November 2009

“GO GET YOUR SHINEBOX”. AT BROOKLYNITE GALLERY

What does it mean for an artist to “survive” in a tough economic climate? Can

business ever be “bad” for a diligently working artist? Making an honest living
—in a group show like NO OTHER, these artists, some legendary and some
suitably hungry, will dissolve the line between utility and luxury for an exhibition

entitled, “GO GET YOUR SHINEBOX”.

If you’ve spent time in a “third world country”, you’ve had a chance to see kids
carrying ingeniously designed work boxes, set up for shinning shoes. We find
that the variety and exuberance of these objects perfectly captures our world
climate.
With the global economic downturn and the hardship it has caused blue-collar
workers throughout, we find it fitting to explore theworld’s simplest way to make
a living— SHINNING SHOES. We are planning an exhibition around just that–
SHOESHINE BOXES.
However a “SHOESHINE BOX” should not be taken in the most literal sense of
the words. These objects, our inspiration, have all been created out of necessity-
a need to earn money, or further, to survive. We push “the need to survive” beyond
its literal context, commissioning our favorite established and emerging artists to
design their own, “SURVIVAL BOXES”.
A shoeshine box is a medium, a framework, the boundaries of which have not
been pushed …’til now.
GO GET YOUR
Brooklynite Gallery

334 Malcolm X Blvd.

Brooklyn, New York 11233

347-405-5976

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Documenting Decay Part II: Seeing Art in Street Layers of Detritus

Photo Vinny Cornelly

© Vincent Cornelli

At 11 Spring Street in Nolita, a neighborhood in lower Manhattan, sits a 19th Century brick building that two centuries ago was a stable and carriage house.

As the 2oth Century turned, the building had gained a following by urban art fans and street artists from all over the world.  Over the course of the 1990’s graffiti and street artists had used the exterior walls of this building as their multi-storied canvas.  Within a short time the address had become a destination, an uncurated museum for graffiti, street artists, and tourists alike – an up-to-the-minute ever changing conversation of street culture.

Photo Vinny Cornelli

© Vincent Cornelli

But the blanding plague of gentrification that swept across the city claimed the urban art gallery and it succumbed to condoitus a couple of years ago.  Like the visual equivalent of a New Orleans funeral march, street artists and graffiti artists took one last chance to festoon the edifice as it’s soul departed to allow conversion to condominiums, and the local paper did a story on it. Every inch of the facade and much of the interior was covered and recovered by layers of art and graffiti. “11 Spring” took one last bow.

Photo Vinny Cornelli

© Vincent Cornelli

Demolition, buffing, and upgrading to the comforts of a new Manhattan wealthy class soon followed the celebration, and pinstriped men and pencil skirted women strutted through it’s white plastered interior waving their arms and referring proudly to it’s storied past; the artists that once brought attention to the location, abruptly “unfriended”.  Among the many ironies of the story, the market for the new spaces has not materialized, reportedly forcing it’s owners to cut their asking prices almost in half this year.

Photo Vinny Cornelli

© Vincent Cornelli

Street photographer Vinny Cornelli used to arrive at the building early in the morning, before the streets came alive with commuters and shop keepers, to gaze upon the raw collage.

He captured the thick layers of art that formed the exterior finish of the walls; covered in spray paint, wheat pastes, rubber, metal, plastic, cardboard, wood and just about anything available.  As if in a zen haze, he zoomed in on details, and stepped back to frame the visible cacophony.

Photo Vinny Cornelli

© Vincent Cornelli

This small sample of images show the layering of creativity in the moment before mute. The organic collage speaks to the many contributors and the conversations of the street: a collective contribution evoking chaos, humor, classical, commercial, pop and poetry.

