All posts tagged: Boston

Boston’s “Underground Mural Project” Opens With 11 Artists

Boston’s “Underground Mural Project” Opens With 11 Artists

“I love transforming a raw space for everyone to discover. It’s the best feeling to see people enjoying themselves in front of my art,” says artist Cey Adams in Boston as he finishes his “LOVE” mural in a letter style recalling the funky late 70s.

Cey Adams. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

At the start of September Adams and 10 other artists joined the Underground Mural Project to transform 150,000 square feet of walls and pavement in a park here, curated by Street Theory Gallery, a creative studio founded by Liza and Victor ‘Marka27’ Quiñonez. The 8-acre public underpass located between Boston’s South End and South Boston neighborhoods has been leased to a privately owned company that has turned it into “an active urban park, cultural attraction and parking amenity”, now named Underground Ink Block.

Ewok-MSK. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Our thanks to photographer Todd Mazer who shares some of his images with BSA readers today from the event. Todd also conducted an interview with painter, muralist and graffiti artist Rob “Problak” Gibbs, a native of Roxbury, a neighborhood in the southern part of Boston. As participant in the project, community arts advocate, and a lifetime Boston citizen who believes strongly in the power of public art, graffiti, and HipHop culture, Poblak offers a unique perspective to the Underground Mural Project.

Todd Mazer: In your origins as a writer you have spoken about the importance of outdoor classrooms like Peters Park what are your hopes that a place like the Underground at Ink Block can be a catalyst for?
Problak: I hope that the Underground at Ink Block can be a catalyst for the next generation of graffiti writers, muralist and landscape artist to be inspired to take what we contributed to the space and add on to the practice. If our times are documented the stories can be told better through a variety of disciplines artist come to the table with.

When a place like the Underground exists, up and coming artist can work on creative ways to contribute towards a venue that exhibits community art for the people of greater Boston at a world wide scale. The Underground can be a bridge that takes anyone (young or old) on an adventure through the creative process of an artist that may have work in that space.

VyalOne. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Todd Mazer: As an artist, activist and architect/educator how have you discovered the importance to expand your skill set in order to create opportunity for your own and others artistic endeavors?
Problak: I discovered how important it is have to have a variety of ways to tell your story. Pose2 always told us “your only as good as your last piece” and Kem5 added “ and the people you place yourself around” When that whole phrase is combined positioned my mind in a place to have my skill set be in a good position to always grow.

“Walking the talk” confidently comes from paying dues. Dues that range from humble beginnings to bad experiences that I learned the greatest lessons from. Expanding my skill set opened up new doors to meet and build a variety of relationships with other artist who too are skilled and tackle tasks through creative problem solving. The more skill you have the less you’ll find yourself saying NO to a majority of the challenges you’ll get approached with.

HOXXOH. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Todd Mazer: As a follow up more specifically could you offer some insight from 91 til infinity… in other words how has your involvement in AFH (Artists For Humanities) shaped your actions and given you perspective on the importance of this new space?
Problak: LOL from 91 til………..

My involvement with AFH is very instrumental to what I do because the creed we practice in our studio has become the DNA to my life’s work. I grew up around a small nit of artist who are gifted and who challenged me along our journey. That small crew grew into the organizations leadership. The ethos has evolved and revolved off of our actions. We took responsibility for our own learning and shared that practice with a large amount of youth for the past 25 years.

Don Rimx . Problak . Marka27. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

The importance of this new space is that concept of giving space and opportunity for a genre that is powered by energy in this city that is untapped. An energy that has the interest of the youth and the ability to challenge them to think, digest, seek their own truth and hopefully contribute. Sometimes you have to be exposed to or shown the examples to develop your voice. This space could serve as a megaphone to help project it. The examples are the trailblazers who show everyone in the space what’s possible.

Todd Mazer: Why is it so important to artistically reclaim overlooked spaces?
Problak: It’s important to “Add to” vs. reclaim because with all due respect to the city’s architecture, I view these spaces as a series of blank canvases embedded inside of what I would compare to the city’s respiratory system. The work we do would breathe life into these spaces so that the city would not have to hold its breath and encourage others to do the same. These spaces can be landmarks and spark the next mind to be great or be that picture worth a 1000 words that would speak to the generations to come.

The participating artists include: Vyal One, Imagine, Cey Adams, Don Rimx, Marka 27, Problak, Ewok MSK, Thy Doan, Upendo, Percy Fortini-Wright and Hoxxoh. Our thanks to Todd Mazer for sharing his photos and interview with BSA readers.

Marka27. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Ewok-MSK . Thy Doan. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Thy Doan. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

 

Perci Fortini-Wright. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Perci Fortini-Wright. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Imagine876. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Upendo. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Problak . Vyal . Marka27. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Having fun at the block party. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

Having fun at the block party. Urban Art Park. Beantown, Boston. September 2017. (photo © Todd Mazer)

 

 

Underground at Ink Block from National Development on Vimeo.

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El Mac Brings Electricity to Creativity at Northeastern University

El Mac Brings Electricity to Creativity at Northeastern University

El Mac, the LA based aerosol Caravaggio has just illuminated a university wall in Boston with a portrait of his wife as alchemist, a glowing vision completed on the side of Northeastern’s Meserve Hall this month in time for Spring graduation.

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

“The meeting of art and sciences is key to this campus,” says Todd Mazer, who lives in the city and who spent a lot of time with the artist while he painted, shooting incredible photos of the process. The image based on a photo of Kim presents a perfect marriage of symbols for the university, but also may refer directly to the artists’ personal lineage, he confides.

