June 2012

“Brooklyn Shelf Life” and the Showpaper Installation at BAM

June 21, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC

Paper boxes are an important vehicle for communications on the street , even as the City has tried to consolidate them into elaborate ‘street furniture’ schemes that often leave out independent voices. Showpaper, a free print publication has been churning out issues for five years to give exposure to events and D.I.Y. culture around New York. It usually dedicates a large portion of print space and ink to an original artwork by an artist, and its listings provide an important exposure for artists and performers who haven’t yet been “discovered” by the larger media outlets.

Yesterday’s interview with UFO907 and W. Thomas Porter showed the amount of work and inspiration that went into their entry in the Showpaper show “Brooklyn Shelf Life” curated by Andrew H. Shirley at the Brooklyn Academy of Music. 5 pairs of artists affiliated with the New York street art scene were chosen to created new paper kiosks for the street. BSA was there in the BAM lobby to witness the installation of the sculptural pieces for Tuesday’s reception, and bring you the work of the other artists who prepared these pieces specifically for the show and to be placed on the streets of New York to distribute Showpaper.

The artists include Adam Void & Gaia, Cassius Fouler & Faust, Leon Reid IV & Noah Sparkes, Ryan C. Doyle & Swoon, and UFO 907 & W. Thomas Porter.

Leon Reid IV and Noah Sparkes (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Reid IV and Noah Sparkes. A stack of Showpapers in a compartment behind the ear. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cassius Fouler and Faust (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cassius Fouler and Faust. A stack of showpapers. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon and Ryan Doyle (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon and Ryan Doyle. A stack of Showpapers inside the beehive. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia and Adam Void (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

General View of the Exhibition (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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UFO Crashes at Brooklyn Academy of Music

June 20, 2012 Artists

UFO 907 & W. Thomas Porter Unveil Giant Wood / Metal Sculpture With 34 Eyes

“I think this is the kind of art work that people can step up to and they won’t say “Why the f*ck am I looking at this? I could do this – my kid could do this! I wanna blow people’s minds. I want people to be awestruck by it,” W. Thomas Porter exclaims in a burst of unhinged bravado that a master metal worker and inventor can claim after 3 consecutive weeks of custom cutting, bending, molding, and welding a crash-landing space ship, a 3-D realization of the UFO 907 graffiti moniker on it’s head.

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the graffiti guy known on the street as UFO 907 as his master woodworking partner, Porter has crawled like a monkey inside, around, and on top of every inch of this metal-skinned vessel with 34 rotating smooth wooden eyes. Standing inside a Brooklyn studio staring up at this audacious labor intensive sculptural blast-off of inspiration and technical handy-work, you can’t believe that this is the same UFO who jumped roofs and trains for years spraying a rapid flat version of this ubiquitous alien vessel.

907 Crew fans may also experience a mind-melt when hearing first hand the soaring descriptive narrative UFO lets loose about this brand new street piece, “It’s a symphony between wood and metal. Seeing the wood next to the metals – it’s almost like jewelry work, it’s like it’s growing up out of the earth like a flower. It’s totally looking like this flower that is blooming, this metal is blooming out of all of this wood. It’s fun, man.” A tough NYC street graffiti writer who sometimes get’s dragged into the uncomfortable position of being called a Street Artist? Nah, UFO is just an artist now, and the usually shy guy is so ripped about this project he frankly doesn’t care about the label. It’s about the work.

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Introduced last night at a reception hosted by The Brooklyn Academy of Music, this UFO will house a stash of copies of Showpaper, a free print publication that lists and promotes events and DIY culture all around New York. Commissioned with funding from BAMart: Public, the “Brooklyn Shelf Life Project” is Showpaper’s hand picked selection of Street Art affliated artists collaborating as pairs to create innovative new versions of the traditional street kiosk. Curated by Andrew H Shirley, the eclectic collection of street explorers also includes Adam Void & Gaia, Cassius Fouler & Faust, Leon Reid IV & Noah Sparkes, and Ryan C. Doyle & Swoon.

