Augustine Kofie
Vernissage en présence d’Augustine Kofie, le samedi 25 mai de 16h à 20h à la galerie Openspace – 56 rue Alexandre Dumas, Paris 11ème
Infos pratiques :
GALERIE OPENSPACE
56, rue Alexandre Dumas, Paris 11e
Du mardi au samedi, de 14h à 20h
M° Alexandre Dumas (L2) ou Rue des Boulets (L9)
AUGUSTINE KOFIE – VERNISSAGE DE L’EXPOSITION ‘CALIFORNIA SOUL’
WAGMAG Benefit Gala
WAGMAG, BROOKLYN ART GUIDE BENEFIT 2013:
BENEFIT EVENING: Tuesday May 21st from 7-9pm
English Kills Gallery, 114 Forrest Street, Bushwick, Brooklyn
TICKETS ARE NOW AVAILABLE HERE OR ON WAGMAG.ORG:
Admission is $20 (for non-ticket holders)
Tickets for artwork drawing: $200 until May 12th, after which they will be $250.
Preview Tickets for Advanced Viewing are available for $350
(includes an artwork raffle ticket)
Help Support WAGMAG!
Cash, Cans & Candy
The Street Art Show & Festival “Cash, Cans & Candy” opens May 31,2013 at 7 pm.
Venue: HilgerBROTKunsthalle & HILGER NEXT on the premises of the former ANKERBROTFABRIK (a former bread factory)
Enthralling & affordable art on 800m2 by pioneers of the scene such as Robbie Conal (L.A.), artists from all 5 continents.
List if artists: Michael Anderson (USA), Beran/Henz (A),Broken Fingaz (IL), Bumblebee (USA), Robbie Conal (USA), DALEast (ZA), Etam Cru (PL), Alessandra Exposito (MX), Faile (USA), Faith47 (ZA), Gola (IT), Shepard Fairey (USA), Amir H. Fallah (USA), Christine Finley (USA), Ben Frost (AU), Vasilena Gankovska (BG), H101 (ES), Lia Halloran (USA), David Istvan (H), Jaz (AR), Kenor (ES), Ai Kijima (USA/JP), Kryot (A), Lies Maculan (A), Brian McKee (USA), Meapi (A), Moneyless (IT), Mark Mulroney (USA), NeSpoon, (PL), Markus Oberndorfer (A), Brandon Opalka (USA), La Pandilla (PR), El Pez (ES), PERFEKT WORLD (A), Pure Evil (GB), Retna (USA), ROA (BE), Michelle Rogers (USA), Sonke (GR), The Stencil Network (PR/USA), Stinkfish (CO), Lisa Marie Thalhammer (USA), Stephen Tompkins (USA), Laura Ortiz Vega (MX), Vinz Feel Free (ES), Dan Witz (USA), YOTTO (A) und Zosen y Mina (ES)
JAZ
May 22nd, 2013
JAZ
aka FRANCO FASSOLI (Buenos Aires, 1981)
After being nicknamed JAZZ by his BMX and skating friends in the late 90′s, to finally erase the second Z and became JAZ, the Argentinian artist Franco Fassoli has changed and evolved his art in many ways. Inspired by his work in scenography, and moving away from his Graffiti back ground, he felt free to experiment with different ways of painting, and he became
more ambitious in scale and complexity in his peaces. He adopted new materials as asphaltic paint, petrol, tar and lime, reexamining a new merge between fine arts and street angst. His unique style resembles delicate watercolor paintings inspired by many sorts of concepts, from socio political sources to images of his childhood. The communication with the public space and the people has always been one of the most important things for JAZ. Mirrored images gives metaphoric violence in his pieces, symmetrical contrasts between tension and static, making the painting more expressive, and allowing him to create new and strained relationship with the public. Jaz is nowadays a recognized artist and has exposed extensively around the world, being part of Art Basel Miami, G40 Richmond, Living Walls Atlanta, Latir Latino Lima, Open Walls Baltimore, Mamutt México City and Meeting of Styles Buenos Aires.
Today we look at Street Artist Willow and his bro Swil as they build a street mise en scene referencing the agrarian life of a huntsman with highly saturated wheat-pasted images. The two have been up around Brooklyn for the last couple of years, often working in tandem on handmade pieces but more often its Willows work you may have seen on the heads of birds, bears, reptiles, and the occasional human, each in rich color and great detail.
