New York’s adopted Street Art brothers Icy & Sot have been spreading their wings in Brooklyn for a couple of years since we first interviewed them upon their arrival in the US from Iran. In that time they have continued to develop their personal style and voice, which is probably strongest when they use their work to address social issues and express opinion. To say that their New York experience has been a roller coaster of good and bad fortune for these two is an understatement, including having a solo show in Manhattan, being part of a supportive art community formed by ex-pats and street artists, and a horrifying shooting in their home that left three friends dead and Sot injured.
The intensity of the experience was fed by a media frenzy, and for a few months the brothers were in a surreal state of mind. The music and art community rallied to support them and they continued working and focused on more positive endeavors, like curating a cross cultural dual show between Brooklyn and Tehran in galleries in both cities this summer.
Now for the first time the brothers were free to travel this fall and they wasted no time hopping a plane to Norway for the Nuart Festival in September and continued their trip through Switzerland, France, and Germany to paint and meet friends and (gasp) collectors. Yes, these 20-somethings who work very closely together to conceive of and produce their work have garnered a growing following of fans in a relatively short period of time. While Icy and Sot have no plans to return to Iran in the near future, the brothers were excited to see Europe for the first time and to experience the sometimes pronounced differences in acceptance of street art and graffiti in various cities they visited.
“It was our first time traveling and painting around Europe and it was a great experience,” says Sot of their various venues which included in-town interventions and a more intricate and contextual piece high in the mountains of Switzerland. They did some normal tourist stuff of course and Icy says, “From painting in a different environments and cultures to meeting artists, people and friends, we just loved it.” Aside from the many free-wheeling installations, including painting, stencil work, and bus shelter takeovers, they still are relishing the huge wall they did about homelessness in Stavanger, Norway they say. “We were so honored to be part of Nuart Festival,” says Sot, “which is our all time favorite festival.”
Hey bro and sis! Here are some of our favorite picks for the weekend around the global way as we head into the final holiday and New Year beauty that we hope everyone is surrounded by. Happy 7th night of Hanukkah to the Jews, and Happy ongoing holidayz to the Christmas and Kwanzaa and Solstice people.
1. 215 “Orgullecida” (Barcelona)
2. “Kids Eat For Free” at Tender Trap (BKLN)
3. Fresh Low-cost Original Silkscreens at “First Worldwar in Silkscreen” Group Show (BKLN)
4. “Graffuturism” at Soze Gallery (LA)
5. “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”, Photography by Imminent Disaster (BKLN)
6. “Snap Back…” Rime and Toper at Klughaus (Manhattan)
7. New2 at White Walls (San Francisco)
8. Dave Kinsey “Everything at Once” at Joshua Liner (Manhattan)
9. Brett Amory at 5 Pieces (Switzerland)
10. RISK: The Skid Row Mural Project by Todd Mazer (VIDEO)
11. Swoon’s Konbit Shelter in Haiti (VIDEO)
215 “Orgullecida” (Barcelona)
French Street Artist C215 has a new solo show titled “Orgullecida” at the Montana Gallery in Barcelona, Spain. The artist has been for awhile using a lot of color with his multilayered stencil work – expanding his established vocabulary bravely in a way that most artists are too afraid to do. His portraits are placed well, are individually hand-cut, and sprayed with a sense of the humanity he’s always giving center stage. This show is now open to the general public.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Kids Eat For Free” at Tender Trap (BKLN)
A phrase lifted from restaurant franchises that serve food like you are livestock at a trough, “Kids Eat For Free” is a mini survey of train riders who know the back sides of the country well. Under the moniker of The Superior Bugout, curator Andrew H Shirley continues to explore fresh talent from the emerging margin, and this group exhibition features work by North Carolina’s NGC Crew. Now open, and don’t forget the kids!
For further details regarding this show click here.
The best way to support your local artist is to give their stuff as a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Soltice present. No kidding. Everybody wins. Tonight a show of original silkscreens at totally reasonable prices is at Low Brow Artique in Bushwick. For tonight’s opening of their silk screen print show where you’d be able to purchase prints for $20…yes you read it right $20 bucks buys you art from 25 artists – many of them with work on the street – from Sao Paulo, Brooklyn, Buenos Aires and Berlin. Participating artists include: Selo, Markos Azufre, Hellbent, El Hase, ND’A, XOXU, Daniel Ete, Salles, Baila, Anderson Resende, DOC, SHN, XILIP, Serifire, Vero Pujol, Marquitos Sanabria, Diego Garay, Desastre, and Head Honcho.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Graffuturism” at Soze Gallery (LA)
This is like an exclamation point for the end of the year. No kidding.