A sketch to the side of this preliminary mockup shows the full scale of the piece by UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A carpenter by trade, UFO 907 has been at it for 16 years but he didn’t try his hand at exploring his own graffiti tag in 3D till a few years ago. “It only made sense – I mean after over a decade drawing that stupid guy on the wall I began to wonder what he looked like in 3 dimensions…now I’m starting to wonder what the dude looks like in 5D!”

Porter says he started his path to metal work as a boy, tearing up old houses and rebuilding them with his father. “I’ve been making sculptures since I was 14, had no idea there was an art world then,” he says. Now that he is newly situated in his own Brooklyn studio, he’ll definitely be making more of his custom bike configurations (see his “F*ck Bike”) among other metal bending discoveries, “I’ve always been into material mashups,” he explains, “I started welding at 16, and metal became a gateway drug to all sorts of new possibilities.”

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While touring through their respective studios, BSA had the opportunity to see the entire process of making the new sculpture for BAM, entitled “The End If the Beginning”. It was also good to talk with UFO 907 and W. Thomas Porter about how they teamed up, who the UFO character symbolizes, and what they’ll think if the sculpture gets vandalized on the street.

Brooklyn Street Art: When people think of UFO 907 on the streets, it’s a quick tag with not much detail. Don’t you think they would be pretty shocked to know how much time you put into a sculptural piece like this?
UFO 907: I guess so. If there’s one thing I’ve learned all these years in the graffiti game is you never know what your going to get when you uncover the man behind the moniker.

I’ve always felt a kind of separation between my vandalism tendencies and my artistic urges. Sure my tags and retarded throwups can look artistic but it’s just a quick elementary thoughtless expression. I’m doing the macho getting up sh*t, pissing like a dog. But with my studio work I slow down to a f*cking snails pace, considering every detail, knowing each line of the brush/pen, each turn of the jigsaw, each stroke with the sander is injecting so much f*cking feeling and energy and power into the piece. So, if ya didn’t know, now ya know.

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What part of this new piece are you most proud of?
UFO 907: I’m pretty excited to have the opportunity to work to such a large scale. I also always had a desire to fabricate a larger-than-life UFO piece and just love the idea of using metal. And of course I’m totally stoked to have the opportunity to be collaborating on such an intense piece with an artist and craftsmen I hold in high regard, W.Thomas Porter.

Brooklyn Street Art: The first time we saw a sculptural UFO it was with Ad Hoc Projects for a group show in Miami. The piece was called “Williamsburg Guy”. Was that the first time you did something like that?
UFO 907: No, I have built a few smaller wooden UFO pieces before the “Williamsburg Guy” piece, and over the years I have messed around with some other materials to find the form I’m looking for.

Funny story about the first time we showed “Williamsburg Guy”;

The night we finished the piece I slapped together a crate and Doyle and myself threw the piece underneath the Chinatown bus, and took it down to Richmond Virginia for a group show we were involved in. If you know the size and weight of the piece that’s a pretty impressive feat. But it was free shipping! Go Chinatown Bus!

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © UFO)

UFO and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Since this is a vessel of sorts, and you have said your UFO tag is almost a self portrait, do you imagine yourself inside this sculpture looking out windows and swinging your 34 eyes in all directions looking at people?
UFO 907: Not necessarily but I love that idea! At this point it seems less like being inside the sculpture – but more so I continue to see the UFO as an embodiment of my being. I have always seen the UFO as my self portrait, yes, but not in the sense of a photograph or painting of myself. It’s more like a window to my spirit energy and soul. The form, energy and idea behind UFO has continuously been evolving, morphing, and growing over the years. If it wasn’t it would be dead, right?

So, yes, I’m guessing at some point you might just find me sitting inside the mothership staring at ya’ll, plotting my next move. Ha ha HA!

Brooklyn Street Art: When you are making such labor-intensive carefully considered work and putting it out into the street, do you ever worry about it being vandalized?
UFO 907: Naw… that’s what happens to sh*t on the streets! I kind of secretly have a fantasy about a car running up the sidewalk and crashing into the piece. That would be pretty cool, as long as I get a nice photo of the piece pinned between the car and a brick wall!

