All posts tagged: Spain

Fanzara, Spain: “MIAU” Marries Street Art & Cats, Breaks Internet

August 13, 2015 Artists

You knew it would happen eventually, like peanut butter and chocolate on their first date. One day the Internet would deliver to you two of your favorite things together – like cats and Street Art. Yes, it is called MIAU, an acronym that translated from spanish is The Unfinished Museum of Urban Art. The festival is pronounced the way you thought – meow!

Thiago Goms. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Cynics among you, please turn your eyes away from the screen as we show you adorable scenes of murals by Street Artists who basically have adopted a tiny town of Fanzara, 35 minutes from Castellón de la Plana on the east coast of Spain. And by tiny we mean 323 people, most of them senior citizens.

It all happened innocently, according to stories heard by photographer Lluis Olive Bulbena and published reports, when two local guys wanted to invite a small number of Spanish Street Artists to paint murals in the town in the wake of bitter debates that had been happening around a proposed incinerator in town and creating rancor between citizens.

Animalitoland. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The pay would not be high; you’d sleep on somebody’s couch and eat home cooked kitchen cuisine, but it would be appreciated. An “adopt an artist” program was started and people volunteered to host a visiting painter. The town board came up with a small budget. Word spread quickly and the number of artists interested grew to 20. In little time, as citizens responded favorably, there were 40 new murals in town and many of them were done with some participation of residents.

That was 2014. Last month 21 more artists arrived, worked with local folks, did workshops, had film screenings, a few photo exhibits, had a PechaKucha night, involved youth in painting projects, helped create community, and were serenaded live while painting by La Rondalla Santa Cecilia, a 13 piece local band formed in 1983.

Borondo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

If you are wondering how much of this adorable story is the product of clever marketing strategies by savvy Gen X professionals who made their money in digital advertising campaigns and how much of this is genuine, we understand your suspicions: it is awfully cute. But the murals are real, and the town is real. And yes, there are a number of cats in the compositions as well.

Miau.

Borondo at work on a larger wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The list of artists invited this year are: ANIMALITOLAND, BIBBITS, BORONDO, BTOY, CHLYO, D.JUEZ, EMILIO CHERRY, GAEL, FLU, H101, Joaquín Jara, JULIAN ARRANZ, Kenor, LOLO, LUIS MONTALVO, PICHI & AVO, PINCHO, SGER, THIAGO GOMS, Xelon XL and DEIH.

Xelon XL. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Bibbits. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Gripe. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Emilio Cerezo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

GR170. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

H101. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julian Arranz. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sger. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

BToy. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chlyo. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Costi. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pincho. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Xabier XRTM Laguna. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Kenor. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Pichi and AVO. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Natxuta. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Lolo at work on his wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

D.Juez. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Deih at work on is wall. MIAU. Fanzara, Spain. July 2015. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Our most sincere gratitude to Mr. Bulbena for sharing his photos with BSA Readers.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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Fanzara, A Tiny Spanish Town Reinvents Itself With Help From Artists

June 22, 2015 Artists

Coming up during the third weekend of July will be the second installment of MIAU (The Unfinished Museum of Urban Art) in the tiny town of about 325 people named Fanzara, Spain. Begun by local artists and with a tiny budget from the local council, more than 20 Spanish and a handful of Italian street artists took part in the grassroots festival the first time around last summer, transforming homes and buildings in this aging municipality. In advance of the new paintings we bring you images of the current murals as shot by Lluis Olive Bulbena, who offers his personal account of visiting the town and getting a tour from MIAU co-founder Javier López and artist Ana Pez.

By Lluis Olive Bulbena

When I first learned of Fanzara’s Street Art I had no idea where the town was so I had to search on the Internet to locate it. The town is located about 186 miles from my own town of Barcelona in the Province of Castellón, Fanzara is about 55 miles from Valencia on the Iberian Peninsula.

Their local web page told me they had about 30 murals so my wife and I contacted the town’s office of tourism and made arrangements to meet someone there when we arrived.

