September 2012

White Walls Gallery Presents: RONE “Darkest Before the Dawn” (San Francisco, CA)

September 7, 2012 , , , , , ,

RONE

 

White Walls is pleased to present “Darkest Before the Dawn,” the first SF solo show of Melbourne-based artist Rone to follow his successful San Francisco debut in the “Young and Free” showcase of Australian street artists at 941 Geary in 2011. “Darkest Before the Dawn,” will feature works on canvas, brick, and paper, varying in size from 3’x2’ to large-scale works measuring over 6’x6’. The opening reception will be Saturday, September 8th, from 7-11pm, and the exhibition is free and open to the public for viewing through September 29th, 2012.

With the face of the same wide-eyed and sharp-featured woman starring in each portrait, Rone creates a modern legend. Separately, each piece is an autonomous work, existing through its own beauty, but when viewed together a narrative is opened, leaving us to wonder what led to the birth of this icon. In “Darkest Before the Dawn,” Rone tells us that his feature character stands as a symbol for the possibility of assimilating our worst moments into a new strength.

By incorporating a variety of techniques, Rone deliberately infuses each piece with the textures he readily encounters when working out in the streets. The build-up and deconstruction of multiple layers is a fluid, free flowing way of revealing a composition by letting it come about itself. The medley of patterns and textures embody the continuity of time passing, while the woman in the midst of it all personifies grace overcoming deterioration.

From the Artist:

“We all have moments in our lives that make us who we are. These may be both tragedies and great moments that change the way we see the world. ‘Darkest Before the Dawn’ explores the concept of our darkest moments will eventually become our strengths, told through stylized portraits of a modern heroine.

I am trying to tell this story with the textures I see on the street, hand painted signage, torn bill posters and the deteriorating walls that look like they could tell their own stories. Using a palette of muted colours inspired by the fading colours I saw in Miami & Cuba, I am trying to create a sense of 80’s when style was all that mattered.”

 

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Carmichael Gallery Presents: “Disambiguation” A Group Exhibition (Culver City, CA)

September 6, 2012 , , , , , , ,

Disambiguation

Sixeart (photo courtesy of the gallery)

Carmichael Gallery

Disambiguation

Carlos Mare, Rae Martini, Remi/Rough, Sixeart

Carmichael Gallery

5797 Washington Blvd

Culver City, CA 90232

September 8 – October 6, 2012

Opening reception: Saturday, September 8, 6-9pm.

Carmichael Gallery is pleased to present Disambiguation, a group exhibition featuring new works by Carlos Mare, Rae Martini, Remi/Rough and Sixeart. The exhibition will be on view in the Los Angeles gallery space from September 8 to October 6, 2012, with an opening reception on September 8 from 6-9pm.

The spirit of the street, the communities that are created and gathered therein, and the subsequent movements that are formed and fostered have assisted in setting the foundations for the work of the artists presented in Disambiguation. Years of experience sharing their vision in a public forum combined with daring experimentation in form and material has resulted in four exciting contemporary abstract interpretations of the traditional graffiti form.

New Yorker Carlos Mare captures the moving human form in both two and three-dimensional form. By applying his study of Modernist and Futurist masters Marcel Duchamp, Wilfredo Lam and Kazimir Malevich to his observations of the gestures and attitude of b-boy veterans such as Ken Swift, Mare has honed a practice that translates the patterns, rhythms and beats of dance and modernism into sculpture and drawing.

Italian painter Rae Martini is equally inspired by Futurism and its obsession with the machine. His formative past as a young graffiti artist translates into abstract works that emulate the grit and texture of the streets, often using fire and dirt to create the desired effect. The dual presence of intricately patterned layers and pure minimalism is achieved by a persistent process of adding to and substracting from the initial image, creating a surface reminiscent of a storied urban wall.

Attention to the formal elements of fine art, in particular that of Minimalism, is central to the work of Remi/Rough. His color palette is selected through deceptively simple arrangements of lines and angles that bring a variety of hues into unexpected encounters with each other. By working on canvas and sculpture, he transports the movement and style of train writing into the gallery space.

