All posts tagged: Street Art

El Mac and Augustine Kofie : Two Cats in an Alley

May 18, 2011 Artists, On the Street, Pasadena

It happens on a roof in LA, in a back alley. El Mac and Augustine Kofie, two gifted graff writers, street artists, fine artists, balanced assuredly on ledges and ladders, cans in hand and collaborating on a new piece. It’s a dreamlike sequence of scaling and balancing, backing away and re-approaching, scanning the sky as day folds into night and looking back at the bricked canvas to see a gentle babe gazing upward from an abstract future past.

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Photographer and videographer Todd Mazer, a regular contributor to BSA, circled and treaded nimbly and quietly in panther-like pursuit of the right screen capture while the artists worked. Over time, perched camera in hand, he documents the dexterous and purposeful movement and focus of two big cats on the top of their game. And roof.

“For me I feel like that’s as good as it gets,” says Mazer.

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Brick: You’ll make out fine. Your kind always does.

Maggie: Oh, I’m more determined than you think. I’ll win all right.

Brick: Win what? What is, uh, the victory of a cat on a hot tin roof?

Maggie: Just stayin’ on it, I guess. As long as she can. *

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Read our interview with Augustine Kofie with photos by Todd Mazer here:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=18806

The piece was created behind 33third in Los Angeles http://www.33third.com/ A Graff and Street Art supply store in conjunction with:

The Street Cred Art show in Pasadena http://www.pmcaonline.org/exhibits/61/index.html

* from “Cat on a Hot Tin Roof”, a play by Tennessee Williams

XAM : “Your Ad Here” Tiny Billboards

April 25, 2011 Artists

A funny thing happened on the way to Public Space.

Street Artist XAM has started a new series of miniature billboards that poke their little fingers in the eye of advertising and in the process call into question what kind of messages are legal or illegal. After the Public Ad Campaign last year successfully drew attention to the thousands of outdoor spaces in New York City that were illegally being used for advertising and poster glut was cut, the public became a little more aware of the street fight for their eyeballs.

Not sure what XAM means to say here, but they’re clever installations that can cause a cringe and a chuckle at the same time. These petite Out Of Home (OOH) message platters first seen in LA last week mounted on the back of street signs appear to be faithful reproductions of their gigantic cousins, and ironically the same size as that glowing rectangle you have in your purse or pocket right now.

See more XAM stuff on the Flickr page here.

“Suicidal Tendencies” by NohJColey, Interactive Sculpture With You as Saviour

April 23, 2011 Artists

Street Artist NohJColey continues to stretch his character studies and symbol-heavy storylines and build them into ever more interactive street sculpture. Not content with laborious hand cut and colored wheat-pasted flat pieces, his stuff on the street for almost a year has more dimension and engagement. Naturally, people interact with it and pretty quickly pieces are missing. Maybe it’s curiosity or maybe a Lower East Side messenger needed something to lock his bike to, but here are a couple of images of the piece as it first appeared in Manhattan, where the central form can be adjusted to simulate the figurative and literal falling that can happen in a life.

“Suicidal Tendancies”, by NohJ Coley

Like the protagonist in Don DeLillos Falling Man, Coley’s character could be a metaphor for so many in New York who are losing jobs, wages, and a frayed social net that once prevented them from hitting the pavement. While DeLilos book begins at the Twin Towers during a “time and space of falling ash and near night,” and the vision of office workers jumping out of the buildings, the simulation NohJColey creates here pertains to the plight of bankers, latinos and those affected by mental illness. With American society as a burning building, this piece is entitled “Suicidal Tendencies” and the passerby can actually participate by preventing one man from jumping to his death, see another jumping in front of a train, and witness the anguished expression of the third at the base who has sadly succeeded in his pursuit.

Below are images taken yesterday of the installation, with parts already missing. While the complete story is not told with what remains, somehow they are still interactive.