Pol Barban (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sure enough, Javi and Ana were there waiting for us and they gave us an extensive tour of the town. It was a very hot day, bathed with sun light and I had enormous problems shooting pictures because of the light. But our hosts couldn’t have been more gracious.

After our tour a drink was in order and we got a table at a bar called “Abajo” (meaning “below”). 50 meters up the street there used to be a bar called “Arriba” (above) but the owners changed the name.

Hombre Lopez .Rafa Gascó. Detail. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Fanzara’s love for Street Art began when a group of youths began thinking of new ways to revitalize the town and Street Art was mentioned as a possibility.

They posed themselves a couple of questions to the town: Would local people want Street Art on their home’s walls? The answers came back; the majority said yes. Some said no. Many of the naysayers have now changed their minds to the yes column.

The second question: Who would they invite and under what criteria? This problem was swiftly solved as Javi was friends with a graphic designer located in Madrid named Pincho Lopez. Because of his familiarity with the mural art scene Pincho was put in charge of curating the artists who would be invited to paint.

The first group of artists included: Escif, Julieta Xlf, Deih, Laguna, Cere, Ruina, Chylo, Sabek, Xabier Xtrm, Pincho, Susie Hammer, Lolo, La Foix, Hombrelopez, Joan Tarragó, Yes, Pol Marban, Ana Pez, Rafa Gascó, Natzo, y Acció Poètica La Plana Castelló.

Once in town the artists worked tirelessly to complete the murals, big and small in just three days in September of 2014. Since the small budget did not allow for much more than paint and ladders, the town folks banded together to provide accommodations and food to the artists. In mid-January of 2015 three Italian Street Artists, Collettivo FX, Nemo’s, and Bibito, were invited to paint three additional murals.

Hombre Lopez .Rafa Gascó (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena) “For me the piece that impressed me the most was the installation by Hombre Lopez and Rafa Gascó. Their piece consisted of photographs/portraits of the locals transferred on to stones and installed on a wall. The photographs are of people who lived there and are long gone as well as of current inhabitants of the town. This installation creates a relation between space and time among the town’s inhabitants and their relatives through several decades” -Lluis Olive Bulbena.

Collettivo FX (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Nemo’S (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Xabier XTRM (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Ana Pez (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Sabek (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julieta XLF (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Julieta XLF and Pincho (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Escif (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chylo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Costi (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Lolo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Deih (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Chylo (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Cere (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Mario Mankey: GO! GO! GO! BIG BIG DIG! in Valencia

May 25, 2015 Artists

Mankey is a Spanish artist now living in Berlin who is challenging himself to study and learn from artists and culture to find his own distinctive voice. Combining elements of comics, animation, primitavism, deconstructed graffiti, abstraction, Miro, Picasso, and Basquiat, the energy powering his assembled exploration is a professed desire to learn from and to talk to an audience.

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

“Going Big” is what a lot of street artists and muralists are doing today, and this title is probably as sarcastic as it is directive. Mankey questions the testosterone fueled impulsive behaviors of man, even while observing them in himself and this figurative raging stallion, powered by an electric abstraction in his loins is pushing out into your field of view and as far off the wall as it can get with fury and possibly fear.

His bio says Mankey contemplates social topics such as hierarchies, male chauvinism, anthropology, racism, and respect for the environment – it is interesting to see how those concerns are expressed in this aesthetic context.

He says the purpose of his work is to start a dialog through art. See if you can break it down.

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Barcelona Dispatch : A Street Art Survey From a Fan

May 6, 2015 Artists

By his own account Lluís Olivé has been shooting images in the city of Barcelona for about 50 years; street scenes, demonstrations, parades, architectural details, tiles, iron work, doors, doorknobs, windows, and of course, graffiti and Street Art. Calling himself an amateur, Señor Olivé nonetheless has captured a lot of Barcelona’s changing Street Art scene in the last decade and shares a handful of his favorites from the 2,500 or so street art images he has shot in the city.

