All posts tagged: Andy Warhol

The Courage to Speak His Piece. “Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure” Opens in NYC

April 9, 2022 Artists

Scholarship about the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat since his death in 1988 has been extensive. With dozens of books written, world-class museums have organized exhibitions about his work, including the Brooklyn Museum, the Barbican in London, the Fondation Louis Vuitton in Paris, the MFA in Boston, and the MCA in Denver. Substantial catalogs were also offered with most of the shows, analyzing his work from different curatorial viewpoints. At least a couple of documentaries from 2010 and 2017 have presented audiences with stories of his meteoric career from his early days to superstardom, fame, and record-breaking prices for his work.

Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure offers a new perspective on the artist, his life, and his work...This New York City exhibition endeavors to complete the story in a decidedly familial way. Curated by his two sisters, Lisane Basquiat and Jeanine Heriveaux, with help from his stepmother, Nora Fitzpatrick, the artist is repositioned as a son, brother, uncle, and friend. An emotional exhibition that feels intimate even though more than 200 artworks are on display, King Pleasure posits that there may be more to Jean-Michel than you previously knew.

Jean-Michel Basquiat. *“Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”* (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A shining jewel unveiled at the apex of the New York spring art season, the new show reaffirms the strength of the artists’ personal syntax and his distinctive ability to encode and innovate on streets and canvasses the DNA of American culture and history for his time and ours. The sisters and stepmother firmly assert Jean-Michel’s legacy, and simultaneously they gift fans and admirers one more musical, visual, poetic composition from a departed friend.

Because of the nature of late 20th-century art-collecting, so many of Basquiat’s works are now only in private hands, unavailable to see. Here is an eclectic collection of fully realized works and sketches in his trademark style. The show feels well-rounded and accessible – akin to a visit to a friend’s home studio to see their latest works in progress and their developing ideas.

Ghanaian-British architect and exhibition designer Sir David Adjaye creates an unpretentious, open, and inviting series of spaces to consider the multi-sensory internal adventures of a young artist enthralled with possibilities that life may offer. The winding exhibition greets you in waves of illustrations, texts, canvasses, works on paper, paintings, family stories, sketchbooks, journals, artifacts, musical interludes, concise video interviews, projections, ephemera, arched porticos, subtly detailed environments in warmly authentic textures. Without clutter or fussy filigree, it also does not retreat to the clinical white box; instead, the varied collection achieves a cohesion that is authentic.

Racism and Class Ever-present

Basquiat was discovering and defining himself in an acutely racist US society that was in the process of merging and separating and reconfiguring, often painfully so. The contradictions of traversing street culture, middle-class economics, Haitian, Puerto Rican, African, and European roots were not new to him in our city – but he could not necessarily resolve them. Seeing his writings and paintings one may say that some of his clarity came from creating, an internal process of synthesis that he recorded externally in paint and pencil. Perhaps as a response to the thousand cuts that systemic racism inflicts and white people’s resistance to facing it, the show speaks to a still-ill society designed not to be safe or honest to black and brown men. Whether the racism he grapples with is historical or contemporary, can one doubt that Basquiat was deeply hurt by it? Textural references in what critic Carlo McCormick calls his “scattered poetics” illustrate the shock of sudden racism and class that rapidly veers to the next topic, possibly the nature of his daily existence.

Personal testimony by his sisters reminiscing on a video speaks to the stinging pain of racist words used against the family when all the siblings were children and how they witnessed his recoiling reaction. Even as you reflect upon his familiar names of musical and sports heroes popping up – Charlie Parker, Nat “King” Cole, Billy Eckstein, Grace Jones, and various Heavyweight Champs, it occurs to you that this young man was modeling himself after his heroes, as young people do. If there were few poets, intellectuals, or masters of industry referenced, perhaps that is the result of a system that primarily prized black men who were athletic or entertaining.

Writing of the Narrative

With King Pleasure, the family of the artist takes hold of the narrative and makes it personal, inviting you to see by recreating his family living spaces and his art studio. Each is filled with actual personal objects, family photographs, furniture, vinyl record albums, books, and ephemera. There is a natural tendency for us to view a person, a persona, and a creative life through our lenses of references – and much of the Basquiat hype that developed during his halcyon rise in the 1980s was formed by media and the cult of celebrity. From today forward those narratives will be broadened and more fully realized – at once providing context, answering questions and altering, even contesting, previously held perceptions. Without doubt, these will help us better appreciate the artworks and his practice.

A New Treasured Trove

At the opening Lisane Basquiat shared that their stepmother Nora Fitzpatrick told the sisters a couple of years ago that all these works had “been sitting in a vault for 30 something years”, and that was long enough. “They needed to be seen and shared with the world,” said Ms. Basquiat. This is possibly the most exciting aspect of the show – never seen before works, numbering about 200, anchor the collection, indicative of his prodigious output during his decade or so as a fine artist.

Works on canvas are sometimes stretched on found wood frames, others are wood canvasses. One may indeed be the last one he worked on. Seeing the collection is like discovering old friends you didn’t know about. Or maybe it is like receiving a letter from an old friend, a breath of fresh air that brightens the heart – and reinforces the beauty of the person and their significance in your life. Taken as one, this is bold, assured, and determined presentation of his work that never overshadows it by a family that respects Jean-Michel. Reassuringly, this newly unveiled collection affirms that his work is just as relevant to today’s culture as it was during his brief career and time on earth, having the courage to speak his piece.

With our social and economic progress so incremental and uneven, ever unjust, one can imagine that Basquiat might have been exhausted today in his 60s. As a cultural omnivore who took inspiration from everything around him, he may also have been buoyed by today’s beauty, encouraged by people’s determination to progress, and inspired by the still-bubbling sense of humor of his sisters, nieces, and nephews. Many of them attended the celebratory opening of the exhibition Thursday night at the Starrett-Lehigh. Their energy and tenderness toward one another and their grandmother were easily seen, with pleasure.