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coley spoke to Brooklyn Street Art about the stories behind the three chapter piece:

“I’m currently working on a series of interactive sculptures that are focused on recognizing mental illness. Suicidal Tendencies, which is the first of the three is of course concentrated on suicide. The main figure is a stock broker who is unable to continue existing after the stock market has crashed. So, with his office windows ajar he jumps out. He is partially in purgatory and partially in what we know as existence.

When interacting with Suicidal Tendencies the main objective is to prevent two of the three subjects from committing the act of suicide. When in front of the main figure the viewer is meant to pull the subject up, averting the subject from committing the act of suicide. The succeeding figure is a Hispanic activist that turns to suicide after becoming exhausted with the notion of Hispanics being treated unjustly in the US. So, after another unsuccessful demonstration he comes to the conclusion that he wants to jump in front of a moving train. The main objective with the activist is to prevent the smaller figure from jumping in front of the moving train. The tertiary figure is a young college student that is too far gone to be redeemed.”

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A local resident approached while we were shooting the installation to remark that the entire piece was there the day before, and he disapproved of whoever had removed part of it because he really liked it. NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Problem With MOCA : Street Art Talks Back

April 21, 2011 Artists

Responding to a museum show that brings Street Art inside and charges admission to see it, a local Street Artist tweaks the nose of MOCA’s “Art in the Streets” with some actual Street Art in situ. Ironically, it also drew a crowd of curious admirers to the sidewalk.

Eddie Colla says his billboard takeover is a response to a Huffington Post article last week where a finger wagging tone was on display toward current street artists, “MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch pegs it on the ‘young’ and ‘anarchic,’ and is quoted giving this message to illegal taggers: ‘If you harness your talent you can be in a museum some day, make a contribution and a living from it.’ ”

A testament to the current fascination among teens, 20 and 30-somethings with the entire topic of Street Art, observers report that the installation of Colla’s piece drew a small crowd of tourists, who took turns snapping photos and posing in front of it – some of which we show here. Even more incredibly, after the poster company covered it and left yesterday, witnesses say a bystander apparently began removing the advertising posters.

Reached for comment, the artist told us the message of the piece is pretty self evident and he hung around after putting it up to listen to people stopping to take pictures.

Brooklyn Street Art: What kind of reaction did the installation get on the street?
Eddie Colla: It ranged from “Is that Bansky?”, “Are you Banksy?”, “I think that’s f*ckin Banksy”, and “Holy sh*t! It’s Banksy”. Of course there’s the one nob who always mispronounces Banksy and says “Yo It’s BAN-SKY”. So there was that and a couple “hey cools” and “what do you make your stencils out of?” and “you’re eddie right?”.

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you think that people would actually pose in front of it for a group photo?
Eddie Colla: Sure why not, It’s a nice sort of background. Much better than the movie posters that were there when I started.

Brooklyn Street Art: When do you think this Street Art madness, I mean fascination, end?
Eddie Colla: When they release “Exit through the gift shop 2 – Electric Boogaloo”. I think that will be the beginning of the end.

QRST and His “Patron”

April 13, 2011 Artists

The Personal Story is the Story.

Often people like to refer to what’s happening on the streets today like it’s a homogenized “scene” in which a number of actors are somehow coordinated and in agreement, acting in concert with a predetermined speed and direction to deliberately affect Street Art’s evolution. While you may spot certain themes and influences that are common within the ever mutating scene, it’s important to know that for an individual street artist, usually the whole experience boils down to the personal story, and everything else that emanates from it.

Street Artist QRST recently completed and installed this piece in New Orleans and it’s topic and symbolism could not possibly be more personally meaningful.