Sixeart’s mixture of psychedelic abstraction and comic book-inspired figuration has become an essential element of the urban fabric in his hometown of Barcelona. His work has a childlike innocence combined with an almost hallucinogenic sense of second sight. “Sinister tragicomedy with notes of psychopathology and touches of acid” is one definition the artist himself has offered of his unique style. “My own universe of characters comes from a happy childhood and a close contact with mother nature,” he explains. The dreamlike quality of his work shows an affinity with Surrealist artists such as Joan Miró, another native of Barcelona.
About the artists:

Carlos Mare

Carlos Mare was born in New York, NY in 1965. He was a notable member of the golden age of subway graffiti in the 1970s and 1980s, painting under the moniker “Mare”, an abbreviation for “Nightmare”. He wrote alongside many of the style masters of his generation, among them Kel First, Dondi White, Crash, Kase2 and Noc167. This experience, along with his interest in modernizing the graffiti art form, has led him to reinterpret the concepts and aesthetics of style writing. Recent exhibitions include Martha Cooper: Remix, a group exhibition at Carmichael Gallery in 2011, Art Is Study: 36 Years of Process and Practice at Pratt Gallery, New York City and Physical Graffiti: Art of the B-boy Dance at Skalitzers Contemporary Art, Berlin, both in 2012. Mare has also designed several awards, including the B-Boy SPY Award for the Rock Steady Crew, the 2005 and 2007 Red Beat Battle Awards, and the award for the annual BET/Black Entertainment Awards show.

Mare currently lives and works in New York.

Rae Martini

Rae Martini was born in Milan in 1976. His first sketches at the age of 12 led to a career in street and train bombing that began in the late 80s and has lasted a dozen years. The development of both his graffiti and fine art is documented in 24 Carat Dirt, a 208 page hardcover book edited by Damiani and accompanied by a short film. The project was sponsored by clothing and lifestyle brand WeSC. Martini exhibited at the 54 Venice Biennale International Art Show Special Project, Pavilion Italy – Lombardia, Palazzo della Regione, Milan, Italy and participated with the Graffuturism group for In Situ during Art Basel Miami Beach, 2011. Additional  exhibitions have taken place at the Don Gallery, Milan, the Unruly Gallery, Amsterdam (2012), Castel Nuovo – Fondazione Valenzi, Naples (2010), Museum Recoleta, Buenos Aires (2008), Santa Maria della Scala Museum, Siena (2008), MAC – Contemporary Art Museum of San Paolo (2008) and PAC Museum – Contemporary Art Pavilion, Milan (2007).

Martini currently lives and works in Milan.
Remi/Rough

Remi Morgan, alias Remi/Rough, was born in South London in 1971. Since his debut art show in 1989, he has gone on to exhibit in London, Paris, Perth, Tokyo, Santander, Los Angeles, Miami, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Berlin, Ibiza and more. Remi is a founding member of artist collective Agents of Change and took part in their award-winning Ghost Village Project in 2009. His work has appeared in the books Graffiti World, Abstract Graffiti and Untitled III. In 2008, Remi was invited to speak on the history of UK graffiti in front of a sell-out auditorium at the Tate Modern as part of the museum’s street art exhibition. The following year saw the publication of his first monograph, Lost Colours and Alibis, which he followed up with How to use colour & manipulate people in 2012.

Remi/Rough currently lives and works in London.

Sixeart

Sergio Hidalgo, alias Sixeart, was born in Barcelona in 1975. Having painted from an early age, he has developed a highly personal visual language that comprises a host of recurring figures and animals. In addition to making sculpture, screen prints and works on canvas, he has collaborated with fashion designers to create clothing based on his distinctive style. In 2008, Sixeart was commissioned by the Tate Modern in London to paint a mural on the building’s iconic river façade alongside fellow artists Os Gemeos, Faile, Blu, Nunca, and JR. This was the first major public museum display of street art in London. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at Alice Gallery, Brussels and N2 Galeria, Barcelona.

Sixeart currently lives and works in Barcelona.

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NohJColey New Images and Video From “In The Midst of Living”

September 6, 2012 , , , , , ,

NohJColey has been working studiously for 10 or 12 hours a day in his kitchen all summer. And his dining room. And his living room. Chain smoking hand rollies and cranking up the Thelonius Monk, pacing and staring and drawing and hand coloring and constructing. He is telling stories again and it will be up to you to interpret them at his first solo show, “In the Midst of Living”.