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

“Mac’s father went to Northeastern and studied Engineering where he met Mac’s mother, who was an artist going to MassArt at the time,” he explains, “so the lightning, which is science, and the brush, which is art, just may represent his parents. In his distinctive style that includes scientifically chilling paint cans in a cooler with ice, El Mac renders an heroic, comely, and gentle figure even on this rough surface using a circular patterning that appears alternately mechanically digitized or smooth as a Vermeer, depending on your angle and distance from the work.

Even the starry sky may be a reference to his father, we learn, because of his father’s history with things astronomical. “Also the stars above could be of significance too because although Mac was born in LA he moved to Phoenix because his father was pursuing a career in the space program.”

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

On breaks from plowing through 150 or so cans of paint, El Mac also took time to see art at his dad’s Alma Matter, poking inside the Museum of Fine Arts, Todd tells us. “He mostly painted but since he was just across the street from the MFA it was on his mind and when he got some small windows of time he would head over there,” says Mazer.

“It was nice to see him get off the lift and put down the iced out cans and catch some inspiration from a different surface. I remember him with a pencil and a sketchbook in front of a sculpture and just like earlier in the day at the wall I got a sense he was somewhere he belongs.”

Our sincere thanks to Todd for sharing these images with BSA readers.

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Northeastern University (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

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El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

 

 

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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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MOMO Paints Massive Work Across Lobby in Boston

MOMO Paints Massive Work Across Lobby in Boston

Corporate Space, Happy Universal Shapes, and Additive Averaging

Two unusual aspects distinguish todays’ posting. One is that the featured project by the remarkable street artist MOMO is not actually on the street, rather it is in a corporate lobby – a quasi public/private place far removed from the origins and ethos of most Street Artists’ work. Secondly, the interview is conducted by our guest Kate Gilbert rather than us. An artist, curator, and creative strategist, Kate directs a Boston non-profit that curates and produces independent public art projects. We really enjoyed the conversation that she and MOMO had while he was in the midst of a two week installation – and we knew you would like it too.

~ by Kate Gilbert

In February the Brooklyn/New Orleans street artist MOMO arrived in Boston in the midst of Snowpocalypse ‘15, an unrelenting series of snowstorms and freezing temperatures that left Boston under 93” of snow. Undaunted by it all, MOMO completed a massive 250’ x 34’ mural over eighteen nights in the lobby of Boston’s iconic John Hancock Building bringing his signature combination of blending techniques, harmonious colors and universal forms to warm up the austere lobby and its wintery surrounds.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

The following is an excerpt from an interview I had with MOMO on his fourteenth night of painting, which followed a brief talk he gave with project curator Pedro Alonzo.

Kate Gilbert: So it’s 20 degrees in Boston tonight and the thermometer is stuck at 20 degrees. The snow isn’t melting, and there’s ice everywhere; it’s permanent. So first of all I want to thank you for bringing this to us. It’s great color and smart design.
MOMO: Cool, I’m glad you like it.

KG: One of the things I wanted to bring back from your conversation with Pedro is this idea of universal shapes and appealing colors. That’s something we don’t usually hear coming out of the mouth of an artist who originally started in the street.
MOMO: Pedro’s first question took me off guard because I hadn’t quite heard that from anyone. He said the murals made him feel good, and why was that. I didn’t quite have an answer ready then but I’ve thought a lot about it since and it reminds me that I have this great love for David Hockney’s swimming pools. A sunny landscape has a certain key of colors and mix of shadows and this variety of things that feels like it’s at the peak spectral combination of all these formal things like shade and value, and it lets us know it’s a sunny landscape.

Something about that really appeals to me. At different moments I’ve wished my art could be associated with swimming pools, cabanas, and beach towels – those things that are, for me, a godsend in terms of mood and inspiration.

I spent a lot of time in the south and I love a tropical climate and things like that feel really alive and vital. It’s no coincidence that I take so much inspiration from Jamaica. Not just the nature there but also their culture seems to respond to this vivid set of conditions. I want to put that in the paintings and I hope that is what’s coming through in what Pedro mentioned about being happy.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  I think so. It’s happy and, especially at this time of year in Boston, we’re all keyed in to anything that’s happy.
MOMO: Good. I realized quite late that I respond well to warm climates and it’s why I stay in the South primarily. And I do think a majority of these forms keep repeating. They’ve come up in different ways through the years.

KG:  Are they forms that you’re testing on the street? When you say universal, are they universal in your artistic vocabulary, or do you think for they’re universal for all of us?
MOMO: They’re meant to be simple and universal so the audience might enjoy these as their own, being just colors and lines, spectrums and harmonies.

For instance I’m relying heavily on just the impact of red. Or the right orange-red which I feel is lit by sunlight. It’s not so much a narrative or a meaning implied on top, it’s the concrete materiality of the work that has to carry the oomph.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: Picking up on this idea of materiality, the space has this well, let me just say, it’s pretty unique. Have you ever worked in a space like this before?
MOMO: No, this is the best architectural chance I’ve ever had to do something, indoor or outdoor.

KG:  What are you responding to in this space?
MOMO: The chrome columns are undeniably weird and fun and that’s led me to make the fat lines somewhat in scale with them, or in-and-out of scale with them. There’re a lot of vertical bands. Down there [pointing to the NE side] there’re a lot of noodly ones that are just going their own way. It struck me that having a conversation with those floor-to-ceiling forms was an obvious way to respond.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  There’s this sort of forest effect going on.
MOMO: Yeah, there’s a forest! They have a gesture. Everything in here is real straight lines and clean and feels like it’ll last for the ages. But the columns do have a gesture and it’s right in front of the painting.

