Nuart Reprise – from Brooklyn Street Artists at the Norwegian celebration for them this month, Mr. Vid from Walkandy did this timelapse video of David Cho.
Good job out there Vid!
See our other posts on Nuart ’09 below
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=4193
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=4237
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=4255
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=4318
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=4405
Street Artist Royce Bannon has been doing some writing at the Source magazine, and his first bi-monthly installment is below. In his first article he draws attention to the socio-political messages that mural makers convey, and their salience in an image soaked mediascape. Well, at least, that’s what I was thinking about when I read it.
Royce Bannon in the Source
Billi Kid, Chris RWK, Darkclouds, JMR, Jordan Seiler, Justin Emerson, Veng RWK, Philip Lumbang, Keely, JustinK, Royce Bannon, Shai Dahan, Temple7e
Street Artist Josh MacPhee is also an author, cultural reviewer, activist, and about 27 other things. He recently reviewed a new book on street art from San Francisco and shared it with us.
In Josh’s writing you can always get a sense for the historical underpinnings of the street art and public art movement that arose apart from the graffiti scene, as well as the deep connections between social justice, education, and the mural as message. Rather than being a derisive self-satisfied critic, one can appreciate Josh’s opinion because he takes the time to educate himself, consequently educating us in the process.
Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo by Annice Jacoby and Carlos Santana, Abrams, 2009
Josh’s review of
I gotta say, at the first crack of the spine of this book I was immediately nostalgic for San Francisco, strangely enough a city I’ve never even lived in! There was something extremely powerful about the streets of SF between 1997-2004, even for a visitor and outsider like me. Coming to the city, and the Mission District in particular, was like walking into a giant, explosive, exciting car crash of ideas, experiences, ideologies and people. The walls literally dripped with the shrapnel, covered with the remnants of 1970s & 80s murals, anti-gentrification screenprinted posters, art student graffiti, Latino gang markings, weirdo street artists, anarchist slogans, and billboards triumphantly announcing the dot-com and real estate booms. And for the most part this book does a great job of capturing that energy and feeling, carrying us through the blur.
Although Street Art SF is broken into sections, they are fairly hard to distinguish, which in many ways is a good thing, allowing the reader to flow from one style to another, fade between histories, jump between artists, just like a pedestrian on Valencia, Bryant or Mission streets would. Don’t let the title fool you, this isn’t just another edition pulled of the seemingly endless conveyor belt of dull “Street Art” book cash-ins. Likely a smart marketing move to put street art first in the title, this is really a mural book that understands and values the contributions that street art and graffiti have added to the brew of public expression.
Images from Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo
From an outsider’s perspective the book is quite exhaustive, from the origins of the SF mural scene in Diego Rivera’s 1930s/40s trips to the Bay Area to the Billboard Liberation Front and everything in between. So many of the diverse artists that have added to the walls of SF are in here that it makes the head spin (including Rivera, Robert Crumb, Spain Rodriguez, Juana Alicia, Susan Kelk Cervantes, TWIST/Barry McGee, Margaret Kilgallen, Susan Greene, Ester Hernandez, Michael Roman, ESPO, Mona Caron, Scott Williams, SF Print Collective, Chris Ware, Rigo, Swoon, Cuba, Andrew Schoultz, Ray Patlan, Aaron Noble, Ivy Jeanne, Heart 101, Aaron Noble, and hundreds of others). By carrying us back and forth through all these artists and history, the book helps express the larger birds eye view of the Mission scene, something that is different and more than just a sum of its parts. But don’t worry, most of those parts are here, too, and many of them not just captured in images, but also in the words and ideas of the artists. The pictures tell a million stories, but thankfully we’re given some written history and stories too. Each page answers questions I’ve always had, including the origin of the thumb-sucking Wolverine painting in Clarion Alley, how the Balmy Alley murals came to be, and the names and pieces of stories of dozens of artists whose work I’ve admired on the street for years but I knew little or nothing about.
Images from Street Art San Francisco: Mission Muralismo
Although I first started visiting SF in the mid-90s, it wasn’t until 2001-2003 that I started spending significant time in the city, or adding to the messages on the walls (full disclosure: one of the quick and dirty murals I designed with friends is featured in the book).
