with El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sean9Lugo. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
El Sol 25. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Popeye imagery pops up again. El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nipper in Stavanger, Norway. (photo © @toris64)
Zola. An apt street visual representation of the polarity we’re dealing with today. Although there would probably need to be 98 more of the figure on the left to present a more accurate ratio, and 97 of them would be sleeping or watching reality TV and ESPN. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zola. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Speaking of celebrity culture, Sydney based muralist Scott Marsh often depicts recognizable music personas like James Brown and Biggie Smalls in his figurative works. This week he completed this intense love scene parody on the street. But this is evidently more than romance, it’s carnal.
“No one can love Kanye quite like Kanye,” says Marsh of the new piece on Zigi’s Wine & Cheese Bar in Teggs Lane, Chippendale. Wonder what music they are listening to?
New mural of Two Kanyes kissing in Sydney. Detail. Scott Marsh (photo © Scott Marsh)
“I’m a big Kanye fan,” says Marsh. “He’s an incredible artist and a character and I like that. I was contacted by Lush’s manager to help find him a wall in Sydney. He painted a giant Kim Kardashian at the other end. It’s probably the least effort I have put into any mural – I painted it in four hours as a bit of a laugh. The response has been hilarious.”
Two Kanyes kissing in Sydney. Scott Marsh (photo © Scott Marsh)
Two Kanyes kissing in Sydney. Scott Marsh (photo © Scott Marsh)
Fish With Braids updates Frida Kahlo on a purple van (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Self Indulgence (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ATOMS. Adam Fu and Persue (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Yok & Sheryo. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Yok & Sheryo. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Yok & Sheryo. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Yok & Sheryo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
