As we have previously reported here Street Artist Specter was in Paris recently for his solo show “Things Change” at the Since-Upian Gallery. His magnum opus on the street while there was the faithful recreation of a Brooklyn bodega façade that juts out into the street with a surprisingly genuine quality. For added authenticity, the rolldown gate is reproduced with the graffiti tag of Miss 17, ubiquitous throughout many neighborhoods of New York.
Ever challenging to conventional notions of what the Street Art scene is, Specter likes to turn your brain upside down with his actions like his spot-jocking of other Street Artist last year. Plumbing the gray areas again, he reproduces graffiti and Street Art within his own work, at once a documentation, tip of the hat, and visual paradox causing one to re-consider self evident truths about art and vandalism.
While in Paris, Street Artist FKDL played host to Specter and his friend and facilitated a small tour of some well known spots for Street Art, here documented by Lauren Besser in these photographs exclusively for BSA readers:
The More “Things Change”, the More They Stay the Same
Opening last night at Since-Upian Gallery in Paris, “Things Change”, Specter’s solo show is a collection of hand drawn, painted, carved, stenciled and collaged materials showing how the Street Artist continues to broaden technically while focusing socially.
In these images special to BSA readers, these individual paeans to the unflinching rugged personality of Brooklyn streets capture a moment and a bit of humanity as a rapidly downshifting economy gusts and blows through the streets, catching more people off guard as Towncars with tinted windows glide by. It’s hard to feel romantic about a fraying social net through which more people are falling, which is where the care of Specter’s hand rendered scenes, unpatronizing, clear eyed, and possibly sarcastic, take us again.
Similarly and with great determination, this Street Artist uses painting to capture and somehow give honor to the stickers and graffiti tags and stencils and commercial advertisements that appear on New York’s streets in some neighborhoods. Holding a mirror up, clearly with these paintings Specter appears to be glorifying graffiti and street art – a scathing charge leveled at certain museum exhibitions of late.
As in his work over the past few years this show Specter continues to draw attention to the gentrification that speeds unabated throughout many neighborhoods of New York today, as local character is buffed and expunged for vertical glass big-screen sanitized living. The commentary is not so much the lost vibrance and character of a city that doesn’t return, but a focus on the people who are pushed further and further, but to where?
AD HOC ART – Welling Court Community Street Art Celebration Saturday (Queens)
AdHoc Arts returns to Queens this year to Welling Court where Street Artists and the locals mix it up with music, local and homemade food and artists painting live. Bring your camera and bring a plate of cookies too. Sharing is caring.
The project transforms several city blocks into a 24/7 street-level gallery, bringing art from around the world directly to the heart of this community. Renowned artists with deep roots in the street movement have created site-specific works for this project and many will showcase various creative sundries for your perusal. This new array of visual experiences provides fresh contexts for how people working, visiting, and living in this diverse cultural gem of Queens think about and interact with their environment.
Artists include: Alice Mizrachi, Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Bunnie Reiss, Caleb Neelon, Chris Mendoza, Chris Stain, Celso, Cern, Cey Adams, Chor Boogie, CR, Cycle, Dan Witz, Darkclouds, Don Leicht, Ellis Gallagher, Ezra Li Eismont, Free5, Garrison Buxton, Greg Lamarche, Jesse Jones, JMR, Joe Iurato, John Ahearn, John Fekner, Jordan Seiler, Katie Yamasaki, Lady Pink, Leon Reid, Matt Siren, Michael De Feo, Michael Fumero, MIMEO, Mr. Kiji, Neko, Nuria, OverUnder, Pablo Power, R. Nicholas Kuszyk, ROA, Ron English, Royce Bannon, Sinned, Sofia Maldonado, TooFly, Tristan Eaton, Veng RWK, Zam.
WHERE: 11-98 Welling Court {@ 30th Ave & 12th Street}, Astoria, Queens 11102
WHEN: Saturday, June 25th, 2011 from noon until 9pm.
Click on the link below for more information regarding this event:
Right across the street where they’ll be debuting a new piece with BSA in August for “Street Art Saved My Life: 39 New York Stories”, the Brooklyn Street Art Collective Faile is presenting this pop up print show this weekend in Venice, Los Angeles. Tonight at the opening they’ll release a new print too.