Andy Warhol portrait of Jean-Michel Basquiat, 1982. *“Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”* (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andy Warhol portraits Gerard Basquiat, 1986, Jeanine Basquiat, 1986, and Matilde Basquiat, 1986. *“Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”* (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean-Michel Basquiat. *“Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure”*. Lisane and Jeanine speak to their guests. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure, presented by the family of Jean-Michel Basquiat is currently open to the general public. Click HERE for tickets, schedule, and directions.

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.24.19

February 24, 2019 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Just as we leave for Madrid’s Urvanity we thought you’d like a look at New York’s current scene on the street. Or a portion of it.

We start off the new collection with Andy Warhol, who looks fresh on the street – and who’s work is on exhibit at on display currently at the Whitney.

Also he is in an ad campaign for Burger King – that old footage of him eating one of those mystery meat sandwiches is now wholly appropriated to actually sell their products instead of mock them. It’s from Jørgen Leth’s 1982 documentary 66 Scenes From America. According to folklore, Andy didn’t even like BK – preferred McDonalds. What a jokester, that Mr. Warhol. #fastdeathfood

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Antennae, City Kitty, Combo-CK, DPM Crew, Fuck Cats, Invader, Matt Siren, Phoebe New York, Seed, The Postman Art, and William Wegman.

Yes we know. This is an ad for junk food. But that’s besides the point. Most of you who were glued to the TV during the Superbowl got to see the actual video of Andy eating the hamburger…vintage pop if not art…

Let’s move to kittens. These two are showing serious PDA. Fuck Cats. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Let’s move to Weimaraner dogs with William Wegman’s famous pooches, Flo and Topperdogs in stylish outfits. The new mosaic murals by German mosaic fabricator Mayer of Munich adorn the NYC Subway stations on 23rd street.

Untitled. SOHO, NYC. February 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Geoff Hargadon & “Cash For Your Warhol” Store/ Exhibition/ Performance in Boston

March 28, 2016 Artists

Pedro Alonzo is a Boston-based independent curator and art advisor who has charted an important trajectory on the Street Art-Contemporary Art continuum as it pertains to institutions, public/private organizations and emerging and recognized artists of related genres since the 1990s. We’re very pleased today that Pedro brings BSA readers insights from a unique one month performance/exhibition space just mounted in the Boston area by the fascinating pop-social satirist Geoff Hargadon, creator of CFYW (Cash For Your Warhol).

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A brick and mortar staged “store” offers Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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~by Pedro Alonzo

The artist Geoff Hargadon is responsible for the street art campaign Cash for Your Warhol (CFYW). As part of CFYW Geoff opened a pop up store for 7 weeks in Inman Square in Cambridge, MA. The store was open from Wednesday through Sunday where Geoff could be found surrounded by props and Warhol paraphernalia that created the setting for the pseudo business. Fake checks made out to local collectors and institutions adorned the walls, empty crates sat on the floor. I went to visit him on the last day of business. Throughout the interview friends, fans and strangers visited the store, interacting with Geoff. Some people brought booze, others just wanted to chat with the artist.

A folded vinyl billboard sign at the back of the store. Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: What led you to do the pop-up store?
Geoff Hargadon: I wanted to do a physical store that would look like a pawnshop but would only buy and sell Warhols. I went by this space and it looked perfect because you don’t have to go inside to see everything that’s going on. It’s almost like a gigantic vitrine. However, it’s better to go inside and see the details. Like the “cease and desist” order, the crates, the note that came with the flowers from David Zwirner…..

Pedro Alonzo: What? David Zwirner sent you flowers? I didn’t know he sent you flowers. How did that happen?
Geoff Hargadon: No, I just sent myself flowers and had the note signed from David Zwirner.

Pedro Alonzo: Do people see that?
Geoff Hargadon: Very few, but I’m okay with that. I don’t think there’s a single person who’s seen everything that’s going on in the store. Which is okay. Most people come in and they want to know if the checks are real or ask, “Can I have a sign?” “How much are the signs?”

Pedro Alonzo: Are you selling anything?
Geoff Hargadon: That wasn’t the original intent but people have come in and bought a couple signs.

A posted sign in the window describes the hottest pieces sought by Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: What about the Shwag?
Geoff Hargadon: The reason schwag makes sense is that if we are pretending to be a real company, we have to have schwag to give away. It makes fun of the industry that makes things for companies that are trying to promote their product. That amuses me. I have a lot of stickers from the Cash for your Warhol campaign, pencils, and stress balls.

Pedro Alonzo: How do you get started with Cash for Your Warhol?
Geoff Hargadon: It started with signs in early 2009, during the peak of the financial crisis. I noticed that signs kept popping up “cash for your house”, “cash for your this and that” it made me think, this crisis is affecting everyone, so where are the signs for the 1%? Actually, that is probably not what I said because that was before the term 1% was used. The phrase, “Cash for your Warhol” popped into my head, it sounded funny.

I decided to make signs and put them up to see what would happen. However, I did it in a rush and I put my cell phone number on the first 100 signs. That was a mistake because even though I thought everyone would be in on the joke, that wasn’t the case. People were calling at all hours. I solved that problem by getting a Google voice number.

Pedro Alonzo: How many calls do you get on average?
Geoff Hargadon: I get a call every day but most of them hang up. I think the reason for that is that people want to know if this is real. When they hear the voice on the answering machine they hang up. Some people leave messages, a few people actually call because they have Warhol’s to sell.

Artworks for shipping and receiving at the Cash For Your Warhol storefront. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: Have you had legitimate offers?
Geoff Hargadon: I’ve been shown about 30 Warhols. It’s all done through the Internet, I have not met anyone in person. People send pictures, certificates of authenticity, proof of purchase, close-ups of the signature, etc. Some of the Warhol’s have been the real deal. I was shown a painting that was estimated at around $6 million. It seems kind of silly that someone would show me a $6 million Warhol. I’ve also been shown stuff that Andy Warhol supposedly autographed; programs, pictures, a napkin, a dress. The problem is that people who have Warhol’s seem to think that because it’s a Warhol it is worth 1 million bucks. I get a lot of bogus offers from people who are fishing around – which I’m okay with.

