On the Navajo Reservation the built environment tends more toward the horizontal than say, Manhattan.  The similarity is that the man made structures for both are constructed on soil first belonging to the proud tribes of people we now call “Native Americans”.

Mary Reese, by Jetsonorama (photo © courtesy of the artist)

Arizona based Street Artist Jetsonorama calls the Navajo Rez home and it is here where he plans most of his installations of wheat-pastes.  The flat lands and sun parched structures, sometimes crumbling back into the dust, provide a suitable open-air gallery for his photos.  The images are not somber, rather they are pulsing with life and possessing some urgency as if to remind you that these places are very alive and life stories are unfolding here.

These recent pieces are at the Cow Springs Trading Post. Judging from the scene, not much trading takes place there nowadays but Jetsonorama enlists its walls one more time to display the inhabitants of the area.

“Deshaun”, Jetsonorama.  (photo © courtesy of the artist). “While installing at cow springs, we met a local youth named Deshaun.  His skateboard broke while he was showing us a trick.  We’re going to get him another one but he doesn’t know that yet.  Thanks for the love Deshaun” Jetsonorama

Bryson with his nephew Owen. Jetsonorama (photo © courtesy of the artist)

ROA EN MEXICO : Un Video Nuevo

Belgian Street Artist ROA visited Mexico in January (see “ROA’s Magic Naturalism”) and now we have a video of his large installation in Mexico City. Whether in the detritus of the big metropolis or the bucolic country landscape, his unique and now iconic images of dead and alive animals rendered in perfect monochrome palette are never out of tune with their surroundings. Perhaps one key element in achieving this sense of context is ROA’s insistence on using as subjects the animals native to the land where he is painting.

ROA was invited by the art promoter MAMUTT ARTE in collaboration with the Antique Toy Museum Mexico (MUJAM). In the country for 3 weeks, ROA left  about 15 murals in various locations like Mexico City, Guanajuato and Puebla and also collaborated with Mexican artists Saner & Sego.

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