April 2010

FAILE & BÄST PRESENT “DELUXX FLUXX ARCADE”

FAILE & BÄST PRESENT “DELUXX FLUXX ARCADE”, Brooklyn Street Art

brooklyn-street-art-faile-bast-perry-rubenstein-gallery

For Immediate Release

FAILE & BÄST
DELUXX FLUXX ARCADE

April 30 – May 27, 2010
Opening Friday, April 30, 2010, 7:30 – 10:30 PM

What do you get when Brooklyn-based duo Faile and collaborator Bast take over a disused store front on the Lower East Side? Deluxx Fluxx, a functional video arcade that will be open to the public from April 30th to May 27th.

Originally conceived as a one-off project in London, Deluxx Fluxx allowed Faile and Bast to indulge nostalgia for the classic video arcade while exploring the tactile possibilities of the wooden cabinet as sculptural medium. In its New York incarnation, the retrofitted machines run new games by Adapted Studio based on Faile and Bast’s omnivorous visual language, with sounds produced by Seth Jabour of the noted band Les Savy Fav.

Deluxx Fluxx aims to make art less sterile, more fun, and accessible to a broad audience. This sensibility harkens back to the golden age of arcade games; a time when the Lower East Side itself was still a redoubt for punk rock and graffiti culture. These foundational roots of the neighborhood are apparent in the show’s DIY and street art production values. Faile and Bast rebuke the contemporary art world’s fixation on ideas of relational aesthetics and democratization, and give their audience a chance to genuinely engage the work without the looming formality of the traditional gallery. Deluxx Fluxx is entirely interactive, and invites viewers to play a round of psychedelic foosball and take part in the art itself. It is the artists’ intention that viewers will forget they are looking at art, and be captivated by the carnivalesque. The video arcade may be a lost form, but in Faile and Bast’s re-imagining, it gets a temporary and much needed revival.

Faile is represented by Perry Rubenstein Gallery in New York. This autumn they will have a solo exhibition with the gallery in New York.

For more information about Deluxx Fluxc, please visit:
www.DeluxxFluxx.com

For more information about FAILE, please visit:
www.perryrubenstein.com

Deluxx Fluxx
158 Allen Street (Between Stanton and Rivington)
New York, New York
Tuesday – Sunday, 3:00 – 11:00 PM
Opening Reception, April 30, 2010, 7:30 – 10:30 PM

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SECRET PROJECT ROBOT PRESENTS: DEUCE 7 “MYSTIC STYLEZ”

DEUCE 7

Deuce7 and Other
Deuce 7 and others (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mystic Stylez
A show by Deuce 7

May 15th through June 12, 2010
Opening Reception Saturday May 15th 8 to 10
with after party hosted by PopGun booking featuring
THESE ARE POWERS

On May 15th 2010, Deuce 7, and some friends he hasn’t told us who yet, are repainting Secret Project Robot with an exhibition called MYSTIC STYLEZ. Needless to say the show will be sick…

The first time we saw his work we were walking back to Secret Project Robot and passed a street sign with a small wooden piece, a few days later he had hit the Williamsburg Bridge. Immediately we wanted to find him. It took nearly two year, in fact we couldn’t figure out who he was until he hit our building and we had Maya Hayuk introduce us. The rest we shall say is a happy history.

Deuce 7 has taken New York City Streets by storm. On first seeing the exhaustive detail of his work we wondered how he could possibly finish each piece in the open streets. His prolific and colorful, almost painterly works, are filled with Native American tribal references, images of insects, trains, horrifying alien invaders, references to 1950’s horror movie posters and video games like Galaga, beautiful and complicated symmetry and an appeal that seems to be apolitical and universal.

Deuce 7’s modus operendi isn’t in claiming space as much as in reclaiming, in fact, though his work has touched the heavy hitting spots- The Williamsburg Bridge, Lower East Side, etc. he seems to operate best in abandoned buildings, train cars in the Midwest, underneath and behind things; his art is often a happy surprise, it puts objects back into points of visual interest.

