Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!
Here is our weekly conversation with the street, this week including Dan Witz, Okek, Ian Mutch, ATOMS, Lover, Senk, Greks Steffi, ZAPS, Solito, and Bley.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening:
1. Talking with Tony Tuan Luong AKA Tyle2
2. OLEK: I Have Nothing To Declare Except My Genius
3. Sofles in Brisbane featuring Gamo & Kitsa
4. MadC – Oasis
It’s thrilling to see the many twists and turns on the path of calligraffiti. Here we are introduced to Graffiti, Calligraphy, and Tattoo artist TONY TUAN LUONG aka TYLE2 from Offenburg, Germany, who gives a short interview in this first new “Artist Session” with the Molotov brand. Friday is always a great day for inspiration and we hope this can inspire you.
Artist Session with Tony Tuan Luong AKA Tyle2
OLEK: I Have Nothing To Declare Except My Genius
The Polish street artist has nothing but the usual to declare. She’s been saying it for years. If only you would listen.
Man1 on Hollywood Blvd via Birdman.
“A fun mural I shot with LA native Man1 in Los Angeles, CA,” says photographer and video documenter Birdman.
MadC – Oasis
Modern master of styles, MadC knows how to keep it tight and how to let it flow, like an ocean’s mists, across the walls she climbs and conquers. Its not just the dynamism, the scale. It’s also the confidence, the fact that you feel she can see it before she begins. She is an oasis.
Typically a bus stop is not a place where you would discover someone of interest, but in Święcica Poland you could find the Queen of the Night following you out of the corner of her eye.
“Przystanek” is the Polish word for “bus stop” and street artist Olek has been curating this one for a few years, inviting new people to give their interpretation a proper place in the public square. This month artist Roksana Kularska- Krol (Roxi) paints Queens of the Night.
“These heroines are the embodiments of the archetype of the Great Mother (the Great Goddess, Queen of the Universe),” Olek tells us, “and by painting them, the artist shows that the seemingly distant world of myths and symbols is still alive, even when we are not aware of it.”
Painting for a little over a decade, Roxi completed this installation with the participation of Olek and with The Common Good of Our Village Association from Święcica. The roof treatment, “The Crown’, is provided by artist Sebastian Kularski.
Olek tells us that the new painting is inspired by the strong, entrepreneurial women of Swiecica. What is a “Przystanek” (bus stop) really? Olek elucidates here, singing its many praises:
Przystanek means:
The sound of the full moon
Light of the dancing river
Smell of vibration around purring kittens
Expanding space
To be touched by forest
Sound of sunset resting on the forest
Everything with the forest about the forest in the forest with the forest
Drumming with the fire by the fire
Thunderstorm
Silence before and after
Pierogies
Singing happy chickens delivering your breakfast
Rhythm of slow walk
Smell of the cracking wood under your feet
The weight of a kitten on your lap when you are creating
Vibration of a candlelight
That dances with a thunderbolt opening the sky
The colors of a thought under a pen
Vibrant stillness
Radiant darkness
Movement of drying wildflowers
The sharp eye of the Hawk circling above you
Transformation comes like death in its own time
They take you from one dimension into another
We Are The Grandchildren Of The Witches You Weren’t Able To Burn.
My Crown is in my Heart, not on my Head.
Many are invited, but few are chosen.
My Universe is Paradise.
~ Olek
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. Indigo Blood Project by Koralie / Work in progress
2. Melbourne 2018
3. Olek: The Artist Weaving The World Together
4. Ben Eine’s New Ted Talk
And the award for sound editing goes to Koralie and team on this brand new video promoting her show and book at Jonathan Levine Projects that debuts shortly and draws inspiration from her travels around the world. You will not miss one audio aspect of the creative process here, nor will you miss how the French Street Artist has incorporated folk, ritual, and traditional craft in her work.
She is creating a “dreamlike multicultural harmony” that reigns in the wildness associated with aerosol and markers – giving everything it’s appropriate, attractive place in the formalized geometry of her new works.
