BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAYBrooklyn Street Artist Skewville, one of this city’s original sons, has been coaxing from his imagination a cityscape of intrigue and sly humor. With a bluntly cockeyed optimism tempered by the reality of kooks and freaks and madmen who run the streets and boardrooms in this city, over the past four days Ad Deville has been climbing and spraying and blocking out the giant chess game that is always at play.
After weeks of talking about where to take this piece called “Last Exit to Skewville”, the dude shows up with a piece of paper folded in half and a loose line sketch of the span of a bridge, chewing on the end of a pen. An amalgam of the bridges spanning the glittering and stormy East River, the pylons are two opposing chess players using the buildings of New York as chess pieces. As perspective is clarified above the river, a clunky cityscape emerges; a color punched rumbling blinking playground that calls you to jump across it’s rooftops and avoid falling.
Skewville; Saturday. At the begining there was a big red empty wall, a pen, and a folded piece of paper with the span of a bridge drawn on it. This photo literally captures the instant Ad Deville stepped off the curb to begin marking out the piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Saturday. The first line gets rolled out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
With his hands and arms and buckets and and rollers and cans he paces the length, climbing up and down ladders, blocking out the sound of traffic cacophony behind him and stepping aside for rain bouts; hour by hour the shape of the cubist and blocky abstractions that make a vibrant and shadowed city start to pop from this bricked Brooklyn wall.
Skewville. Sunday. The blueprint emerges with Brooklyn’s iconic water towers above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Sunday (photo © Jaime Rojo)
At this rate, Skewvilles’ finer graphic elements will arrive right on time as the week ends. Coming soon – marauding crowds of cleverly dressed, smart and sinuous music and art fans will swarm like honey bees in the streets of Brooklyn’s Northside. With maps and photo snapping cellphones in hand, they’ll see the installations in the streets, the artists in their studios, and Beirut in McCarren Park.
Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Northside Open Studios, The Crest Fest 2011, and the Northside Music Festival – This is the new Brooklyn, much like the old Brooklyn, where neighbors coalesce and celebrate and intermingle and where Saturday Adam Deville of Skewville will commander a scissor lift lofted high above heads to put the finishing touches on this ode to Brooklyn and New York and (dare we say it) his masterpiece.
Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Monday (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Tuesday (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Tuesday is for color (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Like any artist who knows that stretching is necessary for growth, Tuesday is the day Skewville extends his vocabulary with new untried color – an unusual addition carefully approached. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Blue Tuesday (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville scales bricks in this neighborhood now jolted with scaffolding and high-rising blocks of glass (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Uniform waves lapping up the East River can easily be mistaken as the fins of sharks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Last Exit to Skewville” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. Tuesday is for color (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skewville. The city pops. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
With the generous support from local family owned Crest Hardware Store (home of Crest Fest 2011) and Montana Colors, this project is possible.
Please come to the launch party too – BSA AND CREST FEST host the Northside Open Studios Launch Party Saturday Night
at The END in Greenpoint! Bands, Installations, and a Bikini Reading Series on the Roof.
Date: 18 Jun 2011
Time: 6:00 PM – 11:00 PM
Where: The End, Brooklyn
Event Details:
Co-celebrated with Crest Fest and Brooklyn Street Art, NOS Launch Party brings together an art exhibition of participating artists including a confessional box by Eva Navon, Rooftop Bikini Reading Series by Boomslang, video screening curated by Sasha Summer, and an interactive rocking chair video & sound installation by Sara Sun. Music performances include Snowmine, Balun, Merrikans, Dinowalrus and Walrus Ghost.
MORE INFO AND MAP TO LAUNCH PARTY HERE
All proceeds benefit Northside Open Studios.
