May 2013

JR Debuts on Broadway and You Were the Star on This Stage

May 14, 2013

In a New York minute, the Curtain Opens and Closes on “Inside Out”

The daily snaking lines of now famous fans occupying a slice of the Times Square footprint had their last chance at the Big Time in NYC as last weeks show rolled to a close, and the large eyeball van rolled away. For days this limited engagement Broadway hit and circus-like attraction helped people in and out of the photo studio to have their portrait captured and possibly plastered directly as Street Art. The Parisian photographer and Street Artist JR, well known for creating large scale black and white installations that engage and celebrate everyday people knew that this high profile image-centric hub would be a draw, but the near-continuous lines must have been a surprise.

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here where Broadway crosses Seventh for five blocks and slow-moving upward-looking people swim in a sea of logos and interactive screens, where actual New Yorkers are outnumbered by tourists, there was something reassuring about the black and white polka dotted nostalgia of an old-timey mobile photo booth that gave Times Square a nostalgic “Guys and Dolls” revival feeling, even as electronic eyes from corporations, federal, state, and city agencies, and your neighbors phone all surveilled every smile, every preen in 2013. For this multi-day installation, many lucky pedestrians were invited to engage in public art and became the star, sometimes with the director of this production walking among them, helping plaster posters and posing for pictures himself.

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pulling themselves away from bright furry full-sized cartoon characters and the Naked Cowboy, multitudes of photo-friendly Millenials lined up for their fifteen minutes and pulled along mom and dad and maybe grandma for a chance to be on the billboards of the Great Broad Way.

And then, in a New York minute, it was gone – another ethereal Street Art moment captured before it disappeared.

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. A team member helps with the photo booth. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A newly minted star descends the stairs. JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. After a long time waiting in line the time for her close-up finally arrives. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR Inside Out Project. Times Square, NYC. May 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

Read more

Stolen Space Gallery Presents: D*Face “New World Disorder” (London, UK)

May 13, 2013 ,

‘New World Disorder’ By D*FACE

 

07.06.13 – 23.06.13

D*Face, a.k.a the world-renowned urban artist Dean Stockton, presents New World Disorder. This exhibition, showing work from the last seven years, marks the end of an era at StolenSpace before we relocate to a new location.
The exhibition also includes a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to experience the unique nerve centre of D*Face’s working environment by visiting his studio space, situated above the StolenSpace Gallery, within the maze of The Old Truman Brewery.
Stockton has been at the forefront of popular culture not only as an acclaimed wall painter and artist, but also as a respected, internationally-recognised gallerist at StolenSpace. Since its humble beginnings in 2007, he has transformed the local area of Brick Lane in to a thriving hub for street art.
With galleries representing his work in London, New York, Los Angeles, Tokyo and Melbourne, D*Face re-works popular imagery from advertising and comic books, commenting on the corruptive nature of fame, celebrity and our consumerist society.
The exhibition includes his latest body of work, which reflects upon times of chaos, disorder and loss, as informed by shifting circumstances in the social climate. Exploring topical and longstanding dystopian sentiments, New World Disorder confronts the effects of love and loss from a physical, mental and cultural standpoint, drawing upon the artist’s direct experiences.
Elements of the show are inspired by The Tillman Story, the 2010 documentary film about the 2004 death of U.S. Army Ranger Pat Tillman in the war in Afghanistan, the cover-up of the true circumstances of his death, and his family’s struggle to unearth the truth.

 

http://www.stolenspace.com/section.php?xSec=556

Read more

MyPlasaticHeart Presents: Tatiana Suarez and Jason Levesque “Lush Natura” (Manhattan, NYC)

May 13, 2013 ,

Lush Natura

Lush Natura Opens Friday May 24, 2013

On Friday, May 24, mph will celebrate the opening of a new duo exhibit, Lush Natura, featuring the artwork of Tatiana Suarez and Jason Levesque. Lush Natura is the culmination of these artists’ exploration into the living world of the lesser loved fauna. In this show, Tati and Jason both draw inspiration from slimy slugs to universally loathed critters. Their artwork reflects the artists’ mutual fascination from opposite ends of what is typically considered beautiful, as they create stunning juxtapositions between big-eyed beauties and bug-eyed beasties.