QRST “Patron” Detail (photo © QRST)

His largest piece to date,”Patron” is a tribute to QRST’s father, a biology professor who studied the behavior of bees and wasps and whom he lost to cancer when the artist was a teenager. With this piece QRST attempts to examine “the manner in which a parent, and a father specifically, shapes a person and their view of the world”. He also points out how the memories that we have of the loved ones who have left us can change and fade with time and often all we have left are symbols that helps us connect with them. When QRST talks about this hand painted wheat paste as tribute and catharsis, you can tell that he thinks a lot about his father, his view of the world, and the symbols that remain as he makes his own marks upon it.

QRST “Patron” Detail (photo © QRST)

Here’s how he talks about it;

“I guess I am ‘Canonizing’ him in my mind with symbols that I associate with him. The person that he actually was evaporates over the course of time until he’s just a symbol, in a manner very similar to a saint in Catholicism. New Orleans felt like the perfect place for him with its brand of Catholicism, saint devotion, Caribbean and West African religious aspects all coming together in a strange and magic place with it’s own dark and long held traditions, ceremonies and celebrations. It felt like the ideal, polytheist environment to place my own devotional piece.”

QRST “Patron” Detail (photo © QRST)

“As to the specific iconography, most everything here is deliberate. There are a number of references to sex and virility, the bees being obvious (though also a personal symbol for me; he was a biology professor that specifically studied the behavior of bees and wasps); his hand gesture similar to a sexual reference though he’s actual spelling P and A in sign language, both the first two letters of the word “patron” and also spelling “pa”; his fingers are covered in pollen (which again references bees, but also the male half of a haploid reproductive system). He’s approximately seven and a half feet tall with the advantage of being about two feet off of the ground to begin with – this also relates to a fatherly figure in general.

He’s standing in a pile of books as a symbol of learning, teaching, and science, but also as a reference to St Albert the Great, the patron saint of science (and also teaching to some extent) who is generally shown with a book or tome. The books with bees and wasps on the covers are self explanatory at this point I suppose. Some aspect of their latin names are included in several instances, which again relates to both science and the canonizing aspects together. “Sceintia vulgaris” is a really poor way to write “common knowledge” in Latin (which works doubly well, as it’s close enough to get the point across without being pedantic) which is again a reference to teaching, or making knowledge less secret or esoteric. This also relates to my entire understanding of the influence that he had on me: science and reason and nature being the benevolent and humbling magic of the universe; The magnificence of the world around us, the cause to celebrate and be reverential, not because someone else claims secret knowledge of an angry deity telling me what to do and what not to do. The book with the hammer and saw is a reference to Joseph, the patron saint of fatherhood, the tree is a reference to family and ancestory.

I don’t think I’ve ever installed anything this large before. All tolled he’s about 9 or 10 feet tall, so the very top is about 11 or 12 feet off of the ground. Thankfully I had two eager assistants, but I still managed to almost fall off of the foot stool we were using resulting in the minor damage to the ‘Q’ in the banner and a tiny bit of damage to one of the books. He feels already well worn in, like he’s been there for some time, which I quite like. Overall I’m fairly pleased. ~ QRST

Martha Cooper, Photographer of Art on the Streets for Six Decades

April 2, 2011 Artists

Martha Cooper landed in LA yesterday and will spend the next week installing her photos and their remixed new versions beside them, even flanking hers like stereo speakers. Since the press release has gone out we thought we’d share with you the bio written by Steven P. Harrington and the promo photo by Jaime Rojo which will appear in a special issue of The Art Street Journal dedicated entirely to her to come out this week.

Martha and Pablo at home, with a portrait of her sitting on a train car with camera in hand painted by Os Gemeos overlooking the scene. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martha Cooper, Photographer of Art on the Streets for Six Decades

Written by Steven P. Harrington, this article is featured in The Art Street Journal vol ii – issue v.

The daughter of a Baltimore camera store owner, Martha Cooper’s romance with photography began in the 1940s when bobby-soxers and penny loafers were the sign of edgy youth culture. Her dad, an amateur photographer himself, gave his small girl a camera and together they hit the streets in search of adventure. “Yeah, my father used to take me out and we would take pictures. That’s what I thought photography was…we were just looking for pictures,” she recalls. Six decades later, Cooper is still looking for pictures; meanwhile, many works from her archive are cited as pivotal recordings of the birth of hip-hop culture and its plastic art form, graffiti.

