Images of the Week 07.04.10
NYC in summer is always about abundance. Lots of cheap or free fun available for everybody. For music lovers there is the multitude of free concerts. For theater there is free Shakespeare in the Park. Foodies have the many street fairs with a cornucopia of deliciously exotic food from everywhere in the world. The sporting sort can play free in the many parks – baseball, volleyball, soccer, Frisbee, tag, hide and seek. This weekend brings parades and fireworks and block parties and hotdog eating contests…
For those that love all sorts of arts and street art in particular the city’s streets are also abundant and are talking loudly and singing beautifully, like the mockingbirds at night in the Brooklyn trees. Recently Swoon and Imminent Disaster are giving us tons of eye candy and food for thought. Overunder is trying his free hand at painting and presenting his nudes, as is Celso. And Chelsea just got a new Jeff Soto. Well known, well weathered, or well underappreciated, artists continue to call the streets of New York their gallery.
From White Box to Tool Box: CrestFest 2010 and Crest Art Festival
Local Family Business Showcases Artists Of All Stripes
You won’t find a more excited community-minded, artist-loving dude than Joe Franquinha, who is the second generation owner of a hardware store in Williamsburg/Bushwick, Brooklyn. Crest Hardware, founded in 1962 on this same block by Joe’s dad and uncle, is the hardware store for the multitude of artists who have moved into the neighborhood over the past decade or so.
Nine years ago they had the first Crest art show in the store itself using hardware materials to make and inspire the art. The eclectic and frequently humorous show drew attention to the bursting artist community and got larger each year. In 2008 ago Joe expanded the show to include musicians and DJs from the neighborhood and started calling it “Crest Fest.”
Welling Up a Little? That’s the Street Art “Community” Feeling
Welling Court Mural Project Opens Over the Weekend in a Queens Community; Many Street Artists Contribute
There can be a bit of grand posturing around the word “community” especially by people (or corporations) who spend more time chasing the Gravy Train than climbing on the Love Train. And swimming in an acid-tongued media landscape that keeps saying we’re are a giant polarized society simply bubbling with animosity, you could be forgiven for not leaving your house, let alone breaking bread with your neighbor who is different.
Welling Court Artists include: Alice Mizrachi, Beast, Chris Mendoza, Chris Stain, Celso, Cern, Cey Adams, CR, Cycle, Dan Witz, Darkclouds, Daryll Peirce, Don Leicht, Ellis G, Free5, Gaia, Garrison & Alison Buxton, Greg Lamarche, JMR, John Fekner, Lady Pink, Leon Reid, Matt Siren, M-City, Michael De Feo, Mr. Kiji, Pablo Power, Peripheral Media Projects, R. Nicholas Kuszyk, Remi/Rough, Ron English, Royce Bannon, Sofia Maldonado, Stormie Mills, Sweet Toof, Swoon, TooFly, Tristan Eaton, and Veng RWK.
