As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2017 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s an assortment of treats to surprise you with every day – to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2018. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to each of you for inspiring us throughout the year.
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Somewhere between graffiti and optic/kinectic art, the focused energy of Felipe Pantone applies his creative science game to innovate new approaches to walls worldwide. Argentinian and Spanish, the globe trotter is in his running phase, eager for discovery and committed to adventure, carving a new/retro visual language across city walls in Europe, the US, Australia and Asia.
FELIPE PANTONE
During the holidays I really use this opportunity to look back and examine how I did during the last 12 months. I’m lucky to say that so far every new year has been better than the previous: more and better work, thrilling opportunities, new places, new friends, and personal gratification.
I’m already looking forward to 2018 and I hope everybody also looks at it with excitement and hope.
This image is of the first outdoor work that I did in January 2017 at the D Museum in Seoul. The temperature was -14°C/6°F – paving the way for a new year full of new challenges.
Street Artist Jaye Moon is doing a diminutive deed to alleviate New York’s ongoing housing crisis by leaving new buildings cradled in the limbs of trees, or wrapped around their trunks.
Using Legos as building materials, the blocked geometry of her architectural construction is carefully considered and engineered to allow for the expansion of tree limbs and cautious to avoid damage. A Korea-born Brooklyn fine artist with gallery representation doing other work, Moon has more recently expanded her art practice to the street, and her multi-colored housing units have been catching the eye of curious New Yorkers – and thoroughly captivating their kids. Since we first discovered and debuted her work on the web in September 2011, she has also garnered a new collection of Street Art fans.
Moon says she chose Legos as a medium because they are ready-made objects that mimic industrial , mechanical uses and because they summon a certain childlike innocence and sense of play. When you discover one of her tree houses on the street, your mind jumps up to a fascinating miniature world above your head and your hand may reflexively reach to swing open one of the Lillipution doors or to tap your finger on a wee window. During a (aptly named) residency program last week in Seoul, Moon found a few small volunteers who offered to help with her latest Street Art installations. Experts on the intricacies of Legos, her young assistants schooled her, which she says isn’t unusual. “Passersby love to join to help make my tree houses,” she says.
While Moon is not the first on the street to use the popular children’s building blocks – there have been a handful in recent years– she is the only one to take this architectural approach and to expand upon it so extensively. Each carefully planned construction is site specific and is carefully secured so that any attempts at removal will effectively destroy the piece. So while she is fascinated by the idea that housing could easily become mobile and portable, don’t try it with these installations. In addition to the ongoing housing project Moon has also been leaving colorful placards glued onto walls or under nooks, each spelling out phrases, secret missives, and colorfully vulgar words. But primarily for Jaye Moon right now, da house is in Brooklyn!
As traditional cultures grapple with technological change that appears at lightening speed the most successful ones are neither rejecting nor accepting it fully: rather they are integrating. While broadcast television had a homogenizing effect on world culture for decades, today’s multi-channel, multi-platform electronic ecosystem affords people the chance to retain local flavor and customs while still texting and surfing and gaming and videoing their girlfriend on a skateboard.
Brooklyn-based Street Artist LNY just returned from Korea, where he contemplated traditional and modern when creating his pieces on the street. He says he developed the new work as a direct reflection of what he observes as a “fractured state” in contemporary society, with consideration for what it may portend.
“Korea is the future,” he says as he recounts the conversations and kimbaps he had during his visit to Seoul, a city he says is riding the cusp of an economic wave.
“What really struck me was this dislocation between the past: myths, legends, magic, tradition, and the future: a country rising to the top of its hemisphere and a city that rivals Tokyo or New York in all aspects,” he says when describing new pieces. An adroit observer, LNY was also contemplating the now traditional colonialist attitude that a Westerner brings to a visit here, and how his own feelings were affected while trying to be clear-eyed.
“Like the moment when you take a small bus, packed with people, jetting around old streets. The bus is being guided by GPS and four cameras that give the driver a 360 degree view of his vehicle while he watches TV on the same device that is hanging next to the steering wheel,” he recounts with some wonder and a sense of irony. “All of this is happening while I’m going to paint next to an old temple in a remote neighborhood where the kids get a better education than most American college students. At the same time they are afraid of the shamans and animals that I’m painting because the culture looks down upon these old myths.”
His pieces are full of myth and symbolism, with simple storytelling and psychological underpinning. Transmitted through personal networks on handheld electronic devices, they could not be more hand-made and contextual. It is good when the work reflects the culture and the experience. “This is where the work is coming from and I wanted to share it with you guys,” he says. We’re pleased to share it with BSA readers.
Happy Friday! Wipe that stain off your shirt from last nights office holiday party and brush your teeth and get to work so you can be a zombie all day. For our part – it’s time for a little Street Art roundup of some things that you might like.
1. Miami in The House All Weekend
2. “Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
3. “Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
4. Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
5. Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
6. “Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
7. Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
8. Zombie Nation – Ezra Eismont
9. Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
10. SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)
Miami in The House All Weekend
This weekend the fun is for Street Art in Miami and check out some of our recommendations (Best Miami Street Art: BSA Picks Awesomest for Basel ’12) for hoofing it around that we posted Wednesday. Tonight of course there are a number of grand opening parties/after parties (including Fountain), but really just being on the street is equally fun if not funner! Thanks for that adverb from 7 year old Darnell Wilsen of Brooklyn.