During the cultural upheavals of the 1960s, Cooper earned a Bachelors of Art degree in Iowa, taught English for the Peace Corps in Thailand and rode a motorcycle from Bangkok to obtain a graduate degree at Oxford. As a freelancer and staff photographer in Japan, Maryland and Rhode Island in the early 1970s she moved to the media and art center of New York City to catch bigger fish. Landing a job on the staff of The New York Post in 1977, she discovered that the resistant and competitive boys club of photographers there were reluctant to countenance this scrappy young woman shooting hard news stories and Studio 54 celebrities.

Hungry for discovery, Cooper would spend her time to and from assignments in bombed-out neighborhoods, where she took pictures of kids entertaining themselves with games they devised on the street, often with the humblest of materials. It was during one of those trips that she stumbled on graffiti and the members of its community. She met a young boy who suggested she photograph the work she was seeing, then showed her a stylized drawing of his name, or piece, in his notebook.

Then he asked her if she wanted to meet “The King”.

Following this lead to Brooklyn, Cooper met Dondi, the citywide-famous graffiti writer who kept a published photo of hers in his black book because its background contained one of his graffiti throw-ups. Cooper quickly realized that she had stumbled into a lively street culture and became an avid student of the teen writers she befriended. By the time she took her last news picture for the New York Post in 1980, her primary desire was to capture as many pieces, tags, and trains as she possibly could find. Today, she remarks on her near-obsessive devotion to documenting New York’s graffiti: waking before dawn to hit the street, waiting five hours for a freshly painted #2 train to pass with the sun at her back and countless secret adventures with vandals in train yards, evading transit police in order to pursue a shot.

Joining efforts with fellow graffiti photographer, Henry Chalfant, Cooper proposed putting together a book of their documentation. The pair endured multiple rejections from publishers while lugging around a big “dummy” book with their pictures glued to the pages. Eventually, however, they landed a deal and Subway Art was published in 1984. Although not an immediate success, it came to sell half a million copies and established itself as a holy book for fans, aspiring artists and art historians worldwide.

By the time the 25^th anniversary edition was published in 2009, generations of graffiti and street artists had been influenced by it and the hip-hop culture Cooper and Chalfant had captured had gone global.

In the intervening years, Martha Cooper never stopped shooting. Her love of serendipity on the street and the exploration of cultures led her to publish thousands of photos in books such as R.I.P.: Memorial Wall Art, Hip Hop Files 1979-1984, We B*Girlz, Street Play, New York State of Mind, Tag Town, Going Postal, and Name Tagging. Her work has been exhibited in museums and galleries worldwide and published in numerous magazines including National Geographic, Natural History, and Vibe. While she is still shooting graffiti, street art and the occasional break dance competition today, Cooper’s current project involves documenting people and events in Sowebo, a drug-riddled neighborhood in her birthplace of Baltimore.

********************

Steven P. Harrington is editor-in-chief of BrooklynStreetArt.com and co-author (with Jaime Rojo) of Brooklyn Street Art and Street Art New York, both by Prestel Publishing. He and Jaime Rojo are also contributing writers on street art for The Huffington Post.

********************

Photographs by Martha Cooper

Martha Cooper ; Remix

with

Original remixes of these photographs in a range of media by Aeon, John Ahearn, Aiko, Bio, Nicer & B-Gee, Blade, Blanco, Mark Bode, Burning Candy, Victor Castillo, Cey, Cekis, Claw, Cosbe, Crash, Dabs & Myla, Anton van Dalen, Daze, Dearraindrop, Jane Dickson, Dr. Revolt, Shepard Fairey, Faust, Flying Fortress, Freedom, Fumakaka, Futura, Gaia, Grotesk, Logan Hicks, How & Nosm, LA II, Lady Pink, Anthony Lister, The London Police, Mare 139, Barry McGee, Nazza Stencil, Nunca, José Parlá, Quik, Lee Quinones, Kenny Scharf, Sharp, Skewville, Chris Stain, Subway Art History, Swoon, T-Kid, Terror161 and more.