MAMM. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

“My experience shooting graffiti began in 2005 when I discovered an aerosol painting of the face of a girl and I was so impressed by it that I began to look for more,” he says, describing how he was first bitten by the bug. “I started to tour around different neighborhoods and even though I lived 150 kilometers from Barcelona at the time, I took trips there as often as I could to take pictures of the graffiti and Street Art.”

ManuTwice. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Since 2010 he has moved much closer to the city and thanks to the friendships he has formed he says that artists have reached out to him to come and shoot their new work. He favors murals, portraits and faces, illustrations, photorealism and fantasy. Since he now lives closer to the art he has adopted an approach that is methodical. “I research on the internet, search certain hashtags, and check my email – I usually follow more or less known weekly ‘routes ‘,” he explains.

Unfortunately for Street Art fans like Olivé, the city has taken serious steps to limit organic street art in recent years. Areas of the city that once burst with thousands of murals, pieces, stencils, and wheatpastes had begun to attract tourists to an art scene that outshone many major cities but according to many artists the city and real estate industry saw new development opportunities and smothered a scene that had inspired books, websites, videos, galleries, and related cultural events.

Penao. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

While the city’s clean-up efforts have spawned a criticism in certain quarters that the organic nature of the street art scene has been cynically expunged in favor of commercial retail stores and corporate dullness, municipal advocates respond that the city has also created “zones” for individual creativity to be expressed with little restriction.

Señor Olivé believes that both parties have a point. “Since I began taking photos in Barcelona I have seen a huge change from when I started – the amount of Street Art has decreased due to new municipal policies high penalties. But the city has also created 8 or 10 ‘approved’ zones for graffiti and the quality is often very good.”

MAMM. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

One of his favorite sanctioned spots to shoot is in a park inaugurated in the 1990s where a light and power station once operated and where three tall chimneys from the previous century still tower as a reminder of the history of the city. “Jardines de las Tres Chimeneas” (Three Chimney Park) provides a number of paved skateboarding spots and walls specifically reserved for an ongoing graffiti exposition that is renewed weekly. The park has events including skateboard competions, electronic music performances and exhibitions of hip-hop and break dance.

He is retiring from his regular job this July and plans to take a trip to a number of cities in the US to celebrate with his wife, and to take photos. He has a post-retirement photography plan already. “Starting this October I am planning a new project for myself to do a one-year weekly documentation of the ‘Tres Chimeneas’,” – perhaps to present in a gallery or some other formal venue.

And of course, there is still plenty of the unsanctioned stuff to shoot, it just may be a little harder to find…

Millo. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

P.Nitas. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Reuunit. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Roc BlacBlock. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Feo Flip . Roc BlacBlock. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Marino. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

M2. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Enric Sant. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

El Pez. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Cranio . El Pez. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

PAM SR. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Aryz. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

Chanoir . Xupet. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbuena)

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Skount, Skullduggery, and a Faceless Spanish Conquistador

January 7, 2015 Artists

“This historical character is a clear example of how a human being in search of better life, new experiences and knowledge, can become corrupted by power and greed, causing death – and even attract own death,” says Skount of this faceless conquistador now painted in Almagro, Spain.

Skount. “Explorer, Conqueror and Death” Almagro, Spain. January, 2015. (photo © Skount)

Certainly Diego de Almagro was not without valor and bravery – conquesting Peru, “discovering” Chile, and one of the first Europeans to have a child with a native Indian. But all that plundering of wealth and land and treasure eventually let to a number of enemies who wanted him skewed like a martini olive.

Our thanks to Skount for this history lesson and possibly life lesson, depending on your interpretation.

Skount. “Explorer, Conqueror and Death” Almagro, Spain. January, 2015. (photo © Skount)

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BSA’s Piece on “Submerged Motherlands” Acclaimed for Year

January 3, 2015 Artists

BSA with Swoon at Brooklyn Museum Sited by Huff Post Editors as Proud Moment of 2014

We’re very pleased and thankful to be included in this short list chosen by the editors of Huffington Post Arts & Culture as a story they are most proud of publishing last year.