A splendid survey of Melbourne in this moment from Christophe Delvalie, the director allows you to discover the character of the street life with a soundtrack drawn directly from it. Then rather abruptly you are plunged into night time and nature. Oh I get it, this is like an audio visual postcard from his trip to Melbourne! Okay, cool.
“With my work I want to create pieces that engage community together and allow us to really create something positive.” From this perspective, it is working.
Famed Street Artist Ben Eine speaks candidly about his career as graffiti writer and contemporary artist during the TEDx event at the University of East Anglia.
We made it! But it was a rough few days just finished with storms and rain and snow and high winds and flooding and downed trees around New York and its environs. Similarly, as one surveys the chaos reigning in Washington, one must not be blinded by the sound and fury and has to measure what foundations are being broken and what soil is being eroded during this deliberate and man-made storm. Also Tax Payers, You’ve Been Scammed.
In other news Street Artist JR and New Wave cinema pioneer Agnès Varda are well positioned for an Oscar tonight, Nuart continues a 2nd year in the beautification of Aberdeen, Street Artist Haifa Subay is painting murals to help ensure that victims of Yemen’s grueling three-year civil war are not forgotten, conservative Street Artist Sabo took over three billboards to attack Hollywood about hidden pedophilia, a Florida billboard calls NRA a ‘terrorist organization’ , INDECLINE did a billboard takeover protesting gun violence and criticizing the ease of gun access, and NY street collage artist PhoebeNewYork says her background in fashion is the driving influence in her work on the streets.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Below Key, Bond TruLuv, Bunny M, Combo, Crash, Eleonora Arosio, Faith XVVII, Free the Bunny, Imraan Christian, Jaeraymie, Lamkat, Little Ricky, Manyoly, Olek, Ollio, PAM, Paper Skaters, RAD, SK, Specter, and UFO907.
As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2017 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s an assortment of treats to surprise you with every day – to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2018. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to each of you for inspiring us throughout the year.
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Poland-born Brooklyn-residing crochet innovator OLEK devises and implicates and eradicates and constructs and executes abstract emotions and socio-politically charged strategies into her public performance pieces and installations in places as far-flung as India and Stockholm and Raleigh, North Carolina. Few fools are suffered, local volunteers are engaged, and heroicism seems always within reach as the crocheted crusader takes on issues of inequality, systemic-institutional bias, alienation, discrimination, immigration, the war machine, the refugees that are created by it, the psychic wounds created by it. Sometimes it feels like each day we get to see a different expression of OLEK’s heart and creativity in the public arena. Today she shares with us a chance encounter she had with two women this year and how it inspired her to have courage and to spread its message.
OLEK
A conversation between Lama and Sarah:
Lama: When I saw them, I was really scared.
Sarah: I started thinking: “How did we do it? How did we find the courage to do something like that?”
Lama: Do you think one of our vests might be there?
Sarah: I don’t know.
Lama: Can you imagine if one of them is ours?
Sarah: When I first saw them I felt the chills all over my body. I immediately remembered everything and felt that someone is thinking about us.
Berlin, Kathmandu, Santa Fe, Brooklyn, Sweden, London, New York, the country of Georgia, Raleigh, North Carolina. The favorite stories of BSA readers spanned all of these places this year as we documented this global people’s art movement variously described as Street Art/ graffiti/ urban art. We put it out there daily and you react to it – sharing it on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram – starting conversations and creating connections.
The topics of these 15 favorite stories run the gamut as well; From Banksy and Brexit, Marxism and Urvanity to a bodega completely made of felt, your voracious appetite was wide ranging. From a well crafted graffiti writing exhibition at a white suburban Pennsylvania college where the tuition is 50K to an attempt to bring reassuring cultural heritage art to the streets of Kathmandu where the museum was destroyed by an earthquake – the extremes and ironies only peaked your interest.
You loved seeing and hearing Martha Cooper getting her first solo exhibition in New York and the mania that queued thousands to see the transformation of a 5 floor bank in Berlin by graffiti writers, Street Artists, installation artists and performers. You care about the earth and its people, like the story of ICY an SOT in the country of Georgia making human sculptures of trash as a critique of globalized waste, and the story of Chip Thomas using his Street Art to draw attention to a traditional Hopi farming technique called “dry farming”.
