All posts tagged: Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

Street Artists Give to NYC KIDS: A gift of Art and Self-Confidence

April 27, 2010

With 60 artists, 73 artworks, over 500 guests, and a happy vibe created by the mad-scientists Sifunk & Garmunkle at music mission control, the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit for Free Arts NYC was a huge success. At the end of the night most of the walls were bare, and most of the pieces remaining had been purchased by absentee bidders. With animated conversations, excited bidding, and occasionally rambunctious dancing (Andrew), the night was really an excellent example of how the street art community is alive and well, and how the work of street artists is in demand.

Thank you to Ali and Ad at Factory Fresh for co-hosting the event, thank you to all the volunteers from Free Arts NYC who helped to hang it, pack it, and execute the auction, and special thanks to all the artists who so generously donated their pieces to the event.  Also special thanks to all the blog friends (so many!) who wrote about this event and all the people who Tweeted it continuously, as well as the print publications who helped get the word out.  We hope to thank you all personally some time, if not via email. Because of your help, the gallery and back yard were jammed with more people than anyone could remember.

Thank you to Reid Harris Cooper for sending us these pictures he took at the crowded party (we threw in a couple crowd shots from the cellphone). Reid actually scored the Blanco piece in the auction.  If anyone else has pics from that night we would love to see them.

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For more images by Reid Harris Cooper see his Flickr page HERE

See images and details of the pieces at our Flickr – which will be updated by the end of the day

Participating artists were: Abe Lincoln Jr., Alex Diamond, Anera, Avoid Pi, Billi Kid, Bishop 203, Blanco, BortusK Leer, Broken Crow, C Damage, C215, Cake, Celso, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Creepy, Dain, Damon Ginandes, Dan Witz, Dark Clouds, Dennis McNett, Elbow Toe, EllisG, FKDL, Gaia, General Howe, GoreB, Hargo, Hellbent, Imminent Disaster, Infinity, Jef Aerosol, Jim Avignon, JMR, Joe Iurato, Jon Burgerman, Keely, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mark Carvalho, Matt Siren, Mint and Serf, Miss Bugs, NohJColey, Nomadé, Peru Ana Ana Peru, PMP/Peripheral Media Projects, Poster Boy, Pufferella, Rene Gagnon, Roa, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Specter, Stikman, Swoon, The Dude Company, Tristan Eaton, UR New York (2esae & Ski), Veng RWK

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MISS BUGS FLIES THROUGH VOLCANIC ASH to Brooklyn

April 23, 2010

I know, everyone has their own Icelandic Volcanic Ash Story, right?

Well, Miss Bugs just arrived, and we were afraid it wouldn’t make it to the auction on time — and jumpin’ jumbo jets, it’s a high flying winner!   Nothing but BLUE SKIES do I see…

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See more of Miss Bugs HERE

See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

Learn more about the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

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Ellis G. Lands Inside and Outside the Banksy Film

Ellis G. Lands Inside and Outside the Banksy Film

April 23, 2010 , , , ,

BAM!  The opening montage flies by with the raucous music and your pulse is quickening, spotting art and artists and graffers and wild creatures and you may be wondering where this is all going until it becomes clear — you have landed in Banksy world. He’ll let somebody else tell the time-twisting story inside a story, and then he’ll weigh in with acerbically insightful bonmots….much like the stuff he leaves on the street.

Ellis G. was doing backflips when he saw footage of himself in that opening sequence, and was stoked to be seeing it with a group of people directly related to the street art scene.  As is customary for the Brooklyn street artist, Ellis G. had already traced with thick chalk the shadows outside the spot where the movie was previewed .

In a short time, he was doing it inside too.

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Brooklyn Street Art: How did your work come off the sidewalk and into this theater?

Ellis G: Marc and Sara Schiller invited me out to a private screening of the film last week and I did a couple street pieces out in front of the venue and also in front of the afterparty for the screening.  Banksy caught wind that I did those, and requested that I do work inside and outside of the Sunshine Theater for the New York premiere of the film.

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Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe what you do as an artist?

Ellis G. : My work is directly related to everyday life. The content and subject matter of my work are all items or objects we deal with on a daily basis consciously and subconsciously;  Items and objects on the street outside as well as inside. Fortunately, my sources for subject matter are never-ending.

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Light is everywhere, creating shadows from all types of different light sources. I capture and enhance it. Outside, it can be fleeting.  Weather, pedestrian and vehicular traffic are considered.  Building owners or maintenance hose it away with water. One minute it’s here, the next it’s gone. Inside is a whole different ball game. It becomes photography and screen prints. It becomes installation and sculpture. Most times there is a rhyme and reason behind which objects I work with. Sometimes I like to randomly choose objects, in random geographical locations when I am outside. It really depends on what is catching my eye at the moment. The light source comes into play, as does color, dry or wet streets, surface, backgrounds, architecture, chalk brand, location, and vehicular as well as pedestrian traffic.

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Brooklyn Street Art: Since you are working with Banksy, does this mean you are going to start wearing a hood and talking like Darth Vader?

Ellis G.: No, I will not be rocking a hoodie and talking like Luke Skywalker’s father anytime soon.
Here is Ellis’s donation the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit:

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See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

Learn more about the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

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NohJColey New Piece Ponders Career Choices

April 23, 2010 ,

Street artist NohJColey took the mission of the programs at Free Arts NYC to heart and head when creating his piece for the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit.

This mixed-media piece focuses on a youth contemplating what path he will take in more grown-up pursuits. With typical NohJColey erudition, this portrait is revealing of an inner dialogue.

NJC’s attention to detail and his uncommon handling of technique and medium truly makes his statement purely his.  You don’t need us to tell you that this talent is one to watch. But what’s up with that eyeball? Jus’ kidding.