Pedro Alonzo: Is your intention to start a dialogue?
Geoff Hargadon: It’s a commentary on the art world that sees art as commodity. It’s part street art, it’s part performance art. Being here is kind of a performance. I’m performing as if this were a real store.

At that moment a group of young women walk by and read out loud, “Cash for you Warhol. This is supposed to be an art project or something.”

Geoff Hargadon: This project is a parody of the enterprises that are financial predators. They prey on people who get into difficult situations and are forced to sell their house to somebody who put a phone number on a telephone pole. This seems kind of crazy but people must do it or we wouldn’t see so many signs.

Examples of huge payouts are posted for your perusal at the Cash For Your Warhol business. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: Are there any influences?
Geoff Hargadon: A big influence was Banksy’s pet shop in New York. That was pretty epic. As well as Faile’s arcade, which I saw in Miami and in the lower East side. They are good examples. In many cases, pop-ups are about selling prints. Faile and Banksy’s pop ups were really about a concept.

Pedro Alonzo: You’re spending a lot of time here. What has been the pleasure of doing this?

Geoff Hargadon: The pleasure has come from a number of different sources. Friends and artists have been dropping by. Several artists have come to trade art works. Which is really great, I love to trade. I’ve also had a couple of people come in who want to wire money through Western Union. That was a little awkward because we have a Western Union sign but we are not set up to send wires.

I have also enjoyed the quiet of the store. Sitting in here reading, catching up on emails. Minding my own business, when out of the corner of my eye I see somebody walk by, pause and look completely confused. They will look at the store for a few seconds and then keep on walking. To me that really indicates the success of the design of the store. Because it looks real enough to possibly be a store were people might buy your Warhol. I like the fact that most people walk by and think it’s just a pawnshop and are not interested in coming in. Many people come in and say, “I’ve been following your project for years, this is so great, nice to see you.” Then they take some stickers and hang around. It’s kind of a lovefest. I have really enjoyed it.

Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Ben: Sorry to interrupt. I have been a big fan of this.
Hargadon: Thanks. I’m Geoff.
Ben: I’m Ben. I have an Andy Warhol story to tell you. I was an usher at Radio City Music Hall in the 80’s. During the intermission of a Johnny Mathis concert I was sent to stand in front of the orchestra with my back to the stage facing the audience. 10 rows up on the isle was Andy Warhol slumped down in his chair with his hair sticking up. I noticed he was looking at me and we basically started playing peekaboo. Andy Warhol who would hide behind his program. That was so cool. I think what you’re doing is nuts and kind of funny and I’ve even bought some your signs.
Hargadon: Really? That is awesome.
Ben: Yeah, I’m one of those guys that buys your signs.
Hargadon: Do you want to take a sign?
Ben: My wife won’t let me put it up but I will take it.

Pedro Alonzo: Why did you pick this location?
Geoff Hargadon: I live about a mile down the road but I haven’t really explored Inman Square. It’s an interesting collection of people, that’s what makes Cambridge and Somerville so great. It is important that the pop up take place outside of an arts district. This needs to be a destination. It would not work if it had been next to a Gallery. It has to be ambiguous.

Geoff Hargadon: Did you hear that? That guys was explaining to his girlfriend that this is an art installation. I love that.

Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Hargadon: Hey Man. How’s it going?
Keith: I brought a celebratory beverage, a final day thing.
Geoff Hargadon: Jesus! Wow, champagne.
Keith: You want to throw some down?
Geoff Hargadon: I tried to convince Pedro to have some beer earlier but champagne is actually better.

Keith was followed by a rush of more friends, fans and admirers. Some of whom brought beer and wine turning the Cash for Warhol store into an impromptu party. Once the booze was finished everyone went home and we continued the interview.

Pedro Alonzo: Watching today unfold with all of these people coming to see you and experience your store makes me think how insipid just looking at art inside a white box can be.
Geoff Hargadon: A museum has many advantages over the store but the advantage here is that people can engage with the store in many different ways. Like the guy who was just here, he’s not going to go to a museum with a bottle of wine. Even the people who came in to wire money, they weren’t pushed away. I tried to be as accommodating as possible even though I couldn’t send their wire.

Pedro Alonzo: It seems that your intention was to encourage gathering, socializing, and an exchange of ideas around your art.
Geoff Hargadon: It is an art project that poses as a business but actually has no commercial intent – which is kind of weird when you think of it. I’m not really here to sell stuff and I like that ambiguity about it. I opened this temporary store and whatever happens, happens. This project is subversive to the art establishment in that it raises the issue of art as commodity. Museums are some of my favorite places in the world, and they play a very valuable role. But I also feel that Street Art plays a very valuable role by working outside of the world.

Pedro Alonzo: What does your wife think about all of this?
Geoff Hargadon: She likes it but she will be happy when it’s over.

Pedro Alonzo: My wife just texted me. I gotta get home to dinner.
Geoff Hargadon: Yeah, me too.

Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Pedro Alonzo is an independent curator whose unique understanding and appreciation for the Street Art scene has made him a strong and trusted advocate for artists such as Os Gêmeos, Shepard Fairey, Dr. Lakra, Faile, MOMO, and Swoon, among many others. His curatorial vision has brought new audiences a greater appreciation for these artists in solo and group shows at places like ICA/Boston, Dallas Contemporary, Pinchuk Arte Centre in Kiev, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Most recently he curated a citywide exhibition titled Open Source: Engaging Audiences in Public Space for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.29.15

November 29, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Rounding out the Thanksgiving week here as people think back on what they have to be thankful for in New York and across the US. Despite the class war on the poor, near-weekly proof of systematic racism and extremism, gun violence that feels out of control, and 3 songs on the top ten by Justin Beiber, we have to admit that all is not lost – and we still have a pretty strong union of cool people who actually love our neighbors and multi-cultures and are willing to show it every day.