>>>>   <<  ><    <<<  >>> >> >>>>>>

See more of Vinny Cornelli’s street layers HERE

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Images of the Week 11.15.09

Images of the Week 11.15.09

Brooklyn-Street-Art-IMAGES-OF-THE-WEEK_1009Our Weekly Interview with the Streets

Specter
A new installment in Specter’s series of portraits of New York’s homeless individuals (photo Jaime Rojo)

Specter (detail)
Specter (detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)

A good couple. "Vintage" Elbow Toe and C215
A “vintage” ElbowToe and C215 (photo Jaime Rojo)

Composition #3
Something new incorporating farm animals and airplanes (photo Jaime Rojo)

Composition #4
And another (photo Jaime Rojo)

Quel Beast
Quel Beast (photo Jaime Rojo)

Specter
Brooklyn got a new sculpture this week – a 3D version of Specter’s homeless series.  When we saw this, many people were walking up to it, taking pictures of it, discussing it with each other.  One woman said, “This is New York!”  (photo Jaime Rojo)

Specter
Specter (photo Jaime Rojo)

Oopsy Daisy
Oopsy Daisy (photo Jaime Rojo)

medallion
(photo Jaime Rojo)

dd
Mutual of Ohamastan’s Wild Kingdom (photo Jaime Rojo)

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Fun Friday 11.13.09

Fun-Friday

President Burning Man

Faster than a bike messenger on blow, the insurance company lobbyists are busy paying Senators to write the “Public Option” out of the new health-care legislation while the President packs his suitcase for a trip to meet China’s President Hu Jintao next week.

Before you start YUANING from intellectual incuriosity about the rest of the world (that is SO 2007), you have to see the art on the streets that is welcoming Obamau. If you’ve HUNG around Chinatown in NYC you know that cultural differences can produce quizzical results.

Watch those scissors!
Watch those scissors!

New York City school students come from homes speaking 150 different languages but every 13 year old kid will still crack up and fall on the sidewalk when they see this sign.

So, in another example of cultural differences, Beijing artist Liu Bolin will be showing his bronze sculpture of Obama next week featuring the president on fire.  But it’s a tribute. Because Obama is so, like, hot.

Never mind that various protesters around the world burned President Bush in effigy during his eight years in office as a sign of utter contempt.  In this case, the artist intends the fiery bronze sculpture as a big high-five!

“THIS IS WHY I’M HOT”

>if you can’t see the video click HERE

and in other Fun Friday News……

<<<<<    >>  <<  >>>  > <   < <<>>

Local Brooklyn Gallery supports Civil Unions

Jenny Morgan and David Mramor: “Civil Union” at Like The Spice Gallery in Williamsburg opens tonight

“I want to paint on your painting”

sdfklj
A true collaboration resulting from trading the canvas back and forth between their studios. “If I held your marks too highly I would be afraid to go over them” – Jenny

The aesthetic conversation on the street between artists are frequently intentional and many times disrespectful, falling into the category of beef or acrimony, or just obliviousness.  One puts up a piece, then it gets tagged, then it get’s wheatpasted, then someone slaps a sticker next to it, or a stencil upon it.  Maybe it’s collaborative, but not consensual.

A very interesting collaboration on view at Like the Spice Gallery opens tonight that clearly references the same conversations you can see on the street, but this time it’s fully consensual.

He had to throw on pearls and hat and lipstick just to be vulnerable with us
“He had to dress himself up in order to be vulnerable with us”- Portrait of New York performer Justin Bond

Recent grad school art classmates Jenny Morgan and David Mramor admired one another’s work when in studio together, and felt drawn to each other’s very different styles.  With his David gestural, abstract background and graffiti instincts and Jenny’s detailed realism portraiture, you would not think they could be complimentary – But clearly the results are stunning, wild, and wildly entertaining.

dfg“We’ll sit and look at our art for hours waiting for an answer”

Street art fans will reference Irelands’ Conor Harrington immediately, as he has built a jolting vocabulary of realism and punk chaos in his compositions.  What makes this show so much fun is the relationship it speaks of, as well as the process of trading a canvas back and forth until it is deemed complete.

Big Ups to Brooklyn powerhouse gallerist Marisa Sage for finding this eyepopping duo and listen to her interview with the artists to learn why this partnership works so well for them on Like the Spice’s first podcast.