Like this new installation on a boarded lot construction site, the images float freely above the street, not exclusively in relation to other elements or in a formal composition, but related by proximity and theme. Speaking with the young artist last week we learned that each element in this new collection adds to a larger storyline that is partially rooted in memories and associations from childhood and their personal history in a hunting culture that exists hours north of New York City.
Of the collaboration, Willow says, “There is not a direct biographical context in this piece and we do not know the man personally, yet we managed to display a dense narrative by playing off one another’s intrinsic thoughts. We pulled references from rural upstate New York where we grew up. The hunting community there is vast and I’m sure they would assume this piece is about the sport itself.” But he says its not about hunting specifically nor even about this man, who neither knows but you might think looks like a stand-in for the poet Walt Whitman. “It’s more about reflection and consciousness in the natural environment. It is meant to bring a sliver of the lost and forgotten to the city.”
Willow says he’s not had a lot of experience with aerosol as a medium and has had issues with control in the past. “I haven’t worked with spray paint much, but I’ve realized it’s easier to control when painting large images. So, I decided to paint a blown-up side profile of a wood duck’s face,” he says of the pivotal aviary image to the left. “The iridescence of its plumage is what I wanted to capture. After finishing with the spray, some of the softer lines were enhanced with acrylic paint.”
Then came the related elements to its right. “A second piece was needed to reveal the bird’s purpose. I wanted to invent an animated sculptural element. I rendered the axe, acorn, and former four leaf clover in an assemblage that speaks chiefly of our heritage and upbringing. This element later acted as a bridge between the wood duck and the elderly man,” he says.
And so who painted the portrait of the bearded huntsman? That’s when all the symbols are tied to one another, courtesy of the younger sibling Swil.
“I noticed something was missing, that’s when I asked my brother if he’d like to add to the image. Through our conversation, he immediately knew what he wanted to do and got to work, paying close attention to the color palette I had used. Swil painted the portrait in acrylic of a seemingly wise old man wearing a massive flowing beard and plaid woodsman’s hat to match. The technique he used involved working from dark to light, blending the paint occasionally and using much softer lines than myself. His distant gaze and crossed hands express sincere remorse for the given circumstance and the duck’s call is heard.”
And here we depart from the literal or the linear, as ghosts and poets we can measure and discern intention, emotion, and action, tossing each into the air to float as symbols and atoms, recombining and breaking apart again as in a dream. Willow says of the duck hunter, “Though he is not physically bearing the axe, it has been swung with his awareness. The acorn is split with the hope of a premature germination. This fragile test of luck is something similar to eagerly cracking open a fortune cookie. The man’s intentions slide through his idle hands as the fourth leaf drifts away, and the red-eyed waterfowl maintains his blazing glare.”
This is perhaps an unusual approach to storytelling on the street, and yet its indicative of the many new ways the street is talking to us today. Highly laborious and deftly defined, the presentation is at once familiar and odd, making a passerby stop and contemplate it at least for a moment, before continuing on their way to the laundromat or corner deli or opera.
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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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A version of this article is also published on The Huffington Post
Here’s our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring Andreco, Athens, Col Wallnuts, CrispyT, eL Seed, En Masse, Faile, Faust, Greg LaMarche, Henry Darger, James Rubio, JJ Veronis, Jon Hall, Katsu, Mr. Toll Phetus88, Rae BK, Reme821, Sure, and Toofly.
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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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This spring a handful of some of Mexico’s top Street Art talent gave local youth a chance to envision themselves as artists. SEGO, SIAMÉS, 704, MINOS and NEWS gave their time and talent to conduct workshops and show how to create paintings and wall murals for roughly 300 kids who took part in the project headed by Roberto Shimizu K of the Antique Toy Museum Mexico (MUJAM).
“The main purpose of this community work is to encourage young talent and to give them tools for success,” says Shimizu of the joint program with Oroboro and Fundación Isitia, a foundation that works with families in need and youth at risk. “Hopefully we can nurture and inspire them to see different possibilities to being successful in their lives,” he says, “When they get to work with other talented Mexican artists they can envision their own path to the future as something positive.”
The Mitikah project included five big walls and a lot of paint and preparation. By working alongside the artists the kids began to understand some of the challenges and difficulties that an artist faces, as well as what it takes to have commitment to a project. In the daily exchanges and sharing of responsibilities and learning the craft, Shimizu says they hope to engender a proactive and positive mentality for participants to take to their families and the greater community.