“The show will feature a variety of works on paper over the last 12 years. A broad range of new and old prints and original works on paper. There are a variety of new pieces and a few surprises made for the show, including a new collection of works entitled Vintage Book Covers highlighting classic pieces from over the years” – Faile
Worth Something Gold
Edition of 50
Acrylic and Hand Pressed Gold Foil on Coventry Rag 335 gsm
35.75in. x 29in. (90 x 73cm)
Signed, Stamped & Numbered
Faile 2011
Opening Reception: June 24, 2011 (7 – 10pm)
Exhibition Runs: June 24 – July 24, 2011
POST NO BILLS
1103 Abbot Kinney Blvd.
Venice Beach, CA 90291
310.399.2928
Click below for more information regarding this show:
One of the new clowns out there today is having a solo show of his fine art and some new interpretations of his Street Art funboys as well. With wit and a method to his absurdity, these new works give insight to the solid study he’s actually been doing for years.
Chicago at Pawn Works Gallery, Clown Soldier is “The Human Cannonball”
His new show in Paris at the Since-Upian Gallery is accompanied by some new work on the street – much of it inspired by Brooklyn streets. See brand new photos tomorrow on BSA.
Brooklynite Gallery welcomes the start of the summer with “Parlour” a sexy show Saturday Night. Also DJ Mayonaise Hands will be there with a camera and mike for insightful interviews and scintillating observations. Dress your rockinist cause you know the Bedstuy peeps are always in top form at this gem.
Miss Bugs. Detail of the new print “Eyes Glanced” (photo courtesy of the gallery)
“PARLOUR”
MISS BUGS
June 25 – JULY 16
Opening Night: Saturday, June 25, 7-10pm
MUSICAL GUEST: Hank Shocklee [Bomb Squad]
BROOKLYNTE 334 Malcom X BLVD
Brooklyn, NY 11233
Click on the link below for more information about this show:
Jon Burgerman Doodles on a Car in Brooklyn (VIDEO)
Last weekend for the CresFest and NorthSide Open Studios artist Jon Burgerman was invited by Brooklyn Street Art to paint on a car. We forgot to tell him to get dressed first. Little details like that escape him.
Video by µ-Ziq Theme by µ-Ziq.
K-Guy Print Release “Primate Pontificate”
London based artist K-Guy will be releasing a print on July 1st of his “Primate Pontificate” commentary on the state of affairs of the Catholic Church and their perceived hypocrisy on some relevant topics. He introduced this piece on the occasion of Pope Benedict XVI most recent visit to England last year and we found some of these same primates on the streets of NYC in the fall. Funny to see them get released as prints.
Gabriel Specter est un artiste américain, installé à Brooklyn. Internationalement reconnu pour ses installations d’art urbain, Specter expose pour la première fois à Paris chez Since.Upian avec « Things Change », un travail justement inspiré de la vie quotidienne des rues new-yorkaises. Dans ses tableaux ce sont les gens, les rues et les devantures de magasin qui sont mis en lumière, la mutation des quartiers, la difficulté de la vie dans la rue aussi. A la galerie Since, ce seront une dizaine de ses derniers tableaux qui seront exposés. Specter interviendra également sur le mur en face de la galerie pour poser son regard sur le quartier. Un événement que vous pourrez suivre en direct du 20 au 24 juin 2011.
Sa technique est complexe. Il utilise aussi bien la peinture, le collage, la photocopie ou des matériaux de récupération. Son esthétique est empreinte d’un travail d’anthropologie méticuleux. Ses peintures et ses sculptures représentent le changement, célèbrent les marginalisés et agissent comme une contribution à l’environnement urbain. L’oeuvre de Specter tient toujours compte de l’endroit où elle est placée. Le voisinage, les gens, les histoires et des caractéristiques comme l’architecture, les publicités et les commerces locaux sont autant de sources d’inspiration.
De nombreux endroits et cultures sont juxtaposés sur ses toiles pour représenter des espaces urbains new-yorkais en perpétuelle mutation : une mise en scène de ce qui est laissé de côté alors que le changement est en train de bouleverser nos quartiers.
VERNISSAGE LE 24 JUIN À 19H00
24.06.2011 – 23.07.2011
211 rue Saint-Maur 75010 Paris
T: 00 33 (0) 1 53 19 70 03 / T: 00 33 (0) 1 53 19 75 29
Opening Hours: Tuesday to Saturday from 14h to 19h
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
You know it’s not Brooklyn if there is a uniformed guy sweeping the street with a green broom. Specter’s “Brooklyn Bodega,” a typical store front imported to Paris. (photo © Lauren Besser)