 

 http://www.myplasticblog.com/mph-news/lush-natura-opens-friday-may-24-2013/

Read more

Specter With Local Artists In Tashkent, Uzbekistan

May 13, 2013

Street Artist, teacher, and cultural emissary Specter just returned from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan where he was working with local artists in a project called  Global Art Lab to try their hand at painting walls, including these inside a crumbling theater building. The under-utilized Tashkent space is spare and open and analogous to the abandoned and neglected places that many Street Artists and graffiti writers are attracted to around the world, not to mention its storied past that adds to the somewhat haunting quality of the roughened interior.

Specter (photo © Specter)

The top two floors of the Ilkhom Theater (Ильхом Театр Марка Вайля) were destroyed in a fire two decades ago and its founder Mark Weil was murdered at its entrance  the day before a performance in 2007. Today performances and rehearsals take place in the spaces that remain usable – but the roof still gives them problems.

Working through the organization CEC ArtsLink, the Brooklyn artist feels like his teaching style was perfect for the environment and was happy to have bright minds engaged to activate the walls here. “The artists were extremely talented,” he says.  “They worked hard and I think we created a really special exhibition.” The organization also has featured others from the street art/public arts scene including Mark Jenkins and  Evan Roth of Graffiti Research Lab.

Included in the largely monochromatic program are three large walls he painted himself that he says were inspired by local traditional patterns. Here are his new walls and many of the walls created by the students, many who pose here with their work at a reception that was held at the end of the project.

Specter (photo © Specter)

Specter (photo © Specter)

A piece by a local artist who participated in the exhibition. (photo © Specter)

A local artist working on his piece that appears to form the logo for Facebook. (photo © Specter)

A local artist posing in front of her piece. (photo © Specter)

Selective plugging of holes in this serrated concrete facade creates a digitized piece by a local artist who participated in the exhibition. (photo © Specter)

A local artist walking in front of his piece. (photo © Specter)

A painter at work. (photo © Specter)

Apple as religious iconography. A piece by a local artist who participated in the exhibition. (photo © Specter)

Birds on a wire in this piece by an artist in the program. (photo © Specter)

Two participants pose in front of their piece. (photo © Specter)

A local artist working on portrait of musician Jimi Hendrix. (photo © Specter)

A local artist posing in front of her piece, a collection of cassette tapes and a player. (photo © Specter)

A local artist working on her piece. (photo © Specter)

A group shot of all the participating artists, mentors and organizers. (photo © Specter)

Read more

The Hours Presents: Skount “FRAGMENTS OF MYTHOLOGICAL DREAMS” (Sydney, Australia)

May 12, 2013 ,

Skount
FRAGMENTS OF MYTHOLOGICAL DREAMS

An Exhibition of new paintings and installation by SKOUNT (ESP)

“Dreams are not just messages (coded messages, at that), but are also an aesthetic activity, a game of the imagination that has its own value. Dreams are proof that fantasies – emotional immersion in the visualization of events that have never and may never occur – are one of the profoundest necessities for human life. The characters that come from my imagination are my own possibilities, those that never came to bear, or those still on my horizon.” – Skount

Inspired by the classical Spanish theatre of his hometown, Skount’s oneiric masked characters beckon the viewer from the urban environment into their mysterious and playful dreamscapes. The great playwrights of Skount’s youth formed a lasting impression, where he regards life as a wonderful play, in which everyone has a role. Driven by the fundamental desire to free his own mind, Skount’s creativity knows no bounds. With a background in graffiti, his artistic expression spans paint, paper, music and performance, to video art, sculpture, and installation. Skount’s irrepressible curiosity for other cultures has inspired him to travel and study different forms of creativity and traditions around the world. Currently based in Amsterdam, Skount has worked and exhibited throughout Spain, Europe, China, Mexico, Israel and the United States.