For a full listing of Art Fairs, Events and Street Murals click here and here.
But not all the fun is in Miami here are a few picks of what’s happening elsewhere in the world:
“Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
Greeting cards are a nice way to say Merry Christmas to Grandma, and for suburban white middle class families to distribute photos proving that their kids are not on drugs. This is Stolen Space Christmas Show celebrates greetings cards and holiday cheer with D*Face, Word to Mother, Will Barras and David Bray among others putting their own imprimatur on Christmas. Come on, Uncle Bert and Aunt Dolittle will be there, so comb your hair, put some shoes on and get out of the house!
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
With a collection of Australian Graffiti and Street Art Artists, “Rinse & Repeat” finds its inspiration by taking a look at the Old Masters and re-interpreting them with their own styles and techniques. An interesting proposition albeit fraught with risks – there are a few good ones here though that will delight your academic/street sensibilities. Included in the line up are: Adnate (AWOL Crew),Bridge Stehli, Cam Wall, Carl Steffan, Deams (AWOL Crew), Fintan Magee, Guido van Helten, Phibs, Shannon Crees, Slicer (AWOL Crew) , Team and Teazer.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
Hope they realize what they have gotten themselves into, but Vertikal Gallery is hosting Brooklyn Street Art collective Skewville for a solo show entitled “Be Inside”. Considering we have had one or two Lillians in Brooklyn putting work up on the streets over the last few years, this sounds like a cultural exchange program of some kind, right?
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
New York Street Artist Jaye Moon is in Seoul, Korea on an Art Residency Invitation and tonight his her solo exhibition with her “Lego Tree House” opening tonight at the Paik Hae Young Gallery.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
“Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
The Art Collective Just Seeds new group exhibition titled “Sowing The Seeds of Love” opens tonight at the Munch Gallery in Manhattan. The artists in Just Seeds aim to put forth their world views on a variety of issues – looking to inform and bolster you through the power of art. Participating in this show are: Jesus Barraza, Kevin Caplicki, Melanie Cervantes, Santiago Doesntsitstill, Alec Dunn, Molly J Fair, Thea Gahr, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Fernando Marti, Colin Matthes, Dylan Miner, Roger Peet, Jesse Purcell, Pete Railand, Favianna Rodriguez, Shaun Slifer, Chris Stain, Meredith Stern, Mary Tremonte and Bec Young.
For further information regarding this exhibition click here.
Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
Iranian expats and brothers Icy & Sot invite you to celebrate with them their first foray in the hospitality business. The brothers designed a room at the Nu Hotel in Brooklyn and you are invited to come over tonight for some refreshments.
Artist Ezra Eismont has a Kickstarter fundraiser to help publish his Zombie Nation book, which features his zombified portraits of icons and celebrities. Seems like a heartwarming holiday thing to do, doesn’t it? Please support your local artists and small family businesses.
Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)
As we start a new year, we say thank you for the last one.
And Thank You to the artists who shared their 11 Wishes for 2011 with Brooklyn Street Art; Conor Harrington, Eli Cook, Indigo, Gilf, Todd Mazer, Vasco Mucci, Kimberly Brooks, Rusty Rehl, Tip Toe, Samson, and Ludo. You each contributed a very cool gift to the BSA family, and we’re grateful.
We looked over the last year to take in all the great projects we were in and fascinating people we had the pleasure to work with. It was a helluva year, and please take a look at the highlights to get an idea what a rich cultural explosion we are all a part of at this moment.
The new year already has some amazing new opportunities to celebrate Street Art and artists. We are looking forward to meeting you and playing with you and working with you in 2011.
American Street Artist MOMO has been working with abstract, geometric and modernist elements on scaffoldings and walls in New York for a few years. This new video of his participation in the FAME festival shows his sense of humor, command of negative space, and sophistication of placement.
In the video for another piece we see Gaia’s “Ungnyeo in Namdaemun”
“The body of Ungnyeo is composed of buddhist cloud motifs and the center of the massive body has an oval silhouette to signify the womb flanked by two strong inwardly turned hands. The earth woman is then hybridized with the supremacy of the sky to institute the female figure into a role of reproduction versus reception. Within this new iteration of the ancient narrative, the woman animal becomes the most prominent figure of genesis.”
Ripping Up the Korean Calendar and Wheat Pasting It Back Together
New York Street Artist Gaia has been having a blast in Seoul, South Korea for a couple of weeks – studying, watching the World Cup, and putting up giant Tigerabbits. Part of his project of lifting symbols from the traditional Korean calendar, this sternly earnest creature combines the animals from 2010 and 2011 into one. Much like the North American Jackalope, the Tigerabbit is elusive and infrequently spotted in the wild, much less the urban environment. Either way, the New Era in Street Art is afoot.
What are YOU looking at? Yeah, those are my ears. You got a problem with that? (photo courtesy Gaia)
TOMORROW – EXCLUSIVE NEW IMAGES of GAIA’s NEXT Piece in Seoul.
GET UP-PAH! BRAND NEW ERA RIGHT NOW. Time to Dance with your Lap-Top.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Crotched objects began appearing on the street this year. © Jaime Rojo
“Sunrise Neighbor” (image © Gaia)