Brooklyn Street Art: What has working with Thomas brought to your process?
UFO 907: I have been a fan of his work and his great craftsmen ship since I met him. I think I first met him the night me and Doyle were cramming to get “Williamsburg Guy” completed. Dude came through and he quietly handled shit, helping us get the piece done. Aces!

When I first heard that Andrew Shirley was curating this project, I told him I had to be on board and wanted Tom Porter as my partner. Tom has brought amazing metal work, which is not my craft but a material I love all the same, and he is a champ with the kinetics/mechanics helping us both bring our visions to life and adding many levels to the piece. As well Tom Porter is a perfect match with me with his boundless energy, obsessive attention to detail, grand positive visions, eternal positivity directed towards the project at hand. What a dude!!

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter. Inside view of the structure. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah, your skills seem really well suited for collaboration.
UFO 907: Yup we both have brought what we do best to the table and all thing immediately fell into place, leading to a seemingly effortless symphony of materials and ideas.

Brooklyn Street Art: Thomas, when you think of the sense of balance this piece has to have, do you rely on lessons learned from building other projects?
W. Thomas Porter : We set out on this project without any concept of limitations. We just decided what we wanted to get out of it and said, “F*ck it, it’s on”. I think that confidence comes from having been a builder and a bizarre mind forever. Everything I’ve done leads me to this moment. We have to come correct.

Brooklyn Street Art: Is it difficult to carry a demanding project like this across the finish line? Do you get tired of the detail work?
W. Thomas Porter: I don’t think it’s easy to get anything actually “finished”. Starting things is easy but getting there can be war. We are up against a tough deadline, a limited budget, working for money, UFO and I both just started new studios…it’s been hectic. As for the details, I’m with the devil. Every detail is an example or the bigger picture; it’s the fabric, and the pattern, the feel and what you see.

Brooklyn Street Art: This is a collaborative piece using the skills of a metal worker and a wood worker. How did you achieve an organic feeling with such rigid and sturdy materials?
W. Thomas Porter: It’s amazing to work with someone like UFO; Half man, half beast and all gusto. We both came to a similar place by working with our hands while our brains are off in the universe. It’s only a matter of time before that all explodes into space! I always loved wood and metal together, flesh and bone. In this case, I had to make steel feel like skin, and without a single straight line anywhere – it’s a challenge. I was blessed to have a dedicated assistant like Dagga to help plow through the process. Out of extremely limited means we came up with something greater than the sum of its parts.

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © UFO)

UFO 907 in the wild. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter. The sculpture arrived to BAM in parts. Here is one half. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter. Inside view of the armature. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The Beginning if the End”, 2012, by UFO 907 and W. Thomas Porter

Materials: Yellow Pine, Walnut, Plywood, Epoxy, Cold Rolled Steel, Hot Rolled Steel, Bearings, Ball Joints, Hardware, Wax

Assistants: Dagga Gaines, Kelsey Womack, Jumbo, Diego Guzman, Sadue 907, and Hest One

“Brooklyn Shelf Life” is Presented by SHOWPAPER and curated by Andrew H. Shirley. Newsboxes commissioned by BAM for BAMart: Public.

Go to http://brooklynshelflife.org/ to learn more about this project. Joe Ahearn, Managing Director

Go to BAMart: Public to learn more about this program.

Stay tuned to BSA as tomorrow we’ll feature the rest of the sculptures of “Brooklyn Shelf Life” by Leon Reid IV + Noah Sparkles, Cassius Fouler + Faust, Swoon + Ryan Doyle and Gaia + Adam Void. Also you can visit the Showpaper Tumblr http://showpaper.tumblr.com/ for more images.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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Shoes on a Wire – A Custom Updated by Street Artists

June 19, 2012 Artists

In a world gone wireless it’s worth noting that we still have a number of them strung across city streets in New York, and people like slinging sneakers over them. They have a magnetic attraction to each other, these wires and old sneakers, like kids and ice cream trucks, politicians and press conferences, teenage boys and porno. And when there is not a telephone or electrical wire available, those kicks like to hang in the branches of trees too.