Carmichael Gallery is pleased to announce Martha Cooper: Remix, an expansive group show featuring highlights from Martha Cooper’s photographic archive and works by over 50 artists who have created their own unique interpretations of her iconic, historically significant imagery. There will be an opening reception for the exhibition on Saturday, April 9 from 6 to 8pm with Martha Cooper and several of the participating artists in attendance. The exhibition will run through May 7, 2011.

Click on the link below to read BSA interview with Martha Cooper:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=19366

Carmichael Gallery

5795 Washington Blvd

Culver City, CA 90232

April 9 – May 7, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, April 9, 6-8pm

PANTHEON : A Photo Essay

March 31, 2011 Artists, Events, Features, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, Opening

PANTHEON: A history of art from the streets of New York City is a labor of love.

This Saturday the PANTHEON mounts a show seen from the street, bringing visual story from the last 40 years of graffiti and Street Art alive in a space that once housed a city library across from the Museum of Modern Art on 53^rd Street. Like the real shows we follow on the public thoroughfare, this one is also open 24 hours a day.

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

An ambitious project spearheaded by Daniel Feral and Joyce Manalo, PANTHEON is truly grassroots, an academic and historic presentation by people who love it and study it and create it. Funded by modest personal contributions to their Kickstarter campaign, the show’s mission is to foster future understanding of how graffiti and Street Art has claimed a place as catalyst in the culture through it’s own wild and wooly evolution on the margins and in the mainstream. A small selection of some of the players on this now global scene, the resulting exhibit aims to be an un-hyped insight into the experience by people who are more concerned with the art than who collects it.

As their media partner, BSA got a behind the scenes peek at many of the pieces that will be shown and here is a photo essay by our own Jaime Rojo. These rich and storied detail shots will hopefully incite your imagination and peak your interest to check out the street show in person.

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Infinity. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Abe Lincoln Jr. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam VOID. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cassius Fouler. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Darkclouds. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ellis G. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faro. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Freedom. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Matt Siren. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

OverUnder. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Ahearn. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rigoberto Torres. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jordan Seiler. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohjColey. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quel Beast Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toofly. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

http://www.pantheonnyc.com/

PANTHEON:
A history of art from the streets of New York City
Windows exhibition runs April 2-17, 2011
On view 24 hours a day

EXHIBITION LOCATION
chashama at the Donnell
20 West 53rd Street, b/w 5th & 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10019 (across from MoMA)

PRESS EVENT – RSVP ONLY*
Saturday, April 2, 4-5 PM

PRIVATE RECEPTION – RSVP ONLY*

Saturday, April 2, 6-8 PM

* To attend either event, please email rsvp@pantheonnyc.com or call 646-269-9494. Location details will be announced at the latest by Saturday morning.

ARTISTS
Abe Lincoln, Jr., John Ahearn and Rigorberto Torres, Adam VOID, Cassius Fouler, Cake, Darkclouds, Droid, El Celso, Ellis Gallagher, Faro, John Fekner and Don Leicht, Freedom, Gen2, Goya, Groser, Richard Hambleton, infinity, KET, LSD-Om, Matt Siren, NohJColey, OverUnder, Oze 108, Quel Beast, Royce Bannon, Sadue, Jordan Seiler, Stikman, Toofly, UFO, and Vudu.

Wrinkles in L.A.? Street Artist JR Brings His.

February 26, 2011 Artists, L.A.

French Street Artist JR is in Los Angeles for a few weeks to wheat-paste twenty or more murals from “Wrinkles in the City”, a black and white portrait series featuring colossal visages of the mature angels in this city.