SECRET PROJECT ROBOT

210 Kent Ave
(between 13th St & 14th St)
Brooklyn, NY 11211
Neighborhoods: Williamsburg – South Side, Williamsburg – North Side
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MIGHTY TANAKA PRESENTS: “OSMOTIC TRANSMISSIONS” ART FROM THE MINDS OF AVOID AND INFINITY

MIGHTY TANAKA
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Mighty Tanaka Presents: Babel Code <osmotic transmissions>

Art From the Minds of AVOID pi and infinity set to open May 21st – June 11th

Brooklyn, NY – April 24, 2010 – Thought provoking Street Artists AVOID pi & infinity team up for their first duo show together entitled Babel Code <osmotic transmissions>.  Peering through a semiotic Petri dish intermixed with sub-conscious communication, Babel Code uses primitive and mystical sources as well as runic references, which charges the works of art with a power and energy beyond the objects themselves.

Babel Code challenges the viewer to reconsider the basic notions of communication and cultural change, while providing a closer look into the artist’s own techniques of non-verbal interactions. Building upon a symbolic language shared by both artists, their influences range from a resonance of mixed signals and errant transmissions.

Their symbolism ranges from introverted Platonic deliberation and chemical structures to numerology and DNA; anything and everything from hobo marks and astronomy to grammar diagrams and physics equations.

About the Artists

AVOID pi was born the year IBM released the Personal Computer. He was raised in South Carolina, on a diet of freight trains, deep forests, punk rock, and DIY. He moved to the coast on the eve of the millennium to study both graffiti and philosophy among the flooded streets of Charleston. In 2006, he moved to New York in order to interact on a global stage. He is working on a language of abstractions in the public space, as well as empowering the political potentialities of graffiti.  www.avoidpi.com

infinity was born in 1962 in the Midwest. His family moved to Manhattan in 1970. Obsessions with comic books, heavy metal, and graffiti eventually embraced studies in expressionism, semiotics, and the sciences. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin at River Falls in 1986 and The School of Visual Arts in 1989. He has followed an erratic career path, but always continued his aesthetic and scholarly research.

OPENING RECEPTION:
Friday, May 21, 2010 – 6:00PM-9:00PM, and closing June 11, 2010

Mighty Tanaka
68 Jay St., Suite 416 (F Train to York St.)
Brooklyn, NY 11201
Hours: M-F 12PM to 7PM, weekends by appointment only
Office: 718.596.8781

Email: alex@mightytanaka.com

Web: www.mightytanaka.com

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FACTORY FRESH GALLERY PRESENTS: ROA NYC FIRST SOLO SHOW

ROA
brooklyn-street-art-roa-factory-fresh-gallery

ROA
a Solo Exhibition

Opening Reception May 14th, 7-10pm

This May, Factory Fresh goes wild as it opens its doors to the zoetic art of Belgium-born artist ROA. The artist’s organic animal forms, huge in both their reputation and impact, will grace the walls of the gallery this May, reminding spectators of the forgotten natural world beneath the city’s streets.

Through his large-scale installations of very wild wild-life on the industrial canvas of the city, ROA produces a juxtaposition of the overtly natural against the mechanic that is both feral and nostalgic, a reminiscence of what the world used to be before cement and concrete. ROA is famous for his large black and white works that depict both the outer and inner appearance of rodents, bulls, roaches et al, who slumber on garage doors and cement blocks, copulate in abandoned alleyways and decay on brick walls. His work is sprawling and uncontainable, and will be filling Factory Fresh as such, barely pinned down to found materials, clustering in our corners and escaping out into our surrounding streets.

ROA began pulling animals out of the depths of the industrial world in his hometown of Ghent, Belgium, where he explored the area around his home and was inspired by the life that lurked in its lonely smokestacks. His resulting work snarls at you from wherever it prowls, awaking a visceral reaction that comes from seeing something familiar yet unknown, an uncanny portrayal of the animals within and around ourselves that our contemporary lifestyles have made null.