Besides the columns, everything in the lobby is a super straight, flat surface. I’ve tried to play off of that with soft forms so the building can show off. I’m doing something complementary in a way.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  You’re creating a visual conversation with the architects. I’d love to see you in a room with I.M. Pei’s office. What would you say to them?
MOMO: I’d be interesting to see how this building has grown or developed on its own because it’s probably not the way the architect left it. They’ve designed security in a way that wasn’t part of the initial pedestrian flow.

KG:  There’s this great performance going on here with people entering and leaving through the security desk, even now at 6 pm.
MOMO: And cleaning crews! It takes a huge staff to keep the building up to its standards.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  So did you consider this audience or who’d be coming and going when you were making the work?
MOMO: Yeah, of course. First thing, I tried to identify was where people would see the wall the most frequently, or where they’d spend the most time. Because the wall is framed by the columns, you get a grouping of available vignettes.

I took the ends to have special significance. At one end there are tables and chairs where you can relax in a communal café area. I thought those areas should be dressed up in a way so you could look at them for longer periods of time. Then the center, I kept things more serious and somber because it has this stately serious pretense with the check-in desk and security being there. I tried to look at the space anthropologically.

KG:  So the painting in the center is more serious? Is that represented in the darker, gray pinstripes created through…what do you call it, additive averaging?
MOMO: Yes, the particular color theory we’re working with when we add these gray tones is called additive averaging. I guess they just happened in the center by chance. The center is where subtle mixes are happening and the darker colors are coming through. In general, I want the whole thing to feel light but it needed to be grounded somewhere, especially there, so it didn’t seem silly.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: I don’t think your work could ever be interpreted as silly.
MOMO: Oh that’s good because I want to take it right to the edge like a dance performance. Certainly dance can be seen as flippant or pure whimsy. But if it is balanced and well done, somehow it can go right to the edge and still be serious.

KG:  Your work is serious and I get the sense everything is very thought-out and methodical. Were there any surprises when you got here?
MOMO: We changed everything! It’s been so much work! Struggling, redesigning, you know, minutes before we go. Part of that is because we weren’t able to use the sprayers. That was my mistake in understanding how much dust they were going to dump into their surroundings. We struggled a few days trying to make it work with a spray tent and it was not possible. So without the sprayers we couldn’t do the giant sweeping color gradations.

That meant things had to be redesigned so they’d still be exciting while staying unblended. I tried to break up the backgrounds that the stripes are going over, so there’d still be a number of colors changing. It wasn’t a solution just to switch fades for single colors, because I had to break things up in a way that’d keep them interesting.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  That sucks.
MOMO: No, it’s okay actually. Somehow the sprays that I do outdoors are a rough thing. I don’t even know if they were working that well in this refined space. It has a texture that would be a little out of step with the high-polish feeling here.

KG:  As a result, have you invented any new techniques while working here?
MOMO: Oh, that’s a good question! I’m doing this thing between all of my helpers where I’m taking screenshots off of the computer where I’m designing, sending them in emails, and then we’re all following the sketches on our phones. I feel like there’s a big potential there to synch everyone up in a detailed way. I used to print everything out and keep it in a laminated pocket which is good so you don’t drop your phone in a bucket of paint, but this is kinda better.

 

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  So maybe there’s a MOMO app in your future?
MOMO: Or maybe I need a phablet – a phone tablet where I can do all my Photoshopping and it hangs off my neck.

KG:  All right, let’s get you a sponsor! I did want to get back to that audience question. When you’re working outside doing your posters between 3 and 6 am I assume you don’t want to interact with anyone. When you’re here, are you interacting with people? Or are you just trying to get your work done?
MOMO: We’re interacting and keeping our ears open. It’s fun to just feel what the response is like. We hear a lot from the security guys because they’re here all night. It’s been really positive from those people and other people who’ve come by and have an interest in art.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG:  It is really hard to take in the mural all at once. Even from the outside because of these crazy columns, multiple doors and reflections. The most similar project you’ve done might be the Living Walls project because you could only see it all from within a car. Is there a way to see this mural? A narrative?
MOMO: I think it’s a sequential piece of artwork. Because you see pieces at a time and sorta have a chance to forget the first one that you saw by the time you get to the end. There’s not a way to see the whole composition all at once. That doesn’t exist. It’s like changing panels on any other media.

The thing in Atlanta has this opportunity for foreshortening. I tried to make it interesting if you were to stand in front of it, but also it collapsed all 1,000 feet into an instant image. Here you can’t really see everything collapsed.

It’s been fun to see how much it’s reflecting on the glass inside at night. I hadn’t seen that other times I’d checked out the spot. The chrome columns cast and catch all kinds of parts in new weird ways.

KG:  Yeah, it’s going to be a really fun challenge for someone to photograph! Is there anything else you’d want Boston and beyond to know about this work?
MOMO: I feel really privileged to be working here in such a great, high-level type community and given such an amazing piece of architecture to explore. I’m just extremely grateful to everyone that made this possible and extended the necessary faith. The support has been great and Pedro’s been amazing.

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MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Our special thanks to photographer Geoff Hargadon for sharing his shots of this hard-to-shoot mural for BSA readers.

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MOMO’s mural is the first in a three-part series of temporary public projects commissioned by Boston Properties and curated by Pedro Alonzo. It is on view at the John Hancock Tower (200 Clarendon Street, Boston MA 02116) now through May 31, 2015.

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Kate Gilbert is an artist, public art curator, and the director of Now and There, a new start up dedicated to creating impactful temporary public art projects in Greater Boston. When she’s not buried in snow she’s Tweeting as @kgilbertstudio and @now_and_there.