Urban folklore never quite decides on the reason for this practice – sneakers on a wire could be a marquee for your local crack house, a tribute to a person who passed, or a way to pay back your cousin Ricky for telling your friends that you kissed Marleen Mathewson in the back of the bus.

Whatever the original reason for this practice, Street Artists have been playing with the custom over the last decade and finding new ways to festoon the cityscape with footwear. Yesterday’s appearance of new airborne dogs covered by Olek’s crocheted camouflage on the Lower East Side reminded us of more street photos by Jaime Rojo that play on the same theme.

Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photo © Jaime Rojo

Googly Eye Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville and an Unknown Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville in Chicago (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Greenhill Galleries Present: Stormie Mills “Dark Lights” A Solo Exhibition (Perth, Australia)

June 18, 2012 Artists, Australia, Events, Gallery, Opening, Perth

Stormie Mills

Greenhill galleries is proud to present dark lights, their first solo exhibition of new works by australian contemporary artist, stormie mills.

Dark Lights continues Stormie’s exploration into the characteristics that define humanity.

By shining a light into the darkness his work seeks to uncover what lies beneath in each of us.

Dark Lights explores the idea that a “villain” in society can still possess a captivating human quality when the light is shined within them.

By contrast a pillar of society exposes their “dark side” as they stand still under the light.

About the Artist

Stormie mills began painting in 1984. the first mark on the world began on a dark wet night that fuelled the relentless all consuming passion to create an image.

More than 25 years later stormie has more than made a mark in the global context as a highly collectable artist that has seen him travel around the world producing large scale commissions and transforming the concrete landscape in barcelona, greece, london, los angeles, miami, melbourne, new york, perth, sydney and tokyo.

Using a combination of acrylic, dirt, spray paint and graffiti remover and working predominately in a palate of black, grey, silver and white. stormie has crossed many boundaries of painting from, 40 metre scaffold facades on buildings, to inside discarded draws, to the tiniest detail on a fallen leaf and to the finest of belgium linen.

In between painting stormie dedicates time to giving back to the community often speaking to students in schools as well as presenting to formal forums. in may, stormie was invited to present at the agideas international design week, one of the largest and most prestigious design festivals in the world.

Stormie’s work reflects a deeply personal expression of emotion motivated by the notion of isolation. each work is a communication of the human condition engaging the viewer to explore beyond the image on the surface. each work stormie creates is compelling and continues to attract collectors for his unique statements on life.

Dark Lights is on display at greenhill galleries from 13th- 26th july 2012.

Greenhill Galleries
6 gugeri street, claremont wa 6010 www.greenhillgalleries.com.au

ROBBBB : Street Art in Beijing

June 18, 2012 Artists, Beijing, China, On the Street

From time to time we like to spotlight an artist’s blog. In addition to having a page dedicated solely to Artists Links (hint hint look up) we also like to feature their blogs (if you are a Street Artist and don’t see yourself there, let us know and we’ll add you). Just wanted to let you know because we just added this Chinese Street Artist named ROBBB getting up in Beijing. There is not much Street Art coming out of China so it’s still pretty unusual and we’re glad to share it here.

ROBBBB (photo © ROBBBB)

“Street art is a kind of space art, with its special way of occupying space and even reform the space” ~ ROBBBB

ROBBBB (photo © ROBBBB)

To learn more about ROBBBB and to see more images of his work click on the link below.

http://www.robbbb.com/

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Images of the Week 06.17.12

June 17, 2012 Artists, NYC, On the Street, Queens

Welling Court, in Queens, NYC is a city block where three-family homes intermingle with small family owned business — a nice old-fashioned model with today’s 1^st and 2^nd generation immigrants taking a crack at an American dream. The art-minded Buxtons, Allison and Garrison, never seem to tire of providing a safe, roomy space to artists to create within and for the third year they have hosted “Welling Court” here in this neighborhood. But it’s more than a bunch of mismatched weirdo art kids getting up on walls with their own vision and isolated from their surroundings. Allison and Garrison want all the kids to play together nicely and that’s why yesterday there were also bicycle races down the main block with a chalk finish line, a section of wall reserved for all ages to try their can skillz, and that’s why moms and dads brought out food in metal trays and set up barbecues and used a truck as a mobile dj booth to blast cumbias and reggae inflected dance/hip-hop/two-step/classic rock all up and down the block.

