From photographer Vincent Cornelli comes this fun collection of images from last nights opening of “All Shook Up”, Jef Aerosol’s opening at Ad Hoc/Eastern District in Bushwick, Brooklyn, curated by Brooklyn Street Art. A steady crowd carried through the evening to check out the new pieces and to meet the artist in person.
Stencil master and Street Artist Logan Hicks began this direction at the NuArt Festival in Norway this past September.
The Multi-Layered Work: Precise, cool, revealing.
“It’s part of a new direction that I have begun. I suspect that much of my new work will be following this same direction,” he says.
The new works which (once at least) have also included the artist himself, look like a still from a CGI effect – but the direction the movie is going is unclear. Is the line drawing, rendered with CAD-like precision, being brought to full bodied life?
“The panels were actually a re-spray of a piece I did down at The Art Center in Miami during Basel. It was part of the show called Blueprint for Space,” says Logan
Or is this a peeling back of the skin of architecture and streetscape textures to reveal the superstructures and engineering underneath, the bones? To further enhance the stripped-down feeling is a devotion to a monochrome palette, minus the ox blood and acrid red punches he has favored in the recent past.
Logan Hicks standing in front of his new four paneled stencil piece to be hung in somebody’s home.
Thanks Logan for showing your new stuff to BSA readers.
You are never going to get bored walking through New York’s boroughs because the sheer number of languages, cuisines, fashions, and music you will experience will continually surprise you and expose you to great new people.
Street art fan and photographer Carlito Brigante (aka Charles Le Brigande) has been hanging in Bed Stuy Brooklyn for a few years, and has fallen in love with the music and history of the Jamaican soundsystem. A recent piece he did in the street recalls the big mountains of music speakers that pump loudly in the street with ska, reggae, and rocksteady music spun by a handful of disc jockeys engineers and MCs.
In addition to two of videos of that corner deli installation, Carlito engaged neighbors and shot pictures of them dancing in front of the paste-up. With a special affinity for the culture and the people, he loves street scenes that capture the flavor of this neighborhood.
Brooklyn Street Art: What is a “soundsystem” and where did they begin? Carlito Brigante: A soundsystem can be described as a means to bring the music to the people. In Jamaican popular culture, sound systems first appeared in the ghettos of Kingston in the late 40’s, way before the birth of ska, rocksteady and reggae music. Poor people could not afford the high prices of jazz and rhythm & blues (R&B) concerts organized for the wealthy elite and tourists, so sound systems sprung up. DJ’s would assemble large heavy speakers, power amplifiers and generators and blast music all night in the streets.
Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the genesis of the “rubadub session” video and the wheatpaste? What was the aim? Carlito Brigante: The rubadub session project is a tribute to the Jamaican sound system culture. It was my way of bringing an unfamiliar art form (wheat-pasting) and combining it with a familiar cultural symbol (the soundsystem) as a gift to the neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. One day I was walking-by a laundry in Bed-Stuy, and the shape of the wall reminded me of a huge speaker. I immediately thought of doing a piece representing a sound system there.
Brooklyn Street Art:It’s great how you feature people interacting with the art and with each other. What inspires you most about the project? Carlito Brigante: The idea was to recreate the mood of a Jamaican soundsystem and capture people’s reaction. This corner is always very busy, people are hanging around there all the time, so by pasting-up on this spot, I knew that people would relate to the piece and would interact with it. I wanted to make them dance with no music!
Brooklyn Street Art:The neighborhood of Brooklyn called Bed-Stuy certainly has roots in the Jamaican soundsystem. Can you talk about your experience of living here? Carlito Brigante: This piece was directly inspired by a personal “Bed-Stuy/Jamaican” experience. Two years ago during a block party, I took a photograph of a natty dread skanking in front of a massive wall of speakers. I mean, every time I go out to take pictures here, I find amazing material. Bed-Stuy is full of surprises. It is an ongoing source of inspiration for me, from a visual standpoint but also from a human perspective. I have met so many incredible people in this neighborhood and taken a good amount of images.
Brooklyn Street Art:How is this project related to your passion for street art and urban photography?
Carlito Brigante: With the rubadub session, I wanted to blend my passion for street art, urban photography and Jamaican culture. That’s the reason why I have created this “background”. I knew that the spot was pertinent, that the piece would generate genuine reactions and that I would be able to take great photographs.
It was great to see people dancing and jamming throughout the whole process.
You Give $25 to the Red Cross = Billi Gives You a T-Shirt
Since the January 12th earthquake we’ve seen lots of neighbors jump on board to help the people of Haiti.Hell, Lou A. even went there to help in person. (Go Lou!)Brooklyn hurts when Haiti hurts, and it’s been fantabulous to see a lot of artists really put their hearts where their mouth is.