POESIA, founder of Graffuturism, the term and website, continues to explore the depths of “Progressive Graffiti” or, as it was previously known, “Abstract Graffiti”. With great intelligence, passion and an acute eye for detail, POESIA brings to the forefront the importance and beauty of this emergent new direction that is impacting the Street Art and graffiti scene (with ramifications for others).
“Graffuturism” opening tonight at Soze Gallery in Los Angeles and promises a smart-headed visual feast of shapes, patterns and color from a mini-galaxy of talent from all over the world. Perhaps more significantly, it’s a bit of a decentralized movement that has been centralized for you. The artists list includes: 2501, Aaron De La Cruz, Augustine Kofie, Boris “Delta” Tellegen, Carl Raushenbach, Carlos Mare, Clemens Behr, Derek Bruno, Doze Green, Duncan Jago, DVS 1, El Mac, Eric Haze, Erosie, Franco “Jaz” Fasoli, Futura, Gilbert 1, Greg “Sp One” Lamarche, Graphic Surgery, Hense, Hendrik “ECB” Beikirch, Jaybo Monk, Joker, Jurne, Kema, Kenor, Lek, Marco “Pho” Grassi, Matt W. Moore, Moneyless, O.Two, Part2ism, Poesia, Rae Martini, Remi Rough, Samuel Rodriguez, Sat One, Sever, Shok-1, Sowat, Steve More, West and Will BarrasSoze Gallery in Los Angeles .
Also New York chronicler and enthusiastic lover of the graff/street art scene Daniel Feral will be there with a special edition of the Feral Diagram in glicee prints, and a couple other formats (salivate). An ambitious exhibition like this is rare and not easy to come by so if you are in Los Angeles you must go.
For further information regarding this show and to read a great essay for the show written by Daniel Feral click here.
“Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”, Photography by Imminent Disaster (BKLN)
Self-appointed moral custodians (mostly white men) have traditionally hampered the exploration of sexuality in formal art history and the academic canon of what gets celebrated and revered continues to evolve more quickly now. The sea change that modern social liberation that was once revolutionary is now a given, but the debate of the appropriate role of sex and sexuality in the arts is far from over. We may have just quashed one Trojan horse of social conservatism in the White House, but the radical right wing has pulled the center pretty far in the last decade and some have even said there was a war on women launched legislatively throughout 2012. So we are pleased to tell you about fine artist and Street Artist Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster, who has a new show in collaboration with Alex Pergament entitled “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”. Furthering her exploration of photography Ms. Hasty has semi-retired her now well known hand cut paper pieces and lino prints on the street and traded the cutting knife for the camera. With this show of photographs, sculptures and performance art she’s aiming to tear apart the inhibitions associated with the sexual act. “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets” opens tomorrow at Weldon Arts Gallery in Brooklyn.
For further information regarding this show click here.
“Snap Back…” Rime and Toper at Klughaus (Manhattan)
Freshly snapping back to New York from their successful truck trip to Miami, Klughaus Gallery brings Brooklyn natives RIME and TOPER for their new exhibition titled “Snap Back – Dangerous Drawings About New York”. The storytelling show features illustration and painting inspired by personal stories. Says RIME. “This show aims to tap into our life experience coming up in New York.” Show opens Saturday.
For further information regarding this show click here.
New2 at White Walls (San Francisco)
The White Walls Gallery in San Francisco are fortunate to host Australian artist New2 with his solo show titled “In One Hand a Ghost, The Other an Atom”. New2’s work on the streets is complex and dynamic with aerosol, but his handcut collage work for the gallery is moreso somehow – maybe because of a painstaking process of arranging thousands of hand cut pieces of paper. This show opens on Saturday.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Also happening this weekend:
Dave Kinsey with “Everything at Once” at the Joshua Liner Gallery in Manhattan. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details.
Brett Amory at the 5 Pieces Gallery in Berne, Switzerland opens on Sunday with his solo show “Lil’ Homies”. Click here for more details.
RISK: The Skid Row Mural Project by Todd Mazer (VIDEO)
Art in the Streets from MoCAtv
Swoon’s Konbit Shelter in Haiti (VIDEO)
Street Artist Swoon is looking to return to Haiti to build more shelters for people in the rural part of the country. This video gives a great look at the families and community who are helped. You also can participate by donating to the Kickstarter campaign to help Swoon make it happen.