Our Weekly Interview with the Street
As you know, Logan Hicks is a very talented stencil master, among other things. One of those other things is a photographer. We are so thankful to him for sharing this other talent with us during this trip abroad to the sister city (as well as the images from Chris Stain and Ian Cox). Logan has an eye for the parallel, the perpendicular, and the vanishing point – and it comes across in his compositions behind the lens. Here are some of his pics of the show and the city.
First we’ll start off with the man himself as a blur…. rushing up and down the ladder in this time-lapse video he did of himself while he was painting a stencil of himself looking at himself. Selfish? Nah, just a one-man machine who knows if you want something done right, you might better do it yourself!
Street Art journalist Ali Gitlow had a funny article with Judith at Tokion Magazine. PDF Here.
Just spend a day and a half on the sidewalk painting a big mural and you’ll be met by a barrage of noise – audio and visual – that is a constant state of cacophony and turbulence, and a host of human insight.
A shouting shirtless homeless guy, daredevil teenage skateboarders, gawking tourists with cameras perched aloft, brutish bikers and wirey bicyclists, skinny hipsters, and fast-talking sassy girls sashaying down the sidewalk…. A grizzled sculptor with five-day growth, bent musicians with big black burdens on their backs, real estate developers in wire-rims and pinstripes, monster trucks and sleeveless toughs hanging out the window, and of course “The Empenada” man dragging his blue and white cooler on a luggage carrier yelling, “Empenada! Two dollar! Empenada!”; these are some of the wild things we saw hanging out with these gents for two days. And we loved every minute of it.
Sketch
Veng and Chris worked two days (18 hours) this week to complete the brand new piece in which they pay tribute to the children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are”, by Maurice Sendak, published in 1963. It’s a concept they have wanted to paint for a while and their selected scene is a composite of both their painting styles and a few of the scenes in the book. Together they bring the viewer in touch with the power of imagination.
In the original story, the main protagonist, Max, is banished to his room by his mom for acting out around the house and basically being a little punk. While hanging out in his room he begins to imagine a slew of monsters and a jungle and eventually he escapes into a place where he has power over everything and everyone and becomes the King of All Wild Things. Veng and Chris have depicted many characters of their own on the street in the last few years and decided to create some new ones to play the roles here. Veng’s photo-realistic boy looks at peace afloat in this parti-colored boat as he sails toward a cluster of big comic-book bright monsters. Inspired by the whimsical nature of playtime for kids and the untamed imagination that kids have, RWK let their own imagination run wild.
To create the scene based on Max’s bedroom, where the story begins, they stenciled a wallpaper with their Robots Will Kill logo and washed it out to give it an aged appearance. The Max character, re-created by Veng, is in a boat sailing to an island.
Progress
He created the boat to have no grounded plane to give the impression of a dreamlike fantasy. To symbolize the island Chris sprays a clump of expectant monsters, clamoring for Max’s attention as he sails toward them, maybe waving, maybe trying to scare him away. The color palette in background the is soft with many neutrals to evoke a nostalgic feeling, while the boat and characters pop out to meet you.
Chris’s sketches of the monters (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Instruments to inspire (photo Jaime Rojo)
***
Veng’s sketch of the boy in the cat costume (photo Jaime Rojo
Veng at work (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: So how is your progress on the piece so far?
Veng: So far so good. Just got finished with the sail and now it’s the portrait. And I have to finish with the cat outfit that he’s wearing.
Brooklyn Street Art: The cat outfit?
Veng: Yes to represent Max.
Veng using a fine instrument for some fine detailing (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: I thought he had a wolf outfit.
Veng: Not in this one. In this one it’s a cat outfit.
Brooklyn Street Art: (to Veng) Did your parents read this book to you?
Veng: I remember lookin at it, I don’t remember them reading it to me. But we had it. I’m sure they did read it to me.
Stepping back a bit, the execution is underway (Photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Have you seen many wild things on the street in the last day?
Veng: Yeah some guy that would not stop talking to us. Lucky for me I had my headphones on and I avoided the whole four hour conversation. But other than that it’s actually been nice. It’s a different pace than painting in Bushwick which is actually more rough – Less people walking around, more industrial. This is kind of more residential and friendly. A lot of people have been inquisitive about what is going on. So far, no negative feedback.
Brooklyn Street Art: Plus there have been a few skirts that have walked by.
Veng: Yes! And the neighborhood definitely has it’s advantages as far as females go.