Since his Belgium beginnings, ROA’s work has hit the ground running like the animals he depicts, scattering on four legs all over major cities, showing up on the walls of galleries and abandoned factories alike. His work has been shown in London, Berlin, Warsaw, and sold out in two days in Paris. He now returns to New York, arriving at a very different kind of factory than the industrial wastelands his animals are known to inhabit, ROA’s show at Factory Fresh promises to be untamed and animated as his pieces.

On view till May 30th.

FACTORY FRESH GALLERY

1053 FLUSHING AVE

BROOKLYN,  NY

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Bike Cozy for Nostalgic Irony-Free Hipsters and Home-Knitters

The god-forsaken winter has blown back for a few days and the wicked wind nearly blew me into the security cage on the Williamsburg Bridge last night as I ducked the turbine-strength gusts and clumps of city-debris blowing through the air. You know that scene from “American Beauty” where the creepy neighbor dude shows the innocent nubile teen his home video of a bag being blown around by the wind in a non-sensical but poetic way?  Okay, multiply that by 50 and throw in asbestos and a few broken umbrellas and you have BROOKLYN last night.

And for these chilly late spring mornings…  Wouldn’t it be great if you could go out to your bike in the morning and find that it’s all warm and snug and ready for you to climb on?  Consider the Bike-Cozy.

It beats starting it up and leaving it running for ten minutes before you go out - and better for the environment too!
It beats starting it up and leaving it running for ten minutes before you go out – and better for the environment too.

Man, they have EVERYTHING on youtoober..

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Swoon Goes to Zambia to Teach and Create

In March Brooklyn Street Artist Swoon, artist Matt Small, gallerist Mike Snell (of Black Rat Projects), and blogger RJ Rushmore (of vandalog.com) all went to Kabwe, Zambia to teach art classes at a school called Robert Shitima School.  The classes covered a variety of art-making techniques including print-making, linotype carving, portraiture and collage.

One of the students that Swoon met
One of the students that Swoon met in Zambia

A shanty-town about 130 km north of Lusaka, the capital, the population of Makululu is estimated at 80,000 people and is frequently referred to as one of the worlds largest slums.  Many of the students at the Robert Shitima School are from the town and are orphaned and/or live on the streets.

A cut paper piece by Swoon
A cut paper piece by Swoon at the school.

Swoon and Co. were at the school thanks to Zamcog, a non-profit with a less than 2% overhead, that is working to create sustainable change through improved educational opportunities.  Children receive K-9 schooling at no cost at the non-denominational facility, which is run by The Brothers of the Sacred Heart.

One of Swoon's mirrored pieces.
One of Swoon’s mirrored pieces.

The approximately 200 kids were very excited to learn new art-making techniques and to use the art supplies the team brought to share. Said RJ, “They were painting their bikes, found wood, the occasional piece of paper and anything they could get their hands on.” At this point the school is working to provide more basic needs for the students, so the three days in which the students learned about art were an uncommon opportunity for each kid to engage in their creative side.

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(all photos courtesy Heather Macionus)

To learn more about Zamcog, go HERE


In case you missed it, this was Swoon’s piece from our auction on Saturday.

Directory-Street-Art-New-York-Silent-Auction69_SWOON

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OBEY MARTHA: Shepard Fairey Pays a Large Tribute to Martha Cooper and “Defiant Youth” in New York

OBEY MARTHA: Shepard Fairey Pays a Large Tribute to Martha Cooper and “Defiant Youth” in New York

Sidewalk Philosopher Fairey Talks about New York, LA, Hype, May Day and this country of immigrants while pasting a building-sized ovation to a photographer and her work.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey and Team begin placement of large new piece in Soho.

Street artist Shepard Fairey was out on the streets of New York again yesterday in advance of his Saturday opening at Deitch Projects.  This time it was to put up a large portrait based on a black and white photograph by Martha Cooper called “Defiant Youth”.