The art we see in the streets continues to evolve; People like Gilf! are combining experimentation and activism in the public sphere while others are looking for ways to address a variety of social/political ills, – meanwhile many artists now seek and secure legal spots to put up their work, use hash tags and Instagram as marketing directly to collectors, advertisers are mimicking street art to promote brands, and Wynwood in Miami is preparing to showcase some of the flashiest displays of sponsored murals and participants yet during Basel next week.

There is a rising chorus of horrified detractors who say an organic grassroots art form is being commodified. It’s not political enough! It’s narcissistic! It’s all privileged white kids who don’t appreciate the true roots of graff culture! Calm down everybody, we can handle this. There is room for all ya’ll, like they say down south.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ai Wei Wei, Dee Dee, Ernest Zacharevic, Gilf!, Gum Shoe, Himbad, Invader, Isaac Cordal, Jilly Ballistic, Le Diamantaire, Osch aka Otto Schade, Ouizi, Sipros, and Swoon.

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph of Lil’ Crazy Legs. This is their final piece in this collaborative series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy playing with a makeshift gun from the leg of a baby’s crib. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy playing with a makeshift gun from the leg of a baby’s crib. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy trapping flies in glass bottles. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic. Adam De Coster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tongue in cheek, Ernest Zacharevic’s ironic blend of brandalism and vandalism. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal staged a scene of drowning businessmen in this Manhattan puddle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! continues to influence the conversations around rampant inequality and with her “gentrification in progress” tape project, now outside the museum, someday in the museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ai Wei Wei (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . Ouizi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . Ouizi. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gum Shoe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Non-controversial lampooning cast as tough political stance, The Peralta Project is a commercial lifestyle brand that is using the street to advertise their product line, cashing in on a very popular dislike for this reality TV star. Like a mezcal company did this summer these posters are popping up to emasculate – and possible help move product. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Himbad for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Osch aka Otto Schade in London’s Brick Lane (photo © Urban Art International)

Invader’s tribute to Andy Warhol with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s tribute to Woody Allen with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s tribute to Bugs Bunny with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Le Diamantaire (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Blue is the warmest color. Manhattan, NYC. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Holy Faile ! “Savage/Sacred Young Minds” at Brooklyn Museum

July 8, 2015 Artists, Interview

FAILE may be a religious experience this summer at the Brooklyn Museum, but only one of the hallowed installations is called Temple. The seedier, more dimly lit venue will surely have the larger number of congregants by far, bless their sacred hearts.

Celebrating the duality and appropriation of words, slogans, and images has been the baliwick of the duo since they first began hitting Brooklyn streets at the turn of the century with their stencils and wheat-pastes on illegal spots and neglected spaces. In FAILE: Savage/Sacred Young Minds, their new attention commanding/refracting exhibit organized by Sharon Matt Atkins at the Brooklyn Museum, these guys pour it on, compelling you into a complex panoply of possible re-imaginings of meaning that reference pop, pulp, myth, art history, 50s sci-fi, 60s advertising, comics, punk zines, consumer culture and their own pure artistic and branded fiction.

FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For fans of this collaboration between artists Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, Savage/Sacred is a joyride swerving through the visual vocabulary and terminology they’ve been emblazoning across walls, doorways, canvasses, stickers, sculptures, prayer wheels, wood blocks, paintings, prints, toys, and a museum façade in their steady ascendance from anonymous art school students and Street Artists to a highly collected top tier name in contemporary art.

Offering you a full immersion and opportunity for titillating interaction, this show provides an unambiguous sense of the industry that is backing the Faile fantasy. Throughout their work and your imagination and assumed role, you may be villain, distressed damsel, wolfman, fairey, vandal, wrestler, hot-rodder, madonna, whore, supplicant, avenger, surfing horse or simply an arcade hero who is whiling away windowless hours punching buttons, popping flippers and pumping Faile tokens into tantalizing art machines.

FAILE. FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Central to the formative Faile story is an image of the teenage Patricks piecing together clues about the world in these dark dens of possibility and teenage angst, awash in fantasy, aggression, testosterone and communal alienation.

Miller talks about the arcade atmosphere with a certain reverence, “All through Middle School, especially on the weekends, you’d just get dropped off at the mall and be there all day. There is something about the idea of this being a somewhat sacred space as a teenager in arcades. They are sort of a “Candyland” – a magical space mixed with a little seediness. You had kind of a large age range in there. You could get in trouble if you wanted but through the video games you could live out these crazy fantasy experiences. Historically arcades have been like that – very much with the Times Square notion. They’ve always had that connection to an underbelly of things.”

FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Do you think New York is still seedy?
Patrick Miller: It seems like it is getting harder to find, in a way.
BSA: So really you might say that this is a public service, this installation.
Patrick Miller: There are so many young people who have never had this experience today. Not only are we trying to share what that was like, it is something that shaped the way we are inspired as artists and the way we make imagery, the way we make icons. The roots of video-game culture are there and now that has sort of bled out today – but also we’re interested in the shared experience because so much of the video game experience is now mobile or is just had on your couch, I think people have forgotten that there used to be these places were you congregated to do this.

For the 5^th public offering of FAILE BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade and the first in a museum setting, Faile extends the scope and adds a handful of new NYC-centric scenarios to the mix and again partners with fellow Brooklyn street artist and spin-cycle collage mutator-in-chief BÄST, whose stylistic counterplay alerts undercurrents of tension with a punk-naïve primal hand painting and humoristic Dada collaging.

FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Can you describe the working dynamic with Faile and BÄST?
Patrick Miller: We’ve always been really inspired by BÄSTs work because we start from a similar place but we end up totally differently.
BSA: Yeah the end result is very different
Patrick Miller: Ours are probably more structured and narrative.
Patrick McNeil: I think over time we have tried not to step on each others’ toes. He generally controls the half-tone territory and we control the line-drawing territory.
BSA: So his are more photography-based and yours tend more toward the illustration.
Patrick McNeil: Yep
Patrick Miller: I think the work comes from the same place but his is just turned up to “11”.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah his is more put into a blender.
Patrick Miller: But that has always been what makes us work well together, the styles mix and marry really well and they kind of bring the best out of both.
BSA: And he has become even more abstract recently – more lo-fi outsider artish…., although you guys have delved into children’s coloring books for inspiration as well
McNeil: I think BÄST would like to call it more “outsider art”.
BSA: Why has it been important to keep Deluxx Fluxx a Faile-BÄST collaboration over the last five years thoughout its various iterations?
McNeil: We started this project as a collaboration and we’ve been collaborating with BÄST for fifteen years. We’ve always enjoyed working with him because we just love the friendship and we love the product of our collaborations. I think having the opportunity to be at the Brooklyn Museum and to do it together with him is really special.

FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Twenty-two in all, the custom designed variations on arcade video and pinball games from the 1970s and 80s alert competitive urges and quests for domination alongside more mundane tasks like alternate side of the street parking and completing atypical digital art-making sessions where “winning” is defined entirely differently.

Social, sexual, comical, criminal, and environmental concerns all pop and parry while you nearly mindlessly and repetitively punch buttons and fire guns at herky-jerky 2-D motion graphics that transport you to the hi-charged arcade experience rumbling in malls and sketchier parts of town before the Internet. Get a taste for those darkened caves where you racked up points while quarters were sucked from your pockets; you are the favored hero at home in this seductive lair, surrounded by an ear pounding audio-musical triumphalist barrage of hypnotic hormonal victory and id-shattering explosions.

FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The adjoining cavernous black-light illuminated fluorescent foosball room is papered with mind-popping illustrations derived and sutured from comics, pulp and smarmy back-pages advertising that once stirred secret desires. Walking in on this teen temple you may feel like looking for dirty magazines sandwiched between mattresses; surely a hyped up juvenile would choose these alternating graphic “floor tiles” in radiation yellow, sugar coated pink and neon orange, giving your footsteps a spongey depth perception test on your way to a round of table football.

The floor-to-ceiling hand painted posters took four people six months to complete, both Patricks tell us, and they all compete for your attention, each a narrative re-configured and augmenting secret storylines, myths, and plenty of white lies.

FAILE’s Patrick Miller demonstrates an art experience where you rip posters off the wall to reveal yet more Faile posters underneath, which you can rip further. FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Somehow it is here in the day-glo madness that we see the closest approximation to the original Street Art experience passersby had in the early 2000s with Faile’s work when they were still a trio that included artist AIKO and in those years just after her departure. These are the bold, familiar graphic punches thrown in a direction you weren’t expecting and can make you laugh.

FAILE’s Patrick McNeil demonstrates how to tag subway walls before the “Bast Ghosts” come after you. FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In a media- and advertising-saturated society our tools of discernment and reason are compromised, deliberately so. Faile is recognizing some symptoms of this compromise and is examining the stories and the narratives that are told, crafting their own dramatic nomenclature from the pile. You might say that their stories are melding with an idealized simplification of North American white dude history, a heroic paranoid absolutism that lays bare the prejudices behind it.

A simple survey of words illustrates the perspective: prayer, bitch, horse, rainbow, sinful, Jesus, warriors, forbidden, Indian, hero, poison, brave, strong, boy, guilty, pleasure, bedtime, cowboys, hotrods, savage, gun, trust, stiletto, tender, hotel, confessions, fight, wolf, saved, girls, lies, vanity, inexperience, restless virgin, innocent, willing, heartbreak, torment, stories.

These are Faile stories, reconfigured with a slicing knife down the middle of the belly, an idiosyncratic collaged pop/pulp style that owes as much to the Dadaist Hannah Höch and pop collage originator Richard Hamilton as it does to Lichtenstein’s sense of storybook romance and Warhol’s repetitive emotional distance.

FAILE. The FAILE & BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In the book accompanying the exhibit, Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director for Exhibitions and Collections Management, who organized the exhibition, says the presentation of the arcade in a museum setting “highlights how the present work relates to the art of the past and expands our expectations of the use of public spaces dedicated to art.” Here, she says, “Deluxx Fluxx’s arcade machines, which are simultaneously sculptures and functioning games, may call to mind Surrealism, Dada, and Fluxus, as well as the enigmatic boxed assemblages of Joseph Cornell.”

FAILE. Temple. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Similarly, the signature Temple project has not been presented in its entirety in museum settings previously, and it feels like it is a bit of inspired genius when you are standing in its shadow beneath the soaring sky light at the Brooklyn Museum. The full scale church in ruins was presented out of doors in Praça dos Restauradores Square in Lisbon in conjunction with Portugal Arte in 2010. Echoing its surroundings in Lisbon, the Temple here is also a willful remix of the epic and the rather lesser so.

Culture-jamming at its height, it’s a punk subversion in ceramic, marble and iron that simultaneously genuflects and gives the finger to antiquity and to our soulless consumer culture. By casting reliefs of stylized font-work, romance novelette themes, and ads for call girls in puzzling non-sequitors, the Temple ridicules vapidity while honoring connections to age-old themes, sort of humbling all involved. Here again Faile is questioning the received wisdom of art history, religious customs, and tales of great societies we’ve learned to be reverent of, or maybe just questioning our true knowledge of history altogether.

FAILE. Temple. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

During the last months while it was being unpacked and assembled we heard the Temple also called a tomb, a mausoleum, a chapel – the differences shared by their ties to the architecture and sculpture and tiled mosaics and ceramic under one roof. The roof in this case is destroyed – possibly because it caved in or because it was ripped off by an angry god who said, “You have missed my point entirely!”