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

In a metropolis that famously avoids wrinkles, whether celluloid hero or not, plastering enormous creased and cratered kissers across architectural facades and rooftops is tantamount to vandalism. All of this seems perfect for the 28 year old former graffeur from Paris, who won the 2011 TED prize and who has previously installed portions of this project in Shanghai and Cartegena.

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

Intended to be visible from streets and freeways, the series continues the Street Artists’ previous work; photographs that pay gentle tribute to the daily lives of citizens, elevating the “everyday” to an outsized scale normally reserved for celebrity and sales.

LA-based BSA collaborator and enormously talented photographer Todd Mazer has captured some of JR’s recent installations here exclusively for you.

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

Dude Asks Girl ; Street Art Plays “Cupid”

February 19, 2011 Artists

Street Art that is Highly Personal and Public

Video still from “Proposal” by Aaron Vanden

Graffiti and Street Artists have been employing the public space to communicate for a few generations, and every day we are seeing examples that the new generation is determined to take it in new directions. Here’s a dude who took his message to the street to win the heart of his girl.

Video still from “Proposal” by Aaron Vanden

While there are a number of interesting aspects about this approach you can observe, one is the idea taken from graffiti culture where the message is directed at a specific audience. While graff writers have used the street to speak in a coded way directly to their peers, (or like 70s train writer Lee Quinones, his mom) this Street Artist makes a succession of art pieces placed along a frigid winter path that speak to the object of his affection. Like graff writers, the pieces use symbolism specific to his personal story and of relevance to his intended audience.

With best wishes to Aaron and Tamara.

Aaron’s thanks to: Simon Stutts (simonsayscreative.com), Nic Trent (nictrent.com), Ty Bishop, Jane Sheldon (janesheldon.net), Monica Stringer

Fun Friday 01.07.11

January 7, 2011 Artists

Tonight in Brooklyn: “Wholetrain” Screening at Closing Party for H. Veng Smith

Tonight at Pandemic they’ll be screening the film “Wholetrain” to close the “Identifiable Reality” show by H. Veng Smith.

“Florian Gaag manages to recount a tale colored by tension and aggression. The result is a many-sided portrait of characters whose world has never been documented in this way before. Their subculture remains authentic and realistic. Edgy editing and grandiloquent camerawork, a pulsating soundtrack and an excellent ensemble of actors, make WHOLETRAIN a film experience not to be missed.” – Wholetrain Website

SCREENING BEGINS AT 8:00 PM.

PANDEMIC gallery
37 Broadway btwn Kent and Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.pandemicgallery.com

Walk All Over Shepard Fairey If You Like

On the streets of Milan, Italy five artists (Shepard Fairey, Invader, The London Police, Flying Fortress and Rendo) has been invited to create about 20 manhole covers.

more at The Street Art Blog

West Coast Holla! – Here’s Three;

Carmichael Gallery “After the Rain”

Carmichael’s first show of the year “After the Rain” featuring new work by Boogie, Guy Denning, Aakash Nihalani, and Pascual Sisto.

5795 Washington Blvd Culver City, CA 90232
January 8 – February 5, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 8, 2011, 6-8pm

Whoops, “There It Is” at ThinkSpace

“There it Is” at ThinkSpace

‘There It Is’
Featuring new works from three Oakland CA artists:
Brett Amory / Adam Caldwell / Seth Armstrong
(Main Gallery)
Paul Barnes
‘Happy Valley’
(Project Room)
Both exhibits on view: January 8th – January 29th
Opening Reception: Sat, January 8th 7-10PM

Thinkspace Art Gallery
6009 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 558-3375 | Open Wed. – Sat.
1pm-6pm
or by appointment
contact@thinkspacegallery.com

“Street Degrees of Street” – Abztract Collective

Abztract Collective and Crewest Gallery group show “Street Degrees of Separation”

Opening Reception Jan 2008

CREWEST GALLERY

110 Winston Street

Los Angeles, CA

213 627 8272

BOXI and BANKSY TAKE No. 1 Spots

Here are the Final Results of the Year End 2010 BSA Polls

It was a blast to watch the images jumping positions like a horse race for the last weeks of the year as two BSA Polls were up on the Huffington Post. Thousands of people participated in the voting and we got lots of funny emails, and some varying opinions – and here are the results;

As voted by readers on Huffing Post Arts page , here are the top 10 Brooklyn Street Art images from 2010.

