2009

“Boxed In” Group Show at Factory Fresh

March 22, 2009 , ,

Boxed In 
A GROUP ART EXHIBIT PRESENTED BY
Plaztik Mag & Factory Fresh
Friday, May 1st 7-10pm
Show runs till May 21JIM AVIGNOn Live Music show

THIS PROJECT IS INSPIRED BY THE RECENT HOUSING & ECONOMIC MELTDOWN. SINCE IT SEEMS WE WILL ALL BE LIVING IN A CARDBOARD BOX SOON, WE DECIDED TO BE AHEAD OF THE CURVE. WE’RE HAVING AMAZING ARTISTS CREATE THEIR DREAM CARDBOARD BOX HOME.

PLAZTIK MAG & THEIR FRIENDS FACTORY FRESH HAVE CREATED A SITE SPECIFIC SHOW & HAVE BROUGHT TOGETHER ARTISTS INTERESTED IN CREATING CARDBOARD BOX HOMES & THEIR INHABITANTS. THIS GROUP IS JOINING TOGETHER TO WORK ON TRANSFORMING THE ENTIRE GALLERY INTO A CARDBOARD WONDERLAND.

KEEPING IT TO FACTORY FRESH STANDARD THE ARTISTS WILL BE WORKING TOGETHER ON SITE FOR TWO WEEKS PRIOR TO SHOW TIME TO BRING YOU THE UNEXPECTED. THE DIVERSE GROUP OF CONTEMPORARY & URBAN ARTISTS, MOST OF WHOM HAVE NEVER MET EACH OTHER, WILL EXPRESS THEIR VISION IN CARDBOARD FOR THE FIRST TIME.

TO ALL OF US AT PLAZTIK MAG & FACTORY FRESH THIS SHOW IS LIKE A BOX OF CHOCOLATES… WE DON’T KNOW WHAT FLAVOR TO START WITH! SHOULD WE START WITH URBAN LEGENDS LIKE WANE.ONE & JAES of C.O.D CREW? OR DAMON JOHNSON WHO’S BEEN CALLED THE NEXT ANDY WARHOL.
OR MAYBE…

BARNEY’S FAVORTITE ARTIST KIM PIOTROWSKI! BUT WAIT, THERE’S MORE! WHAT’S ALISON CORRIE HIDING BEHIND THE CANDY WRAPPER? OOOHHHHH… AND THERE’S NO TELLING WHAT SURPRISES WILL COME FROM SKEWVILLE, SCOTCH 79 a.k.a. KEO, SICK BEAR ATE HIS PAW IN DISPAIR, BLUE BABY DESIGNS, CISCONYC, MORGAN SHEASBY, ALLISON MALINSKY, AND NOAH SPARKES.

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Dalek + Mike Giant in Paris (if you are in town)

March 21, 2009 , ,

The Magda Danysz gallery is pleased to welcome two major artists from the street art culture who have developed a style of their own : Dalek and Mike Giant. Though they have very different styles they talk about the same culture, the same influences, the same world.

Dalek is one of the artists who as Shepard Fairey, Dave Kinsey, and Twist (aka Barry McGee) is taking the old school styles of graffiti and while exposing the work towhole new audiences at the same time.

 

Mike Giant has added the whole tattoo culture to his graffiti background. He started writing in 1989. Early on, he was influenced by his graffiti partners a lot, as well as by writers like Twist, Rem, and KR. A habit he has kept from his graffiti years asnow, Mike Giant uses words as the building blocks of language.

http://www.magda-gallery.com/

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Swimmingly Swell Swoon Scene at Secret Project Robot

March 19, 2009

A few hundred artists and fans and applicants for sailing the high seas

converged on Secret Project Robot in Williamsburg on Saturday night to witness and bid on a silent auction of artwork to raise funds for SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA.

The planned voyage/community event/art installation will sail from Slovenia to Italy this spring, and a multitude of artists donated work to the show. Many more are hoping to be part of the trip itself.

The well organized event was quickly crowded with people signing up to receive their bidding code name and place their bids on forms next to the art.  A smartly dressed dj spun vinyl 45’s of 70’s soul classics while volunteers at tables offered screen-printed t-shirts and posters in the back rooom and projections washed over the walls.

The collaborative community spirit was palpable, and good humored fun-seekers romped about the space kissing cheeks (and pinching some too).

Cyclops has a lot on the mind (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Cyclops has a lot on the mind (photo Steven P. Harrington)

A Wall of Bidding Opportunity (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A Wall of Bidding Opportunity (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Swoon on the left, bid in progress on right (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Swoon on the left, bid in progress on right (photo Steven P. Harrington)

A beauty by Swoon on rusted tin (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A beauty by Swoon on rusted tin (photo Steven P. Harrington)

A final farewell fundraiser is this Saturday March the 21st.

