The wall at Le M.U.R. in Paris got the Mode2 treatment just ahead of the legislative elections, offering a fine opportunity for the artist to wax politically. He created his message of empowerment on this fresco during the weekend of the Urban Art Fair in Paris after laying down the design in his sketchbook, he says on his Insta account.
It was “a LONG day”, he says, as he reached for a bit of a 90s atmosphere and greeted old friends and families who came to support him, document his work, share stories, and maybe have a quick meal with him.
In our rough translation, the OG writer, painter, historian, and keeper of the flame says, “I had come on a mission, more or less, no matter the circumstances, because the times we live in require of all of our extra efforts, to try to reverse the status quo that has been rotting our existence for more than four decades.”
Our many thanks to BSA contributor Tor Staale Moen for sharing his photos of Mode2 in action at Le M.U.R. in Paris.
“Art From the Streets”, an exhibition at the Art Science Museum in Singapore opened this weekend to coordinate with Singapore Art Week that runs from tomorrow until the end of the month with fairs, festivals and art exhibitions. Commercial art dealer and writer Magda Danysz curated the show with names she represents and whom you will be familiar with – Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Faile, and Futura, for example.
Two versions of the catalogue, one by Felipe Pantone, the other by Futura, are available on the Magda Danysz website .
But she also brings an eclectic mix of others on her roster and possibly lent from some private collections. Collectively they span many of the high profile, the saleable and known over the past 5 decades from various disciplines and philosophical practices; In the case of Jacques Villeglé, whose practice of lacerating posters in the 1960s predates Failes’ by 4 decades, a lineage can be drawn. Other connections are not as easy.
Ultimately the collection gives a sense of the vast number of personalities and techniques that have characterized the street practice in Europe and North America primarily without focusing on any one specialty too greatly. Here are the revered names along with mid-career folks and current darlings who are sure to leave a mark. There is also a small inclusion of more regional favorites like Eko Nugroho from Indonesia, and Singapore’s Speak Cryptic, who each were on hand this weekend with many of the artists for the opening.
Giving tours with microphone in hand during the opening days, the energetic Ms. Danysz educates new fans and potential buyers about an organic artists scene that grew from the streets and is now more frequently being offered for sale in places such as her three gallery locations in London, Paris, and Shanghai. Today it is slowly appearing more often in museums as well.
“Conscious that promotion of the emerging scene is necessary, Magda Danysz took part in many fairs,” says a press release, “such as for example Art Brussels, Arte Fiera in Bologna, Artissima in Torino, Fiac in Paris or Pulse in New York, and is one of the four galleries at the origin of the Show Off Paris art fair.”
This weekend’s activities included short presentations panel discussions and a screen of Wild Style.
We look forward to welcome you very soon at Palais Kinsky in Vienna!
Grand Opening: Thursday, May 16, 19:30.
Again we selected exciting artists from all over the world
Anthony Lister, Brad Downey, Dan Witz, Ellannah Sadkin (presented by Moniker Art Fair), Faith47 (presented by Moniker Art Fair), Max Wiedemann, Mode 2, Olivier Hölzl LIVIL, Ozmo, Stephen Tompkins, Vermibus (presented by Moniker Art Fair).
Nine internationally-renowned street artists will produce Klimt-inspired masterpieces in front of a live audience in London’s Grosvenor Gardens, on Tuesday 21st August.
Situated upon plinths, the artists will create new works resonant with the influence of Klimt in the square format,as part of the Vienna Tourist Board’s campaign to celebrate the 150th birthday of the famous Viennese artist. Inspired by Vienna’s rich cultural diversity, the unique celebration aims to showcase the city’s modern art scene and imperial heritage.
The completed works work will be displayed in the famous Lazarides Gallery in Soho as a public exhibition, ‘Klimt Illustrated’.
The exhibition at the Lazarides Gallery will be free and open to the general public from 24th August to 1st September, Tuesday to Saturday 11am – 7pm.
The Vienna Tourist Board has worked with the Lazarides Gallery and curator, Sydney Ogidan of BLK River, to secure the nine artists, who are: Mode 2 www.mode2.org; Lucy McLauchlan www.beat13.co.uk; Vhils www.alexandrefarto.com; Ron English www.popaganda.com; Christian Eisenberger www.van.at/see/eisen; Bastardilla www.bastardilla.org; Know Hope www.thisislimbo.com; Marlene Hausegger www.mmhhh.com; Work will also be on display from Shepard Fairey www.obeygiant.com, the famous American contemporary street artist and illustrator.