Opening Night – Wednesday 15th May 2013 – 6pm to 9pm
Exhibition continues until Sunday 19th May

The Tate Gallery – 345 Glebe Point Rd, Glebe (Sydney)

 

https://www.facebook.com/events/128021214059626/?fref=ts

Read more

Images of the Week: 05.12.13

May 12, 2013

Here’s our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring B.D. White, Col Wallnuts, Dan Witz, Greg LaMarche, Jon Hall, Josef Kristofoletti, JR, Mr. Penfold, Mr. Toll, and W.

The inaugural wall from a new program called “The Big Brush” by commercial outdoor advertising company Colossal went up this week in Brooklyn featuring a work by 1980s/90s New York graffiti writer SP One,  who is now better known as collage fine artist Greg LaMarche. The company figures at least tangentially into the street art scene by virtue of the sheer amount of work they provide for a large number of painting artists who create about 300 walls per year, all hand-painted. They even have an apprenticeship program for painters who would like to learn how to do this work. “Big Brush” will be unleashing a slew of new art on walls that are not zoned to be commercial, so they’re actually inching a little closer to Street Art than before.

For his part, LaMarche told us he was pretty blown away as he watched his original small collage go up over the course of a couple of days, painstakingly recreated on this same wall that had the D*Face piece not too long ago – with the view of the Williamsburg Bridge to the right. We can’t wait to see the video that was created, as we hear that some interesting techniques were employed in the shooting.

“Basically it’s a re-creation of a collage I made last year – it was on the cover of a magazine from Paris called Graffiti Art magazine,” said LaMarche as he guided himself up and down in a cherry picker to get shots of his work. “So it’s crazy that it was on the cover of that magazine this spring and now it’s on the side of a building in Brooklyn. The last year or two has been pretty amazing. I’ve painted some large murals myself but to have some of my smaller work, the collage work, realized in this larger format is really incredible.

Greg Lamarche. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: The original work was made with all hand-cut small pieces that are glued to canvas, right?
Greg LaMarche: Onto a board, yeah. It’s funny because when we did the ratio calculations – the actual piece is 15″ wide by 20″ tall and the way they set this up the width was actually perfect. These guys are professional and they know what they are doing. And artists like this are a dying breed – it seems like there’s no challenge that they can’t handle.

JR. The culmination of the “Inside Out” project that drew to a close Friday in Times Square, NYC. Congratulations to all the volunteers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

W (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Penfold (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Josef Kristofoletti. Panama City. (photo © Josef Kristofoletti)

Jon Hall (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. New York City. May 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Top image > Greg Lamarche (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more

Street Artist XAM Has First Solo and Flies High With IDEAS CITY

May 11, 2013

Flying high with his Urban Habitat project for IDEAS CITY and the New Museum, Street Artist XAM has been creating site specific eco-friendly aviary homes in lower Manhattan on the street out where birds are most likely to see them, and use them for food and shelter. If you have the opportunity to speak with this trained architect and serious student of art, graffiti, design, materials, urban planning, and bird life, you cannot help but be drawn in by the enthusiastically detailed descriptions regarding  methodology and processes that he follows to complete projects like this. BSA has documented his work extensively since he began on the street with his dwellings and it is a pleasure to see an wider audience now having the opportunity to interact with his pieces and to see his aesthetic loosening up to be a bit more playful as well.

A XAM bird dwelling is well placed next to a painted bird from Street Artist ROA from a couple of years earlier. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Along with offering selected pieces through the New Museum store, XAM now has his first solo show, “Migration-NYC”, at Dorian Grey gallery in the East Village. On opening day last Saturday during the IDEAS CITYs Streetfest, visitors were also invited to scan a QR code and follow a mapped path of his installations, complete with photos and descriptions of the pieces, through the streets directly to the gallery. There you find a variety of domiciles and sheltering structures that are alternately utilitarian and whimsical, but all with a clear sense of purpose. Included among the Bauhaus inspired architectural pieces are corollary street campaigns such as the miniature sign-mounted billboards that give commentary about the corporatization of resources and technology, as well as his more recent mobiles that balances a laser cut wooden “XAM” tag with a wingspread and soaring bird.