NohJ studies and presents the personal and the social throughout his work on the street and here also in the gallery. The webs of connective tissues that create a sense of equilibrium to seemingly disparate elements in the storytelling are metaphorical and visually (sometimes structurally) functional devices.  Portraits of faces full of expression are anchors in a small universe of rotating objects, each signifiers of greater interrelated subplots and story lines.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A graff writer turned street oracle, NohJ offers a continuous commentary and societal analysis of behaviors and stations of the actors he observes on the path, often with indictment or praise gently posited within. One of the new players on the scene in the late 2000s that produced highly personal time intensive one-off pieces that tell stories, NohJColey has presented work on the street that is always deeply personal and complex, open evidence of his thought processes. Hidden in plain sight, the significance of these symbols are usually known only to him. As wheatpastes and linocut prints turned to sculpture and interactivity, each turn in turn has been revelatory. This show’s revelation is the finer tuning, the clarification of line and confidence in a style that has been highly individual from the beginning.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Like cave writers and muralists, these are the symbols that tell a complete story, each element carefully selected and placed with the sensibility of a rapid fire montage video caught in freeze frame. Like a therapist or sociologist inferring the nature of relationships by analyzing body language in a family photograph, NohJ is observing carefully and presenting. Open mouth surprise and glee, shock, animated hands, eyes, electronics, personal objects, possessions, gestures and stances all matter to these stories.  With themes that touch on lifestyle, entitlement, personal politics, societal status and station, ignorance, poverty, privilege, poetry, disgust, adoration, and quite possibly longing – the stories are all here on display. If you have a minute to talk, NohJColey may give you greater context.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“In the Midst of Living” by filmmaker Christian Carroll (VIDEO)

“In The Midst Of Living” NohJColey Solo Show at Weldon Arts Gallery Opens this Friday. Click here for more information regarding this show.

 

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Judith Supine is “Too Much for One Man”

Judith Supine is “Too Much for One Man”

September 5, 2012 , , , , , , , , ,

Bloated heads, severed limbs, plump and luscious lips; these are the fruits harvested from art, fashion, and porno magazines, carefully cut from their previous contexts and precisely reconfigured to reveal new ones that mock, shame, and cavort in glorious dayglow blasphemy out here in public. It’s probably more than most men can handle but Judith Supine keeps slashing  forward with a sideways smile.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thoughtfully arranged and stained fluorescent hues, the pretty collage chaos that is Judith Supine pops monstrously from these new canvasses. As he preps in studio for his solo at Jonathan Levine Gallery in Manhattan this week, the somewhat anti-social and highly admired Street Artist whose funhouse wheat-pastes twisted the sensibility of street art in the mid-2000s is now pouring a thick toxic gloss on what’s happening these days. “It’s really fucking boring. It just looks like shitty graphic design a lot of the time,” he says with a flippant derision that he almost pulls off.

The new huge gallery slabs here piled in the messy former living room facing the street are covered in an inch of drying clear resin, ensconcing the portraits, freezing them in place for decades, if not centuries. Despite the lickable and alluring effect of this material when finished, these fumes could kill him before he’s finished embalming the painted lips and bobbing heads. The last time he poured a batch of pieces like this he was preparing for a huge show in LA and the experience left him bleeding through his pores.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I got really sick from it. It triggered an autoimmune disease and I was in and out of the hospital for three or four months. I got really sick from it…it made all my blood vessels explode but I kept using it and I was still doing drugs,” he remembers aloud as we sit on folding chairs atop a silver coated Brooklyn roof in the sun. The rotten experience left him weak and feeling like a punched out headlight but he hasn’t completely found a production solution and says it’s slightly stressful as we talk in the open air on the roof while his studio is a cloud of fumes below us.

Brooklyn Street Art: So when you describe it, it sounds self-destructive.
Judith Supine: Yeah. I would pass out and fall asleep in the room with the windows closed ’cause I didn’t want dust to get in. It would be a bad idea to sleep in resin.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s bad to sleep in a resin-plume in an enclosed environment?
Judith Supine: Yeah, it was probably.
Brooklyn Street Art: And to do drugs that make you pass out?
Judith Supine: Yeah, probably people should be aware of that.
Brooklyn Street Art: “This is a public service message…”
Judith Supine: “..To all the kids out there; if you are going to huff resin, open a window.”

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So it’s good to see new Judith, even if he’s not on the streets, and it’s brilliant to witness the sharp mind and hear the articulate and sometimes lacerating banter that has not been dulled by the addictive behaviors that he’s been working on.