Headed for the Mediterranean (courtesy Swimming Cities)

Click this to support the ambitious trip.

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Images of the Week 03.09.09

March 16, 2009

Aiko (photo Jaime Rojo)
Why don’t you come up and see me sometime? (Aiko) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Cake and ShinShin (photo Jaime Rojo)
Cake and ShinShin (photo Jaime Rojo)

Altered Torino (photo Jaime Rojo)
Altered Torino (Altered Beast) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Altered Brokeback (photo Jaime Rojo)
Altered Brokeback (Altered Beast) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Altered Beast (photo Jaime Rojo)
Jon Benet (Altered Beast) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Bishop 203 (photo Jaime Rojo)
Broken Heart. (Bishop 203) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Feral (photo Jaime Rojo)
Head Dress (Feral) (photo Jaime Rojo)

You’re looking good just like a snake in the grass (Hellbent) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Mark Carvalho (photo Jaime Rojo)
Spring is in the Air! (Mark Carvalho) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Pork at the Robot (Noah Sparkes and ? ) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Pork Robot (Noah Sparkes(pattern) and Roa (pig) ) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Priority Celso (photo Jaime Rojo)
Priority Celso (photo Jaime Rojo)

(photo Jaime Rojo)
Supreme Sunshine (photo Jaime Rojo)

Start Early! (photo Jaime Rojo)
Start Early! (photo Jaime Rojo)

Zoso (photo Jaime Rojo)
Never Forget Your Roots (Zoso) (photo Jaime Rojo)

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NEO CONs at Frost Street Gallery

March 14, 2009 , ,

Aakash Nihalani, PosterBoy, and Ellis G.

form the new Crew called Neo Cons and are putting on their first show together.

From the Press Release:

17 Frost presents NEO CON NEW YORK, an exhibition of collaborative installations by the Neo-Con collective [Aakash Nihalani, Ellis G., Poster Boy]. The collective consists of artists that utilize ephemeral mediums to create public art, focusing on neo-contextualizing the mundane. Their works, on and off the street, possess urgent relevance to modern societal contradictions and conflagrations, confronting the humanness of discomfort and dissatisfaction with typical, routine, existence.
Opening Reception for NEO CON NEW YORK will be March 21st, 2009, 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm at 17 Frost Gallery, located at 17 Frost Street between Union Avenue and Lorimer Street in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.

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“Work to Do” is on Schedule for March 26 at The Combine

March 12, 2009 , ,

Collaboration is the Piece
Collaboration makes the total Piece (collage and design Anna Robie, photos Jazzmine Beaulieu)

Royce Bannon and the Endless Love Crew

have been working hard and probably playing a little too, and the group show they have engineered is a quick primer on what street art is looking like at the moment in Brooklyn, and elsewhere. The show inaugurates a hallowed creative space for artists in Soho and christens it with a new name, The Combine, at 112 Greene Street in Soho.

The theme of the show, “Work to Do” pays a tribute to words and works of the new president in this land, and Afrika Bambaataa has written a new song with the same name, which he’ll be performing when he reunites with the Soulsonic Force at the opening.

See more about the show and our interview with Royce here.

“We have to work like our future depends on it, because it does” – Barack Obama

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Be a Deer, Won’t You?

March 11, 2009 , , ,

For most of the 00’s the creatures of the natural world began appearing in our forward-looking art and music, like prophets,

and while it’s true that the streets are saying things, have the animals been saying things to us too?  And if so, what are we hearing? Broken Crow always has animals in his work on the street, Dennis McNett too.  Are they giving voice to the other inhabitants of the planet, inhabitants far removed from the urban jungle?

Anyway, what brought this to mind again was these two friends we met this weekend.

At the Leo Kesting booth at Fountain Art Fair (photo Steven P. Harrington)
At the Leo Kesting booth at Fountain Art Fair (photo Steven P. Harrington)

A piece by China Morbosa at her show at Alphabeta (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A piece by China Morbosa at her show at Alphabeta (photo Steven P. Harrington)

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Nathan Pickett is Killing it in the Back Room

March 10, 2009 , ,
Carnal Lexicon Carnivorous (Nathan Lee Pickett)

Carnal Lexicon Carnivorous (Nathan Lee Pickett)

Breathe Like You Mean It

Nathan Lee Pickett is from Virginia, yet another incredible transplant to Brooklyn.  I was already revved up and excited by the Morning Breath/Cycle show up front gallery at Ad Hoc that is running until March 22, but Mr. Pickett left me kind of stupified.