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DISTANCE DON’T MATTER
– Swoon & friends @ SPACE Gallery

Last month Brooklyn street artist Swoon went north with friends to Portland, Maine to do an installation at Space Gallery.

Some have used the word “Breathtaking”

DISTANCE DON’T MATTER
SPACE Gallery, Portland, Maine
10.15.2009 – 12.18.2009
A collaborative art installation by Swoon, Monica Canilao, Conrad Carlson, Ryan C Doyle, Ben Wolf, Greg Henderson, and friends.

Visit http://space538.org/ for more information

Thanks to Inspire Collective for the heads up

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Billi Kid takes a Shine to Brooklynite and Street Art Sales

A Concept for a gallery show inspires one street artist to try an on-the-street experiment.

Billi Kid recently completed his version of a shoe-shine box to contribute to the unusual show that Bed-Stuy gallery Brooklynite opens next week, and he decided to take his box a step further.

Billi Kid's contribution to the shinebox show also doubled as an experiment on the street (photo courtesy the artist)
Billi Kid’s contribution to the shinebox show also doubled as an experiment on the street (photo courtesy the artist)

The 100 artists, mostly street artists, have created their own version of a shoe-shine box, a metaphor for the entrepreneurial spirit. “Having been born in a third world country, Colombia, I have seen many a kid making a living shining shoes,” says Billi. “They hustle a modest living out of their shoeshine boxes. It is a testament to the human will to survive that these kids stretch their craft day and night to simply put food on their table. That is, if they even have a table.”

Billi Kid is a bit of an entrepreneur himself so he used his shine box on the street to sell some of his artwork.  In New York City, as a result of street artists winning a fight with the Giuliani administration in the late 1990’s to sell their art on the streets, you are allowed set up a table and sell your own artwork without fear of reprisal.

“I took Brooklynite’s challenge to heart and set out to see if I could actually put food on the table working out of my “SHINEBOX,” says the artist. Taking into account overhead costs for creating his postcards, “I figured that I would need to sell at least 16 postcards per hour @ a $1.00 each to make $8.00 dollars in profit an hour.”

Traffic was pretty good on his spot near the park, and a number of people stopped to look at his signature political-personality postcards featuring the likes of George Bush, Sara Palin, and Michelle Obama.  Within a couple of hours, 20 postcards of Billi Kid’s had sold, and the short-lived experiment ended up with Billi and his cameraman in a nearby pizza joint eating the profits.  Luckily, there was money left for the subway home.

AND HE MADE A PROMOTIONAL VIDEO WITH THE EXPERIENCE

More on Billi’s experiment Here

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“A Hounding Obsession”: Armer, DarkCloud, Deeker, and GoreB at Factory Fresh

“A Hounding Obsession”: Armer, DarkCloud, Deeker, and GoreB at Factory Fresh

Interview with the artists; Talking about New York, dumpster diving for canvasses, hidden spots, and hounding obsessions.

Dark Clouds

Dark Clouds holds up the sky (photo Jaime Rojo)

“A Hounding Obsession”  is a great name for this show because it aptly describes the ever present drive that these artists feel to make new art and to get it out in front of an audience.  Usually it’s on the street, but this week it comes together at Factory Fresh in Bushwick.

In a way it’s a reunion show, like the Beatles!  Okay, not the Beatles, but they are a fab four that used to work side by side; now have split to different parts of the world.  Only DarkCloud and Deeker are still in the Grimey Apple so the other two have flown in just to install for this show and to hang out again with old friends.

A recent visit to the lush underground FF Studios with the artists yielded a number of raucous  stories from the four about past wild excursions painting walls and ceilings in an abandoned recycling center, a burned out embassy (complete with chandeliers and 12 foot mirrors), dumpster diving for canvasses, and a discussion on how to draw females into the gallery Friday night.

