All posts tagged: Steel MSK

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” so says Charles Dickens in the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, and who can’t believe it is true that he was speaking of today? Whether you are Darnay or Carton, that books two protagonists, this is the prism through which you will see the twin beasts of wisdom and foolishness in all the writings on the walls in our cities.

Easily dismissed for decades by the classists as the uncouth scribblings of the unschooled, the graffiti that persisted throughout train yards and tunnels and cities globally also developed and deepened, expanded and metamorphosed. Once simply seen as outright rebellion, the language around the graffiti scene has  transformed, and with reason. Today sometimes clumsily grouped under the moniker “street art” or “urban art” graffiti and its family gets a second view, and a third; while academia and theorists and philosophers grapple to come to terms with a language they didn’t create, cannot compose in, but endeavor to learn.

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Reyes (photo © Brock Brake)

Meanwhile it is collected, traded, reproduced, emulated and imitated. For its part, new generations of freewheeling graffiti and its practitioners and celebrants continue unabated; uncommissioned, un-permissioned, and despite ever more apoplectic attempts by municipalities and technologies to silence it, it continues to speak.  Further confounding, some of its denizens have taken up arms and laid in the same bed with that most benign and good-willed pillar of public art, the legal mural.

Today we go to San Francisco, one of our most pricey cities, to see what the aerosol writers are saying currently. With new shots that capture part of this moment by photographer Brock Brake, we see that the language of the street and even the row house have become as multitudinous as the dominant culture and as perplexing as it is sometimes powerful. Or not. Are these the best of times?

“..in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only,” says Dickens.

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Niels Shoe Meulman. Detail of ‘ununhappy times’, a larger piece by the calligraffitist. (photo © Brock Brake)

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“Familia” by Reyes (photo © Brock Brake)

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Nekst . Jade (photo © Brock Brake)

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A tribute to a deceased and well loved graffiti writer named Nekst by Steel (photo © Brock Brake)

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Steel MSK (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz. Detail (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz RIP Jade. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Toro (photo © Brock Brake)

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Atomik (photo © Brock Brake)

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Treas (photo © Brock Brake)

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Steel . MSK . d30 (photo © Brock Brake)

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d30 Crew (photo © Brock Brake)

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Ich (photo © Brock Brake)

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Jurne . Amanda Lynn . Mags (photo © Brock Brake)

 

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

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Klughaus Gallery Presents: Reyes & Steel “All Write You Scumbags” (Manhattan, NYC)

Reyes & Steel

Klughaus Gallery & LRG present…
REYES & STEEL
“All Write You Scumbags”

Opening Reception: Friday, September 14 from 6-10pm
Location: 47 Monroe Street New York, NY 10002
RSVP: rsvp@klughaus.net

There will be (limited) complimentary gourmet Pat LaFrieda cheeseburgers by STEEL aka Sleazy McCheesy at the opening! Klughaus Gallery and LRG are proud to present, “All Write You Scumbags,” a dual artist show featuring recent works by Bay Area artists Victor Reyes and Steel. “All Write You Scumbags” marks the New York debut for both artists and showcases a distinct chemistry cultivated over years working together as friends, creative partners and members of MSK, one of the highest regarded graffiti artist collectives in the world.

Victor Reyes has been painting since the early 1990s and his work has been exhibited in galleries all around the world. As an artist preoccupied with what he once described as the “natural rhythms” of penmanship, Reyes’ self-instructed evolution from graffiti writer to fine artist has included a fascinating exploration of spelling and typography.

“These new works are painted and illustrated as a reveal to the contemporary ideas surrounding graffiti and its application within the conversation of fine art,” says Reyes of the duo’s Klughaus show.

Steel is an artist from San Francisco who paints cheeseburgers. He has a great appreciation for classic print design and sign painting. Among other things, he is known for his versatility and ability to create artwork in a gallery setting that is very distinct from his work in the streets. His vibrant, colorful paintings and illustrations are detailed, tongue-in-cheek, and often explored using untraditional canvases ranging from ammunition boxes to vintage silver cans. His inspirations include his friends, Richard Pryor, and good food.

There is going to be a limited edition Reyes/Steel zine released at the opening. The limited zine is 10 pages, hand bound saddle stitch and hand painted with gouache and serigraph on watercolor paper.

For a catalog, please contact: info@klughaus.net

The exhibit will be on display through October 7, 2012

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