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BSA 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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Stikman: An Enigma Marching On

Stikman: An Enigma Marching On

His rigid wooden stick constitution keeps him from faltering even when bending and his ubiquity on the streets and in small secret hiding places keeps you from forgetting him, the ever-present Stikman. Expressed in wood, fabric, vinyl, paper, steel, plastic; embedded into pavement and stuck upon every surface, Stikman is timely and timeless.

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When you see one of these unemotional little fellas you cannot be sure if it is new or more than 20 years old, since he began appearing that long ago. Not showy nor preening, he certainly is versatile and colorful, appearing on record covers, playing cards, riding airplanes… and in a number of prints and pieces in a handful of small street art/graffiti centric galleries the last few years. He can appear as a sole figure on the street and can be remixed into vintage photos or illustrations, shape-shifting and implicating himself into other time periods and other worlds.

His maker says he is inspired by the public arena and by decay and the energy of the streets – and by his ongoing fascination with flea markets, which explains the variety of materials and situations his character appears in.  In some way Stikman is an avatar in the real world having adventure and conversation and interaction with thousands, maybe millions of people by now. Today we share a selection of the many images that Stikman stars in by photographer Jaime Rojo.

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jaybo Monk’s Maiden Voyage to The East Coast

Jaybo Monk’s Maiden Voyage to The East Coast

Today we go to Boston to see a show at the Museum of Fine Arts, where painter and artist Jaybo Monk is painting live for the summer party benefit. The Berlin based Monk has deep roots in Street Art and graffiti but now describes himself primarily as a painter who loves the process even more than the end result. An artist who is not afraid of changing his style, many of his paintings feature a  shattering and fragmenting of reality, placing his dis-formed figures on planes and pulling them apart and recombining them, evoking for us the work of artists such as Francis Bacon, Anthony Lister, and even Egon Schiele.

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Jaybo Monk. Working at a SoWa Studio in Boston. (photo © Todd Mazer)

While in Massachussetts he coordinated/collaborated/ worked with photographer Todd Mazer, who organized for him and El Mac to paint live at the fundraiser and both artists, along with Augustine Kofie, contributed works to be auctioned for MFA’s benefit.  You may recall the collaborative Conversations show that Monk did with Kofie in 2012 which truly enhanced the work of both artists.

While visiting The City on a Hill Monk also had a solo show Traces of Nothing at The Boston Button Factory and practiced his collaborative in-the-moment style with hosts and other artists on the scene for a couple of other events. “Since I moved to Boston it’s been very important to me to create a dialog here with artists I met in Los Angeles,” explains Mazer, who shares with BSA readers some images he shot of Jaybo’s visit and tells us about some of the activities and people on the scene.

“This was Jaybo’s first visit to the East Coast and I had been talking to him about coming out here and he was into it,” says Mazer. “It was also really important to us both that he got a chance to link up with the Boston art community so we got to spend time with artists like Caleb Neelon, Kems, and Dana Woulfe – and I was glad that he got a chance to collaborate with Kenji Nakayama.”

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Jaybo Monk. Working at a SoWa Studio in Boston. (photo © Todd Mazer)

In addition to taking part in SOWA First Fridays, where people got a chance to see a room full of unfinished works in an open studio environment, Mazer helped organize a well attended pop-up solo show at Liquid Art House entitled Sole Delay. Mazer says Jaybo exhibited a few new works from his studio in Berlin as “quite a few pieces made completely in Boston.”

“Jaybo worked in the SOWA art studio of artist Adrienne Schlow who along with Matt Greer, Kenji Nakayama and my sister Allison Mazer helped make the day-to-day tasks, challenges and missions possible,” says Mazer. Listening to his descriptions and seeing the rhythmic poetry of the lighting and composition of his photos, you know that Mazer was at ease with his subject, perhaps because the subject is at ease with himself.

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Jaybo Monk. Working at a SoWa Studio in Boston. (photo © Todd Mazer)

The pop-up show had a relatively short timeline for preparation and the team was working up until the opening bell to prepare the space. Luckily, Boston crowds are fashionably late to an opening so they could catch their breath. “It felt a little quiet and I was thinking ‘maybe I rushed things too much’ but then people kept coming and coming and coming and I was like ‘Yeah Boston!’” says Mazer.

The shows were a big success, but for Mazer, it was the collaborative open-studio environment that really showcased the qualities of this artist that he relished the most. “Witnessing Jaybo’s process has so often left me mesmerized, anguished and inspired by his fleeting envelopements, so it was really special to create an environment where others got to experience how much of a razors edge his work lives on,” he says.

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Jaybo Monk. Working at a SoWa Studio in Boston. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Working at a SoWa Studio in Boston. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Solo exhibition “Traces of Nothing”. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Solo exhibition “Traces of Nothing”. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Solo exhibition “Traces of Nothing”. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Solo exhibition “Traces of Nothing”. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Solo exhibition “Traces of Nothing”. (photo © Todd Mazer)

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Jaybo Monk. Live painting at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts Summer Gala. (photo © Todd Mazer)

 

Jaybo Monk solo exhibition “Traces of Nothing” is currently on view at the Boston Button Company and will be up until July 14.

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The Power of Color via Street Art, Graffiti, and Murals

The Power of Color via Street Art, Graffiti, and Murals

No doubt it is the grey days of late winter that is making us think about this as we brace for the next snowstorm, but today we’re considering the impact that Street Art color has on architecture that never asked for it.

We’re not the first to think of hues, shades, tones, and palettes when it comes to the man made environment of course, but it does strike us that most of the buildings that are hit up by street art and murals today were designed by architects who never imagined art on their facade.

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Os Gemeos in Boston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Modern architecture for some reason is still primarily grey, washed out greens, beige, eggshell, snore.