"Defiant Youth", by Martha Cooper (©)

“Defiant Youth”, by Martha Cooper (©)

While the original photo presented a group of young boys aligned in a semi-militaristic configuration, the Fairey version slightly altered the number and postures to achieve his graphic sense of balance.  Cooper’s images have served as inspiration for many artists over the years and also have been re-interpreted. Read our interview with her about the subject HERE.

Martha Cooper (foreground) Shepard and Tanley from Arrested Motion (background)

Martha Cooper (foreground) with Shepard and Tanley Wong from Arrested Motion (background) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ms. Cooper, an ethnographer, was also on hand to capture the moment yesterday, snapping many photos and happily reflecting on what it was like to be a female on the scene running around with graffiti writers in the 70’s.  While she could see how some female photographers might have run into sexism in a predominantly male enterprise, Martha said that most of the writers thought little of her gender. They were taking photos of their work anyway and were happy to have a photographer around capturing their stuff before it disappeared.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey holding one of the roses soon to be stuffed in the end of a gun (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey  (photo ©Jaime Rojo)

During a break from the job, Mr. Fairey talked to BSA for a couple of minutes:

Brooklyn Street Art: What’s the difference between putting work up in LA and putting up in New  York

Shepard Fairey: Well, in LA you have to do everything big because everybody’s in a car. In New York there is a lot of foot traffic so even the smallest sticker is going to get seen by people walking around. I think also in New York  you want to integrate your stuff into the landscape in a way that makes sense with all the other art and architecture. LA is more sort of a wasteland – you know it’s built on top of a desert and there are a lot of flat spaces and a lot more open spaces.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

I think New York has got more character and you can really put your work up in a way that makes sense with the other structures and the other art.  LA is more of a free-for-all; You’ve got billboards and walls and fences and boarded up things that are always changing.  Other than that it’s just the scale. For years I didn’t put anything up in New York. I just put up stickers and stencils on the lamp bases, which were a perfect canvas. And then later on I started to go a little big bigger with posters and then even bigger so I could do roof tops because getting yourself higher up where it’s harder to get to makes it run longer.  I just enjoy walking in New York – and you’ve gotta do everything driving in LA.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How about the reception from the public? Do you think there’s more hype in LA? Are people warmer in the way they relate to your work – or do you see any difference?

Shepard Fairey: I think people are more aggressive and caustic in New York in general. It’s more dense. There’s more of an old-school sort of proprietary nature to all of culture and sub-culture in New York: whether it’s an old landlord or an old graffiti writer, people are sort of full of piss and vinegar in New York. But I think the challenge of doing things in New York against all these elements is one of the great things about it.  It’s a little more laid-back in LA.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As far as hype – there is hype everywhere.  In LA I think, recently street art became more of a popular thing so all sorts of young actors and people like that who don’t know that much about the culture latch onto it so it trends in a way that’s a little bit different but…. You know, there is hype everywhere.

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey at work against a clear NYC sky. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard with his assistants

Shepard with his team at the end of the job (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: As May Day approaches, people have been talking about the current anti-immigration laws in this country, specifically in Arizona, which are very draconian and harsh. Are you going to do a campaign in response to it, or how do you feel about the topic?

Shepard Fairey: You haven’t been looking at my website. My immigration reform posters that I actually created last year for May 1st are back up.  I’ve printed up a new batch and collaborated with my friend Ernesto, who I worked on stuff last year with also.  I’m working with some different organizations.