BSA: Did it improve your art?
JS: Getting sick? No.
BSA: How about getting high?
JS: No. It just made me lazy and dysfunctional.
BSA: Yeah sometimes it makes you lethargic and apathetic. You don’t care.
JS: I mean drugs are, I don’t know, sometimes they are – there’s like a certain point where they could be inspiring, kind of help you relax.
BSA: Yeah
JS: Get in kind of a childlike state, right?
BSA: Loosen up your inhibitions
JS: Yeah, but I wasn’t good at doing that though, in a moderate way. So it’s not effective. It’s like you are just constantly fucked up all waking hours.
BSA: Well moderation is not a word I would normally associate with your work.
JS: Yeah, well I’m not into it so much, I’m not very good at that.
BSA: I mean it’s extreme, it’s pungent.
JS: But now I’m at the other end of the spectrum.
BSA: And how do you feel about that?
JS: I feel healthier, physically and psychologically.
BSA: That sounds good.
JS: Yes, so I’m gonna stick with it.

Judith Supine. Detail of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In fact Judith Supine has pulled off a pretty strong collection that he’ll be showing this week, and he credits the new sense of depth to the techniques he’s been teaching himself to build up his work. One piece even brought him back to his lino carving days that pre-date his collage work, but he’s unsure of showing that one.

BSA: What inspired you to do these pieces for the show?
JS: Money. Actually it is getting more exciting – especially making these pieces I’ve been getting more excited about the idea of working back into something?
BSA: When you say “working back into” the painting…?
JS: Like I probably repainted each painting three or four times. I pull the image out and repaint the same image.
BSA: Put it back in, draw out certain aspects of it..
JS: Yeah,
BSA: So how much time would lapse between iterations?
JS: A few hours. It’s pretty immediate the way I’m using multiples and xerox machines and shit. I can have lots of stuff painted to draw from.

BSA: Do you get the room ready first and then begin, or do you discover en route that you needed more stuff?
JS: It’s all pretty haphazard. I’m not like … I make a small-scale collage. That’s what I enjoy making – the actual collage – those tiny collages from books and magazines. To me that’s the most enjoyable part and creative part. And that’s become a kind of compulsive behavior. It’s something I do every day and I’ve done every day for the last 10 years. And then, from those I’ll edit out and I’ll pick one out of 20 of them or 30 of them to make into a painting. And then half the time I don’t like it when I start painting and I just abandon it.

BSA: So it’s like the thrill of that initial creative process …
JS: Yeah it’s like sifting through all these images and kind of finding these other hidden images – that part is really interesting and exciting to me. I’m trying to figure out ways to make the other end of the process, the actual painting part, more interesting to me where I’m like building up more layers of the resin and doing more like hand-painted shit so it’s not like “paint by numbers” – it’s boring.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So that’s it. No more work in the public sphere from Judith Supine, right? Not quite.

If he’s not into the Street Art scene that flourishes, at least in part, in his wake these days, it doesn’t look like he is completely out of it either, at least not just yet. While the thought of wheat pasting seems boring and uninspired and he has harsh words to describe the current scene, and the rise of organized “Street Art” events in cities around the world leave him feeling cold, he might just conjure up a new idea for sculpture one of these days.

BSA: So, you wouldn’t want to associate yourself with shitty graphic design and a bunch of derivative stuff?
JS: (laughing) What I like about Street Art is the feeling of the transgressive part of it and the illegal nature of it. That’s what’s exciting to me about it. You know, what qualifies as street art now is like legal murals and that shit just seems kind of boring to me. It’s kind of just like in the style of… it just kind of loses its power.

BSA: Well, that’s because it’s art whose installation has been approved. There’s no risk involved, it isn’t transgressive. You’re not breaking any rules.
JS: Not that there’s really a lot of risk involved anyway. It’s like fucking jaywalking, or something. You know, or maybe more. I mean on a daily basis, especially while using drugs, I was breaking more laws doing other shit that I could get in a lot more trouble for. It’s really not a big deal. It’s fucking slap on the wrist.

BSA: Some people have said that they’ve had really bad experiences when they’ve been arrested.
JS: Yeah, I don’t know. I’m still interested in doing things out doors. I guess it still needs to be illegal for me, for it to be fun.
BSA: To get you hard.
JS: Yeah, and I don’t have very much interest in putting up wheat pastes and posters – so maybe more site-specific sculptures – it’s kind of more interesting to me, more exciting. I’m more like excited about how to like plan something and get away with it than, a lot of times, the actual final result.
BSA: So it’s like the process of the heist. Planning the logistics, executing the plan..
JS: Yeah, that part is intriguing to me. It’s not anything really exciting about walking around fucking gluing some Xerox to the wall. It’s pretty simple to do it and not get caught.
BSA: I wonder if there is an age element involved with the “fun-ness” of this?
JS: Probably. I don’t know what I want to do. I’d probably like to stay home and fucking read a book.