In her introduction to the list, editor Katherine Brooks writes:

“It turns out, 365 days is hard to summarize in anything but a laundry list of seemingly disparate phenomena, filled with the good — woman-centric street art, rising Detroit art scenes, spotlights on unseen American art– and the bad less than good — holiday butt plugs, punching bags by Monet, Koonsmania. But, as a New Year dawns, we found ourselves just wanting to focus on the things that made us beam with pride in 2014. So we made a list of those things, a list of the pieces we’re proud of.”

Describing why we thought this was an important story for us we wrote:

“We loved a lot of stories this year, but this hometown Brooklyn one about a street artist with humanity mounting her first solo major museum exhibition was a special turning point — and an astounding success. For us street art is a conversation, a continuum of expression, and Swoon is always a part of it. From following her street career to her transition to international fame to witnessing this exhibition coming to fruition in person in the months leading up to the Brooklyn Museum show, it is easy to understand why Swoon still remains a crucial part of the amazing street art scene and continues to set a standard.”

-Jaime Rojo & Steven Harrington, HuffPost Arts&Culture bloggers and co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art

In fact, we wrote 48 articles that were published on the Huffington Post in 2014, and as a collection we hope they further elucidate the vast and meaningful impact that the Street Art / graffiti / urban art movement continues to have on our culture, our public space, and our arts institutions.

Together that collection of articles published by BSA on Huffpost in ’14 spanned the globe including stories from Malaysia, Poland, Spain, France, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, New York, Arizona, The Navajo Nation, Philadelphia, Sweden, Istanbul, New Jersey, Lisbon, The Gambia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Rome, India, Italy, Delhi (India), Montreal, San Francisco, London, Coachella, Chicago, Kabul (Afghanistan), and Kiev (Ukraine).

Here on BSA we published another 320 postings (more or less).

We thank you for allowing us to share these inspirational and educational stories with you and we are honored to be able to continue the conversation with artists, art fans, collectors, curators, academics, gallerists, museums, and arts institutions. Our passion for Street Art and related movements is only superceded by our love for the creative spirit, and we are happy whenever we encounter it.

Our published articles on HuffPost in 2014, beginning with the most recent:

The 2014 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

‘Urban Xchange: Crossing Over,’ A New Festival in Penang, Malaysia

5 Street Art Styles Meet On A 30-Meter Diptych In Łódź, Poland

As Street Art Turns to Public Art in Barcelona

Icy & Sot On A European Street Art Tour

31 Days of Mystery: The “Banksy Does New York” Documentary

Photojournalists Are ‘Dysturbing’ Passersby On NYC Streets

Pejac: homenaje impresionista a Monet en un barco

Exploring The Freewill Gallery In New York’s Military Bunker On The Beach

Painting the Desert: Urban Artists in the Navajo Nation

Monet Rising: Spanish Street Artist Pejac’s Impressionist Tribute on a Ship

YO Banksy! A Year Since “Better Out Than In”

Philadelphia Mural Arts, A Golden Age

Sweden Starts “No Limit” Mural Festival in Borås

NUART 2014 Roundup: Activism, Muralism, Graffiti and Aesthetics

Shepard Fairey And The Future In New York’s Little Italy

In Istanbul: The “Language Of The Wall,” Street Art, and Graffiti

Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

A New Muralism Growing: Spotlight On Jersey City And “Savage Habbit”

Kashink Uses Hairy Four-Eyed Men to Examine Gender Assumptions

Exploring Lisbon As A Street Art Tourist

Bien Urbain 2014 in Besançon, France

A Layered History Of 5 Pointz Currently On View

ROA Photo Diary: Taking a Wild Kingdom to Global Streets

‘Welling Court’ 2014, A Grassroots Mural Event Turns 5 in Queens

Montreal Arts Festival Keeps The Quality for Year Two

Another Man’s Treasure: ‘Art Is Trash’ Creates On The Street

India’s First Street Art Fest and the Largest Gandhi Portrait Ever

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

Sixe Paredes ‘Futurismo Ancestral’ Opens at Somerset House in London

‘Coachella Walls’: Date Farmers Raise Profile of ‘Anonymous Worker’