And in 2017 the resonance of ‘Resistance is Female’ catapulted our story of the illegal campaign of phone booth takeovers to the top 15, showing that a uniquely impactful high-jacking of the advertising streetscape is always going to win fans.
No matter where we went in 2017, BSA readers were always invited to go along with us and discover people and art on the street and in the gallery or the museum whether it was in Scotland, Hong Kong, Berlin, Sweden, Mexico or Tahiti. We captured what we could and interpreted it – and you told us what you liked by re-Tweeting and re-Gramming and re-Facebooking.
From 365 postings over the last year, here are the 15 you liked the most.
No. 15
Marx and Engels Statues Re-Skinned & Re-Located : Various & Gould
Various & Gould: Marx & Engels. Continue reading HERE
No. 14
“MADRID ME MATA”: Another Look at “Urvanity”
says Fernando Alcalá Losa, the avid Barcelona based photographer of street culture. He doesn’t literally mean that the Spanish capital is deadly, but rather speaks of his devotion to Madrids’ energy, its possibility, its history, its people, and to its art. The torrid affairs of the heart are invariably complicated, as is the evolution of graffiti and Street Art from their outlaw illegal roots to their flirtations and trysts with other forms and venues; murals, in-studio practice, gallery representation, institutional recognition, or commercial viability.
We are pleased that Mr. Alcalá Losa comes to talk to BSA readers today and takes us to Madrid for the new art fair called “Urvanity” to see what he discovers with you, courtesy his words and his lovers’ view behind the camera.
Madrid Me Mata…in a good sense. Continue reading HERE
No. 13
Lucy Sparrow Opens an All-Felt Bodega in NYC : “8 ‘Till Late”
Lucy Sparrow 8 ‘Till Late. Continue reading HERE
No. 12
“All Big Letters” Opens, Curated by RJ Rushmore
All Big Letters. Continue reading HERE
No. 11
Anonymouse: Miniature Vignettes on the Street for “No Limit” Festival in Boras, Sweden
Anonymouse. Minuature Vignettes. Continue reading HERE
No. 1o
Bunnies, Birds, Sexuality and VINZ Feel Free’s “Innocence” in Brooklyn
Vinz Feel Free. “Innocence”. Continue reading HERE
No. 09
Julien De Casabianca, Angry Gods, and Hacking Disaster in Kathmandu
Julien De Casabianca/Outings Projects in Kathmandu. Continue reading HERE
No. 08
Rocking “THE HAUS” : A 5-Floor Berlin Bank is Transformed by Artists
Rocking The Haus. Continue reading HERE
No. 07
Working the Cornfields on a Santa Fe Facade with Jetsonorama
Working The Cornfields. Continue reading HERE
No. 06
Urban Nation Berlin. Art Mile. Continue reading HERE
No. 05
“Resistance is Female” Takes Over Phone Booths in New York
Resistance Is Female. Continue reading HERE
No. 04
Street Artist OLEK and Volunteers Create NINA SIMONE Tribute in Raleigh, NC
Olek. Here Comes The Sun. Continue reading HERE
No. 03
Icy & Sot and a Man of Trash in Tbilisi, Georgia
Icy & Sot. Human reflections on nature. Continue reading HERE
No. 02
“Martha Cooper” Solo Exhibition Reveals Many Unseen “Action Shots”
Martha Cooper Solo Show. Continue reading HERE
No. 01
Banksy Hits Brexit With New Piece, MaisMenos & BLU Used EU Flag Earlier
Banksy Brexit. Continue reading HERE
Every Friday we invite you to stop by and take a look at new videos that have been submitted or recommended or that we tripped over walking by the railroad tracks. This year we showed you about 250 of them.
We call it BSA Film Friday and it travels with us to cities around the world now when we do it LIVE with you and other audience members in theaters and lecture halls and museums. The beauty of the video/film form is you can get a full story quickly, and you are often surprised by how transformative it can be. You can also see how many people are affected by urban and street culture through these films – we see people’s eyes light up when they realize that they too can create in public space, that the world is not simply a product but is a piece of art that many of their peers are now jumping in to co-create.