What to expect at the show? Ask the artists –

Armer: I’m gonna try to go big. The back wall is kind of large.
Deeker:
Yeah we’re just going to do a good hard smash-down of the whole thing.  We don’t really have a plan on it.  We’ll just get a whole bunch of paint and do it.
DarkCloud:
I’ve got a couple of pieces on glass that I’m really liking. I’ve been working on glass a lot and I just like the way they look.
GoreB:
My pieces for this show all start off with Audubon-style bird paintings and I started mixing fonts with them, and each takes off with stories in it’s own direction.  There is one menacing bird that looks like it’s going to pluck your eyeball out so that’s pretty cool.

"I had this really cool book with thousands and thousands of birds and I love picture books like that, " GoreB (photo Jaime Rojo)

“I had this really cool book with thousands and thousands of birds and I love picture books like that, ” GoreB (photo Jaime Rojo)

These guys have all painted together at different times and Deeker and Goreb started talking about their escapades a couple of years ago in Brooklyn…

Deeker: For like two solid years Gore and I were painting outdoors, indoors, finding fuckin’ huge canvasses and putting them in our bags and bikIng them home. Then we’d just mess them up and go back and hang them up outside somewhere.
Goreb:
There was one time we were painting with images based off of a – what was that photographer guys’ name that we did all those paintings and shit? We found all these old photographs that he had dumped out up on Bedford, like 4 x 8 foot big…
Deeker: Yeah, gigantic
Goreb: Yeah I don’t remember his name but those were actually some of the first collaborations we did – on those photographs. That’s really when I first met Celso and everybody.  (To Deeker) I actually really first met you creeping around the recycling center lot.
Deeker: That was the second time. Actually the first time was fucking drunk on the street.

Deeker

But we digress. Each artist in “A Hounding Obsession” has a background in graffiti at some point and now continues to explore the street art thing.  BSA wondered if NYC was still hot.

Brooklyn Street Art: Is New York still one of the best places to put up work?

Armer: In America, definitely.

GoreB: It’s a great spot; there’s so much neglect and cutty spots, so much discovery as far as strange places around the city.  Like me and Deeker are always talking about the places you can creep to in Queens and Brooklyn.  I think it’s even better to do your work there now because the street art scene is too popular.  You do anything in Williamsburg or on Bedford or in Soho and people find it right away and it gets on the internet but it’s kind of not what it should be about.

Armer

Brooklyn Street Art: What should it be about?

GoreB: For me it’s about withdrawing my art as much as possible and finding little nooks and crannies.

Deeker:  I feel like the one or two kids that find your stuff up in the most random of places – like their reaction is worth more than somebody who finds it right away and ten people go and photograph it and everyone talks about it.

Armer: It’s really about spots. I like spots in high traffic areas but I also like painting in strange places that only young kids might go see.

GoreB

Brooklyn Street Art: And how did you get the name DarkCloud?

DarkCloud: The concept for DarkCloud came because I was hanging out with a good friend of mine who was always in a shitty mood at one point in his life. So we started joking about how he was like the cartoon with the cloud over him always following and over his head.  He was more of a fine art painter and I was only into graffiti solely and I didn’t really want to do anything but graffiti.

He kind of painted his own version of a dark cloud and I was just like, “What is that”?  He said, “That’s the dark cloud”. I was like, “No that’s not what it looks like!” So I painted my own version and I was so kind of hooked, obsessed with getting work out and I was really into the concept of doing bolt ups on signs.  When I first started I only wanted to do them on signs. “

 

GoreB, Armer and Dark Clouds

GoreB, Armer and DarkCloud pose while Deeker is looks for a saw (photo Jaime Rojo)

Thus the Hounding Obsession we have heard about, and the name of the show.  Each one of these artists got hooked a long time ago on making street art, and while it may sound like an exaggeration to call it an obsession, it’s not a far stretch to call it that.  Listen to Dark Cloud…

Dark Cloud: When I first moved to the city that’s how it was. I grew up in Vermont and when I was in Boston I was instantaneously overwhelmed by how people accomplish this stuff. I was so interested right away that it became like an obsession.   Everything else I was into started to fade. It kind of took over. It was too much fun. And the mystery behind it was so much fun.