Having a heart for Haiti is one thing, but it’s also important to “walk the walk”, says Street Artist Billi Kid, and you have to agree with him.
We do.That’s why we’re helping him and telling you about this fundraiser.
What's not to love?
The project is called “I HEART HAITI” – seems simple enough, and we’re glad to see that the artist has figured out a way to give 100% of the profits to the people who are hurting.
Brooklyn Street Art: So, how did you conceive of the design for the shirt? Billi Kid: I’ve always been a fan of Milton Glaser’s “I Heart NY” tee. Honestly, it was the first thing that came to mind. The message is simple, yet resonates to the core of how we should feel about Haiti right now.
CC License photo credit: Aash J
Brooklyn Street Art: It seems like it’s really nice quality…. Billi Kid: Alternative Apparel’s tee is of the highest quality and feels like butter. It’s 100% pure Egyptian cotton and retails for $19.95 without the silk screened artwork.
CC License photo credit: Aash J
Brooklyn Street Art: Isn’t it hard to get partners to do the production and shipping for a project like this? Billi Kid: I have to give all of the credit to the Public Works Department. They brought in all of the partners involved. All I did was design and produce the artwork and website. No small feat, but it felt good doing it. One of the great things about unemployment is you have lots of free time. LOL
CC License photo credit: USAID images
Brooklyn Street Art: You are not a major corporation – how did you manage to give 100% of the proceeds to Haiti? Billi Kid: Again, PWD has all of these great relationships with the folks involved. Fortunately, they all wanted to donate to the best of their abilities. The Shirt Factory printed over 12 dozen tees at no cost and pledged to do more if our efforts are successful. I’m sure what we raise is just a drop in the bucket, but every little bit counts.
Brooklyn Street Art:Can you talk about the aid organization you’re working with? Billi Kid: We decided to give all of the donations to the American Red Cross because they seem to be the most legitimate and involved charity out there. Unfortunately, they protect their brand to such a point that they asked us to take their logo off our website. No hard feelings though, we have all heard how people rush to profit from such tragedies. OUCH!
Brooklyn Street Art: People in Haiti are living under a piece of fabric, or plastic. How long do you think they will continue to need help? Billi Kid: I have heard it said that this tragedy was not an act of nature, but rather an act of poverty. It will take decades before we see real progress from this earthquake, let alone their economy.
Brooklyn Street Art:Anything else we should mention? Billi Kid: I have to give a shout out to BSA. I Heart BSA!!!
Now I know conservatives had art class in school too. That is, unless the funding was cut off because taxes had to be diverted elsewhere.
And certainly we have been through this whole “Flag” discussion a thousand times. You’re probably too young to remember the big deal during Daddy Bush’s run for president about flag burning.
And maybe you’ve heard about the artist Andres Serrano, who photographed a crucifix in a jar of his own urine for a piece called “Piss Christ”. Dude, symbols are appropriated into art on a daily basis. Outrageous? Yes. Protected speech? Yes. Another example of people who are shredding the constitution beating their chests about a symbol of patriotism. What do you think?
It’s just nice that the artist in this case, Saber, knows how to speak for himself regarding graffiti, the First Amendment, and the highly dysfunctional healthcare system in the U.S.
Photographer Vincent Cornelli was out on a legal wall tour with international stencil artist Jef Aerosol this Saturday; With a name like Aerosol, you don’t invite photographers to watch you work otherwise. The sunny January afternoon pretty much blew Vinny’s mind, and he writes here about how he got such rockingly cool pictures:
On Saturday, I had the privilege of showing Jef Aerosol around the streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn. I think the day was the perfect example as to why the Street Art Movement is so special…and it is deserving of capital letters. Encounters such as these are not only incredibly rewarding and inspiring, but they foster an intimate connection between you and a city that is changing right in front of you. It was one of the greatest of days
When I met Jef, I was photographing the front door of Eastern District/Ad Hoc Gallery. It was a warm greeting, with instant recognition of the other before exchanging “hellos.”
Everything from start to finish breed this notion of connectedness – from Eric of Eastern District giving us a ride to Veng’s wall; to catching up with Ali and Garrison of Ad Hoc, listening to their exploits up and down the eastern side of the US; to Veng offering up a nice piece of real estate on a wall he often works with.
It was also quite nice to have company from Stephan Missier and Becki Fuller, two great street art photographers who were around for a better part of the day. It was a day where everyone just seemed to fit so well with one another.
Jef and I spoke briefly of this sense of community, and family. He mentioned what a great feeling it is to be able to travel the world, always having another artist, gallery, blog or photographer willing to show you their city.