As we celebrate Father’s Day today we gotta hand it to the ones who stay involved and engaged in their kids lives, and to the stand-in Dads who give guidance and encouragement to all of us when the real ones aren’t to be found. We also salute the Buxtons’ experiment in building art and community here, where aerosol fumes mix with barbecue smoke and an international bevy of Street Artists come to let their guard down and get their game on. It’s not commercial, often exceeds expectations, and always engenders feelings and behaviors of “family”. And doesn’t everybody benefit from that?

We begin this Sunday’s Images of the Week with a small selection of some of the completed murals from yesterday. We’ll bring you the full account later in the week. The second part of today’s images show BSA readers some exclusive images of new Street Art sent to us from around the world. Artists include, Brett Armory, Cekis, Dan Witz, Hellbent, Michael Aaron Williams, Olek, R. Robots, Rene Gagnon, Skewville, Skount, Stormie Mills, and Yote.

Let’s start off with this little bundle of joy from New York Street Artist and fine artist Dan Witz, who may have based this portrait on someone he knows quite well.

Dan Witz. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rene Gagnon. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stormie Mills. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OLEK. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Whoops, dropped one!” Rene Gagnon at Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RRobots presents a departure from his usual street fare. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville. Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brett Amory doing a miniature portrait series on the street in San Francisco for Spoke Art Gallery. (photo © Berlin Tomas)

Brett Amory in San Francisco for Spoke Art Gallery. (photo © Brett Amory)

Getting ready for take-off! Michael Aaron Williams. Chai. Thailand (photo © Michael Aaron Williams)

Michael Aaron Williams. Chai. Thailand. (photo © Michael Aaron Williams)

Skount shares a lot of “Fisherman Color” in Tel-Aviv at the Old Seaport. (photo © Skount)

Skount. A collaged photo of “Fisherman Color” Tel-Aviv, Old Seaport. (photo © Skount)

Olek in Montreal inspired by Street Artist Stikki Peaches. (photo © Olek)

Yote “Flowers for Frederick” A mural dedicated to artist Frederick Brown. (photo © Yote)

Street Artist Yote sends this tribute to an artist and teacher. “Frederick Brown recently passed away and I wanted to dedicate this mural to him. It is entitled “Flowers for Frederick.” He was best known for his portraits of jazz singers and musicians. I talked to him on the phone this spring in hopes to get advice on how to loosen up my style and not be such a perfectionist from a real expressionist. He was too sick to talk for long but I do know he used to instruct students to complete two dozen paintings in a week and things like that to get them out of their head and into painting”~ Yote

Yote “Flowers for Frederick” A mural dedicated to artist Frederick Brown. (photo © Yote)

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Jetsonorama & Yote Start “The Painted Desert Project” In The Navajo

June 16, 2012 Artists

We’re beginning to see an ever growing mural/wheat-paste/stencil circuit, a clan-like constellation of firing synapses across the globe, the informally formal collecting together of Street Artists in one town or area to smash some walls and exchange tips, learn new skills, make connections. Sometimes there’s a budget, sometimes there’s just beer.

But it’s cool to see this generation of Street Artists reaching out to each other and hosting in their town, even cultivating an exchange that is personal and cultural. Having just returned back to the Navajo reservation from his trip out east to Baltimore to participate in the Open Walls project, Street Artist Jetsonorama is readying his own version with his buddy, a Street Artist you know well from these pages named Yote.

They’re calling it “The Painted Desert Project”.

Jetsonorama. Step in Cedar Ridge. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Together they imagined inviting some of their favorite Street Artists to the Navajo nation to paint. Jetsonorama gives Yote the credit for thinking up the archtypical roadside stand as a recurring mural location. “He first voiced the idea,” says Jetsonorama, “but as soon as he said it, I was already drawing up my dream list because I’d been entertaining this idea too.”