GoreB: Yeah that is probably a difference between what we do and most artists – we want to get our art out there and don’t want to have it anymore. I think that because of what we’ve done before we have this lack of a feeling of ownership that pervades all of our work. It’s very apparent in how we put it on the public. I think that feeling also comes from that ability to let go of it so easily. Anonymity is powerful too because it raises questions about why the piece is there. You round a corner and you have no idea who this person was or why it was created and it causes a lot more mystery that you wouldn’t get otherwise. It veils the work in mysterious ways.

Dark Clouds

Dark Clouds blue period diptych (photo Jaime Rojo)

Armer thinks that girls in particular are going to like this show and encourages them to come.

Armer: This is kind of my first show indoors, and it may be my last. So if there are any ladies that are interested in Armer, they should definitely roll through.

Brooklyn Street Art: So this is a one–time-only opportunity of a lifetime?

Armer: Yes, I’m retiring after this. Not from the streets though.

Armer

Armer meditates on a topic dear to the heart (photo Jaime Rojo)

And a few little hits from the Streets….

DarkClouds Free Delivery (photo Jaime Rojo)

DarkClouds in situ.  (photo Jaime Rojo)

Botanical Deeker

A botanical Deeker from a few years ago (photo Jaime Rojo)

GoreB

GoreB coming in for a landing (photo Jaime Rojo)

FACTORY FRESH SITE IS HERE

“A Hounding Obsession” is opening Friday

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Interview: Inside the “The Thousands” and Swoon’s lock box with Michael “RJ” Rushmore

Interview: Inside the “The Thousands” and Swoon’s lock box with Michael “RJ” Rushmore

After spending most of 2009 in preparation, Michael “RJ” Rushmore is one week from the opening of “The Thousands”, a retrospective survey covering artists of the last few decades that led to what we’re calling “Street Art” today.

Nick Walker for The Thousands (courtesy Michael "RJ" Rushmore)

Nick Walker for The Thousands (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

As editor and author of the popular blog Vandalog, RJ has been taking readers on a tour of the Street Art scene from his unique perspective.  Encouraged by his father, an avid and prodigious collector of street art, the recent high school graduate has labored for much of the last 5 months to pull together this show – reaching out to artists, collectors, authors, publishers, you name it.

When RJ first told us about his idea for a “pop-up” show in London, we thought it would be a small affair with perhaps one or three of the larger names and examples of work in an inflatable shop on cobblestone streets. But like so many young people energized by the excitement garnered in an exploding new movement, RJ has worked feverishly to grow this show into what he hopes will set a standard.

Swoon Box Contents

More inside looks at this Swoon Box below (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

A tribute to his dedication and sincere regard for the work and the artists, “The Thousands” will feature many of the antecedent contributors (or pioneers) to the scene (Jenny Holzer, Blek le Rat, Futura 2000) as well as the better known artists that have come to symbolize the current explosion that began in the first half of this decade (Swoon, Banksy, Shepard Fairey) and many others of equal interest.

As if throwing a show of this scope was not enough RJ also created a book to accompany the show, published by Drago, one of the few small presses that have seriously and knowledgeably  documented the growth of the graffiti-to-street art scene.  With dedication, focus, and maturity, RJ navigates the back alleys and side-streets to bring this show in the heart of London to fruition.

Skewville from "The Thousands" (courtesy Drago press)

Skewville from “The Thousands” (courtesy Drago press)

Brooklyn Street Art: What sparked your interest in curating this show of Street Art? How did the whole process start?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I think it was an idea that I’d had brewing in the back of my mind for a while, but I wasn’t taking it seriously until last January when I met with another street art blogger who proposed a similar idea about a having a street art retrospective. Eventually, we went our separate ways and I continued to develop the exhibition further. This is the show that a major museum should put on, but so far nobody has, and I hope that The Thousands helps to change that.

Brooklyn Street Art: “The Thousands” – is this a reference to the rise in this new wave of street art since 2000?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: While probably 95% of the show is work from the last ten years, that isn’t where I got the name. It’s probably a more succinct explanation though.

