All posts tagged: Vicki Da Silva

Young New Yorkers, Street Artists, and Keeping Teens Out of Jail

Young New Yorkers, Street Artists, and Keeping Teens Out of Jail

May 10, 2017

The Street Art community donates time and art to a program that keeps teens out of jail in New York. An annual auction overflows with work by today’s Street Artists.

Marco Mazzoni. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the precision indicative of her architect training Rachel Barnard describes the art/criminal justice project for youth that she founded five years ago – which keeps growing thanks to artists’ help, community involvement, and an evermore engaged criminal justice system.

“Alternative Diversion,” she calls it, this court-mandated art program that prosecutors can offer to New York teens as a sentencing option instead of incarceration or doing community service.

“What we’re talking about here are 16 and 17 year-olds in Brooklyn who have been arrested for things like jumping the (subway) turnstyle or having a small amount of marijuana on them or petty larceny,” Barnard explains in a new video for YNY.

Peeta. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Say you get a misdemeanor record at 16,” she says “What that means is that you’re less likely to get employment, even though you are more likely to be poor and need employment more than most other 16 year-olds.”

Each year the programs called Young New Yorkers (YNY), which Barnard founded, work directly with these youth to redirect their route in life, to provide guidance, foster self-analyzation and to set productive goals for the future.

A photo by light artist Vicki da Silva. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To some observers it may sound ironic that Street Artists, many of whom have done illegal artworks on walls throughout New York City, are the principal artists pool who are donating their time and talent here to the fundraising auction in lower Manhattan.

With high profile names like Shepard Fairey, Daze, Dan Witz, the Guerrilla Girls and Kara Walker on this years list of artists donating to the auction, the program boasts a cross section of established and emerging Street Artists, graffiti artists, culture jammers and truth tellers who heartily support this program that since 2012 has given more than 400 city youth a second chance.

Guerrilla Girls. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But then we think more about the history and psychological/anthropological makeup of the Street Art scene and it makes perfect sense: What segment of the arts community has such a rich history of activism, self-directed industry, challenging the norms of society, using public space for intervention – and a penchant for consciousness-raising?

 

Even after 50 plus years of youth culture in love with graffiti and Street Art these artists and their practice are seen as outside the proper curriculum of many universities with art programs and museums have arduous internal debates about supporting exhibitions that are dedicated to Street Art and graffiti specifically.

Kaws. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This is precisely the kind of marginalized movement/ subculture that has necessarily thrived often with little encouragement or funding – overcoming the barriers to success that more institutionally recognized art movements don’t encounter. In fact, many have gone to jail for what they do.

 

Uniquely, Young New Yorkers continues to build its partnerships with artists, teachers, lawyers, volunteers and several agencies within the criminal justice system, including criminal and community courts, the District Attorney’s Office and the Legal Aid Society. The program’s art shows mounted by graduates are frequently attended by members of the justice system as well and art becomes a facilitator of strengthened community ties.

Joe Russo’s photo of Street Art twins OSGEMEOS. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA has supported YNY every year since its first auction benefit and this year is no exception. Please go to Paddle 8 to see the items for sale or better yet, go to the auction in person. We stopped by while they were hanging the show yesterday and we were able to take a few shots for you to see what’s up for grabs.

Sean 9 Lugo. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

K.R. Kitsch. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Young New Yorkers Silent Art Auction Honoring Actor and Activist Michael K. Williams

 

Wednesday, May 10, 2017
548 West 28th Street
New York, NY
6:00 VIP hour with Michael K. Williams (Star and Super Star Tickets)
7:00–10:00 party (Regular tickets)

 

More information at YoungNewYorkers.org http://www.youngnewyorkers.org/

 

To learn more about the work that Young New Yorkers do and to get involved click HERE

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BSA Images Of the Week: 01.22.17

BSA Images Of the Week: 01.22.17

January 22, 2017 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015Inauguration week was just as bumpy as you could have expected with an incredibly divided country discussing the outgoing president, the incoming president, the foreign interference and weird circumstances around the actual election, the nearly all white all billionaire cabinet nominees, and the Women’s March‘s that vastly overwhelmed Trumps ceremony attendee numbers while “sister” marches took place in nearly 700 cities around the world. This president, more than any one in decades, is galvanizing people to take action and get involved, just not in the way he might have preferred and we’ve been seeing a steady dialogue on the street about him since last fall.

He certainly wasted no time by signing his first executive order within minutes of being sworn in, one that aims to repeal Obamacare and that would deny health care. In the early and mid-2000s there was a lot of anti-Bush/ anti-war street art. At this inauguration George W. looked giddy and relaxed (despite a poncho battle) perhaps because he might not be the most disliked president of the century after all. Trump v. Obama inauguration numbers were pretty stark, and this week Trump’s national approval ratings have tanked, although a fresh war always tends to perk up a presidents approval numbers, so maybe he can start one of those. Not sure if his popularity would go up or down if he triggered a crisis in the financial markets, but it does feel like absolutely anything is possible with this wildcard. You can be sure that Street Art will be probably be there to respond! We’re keep our eyes open.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adline, City Kitty, D7606, Drsco, El Sol 25, Hek Tad, Homo Riot, Jerk Face, Jose Feliz Perez, Lunge Box, Meguru Yamaguchi, Michael Vasquez, Nimai Keston, Not Art, Shepard Fairey, Sheryo & the Yok, and Vicki Da Silva.