As a collection, these 15 are illuminating, elevating, riveting, strange, soaring, and achingly beautifully normal. From looking at the Separation Wall and Banksy to a travelling crew of graffiti writers on farms in Polish pig country to the amazing dance troupe who interpreted the 5 floors of art installations in a downtown Berlin former bank, you have before you a massive buffet of a visual feast.
The final desert is hand-held phone video caught in the moment last month in Mexico City. We didn’t know Keith Haring was coming down the tracks to surprise us, and we didn’t know that this unpolished jewel would garner thousands of viewers and commenters – effectively placing this little piece of video at number 1 for its popularity. Maybe the fact that it is so raw is what people relate to – along with an ongoing adulation for Haring.
We hope you can take some time to enjoy some of the best Street Art videos from around the world and on BSA this year.
No. 15
Faith XLVII / Aqua Regalia Hong Kong
No. 14
Gonzalo Borondo / Cenere
No. 13
The Haus / Lunatix Dance
No. 12
Ella & Pitr / Frappés PinPins
No. 11
Indecline/ Rail Beast
No. 10
Olek / In the Blink of an Eye
No. 09
Sebastian Purfürst – Soniconoclasm / Broken Motor
No. 08
Pixel Pancho/ UN – Berlin
No. 07
FifthWall TV / Occupied in Bethlehem – A visit to BANKSY’s “Walled Off Hotel”
No. 06
Various & Gould / City Skins – Marx und Engels
No. 05
Rurales
No. 04
Swoon/ Fearless
No. 03
Fin DAC/ Rooftop in San Francisco
Video editing by Tonic Media, Soundtrack by Mombassa/Lovechild, and shout out to Ian and Danielle at Rocha Art and Missy Marisa, model.
No. 02
Niels Shoe Meulman In Magic City / The Art Of The Street
No. 01
Keith Haring- Rough Cut / Mexico City Metro
This rough cut lil’ video reached more than 300K individuals and had 100K views with thousands of shares on FB and on Instagram with dozens of comments and high engagement was easily propelled to the #1 spot.
Ahhhhh the sun! The sea! The cigarette butt stuck to my leg from last night.
Also, did I wear ONLY this swimsuit and shoes, or did I originally go out with more clothes?
Anyway this is Miami and the annual mural-street art-graffiti-gallery show-art fair-melee is afoot. Wherever you go in Wynwood you are bound to find Instagrammable moments and pretty things pontificating about this or that, but if you want to see good stuff we’re suggesting this year that downtown is the next Wynwood, beginning with the historic Walgreens Building on 200 East Flager Street. Its second iteration, the Juxtapoz Clubhouse feels more like an organically spawned environment; cognizant of the many tributaries from where this art scene evolved, with room for free thought, experimentation, and growth.
Take a trip to another part of Miami this year and see JUX’s many assorted exhibitions and exhibitionists. Here’s a few of the hits we hope you hit.
Juxtapoz Magazine is taking over a 3-story department store with art installations, activations, murals, and site-specific projects, featuring works by Conor Harrington, Jean Jullien, Faith XLVII with Inka Kendzia, Ron English, Laurence Vallières, Serge Lowrider, Low Bros, Zane Meyer, Jillian Evelyn, Alex Yanes.
Juxtapoz will also be releasing their new Quarterly edition at the Clubhouse along with editions of Shepard Fairey’s “The Damage Times” newspaper, created in conjunction with his Damaged solo show.
Juxtapoz is also showcasing projects from Jonathan LeVine Projects, Thinkspace, Corey Helford Gallery, Think Tank, Athen B Gallery, Good Mother Gallery, Superchief Gallery, First Amendment, Station 16 Gallery and Urban Nation.
Juxtapoz will also once again team up with Mana Contemporary on a special mural by Conor Harrington and a-soon-to-be revealed skate park project – remember the massive skate park with Mana and Andrew Schoultz in the Wynwood neighborhood.