Judith Supine. Detail of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. Studio shot with a detail of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine. A sketch/study for a piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Judith Supine’s solo exhibition “Too Much For One Man” opens this Saturday, Sept 08 at the Jonathan Levine Gallery. Click here for more details on this show.

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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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Freshly Saturated Labrona In Chicago

September 4, 2012 , ,

Labrona left Chicago looking a bit less “buffed” than usual –  and a lot more colorful after his recent stop as a guest of Nick and Seth of Pawn Works Gallery. Not usually shy about color Labrona is really drenching his modern liturgical portraits and giving them a cubist perspective on outside walls in hidden spots around town. With eyes glancing askance in every direction, you might wonder if they are looking over Labrona’s shoulder as he paints, just keeping an eye out, so to speak.

Labrona (photo © Courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

Labrona (photo © Courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

Labrona. Detail. (photo © Courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

Labrona (photo © Courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

Labrona (photo © Courtesy of Pawn Works Gallery)

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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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Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D Young V prepare for “Epilogue”

September 4, 2012 , , , ,

Street Artists Push Past Comfort Levels to Create New Show and Video

As the post- “Citizens United” restructuring of civil society gets into full swing and democracy is effectively hollowed out before our eyes, Street Artists Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla, and D Young V are contemplating an eventual collapse of society and what it might look like – and have created an art show about it.

“Epilogue is an immersive installation based art show,” explains Leeman as he describes the almost cinematic way they are seeing their presentation and the promotional video we are debuting for them today. Not explicitly horrifying, the implications of a lawless violent society that no longer feels “futuristic” makes this trailer uncomfortable and a breath of fresh air.

Still from promotional video for “Epilogue” (© Taylor Morgan)

“What we did with the video was a new feel for us in that we did not show the artwork nor do a traditional narrated artist interview but instead looked at the video as a piece of art itself,” says Leeman as he talks how the three Street Artists really pushed their work for the show to imagine what it would be like to start making art after we’ve burned everything down. Maybe they’re just sticking to the theme or testing their individual resourcefulness but it is interesting to see them skipping the oil paints and canvasses and instead choosing reclaimed billboards, fire stencils, even hand painted assault rifles for the varied display.

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

Are these guys really rattling their Jungian subconsciousness with a death of Western society foretold or have they been spending a lot of time on NetFlix in the apocalypse section? If you hear Hugh describe the preparation they’ve undertaken at Hold Up Art, it all sounds pretty serious. “Its processes and concept have been inspired by America’s gun loving culture, the corporate behemoths considered “too big to fail”, and another pending financial meltdown. It has pushed the three of us as artists away from what we have come to identify as our own individual styles.” We give them credit for going there, and for challenging us in a new way to go with them. The murkier the answers, the more alive the imagination can be when triggered by these symbols and images.

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

A death mask from Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V in “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

Hugh Leeman, Eddie Colla and D young V “Epilogue” (photo © Shaun Roberts)

“Epilogue” by Taylor Morgan  (VIDEO)

“Epilogue” opens this Saturday Sept 8.  Click here for more information regarding this show.

A print variant for the”Epilogue” show that will be released through Hold Up Art starting Sept. 8th

 

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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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Agnes B Presents: “Public Display” A Group Exhibition (Manhattan, NYC)

September 3, 2012 , , , ,

Public Display

AGNèS B. PRESENTS: PUBLIC DISPLAY
A GROUP SHOW THAT LIVES SOMEWHERE BETWEEN DISNEYLAND AND PEEP WORLD.

FEATURING:
FAILE * D-FACE * INVADER * MISS BUGS ASVP * GAIA * QRST * HELLBENT * ND’A

OPENING RECEPTION Saturday, September 8th, 7:00-9:00PM

September 8th-October 14th, 2012 agnès b. | 50 Howard Street | NYC 10013

Agnès b. is pleased to announce the opening of Public Display, a group exhibition curated by New York-based artistic team ASVP. The exhibition will feature printed works by nine international street artists; D*Face (London, UK), Faile (Brooklyn), Gaia (Baltimore), Hellbent (Brooklyn), Invader (Paris, FR), Miss Bugs (Bristol, UK), ND’A (Brooklyn), QRST (Brooklyn), and ASVP (New York).