1. Giants Fans in Manhattan Streets (VIDEO)
2. “F*ck Art” at Museum of Sex
3. CASA DE EMPENO at Anonymous (Mexico City)
4. “Love & Hate” Group Show at Stolen Space (London)
5. CREEPY at Okazi Gallery (Berlin)
6. Chris Stain and H. Veng Smith at C.A.V.E. Gallery (Los Angeles)
7. Winter Group Show at White Walls Gallery (San Francisco)
8. Zes and Retna new show “Excavated Revelations”
9. German duo Herakut paint a mural at Big Art Labs (VIDEO)
Giants Fans in Manhattan Streets (VIDEO) Weeeeeeeee are the CHAMPEEEEENSSSS
Streets in Manhattan were bloated with about a million crazy football fans this week as the Superbowl-winning New York Giants had a parade and almost everybody skipped school and work to go see their heroes. Office workers literally dumped garbage cans of shredded paper out the window en masse while fans poured into the city from every direction, including nearby states, to roar as the players rode by. Some people were well behaved, but they were hard to see or hear because of all the hooligans raising holy hell. Here’s a video taste of it – some seriously funny sh*t. Watch out for unbridled testosterone fueled aggression, swear words and Giants inspired freestylin. NSFW, but okay for the street.
Click here to read our article and interviews with the curators and some of the artists.
CASA DE EMPENO at Anonymous (Mexico City)
In Mexico City Anonymous Gallery new group show “Casa de Empeño” opens today to the general public. Centered around the themes of a Pawn Shop the show includes internationally recognized Street Artists Judith supine. Maya Hayuk and Davil Ellis among others.
For further information regarding this show click here
“Love & Hate” Group Show at Stolen Space (London)
“Love & Hate” the new group show at Stolen Space Gallery in London opens today to the general public. With the participation of several Street Artists from different cities including: D*Face, Dan Witz, Miss Van, Ronzo, Toshi, Will Barras, Word To Mother, Jeff Soto and EINE among others.
“F*ck Art”, an undulating and adventurous group show by New York Street Artists opens its arms and legs to you at the Museum of Sex (MoSex) tomorrow and whether it’s the human powered penetrating bicycle or the glass bead encrusted dildo, it endeavors to satisfy.
Co-curated by Emilie Baltz (Creative Director) and Mark Snyder (Director of Exhibitions), the show selects 20 current Street Artists who have pushed notions of propriety into provocation on the street and it invites them to let it loose behind closed doors. Not that Miss Van needs anyone’s permission; her sensual role-playing painted ladies have been playfully preening on graff-piled walls and blue-boarded construction sites for much of the 2000s. Similarly the powerfully stenciled sirens by Street Artist AIKO have been bending over in high heels on walls all over the world with just a hint of the geishas from her native Japan for over a decade.
The “Fuck Bike #001”, a pedal operated plunging machine by William Thomas Porter and Andrew H. Shirley, has at its conceptual base an ode to the lengths a guy will go to reach his natural objective. The two artist met at a Black Label Bike Club event called “Ridin’ Dirty” in 2010 and later schemed together to make an entry for a bike-themed group show in Bushwick, Brooklyn that featured many Street Artists like DarkClouds, Ellis G., UFO, Noah Sparkes and Mikey 907. “I approached Tom with the idea of creating a kinetic bike sculpture which you could f*ck someone with,” remembers Mr. Shirley, “Tom is a very gifted artist and bike engineer, it took a few days for him to build our design.”
Visitors to the show are invited to mount the bike and take it for a spin. “This bike is more sculpture oriented, but still functions sexually. It’s also totally interactive,” explains Mr. Shirley, who has displayed the bike in cities in Europe and America, most recently at Art Basel in Miami in December. So the bike has gotten around and Shirley happily recounts stories of intimate encounters it has had with both genders. (See the very Not-Safe-For-Work film of the bike in action below.)
The street has certainly seen an increase of fairly graphic sex related Street Art in the last decade or so as people have become more comfortable with such themes and much of this show can often be seen throughout the city without the price of admission. Gay couple Bryan Raughton and Nathan Vincent have been putting large and small scaled paste-ups of sexually themed imagery as a Street Art duo called RTTP for about two years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Short for “Reply To This Post”, the line-drawn torsos and spread eagles are all part of their collaborative Street Art project that explores the desires of men seeking men on Craigslist.
Describing the work, Vincent says it’s a process of lifting the mystery off of a just-below-the-radar Internet dating game – and pasting it on a lightpole. “Users post an ad with an image, title, and a short description of what they are looking for tonight. The photograph they post of themselves is drawn and titled with the ad’s title.” By putting these erotically based desires on the streets, Vincent thinks “they magnify those desires that often seem to live at the edges.” Says Raughton of the project, “We see it as an interesting way to take people private desires to the public street.”
In discussing the origins and underpinnings of a show like this, the co-curators reveal a more academic and sociological grounding than the prurient and salacious sauciness one might infer by a display of so much “F*ck Art”. We asked Baltz to give us a sense of the context for a Street Art driven sex show.
Brooklyn Street Art:What is your favorite part of curating a show like this? Emilie Baltz: Seeing the different interpretations and energy that each artist brings to their work is always the most interesting part of curating – with this topic, especially, it’s the fact that they are all pushing the limits of their medium by creating such provocative statements.
Brooklyn Street Art:While these pieces are behind closed doors available to a certain audience, Street Artists typically put their work out in the public. Do you think the work should change depending on the audience? Emilie Baltz: We don’t think it’s about changing the work, it’s about how the work changes the environment it lives in. Street art has a long history of revealing different perspectives on its surrounding environment and by placing this work in a museum it creates a certain energy and visual provocation that changes the relationship we traditionally have to the museum-going experience.