The show’s title comes from a short story by Daniel Alarcón called “The Thousands”. The story is about this community that is built by society’s outcasts and dreamers and they build their city out of the discarded and disused materials of the city they used to live in. So that reminded me of street art and the street art community.

 

sdf

Veng from Robots Will Kill featured in “The Thousands” from his piece at the Mark Batty Urban Arts Fest in Brooklyn last month (courtesy Drago)

Brooklyn Street Art: Are most of the pieces in the show privately owned?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: Yes. More than 2/3rds of the artwork comes from private collections. I wanted this to be as much like a museum show as possible, almost a pop-up museum, and the way to do that is fill the show with amazing pieces from private collections.

The process of finding work has at some times been a challenge because I don’t know every street art collector in England, but it’s also been a unique opportunity to view some truly spectacular collections.

 

Chris Stain (photo Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain will be represented in “The Thousands” (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What piece surprised the hell out of you?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I’m saving pictures of this particular piece until after opening night, because I want people to come into the gallery not knowing exactly what to expect, but Roa’s piece is very cool and different. When Roa was in London recently, we spoke about his piece for The Thousands. He told me to wait and to trust him, that it was something special, so I did. Then he sent me the jpegs and I was definitely surprised. All I will say for now is that the piece is on venetian blinds.

 

Brooklyn street artists Faile will be in "The Thousands" (courtesy Drago)

Brooklyn street artists Faile will be in “The Thousands” (courtesy Drago)

Brooklyn Street Art: The show also has a handsome book to accompany it. What was the experience of putting it together?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: Everybody at Drago, my publisher, has been extremely supportive of the show and the book. I would even say that Paulo, Drago’s founder and head guy, was the first person to actually believe that The Thousands was going to happen and not be a complete train wreck. So working with them has been good fun. But the process of putting together a book in such a short amount of time was very stressful and even led to a few days of working 12 hours straight on the layout and design.

The best part about the reading book was also my favorite thing about putting it together. The book is split into sections, and most sections cover one artist. Since everything was already organized by artist, I was able to get a number of other artists and art world personalities to write about their friends and favorite artists. For example, Know Hope has written about Chris Stain and Elbow-toe has written a piece on Veng.

 

Swoon Box

A hand-made box by Brooklyn street artist Swoon that will be in “The Thousands” (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

Brooklyn Street Art: The Swoon Box for “The Thousands”; Did she construct the box herself or was it a found box that she then later decorated?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I’ve never asked Swoon, but I would guess that she constructed the chest. It looks like the wood is salvaged from a bunch of different sources, and the hinges are so mismatched that the lid can’t sit parallel to the walls of the box.

 

Swoon lock box (top detail)

Swoon lock box (top detail)

Brooklyn Street Art: It could be a time capsule, or a lock box of mementos and inspiring objects. What do you think?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: Right now, I think of it more like a lock box, but 15, 20, 30 years from now… the meaning will probably change with time as street art and Swoon become more or less important. Maybe one day Swoon will be written about in art history books and the box will be seen in an entirely different light. But at its core, and for my family, it will always see it box as a lock box.

There is this old deerskin chest in my house that my family calls The Treasure Box. It’s been in my dad’s family for generations and dates back to some time in the 1800’s. It’s full of old letters and locks of hair and things like that going all back though more than 100 years of Rushmore family history. My family and I see The Swoon Box as very similar to our Treasure Box, so we will always see The Swoon Box as full of mementos and not just a piece of art history.

 

Inside the Swoon lock box. (courtesy Michael "RJ" Reynolds)

Inside the Swoon lock box. (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

Brooklyn Street Art: What’s your favorite object in the box and can you describe it for us?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I usually like to get a behind the scenes view of things, so my favorite pieces in the box are the sketches for pieces that eventually became familiar Swoon images. In particular, I think the drawing for Zahra is a favorite. The sketch is beautiful, the end result is one of my all time favorite images by Swoon and I happened to meet Zahra earlier this year as well as her child.