1. Boxi

2. ROA, “Ibis”

3. ROA, “Squirrel”

4. Retna & El Mac

6. Os Gemeos and Futura

7. Jef Soto

8. El Mac

9. Gaia

10. Gaia

********************

And in our highly subjective and fun compilation of 10 Best Street Art Moments of the Decade, here are the results of the votes – The Top Five

1. “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, Banksy

Image promotional still from movie.

2. Tate Modern hosts “Street Art”

3. Nuart Festival Established by Martyn Reed

© CF Salicath

4. Shepard Fairey’s Obama Posters

© Jaime Rojo

5. Swoon’s Swimming City Arrives at Venice Biennale

© Tod Seelie

Fun Friday 11.26.10

November 26, 2010 Artists

Fun Friday

SKEWVILLE: “You Are Not in Kansas Anymore”

A quick home made video of Ad Deville suspiciously skirting the upper wall along an entire block in Bushwick during he and Ali Ha’s block party. Now the news is that they are talking about taking the whole block for a sculpture garden. Hell yeah! More public space for art? Whaddaya think?

Tara McPherson New Cheap Print “Searching for Penguins”

Check it out here:

Banksy!

That’s all you really have to say to get people excited these days. And today in London a new piece by the anonymous Darth Vader in a hoodie debuts at a group show called “Marks & Stencils”. It also features Greg Haberny, a very strong and prolific artist showing in Brooklyn for a few years now.

“Marks & Stencils” , 1 Berwick Street, London W1. Read more about the mysterious confluence of shows opening tonight at Nuart >>>

And check out this entertaining look at French Street Artist DRAN, who is also in the show. The video features graff and Street Art living in harmony. Who says it can’t be done?

SACE Tribute on Houston Wall

“The ever-changing graffiti wall on East Houston Street took another turn Tuesday, with taggers covering the massive canvas with a tribute to a late Lower East Side artist.

Witnesses said a graffiti crew arrived at the wall, located at the corner of the Bowery, Tuesday morning and proceeded to cover the previous piece by street artist Barry McGee in large black letters spelling SACE — the tag name of artist Dash Snow, who died of an apparent drug overdose in 2009.”

Read more on DNA Info here:

PHOTO CREDIT DNAinfo/Patrick Hedlund

GAIA

One of his recent pieces regarding public housing. Interesting the directions that Street Art goes….

Election Update: Street Art and Performance Against SF Prop. L

October 27, 2010 Artists

As years of yelling TV has endeavored to shred mutual respect and corrupt discourse among civil society, New Yorks’ The Reverend Billy has steadfastly taken to our public spaces to practice the art of free speech. Variously described as activist, artist, performer, or candidate for NY mayor, the Left Reverend and his various musical companions injected humor and levity into the heaviest issues of our day long before Jon Stewart added motion graphics.

Taking his own brand of street theater to a San Francisco street, a city that historically celebrates all manner of public demonstrations of opinion, Reverend Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping are raising awareness of and opposition to a proposition at the polls next Tuesday, Proposition L.

According to the online San Francisco newspaper SFAppeal.com, Proposition L would “ban sitting or lying on a public sidewalk between 7 a.m. and 11 p.m., with exceptions for disabled persons using wheelchairs, parades and protests, lawful sidewalk businesses, or waiting in a line.” In an interview with the Fog City Journal, the Reverend rebukes this proposition in the name of free speech, “The First Amendment right to be in public space is inviolable. It can’t be compromised for paranoid visions of danger that are painted for us by upper-middle class people, or police, or anybody.”

