Obama Reprise for Shepard Fairey on new Rolling Stone Cover
“Artist Shepard Fairey, whose iconic HOPE campaign poster of Barack Obama was a global sensation, is back with a new image that both questions and deifies the President.
Appearing on the cover of the Aug. 20 Rolling Stone, the portrait depicts Obama with a brow knit in determination, surrounded by a halo of stars.” – Daily News
Brooklyn-based Abe Lincoln Jr. Went to Seattle Last Month
And he had a nice little show there –
“Handcrafted Vectors is all new work that Ive done in a new style that combines different techniques from Street Art into a sort of decoupage/collage style. The influences are as varied as Matisse, Eric Carle, Roger Hargreaves, Colorforms and the Endless Love Crew.” -VPEast.com
Fauxreel brings animals into the picture in Toronto
Haven’t seen his realistic paste-ups in around in quite a while, but just saw this one went up in the great white north.
From Show and Tell Gallery,
“Often Dan’s projects tackle current social, cultural and political themes, while other works simply recontextualize the physical spaces he liberates.”
Tonight marks two occasions; Ad Hoc Gallery’s last large-scale opening after blasting open the doors of Bushwick in 2005 to a new audience for street art, urban art, graffiti, tatoo, pop surrealism, screen printing, and good-natured fun-loving creative community organizing, AND the opening of a show called,
“I Know There Is Love”.
COINCIDENCE? I think not.
Chris Stain at Ad Hoc (photo Jaime Rojo)
After lots of pre-planning, conversations, scores of back and forth emails, one big overnight mural, and 10 days of installation in this much respected gallery, Chris Stain knows that the show will mean different things to different people,
“It’s always subjective how people take things, when they see them. If they hear a song, it’s going to mean something to one person and mean something different to somebody else. I kind of think that’s the way it is with the artwork. I don’t really have any expectations or want anybody to get anything out of it more than “Here’s two people that give a sh*t about what’s going on around them in the world.”
Before you can get to the title of the show, there had to be discussions about a more basic question, says Armsrock; questions like,
” ‘What is love?’ And it’s not addressed so directly here but it’s sort of like everything that goes in here is somehow this “note” that comes out of this process work before the show and all the contemplations that we had and the conversations we had.
“I think we have very different opinions on it, but somehow it’s come together inside this space and whether or not people actually are able to decipher it is another question, but I think there is enough information so there is some kind of discourse that is thrown up in the air regarding themes such as ‘hope’ , which is very much at the core.”
Too esoteric a sentiment for street art? No, this show is knee-deep in reality, and is still hoping for a way out.
Just like the street used to be; Lady Pink’s pink lady in a provocative pose at “Mom and Popism”. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Tuesday night the summer air was heavy and thick, after an “ozone alert” day in New York drove most sensible people inside corner delis to slide open the icecream case and stare at popsicles for a few minutes, cooling off in the process. Thankfully there is always the roof!
Billi Kid led a cadre of 28 street and graffiti artists up the stairs above Gawker’s plush and well-appointed offices to host an unusual show called “Mom and Popism”. It was officially a press preview but there were about 150 people, cocktails, fancy snacks, a DJ, and even a few high-class prostitutes, but they came in with us.
Taking a call next to Billi Kid (photo Jaime Rojo)
Aside from the impressive list of participants, what makes this show remarkable is the use of Jim and Karla Murray’s photographs of New York “mom and pop” storefronts, blown up to nearly their original size, then carefully appointed with work of the artists in such an integrated way that it’s as if they brought the sidewalk up to the 4th floor.
Pedestrians on the street with Penny in the background (Royce Bannon) (photo Jaime Rojo)
One of the street artists, Royce Bannon, was on hand at the preview to talk about his experience;
BSA: How was it putting your piece up on a photograph of a storefront?
Royce: Uh, it was interesting.It was alright, it was fun, it was cool. I was in and out really fast.
BSA: Where you concerned that it wouldn’t really look like the street?
Royce: Actually I was concerned about what material they were going to use because I didn’t know what kind of paint to bring.I like Jim and Karla’s photography anyway so I would have done whateverthey wanted.
BSA: Does this particular monster have a name?
Royce: Penny, because she’s got penny eyes.Like remember on PeeWee Herman, remember the Penny?
Posing for a picture next to Shiro’s piece on a rolldown (photo Jaime Rojo)
The night breeze was a relief, Jim and Karla were gamely signing copies of their book “Storefront: The Disappearing Face of New York”, artists were signing and creating pieces in each other’s copy of the book, and there was a fair amount of posing. The guests standing in front the storefronts created more than one or two double-takes because you could easily be transported to the streetscape without realizing they were photographs.
There will be a public showing of the installation on the 15th and we’ll be talking to Jim and Karla and Billi the Kid in upcoming posts, but first here’s a quick slideshow of behind-the-scenes makeing of the show from Mr. Kidd.