Inspired by graffiti and street art, agnès b. has been taking pictures of artworks in the streets of her native Paris, Manhattan and Brooklyn for many years. This is how she first noticed works by ASVP and was intrigued and compelled to work with the duo. The exhibition will feature some well known names from the Street Art world as well as a number of up-and-coming artists that are showing strong promise with collectors and critics alike.

ASVP began working together in 2007. Since then, the team of two has created paintings, murals and poster art that has been displayed in major cities worldwide including: London, Hong Kong, Amsterdam, Zürich, Chicago, Detroit, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco, Varanasi India, Florence Italy, Istanbul as well as New York City. The duo’s work often marries eastern and western imagery from multiple influences including retro advertising, pop and comic book culture, often mixed with bold typographic elements. The team’s dramatic multi-layered compositions regularly include bright tones of pop inspired color. In addition to curating Public Display, ASVP is currently collaborating with Agnès B. on an number of projects scheduled to release in 2013. ASVP was recently selected as one of only two emerging artists to be included in Doyle New York’s Inagural Street Art Auction scheduled for October 16th, 2012.

D*Face a.k.a Dean Stockton, grew up in London and had a childhood interest in graffiti. He credits this to Hanry Chalfant’s coverage of New York subway graffiti in Spraycan Art and Subway Art. His humorous and nihilistic work brings together the generation who don’t give a fuck. It fuses both traditional and contemporary graffiti, independent comic book art and good old-fashioned vandalism. D*Face is best-known for putting up hundreds of provocatively ‘defaced’ ten and twenty pound notes. Working with a variety of mediums and techniques, D*Face uses a family of dysfunctional characters to satirize and hold to ransom all that falls into their grasp a welcome jolt of subversion in today’s media-saturated environment. D*Face held his first major London solo exhibition, Death & Glory, at the Stolenspace gallery, followed by an exhibition at Eyecons, at O Contemporary in Brighton. In 2010, he collaborated with Christina Aguilera, on her album cover of Bionic.

FAILE is a Brooklyn-based artistic collaboration between Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller. Since its inception in 1999, FAILE is known for their pioneering use of wheatpasting and stenciling in the increasingly established arena of street art, and for their explorations of duality through a fragmented style of appropriation and collage. FAILE adapted its signature mass culture-driven iconography to a wide array of media. Their work has been included in numerous exhibitions around the world at the Museum Hetdomein, Sittard, Netherlands, TATE Modern, London, UK, Break Beat Science Showroom, Tokyo, Japan, NeurotitamHausSchwarzenberg, Berlin, Germany. Their works were also featured in numerous solo exhibitions at Perry Rubenstein Gallery, New York, NY, LilianBaylis School-Lazarides Gallery, London, UK, to name only a few.

Gaia currently lives in Baltimore and was born in 1988 in New York City. His name derives from the Greek designation for ‘earth
goddess’. He uses animal imagery to underscore his interest in bringing nature to the urban landscapes. A rising star in the street art community, his work can be found pasted from Brooklyn to Europe and back. According to the artist himself, much of his early work was inspired by a sense of looming environmental calamity. In 2011, he stated; “I want to express this strange un-locatable feeling of fear about the end of the world –
my generation’s zeitgeist of global warming.” He uses a very large scale to depict his subjects and always captures delicate emotion.

Hellbent is a Brooklyn based artist whose work has appeared on the streets of New York for over 7 years. His work has also appeared in major cities across the US and Europe. Although he works in various media (wheat paste, straight spray paint, rollers and stencils) he is predominately known for his hand carved drawings on panels of jawbones, skulls, and various animals ranging from attacking snakes and dogs to serene hummingbirds affixed to any wooden surface. These “plaques” as he calls them always include his signature stenciled floral backgrounds.

Invader is a French street artist who pastes characters from and inspired by the Space Invaders video game, made up of small colored square tiles that form a mosaic. He does this in cities across the world, then documents this as an “Invasion”, with books and maps of where to find each invader. Invader started this project in 1998 with the invasion of Paris – the city where he lives and the most invaded city to date – and then spread the invasion to 31 other cities in France. Cities around the globe now invaded with his colorful characters in mosaic tiles. Since 2000 Invader has shown in many galleries, art centers and museums, from the 6th Lyon contemporary art biennale (2001), the MAMA Gallery in Rotterdam (2002), at the Paris based Magda Danysz Gallery (2003), at the Borusan Center for Culture and Arts in Istanbul, Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles (2004).
In 2010, he was one of the featured artists in the Banksy film Exit Through the Gift Shop. In 2011, he took part in the exhibition “Art in the Streets” at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA curated by Jeffrey Deitch.