So there you have it. A project can happen if you dare speak the words, and these two guys are bringing some of their dream list, plus a couple of surprises, back to their stomping grounds to make art. The list includes Gaia, Doodles, Chris Stain, OverUnder, Labrona, and local talents like Thomas “Breeze” Marcus from the Tohono O’odham and Salt River Native communities. To set the stage, here are a number of pieces by Jetsonorama to whet your desert appetite.

Jetsonorama. Step in JR’s House. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Cavalene’s Right Eye. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Cavalene. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. King Fowler on Shed. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. King Fowler in Front of The Store. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Ben. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Ben on Hugo’s Stand. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. John Begishie. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Fun Friday 06.15.12

June 15, 2012 Artists

1.   Wilson Picket Live “Land of 1000 Dances”
2.   Northside Festival in BK
3.   Flying Fortress at Mighty Tanaka (Dumbo,BK)
4.   Welling Court is Back! (Queens)
5.   Broken Crow at XYand Z Gallery (Minneapolis)
6.   THEN ONE Solo Show in Philadelphia
7.   Street Artist MART in Buenos Aires
8.   Doze Green. Luminosity in the Dark Rift. (VIDEO)
9.   Baze and Dot Boy “Tranier la Nuit” France. (VIDEO)

It’s Friday! Wilson Picket’s here to help you get out of your chair and shake your sexy hips and wave your hands in the air. Let’s go to the land of 1,000 Dances!

Northside Festival This Weekend in Brooklyn

We begin our weekend of festivities by inviting BSA peeps to to come to Williamsburg for ART, music and more…

Skewville on The Superior Wall for BSA at Northside ART 2011 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this event click here.

Flying Fortress at Mighty Tanaka (Dumbo,BK)

Flying Fortress wants you at Mighty Tanaka Gallery for the opening of his solo show “The One Man Army”.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Welling Court is Back! (Queens)

Garrison and Alison Buxton have pulled together some great community-based artifying in the past, and this year is the Third Edition of Welling Court, a very informal opportunity to see the work of peeps across the spectrum. Come to Queens to experience the true meaning of arts, artists and the community action on the street. Not corporatized or commercialized, everybody is welcome so put on your platform rainbow sneakers and leave the attitude at home.

Artists included this year are: Abe Lincoln, Jr., Alice Mizrachi, Alison Buxton, Beau Stanton, Billy Mode, Caleb Neelon, Celso, Cern, Christopher Cardinale, Chris Mendoza, Chris Stain, CR, CRASH, Cycle, Dan Witz, Darkclouds, Deb Yoon, Don Leicht, El Kamino, Ellis Gallagher, Free5, Fumero, Gaia, Garrison Buxton, Greg Lamarche, JAZ, Joe Iurato, John Breiner, John Fekner, Katie Yamasaki, Kimyon Huggins, Lady Pink, Leon Reid IV, Lopi, Mensen, Michael Alan, Never, OverUnder, Pablo Power, Peat Wollaeger, R. Nicholas Kuszyk, Rene Gagnon, Richard Nugent, ROA, Royce Bannon, Sinned, Skewville, Sofia Maldonado, Stormie Mills, Subtexture, Thundercut, TooFly, Veng RWK, The Wretched Rapture Crew, Zam, and Zéh Palito

ROA, Overunder and Veng RWK at last year’s Welling Court. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this event click here.

Broken Crow at XYand Z Gallery (Minneapolis)

“We Did What We Could” is a funny name for a show but that’s how they hang. Here’s an interview with John and Mike for the show that opens tonight.

Also happening this weekend:

In Philadelphia the WP Gallery is proud to present THEN ONE Solo Show. The opening party is this Friday at 7:00 pm. Click here for more details about this show.

Street Artist MART will premiere his solo show on Saturday at the Honeycomb Gallery in Buenos Aires, Argentina with an opening reception starting at 7:00 pm. Click here for more details about this show.