I felt so comfortable with Jef that I even asked him for some thoughts on a couple larger life-changing decisions in my own life. I thought the perspective he offered was quite spot on. He is a warm, witty and well-spoken man, confident in his outlook and mindset. It shows in his detailed and carefully placed stencils, and in his smile.
“All Shook Up”, the debut solo New York show by Jef Aerosol will open this Friday at Ad Hoc/Eastern District in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Read more about the show HERE.
In this exclusive still from the film, Banksy contemplates momentarily between hell-raising and thrill-seeking.
Last night the debut feature from Banksy “Exit Through the Gift Shop” showed at Sundance Film Festival. The secret surprise screening (announced the same day) was anything but– thanks to the power of leaks and Twitter, an army of PR machines, and the BBC. Somehow they filled the seats. And if you were looking for celebrities, Adrian Grenier, who has spent some times on Brooklyn’s mean streets, was spotted in the crowd as they pushed their way into the theatre. So there, it’s officially hot.
Maybe part of the reason people anticipated the screening was because Park City, Utah is not a suburb of London, yet strangely a Banksy piece showed up on the wall of the local coffee shop, The Java Cow. You’ve seen it 10 times already. – Which is why the owner of the little coffee shop is probably contracting a moving company to hoist his caffeine castle onto a flatbed truck and sell it to Goldman Sachs as a lobby trinket.
The Willoughby Windows Project, curated by Ad Hoc Gallery last summer was a big hit that helped revitalize a downtown block.
A developer who bought the block had made it look ugly by kicking out the mom-n-pop businesses that made their living there, so the street artists made it look super cool by putting art in the windows.
These four talented and insightful Brooklyn students in 4th,5th, and 6th grades made an excellent documentary about the project and it’s impact on the people they met who passed the windows. It is very funny and entertaining. Oh yeah, it’s educational too.
The team really studied the topic and explained why they did the project. Here are some quotes from the documentary, to give you a flavor:
“We decided to make a documentary film about the different stores and that had art in them.”
“We had some questions and we wanted to find out what the general public thought about the art.”
“Personally I think the stores closed because of the economy.”
The documentary includes discussion about the project, how it came about, and interviews with people on the street. Garrison Buxton of Ad Hoc, and one of the featured artists in the project Dennis McNett, are also interviewed. The whole documentary was edited by the class instructor, Sam Bathrick.
Three cheers for after school programs! Three cheers for teachers! Three cheers for these amazing students!!
Well, it felt like I had died and gone to heaven as I found myself in the center of Paris the day before New Years Eve. The streets of Paris are filled with beautiful people, amazing places to eat, hella old buildings, and some great art.
Places like the Centre de Pompidou and Palais de Tokyo are pockets of saturated street art where the kids get up knowing full well that thousands of tourists a day come through on their way to see some great art inside these institutions. Imagine my surprise when I rolled up and there was a huge Katsu fire extinguisher piece in the courtyard of the Pompidou.
I think my favorite was a neighborhood called The 11th, which is kind of between rue de Republic and Bastille metro stop. The 11th is a hip neighborhood that houses the only rock-n-roll record store in Paris (“Born Bad”), amazing little shops and cool little galleries.
I found this great spot called “The Lazy Dog” on 25 rue de Charonne that had an incredible collection of Street Art books and magazines, cool clothes inspired by street culture, and a vast array of prints from some of todays’ sickest artists, like Dutch artist/graphic designer Parra and French print star Genevieve Gauckler to name a couple. They also had a gallery in a separate building next door where they were showing the prints of Evan Hecock – which was a great surprise as I had just become familiar with his work.
The streets in this general vicinity are crammed with some great stuff so keep your eyes peeled as you walk. There might be a Space Invader starring right at you.
I was also really blown away by crazy vertical pieces that were on the side of some buildings. At first I could not fathom how these kids were able to do it and why the verticality of it, but as I studied it more I realized that there are actual ladders (like fire escape ladders) on the side of the buildings that were just hard to see against the brick of the buildings. Kids will hang off the side of ladder and throw up a piece.
There were a few roller pieces on sides of buildings (Zoo Project being one of the best I saw) and the tunnels of the subway were filled with some nice traditional graff pieces, but the majority of the street art was wheat paste. As I was hunting around I met this guy Billy on the street who was doing the same thing as I was.
We got to talkin’ it turns out he has a blog of street art from Paris and all around Europe. Unfortunately, unless you know French you won’t be able to read sh*t but he has some great images of a lot more of the Paris scene.
Billy also recommended that I go check out Rue Denoyez, which was this little forgotten stretch of buildings that had seen better days (like starting in 1850), but some artists thought it would be a good place to work.
More artists followed and began painting huge colorful murals on the walls and…. well I guess you know what happens if you have been in NYC long enough to remember what Williamsburg, Long Island City, Gowanus, and Bushwick used to be like and what they are now.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