From the Obeygiant.com website, "The continual persecution and exploitation of immigrants continues to grow in the United States of America. Anti-immigrant laws like Arizona’s SB1070 and national initiatives like Secure Communities and the 287(g) program have set this country back 60 years to a civil rights crisis. Hate crimes and racial hate groups are on the rise targeting latinos and immigrants, blaming these communities for the ales of society. On May 1st 2010 the voices of this community will be heard once again throughout this country denouncing the anti-immigrant sentiments. The purpose of these images and prints are to gain awareness and action to help change and improve immigration policy and perceptions. All the proceeds from these prints will go towards community based projects. "

From the Obeygiant.com website, “The continual persecution and exploitation of immigrants continues to grow in the United States of America. Anti-immigrant laws like Arizona’s SB1070 and national initiatives like Secure Communities and the 287(g) program have set this country back 60 years to a civil rights crisis. Hate crimes and racial hate groups are on the rise targeting latinos and immigrants, blaming these communities for the ails of society. On May 1st 2010 the voices of this community will be heard once again throughout this country denouncing the anti-immigrant sentiments. The purpose of these images and prints are to gain awareness and action to help change and improve immigration policy and perceptions. All the proceeds from these prints will go towards community based projects. “

Yeah, I’m an immigrant.  My family is originally from Europe. Everybody in this country other than the Native Americans are immigrants so to me it’s really ridiculous to not treat people like human beings just because they are not citizens.  It’s a country that’s really founded on the idea of pursuing a better life and so it seems very ridiculous to not respect that ambition today but respect it from a hundred or two hundred years ago.  It’s a complex issue because populations are growing and we are running out of space and resources but I think the way it’s being handled – it’s not aligned with the ideas about human rights that I think this country was founded on so I’d like to see it done a little differently.

Obey!

Obey! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martha Cooper’s Influence: Inspiration, Imitation, and Flattery

Martha Cooper on 12 oz. Prophet

Obey Giant Website

New York May 1 Coalition

May Day Shepard Fairey Exhibition

Arrested Motion Website

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Street Artists Give to NYC KIDS: A gift of Art and Self-Confidence

With 60 artists, 73 artworks, over 500 guests, and a happy vibe created by the mad-scientists Sifunk & Garmunkle at music mission control, the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit for Free Arts NYC was a huge success. At the end of the night most of the walls were bare, and most of the pieces remaining had been purchased by absentee bidders. With animated conversations, excited bidding, and occasionally rambunctious dancing (Andrew), the night was really an excellent example of how the street art community is alive and well, and how the work of street artists is in demand.

Thank you to Ali and Ad at Factory Fresh for co-hosting the event, thank you to all the volunteers from Free Arts NYC who helped to hang it, pack it, and execute the auction, and special thanks to all the artists who so generously donated their pieces to the event.  Also special thanks to all the blog friends (so many!) who wrote about this event and all the people who Tweeted it continuously, as well as the print publications who helped get the word out.  We hope to thank you all personally some time, if not via email. Because of your help, the gallery and back yard were jammed with more people than anyone could remember.

Thank you to Reid Harris Cooper for sending us these pictures he took at the crowded party (we threw in a couple crowd shots from the cellphone). Reid actually scored the Blanco piece in the auction.  If anyone else has pics from that night we would love to see them.

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For more images by Reid Harris Cooper see his Flickr page HERE

See images and details of the pieces at our Flickr – which will be updated by the end of the day

Participating artists were: Abe Lincoln Jr., Alex Diamond, Anera, Avoid Pi, Billi Kid, Bishop 203, Blanco, BortusK Leer, Broken Crow, C Damage, C215, Cake, Celso, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Creepy, Dain, Damon Ginandes, Dan Witz, Dark Clouds, Dennis McNett, Elbow Toe, EllisG, FKDL, Gaia, General Howe, GoreB, Hargo, Hellbent, Imminent Disaster, Infinity, Jef Aerosol, Jim Avignon, JMR, Joe Iurato, Jon Burgerman, Keely, Know Hope, Logan Hicks, Mark Carvalho, Matt Siren, Mint and Serf, Miss Bugs, NohJColey, Nomadé, Peru Ana Ana Peru, PMP/Peripheral Media Projects, Poster Boy, Pufferella, Rene Gagnon, Roa, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Specter, Stikman, Swoon, The Dude Company, Tristan Eaton, UR New York (2esae & Ski), Veng RWK