Doze Green. Luminosity in the Dark Rift. (VIDEO)

Baze and Dot Boy “Tranier la Nuit” France. (VIDEO)

Broken Crow Knock Out 4 New Murals for “The Bigger Picture” in St. Paul

June 14, 2012 Artists

Minneapolis based Street Artists John Grider and Mike Fitzsimmons, known together as Broken Crow, have just completed a jigsaw-style stencil installation at four locations along St. Paul’s central corridor that, when seamed together, create a 60-foot long stampede of wildlife charging along University Avenue. Using the trademark stencil illustration style they’ve employed on 126 murals over the last decade, this enormous wildlife composition includes a lion, camel, rhino, zebra, tortoise, and penguin running alongside others to accompany the light rail that is being built to whiz by here.

It’s an unusual concept and the resulting video of all four locations being installed simultaneously really makes this newly released time-lapse video especially entertaining (see below). A public works project called “The Bigger Picture Project”, each mural contains a QR code that will trigger images compiled by photographer Benjamin Clasen of what the entire project looked like from the vantage point of the guy who shot 30,000 photos of it.

Broken Crow, “The Bigger Picture Project”, (detail of a composite image of the four walls together) (photo © Benjamin Clasen)

Brooklyn Street Art talked to both artists and the photographer about the Bigger Picture;

Brooklyn Street Art: Are you imagining people traveling to all four sites and looking at each installation to combine them?
John Grider:The 4 walls are all on the same transit line/main thoroughfare between the downtown areas of St Paul and Minneapolis on University Avenue, which has been under construction for what feels like years now. I’m actually really excited about riding the light rail once it’s done just to see the murals all together because they were designed for the new trains to be the ideal viewing area.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the preparation for the project? Did you cut all these stencils by hand?
John Grider: We spent over a year planning and preparing for The Bigger Picture Project from start to finish. We cut all the stencils by hand, which took about a month, and it took us around 6 months making and refining drawings for it before that.

Brooklyn Street Art: Mike, your stencil work for the last few years has created portraits of many animals – sometimes as metaphor, sometimes as straightforward documentation. Is there one that appears more often than others?
Mike Fitzsimmons: We both have many favorites. John loves to paint rams and big cats and I like to paint bears and penguins. They all have very different reasons for being favorites. For example I like that penguins are very curious creatures that only survive the cold through their community efforts. Plus they make me laugh both in real life and my artwork. I like bears because they have adapted so diversely for survival. A panda bear has adapted a thumb for breaking bamboo whereas, a polar bear has translucent fur to deceive and hunt seals.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is one of the newer ones you really connect to?
Mike Fitzsimmons: If I had to pick a favorite it would be the polar bear. I had a moment of and clarity about this entire project that I wont forget while painting the polar bear fur. I was beating myself up about my color choices. I went down the ladder, took steps back and realized that it was exactly what I wanted it to look like. All I had to do is take my sunglasses off.

I also really liked that in this composition we were finally able to paint an elephant in a way that it could never be mistaken for a political mascot.

One of the four walls in progress as Broken Crow completed this portion of “The Bigger Picture Project” in St. Paul, Minnesota this month. (photo © Benjamin Clasen)

Brooklyn Street Art: Ben, as a photographer, this was a huge undertaking to capture all the action and then seam it all together. Was it clear to you what it would look like from the beginning, or did it reveal itself as the project moved forward?

Ben Clasen: Our preparation and organization evolved as we thought of new ideas. As the project got underway, we tried to consider everything and control as much of the outcome as we could: Mike and I scouted each location 4 times, and did a lot of measuring. Once we figured out the shape for the final composited building, I think we all fell in love with it.

We had a good plan for the layout of the 4 corners — in each case we were planning for a tolerance of 6 inches — I think we matched our layout within an inch and a half for each wall. We scouted for the path of the sun and knew when and where it would appear in the frame shot.