First image above: American Puppet (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vicki Da Silva (photo © Vicki Da Silva)

Yeah, we didn’t know what it meant either so we looked it up. Here’s what Wikipedia says: Kompromat (Russian: компромат; IPA: [kəmprɐˈmat], short for компрометирующий материал, literally “compromising material”) is the Russian term for compromising materials about a politician or other public figure. Such materials can be used to create negative publicity, for blackmail, or for ensuring loyalty.

In other words, light artist Vicki Da Silva is referencing the apparent influence of the Russian government over the presidential election by smearing Clinton publicly with information they had found. Luckily they didn’t find any information to influence Trump in any way.

Nimai Kesten. This is the wheat-pasted mural of Ai Wei Wei before Hebru Brantley added goggles to it. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DRSCO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jeffrey Gibson with a quote from James Baldwin for #artinadplaces (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Homo Riot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obey and friends in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Some writers couldn’t resist the white huge canvas that was the Houston Wall, freshly primed for Pichi & Avo’s turn to paint on it this week. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Yok & Sheryo in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D7606 . City Kitty . Lunge Box collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meguru Yamaguchi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meguru Yamaguchi. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michael Vasquez . Jose Felix Perez in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This piece of plywood was tagged several times by different artists at different times. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like Pepe Le Pew is lurking around for some lovely lady skunk to walk by so he can use his famously suave pickup lines;

“Permit me to introduce myself, I am your new lover.”

“Where are you, my little object of art? I am here to collect you.”

“Is it possible to be too attractive?”

Humans Crossing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. January 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Donald Trump “Loser” by Artist Vicki Da Silva in Front of His Building

Donald Trump “Loser” by Artist Vicki Da Silva in Front of His Building

February 23, 2016

The unreality TV version of the US political race is simplifying and degrading the discussions that candidates are having during this election cycle. If you ask the Republican frontrunner what the race is about he’ll reduce it down to a contest of winners and losers.

Artist Vicki da Silva would agree.

The artist did her own ode to The Donald in front of his 40 Wall Street building in New York to illustrate her sentiment.

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photo © Vicki DaSilva

“Since Trump has a nasty habit of calling people losers, it was my way of putting it back on him using his name and logo,” she says. With the new piece she reminds us of the corrosive court jester’s daily attacks on any person or class of persons who do not agree with him on any number of issues.

DaSilva points to comments made a few weeks ago in the run-up to the primaries in his state by former New Hampshire Republican governor John Sununu that call into question the myriad Trump stump speeches crowing about the real estate mogul’s head-spinning winning.

“I pointed out that he’s been a loser all his life. He’s had four big bankruptcies. Trump Airlines went bankrupt, Trump Magazines shut down, Trump Steaks went out of business, and when he was the owner of New Jersey Generals, they also went out business. This guy has a history of failure and losing. He’s a perpetual loser,” say Sununu in an ABC.com article.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-copyright-vicki-da-silva-Owen-Crowley-740-Screen-Shot-2016-02-19-at-7.59

Says DaSilva “The entire Republican Party is a loser party, now more than ever, in my opinion.”

To get the shot the artist is photographer, set director, and performer. DaSilva positions a still camera on a tripod to record the movement of the lamp as she writes the text during a single-frame time exposure photograph. Important to the process is that she uses no post editing or digital alteration of the still photograph. She refers to the work as “light graffiti” and she makes prints of it to exhibit and sell.

Truthfully, she says she’d love to wheat-paste a huge version of this one on a wall somewhere. Any takers?

 

Light graffiti photograph made at 40 Wall Street, NYC by Vicki DaSilva. Video documentation by Owen Crowley.

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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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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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Fountain 2013 Shots of Street Art Above and Below

March 9, 2013

The Fountain fair raised the Street Art to the rafters this year with an installation curated by Mighty Tanaka Gallery and Robots Will Kill. The canvasses wave above the exhibit floor in this historic Armory space while below thousands of people milled through the booths of a varied collection of this years offerings. Here are new shots of the work we found Friday in the first full day of this weekend full of art fairs.