In any case it is a formidable structure allowing meditation, reflection, confusion. In an act of ultimate bait and switch, Faile has deliberately played with what you are supposed to be paying attention to, substituting the associated original intended and inferred meanings of a religious institution and its power. You approach with reverence, looking perhaps for an allegorical means to access the transcendental, but expected symbols have been supplanted by the shallow relics of a culture you may have intended to escape.

FAILE. Temple. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ultimately Faile is not unlike a lot of the world’s great religions; Comforting, reassuring, challenging, mysterious, inpenetrable. Sometimes you have the feeling that there are other people who understand it much better than you. Oh, ye of little Faile. Lean not upon your own understanding. Failes ways are not necessarily our ways. Whether these words and narratives are written by man or handed down from a higher power, why sweat it? It’s a holy good show.

FAILE. Temple. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With FAILE: Savage/Sacred Young Minds the Brooklyn museum is once again meaningfully invested in the present and jumped ahead in the examination of what clearly is the first global grassroots art movement, giving the stage to the current century’s voices of the street – perhaps because it has engaged with the city’s artists and communities.

With an enormous new Kaws sculpture in the lobby, Basquiat’s notebooks and Kehinde Wiley’s exhibition in the same year, Faile adds an important voice to the local/global narrative and to the dialogue about the appropriate role of art in the public sphere and major institutions in the cultural life of the community they a part of.

FAILE. Temple. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FAILE. Fantasy Island. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FAILE. Wolf Within. Detail. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FAILE. Ripped canvases. “Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” Brooklyn Museum, July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Faile: Savage/Sacred Young Minds” at the Brooklyn Museum will open Friday, July 10th. Click HERE for further information.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.15

May 17, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Shout out to all the great Swoon fans we met last night during the artists talk with her. All the seats were filled so it was standing room only in the back but yet it felt so intimate. Ya’ll are stupendous and smart and handsome and beautiful and we were honored to be with you.

Shout out to the family of American blues institution BB King who passed on this week. His music and talent influenced so many. Sending love and condolences to his family and friends.

Let’s see what Jeffery Deitch has in store for Smorgasburg Coney Island starting this week in preparation for the Memorial Day weekend opening – published reports have the roster of street artists at 15 but we’re hearing closer to 25 will be hitting up temporary concrete walls in this outdoor gallery he is doing in partnership with a large real estate firm to promote the new Coney Island. Some names you’ll recognize are old skool 70s-80s train writers like Lee Quinones, Crash, Daze, Lady Pink, Futura, and new people he has been reaching out to from the 2000s and 2010s scene who we bring you regularly like How & Nosm, Skewville, Steve Powers, possibly even ROA . This list will surely grow as word gets out and artists besiege Mr. Deitch to participate. The full installation is to last a month and will be surely caught on film and timelapse video.

Meanwhile, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alexis Diaz, Alka Murat, Appleton, Marco Berta, Blaqk Blaqk, City Kitty, Creepy Creep, Dain, Dasic Fernandez, Duke A. Barnstable, Elsa Sauguet, Eva & Adele, Ever, Goldman Rats, Ines Maas, JR, Penny Gaff, Robert Janz, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas, Seikon Stav6, and Swoon.

Top Image: Alexis Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic for Welling Court in LIC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Appleton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unknown artist created this installation of a suspension bridge in Chelsea and we dig it! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Front view of the suspension bridge in Chelsea by an unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A scene from Nicolas Romero AKA Ever in Buenos Aires, Argentina in collaboration with performers Elsa Sauguet, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas y Ines Maas and sculptor Marcos Berta (photo © Ever)

About the show, from Ever:

” ‘头部 (The Head)’ is an art installation based on the analysis of Chinese Communist posters. When the posters represent the ‘idea’, people are always down the picture and the Mao Tse Tung portrait always floating in heaven, protecting that theory founded in the Russian winters. When they want to describe the pragmatics, Mao is cultivating flowers, going to visit schools, etc.

The idea with ‘The Head’ is to think why the “communist theory” fails in its application to reality, and this is because many times the idea has to be corresponded o taken through a body, a body that exercises the idea, that exercises power. That’s why, part of the installation that we present here, invites people to get into the head, so we all can have the feeling that we are not loyal to the theory; the idealization is as dangerous as it is obsessive.”

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stav6 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Creepy Creep (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blaqk Blaqk in collaboration with Seikon in Greece. (photo © Alka Murat)

JR from his Walking New York series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Penny Gaff must be warming up for the Faile arcade show coming to Brooklyn Museum in July. War games…lethal. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Janz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Goldman Rats already has selected the next president. You may now return to your regular scheduled programming. Enjoy! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s lilac season! Duke A Barnstable is feeling poetic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Art in the streets as Berlin based performance artists and fine artists Eva & Adele are seen here “performing” some last minute ensemble adjustments before hitting the art fairs – as is their wont. Chelsea, New York City. May 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The New Whitney Opens May 1 – “America Is Hard To See”

April 30, 2015 Artists

The stunning new Whitney Museum opens tomorrow, May 1st, in the Meat Packing District of lower Manhattan and you will be overwhelmed to see the last 115 years or so of artistic expression in America on display for the exhibit “America Is Hard To See”. 400 artists of every discipline and many art movements during your life and your great grandparents are here – from film and video to painting and sculpture and new media and photography, from abstract, figurative, text based, landscapes, and our own visual jazz – abstract expressionism – you’ll be exhausted when you are through with this show.

You’ll also be energized by the sense of sheer possibility presented – and the amount of space and the many outdoor plaza views. This is a new jewel in New York, and you have discovered it.