Kara Walker And Her Sugar Sphinx At The Old Domino Factory

Jaime Rojo and His Glimmering Series ‘The Last Picture’

‘The Wack Donald’s Project’ And Mr OneTeas

El Sol 25, An Original Mix Master And Street Collagist

‘Swoon: Submerged Motherlands,’ A Tree Grows in the Brooklyn Museum

Judith Supine: Unmasked Bridge Climber, Gender Bending and Art

Shok-1 Street Art X-Rays Reveal A Unique Hand At The Can

A Chicago Humorist Named ‘Dont Fret’ Cracks Up The Street

Abandoned Graffiti-Covered New Jersey : NSFW

How & Nosm’s Red, Hot, Scorching Monoprints Unveiled

Kabul to Brooklyn, Street Art and Graffiti as Common Ground

Tagging Somebody’s Painting: Two Walls Interrupted

The Power of Color Via Street Art, Graffiti and Murals

A ‘New Ukraine’ Sculpture In Kiev By Street Artist Roti

Box Trucks as Rolling Graffiti Marquees

A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

REVS Is The Iron Man In New York Graffiti

Fernando Alcala : 14 From 2014

December 18, 2014 Artists

14-from-2014-G-animation-banner-small-3pmer

Happy Holidays to all of you charming and sparkling BSA readers!
It’s been a raucous sleigh ride with you and we thank everyone most sincerely for your support and participation this year. A sort of tradition for us at the end of this December we are marking the year with “14 from 2014”. We asked photographers and curators from various perspectives of street culture to share a gem with all of us that means something to them. Join us as we collectively say goodbye and thank you to ’14.

Barcelona based photographer Fernando Alcala was featured on BSA in November with his shots for Open Walls and we liked his work so well that we invited him back to tell us about his experience and to share with BSA readers about his favorite shot of the year.

“The Open Walls Conference has been the Street Art & Graffiti event of the year in Barcelona – an event done with passion, love and respect for art and artists. This is the way I try to take pictures too.

This piece from local artist Roc Blackblock is one of the last works done during the event and I find some powerful meaning in it, as it took a lot of talking with the local authorities and patience to open new walls in the city. Most of the times, these words and promises were gone with the wind, the same way as the letters you are looking at in that wall.

I hope there will be more events like this in a near future in BCN and that some new free walls spread all over the town despite of the fact that Street Art & Graffiti is forbidden in Barcelona.

Thanks to everyone at Open Walls, Roc Blackblock and Brooklyn Street Art”

~ Fernando Alcalá

brooklyn-street-art-Roc-Blackblock-fernando-alcala-barcelona-spain-14-for-2014-web

Roc Blackblock. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

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As Street Art Turns to Public Art in Barcelona

November 19, 2014 Artists

Spain’s Second Largest City Hosts “Open Walls”

A popular city for Street Art in the early-2000s that attracted artists from across Europe and elsewhere to its intimate doorways and darkened small streets, Barcelona has become less inviting to illegal painting in recent years due to an organized campaign to contain the freewheeling art and convert it into a respectable city to shop in. Like many cities now engaging the talent if not the transgression of this generation of renegade artists, there are other ways now appearing to help artists get up on walls.

Madsteez. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

In October Difusor, a non-profit cultural association that works with the city, businesses, and the artists mounted Open Walls, a conference and mural program for four days that included installations/interventions, workshops and lectures from an international roster.

Included among the speakers were Todd W. Bressi from City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, artist Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada, mural conservator Will Shank and Leon Cullinane from Nuart. Artist represented were people like Escif, Alexis Diaz, Pastel, Joao Lelo, 310 / Stepan Krasnov, M-City and Madsteez.

Madsteez. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

The resulting mix is wide reaching and good quality, and just when the palette is becoming too subdued and the geometry possibly municipal the wild acid royal canine court by Madsteez parries forth in a line kicking formation. Not everything is rainbows and butterflies; of note are the swarming drones by the Polish M-City, their insect-like bodies clustered madly together in a cloud of all-seeing killers in the sky.