Friendly Monsters by Chris (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Do you want to describe your style of collaboration with each other?
Chris: Usually we come up with an idea and we brainstorm it until the night before we have to do it. As we talk more, more ideas begin to come together. We think a lot alike so it works well.
Chris fine brush work
Brooklyn Street Art: (To Chris) Did your parents read this book to you?
Chris: When I was a kid it was my favorite story. I remember seeing the book in the bookstore and then I remember getting it. And then I remember watching it on PBS when I was a kid and being so enamored with the whole idea of the imagination and going to this other world. So throughout my life I have probably had at least 10 copies of this book.
Hey, look at me in the back! Woo hoo! (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Really?
Chris: Yeah, whether it was because I gave one to someone because they never had it or because my one got beat up and I got one that was in better condition or a hard cover one and usually if any of my friends have a kid I usually get it for them for their birthday?
Almost ready to sail away (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Why is it so important to you?
Chris: I don’t know.. I think it’s the idea of the imagination. I think it’s just the idea of the kid dressing up in the costume and not being happy with what he’s doing every day and he wants to find a different place. That’s pretty much how I feel. I go to work every single day and I don’t want to be there, but you gotta. But doing something like drawing or something to keep your mind a little distracted, it’s almost like living the book again.
Brooklyn Street Art: So in a way you are going to that other place right now.
Chris: Yeah exactly I got out of work today do I could really visit my imagination.
RWK (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: What do you think when you realize that your work here could actually spark the imagination of someone walking by?
Chris: That’s amazing. I think that is one of the best things about art – is inspiring somebody to think something, to do something, just kick-start something. That’s one of the reasons we started the website, so people could see art from people all over the world and be inspired to create their own. It’s simple. We just want to inspire somebody to use their imagination.
Are we ready yet? (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: There are going to be a lot of kids walking by this too:
Chris: Yeah, that is definitely going to be cool. And just hearing kids recognize this when they walk by, our interpretation of the story, is cool.
Veng and Chris after a happy day at work. (photo Jaime Rojo)
“Where the Wild Robots Are” by Veng and Chris from Robots Will Kill (photo Jaime Rojo)
See Robots Will Kill do their thing at the MBP Urban Arts Festival in Bushwick Brooklyn October 3rd! Brooklyn Street Art is the official blog for this event so come out and see live painting, BMX Skateboard tricks, and live music all day. Support the artists you love.
Funny sculpture of a street sign overhangs the entrance to Brooklynite Gallery (photo Jaime Rojo)
The dance floor was wet, some of the work in the back yard had to come off the walls to protect it, but the orchestra played “In the Mood” brightly and the guests gamely took a twirl for the fun of it at street artist Dain’s first solo show of his fine art at Brooklynite Gallery .
Saturday’s show hinged itself on the theme of 1940’s glamour in old Brooklyn, and the gallery was quite literally transformed into a middle class apartment with flourishes and pitch-perfect detail enough to make you think that maybe it always looks like this.
(image Steven P. Harrington)
(photo Steven P. Harrington)
Our Weekly Interview with the Street
Click to hear the original John Wayne audio
Uncrating the New York monsters at Macro Future.
NEW YORK MINUTE is opening in Rome September 19. MACRO FUTURE, the former slaughterhouse that is part of the Museum of Contemporary Art, will present sixty artists who live, work or gravitate around the city of New York. It’s a look at the drama, danger, speed and dynamism of our city’s diverse creative activities.
It is curated by Kathy Grayson with the support of DepART Foundation.
Artists include urban art names like Steve Powers, Barry McGee, Dash Snow, and AVAF (Assume Vivid Astro Focus)
Read More about the NEW YORK MINUTE SHOW here
Here’s a video by AVAF from a few years ago featuring the Yoko Ono song, “Walking on Thin Ice”
Walking On Thin Ice by Assume Vivid Astro Focus and Honeygun Labs, with Carla Machado.