Artists featured are: Blanco, Buildmore, Cake, Celso, Cern, Chris (RWK), Crome, Cycle, David Cooper, Destroy & Rebuild, Enamel Kingdom, Goldenstash, Infinity, Kngee, Lady Pink, Matt Siren, Moran Thomas, Peru Ana Ana Peru, Plasma Slugs, Royce Bannon, Shai R. Dahan, Shiro, The Dude Company, Tikcy, Under Water Pirates, Veng (RWK), Zoltron, Billi Kid
In stark black and white, you can only imagine the experiences that Armsrock is drawing. Hopefully, only in your imagination, in some cases. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Chris Stain talks about the variety of techniques he’s using, including a relatively new one he borrowed from Armsrock,
“Yeah, basically, the gallery told us that in order for me to use spray paint to do the installation I needed to contact the tenant who lives above the gallery because the fumes will rise up to their apartment. I thought that would slow me down and I remembered that last year when Armsrock and I worked together that he was using these oil pastels, crayons. And I tried that out last year when I was in Norway and I liked it. I didn’t really explore it like I wanted to so I figured, “What the hell”, I’ll do it for this show because it will tie-in more with what he is doing with charcoal and watercolor. Spray paint can be rather bold and striking, whereas his work is more softer looking. So I think it worked out well and I liked it. I like the softness of it. It’s more hands-on drawing… you’re in direct contact with the wall . ”
Chris Stain using the full scope of the wall, and stretching his skills (photo Jaime)
Instead of solo shows, Armsrock said that they each wanted to do a two-person show,
“Basically because it is more fun and it makes it a little easier going. We’re not often drawing on each other’s things but there’s constantly this talk going back and forth.”, Armsrock
The back wall is done. If you want to see the lyrics to the entire song, Heather has written them in a very neat hand on the reception desk. (photo Jaime Rojo)
The crying, the screaming, the knashing of teeth
– the gates of inquisitorial mayhem have opened into the gallery here where in just mere days you will see the fearful state of the fatally flawed race called human.
But Mr. Stain says the progress of the installation at Ad Hoc’s last big shindig is going swimmingly:
“I feel really good about it. I think it all just came together very naturally. Armsrock and I have worked together in the past and that was kind of a pre-cursor for what’s happening right now. We’re familiar with each others’ work, each others’ style. We have similar themes. We work in different mediums but I think it’s all come together based on the friendship we’ve already established.”
Chris Stain has borrowed the oil pastel and rendered large (photo Jaime Rojo)
Armsrock heralds the way they employed in the planning stages of the show:
“I’m feeling very very good about the progress. Chris said something interesting the other day. We were standing and looking at the show… only halfway finished. He’s a very dry man, and he has a very dry way of saying things. And he was like, “I knew it was going to look like this”. Somehow I think that he was right because I knew how the process working with him would be and it was a project that I took on for ‘the process’. ”
Armsrock still has some work to do on this one (photo Jaime Rojo)
Back before it evolved into “street art” there was only graffiti, loosely defined by it’s most often used tool and the act of writing your name –
and as you know, many people thought ill of it and demonized writers and the destruction of property.
On their book tours and events to promote the 25th Anniversary Edition of “Subway Art”, Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper make the case that while the kids who sprayed paint on subway cars were regarded as hoodlums, many none-the-less continued to develop their craft in a constructive way and became well-respected artists after their youthful years.
In a radio interview recently with Lionel on Air America, Chalfant says, “Rather than an entry-level crime it is a path to a career.”
Just got back from Cow-Country upstate, home of many dairy farms and barns and silos – green rolling fields, corn on the cob, walking down a dirt road, jumping in the pond to cool off. A summer job for teens up there means baling hay and stacking it in a barn…for 10 hours.
Then, with all that cashmunny you need somebody’s older brother to buy beer at the convenience store for a party behind the barn later at night. Cold beers in a cooler, iPod box on the tracktor seat, Barefootin’ in the grass…
So anyway, good to be back in dirty old Brooklyn and find this new video in the mailbox – Ironically it’s Gaia doin’ his own cow-country thing. It’s called “Taming Nature”
Now take off yer shoes and socks and dance around to this music video of the song Barefootin’ made by Aardman Animations who made Creature Comforts, Chicken Run and Wallace & Gromit.
(song is by Robert Parker in 1966)
And a lot of it is flowing toward these two artists, no doubt, who have always shown love for the dispossessed, working class, out-of-work, marginalized “everyman” and “everywoman” with their human depictions. In these times when we are shedding jobs and waiting to see how far down the bottom is, maybe that’s why this show (one week from now) is striking a deep chord already. Instead of emailing pics to all the fans, we’re posting them here.
Chris Stain and Armsrock studiously working into the night to produce their first collaborative work for the new show they have at Ad Hoc Gallery next Friday, August 7.
Under cover of darkness, a beacon’s hopeful signal
Childhood reverie before the sun breaks (photo Jaime Rojo)
In preparation for their upcoming collaboration at Ad Hoc in Bushwick next week, Armsrock and Chris Stain sailed deep into the night near Brooklyn’s massive Navy Yard, hoisting up ladders to put up a large mural stirring the contemplative inner currents of child’s play entitled “I Know There Is Love”.
(photo Jaime Rojo)
Using projections of their original work as well as improvised “chalk drawings”, the storytelling includes two tadpole-aged lads and a small harbor of imaginary vessels. In it one instantly escapes to a freer time of discovery when multiple dreams were easily set afloat.
(photo Jaime Rojo)
As if a reaction to the rough and salty seas of daily life in New York for many, the street artist co-captains hang a huge banner across the mast of this ship to announce that it is possible to right the bow and head toward hope.
A proclamation in the face of adversity (photo Jaime Rojo)
More pics and detail of this installation to follow in the next few days.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
(photo Jaime Rojo)