For an “approved” roster of works the variety of styles represents what is happening as modern and contemporary art movements gain currency in the public art eye. Also, you can still check out plenty of illegal spots nearby and Barcelona still is popping with possibility if you know where to look for one of Miss Van’s ladies, or maybe even an old C215 or Faile one-color stencil.

Madsteez. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Escif. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

SPOGO. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

M-City. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Alexis Diaz . Pastel. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Joao Lelo. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

Joao Lelo.,Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

310/Stepan Krasnov. Open Walls Conference 2014. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Fernando Alcalá)

For more information on Open Walls in Barcelona, please click HERE.

Our special thanks to Nerea Rubio from Difusor for her expert help.

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Monet Rising: Spanish Street Artist Pejac Impressionist Tribute on Ship

October 8, 2014 Artists, Interview

The clusters of barnacles on the corroded hull of the old ship form the rocky shoreline in this impressionistic tribute to Monet by the Spanish street artist Pejac. Here on the shores of Canabria in northern Spain, he bobs in the low tide while recreating a scene from a hundred forty or so years earlier over the harbor of Le Havre, France.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

He says the tide alternately hides and reveals the work to passing vessels depending on the day. The original Monet work, ‘Impression, Sunrise” was the inspiration for the very term Impressionism that was eventually applied to an entire movement of French painters who eschewed the rigidity of realism in favor of intuitional readings of light and movement in the material world.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

‘Impression Sunrise’ is an image that has always amazed me,” says the artist as he describes how he worked with the mottled surface to produce additional effects of movement and light in Santander. “The first time I saw the Monet painting I was surprised by the title as I thought it was actually a sunset.”

According to historians, many viewers thought so at the time as well, and for a while, a debate raged about the time of day Monet painted it. Interestingly, the exact time of this sunrise was announced just over a month ago by Physicist Donald Olson of Texas State University, who has calculated the painting to have originated Nov. 13, 1872, right around 7:35 a.m. local time.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

But it’s the site specificity of this sea-vessel wall that makes this tribute so meaningful to Pejac. “I think that the rusted metallic hull of this semi-sunk ship gives life to the image. With the daily sea tides of the Cantabric ocean the work is constantly above and below water,” he says, and because of it “The sea acts as a theater curtain.”

In his studio work Pejac tenders illustration style scenes of slightly askew possibility: clever visual metaphors that repurpose everyday events and objects and venture into the fantastic and possibly treacherous world of the imagination populated with aspiration, adventure, fears and other subterraneal musings. As a street artist Pejac looks for the rips and tears in the physical world and fuses those musings with a weathered wall or a storm drain, for example, and re-imagines them as passages or windows into other imagined scenarios. Here in the sea, his impressionist tribute takes on characteristics he can’t claim authorship of, but he relishes them nonetheless.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

BSA had an opportunity to speak with Pejac and ask him about his practice on the street and how context factors into the process.

Brooklyn Street Art: How long have you been painting on the street?
Pejac: I started working in the streets in 2000 while I was living in Milan, Italy. But after leaving that great city this urge for public transgression kind of disappeared until about five years ago.

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you consider yourself a street artist, muralist, or a fine artist?
Pejac: A mix of all three actually. I just do not see that much of a difference; It’s just a matter of where you paint. Never the less I am very moved by working in the public space as it is the ultimate form of giving art to people who might have never stepped into a museum or gallery. Sometimes art is seen as something only meant and understood by elite society. By making street art in certain kinds of neighborhoods you are aiming to break up this dumb preconception.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

Brooklyn Street Art: Most of your outdoor installations are designed within the context of what already exists and by adopting the existing environments and merging them with your art one can say that your installations are site specific. Do you enjoy altering the viewer’s perception with these installations?
Pejac: When doing a street work I always adapt to the very colors, textures and dimensions of the wall or whatever surface I’m working on. But as important as this is, it is also the visual and social context. Despite the fact that we live in a globalized and shrinking world where the artistic language breaks a lot of barriers.. there are still a huge variety of points of view from which to see our lives. Hence one work can have very different readings depending on the context and each work functions according to its location.