“Color is something that architects are usually afraid of,” said internationally known and awarded architect Benedetta Tagliabue in an interview last May about the topic of color.  A generalization probably, and you can always find exceptions of colorfully painted neighborhoods globally like the Haight in San Francisco, La Boca in Buenos Aires, Portafino in Italy, Guanajuato in Mexico, Bo-Kaap in Capetown, the favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the Blue City of India, but many of those examples speak to color blocking and pattern.

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Interesni Kazki in Baltimore. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’ve been looking at the power of Street Art to reface, re-contextualize, re-energize, and re-imagine a building and its place in the neighborhood. Some times it is successful, other times it may produce a light vertigo. The impact of work on buildings by today’s Street Artists and muralists depends not only on content and composition but largely on the palette they have chosen. It sounds trite, and self-evident perhaps, but much of Street Art is about color, and primarily on the warm scale first described by Faber Birren with his OSHA colors and color circle in the 1930s .

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Faile in Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Birren developed his color system with the observation that artists favor the warm colors more than the cold, from the violet side of red and extending beyond yellow because “, their effect is more dynamic and intense and because the eye can, in fact, distinguish more warm colors than cold.

It’s common now to think of 21st century Street Art as the graffiti-influenced practice that primarily activates the detritus of the abandoned industrial sector blighting western cities in the wake of trade agreements that sent all the jobs to lands without protections and regulations. While that is definitely the sort of neglected factory architecture preferred for “activation” by many graffiti artists and Street Artists alike, we also see more curious couplings of color with the delicately ornate, the regal, or even modernist structures today thanks to artists being invited, rather than chased.

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Shepard Fairey in Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The results? Abstractionist, cubist, geometric, letter-based, illustrative, figurative, text-based, outsider, folk, dadaist, pop.  One common denominator: color.

“The environment and its colors are perceived, and the brain processes and judges what it perceives on an objective and subjective basis. Psychological influence, communication, information, and effects on the psyche are aspects of our perceptual judgment processes,” writes Frank H. Mahnke in his recent piece for Archinect. The author of Color, Environment, & Human Response has made it his mission to explore psychological, biological effects of color and light and to help creators of the man-made environment make good choices.

Whether all of these choices are good, we leave up to you. But it is worth considering that Street Artists have been part of the conversation on the street for decades now, making powerful suggestions to architects and city planners , so maybe it’s worth taking another look at what they’ve been up to lately.

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Ever in Baltimore. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Escif in Atlanta. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kenton Parker and Roa in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LUDO in Chicago. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anthony Lister in Los Angeles. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kobra in Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Smells, Cash4 and Spiro in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Don Rimx in El Barrio. Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Agostino Iacurci in Atlanta. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Barry McGee in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jaz and Cern in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pose and Revok in Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rime, Dceve and Toper in Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pixel Pancho in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Deeker and David Pappaceno in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Reka in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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RRobots in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MOMO in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville in Brooklyn, NYC with an old NEKST tag on top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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3ttman and Elias in Atlanta. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chris Stain and Billy Mode tribute to Martha Cooper in Brooklyn with ROA on the water tank. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos in Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JMR in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Greg LaMarche in Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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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 was also published on The Huffington Post

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Images of the Week 04.14.13

Here’s our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring Ai WeiWei, B.D. White, Billy Mode, Bishop 203, BR1, Chris Stain, Duke A. Barnstable, Free Humanity, Ice & Sot, Indigo, JM, Mataruda, Meres, Billy Mode, NARD, ND’A, Os Gemeos, Palladino, PTV, Ryan McGinley, Shai Dahan, Shin Shin, and Specter.

Top image > Italian Street Artist BR1 in Brooklyn takes a look at shopping for what to wear under your burka (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A more conceptual installation by BR1 (photo © BR1)

Shin Shin picks the same color palette as many of the trees in New York that bloomed this week. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ryan McGinley “Blue Falling” 2007, looking good on a rainy day off the High Line Park in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin at Low Brow Artique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fill in the blank. Rambo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PTV next to an old JM. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 B.D. White pays tribute to Ai WeiWei. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Billy Mode and Chris Stain at Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meres at Low Brow Artique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Palladino (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Duke A. Barnstable (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shai Dahan pays tribute to René Magritte (1898-1967). Subtopia, Stockholm Sweden. (photo © Anthony Hill)

Bishop203 and ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NARD at Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Indie and Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mataruda with Specter at Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free Humanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Stormy April clouds hover in NYC. The Bronx. April 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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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Barry McGee Mid-Career at ICA in Boston

The mid-career survey of artist Barry McGee opened last week at the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and the whole is in fact greater than the sum of its parts.

Looking at his productive timeline from the 80s as anti-establishment graffiti writer/tagger to art school student on residency to San Francisco “Mission School” originator to celebrated New York gallery star complete with large scale installations of dumpsters, vans and animatronic vandals, McGee has had quite a varied trajectory that will be difficult to summarize.

But as you simply look at the magnitude and variety of imperfect and quirky characters he presents throughout his career, it doesn’t surprise you when he ends this show with a community center. This is loner who continues to create community.

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You will want to see this show in its entirety if you are to glimpse just how wide McGee reaches for inclusiveness. Whether its the camaraderie of the love of the letterform, the 130 screen totem of graffiti culture video, the bulging and clustering of framed photos and hand drawings, or the bundle of clear glass bottles with portraits of street guys painted on them, each chapter can be seen as cobbling separate elements into a more clannish arrangement.

Like a living folk scrapbook, this non-digital one gathers the disparate relationships and experiences and emotions of a life into groupings, blending them with stories remembered, forgotten, imagined, fictional, funny, violent, and vocal – a rollicking life omni-bus that rolls onto its roof, laying still on the pavement, while you walk around and peer into the windows.

A look inside his jacket, with pockets for cans. Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

During his talk before the official opening of the show Friday night, McGee gave his own take on the view of this sequentially laid out show path, telling the audience that he enters the gallery and looks down at the floor as he walks through most of the rooms, as if to say the that some of the trip is too difficult or painful to encounter.  All the more interesting when he says the last room is his favorite. This is the one modeled on the concept of a community center and all its imperfect variety; a deliberately inclusive space with three vitrines reserved for local Boston artists to curate with ephemera about their lives intersecting with street culture. In fact, this is the room that feels more alive, less museum.

If you take your time through this survey, McGee introduces you to people along the road, along the rails, in boxcars, in gas stations, behind warehouses, under bridges, in delis, in ditches. In many ways, this is a story told by the street, captured by a pair of observing eyes. Look out for humor and humanity, augmented by rage and tomfoolery while peering into these stories . While the materials are multitudinous, it’s more than just miscellany and it’s made greater by way of the gathering.

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An animatronic tagger mechanically vandalizing the gallery. Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This interior room contains works by Margaret Kilgallen at the Barry McGee mid-career survey at ICA, Boston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. Mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee AKA Amaze and crew with a tribute to Oker behind Fenway Park in conjunction with his mid-career survey at ICA, Boston now on view until September 2. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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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Lot F Gallery Presents: Thomas Buildmore “Animal Mother” (Boston, MA)

Animal MotherA Solo Exhibition by Thomas Buildmore

Opening Reception: Friday, March 8th, 2013 7:00pm to 11:00pm
DJ Set by Alan Manzi

Lot F gallery is proud to present “ANIMAL MOTHER” Recent works by Thomas Buildmore. In his first Boston solo show, this new body of work is in line with what viewers have seen from the artist in the past; the depiction of a dark world of pop culture. Drawing parallels between popular media, Fine art, advertising, and war, “Media and pop culture have formed an Army to wage all out war upon us, a harsh physiological environment’ says Buildmore. Rather than being defeated by it, Thomas Buildmore wants to thrive in it.

https://www.facebook.com/events/114032275448798/

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BSA Covers the Globe, Top Stories with HuffPost in ’12

BSA is not just Brooklyn, you know. Last year we brought you new Street Art from Atlanta, Arizona, Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Bronx, Brooklyn, Brisbane, Bristol, Costa Rica, Chicago, China, Dominican Republic, The Gambia, Guatemala, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Istanbul, Italy, Jamaica, Johannesburg, Kenya, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Miami, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, NYC, Palestine, Panama, Paris, Perth, Queens, Reno, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, and Trinidad. And that is a partial, incomplete list. Remember that the next time someone says we cover just Brooklyn and New York. Not quite.

Also while we were surveying what we did in 2012, we were curious to see which were the top stories we covered for the Huffington Post, measured by hits, social sharing, and emails sent to us. Here are the top stories you liked the most of the 44 we cross-published with Huffington Post Arts & Culture in 2012. (A complete list at the end of the posting)

Baltimore Opens Its Walls To Street Art

 

MOMO. Open Walls Baltimore 2012. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atlanta Hosts First All Female Street Art Conference 

Neuzz (photo © Wil Hughes)

OS Gemeos And “The Giant Of Boston” 

Os Gemeos “The Giant of Boston” at the Rose Kennedy Greenway at Dewey Square, Boston. This side of the van was with Graffiti Artist Rize. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

(VIDEO) 2012 Street Art Images of the Year from BSA 

Slideshow cover image of Vinz on the streets of Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mexico City: High Art in Thin Air

Escif (photo © courtesy of All City Canvas)

UFO Crashes at Brooklyn Academy of Music

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

‘See No Evil’ in Bristol Brings Thousands to the Streets 

El Mac. (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

What’s New in Bushwick: A Quick Street Art Survey 

QRST in the wild. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sex In The City: Street Art That is NSFW

Anthony Lister in NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NUART 2012: International Street Art Catalysts in Norway 

Ben Eine (photo © Ian Cox)

Springtime in Paris : Une Petite Revue of New Street Art

David Shillinglaw and Ben Slow (photo © Sandra Hoj)

Pulling Strings in Berlin; “Heinrich” The Public Marionette

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Lucky Cat)

“Poorhouse for the Rich” Revitalized by the Arts

Adam Parker Smith. “I Lost Of My Money In The Great Depression And All I Got Was This Room”, 2012. Installation in progress in collaboration with Wave Hill. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here is the complete list of BSA / Huffington Post pieces for 2012

 

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Os Gemeos Photographed by Geoff Hargadon

Os Gemeos Photographed by Geoff Hargadon

We’re counting down the last 12 days of 2012 with Street Art photos chosen by BSA readers. Each one was nominated because it has special meaning to a reader or is simply a photograph from 2012 that they think is great. Our sincere thanks to everyone who shared their favorite images.

Our eleventh entry comes from photographer Geoff Hargadon and it was taken in Boston, Ma. This mural was nominated by Daniel LaHoda from Los Angeles, CA as one of the best of the year and we’re glad Geoff, one of the most enthusiastically deadpan Street Art supporters we know, was there to capture this shot on a green summer day.

Os Gemeos (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

The Brazilian Twins painted this huge mural as part of their first solo show at the ICA Museum in Boston, organized by Pedro Alonzo.

Daniel LaHoda is the founder of LA Freewalls Project in Los Angeles, CA.

Visit Geoff Hargadon’s Flickr page to see more photos of his work here.

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Check out the BSA Images of 2012 video here.

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Fun Friday 11.02.11

VOLUNTEER TODAY AND THIS WEEKEND – RESOURCES AVAILABLE

Happy Friday Everyone!

This is not a typical Friday and not very fun in New York and for much of the east coast as we continue to grapple with the results of the storm called Sandy. New Yorkers always help each other get back on our feet and this time it is again heartening to see so many people volunteering and doing what they can to bring this city back. Our art listings this week take a 2nd place to our listings for places you can go to get help, and things you can do to volunteer.

LOOK FOR THE FULL LIST OF ART EVENTS AFTER THESE VOLUNTEERING OPPORTUNITIES.

Food and Water Distribution Locations http://www.nyc.gov/html/misc/html/2012/foodandwater.html

Donate Storm Supplies: Donate extra food, water, and batteries to local shelters and food banks. Search here to find a food bank near you.

Volunteer in Local Shelters: Contact shelters directly for volunteer needs. Find your local emergency shelter location here: http://gis.nyc.gov/oem/he/index.html.

Volunteering The Mayor’s Office has stated that the best way to find out how to volunteer is to register with NYCService.org and you will get notified of opportunities. You can also follow them on Twitter and Facebook

Brooklyn Volunteer Opportunities Sign-up http://pubadvocate.nyc.gov/irene/volunteer

Red Hook Initiative is seeking donations at 767 Hicks Street (at West 9th)  “Please bring donations of food, flashlights, candles, water pumps, generators. Many buildings in the neighborhood will likely not have power for the next 4-5 days.” For more information call, (347) 770-1528 or email redhookrecovers@gmail.com

Clean up at BWAC / Brooklyn Waterfront Artists Coalition in Red Hook on November 3rd & 4th: “This Saturday and Sunday we hope to clean out all the trash and debris. This includes much of the sheet rock as well as anything destroyed. If anyone has a portable generator, long extension cords, or work lights, we would like to borrow them. Anyone and everyone is needed for this effort. We will be starting at 10AM on Saturday. RSVP/questions: bwacinfo@aol.com

The MoMA and PS1 curator Klaus Biesenbach is helping to organize relief efforts in the Rockaways Saturday: http://bit.ly/WcFgWD Biesenbach plans to meet volunteers outside the Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Education and Research building at 4 West 54th Street at 10am on Saturday, and then will drive people and supplies out to the Rockaways.

Donate to families in the Rockaways now-Sat. Nov.3rd 9:30-11am. El Puente is collecting donations of clothing/supplies/nonperishable food for affected families in the Rockaways, now through Saturday. Drop-off location: El Puente Headquarters, 211 South 4th St. (@Roebling) in Williamsburg BK 11211

Donate clothing and food items in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn today Nov. 2.  The Arab American Association of NY is collecting clothing and food items for donation. “All clothing donations should be washed & all food items must be sealed. We will deliver items to three Brooklyn shelters – Brooklyn Armory, FDR High School, and the Caton School” Please drop off items to 7111 5th Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11209 between 10am-6pm today until 2pm Friday, November 2ed. Contact: faiza.aaany@gmail.com

Help cleanup New York City Parks http://on.nyc.gov/Pp0v3n  to volunteer in our parks this weekend. Help clean up Prospect Park Nov. 2ed, 3ed, 4th: Volunteer with the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation to aid in the cleanup and recovery of Prospect Park this Friday, Saturday and Sunday (11/2 – 11/4), clickthis link to sign up.

 

The American Red Cross

Red Cross: The Red Cross is seeking volunteers over 16 and who are able to lift 50 pounds and comfortable working in stressful situations. Email them at staffing@nyredcross.org

Give Blood – Hurricane Sandy has caused the cancellation of 100 blood drives in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic, a shortfall of 3,200 blood and platelet donations that would otherwise be available for those needing transfusions.

Volunteer at a Hurricane Sandy Shelter – The American Red Cross is specifically seeking individuals over 16 years of age that can carry 50 lbs to volunteer at local New York Red Cross Shelters.

Donate Money – You can choose to donate money to the Red Cross Disaster Relief by visiting their website or texting REDCROSS to 90999.

AmeriCares

Donate Money – AmeriCares delivers medicines and medical supplies to disaster areas, and as of yesterday was deploying a mobile medical unit to affected areas in Connecticut.

The Salvation Army

Donate Money – The Salvation Army is currently on the ground in New Jersey helping with relief efforts, according to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. 

Food Bank for New York

Donate Money – The Food Bank for New York provides food and emergency meals to New Yorkers, and as of last night was planning to continue distribution on Tuesday.  You can donate money by simply texting FBNYC to 50555.  If you wish to volunteer, check with and contact your neighborhood pantry or kitchen via the Food Bank for New York’s website.

The ASPCA

Donate Money – The ASPCA will assist and rescue the thousands of animals affected by Hurricane Sandy. 

The American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA) takes donations to rescue and shelter animals affected by the storm. According to spokesperson Emily Schneider, the group’s efforts are currently focused in the New York City area, where nearly 240 animals are staying with their owners in pet-friendly Red Cross shelters. The ASPCA is also setting up a distribution center in Syracuse, New York with 4,000 sheltering units, which contain pet food, crates, food bowls, toys, and anything else an animal may need. They’re also standing with water rescue units should they be called.

The Humane Society of the United States

Report – The HSUS has a 24-hour hotline for New York evacuees to report pets that were left behind. The number is 347-573-1561.