Donal Moffett. He Kills Me, 1987. The artist printed this poster and wheat pasted it on walls across New York City as a critique of President Reagan’s silence towards the AIDS epidemic. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We don’t get a new museum every day, but tomorrow you do, and it is rather spectacular to be privileged this way in this city of constant change. No matter your perspective, you will find the inaugural show to be vast. You are certain to like or disagree or applaud or dish with someone here, and it is all strangely American – Here is just a partial sampling of names showing about 600 works that should whet your appetite; Vito Acconci, Ansel Adams, Diane Arbus, Rory Arcangel, John Baldessari, Mathew Barney, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Paul Cadmus, Alexander Calder, Chuck Close, Imogen Cunningham, Willem de Kooning, Mark di Suvero, Elsie Driggs, William Eggleston, Anna Gaskell, Milton Glaser, Nan Goldin, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, George Grosz, Keith Haring, Eva Hesse, Edward Hopper, Robert Indiana, Jasper Johns, Donald Judd, Mike Kelley, Jeff Koons, Barbara Kruger, Louise Lawler, Sherrie Levine, Sol LeWitt, Roy Lichtenstein, Rober Mapplethorpe, Gordon Matta-Clark, Paul McCarthy, Joan Mitchell, Donal Moffett, Louise Nevelson, Georgia O’Keefe, Jose Clemente Orozco, Nam June Paik, Jackon Pollock, Richard Prince, Christina Ramberg, Robert Raushenberg, Hans Richter, Mark Rothko, Edward Ruscha, David Salle, Dread Scott, Richard Serra, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Frank Stella, Hedda Sterne, Alfred Stieglitz, Rirkrit Tiravanjia, Anne Truit, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Weegee, William Wegman, Gertude Vanderbuilt Whitney, David Wojnarowicz, Francesca Woodman, Andrew Wyeth.

Barbara Kruger. Untitled. (We Don’t Need Another Hero), 1987. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You’ll look through that list and want to add some of your own of course, everyone does. Despite the revered Biennial which periodically bowls you over with new talent, some still find that there are not enough of certain social groups represented, and that is probably fair.

We find it somewhat alarming that 50+ years of graffiti and street art is only minimally represented here – especially when it has become one of the hugely praised cultural exports to cities around the world and it is highly collected and ever-more auctioned. Talk about American! New York is considered a birthplace for the urban art scene and we can recommend a short list of these artists who are daily defining a new contemporary art for serious consideration. Yes this show has Haring, Basquiat, Kruger – acknowledged. But a great deal has happened in the last two decades. Maybe now that formally trained artists are frequently killing it on the streets in the 2000s and 2010s we will see more of these names included as part of the American story in the future. In fact, there is no doubt.

Glenn Ligon. Ruckenfigure, 2009 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The striking new modern home by Renzo Piano is twice the size of the old one and some of the views from the museum of this city that you love may rob your attention briefly from the art displayed inside. The inaugural show up until September is called America is Hard to See, and at $22 a ticket, so is the new Whitney Museum of American Art. That price may not seem like much when you consider it would get you four hours rent in a market rate one-bedroom in this neighborhood. But in a city where workers are fighting for a $15 minimum wage we’d like to see it accessible to more New Yorkers as it is the preeminent institution devoted to the art of the United States. Just had to say it. Hopefully they will find a way to institute frequent “pay what you want” nights, and to be fair, students get in FREE every day.

But this is your museum, and we hope you add your voice to the discussion.

Meanwhile, join us as we say “Welcome to the New Whitney!”

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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.01.15

March 1, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Happy March! With the brutally frigid temperatures we had for the whole month of February it is no small wonder that we can still find fresh new pieces on the streets. Some are weeks old and others are days old — all are executed under bitterly cold conditions. Just ask the artists…if you catch them.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Agni, Alex Seel, Alex 25, Bifido, Brown Boyz, Don Rimx, Eder Muniz AKA Calangoss, Foxx Face, LMNOPI, LNY, Clint Mario, Mata Ruda, McDemott & McGough, Mr. Prvrt, Osch,

McDermott & McGough collaborate on most of their projects in a varied range of disciplines such as painting, photography, movies, sculpture and the occasional piece of performance art. Add to that Street Art if you will. From their Facebook page, “From our recent tribute to the late Andy Warhol. In 1986, when were were living in Naples, we were inspired by the Italian tradition of posting posters to commemorate the recently deceased. After we returned to NY and were confronted with the untimely death of Warhol we decided to plaster to the East Village with commemorative posters in his honor. This year, since we find ourselves once again in Italy during the anniversary of his death, we had the poster reposted all over NYC. Look for them in Chelsea, LES, Williamsburg and Bushwick!” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Signed by Brown Boyz, the piece was executed by Don Rimx, Ricardo Cabret, LNY, Alex Seel and Mata Ruda. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images Of The Week: 12.08.13

December 8, 2013 Artists

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 500m, Ainac, Bask, Bishop203, CB23, Edapt, Fin DAC, Hot Tea, Jilly Ballistic, Labrona, Leghead, Medico, Nester, Nico, Paul Insect, Poop Culture, Starfightera, and Tony DePew.

Top Image >> Fin DAC and Starfightera collaboration tribute to Lou Reed/Nico/The Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fin DAC and Starfightera collaboration tribute to Lou Reed/Nico/The Velvet Underground/Andy Warhol. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nester tribute to Nelson Mandela in Poughkeepsie, NY. Mr. Mandela passed away Thursday December 5, 2013 at the age of 95. (photo © Jodi Kyle-Cox)

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BSA Film Friday 01.18.13

January 18, 2013 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening: Premiere of the Baltimore Documentary “One City-Eight Artist-Seven Days”, The Re + Public augmented reality software in Miami, Brain Killers in Chicago, and Andy Warhol Enthuses About Professional Wrestling.