German Street Artist TIKA has been in Chur, Switzerland recently and last week she put up this piece called “Staibock & Hirtin”, which loosely translates to Albine Ibex and his shepherdess. It is a local theme, this heraldic animal, she says, that has a lot of history in this part of the country. She did the entire wall with aerosol, using stencils and some tape for details. She pulled back some of the aluminum tape to give it a relief structure, which is a technique she’s been experimenting with for a few years.
“One man with a long, wild, white beard was very interested in the piece and stopped to talk. He was super happy when he saw that I painted the alpine ibexes “zipfel” (a really old-fashioned Swiss word for penis) and he told me that in town nowadays they do not always paint it in the emblem and kids often ask why sometimes it has a penis and sometimes not.”
So there you have it, when in Chur doing a bit of gatukonst (street art), do as the Churians do and make sure all your ibexes have zipfels.
Great thanks to TIKA for sharing these new exclusive pics with BSA readers!
1. Happy GLBT Pride Weekend New York
2. Remi Rough at Unit 44 Gallery (UK)
3. Moody at Pandemic (BKLYN)
4. VHILS at Galerie Magda Danysz (Paris)
5. BLADE Cuts Through Zurich
6. Shepard Fairey OBEY in Paris by Zeller (VIDEO)
7. Wall Writers by R. Rock Enterprises (VIDEO)
8. Taggin One Liner by GoodandShiddy (VIDEO)
Happy GLBT Pride Weekend New York
Celebrating the first anniversary of legalized marriage equality in the State of New York AND the 6 months since the repeal of the US military’s ban on GLBT officers serving openly, this weekends’ parties, celebrations will be punctuated by a march attended by 1.7 million people in the street. Keith Haring would have been proud.
Remi Rough has had a big year exploring on the street and with commercial projects they say, but they may just be trying to manipulate you. Check him out for yourself tonight at Unit 44Gallery in Newcastle.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Moody at Pandemic (BKLYN)
Winner of Best Title for a Show Award, which we have right here on an engraved brass panel glued to a handsome wood block! Moody has been a New York graffiti artist under another name for many years, and as a street artist as Moody for more than a decade. Saturday Pandemic mounts “America Runs on Graff”, and you’ll get to see what his newest gig is.
For further information regarding this show click here.
VHILS at Galerie Magda Danysz (Paris)
Portuguese Street Artist VHILS has a a new solo show opening on Saturday at the Galerie Magda Danysz in Paris, France. Go see for yourself why this artist has quickly become one of the most followed and admired Street Artists. His portraits hold their own, revealing themselves as he selectively destroys parts of the wall he’s on.
For further information regarding this show click here.
BLADE Cuts Through Zurich
The ArTicks Gallery in Zürich, Switzerland brings New York City Graffiti royalty BLADE for his solo exhibition aptly tiled “Blade: The KIng of Graffiti” opening on Saturday. The artist will be present so bring your black book you might get lucky to score a tag.
Hey! It’s Friday!!! What’s for breakfast? Oatmeal and Hamlet! IF you are brave enough to go all the way down the stairs, that is.
1. “City of Fire” Sparkles in Beverly Hills (CA)
2. Stencil Bastards (Zurich)
3. “20:12” in London
4. Figment 2012 (NYC)
5. 2012 London Gymnast by #CodeFC (VDEO)
6. Voice of Art with Enik One. Los Angeles and the crackdown on murals (VDEO)
7. Conor Harrington Will “Meat” You on the Street and in the Studio (VIDEO)
8. YO! It’s ND’A Up on a Roof in Bushwick, BK Baby! (VIDEO)
“City of Fire” Sparkles in Beverly Hills (CA)
“City of Fire” is a group exhibition that includes some of your favorite Street Artists skewing decidedly uptown and curated by Arrested Motion.
Artists include: Cyrcle, Thomas Doyle, Ron English, James Jean, Kid Zoom, Dave Kinsey, Mars-1, Patrick Martinez, Pedro Matos, REVOK, Rostarr, SABER, Andrew Schoultz, Jeff Soto, Judith Supine, TrustoCorp, Mark Dean Veca, Nick Walker, and Adam Wallacavage. You can look forward to rockin’ art and cool rocks.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Stencil Bastards (Zurich)
Christian Guemy curates “Stencil Bastards”, a group exhibition that showcases a select group of artists who work with stencils. Opening tonight at the Starkart Exhibitions Gallery in Zürich, Switzerland, these are some of Europe’s best at the moment.
Artists included in the show are: Epsylon Point (FR), C215 (FR), Eime (PT), Btoy (ES), Orticanoodles (IT), Kris Trappeniers (BE), Leckomio (DE) and Snik (UK).