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Ludovico Aversion Therapy: All Your Dreams Belong to Us (D*Face) (courtesy Drago and Jonathan Levine)
London street artist D*Face doesn’t get the big head that some artists do, and can’t be bothered by repetition – any medium is good and everything gets attacked in a fun cartoony way and images of superheroes, pop heros, dead presidents… all get the D*Face skullification. For such dark symbols, the light-hearted feeling permeates the various permutations.
photo credit: unusualimage
Jonathan Levine Gallery
529 West 20th Street, 9th Fl
New York, NY 10011
Sep 12 thru Oct 10, 2009
The throngs of Norwegian fans were finally allowed the NUART Gallery space last night in at the end of a productive week by the street artists of Brooklyn at Stavanger!
The pictures here are primarily of the last preparations, but here’s one of the opening.
The crowds roll in and Skewville looks wild. (photo Evan Roth)
Hi-Jacked! (photo Evan Roth)
Two people almost talking, but not quite (Swoon) (photo Logan Hicks)
The bros in repose (photo Logan Hicks)
Leon Reid getting his piece ready for a large outdoor installation (photo Logan Hicks)
David Cho taking a break (photo Logan Hicks)
Logan Hicks outdoor piece plays with parallel lines (photo Logan Hicks)
detail (Logan Hicks)
Working man (Chris Stain) (photo Logan Hicks)
Inspired photography of Swoon by Logan Hicks
David Cho in skater's paradise (photo Logan Hicks)
It's Skaterworld! (photo Logan Hicks)
Golly, Dolly is tired (James Powderly) (photo Logan Hicks)
TAPE AND MIRRORS
"Tape and Mirrors" by Aakash Nihilani at Ad Hoc & Eastern District
Eastern District and Ad Hoc Art are pleased to announce their newly featured joint effort exhibit: “Tape and Mirrors” by artist Aakash Nihalani. Tape and Mirrors, the artist’s third solo exhibition in New York, will open on Friday September 25th, 2009.
Note, the Press/VIP Preview is from 6-7pm, followed by a public reception from 7-10pm. The exhibition will be on view weekly Thursdays through Sundays from 2pm-8pm until October 25th, 2009.
Eastern District is a contemporary exhibition space located at 43 Bogart Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They pride themselves on the merging of all creative artistic practices and presenting the community with art exhibitions as well as ongoing performance and event-based programming. Eastern District is excited to be presenting Tape and Mirrors with Ad Hoc Art. Ad Hoc, formerly located at 49 Bogart Street, is a staple in the Bushwick art community that has dedicated itself for years to being more than a gallery but a passionate creative fulcrum, showing work that is often marginalized by the larger New York art scene. This collaboration will undoubtedly be the first of many to come and will hopefully continue to build the local art community to another level.
photo credit: Poster Boy NYC
Aakash Nihalanis street work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. Using brightly colored tape, he selectively places these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry pre-existing in the city itself. All execution of his street level tape work is done on site, with little to no planning.
For however brief of a time, Aakash Nihalani’s work offers people a chance to see a different side of New York, and momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives. “We all need the opportunity to see the city more playfully, as a world dominated by the interplay of very basic color and shape”. He tries to create a new space within the existing space of our everyday world for people to enter freely and unexpectedly “disconnect” from their reality.
Playing off of the metaphor ‘smoke and mirrors,’ meaning an illusion created out of an elaborate distraction, Nihalani’s Tape and Mirrors exhibition aims to create a magical experience out of the mundane. By implementing mirrors in key positions throughout the space, the viewer is given an opportunity to step ‘into,’ and view themselves within, Nihalani’s signature tape installations. Creating a playful interruption to the regular gallery schematic, the viewer is prodded from a bystander into a participant, not only interacting with the space and materials around them, but also with their own reflections.
Let Nihalani’s Tape and Mirrors open up a new portal of reality and experience yourself between dimensions at Eastern District gallery in Brooklyn.
Original prints and paintings by the artist will also be on view and for sale throughout the gallery.
To find out more information about Aakash Nihalanis Tape and Mirrors exhibition, and more about Ad Hoc and Eastern Districts collaboration please go to adhocart.org and eastern-district.com.
For more information on Aakash Nihalani and his art visit aakashnihalani.com.
Refreshments generously provided by Asahi.
Thank you! We hope to see you out here at Eastern District Gallery, 43 Bogart Street, on September 25th from 7-10pm.
Best,
Ad Hoc Art & Eastern District
info@eastern-district.com
Hours: 2-8pm Thursday-Sunday
EASTERN DISTRICT
43 BOGART STREET – L TRAIN TO MORGAN AVENUE.
238
138
45
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