BSA Exclusive Premiere:

“One City-Eight Artist-Seven Days”

We’re pleased today to debut a new short film documenting the work of eight street artist over the course of a week in the city of Baltimore.

www.facebook.com/xxistance

Wynwood Walls Miami: Re + Public

A collaboration between The Heavy Projects and Jordan Seiler’s Public Ad Campaign, mural art is used as trigger to activate animations that are created with the artist’s work to create a 3-D scene you view with a tablet.

Brain Killer: Villains in Chicago

Friends in Chicago have a blast with paint bombs on a wall.

Andy Warhol Enthuses About Professional Wrestling

Fun Friday 08.17.12

August 17, 2012 Artists

1. Chatroulette Gone Wrong, and So Right (Call Me Maybe?) (VIDEO)
2. “Beautiful Darling” Warhol Film Friday Night in Manhattan
3. Living Walls, The City Speaks, All Weekend (ATL)
4. Please Don’t Tell Anybody But Detroit Is Where It’s At
5. Paraphernalia by Narcelio Grud (VIDEO)

Friday Got You Feeling Frisky? Call Me Maybe?

Props to Steve Kardynal

“Beautiful Darling” Warhol Film Friday Night in Manhattan

Candy Darling was an Andy Warhol muse in both his films and on his canvases. A regular at The Factory she knew how to camp it up and was adored by the camera. In the movies she could be glamorous or trashy, somewhat sweet and very vicious but always an interesting screen presence and never dull to watch. The Anonymous Gallery Film Club would be screening “Beautiful Darling” today at the Tribeca Grand in Manhattan. This film should acquaint you with life and infamy of one Candy Darling.

For further information regarding this event click here.

Living Walls, The City Speaks, All Weekend (ATL)

This whole weekend Atlanta as in Georgia is hot and we are not talking climate change here…The town is hosting a bevy of internationally known, talented, bad ass and intelligent ONLY WOMEN Street Art Art Festival commonly known as Living Walls Conference: The City Speaks. Atlanta 2012. Now on its third edition the curators and organizers decided to move things further by garnering this female energy and present their production for FREE to the Atlanta folks. This is not an easy feast to put together. Getting a group of artists in one room is as difficult as herding cats, try getting 27 FEMALE ONLY artists from all over the world to come to one city for one week to paint walls and you’d know hoe hard the organizers have been working to make this a reality.

The list includes: Indigo (Canada), Fefe (Brazil), TIKA (Switzerland), EME (Spain), Hyuro (Argentina), Martina Merlini (Italy), Miso (Australia), Cake (New York), Swoon (New York), Martha Cooper (New York), Sheryo (New York), White Cocoa (New York), Jessie Unterhalter and Katie Truhn (Baltimore), Molly Rose Freeman (Memphis), Teen Witch (San Francisco), olive47 (Atlanta), Paper Twins (Atlanta), Sarah Emerson (Atlanta), Sheila Pree Bright (Atlanta), Marcy Starz (Atlanta), Sten and Lex (Italy), Karen Tauches (Atlanta), Knitterati (Atlanta), Plastic Aztecs (Atlanta), Nikita Gale (Atlanta), Patricia Lacrete (Atlanta), Mon Ellis (Atlanta), and Andrzej Blazej Urbanski (Poland).

For further information and full schedule of events click here.

Living Walls Conference Day 3 (VIDEO)

Please Don’t Tell Anybody But Detroit Is Where It’s At

Look this whole city has been abandoned by the corporations who took the factories where there are no rooools to follow and no living wages to pay. Then of course the banks picked over the carcass before leaving. Much of the industry that once made this city rich and prosperous has long shut down the engines.

Naturally, this is where we must go to live now, but don’t tell everybody, yo, because the whole city will turn into Williamsburg – bland, chattering. Detroit is not completely abandoned of course but there are whole neighborhoods that look like ghost towns. The streets are empty, the city has cut the street lights in whole neighborhoods. For blocks and blocks once majestic homes now lay in ruins, gradually engulfed by trees and vines coming out of their windows and surrounded by overgrown bushes. Closed factories are in decay, leaving you to admire beautiful architectural details and their exposed “bones”.

These days the only souls venturing to these desolate areas are the artists that have come here to create. Leave it to the artists to find a way to make do with what they find on the streets. Like pioneers wandering in the wreckage. We’re pleased to tell you of some scruffy outliers called the Fourteen Eighty Gallery who are hosting The Superior Bugout from Brooklyn, who will present an art show with live music and they want you there. These are the sounds of the the new Detroit Rock City.

Monty and The Boozehound have been working all week collecting, scavenging, creating and now the show is going up. Thanks to Andrew H. Shirley of The Superior Bugout for these teaser shots.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Paraphernalia by Narcelio Grud (VIDEO)

Woodward Gallery Presents: “Summer Selections” A Group Exhibition (Manhattan, NY)

July 11, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, Opening

Summer Selections

Summer Selections
July 12 – August 4, 2012

Featuring an array of legendary artists grouped with new masters

Artists Include:

Jean Michel Basquiat • Rick Begneaud • Susan Breen • Thomas Buildmore • Alexander Calder
Celso • Deborah Claxton • Darkcloud • Paul Gauguin • Sybil Gibson • Richard Hambleton
Curt Hoppe • Infinity • Jasper Johns • Russell King • Kosbe • LAII • Moody
Margaret Morrison • Mel Ramos • Robert Rauschenberg • Matt Siren • stikman
Jeremy Szopinski • Francesco Tumbiolo • Jo Ellen Van Ouwerkerk • Andy Warhol

133 Eldridge St. New York, NY 10003

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You are inundated with information, disinformation, propaganda, images, videos, entreaties, siren calls, threats, promises, summaries, conjecture, stunning beauty, deliberate obfuscations, …Read More »
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BSA Images Of The Week: 04.14.24 / “Return2Burn” in Hunts Point, Bronx
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Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week. We decided to dedicate this weekly survey to the artists of “Return 2 …Read More »
Martha Cooper and Seth in Kibera. Kenya: Part 2 / “We Are One”
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Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »