All posts tagged: KH1

NYC Street Artists Collaborate! Reason No. 31 to love New York

NYC Street Artists Collaborate! Reason No. 31 to love New York

According to the new issue of New York Magazine , whose cover story “Reasons to Love New York” is on newsstands today, Reason Number 31 is because our street art is collaborative.

click to enlarge and see all the names they helpfully tracked down

Street Artists have a greater spirit of collaboration than you might imagine

Billi Kid provided pictures that document the ongoing conversation of street artists in one part of the city.  And it’s pretty rare to hear about “Beef”, something that was a mainstay of graff culture back in the daze.

According to the article, “In gallery-rich Chelsea, a brick wall on West 22nd Street became, over the past year, an ephemeral showroom for international street art. The canvas changed appearance almost daily, as artists (some identified here) overlaid new pieces over the work of their predecessors.”

When reached by BSA for comment, street artist Billi Kid was big-hearted and magnanimous, full of Holiday Spirit, “It’s all about community. It’s all about collaboration. It’s all about joy. HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!”

That just makes me want to say “Ho-Ho-Ho!” or, as we used to say at Christmas when I worked at a mega-club on West 29th Street, “Whore-Whore-Whore!”

Now it is probably inpolitik to say such a thing, but “Sex Worker-Sex Worker-Sex Worker” just doesn’t have a Christmas ring to it.

VIEW THE NEW YORK MAG Street Art Slideshow here:

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Images of Week 07.05.09

Aakash Nihalani
Aakash Nihalani (photo Jaime Rojo)

Part of the India Sreet Mural Project, a neighborly welcome from Skewville, Chris Stain, and Logan Hicks (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Part of the India Sreet Mural Project, a neighborly welcome from Skewville, Chris Stain, and Logan Hicks (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Red Nose Peru Ana
Tazmat Red Nose & Peru Ana (photo Jaime Rojo)

Shark Toof Passenger Pigeon
Yummy ocean snacks (Passenger Pigeon) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Skewville
Skewville SideB (photo Jaime Rojo)

Submarine
Submarine (photo Jaime Rojo)

Tada is the Coolest
Tada is the Coolest (photo Jaime Rojo)

Tea Time
One lump or two? Tea Time (photo Jaime Rojo)

We Heart Cake
We Heart Cake (photo Jaime Rojo)

Cake
Cake (photo Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK
A thin strip of Veng RWK (photo Jaime Rojo)

Passenger Pigeon
Passenger Pigeon (photo Jaime Rojo)

Bird's Nest and Hercules
KH1, Bird (photo Jaime Rojo)

Skewville Side A
Skewville Side A (photo Jaime Rojo)

Cake's Lungs
The brain-lung connection (Cake) (photo Jaime Rojo)

General Howe
Soldiers Bones (General Howe) (photo Jaime Rojo)

"So Long Krissa" Passenger Pigeon
“So Long Krissa” Passenger Pigeon (photo Jaime Rojo)

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Images of the Week 06.07.09

Aakash Nihalani_Poster Boy

Summer Action Adventure Staycation (Aakash Nihalani, Poster Boy) (photo Jaime Rojo)

look for artist's name

Fitful growths of irregularity (Pork) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Aakash

Less boxy, more planular (I made up that word), Mr. Nihalani is experimenting with new abstractions. (Aakash Nihalani) (photo Jaime Rojo)

General Howe

On the lookout for incoming battalions of duncery approaching in their cargo shorts and Abercrombie t-shirts (General Howe) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent

Hey everybody! Come look at this new Jack Black movie! I won't bite, promise (Hellbent) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Herakut

A needed Herakut (photo Jaime Rojo)

KH1

Boy, the way Glenn Miller played.... (KH1) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Nine Flies

Its a Revolution! (Nine Flies) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Nomade keeps good company

Nomade keeps good company (photo Jaime Rojo)

Roof top art

Roof Pork (Pork) (Photo Jaime Rojo)

Space Invader

Which way? I'm always getting lost in this part of town. (Space Invader) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Sexy Blossoms

Sexy Blossoms of Wisteria only this time of year (photo Jaime Rojo)

Akash Nihalani Poster Boy Passenger Pigeon

Akash Nihalani, Poster Boy, and Passenger Pigeon become far out and psychedelic (photo Jaime Rojo)

Dein

Welcome back to the hideout (Dain) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Leif Mcllwaine EllisG

These beer-swilling men, they're all flat and grey to me. I need someone with excitement, know what I mean? (EllisG, Leif Mcllwaine) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Shark Toof

Shark Toof flies the friendly skies (photo Jaime Rojo)

Unknown

Sometimes we have no idea what is on the wall. One of the many mysteries of the street art scene. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent

A great dislocation (Hellbent) (photo Jaime Rojo)

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Portrait of a First Lady:  Billi Kid and Sticker Collabs

Portrait of a First Lady: Billi Kid and Sticker Collabs

Maybe it’s history in the making, or myth-making, maybe it’s unending fascination with celebrity, but many artists, street artists included,

have produced art about Obama in the last 12 months. The new administration is a machine in motion this spring, and while the haterz are looking for ways to play down Obama’s successes, his missus is not missing an opportunity to engage the press with her Harvard Law School graduate brain, her support of military families, her commitment to volunteering, and (oh yes) her fashion statements at the G20 meetings and Personal Displays of Affection toward the British Royal Family (PDABRF).  More popular in polls than her husband, Mrs. Obama’s personal and professional history are being fleshed out daily, and her place as a cultural icon is happening before our jaded eyes.