BSA is very happy to be able to share these images of the project with our readers.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: DEBUT of BASK in Detroit: “D-bris”, “Fragmentos” by Vhils, Sheryo and The Yok: Pipe Dreams, and Sheryo and The Yok Make Ceramic Vases in Vietnam.
Detroit is crumbling, ya heard? Bask and his assistant Nikolas Kekllas decided to make something rather ornate among all the wreckage. Here he builds a big D entirely constructed out of debris salvaged from Detroit factories and general abandonment.
Also, you’ll get to see a giant slab of wall falling, which means that this stuff can be pretty dangerous.
From his trip to Brazil last month, this video is a very good way to learn about the nature of work that Alexandre Farto AKA the Street Artist Vhils does when removing fragments of the wall and revealing a portrait.
The film is by João Retorta
Re-upping their spot at 5Pointz in Queens, Sheryo and The Yok bang out some new stuff.
In September 2012 Sheryo and The Yok travelled to Vietnam to make a series of porcelain vases. They hand painted each vase in the ancient factories that have been making these vases for centuries with their tattoo influenced, cartoon styles. Currently the vases are on display at Krause Gallery.
Memento Mori in Latin translates as ‘remember that you will die’
Street Artist Swoon spoke to us yesterday about the 18th century skull of a woman that she spent weeks carving for a new show of Memento Mori inspired art for the Museum of Curiousity. Gallery owner Mike Snelle has transferred Black Rat Projects and is now dedicating his time to this curious effort, one which Swoon says has captured his attention for a while.
“Mike set up the Memento Mori show because he has kind of long been obsessed with how people reckon with their own mortality,” Swoon explains in her Brooklyn studio, “He studied philosophy at Cambridge partly out of an obsession with all of these kinds of questions like, ‘how do we die?’.”
In fact Memento Mori refers to a number of traditions throughout many cultures (German, Victorian, Mexican, Tibetan, others) of examining death and its role in our lives. The new group show is perhaps a more frank look at death than some of the traditions – but even those contain elements of light-hearted humor, so that may be an incorrect characterization.
“It’s about wonder,” explains Mike as he speaks about the dream reliquary sculpture Swoon spent a week installing, “This exhibition mixes historical objects with contemporary interpretations of the theme and brings together an extraordinary selections of artworks.” Later he rattles off a list of other curiousities guests will see that include a hippo skull, a taxidermied ostrich from 1785, and paintings and carved human skulls commissioned specifically for the show.
And what about Swoon’s new contribution, a carved skull design that includes a symbolic birthing and her distinctive hand designs emanating from the natural lines and curvature of the cranium?
“I was wondering ‘what subject matter is befitting of this, something of this gravity?’ ,” she says of the carving project on this skull that came from a trader of artifacts who assured her of its rightful origins, “So I thought about it and I thought that the only thing that seemed to make sense was to draw a birthing scene. So I ended up doing the birthing scene and then created a lot of patterns around it.”
While she was deeply interested in the project and is gratified with the results, she felt a certain sense of weight was upon her during the experience – partially because of the subject matter and partially because of her own examination of mortality, her family, her experiences. Naturally all of these elements contributed to the outcome, including the choice of the accompanying book and medicine bottle that she chose to adorn and serve as foundation for the skull.
“I really felt that I was re-sacrifying the remain. It was already in a museum. That was why I thought long and hard about what kind of a scene could really be equal to the subject matter, because you don’t feel like it is something that you can do casually. So one of the German traditions is that they often put it on a Bible. But at the time I was carving it I was looking at my bookshelf and I took down a book that is called “The Slender Thread”. It is about a woman who worked on a suicide hotline and about her experiences with trying to talk people down from suicidality,” she says as describes the serious considerations that went into her choices.
“I was thinking about this woman’s work and about my own thoughts about mortality and people’s relationship to that in their own life and so that became the book that I used.”
Brooklyn Street Art: That is some powerful imagery and symbolism that you chose to work with. What did it feel like – what kind of relationship did you have to the skull over this period of time? What was it like to let go of it?
Swoon: I was really glad. It wasn’t easy. It wasn’t an easy piece, you know? It felt like there was a heaviness that is not present in almost any other work that I have done and I was glad to be done with it. Like I said, you chose to be in the process of contemplating mortality and this has been tied into my own process of trying to understand.