“He’s Making Sitting a Crime”

In this image by Mikl-Em from Laughing Squid.com, a Street Art poster has been put in a bus shelter to protest San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom and George Gascón, Chief of the San Francisco Police Department, who are in both in favor of Proposition L.

It is unclear who made this poster, but it is interesting how Street Artists insist on appropriating the public space for speech. When they do it to impact an election or proposition on a ballot, it illustrates how at least some Street Artists are far more engaged in the civil discourse than we might think.

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SpY’s “ORB” Lands in Montreal: A Mirror of Street Art’s Evolution
November 14, 2024
SpY, a prominent public artist hailing from Madrid, has unveiled his latest sculptural work titled “ORB” in Montreal’s renowned Place …Read More »
Birch Bark, Rosehips, and a Family Affair: Faring Purth’s New Chapter in Mural Form
November 12, 2024
In her latest mural, Faring Purth delivers a powerful reflection on connection, continuity, and the complexity of evolving relationships—a true …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 11.10.24
November 10, 2024
Well, the world ended this week—again. Yet here we are, still standing, and so are you. It turns out Donald …Read More »
Réunion Island’s Evolution: Eko and the Graffiti/Street Art Festival That’s Making Waves
November 7, 2024
A place you may not have heard of, Réunion Island has quickly become a remarkable hotspot for urban art, largely …Read More »
Transforming Tafí Viejo: Argentina’s First International Street Art Festival in Tucumán
November 5, 2024
The Circuito Mural: Encuentro Internacional de Arte Urbano just wrapped up its first run from October 1 to 5, 2024, …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week 11.06.24
November 3, 2024
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Set your clocks back one hour today. A chilly but warm NYC welcome …Read More »

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

El Mac. Augustine Kofie. (photo © Todd Mazer)

A funny thing happened on the way to Public Space.

“Suicidal Tendancies”, by NohJ Coley

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A local resident approached while we were shooting the installation to remark that the entire piece was there the day before, and he disapproved of whoever had removed part of it because he really liked it. NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Personal Story is the Story.

QRST “Patron” Detail (photo © QRST)

QRST “Patron” Detail (photo © QRST)

QRST “Patron” Detail (photo © QRST)

PANTHEON: A history of art from the streets of New York City is a labor of love.

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

907 Crew. Sadue, Gen2, Oze108, Droid, Goya, UFO “907 Was an Inside Joke” Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Infinity. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Abe Lincoln Jr. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam VOID. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cassius Fouler. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Darkclouds. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ellis G. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faro. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Freedom. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Matt Siren. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

OverUnder. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Ahearn. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rigoberto Torres. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jordan Seiler. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohjColey. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quel Beast Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toofly. Detail (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

JR (Photo © Todd Mazer)

Street Art that is Highly Personal and Public

Video still from “Proposal” by Aaron Vanden

Video still from “Proposal” by Aaron Vanden

Tonight in Brooklyn: “Wholetrain” Screening at Closing Party for H. Veng Smith

Walk All Over Shepard Fairey If You Like

West Coast Holla! – Here’s Three;

Carmichael Gallery “After the Rain”

Whoops, “There It Is” at ThinkSpace

“There it Is” at ThinkSpace

“Street Degrees of Street” – Abztract Collective

BOXI and BANKSY TAKE No. 1 Spots

© Tate Photography

© CF Salicath

© Jaime Rojo

© Tod Seelie

SKEWVILLE: “You Are Not in Kansas Anymore”

Tara McPherson New Cheap Print “Searching for Penguins”

Banksy!

SACE Tribute on Houston Wall

GAIA

“He’s Making Sitting a Crime”

Featured Video | Martin Wong’s “Houston Street”

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