XAM is expanding his architectural design explorations in sustainability while also employing humor along the way.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Many of the models offer satellite TV, although no flatscreen was evident from peering into the windows. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A modern corollary to the urban practice of sneakers over the wire, with a nod to Street Artist duo Skewville’s flat wooden sneakers on same during the last decade, this new mobile tag by XAM is instantly recognizable from a distance. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Multiple dwellings for the city bird. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These homes are a commentary on the ongoing housing crises among humans and the banks that rule them. As you can see, entry into the more traditionally designed bird houses is blocked. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A XAM piece placed in situ.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM Solo Exhibition “Migration-NYC” is currently on view at the Dorian Grey Gallery in Manhattan. Click here for further information.

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more

BSA Film Friday: 05.10.13

May 10, 2013

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening: Narcélio Grud Food Painting, Beerens Snail Work, El Mac’s promo for “Sangre Nueva”, and Doug Aldrich and Sam Octigan create a canvas.

BSA Special Feature:
“Tropical Hungry” food painting with Narcélio Grud

You are what you eat, son, so stay away from cow tongue!  “Tropical Hungry” follows Street Artist Narcélio Grud into the market in the city of Fortaleza, Brazil and watches him pick up the discarded fruits and vegetables. What he does with them is delicious and takes art as “Food for Thought”.   Also, it opens the conversation about what we do with the food that is not eaten, and reminds us not to waste.

A Snail Goes To Work: Michael Beerens

Set to a soundtrack of slow-jam reverie, the pacing of this video from the French Street Artist tells you that someone is in love with painting and is willing to take his time to get it right. Chill, Mr. Snail.

El Mac “Sangre Nueva”

For his new show that opened Wednesday in Denmark, this promo for El Mac presents evocative vignettes of motels, windshield wipers and pulp fiction. The mini movie rolls like the credits for a story that glides slowly through the desperation of the street in search of romance, escapism, and a little soul.

Four stars to Medvin Sobio.

Doug Aldrich and Sam Octigan: “Crossing Lines”

Here’s a recap of the recently exhibited show “Crossing Lines” featuring the collaboration of an Aussie and a New Yorky. Not specific to Street Art, although it’s possible there is some familiarity with the scene here, this video is a snapshot of how Bushwick continues to change and evolve into an arts district with the huge influx of new people over the last 5 years.

Read more
NohJColey Talks About The Deception of Independence

NohJColey Talks About The Deception of Independence

May 9, 2013 ,

Artist Talks About His New 4 Panels Across from Woodward Gallery

Today we’re checking in with artist NohJColey, whose work we’ve featured many times and who continues to surprise viewers on the street with his distinctive style, well considered narratives and somewhat cryptic symbolism. It is great to watch an artist grow, and NohJ gets better because he’s continuously stretching his mind and practicing his skills. He tells us this new gig  crept up on him so he worked faster than usual, and the results are a looser flow, and a confident one. We asked him to talk about this newly finished piece on the street in the Lower East Side, what he’s been up to, and what are those ducks doing?

Brooklyn Street Art: We haven’t been seeing a lot of new work on the street from you. What have you been working on?
NohJColey: After my solo show I began working a job to pay bills and just didn’t really have time to produce work for the street. These days I’m a tattoo apprentice among other things. But I actually put up new work in the street on a daily basis. It may be a different pseudonym, but it’s happening everyday.