Historic Walgreens Building
200 East Flager Street
December 7 – 10, 2017
Opening Reception: December 6, 4 – 9 pm
From 7th to 10th of December URBAN NATION is part of the Juxtapoz Magazine CLUBHOUSE project @downtown Miami with Mimi Scholz Arts, #MateusBailon, Insane 51 and Nuno Viegas
Jonathan LeVine Gallery is pleased to present a group exhibition at the Juxtapoz Clubhouse featuring the following artists:
Adam Wallacavage, David Choong Lee, Handiendan, Jeremy Fish, Jim Salvati, Jim Woodring, João Ruas, Josh Tiessen, Julia Ibbini, Kevin Cyr, Kip Omolade, Prefab77, Radosław Liweń and Ronald Gonzalez.
Los Angeles-based Corey Helford Gallery is showing new stuff by OLEK as part of the Juxtapoz Clubhouse. Olek says “Playpen” is a witty and flirtatious series featuring three new sculptures and an impressive 20-foot installation of an 8-legged “Spider Woman,” adorned with motifs like eyes, lips, hearts and flowers.
Look out for sculptures that represent various fantasy objects — a “Cat Snail” playset, a classical-shaped “Woman Bust” and a potted “Cock Plant” — all of which come to life under the glow of black light. Initially inspired by her own play experience as a young girl, OLEK uses this series to explore concepts of womanhood, sexuality, and feminist ideals.
Thinkspace is 2 for 2 here at the Clubhouse during Art Basel week in Miami with James Bullough and Jaune on site leaving their unmistakable marks.
Superchief will feature works by Parker Day, Don Pablo Pedro, UFO 907, Yu Maeda, and Reginald Pean and will be screening Wastedland 2 on Thursday December 7th at 7pm. See our interview with the director here.
Good Mother will feature Egle Zvirblyte & Jose Mendez
Station 16 will be featuring a new installation by Laurence Vallières
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening :
1. OLEK: Keep Going
2. Aïda Gómez: Ladies First
3. A Look at the Worlds First Museum of Urban Contemporary Art
4. MurOne // 12 + 1 Project
5. Obey Giant – The Documentary
Entitled “Keep Going,” one can imagine a number of interpretations of what is intended by the artist. Is it to reflect the unstopping, unstoppable traffic of people on the street who saunter blithely by despite your unique and meaningful actions, née, existence? Is it a poetic and literal illustration of the cyclic nature of construction/destruction exhaustion/renewal that are earmarks of the life and death process we are all engaged in? Perhaps it is a commentary on the workers who toil day after night after day in this world, never able to get ahead, never meriting more than a curious look or consideration. Or is it an exhortation to fully live ones’ life regardless of obstacles, fears, or the senseless chaotic behavior of the world around us?
Director/cinematographer Ulle Hadding gently observes the scene, examining the performers’ body language and capturing facial expressions as they quietly perform their work amidst the currents of a human river flowing in around and through them.
Also Martha C. is there among the re-assembling assembled, bless her and bless us.
While doing an artists residency in Iceland recently with ART Attack Neskaupstaður, Aïda Gómez noticed the signs around her. “The plaque shows a man followed by a woman and I asked myself, why is this signal like this? Why the feminine figure is following the masculine figure?” Indeed.
Doug at Fifth Wall TV puts himself in the middle of the UN inaugural events and uses his astute powers of observation about its move into contemporary art, with a stop along the way to wonder about gentrification.
The latest from the 12 + 1 Project, the artist MurOne bringing some mechanically inspired eye candy to enjoy.
Finally it all comes together and we get a balanced insight into the art and dissent of Shepard Fairey.
Susan B. Anthony, Harriet Tubman, Nina Simone; Three of the women whom Street Artist Olek would like us to remember from U.S. history, and who have been recently featured in public crochet portraits. Her most recent portrait done with help from the community brings art made by the public to the public in a country-wide project called “Love Across the USA”.
Sparked a year ago leading up to the US national election where a woman was on the ballot, Olek says that despite the negativity that followed, “it inspired me to create a project that would celebrate the accomplishments of women, many of whom had been forgotten throughout U.S. history.”