Miss Bugs is a creative U.K. street art partnership from Bristol. Formed in 2007, the duo is a working collaboration between Missum and Bug. Their part-photo collage, part-art statements are big, graphic and visually inspiring artworks and stunning limited edition prints, each hand finished by Miss Bugs with a wide range of materials including gold leaf, ink, aerosol and even magazine cuttings. Miss Bugs prints include dark and humorous themes, mixing religion with pornography and taking a swipe at the established art world (most recently Damien Hirst). They use iconic symbols such as Bugs Bunny, He-Man, Wonder Woman or King Kong re-mixed to represent a personal idea or cultural stance. Miss Bugs is well known within the street art scene and with recent exhibitions in New York at the Brooklyn Nite Gallery in 2011 and at ink-d Gallery in Brighton, UK they are a creative force turning street art on it’s head.

ND’A is a Portland native turned NYC illustrator hit the streets running with a strong and unique style. His heavy-handed brush work and comical characters nestle within many of the forgotten grooves of Brooklyn. Unlike the typical graffiti characters found on the street, his work is like a troubled second cousin. One can’t help but be fascinated and slightly repulsed. Not to say they are grotesque but that they are grotesque, as the word was originally intended to be used.

QRST creates oil paintings and hand-made prints depicting the strange environments and subjects he imagines, and while working out his ideas,
he often makes wheatpastes to further inspire himself and share his process with the public. QRST’s public work often includes unusual hand-drawn illustrations of playfully tussling rat fights, wide eyed cats, and frumpy birds along with his series of everyday people (sometimes with wings).

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100 Story House: A Public Art Project by Leon Reid IV and Julia Marchesi (Brooklyn, NY)

September 3, 2012 , , , ,

The Hundred Story House

The Hundred Story House will be open to the public on September 8, 2012!

WHERE: JJ Byrne Park, 5th Avenue btwn 3rd & 4th St. Park Slope, Brooklyn.
WHEN: Saturday, September 8, 2012. 11am-4pm

TRANSIT: G or F Train to 4TH AVE. R Train to 9TH ST.

BRING the books you no longer need. TAKE the books you want to read.

STATEMENT:

Brooklyn is very bookish. If you walk the streets on a fair weathered weekend in certain neighborhoods, you will notice a system of informal and anonymous book-sharing. You will see piles of books lying on sidewalks or stacked on brownstone steps, available to any passersby looking for a good novel, or a cookbook from 1972.

This tradition is a testament to the limited storage of our homes, but also to the distinctly Brooklyn spirit of small-scale community interactivity that can be possible in a huge metropolis. It also speaks to a shared love of the written word — as do our many bookstores, public libraries, and coffee shops filled with famous (or soon-to-be) writers at work.

But in our increasingly digitized age, the form that books take has changed, and so has the nature of ‘community’. Our laptops and phones and e-readers allow us to withdraw into our insular spaces, changing the way we interact with each other — and how we experience the written word.

The 100 Story House is a piece of interactive public art. It is a miniature Brooklyn brownstone whose windows open upon shelves of books (about 100 of them), which can be borrowed by the community. House is a tiny lending library open to all and operating on the honor system — take-a-book, leave-a-book.

This is an effort to celebrate the BOOK as a physical object, and the pleasure of holding it in your hand. Or better yet, placing it in someone else’s.

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Black River Festival 2012 (Vienna, Austria)

September 3, 2012 , , , , , ,

Black River Festival

BLK River 2012 

To the age its art, to art its festival.
13. – 22. September 2012
Artists
Blu
Evan Roth
Florian Riviere
Isaac Cordal
Mark Jenkins
ZukClub

Isaac Cordal (photo © Isaac Cordal)