For further information regarding this show click here.
“20:12” in London
The show “20:12” at The Curious Duke Gallery in London, UK is now open in time for the Olympics with a solo show by #codefc. The artist has been creating stencil art as a commentary on the imminent games to be inaugurated momentarily in London, using his signature image of a camera to play with traditional images of athletes shown performing various sport disciplines. Check out the multimedia video near the end of the posting.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Figment 2012 (NYC)
It’s back! Take the boat to Governor’s island this weekend and play in the grass and the trees and see art, installations, and performances. Figment 2012 in New York City opens this Saturday at 10:00 AM – A multidisciplinary art festival that welcomes all regardless of age, gender, race, sexual orientation and body fat index.
If you would like to spend two full days (no nights) on a beautiful Island on the East River taking in all sorts of art and experiences and meet the artists who make it first hand then this is the event of your dreams. Go! You’ll have fun.
For further information regarding this event click here.
2012 London Gymnast by #CodeFC (VIDEO)
Watch the Street Artist create a stencil and watch 50 other graphic elements fly, flicker, and shimmer across the screen at the same time. It’s the Gymnastic Minority Report!
Voice of Art with Enik One. Los Angeles and the crackdown on murals. (VIDEO)
It’s weird how they disguised his voice and face on this, like he’s an international extraterrestrial terrorist of some sort. Dude, he’s smacking up some wheatpastes. Calm yourself.
Conor Harrington Will “Meat” You on the Street and in the Studio (VIDEO)
Giving us the lowdown on his formative graff years and his subsequent transition into fine art and his continuing love for both games – a promo from his show at Lazerides.
YO! It’s ND’A Up on a Roof in Bushwick, BK Baby! (VIDEO)
Dan Gingold and Andrew Morton shot and produced this very atmospheric time-lapse video of ND’A just off the train tracks of the JMZ – a ghostlike shimmer on a rooftop. Well done.
On a side note, we hear that the primary goal of this video is to bring fame to the participants, which hopefully will result in a yacht filled with whiskey and strippers. If you are invited I would wear my life preserver the entire time just in case. Nothing else, just the life preserver.
C215, Epsylon Point, Eime, Btoy, Orticanoodles, Kris Trappeniers Leckomio und Snik
Eine Gruppenschau mit 9 Künstlern aus dem Umfeld der Street-Art Urban-Art, die Schablonen als ihr Stilmittel gewählt haben. Sie sind aus halb Europa, was heisst diese Ausstellung ist eine gute Gelegenheit für Leute die speziell interessiert sind an dieser Art von Graffiti Kultur, um sich einen Überblick zu verschaffen was da so abgeht.
Christian Guemy kuratiert.
Alle der Insgesamt neun Künstler aus dem Umfeld der Street Art, Urban Art und Graffiti Kultur, werden ihre Werke erstmals in der Schweiz zeigen.
Epsylon Point (FR), C215 (FR), Eime (PT), Btoy (ES), Orticanoodles (IT), Kris Trappeniers (BE), Leckomio (DE) und Snik (UK), sind sogenannte Stencil Artists und gehören
mit zu den bekanntesten in Europa. Sie nutzen überwiegend den öffentlichen Raum als ihr Medium und Schablonen als ihr Werkzeug.
Einer der berühmtesten unter ihnen ist sicherlich Christian Guemy aus Paris, auch bekannt unter seinem Künstlernamen C215.
Sein farbenfroher Stil, sein Talent, Mut, und seine unglaubliche Schaffenskraft sind ein wichtiger Teil der Stencil-Art Bewegung, die immer mehr Fans rund um den Globus findet.
Er hat schon an zahlreichen Ausstellungen teilgenommen, wird in zahllosen Publikationen erwähnt und kürzlich ein eigenes Buch “Community Service” veröffentlicht. Seine Werke findet man von Oslo über London, Paris, Moscow, Rom, Barcelona, Berlin und in vielen anderen Städten, über ganz Europa verstreut, bis hin nach Casablanca, Brooklyn, Sao Paolo und Neu-Dehli.
Erstmals in der Schweiz widmet sich eine Ausstellung exklusiv der Stencil-Art, dieser eigenständigen Richtung innerhalb der Graffiti Kultur.
Vernissage 8 Juni ab 18 Uhr, die SKA Band “Pueblo Criminal” aus Zürich (9 Leute) spielt auch an diesem Abend und DJ: “Musical Warfare”, er legt Early Reggae, Rock Steady and Ska auf…
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