No pictures do it justice, so try to hit it this weekend – the paper cutting alone is so intense and detailed that to use it for a stencil almost seems beside the point – the pretty chaos that ensues from layering rich dense color, a calligraphic hand, and pulling the screen back from the wall so it’s shapes cast intricate shadows on the wall… Pickett’s new work is a revelation.

Detail

Detail (Nathan Lee Pickett)

AdHoc Art Gallery

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We Invented the Remix

March 10, 2009 ,

No it’s not another 80’s song with a drum track and lyrics flowing over top,

it’s a brash re-ordering of a postering campaign in Williamsburg, Brooklyn over the past couple of weeks, where hundreds of copies were on surfaces everywhere. The original picture appears to be of Lewis Allan Reed, a purported musician of some type, wearing a t-shirt of the advertiser’s name, as interpreted by photographer Terry Richardson.

Within the first week (or day) the campaign appeared on abandoned lots and on the sides of condo construction sites, the rows of repeated posters were re-faced by street artist collective Faile, neating placing tiger’s heads over the bespectacled rocker and the word “Vanit y” over the logo on his t-shirt.

Saturday night on Bedford Ave. we spotted this total reapportioned interpretation, using what appears to be multiple pieces of the image in a bag and then dumping it out.  It’s not signed but we have a good guess who this collab is.  You just can’t be sure who to shout out to sometimes.

Poster Diddy featuring Daddy A. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Poster Diddy featuring Bid Daddy A. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
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BENEFIT SILENT AUCTION FOR SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA

March 10, 2009 ,
"Their Eyes were watching God" (Patrick May)

"Their Eyes Were Watching God" by Patrick May


BENEFIT SILENT AUCTION FOR SWIMMING CITIES OF SERENISSIMA:
Secret Project Robot, March 14th, 2009

Secret Project Robot – 210 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11211 (at Metropolitan)
March 14th – Benefit Silent Auction 7:30pm – 10pm, Dance Party 9pm – 3am

swimmingcities.org
secretprojectrobot.org

Secret Project Robot will host a silent auction to benefit SWOON’s latest nautical art project Swimming Cities of Serenissima. The benefit will take place in Williamsburg, Brooklyn on March 14th. The bidding begins at 7:30pm and ends promptly at 10pm. Dancing and Djing by The Paw and Dirty Finger will follow the silent auction. Here is a selection of the participating artists:

  • SWOON
  • Maya Hayuk
  • Monica Canilao
  • Tony Bones
  • Michelle Handelman
  • Patrick May
  • Santiago Mostyn
  • D-Dock of Hobby Horse
  • Imminent Disaster
  • Radek Szczesny
  • Ryan Doyle of the Black Label Bicycle Club
"Sky Watch" (Radek Szczesny)

"Sky Watch" (Radek Szczesny)

The Swimming Cities of Serenissima is a fleet of three intricately hand-crafted vessels that will navigate the Adriatic Sea from the Karst region of Slovenia to Venice, Italy in May of 2009.  Designed by the artist SWOON, the floating sculptures are descendants of the Swimming Cities of Switchback Sea (Hudson River, 2008) and the Miss Rockaway Armada (Mississippi River, 2006 and 2007). The Swimming Cities of Serenissima are built from salvaged materials, including modified Mercedes car motors with long-tail propellers.  For Swimming Cities, SWOON will collaborate with 30 artists from the United States, including OBIE award-winning playwright Lisa D’Amour. As the Swimming Cities move toward Venice, the crew will collect and install keepsakes in an ark-like cabinet of wonders that will be on display on the boats when they arrive.  Once in Venice, the boats and crew will offer intimate performances that incorporate music, shadow puppetry, and story.  The project is produced with the assistance of Deitch Projects, Paper Monster and Black Rat Press.

Secret Project Robot is a not-for-profit space located in the forest of Monster Island and represents the Mighty Robot A/V squad, HappyFun art group and Sound Artists Robot Death Cult. It is a 2000 square foot performance, and installation centered experimental space founded upon the idea that art should be fun.

For information contact A’yen Tran ayen@swimmingcities.org. Secret Project Robot is located at 210 Kent Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11221 (at Metropolitan).
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NYC Community Murals Event at CUNY Aaron Davis Hall

March 8, 2009 ,

Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals
OPENING RECEPTION
TUESDAY, MARCH 10, 2009
6:30 – 8:30 PM
Harlem Stage @ Aaron Davis Hall/
The City College of New York–Lobby
Convent Avenue at 135th Street
Subway: 1 Train to 137th Street
Walk to 135th and turn left.
Convent Avenue is 2 blocks east.
Questions?
212.989.3006 or NYCMuralBook@aol.com
will be available for purchase
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