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See more of NOHJ’s work HERE

See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

Learn more about the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

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Dan Witz Donates “Dark Doings” to Do Just the Opposite

April 22, 2010

Dan Witz has been painting for just over 3 decades since moving from Chicago to New York to study, and he has both a healthy fine art career and has garnered a wide swath of respect for his work on the street. In the piece Dan donated to the auction, it is evident why.

A realist, Dan seeks ways to master space and light with his work – as a street artist over many years, Dan has toyed with the obvious parts of the urban environment that you normally stroll by unthinkingly, subverting normal expectation.  Part of the “Dark Doings” series he began on the street last year, this piece snaps you out of your daily doze as you walk by it affixed to a steel door.

“Did I just see that?”

What lurks there on just the other side of the window is disturbing, and you may need to become involved.

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Learn more about “Dark Doings” from his show in November at Carmichael Gallery HERE

See more of Dan Witz’s work HERE

See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

Learn more about the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

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Broken Crow’s Self Portrait for the Auction

April 21, 2010

These fellas have a good grasp on stencils, if not fashion. The natural world frequently is at odds with the man-made, and the topic is always munching and crunching around the pieces that Minneapolis duo Broken Crow do.

This piece is obviously a farce – John would never wear blue headphones – but otherwise the likenesses are uncanny.  The second self portrait is even more entertaining, if you can imagine.  We are so pleased that these talented muralists were willing to participate in the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit and to give their work so generously.

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See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

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General Howe: Historically Speaking Street Art

April 21, 2010

It wasn’t so long ago that these Brooklyn streets were at war, in a real army v. army battling sort of way, not just rappers out-rhyming each other at a block party.

Street artist General Howe researches significant sites in Brooklyn that relate to the Revolutionary War aka Battle of Brooklyn.  It’s probably an extension of his childhood, where the General waged war regularly with these same toy soldiers.

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Now the tiny plastic men are historically placed in exact locations around the city where battles actually took place. If you don’t notice the small cluster, you might smush an entire brigade with your foot – which is usually what happens.  In the loud grit of the street, the bright little dudes, detritus and Duco cement mix with history, movies, and the nostalgia for childhood.

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For the Street Art New York Silent Auction, the General has contributed this piece that ties in all his favorite themes and labeled it “Faith”.  He says it’s “an icon to reflect on the experience of creating these battles in the streets of Brooklyn.” The scene is actually part of the Domino Sugar Factory on Kent Avenue, and the style is part of a new series he is doing to evoke the aesthetic of coloring books that children use.

See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/. We also uploaded Veng, UR New York (2easae & Ski), Tristan Eaton, Bishop 203, Royce Bannon, and Skewville today.  More to come

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DAIN’s ERA-Mashing Piece Donated for the Auction

April 20, 2010

Hollywood starlets and sweethearts from your grandma’s 1943 high school yearbook have been peering at passersby from doorways in Brooklyn and Manhattan for a couple of years now. These black and white portraits, posed formally yet calmly reassuring in their steady gaze, are festooned with flourescent splashes, symbols, overlays, and hand sprayed plumes.

Brooklyn-born DAIN has been updating a bygone period when the “greatest generation” flourished, the modern war machine was birthed, and “middle class” almost became a birthright.  His rowdy re-working of those symbols from a genteel age into a modern street context stays just this side of sentimentality or cute – rather DAIN’s balance keeps off just enough for you to know what a badass he really is.  Here is DAIN’s generous contribution to the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit.

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We’d recognize those eyes anywhere…

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C215 Donates a Smoking Piece to the Auction Benefit

April 19, 2010 , ,

It isn’t unusual to look at the heavily lined faces of this artist and find that you drift away for a moment, lost in a thought. This particular portrait by French street artist C215 of Jon Cartwright has appeared on the streets of New York, London, Paris, and Sao Paulo.* C215, well known for his intricate stencils and portraits of people that somehow allow their inner glow to come out, generously donated this piece for the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit this Saturday.

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Using the bottom side of what was once a letterpress sorting drawer of heavy wood, C215 chooses a subject that looks off into a haze of smoke, reflecting for a minute on the issue of the moment, or remembering someone, a conversation, or a phrase.

* source Metro.co.uk

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JMR Solo Show Tonight, and His Donation to the Silent Auction

April 16, 2010 , , ,

JMR has arrived back in New York from Dallas, where he’s living these days, for the occasion of his solo show at Mighty Tenaka this Friday and to deliver his contribution to the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit.

JMR takes his usual pristine ne0-abstract lines and let’s them run in a new direction here – downward. An experienced muralist who can knock out 40 foot long walls in a couple of days, you can see his work on a building sized mural at the Pod Hotel in Manhattan, as well as a number of commissioned projects in Brooklyn.

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Stikman Never Gets BOARD; New Piece for Silent Auction

April 14, 2010 ,

The Ever Clever Stikman does a little robotic dance to spring!

There is no end to the permutations that street art icon Stikman takes; a 3-D sculpture of sticks, screen printed on vinyl, doing a wiggly move on a page of notated music, and of course, smashed into the pavement for you to gaze upon while waiting for the “WALK” sign.

For the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit, Stikman has mutated and mounted a weathered piece of lumber, looking in context!

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Gore B donates piece for “Street Art New York” Benefit

April 1, 2010 ,

You may have seen his boards bolted here and there, combining historical portraiture and sometimes verse to accompany it – a page ripped from a never-time; something genuine mixed with a camp sensibility. In recent explorations Gore B begins with Audubon-style bird paintings and mixes fonts with them, each taking off with a story in it’s own direction.

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For more about the Silent Auction Benefit on April 24 read HERE

Read an interview with GoreB HERE

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