Brooklyn Street Art: Which is more difficult? Making a simple presentation, or a complex one?
Pejac: Making a work look simple is quite complex.

Brooklyn Street Art: Whose work on the street do you admire today?
Pejac: There are a few, but for example the work of the French artist Dran always makes me smile. I also find the work of the Spanish artist Aryz very different and stimulating.

‘Impression, Sunrise” (Impression, soleil levant), 1872, Oil on canvas, Musée Marmottan, Paris, Monet, Claude-Oscar | 1840-1926

Brooklyn Street Art: Are these illusionary pieces simply to entertain, or do you sometimes have a larger philosophical meaning?
Pejac: I definitely do not see my work as simply entertaining. I’m interested in making people’s brains turn, to think! It’s like I would like my work to produce the same result as when you whisper into someone’s ear. Gentle and discrete – but right into the brain… a whisper in the form of a question.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the most challenging part of creating pieces on the street?
Pejac: First: Having the freedom of choosing where, how and when to do it. Second: Having a straight-forward communication with the public. Third: Contrary to the work done in studio, this one will never be for sale.

Pejac. “Impression (Sunset)” Santander, Spain. Summer 2014. (photo © Maximiliano Ruiz)

To see more of Pejac’s work click HERE

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

Sweden Starts “No Limit” Mural Festival in Borås

September 17, 2014 Artists

It isn’t just Nuart any more.

Scandinavia is taking their mural festivals seriously thanks to buoyant economies, arts programming support, and a growing global appreciation for art in the streets in general. Included in the list of recent festivals are Denmark’s Galore (Copenhagen) and We Aart (Aalborg) and Sweden’s Artscape (Malmö) as well as the more graffiti-inflected Örebro, Helsinki’s Arabia and of course the one-kilometer long graffiti/Street Art slaughter that accompanies the mammoth music festival Roskilde.

brooklyn-street-art-ecb-Anders-Kihl-boras-sweden-09-14-web

This month humbly began No Limit in the small city of Borås, Sweden, and artist / curator Shai Dahan hopes to enliven the daily views for this population of 66,000 with his curated collection of international artists from street / graffiti / fine art backgrounds.

An artist and entrepreneur who moved here from New York three and a half years ago, Dahan has been rallying local building owners and government institutions to aid in his idea of mounting a show on walls in the city that emulates the success of such festivals elsewhere.

Isaac Cordal. The small scale installations by the Spanish artist provide a welcome answer to the ever more massive tendencies of wall installations in mural programs. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

“I’ve been on quite a journey and accomplishing this project has been something I have been working on personally for over a year,” he says. With participation and funding from the city of Borås, No Limit this month invited and hosted artists from countries such as The Netherlands, Brasil, France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Spain and Sweden and included artists like Natalia Rak, ETAM Cru, Peeta, ECB, The London Police, Kobra, Ollio, Ekta, Carolina Falkholt, Issac Cordal and one of the earliest Street Art stencilists, Blek le Rat.

“And best of all, we had no bad weather. The day Natalia landed (she was the first to arrive) the sun came out, and it stayed out until the very last day,” says Dahan of the festival that he deemed “phenomenal” and included guided tours for over 200 people at a time.

“After everyone left, it began raining, ” he smiles.

For countries that have a so-called “zero tolerance” for illegal art or any kind like Sweden, mural festivals like these effectively circumvent the rigid approval process that typically characterizes public art projects and many make inroads into engaging public space with art in a new way that is emblematic of a vibrant global movement. It may be a tenuous line to walk, but more cities seem willing to embrace this swing of the pendulum with art in the streets.