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Is this the first time you have been asked to do the four panels for Woodward?
NohJColey: Yeah, this is the first time Woodward gallery approached me to do the four panels. I’ve always wanted to do them and it finally came to fruition.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the name of the piece?
NohJColey: The piece is entitled “Oh, The Deception of Independence”

 

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you tell us the back story of this new painted collage?
NohJColey: The piece is essential about the illusion of being self-sufficient. The main figure is married to the woman who he must ask for permission to go skydiving. To me, the act of skydiving enables an individual to feel as “free” as one can. The fact that the main figure has to have permission to feel “free” is an illusion inside of an illusion. The ducks in the piece are owned by the married couple. They roam around a one acre back yard, but they are not permitted to leave the property. Oh, The Deception of Independence…

 

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: The male figure is arched and seemingly swimming or flying. Did you have a live model for it?
NohJColey: No, I didn’t use a live model. Live models don’t always do a great job. Sometimes I’ll spend hours perusing through magazines until I get a pose or a hand gesture that I then manipulate.

Brooklyn Street Art: In much the same way as pieces you have pasted on boards on construction sites, the character of this wood really adds to the overall character of the piece. Did you like the result?
NohJColey: The aged wood effect looked okay though I’d rather use found materials any day of week. There is just something about an object that has genuine history as opposed to some store bought item that was altered to look like the actual thing.

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Often in your sculptures there is motion and movement – here too you are indicating the movement of the woman’s arm through replicating and pivoting the limb. Have you ever done a video piece, or wanted to?
NohJColey: I did some video pieces in college and started one about two years ago, but that stuff is so time consuming that I had to put it aside to complete other projects.

Brooklyn Street Art: Are those mallard ducks?
NohJColey: The flying duck is. The second duck was a goose that I turned into a mallard duck.

 

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: If you were to symbolize yourself in one of your pieces as an animal, which one would you chose?
NohJColey: Most likely a liger because they’re a hybrid and I love the idea of mixing multiple things up to form one figure. And they never really stop growing.

Brooklyn Street Art: Which is harder for you when creating a piece. Starting it or finishing it?
NohJColey: Starting a piece is usually extremely difficult for me because I’m constantly attempting to create something that has never been seen before. I over think things and can spend a couple of days gathering reference material without having a clue how exactly to use it.

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey’s “Oh, Deception of Independence” is currently on view at the Woodward Gallery Project Space. Click here for more information.

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more

Exclusive: London Police Use Child Labor (VIDEO)

May 8, 2013

This brand new behind-the-scenes video of the Street Artists called The London Police proves how wrongly named they are! See exactly what they have been doing to innocent children as they prepare for their new show that opens in East London Thursday night.

We fully expect that once people are made aware of the extreme lengths they’ve gone to (or depths they have lowered themselves to) there will be quite a crowd in the streets outside the gallery, possibly with pitchforks and torches!

 

To complain please contact Stolen Space Gallery

 

Read more

Unruly Gallery Presents: Warren Lewis “Words Fail” (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

May 8, 2013

WArren Lewis

Celebrity Twitter accounts and expensive watches, adverts, rap lyrics, toilet graffiti and famous brands… These are but a few things that inspire the ever-changing styles and messages created by Warren Lewis.

This highly creative artist is in no way bound to any specific medium, which allows him to stay inventive and keep developing fresh ways to communicate with the public.

From the website of Klerkx Art Agency:“Lewis has
a natural knack for creating work that demands attention. His heavily laboured canvases are filled with popular cultural references and challenge the viewer

to make connections between the seemingly unrelated content, a mechanism used in an attempt to represent the true complexity of our culture”.
Klerkx Art Agency has been representing Warren Lewis since 2010.

Don’t miss this new series of extraordinary paintings (small and medium sized) and be the first to see his Toilet Paper Jesus Pieces and the eye catcher of the show: Still Life: The Scrolling Painting.