In all creative endeavors there is a certain amount of anthropological and historical at play and Memento Mori may be more so, even as it sometimes includes humor by way of bringing to the fore a topic that many modern Western cultures find difficult to grapple with.
“It is a really respectful treatment of the subject,” says Swoon of her contribution, “ and it is out of a serious inquiry.”
From the Dance of Death by Michael Wolgemut (1493)
18th Century Memento Mori, Carved Human skull. (photo courtesy of Museum of Curiousity)
Artists exhibited for Memento Mori include:
Butch Anthony, Jake & Dinos Chapman, Mat Chivers, Darren Coffield, The Connor Brothers, Nancy Fouts, Tom Gallant, Keaton Henson, Heretic, Saira Hunjan, James Lavelle, Michal Ohana-Cole, Marcos Raya, Dr. Viktor Schroeder, Jim Skull, Paul Stephenson, Kai & Sunny, Swoon, Ian Wilkinson, Brian Adam Douglas and AVM Curiosities.
Memento Mori Opens on May 17th and continues until June 20th. 15 Bateman Street, Soho, London.
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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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High Five
5 Year Anniversary Exhibition
DJ Bu$Rid3r & DJ Mr. NumberOnederful
info@cavegallery.net * 310.450.6960 www.cavegallery.net
C.A.V.E. Gallery
Participating Artists:
Alec Huxley, Amanda Marie, Anthony Ausgang, Bayo, Craig “SKIBS” Barker, Craww, DevNGosha, Eatcho, Grady Gordon, Hans Haveron, Haunted Euth, Hellbent, J Shea, James Bentley, Jason Hernandez, John Park, JoKa, Joshua Charles Hart, Kid Acne, Kyle Hughes Odgers, L Croskey, Macsorro, Max Neutra, Mear One, Megz Majewski, Muneera Gerald, Nathan Cartwright, Nom Kinnear King, Pure Evil, Randy Norborikawa, Restitution Press, Shark Toof, Sit, Skount, Tatiana Suarez, Tom French, Tom Haubrick, Vinz Feel Free, Walt Hall, Young Chun, Zach Johnsen
Memento Mori explores the most universal of subject matters: death, and brings together both historical and contemporary artworks which ask the viewer to contemplate their own mortality.
‘Memento Mori’ translates as ‘Remember you die’ and is said to originate in Ancient Rome where a general was parading through the city celebrating success in battle. A slave stood behind him and it was his duty to remind the general that, although he was at the peak of his success, he was still a man and not a God. The slave is said to have whispered ‘Memento Mori.
This exhibition mixes historical objects with contemporary interpretations of the theme and brings together an extraordinary selections of artworks. With works ranging from an 18th century Reliquary containing the hand of a saint, to paintings and carved human skulls commissioned specifically for the show, Memento Mori promises to be a wide ranging and rich exhibition on a universal theme.
Artists exhibited include:
Dr Viktor Schroeder The Connor Brothers
The Chapman Brothers
Swoon
Nancy Fouts Ian Wilkinson
Marcos Raya Butch Anthony
Tom Gallant Natasha Marks
Matt Chivers
Brian Adam Douglas
Plus a selection of historical objects.
Memento Mori Opens on May 17th and continues until June 20th. 15 Bateman
While in New York for his “Inside Out” project, French Street Artist and photographer JR joined with American artist José Parlá to exhibit photos and a couple of new pieces to celebrate their collaborations on walls in Cuba last year. “The Wrinkles of the City, Havana, Cuba” at Bryce Wolkowitz continues in the route of JR’s ongoing photography project documenting people in a given city (Cartagena, Shanghai, LA) who have endured the tests of time and have lines on their face to prove it.
The Cuban heritage of the Brooklyn painter Parlá may have helped set the stage for a collaborative Street Art project in Havana during its biennale, adding context to the marked and distressed walls that characterize much of this city, whose mottled textures and subtle color washes in turn add character to the artists work. With his hand painted gestural movements and markings surrounding and anchoring JR’s photographic wheat-pastes, Parlá gives hand-hewn florid kineticism to the poignancy of the proud portraits; a powerful example of storytelling on the street.
JR / José Parlá: The Wrinkles of The City, Havana, Cuba is on view until July 12, 2013 at the Bryce Wolkowitz Gallery. Click here for further information.
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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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