Brooklyn Street Art:Do you think there has been an increase in sex-related street art in recent years, and if so, why? Emilie Baltz: There definitely is an increase in sex-related conversations in recent years. It’s not that there is more content suddenly, it’s just that culture is actually ready to start talking about it now, rather than ignore it.
Brooklyn Street Art:We have noticed that themes of sex and sexuality are often quickly destroyed on the street, while other pieces remain for months. Is this a form of selective censorship by the public? Emilie Baltz: Street art is a dialogue. Its creation is about expression and commentary, and therefore can become a barometer of cultural consciousness (or unconsciousness). The intimate and emotional nature of sexual content can obviously elicit strong feelings in viewers, and, given that street art is an environmental medium, either you have to live with it or get rid of it. Sex walks a fine line between acceptance and rejection. Public response to this kind of art is potentially a mirror into how our society relates to the topic.
Brooklyn Street Art:What surprised you the most about putting this show together? Emilie Baltz: The enthusiasm from the public. People are genuinely excited to talk about sex in public space and it’s an incredible honor to be able to help facilitate that discussion.
F*CK ART
A Street Art Occupation at the Museum of Sex in New York City, opens February 8 and will run through June 10, 2012.
Emilie Baltz, Co-Curator, Creative Director, F*CK ART
Mark Snyder, Co-Curator F*CK ART, Director of Exhibitions, Museum of Sex
Meghan Coleman and Alex Emmart of Might Tanaka Gallery in Brooklyn served as Chief Advisors.
Conor Harrington Teaser. Image courtesy of the gallery.
ZEVS Teaser. Image courtesy of the gallery.
EUROPEAN BAILOUT SHOW
Antony Micallef – Conor Harrington – Ian Francis – Jonathan Yeo
JR – Mode2 – Paul Insect – Stanley Donwood – Vhils – Zevs
July 28 – August 28, 2011
POST NO BILLS proudly announces their second exhibition in its Venice
Beach based print shop. The European Bailout Show will feature
exclusive new limited edition prints and original artwork by ten of
Europe’s most innovative and highly celebrated artists- Anthony
Micallef, Conor Harrington, Ian Francis, Jonathan Yeo, JR, Mode 2,
Paul Insect, Stanley Donwood, Vhils and Zevs.
Continuing the overwhelming success of the shop’s launch last month
with artist collective FAILE, the European Bailout Show highlights
some of the most riveting creative minds in Europe today, with an
impressive range of works from established and up-and-coming artists
who continue to defy categorization. These artists’ innovative
approaches and distinctive styles continue to challenge the
conventional definitions of art and its boundaries.
The European Bailout Show features exclusive print editions including
Arnold Schwarzenegger titled “Arnie” by Jonathan Yeo, the renowned
master painter recognized for his controversial portraits made from
collaged pornographic magazine clippings. Stanley Donwood, the highly
regarded designer of Radiohead’s album art, has created a unique and
limited print suite. Other notable editions include those of TED award-
winning guerrilla artist and filmmaker, JR, and a small edition of
laser etchings on wood by Portuguese artist Vhils, identified by his
inventive techniques used to manipulate urban environments. In
addition to the offered multiples, select artists will exhibit
original artwork including Antony Micallef, who won massive acclaim
for his 2007 Los Angeles sold-out solo show, Impure Idols, and Conor
Harrington, recognized for his impressive large-scale works of art,
mixing bold imagery with historical and contemporary themes.
The second exhibition at POST NO BILLS continues to promote the shop’s
mission-to provide passionate collectors of all levels with access to
artwork of premium quality and master craftsmanship from an array of
prolific talent worldwide. Now, the European Bailout Show brings an
opportunity to acquire a slice of Europe’s finest.
POST NO BILLS
The term POST NO BILLS is commonly identified in stencil form – on
barriers erected around construction sites in an effort to deter clean
walls from being altered. Generally speaking, this practice produces a
contrary effect. Our founders subscribe to the notion that breaking
rules generally inspires more ingenuity than following them. Which is
why POST NO BILLS was created.
POST NO BILLS is an inventive print shop with a focus on hand made
limited edition multiples. We are a singular destination where
groundbreaking artists from around the globe can sell their wears
directly to passionate collectors at all levels. Editions will be made
on the premises with a true dedication to quality.
Opening Reception: July 28, 2011 (7 – 10pm)
Exhibition Runs: July 28– August 28, 2011
Yes, Banksy is here. The giant “Art in the Streets” show opening this weekend at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles gives a patch of real estate to the international man of mystery who has contributed greatly to the worldwide profile of this soon to be, maybe already, mainstream phenomenon known as street art. A smattering of his pranksterism is an absolute must for any show staking claim to the mantle of comprehensive survey and an excellent way to garner attention. But “Streets” gets it’s momentum by presenting a multi-torch colorful and explosive people’s history that began way before Banksy was born and likely will continue for a while after.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