 

Swoon's "Zahara" (courtesy of Black Rat Press)

Swoon’s “Zahara” (courtesy of Black Rat Press)

The Zahra sketch is pretty abstract, you can tell that there is a woman, but it’s really rough and seems to be more about the colors than any details about Zahra’s features. Without the image of a rising sun that is in both the sketch and the end result, you wouldn’t even connect the two pieces.

Swoon Box Contents

Swoon box has an original sketch for “Bethlehem Boys” (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

Swoon's Bethlehem Boys as seen on the streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Swoon’s “Bethlehem Boys” as seen on the streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: If you have a show in ten years called “The Teens”, what do you think we might see in it?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: What really interests me right now and what I’ve been noticing lately is the continuing fusion of graffiti and street art. In most cities that have graffiti and street art, somebody is trying to merge the two cultures. In London some of those artists are Part2ism, Sickboy, the Burning Candy crew, Kid Acne, ATG crew, Elate and Word To Mother. Maybe that’s just my particular interest, but I’ve heard Pure Evil say that he is seeing something similar.

So if my taste is anything to go by, a decade from now I would like to see a show with classically trained painters showing off their lettering style and hard-core train bombing kings painting with a brush and telling everybody why Lee Quinones is their hero, except we won’t even notice the supposed role reversal I’ve just described.

And of course, since I’ll be nearing 30 years old, I’d want to include some artwork by actual teenagers to help support the next generation of street art/graffiti/whatever we’ll be calling this in ten years time.

Swoon box's contents

What are you looking at? (Swoon courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

>>>>   >> > >>> >>>>     > >>> >    >>

“The Thousands” features artists Adam Neate,  Aiko,  Anthony Lister,  Armsrock, Banksy, Barry McGee, Bast, Blek le Rat, Burning Candy, Chris Stain, David Ellis, Elbow-toe, Faile, Futura 2000, Gaia, Herakut, Jenny Holzer, José Parlá, Judith Supine, Kaws, Know Hope, Nick Walker, Os Gêmeos, Roa, Sam3, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, Swoon, WK Interact

November 18 "The Thousands" opens

November 18 “The Thousands” opens

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Logan Hicks and C215 in a “Parallel Universe” at Show and Tell

Street Art Stencil Masters Join Talents in first Collaborative Show in Toronto

LOGAN HICKS - SELF PORTRAIT 2
Indicative of a new technique Logan has been exploring since the end of summer – a new piece called”Self Portrait 2″ (courtesy Show and Tell Gallery)

Last week two street artists, Brooklyn’s Logan Hicks and C215 from Paris, left New York to head further north to Toronto to install their new show “Parallel Universe” at the Show and Tell Gallery.

Aside from some travel complications and a smashed shipping crate that damaged some of Logan’s work, the show went well and the art patrons of Toronto had the opportunity to see for themselves the stupendous work of two of the most talented stencil street artists working today.

C215 - SELF PORTRAIT

The Parisian stencil master takes a moment to reflect ("Self portrait" by C215) (courtesy Show and Tell Gallery)

The two friends were pretty stoked to have a show together.  Their collaborative work was so seamless that a casual observer may not have discerned the difference in styles. While Hicks leans more toward meditations on the geometry and vanishing horizon perspective created by formal architectural convention, C215 easily blends his gentle pathos for the streets and the people who live on them.

LOGAN HICKS - CHINA TOWN
“Chinatown”, by Logan Hicks and C215 (courtesy Show and Tell Gallery)

Mr. Hicks also sent some pics of preparations of the show. Thanks Logan!

Parallel Universe Logan Hicks and C215 installing the show
“Parallel Universe”  installation in progress.

C215 work ready to  be hang
C215 work is on the floor and put in order to be hung.

Logan Hicks work ready to be hang
Back allys, street canyons, and fire in the sky: Logan Hicks work ready to be hung.

Parallel Universe people's Universe
Toronto fans begin to arrive at “Parallel Universe” show at Show and Tell Gallery.