 Program 
Thursday Sept. 13, Gartenbaukino, Start 23:00. Film: This aint California, D 2011
Friday Sept. 14, Workshop, BLK River rsvp@blkriver.at
Saturday Sept. 15, Sept. BLK River Projects
Sunday Sept. 16, BLK River Projects
Monday Sept. 17, Workshop, Florian Riviere rsvp@blkriver.at
Tuesday Sept 18, Bike Tour, Start 14:00 rsvp@blkriver.at
Wednesday Sept. 19 BLK River Projects
Thursday Sept. 20, Evan Roth FREE SPEECH
Friday Sept. 21, Bike Tour, Start 14:00, Free rsvp@blkriver.at
Saturday Sept. 22, Kunsthalle, Begin 13:00 Free Entrance
Plakat*zine Fair, Free Entrance
The BLK River Festival team gets some of the most significant representatives of the international street art scene to Vienna. Every September, artists from all continents are invited to honour Vienna by realizing projects in various locations all around the capital. Black River utilizes the whole city. Public artist talks, where the stars of an art scene that simultaneously seek and avoid publicity in equal measure are participating in discussions, as well as a group exhibition and a filmprogram with selected street art movies to complete the program.
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Recap of Galore Urban Art Festival in Copenhagen

September 3, 2012 , , , , ,

This summer festivals around the globe like Galore in Copenhagen have given many a Street Artist and graffiti artist a new shot at an audience in the last decade or so. While the old skool graff heads and Street Artists may deride these affairs as illegitimate bastards of a legitimately illegit scene, more artists seem to just care about getting up and are happy to not look over their shoulder doing it. But let’s admit that it’s a fine line many are treadin to not let the event fall into a “community craft fair” feeling or into a logo-filled “lifestyle” brand jam of products and to still keep it fresh. No matter what, haters gonna hate and you just gotta do your thang, and for us, it’s all about the creative spirit.

So the Galore Urban Art Festival just ended and photographer Henrik Haven has just sent us some of his images of the happenings on the ground as many of the artists were busy completing their pieces. You may have seen the huge mural from Gr170 on Images of the Week yesterday and a couple of weeks ago we featured a full description of Aryz big mural for Galore. Special thanks to Henrik for all the exclusive images just for BSA readers.

Nelio (photo © Henrik Haven)

Zoer (photo © Henrik Haven)

Zoer (photo © Henrik Haven)

Gary (photo © Henrik Haven)

Blank (photo © Henrik Haven)

Blank (photo © Henrik Haven)

Mr. Wany working on his piece and on the right Semor and Dais at work on their piece. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Vizie on the left with Mr. Wany completed piece on the right.  (photo © Henrik Haven)

Sobek and Kcis at work on one of their pieces. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Sobek and Kcis (photo © Henrik Haven)

Sobek and Kcis (photo © Henrik Haven)

Galore Urban Art Festival, Copen (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Images of the Week 09.02.12

September 2, 2012

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Cassius Fouler, Cruz, Dan Witz, Distort, Don John, Faust, GR170, Hellbent, Knarf, Leon Reid IV, Lumpenpack Crew, Meer Sau, Noah Sparkes, Rae, Ryan Doyle, Sobekicis, Sofia Maldonado, Swoon, and Toven from places like Brooklyn, Baltimore, Copenhagen, Vienna, Austria and Croatia.

Special shout out to photographers Meer Sau, Henrik Haven, and our own Jaime Rojo for getting all these great exclusive shots for BSA readers.

Sofia Maldonado (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unkonwn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Knarf from Lumpenpack Crew in Vienna, Austria. (photo © Knarf)

Knarf from Lumpenpack Crew in Vienna, Austria. (photo © Knarf)

Meersau from Lumpenpack Crew. Knarf taking a piss in Croatia. (photo © Meer Sau)

Rae (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sobekcis in Copenhagen (photo © Henrik Haven)

Gr170 in Søllerødgade on the North Side of Copenhagen for Galore Festival. Stay tuned for more coverage of the Galore Festival coming this week. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Distort (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toven in Baltimore (photo © Toven)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cruz in Milan (photo © Federico Cruz)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Brooklyn Shelflife Project by Showpaper created for BAMArts 2012 and curated by Andrew H. Shirley included five sculptures that will serve as “kiosks” for Showpaper. Finally three of the pieces, shown above, were installed outside the Brooklyn Academy of Music as they were originally intended. From left to right: Swoon and Ryan Doyle, Leon Reid IV and Noah Sparkes, Cassius Fouler and Faust. Click here to see our coverage of this show as it was being installed back in June. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Swoon and Ryan Doyle piece being admired and contemplated for peeing upon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Is this a quartet of pop heroes? Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don John in Copenhagen (photo © Don John)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (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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