The Brazillian Street Artist named Kobra created a portrait of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish chemist, engineer, industrialist, and inventor of dynamite. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The London Police began stripping because of the hot sun and of course, Jane Fonda. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

The graffiti writing artist from Venice named Peeta basically killed his wall with a signature three dimensional tag that floats off of the wall. No Limit Borås, Sweden. September 2014. (photo © Anders Kihl)

Click HERE to learn more about No Limit Borås.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.24.14

August 24, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Angelina Christina, Azores, City Kitty, Colettivo FX, Damon, EaseOne, Fidel Evora, F.S., Gone Postal, HDL Corporation, JR, Kraken, Love is Telepathic, Mark Samsonovich, Mesa, Never, Pixote, Rubin415, Seher, Smithe, Specter, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, Wrdsmth, and X-O.

Specter for the Walk and Talk Art Festival in Azores, Portugal. August 2014. (photo @ Specter)

Specter and Mesa in Cadiz, Spain. August 2014. (photo @ Specter)

Fidel Evora for the Walk and Talk Art Festival in Azores, Portugal. August 2014. (photo @ Specter)

Collettivo FX explains the portrait above:

“In our city of Reggio Emilia in Italy there is a very big factory named Officine Reggiane that is completely abandoned. It was famous in Italy for its metal work production (they made the Orient Express train, the crane used for the Costa Concordia, and then there was the longest occupation of a factory in the history of Italy here).

Now this is a major venue for graffiti and a refuge for homeless people. We began going to the factory more that two years ago and some of the people living there became our friends; in particular a man named Abidi, who we named “the boss of the Officine Reggiane”.

So a few weeks ago Abidi announced to us that he is leaving the factory to go back to Tunisia: he had found a wife! So, we thought about a gift we could give him. We are poor, very poor, we just had the paint, so one night we went in the factory (usually we go during the day) and we painted a big portrait of Abidi in the principal part of the place. It’s a gift for Abidi but also for us and for our memories of the Officine Reggiane.”

F.S. We are intrigued by this bubble tag. Was the stencil work done by a different artist? Is this the original piece as first installed by the artist? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. August 2014. It looks like Spiderman has found a formidable adversary. Last time he saw him battling this monster hanging from wire cables in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.22.14

June 22, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

It’s not all going to the dogs, peeps – it just looks like it sometimes. We start this week with a ferocious one from Zimer, and follow it by a chihuahua that it could probably eat for lunch. Dog eat dog, yo.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring ACNE, City Kitty, Crummy Gummy, EC13, Ema, FAS, Hitnes, Insurgency Inc., Irony and Boe, Kid Acne, Lajaxx, Myth, Not Art, Ozmo, Peter Kirill, Specter, and Zimer.

Commentary from Gary Hunter, who sent this big dog from London:

“The chihuahua is partly a comment on changing demographic due to development overspilling from the spreading consumerism of nearby financial district Canary Wharf. Located just north of the Isle of ‘Dogs’ in East London the piece is facing ‘Barking’ a town in Essex, just by the A13 a main road in and out of London.

There also used to be a very big Spratt’s (a manufacturer originally from Cincinnati, Ohio) dog biscuit factory nearby, now warehouse apartment conversions. I photographed the ‘model’ (coincidentally called Hunter and owned by London artist Cate Halpin) in great detail in my studio on a very high end Hasselblad digital camera, to bring out every aspect. Irony and Boe then transposed it brick by brick for their painted artwork.

This work is part of ‘Changing Spaces’ a a community cohesion project in east London’s Tower Hamlet’s district, one of the city’s most deprived, yet diverse boroughs – facilitating understanding of the immediate environment, important history, trade and migration.” – GH

Crummy Gummy. In Los Angeles, CA. “I’m a big fan of H.R. Giger and this piece actually made me a little sad. But I thought it was a cool way to reference his passing” Lisa V (photo © Lisa V)

Hitnes wanted to create the perfect shade of color to highlight the eye of the bunny for the piece he did on a roof top in East Williasmburg this week. Here is how it all began…this plus a little water. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kid Acne and Ema are from England and they are visiting NYC and wasting no time on the streets. At the same time they have been showing a very poor judgment with the placing of their pieces by going over many writer’s tags. We like them both but are surprised by their selection of places to wheat paste their art since they are not new to the streets of New York, indeed we might say that they are even veterans of the streets of NYC given this we think they should know better.

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