For more information on Show and Tell Gallery click here

For C215 click here

Logan Hicks Website

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Images of the Week 11.08.09

Brooklyn-Street-Art-IMAGES-OF-THE-WEEK_1009
Brooklyn Street Art – Our Weekly Interview With the Streets

Specter
Man on the street by Specter (photo Jaime Rojo)

Specter (detail)
Specter (detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Specter (detail)
Specter (detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Vintage Botanical Elbow Toe
Vintage botanical by Elbow Toe (photo Jaime Rojo)

Pickett
“And, but, see, the thing is, the lady at the desk didn’t even know that I had about a thousand dollar bills rolled up in my back pocket and I could of bought any of those pictures.  She just looked at me and told me I couldn’t come in”. (Pickett) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Damon Ginandes
The new Damon Ginandes figures look with ennui and curiosity at the ebullient high school students passing by. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Damon Ginandes (detail)
Damon Ginandes (detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)

She was hiding inside a phone booth
Found this little lady hiding inside a phone booth (photo Jaime Rojo)

MBW
MBW is delving back to the early days of comedy and cinema with this portrait of Charlie Chapman (photo Jaime Rojo)

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Sneak Pics of “ShineBox” at Brooklynite & A True childhood Shinebox story.

Coming up November 21 a show of work with one of the most curious themes you have ever heard of is brushing up big at Brooklynite –

“Go Get Your Shinebox”

– where shelves are being sawed while we speak – to display 100 international artists’ interpretation of the shoe shine box familiar to an earlier era; an earlier depression, I like to say.

NOVEMBER 21 Opening at Brooklynite

NOVEMBER 21 Opening at Brooklynite

In the meantime, our favorite street-art photographer Jaime Rojo writes about his own personal experience being a shoe-shine boy one summer in his little town in Mexico.

“Go get your shine box!” My mother commanded it and she meant business. A rite of passage for the five boys in my family: for one week take your shoe-shine box down town to the commercial district of our small town and learn about earning a living.

I imagine that my parents had more than one goal in mind. To inculcate us with the values of honest work and to make us study hard at school so we wouldn’t have to shine shoes for a living.  I got that lesson fast.

Sure enough, for my 11th birthday I got a shoe-shine box with my name on it. And that box was not a toy. “You don’t play with this”, my father told me.

I only lasted a week shining shoes of businessmen and the boots of caballeros. And I got myself in big trouble.  I broke a cardinal rule; no CANTINAS. They were dirty shameful places no respectful boy should go in.

I thought, “How come the real shoe-shine boys are allowed into the cantinas but not me? That’s where the money is!” I got in trouble with another boy who said I was in his territory and he punched me. The bloody nose from that cantina-whooping made me look tough, but not tough enough to take on my parents. After a lot of yelling and the ROJO INQUISTION my little entrepreneurial adventure on the street was slammed closed like a shine box.

The following summer I sold ice cream in the park, but that’s another story.

>>>>> >  >>> >> >>>>>> > >

Brooklynite Gallery will bring back those childhood memories on November 21 with an impressive roster of artists creating their own shine boxes.

Here are some sneak peek images from the show for your pleasure with more to come later. Enjoy!

3TTMAN
3TTMAN

Ben Frost
Ben Frost

Billi Kid
Billi Kid

Brooklyn Street Art has a great little posting coming up about this guy Billi Kid, and an experiment he did on the street with it on Central Park South with his shinebox.

Also we’re hoping to shed some light on the genesis for this unprecedented  show of over 100 artists’ interpretation of the traditional shoe-shine box, a street fixture from our last depression.

>>>>>   >   .>>>>> .>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Go Get Your Shinebox” at Brooklynite Gallery >>> Brooklynite Gallery Website Here

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Fun Friday 11.06.09

You send INCREDIBLE pictures and videos to us every day! We love you for it too.

Hooray for Fun Friday!

Fun-Friday

I gotta go right now to the Yankees parade down Broadway (a true 3-D street art installation) and then to find some great street art sites elsewhere in La Gran Manzana so enjoy these…

Light graff in Brooklyn by Sweatshoppe

Aakash Nihilani and Know Hope at the Black River Festival

A cool animation that illustrates and educates about the body as FACTORY

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