Today we go to Raleigh, NC to see the most recent banner of Nina Simone crocheted by Olek and a small army of volunteers. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nina_Simone, the American singer, songwriter, pianist, arranger, and activist in the Civil Rights Movement.
We spoke with Olek about this selection of Ms. Simone, who coincidentally has been nominated this year in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
BSA: Nina Simon fought hard battles, she lost some and won many. She won her right to be recognized as an artist in the USA after having to prove herself in European capitals first. With this portrait you elected to highlight the bright side of her and her art. Is it because you also want to be optimistic about our future even during these dark times we are all experiencing?
Olek: Why, with Nina Simone, do we always have to think about the battles she lost? I prefer to think about the positive things she accomplished both as an artist and an activist. I remember when I was in elementary school I was given one of her tapes. I had no idea who she was and didn’t understand a word, but I loved the music.
Later, when I learned her name and more about her story, I hated how the media tended to focus on the negatives. As a black woman living in that time, fighting for what she believed in, she was exhausted and had little help. Her husband, who was also her manager, exploited her and gave her drugs instead of helping her. Despite everything, she positively influenced so many people around the world.
BSA: What kind of inspiration did you learn from Nina Simone and her feminist take with her music especially with her song “Four Women” which is considered by many to be a very influential song with the black feminist movement in the 60’s?
Olek: The song “Here Comes the Sun” has accompanied me through many difficult installations. I played the song on loop while in Rochester, NY working on the Susan B. Anthony mural for Love Across the USA. We worried the installation would be delayed because of bad weather, but after listening to the song all morning, we arrived at the site and the sun was shining.
Nina Simone has been so well known in Europe and is finally starting to gain the recognition she deserves in the U.S. with her nomination for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. We had no idea about the nomination when we first began working on the piece, but when we found out a couple weeks ago, we hoped that this mural would help her to earn the votes needed to be inducted.
To learn more about Love Across The USA click HERE
Today some progress shots – these projects were not completed while we were shooting so you’ll want to go to the Museum Mile today along Bülowstraße (Berlin U-Bahn). The Urban Nation Art Mile (Artmeile) is in full effect this weekend day and night and it will be difficult to pass up on this funhouse performance-packed interactive exhibition that includes single installations in pop-up spaces along the street and in one large car-free area beneath the trains, which roar appropriately over your head.
Also overhead for those who are observant, Isaac Cordal’s small concrete businessmen watch over the proceedings below with guilt, ennui and existential worries . You have to check out Faith XLVII’s multi-disciplinary piece in a pop-up space with powerful video imagery of the sexy uniformity of marching soldiers and the panicked distraught migratory movements of people created in its wake – with fierce and expressive dance performer Manthe Ribane and sound/set direction by Inka Kendzia with Faith. Migration, or immigration, is also directly addressed by an unbending and heavy steel sculpture of a family who are just like yours, and different from yours, facing a wall topped by razorwire.
Evan Pricco and Juxtapoz bring the famous newsstand that has been displayed in 6 locations, including Times Square, now moving into the UN collection. Make sure to look at the independent zines and tags from its many travels. HOTTEA has a splendidly sharp and effervescent takeover of a corner first floor space that illuminates the white box, here comprised of hundreds of hanging yarns in a multiverse of color.
This series of outdoor components feels more like a fair than a museum show, a cross section of works that you may associate with post-graffiti/graffiti/Street Art or any number of related influences without a timeline – cobbling together a hodgepodge illustration of the wide range of influences at play on the street today – attempting to channel the asymmetric energy that it generates.
It is possible that this collection represents a catalyzing of interest in sculpture, as a number of interpreters including Cranio, Ben Frost, and Anthony Lister, are blurring lines with these 3 dimensional expressions of work they’ve done in 2D. How will a general community audience interactive with these – the possibilities seem limitless. Considering the sheer number of authors and performers and documentors and artists and academics and critics on the street right now, you are garunteed to find some intellectual and/or visual stimulation.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