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Images Of The Week 04.25.10

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Aakash Nihalani, QRST, Various & Gould,

Aakash Nihalani at dusk
Aakash Nihalani pops out at dusk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Riot Stencil
Riot Stencil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jacques Eyes
Jacques Eyes (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Girl Stencil
Writing poetry, or staring at her phone ? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Various and Gould
Various and Gould floating (photo © Jaime Rojo)

My Mouth is on Fire!
Ever wake up with that horrible morning breath? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST
“So, yeah, it was the alternator.  Either that or it was the timing belt. But it would only happen when Jeanine was driving the car.” (QRST) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shoe bouquet
Spring is in the air!  Shoe bouquet (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MISS BUGS FLIES THROUGH VOLCANIC ASH to Brooklyn

I know, everyone has their own Icelandic Volcanic Ash Story, right?

Well, Miss Bugs just arrived, and we were afraid it wouldn’t make it to the auction on time — and jumpin’ jumbo jets, it’s a high flying winner!   Nothing but BLUE SKIES do I see…

Directory-Street-Art-New-York-Silent-Auction54

See more of Miss Bugs HERE

See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

Learn more about the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

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Ellis G. Lands Inside and Outside the Banksy Film

Ellis G. Lands Inside and Outside the Banksy Film

BAM!  The opening montage flies by with the raucous music and your pulse is quickening, spotting art and artists and graffers and wild creatures and you may be wondering where this is all going until it becomes clear — you have landed in Banksy world. He’ll let somebody else tell the time-twisting story inside a story, and then he’ll weigh in with acerbically insightful bonmots….much like the stuff he leaves on the street.

Ellis G. was doing backflips when he saw footage of himself in that opening sequence, and was stoked to be seeing it with a group of people directly related to the street art scene.  As is customary for the Brooklyn street artist, Ellis G. had already traced with thick chalk the shadows outside the spot where the movie was previewed .

In a short time, he was doing it inside too.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Ellis-G-TITLE-Banksy-Movie-April2010-4006367

Brooklyn Street Art: How did your work come off the sidewalk and into this theater?

Ellis G: Marc and Sara Schiller invited me out to a private screening of the film last week and I did a couple street pieces out in front of the venue and also in front of the afterparty for the screening.  Banksy caught wind that I did those, and requested that I do work inside and outside of the Sunshine Theater for the New York premiere of the film.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Ellis-G-Banksy-Movie-April2010-4006367

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe what you do as an artist?

Ellis G. : My work is directly related to everyday life. The content and subject matter of my work are all items or objects we deal with on a daily basis consciously and subconsciously;  Items and objects on the street outside as well as inside. Fortunately, my sources for subject matter are never-ending.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Ellis-G-TITLE2-Banksy-Movie-April2010-4006367

Light is everywhere, creating shadows from all types of different light sources. I capture and enhance it. Outside, it can be fleeting.  Weather, pedestrian and vehicular traffic are considered.  Building owners or maintenance hose it away with water. One minute it’s here, the next it’s gone. Inside is a whole different ball game. It becomes photography and screen prints. It becomes installation and sculpture. Most times there is a rhyme and reason behind which objects I work with. Sometimes I like to randomly choose objects, in random geographical locations when I am outside. It really depends on what is catching my eye at the moment. The light source comes into play, as does color, dry or wet streets, surface, backgrounds, architecture, chalk brand, location, and vehicular as well as pedestrian traffic.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Ellis-G-Banksy-Movie-April2010-1564475_n

Brooklyn Street Art: Since you are working with Banksy, does this mean you are going to start wearing a hood and talking like Darth Vader?

Ellis G.: No, I will not be rocking a hoodie and talking like Luke Skywalker’s father anytime soon.
Here is Ellis’s donation the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit:

Directory-Street-Art-New-York-Silent-Auction33

See more pieces from the auction at http://www.flickr.com/photos/streetartnewyork/.

Learn more about the Street Art New York Silent Auction Benefit

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