Fountain Art Fair 2013: Alan Ganev, Dark Clouds, CERN, Chris RWK, Veng, Danielle Mastrion, NEVER, ND’A, Joe Iurato, Chris Stain, See One, CAM, Miguel Ovalle, JMR, Apolo Torres, Keely, Quel Beast and Cake. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ND’A. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris. RWK. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apolo Torres. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fountain Art Fair 2013: Alan Ganev, Dark Clouds, CERN, Chris RWK, Veng, Danielle Mastrion, NEVER, ND’A, Joe Iurato, Chris Stain, See One, CAM, Miguel Ovalle, JMR, Apolo Torres, Keely, Quel Beast and Cake. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Uphues. Detail. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

John Breiner. Detail. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

En Masse doing some live painting. Detail. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Fumero does Marilyn, Biggie, Keith. He says he has coined a term to describe the school of work he and others are evolving within as “Grafstract Expressionism” (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Sinxero. Detail. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

A delightful guest at Fountain. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Light artist Vicki DaSilva has video and photos of her work. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Pop Mortem has some political commentary dripping with drama, or oil. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Art performances with nearly naked people tend to draw an appreciative crowd. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

LNY prints being discussed. Detail. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Labrona. Detail. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

 

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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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Vicki Da Silva, Light Writing Tribute

January 8, 2011

In response to our posting for the “It Get’s Better” campaign to give support and encouragement to young people who are bullied for being Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual or Transgendered, reader and light artist Vicki Da Silva sent us a video she made on 159th Street with the George Washington Bridge in the background. Tyler Clemente, a young gay college student in New York, jumped from the bridge to his death this past fall, and this is her simple tribute.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Vicki-Silva-Tyler-Clementi-It-Gets_Better

Click on the picture above or here to see Vicki’s video tribute

Vicki’s Light Graffiti HERE

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Miami 2010: Tales of the Streets

December 6, 2010 , , , , , ,

Welcome to Miami!  Now go home.

– It’s a paraphrase of the Christmas crabby New Yorker who relies on the tourists who pump money into Broadway and Times Square restaurants and FAO and who actually eat those hot dogs and pretzels on the street.  In the case of Miami, Art Basel 2010 draws to a close now and one billion dollars are estimated to have been transacted. When you pair that figure with the estimated 2-3000 artists participating, it looks like the artists must have made out rather well, right?

Certainly there were more Street Artists than ever attending the events and transforming walls everywhere with their work and creativity – at least in the unofficially sanctioned areas. At the moment Miami is “The only city in the US where graffiti appreciates property value,” ironically says Mint and Serf, a Street Art collective visiting the tropical city from frigid New York.  In an odd twist on the “broken window theory” and urban blight, artists who are normally looking over their shoulder can actually wave to and talk with police who are driving by in some run-down areas where they are given free reign over large swaths of walls. At this sunny moment in time various agendas are intertwined and one wonders how long this golden age lasts.

Street Art photographer and observer Geoff Hargadon took in the breadth of the week on the street and attended a number of the events over the past weeks’ art orgies.  He captured many jewels and quick moments with his camera and his 6th sense, which are below. As various larger pieces are unfinished right now, we’ll be going back in a few weeks for a year-end overview.

In addition to an intuitive eye about the art trends happening that impact the scene, Geoff gives a commentary about what else he’s thinking about: “Here is the other thing that’s a trend: property owners have their hands over all these walls for artists to takeover, and then suddenly they are leased out to restaurants, coffee shops, and other businesses. It’s hard to know who’s playing whom here – maybe it’s a happy co-existence – but when does the property owner step up to support these guys in other ways? (Unless, of course, it’s already happening.) Either way, artists are playing a big role in the development of these neighborhoods, and whether they know it or not, as the area gets more developed and gentrified, they will eventually run themselves out of town. Whether they are getting paid or not, they are creating their own extinction in Miami.”

brooklyn-street-art-aiko-miami-2010-webAiko (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-amaze-miami-2010-webAmaze (photo and clever Photoshop © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-coco-miami-2010-webCoco (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-gaia-hands-miami-2010-webGaia’s Hands (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-down-on-the-demon-miami-2010-webBurning Candy Crew Members Tek33 and Dscreet at work on Dawn Of The Demon.(photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-cash-for-your-warhol-miami-2010-web

Cash for your Warhol  (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-gaia-invider-miami-2010-webInvader (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-lister-miami-2010-webLister in progress (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-gaia-miami-2010-web

Gaia (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-london-police-full-wall-miami-2010-web

The London Police in progress (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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The London Police close up (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-obey-miami-2010-web

Shepard Fairey (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-invider-close-up-miami-2010-web

Invader (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-remed-miami-2010-web

Remed in progress (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-invider-and-others- miami-2010

Invader and friends (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-obey-overunder-miami-2010-web

Obey Overunder! (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-lister-poo-up-miami-2010-web

PopUp Lister (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-ron-english-miami-2010-web

Ron English color explosion (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-obey-shop-miami-2010-web

Obey shop! (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-ryan-mcguinness-miami-2010-web

Ryan McGuinness (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-skewville-miami-2010-web

Skewville gets his wings and soars (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

brooklyn-street-art-mirf-serf-miami-2010-pink-wall-web

Mint and Serf (photo © Mint and Serf)

brooklyn-street-art-mirf-serf-miami-1-2010-web

Mint and Serf (photo © Mint and Serf)

brooklyn-street-art-vicki-da-silva-art-basel-miami-2010-light-graffiti

Light Graffiti photo © Vicki Da Silva

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