Brooklyn street artist Billi Kid is no stranger to “Obamart”, having shown his own portrait work of Barack when he participated in a group show in Washington, DC in the days preceding the Presidential Inauguration called “Manifest Hope:DC” with 150 artists including Shepard Fairey and Ron English. Truth told, Billi has done quite a few versions of the president over the past year, feeling like it was a good way for him to participate in the public discussion about the political landscape.  His sticker collaboration collage work has been slapping up in magazines here and abroad, and it’s helping his fellow artists get exposure along the way, which he loves.

Preparing for a new show at ArtBreak Gallery in Brooklyn May 2nd, (this time as a curator), Mr. Kid talks to BSA about his engagement with the political as personal and his experience with his recent Michelle Obama piece;

Street artist Billi Kid scored big with his recent illustration of Michele Obama in New York magazine.

Street artist Billi Kid scored big with his recent illustration of Michele Obama in New York magazine.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you score a full page in the New York magazine article?
Billi Kid: Luck had a lot to do with it. I pasted a recent piece titled “Greed i$ Good” on the wall of one of my favorite spots on 22nd street, outside of Comme des Garçons. It happened to be right in front of where the photo editor (Jody Quon) of New York magazine lives. One thing led to another.

Wall Street robber amid a chorus of FKDL, KH1, Judith Supine, and more (courtesy Billi Kid)

“Greed i$ Good”; a Wall Street robber amid a chorus of FKDL, KH1, Judith Supine, Peru Ana and more (courtesy Billi Kid)

Brooklyn Street Art: Hundreds of artists made portraits of Obama. Do you think we look to artists to help us understand these people?

Billi Kid: I can’t speak for anyone else, but as a registered independent, I became completely engrossed with the campaign our current president was running in 2008 and immediately re-registered as a Democrat for the occasion. Adding my voice to the streets became a natural extension (of that).

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the technique you used to produce this?

Billi Kid: I’m known for my combo slaps and had labored during the campaign to get everyone I trade stickers with into the mix. In particular, boards using the epic Obama for President poster by Zoltron as a centerpiece. It simply involves collage techniques and composition. One of these boards made it into Time magazine’s man of the year issue with a Shepard Fairey portrait on the cover.

Billi Kid's sticker combo made it into the Person of the Year issue of Time Magazine in December. (courtesy Billi Kid)

One of Billi Kid’s sticker collaboration pieces in the Person of the Year issue of Time magazine this past December (courtesy Bill Kid)

The Michelle portrait involved a breakdown of her likeness into a two-layer stencil. The actual portrait used in the magazine was a print pasted on the collage board, but this would be same technique used to execute my stencils. I plan some stencil boards of this in the near future. Look for it on the streets.

Brooklyn Street Art: Your work typically employs a lot of color, why did you chose simple black and white?

Billi Kid: So far all of my stencil boards are colored backgrounds with black and white stenciled layers on top. I was planning to do a stencil originally, but time did not allow it. Besides that, stickers became a factor.

Is it all black and white? (courtesy Billi Kid)

Is it all black and white? (courtesy Billi Kid)

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the significance of placing her head on a bed of stickers?

Billi Kid: In conversation with the magazine, I understood they wanted artists to interpret their ideas about Michelle into their portrait. For me, it became clear that I had to use stickers because they represented community and inclusion to me. Precisely what the Obamas are about. It felt right to get all of my brothers and sisters from around the country and the world into the magazine. Kind of a one-world point of view.

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you heard from the other sticker artists who are in the piece? Were they excited?

Billi Kid: Yeah!!! They love this about my work. They trust that the work goes up, instead of into a private little black book. That they get published is icing on the cake. This approach pays ample dividends for me. What goes around comes around.

Brooklyn Street Art: A lot of artists want to be published but aren’t familiar with the process that happens during editing. Was your piece altered at all by the editors? Was there a lot of back and forth discussion?

Billi Kid: We discussed my idea at length and fortunately I had plenty of samples to illustrate my intent. The only discouraging edit was the fact that they cropped the image so tight. The board went temporarily up somewhere in the Bronx and I wanted the environment to be part of the final cut. Unfortunately, this did not happen – for good reason – it was about Michelle after all, lol.

The original piece by Billi Kid

The original piece by Billi Kid

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you have any special connection to the first lady, her personal story?

Billi Kid: Only in so far as what we all have heard about her. Like her husband; a self-made independent person who picked herself up by the straps of her boots and carved a place for herself in the American landscape. Precisely what Republicans always say about their vision for America, no handouts, just the courage to move forward with the gifts given to you by our creator.

Brooklyn Street Art: What role do you think Street Artists play in the public discourse of politics or social issues?

Billi Kid: The same role graffiti has always played on the word stage throughout history; to give voice to opinions not paid for by the ruling parties. Until recently, it had always been about politics, not just pissing on the wall.

Brooklyn Street Art: What project are you working on right now?

Billi Kid: I just completed four canvases commission by the Ace hotel opening in NYC and am now co-curating, with the incomparable Luna Park, an exiting new exhibition, theGREAToutDOORS opening at Artbreak Gallery in Williamsburg May 2nd.

Ultimate Collabo (courtesy Billi Kid)

Ultimate Collabo; Billy and Luna  (courtesy Billi Kid)

Luna Park

Billi Kid

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