I feel like I had a good idea of what the final time-lapse would look like as we got down to shooting. Having said that, it was the organic stuff that happened, the stuff we couldn’t control, that created some of my favorite parts of the composite video. I love how the clouds, moving at different rates on the different days, add an old-school cinematic projector feel to portions of the frame. I love the interactions of the ladders and the seeming army of painters across the four simultaneous walls — there is a portion where John’s head and arms on the top-left wall seem to sit atop his body from the bottom-right wall.

Controlling everything is science. Letting stuff happen is where art comes from.

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you prefer the still images of the finished work alone or the ones with the guys creating the pieces?
Ben Clasen: That is a tough call; It’s like choosing a favorite among your children. There are so many wonderful vignettes of the guys in process — literally thousands of them. I feel like a real story is told by compressing the four days into single moments that you can sample at any given time. The human interaction with the murals I think is the essence of what street art is all about.

I felt compelled to go back to the walls to photograph the individual final pieces, and assemble The Bigger Picture under optimal lighting conditions, because in many ways it is the only way to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The composite scene is beautiful and full of character, representative of the neighborhoods in which they were painted. I love watching people’s reactions to seeing the composite photograph of the finished scene: there is an initial reaction to the whole of the work — “This is a beautiful mural…” and then there is a second reaction, “Oh goodness, those are separate buildings!”

Here is the Video Debut on BSA of Broken Crow’s “The Bigger Picture Project” by Benjamin Clasen

If you are in St. Paul you can scope the murals out in person 633 University Avenue, 651 University Avenue, and both sides of 2145 University Avenue.

“The Bigger Picture” by Broken Crow was financed in part by the Cultural Sales Tax Revitalization Program through the City of St. Paul and is a collaboration of Irrigate.

Learn more about this project at thebiggerpictureproject.net

Broken Crow’s latest show “We Did What We Could”, opens Friday June 15 at XYandZ Gallery. Learn more about Broken Crow at brokencrow.com

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Street Art in Historic SOWEBO (South West Baltimore)

June 14, 2012 Artists, Baltimore, On the Street

Unsanctioned Baltimore (Part 3 of 3)

The SOWEBO section of Baltimore has been a hub of activity in recent months as Street Artists have been passing through town, often with an introduction or two from Martha Cooper to the people who live here. It’s not uncommon for an artist to do a portrait of a resident, as in the case of Troy Lovegates (AKA Other), below, or even of their horses, as in the case of LNY, Jetsonorama, and Jaz who created cool pieces that reference the few horse farms that are nestled into the historic blocks in this neighborhood. Traditional to basic transportation, they are known locally as the animals that pull carts of produce for the sellers, or “arabs”.

Street Artist LNY combines metaphor and symbolism in these two pieces that feel very site-specific and germane to the the resilience of the neighborhood and the stories you will hear. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia pasted this piece he made from a Martha Cooper photo. The wheat paste has been seen in a number of cities. Notice the little Stikman working his way into the scene with aplomb. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

See Part 1 of Unsanctioned Baltimore HERE: Pixel Pancho and 2501

Part 2 Unsanctioned Baltimore: Midtown Back Alleys

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Unsanctioned Baltimore 2: Midtown Back Alleys

June 13, 2012 Artists, Baltimore, On the Street

Unsanctioned Baltimore (Part 2 of 3)

Dude, we found a lot of righteousness coming down hard in Baltimore. Don’t know why I said it that way, but I’m totally street for saying it. Right?

Here’s stuff from C215, Chris Stain, Flower Boy, Gilf!, Labrona, N310, OverUnder, Stikman, and Veng RWK.

See Part 1 of Unsanctioned Baltimore HERE: Pixel Pancho and 2501

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Crest Arts Presents “Crest Fest ’12” #crestfest Hardware Art Show

June 12, 2012 Artists

The 11th run of the legendary Crest Hardware Art Show will open on JUNE 30th, 2012. The opening day celebration, Crest Fest 2012, will bring the community together with art, food, drinks, live music and local vendors. This year’s event will take place at Crest Hardware, located at 558 Metropolitan Avenue, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Crest Hardware will offer over 10,000 sq ft of indoor and outdoor retail space & storefront windows. As always, submitted work must be about, made with or inspired by hardware.

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