The Bowery Mission Has Current Needs

  • Financial donations — They are serving three times as many as normal, and will need to restock food and resources once we have power.
  • Help provide food for 200 people at a time (make and/or get and drop off at the Mission – 227 Bowery)
    • Make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and drop them off
    • Trays of cooked food, ready to be served
    • Large amounts of Gatorade and Iced Tea – Currently only serving water
  • Gasoline for generators that are providing emergency power — Please deliver to 227 Bowery (at Prince Street), 45-51 Avenue D (between 4th and 5th Streets), or our Administrative Headquarters at 132 Madison Ave. (Madison & 31 St).
  • Blankets at The Bowery Mission Transitional Center — Please deliver to 45-51 Avenue D (between 4th and 5th Streets) or our Administrative Headquarters at 132 Madison Ave. (Madison & 31 St).
  • Sweatshirts, Large and XL coats and hoodies, men’s jeans and boots, at The Bowery Mission — Please deliver to 227 Bowery (at Prince Street) or our Administrative Headquarters at 132 Madison Ave. (Madison & 31 St).
  • Pantry items such as sugar, oatmeal, coffee, rice, potatoes — Please deliver to 227 Bowery (at Prince Street) or our Administrative Headquarters at 132 Madison Ave. (Madison & 31 St).

Additional Links and Resources

Red Hook Recovers

Lower Easy Side Recovers

Astoria Recovers

Brooklyn Based: How to Help

Brokelyn: How to Help

Rockaway Relief

Food Not Bombs: Sandy Relief

The Week: How to Help

Art in American: Chelsea Galleries Hit Hard by Storm Sandy

Free Showers and Exercise at New York Sports Clubs 

For those who want to send other kinds of help, the American Red Cross collects funds and coordinates blood donations. The organization sheltered more than 3,000 people across nine states during the worst of the storm.  You can donate $10 by phone by texting the word REDCROSS to 90999.

The United Way has created a regional fund for communities hit by Sandy. They’re asking for donations at uwsandyrecovery.org.  Donors can also give $10 by texting RECOVERY to 52000.

New York:

New York Cares

Long Island Volunteer Center

New Jersey: Jersey Cares 1-800-JERSEY7

Volunteers in New Jersey are being coordinated through an emergency response hotline, 1-800-JERSEY-7 (1-800-537-7397). Alternate numbers, for when the hotline isn’t staffed, include 609-775-5236 and 908-303-0471 or emails can be sent to Rowena.Madden@sos.state.nj.us.

Rhode Island: Serve Rhode Island

Massachusetts: Boston Cares

And Now Our Street Art Listings for Fun Friday

1. New York Kings at Pure Evil (London)
2.”Stikman 20.1″ Opens in Philadelphia Tonight
3. EVOK “Ordinary Things” in Detroit
4. “Four” Group Show at Loft F (Boston)
5. Dale Grimshaw’s”Moreish”  Signal Gallery in London
6. ARD*POP-UP 2012 Festival in Oslo, Norway
7. Unruly Gallery in Amsterdam showing Finland’s Graffiti Artist EGS
8. JonOne solo show “Beautiful Madness” at Fabien Castanier in Studio City, CA
9. All City Canvas: The Short Film (VIDEO)
10. Chris Dyer in Montreal (VIDEO)

New York Kings at Pure Evil (London)

“New York Kings” is the title of the new group exhibition at the Pure Evil Gallery in London featuring COPE2, INDIE 184, BLADE, STAY HIGH 149, SEN2, FUZZ ONE, POEM, BOM5, RD 357, DECK, and EASY & JOZ . In London for the first time in over a decade, a unique exhibition of the godfathers of graffiti art using new york subway maps as their canvas to tell their 30 year story while remaining true to their roots. this is a rare opportunity to see examples of a genre that is often temporary by its very nature.

COPE on the streets of Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Stikman 20.1” Opens in Philadelphia Tonight

Enigmatic Street Artist STIKMAN has a solo show titled “Stikman 20.1” opening today at the Stupid Easy Gallery in Philadelphia, PA. You might not see him if you to the opening but you sure will see his vast artistic output on display. For 20 years Stikman has been putting his art on the streets based on this one character presented in so many different ways and situations, with humor, wit and poignancy – more recently they have appeared with a lot of Mondrian influences.  Most people never tire of discovering these rigid little fellers as they turn a corner, look up a sign post, cross a street, admire an architectural detail on a building.

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

REVOK “Ordinary Things” in Detroit

REVOK is a son of Detroit and the Library Street Collective Gallery is welcoming him with a solo show titled “Ordinary Things” opening tonight. The things may be ordinary, but what he makes with them are not. Assembling and fashioning found objects and materials he shows a fastidious attention to detail and an acute sense of balance, harmony and color.

Revok on the streets of Mimai (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Four” Group Show at Loft F (Boston)

Unveiling his new portrait of a certain candidate in Tuesday’s race, Dave Tree is showing in a group show titled “Four” at the Loft F Gallery in Boston, MA. This show opens today.

Dave Tree (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also Happening this weekend:

Dale Grimshaw‘s show “Moreish” is now open to the general public at the Signal Gallery in London, UK. Click here for more details on this show.

ARD*POP-UP 2012 Festival in Oslo, Norway is now underway until Sunday Nov. 04 with the participation of renowned Street Artists including: CODEROCK (NOR), M-CITY (POL), PHLEGM (UK), PEZ (SPA), KENOR (SPA), ZOSEN(SPA), CHANOIR (FRA), GALO (BRA),
SUB LUNA (ISL), ACHOE (NOR), MARTIN WHATSON (NOR) and DOT DOT DOT (NOR). Click here for more details on this festival.

Unruly Gallery in Amsterdam, The Netherlands is showing Finland’s Graffiti Artist EGS in a solo show with works on paper and sculptures. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details on this show.

JonOne solo show “Beautiful Madness” at the Fabien Castanier Gallery in Studio City, CA opens tomorrow. Click here for more details on this show.

All City Canvas: The Short Film (VIDEO)

Chris Dyer in Montreal (VIDEO)

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