This is his third solo show in The Netherlands. The Cape Town born (1982) and London based artist will be present at the opening on Friday 10 May.

http://www.unrulygallery.com/

Read more
Hellbent, Abstractions and “The Mixtape Series” in NYC

Hellbent, Abstractions and “The Mixtape Series” in NYC

May 8, 2013 ,

In-Studio Visit With the Guy Who Took His Street Name from Richard Hell

“Even Romantics Love Violence”, Hellbent’s first solo gallery show unveils the graffiti / Street Artist doing a new collection  in abstraction, “The Mix Tape Series”.  With each piece named after a song he was listening to while creating it, the series testifies to his intense love of music (from punk to country to big band and indie rock) and the practice of making custom collections for friends and lovers on blank cassettes.

“Violence” alludes to the concomitant firestorm of emotions, thoughts and ideas that the perfect mixed tape collection can convey, especially when you are 15, or 25, or 35, or ever. While “Mix Tape” is his own nostalgic homage to his high school years in Georgia in the 1990s, for Hellbent this new sharply eye-popping collection is one more refinement to a body of work he’s developed on New York streets over the last 10 years.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Mix Tape” also refers to his cyclical process; Recording, erasing, recording – he literally saves the tape he uses to create pieces, and creates some more.  Here is the thick and sticky masking tape that’s covered in overspray and patterning, now newly arranged and layered and edited into finished abstract compositions, to be used later as a sketch for larger painted pieces.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Included in the show are the “Demos”, the actual tape pieces or sketches now encased in liquid glass.

“The first time I tried to make something with them was when I was in LA doing a big mural and I thought I could try it out on a sketchbook. So at first I started off layering them, building them. I gave myself parameters, you can’t just be all willy-nilly,” he explains. Once marginal, here center-stage, these new vividly patterned pieces vibrate with the same rage and charm one associates with his bared-tooth dogs, hissing snakes and signature Freud jawbone as they lie gently cloaked in delicate lace floral patterns you last saw covering grandma’s end-table, topped with a bowl of plastic fruit.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In studio you can see the violent beauty of a hellish production process as he chops and slices through the distortion and guitars and drums and vocals pounding and vibrating through his thoughts. “The Mix Tape Series” celebrates Hellbents ever-more discordant color palette, the re-aligning and openly opposing shards and shapes that he keeps pushing to reach a level of punk rock splendor. Even so, he says, “I’ve never really studied color theory.  I never really think about it.”

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Some of the color combinations – the seafoam green next to hot pink – they vibrate and I can’t get them to stop.
Hellbent : So some of them, because of the clashing of colors, some of them want to come up and some of them want to drop back. So I’ve been trying to add depth. I’m trying to create depth through flatness. Everything is super flat but they are layered on top of one another. And the colors create optical effects.

Like an uninhibited and pissing fire extinguisher slicing across complacent suburban vinyl siding, Hellbent forces dark colonial blue death and blaring orange fluorescence to lie uncomfortably next to one another, making the eye push and pull the shapes to the fore- and back ground, an optical effect caused purely by their nearness to one another.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent on the street in Queens for Welling Court (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbents’ pattern play has gotten sophisticated too; trompe l’oeil evokes printed wallpaper even when achieved with aerosol. As he rocks through new printed motifs and razor sharp shapes he likes to alternately calm and jolt, forcing the painting to pop for a fraction of a second, the snapping life of an impulse. With this new sharpened geometry and these comforting patterns and these challenging color choices the pieces rise above the canvas as they lay upon, slam against, and step on top of one another.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Music is the ultimate teacher,” prophesied Vasily Kandinsky, and the blank cassette tape onto which the Russian painter and art theorist would have recorded his mix would probably have included Richard Wagner, assisting his movement from landscape or portraiture to embrace pure abstraction. The music stories told of sound poems and Stravinsky at the MoMA show this spring, Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925, has inspired Hellbent as well, furthering his own fascination with this abstract route on the street, even as he curated the Geometricks show with Brooklyn Street Art last fall.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A classic Hellbent snake on the street in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

His own recent mural and street works mirror a direction found in other movements popping up on streets in Europe and on America’s coasts and Hellbent happily name checks San Francisco’s Poesia (and his blog Graffuturism), Agents of Change in London, and a growing list of alternate abstract avenues for street based art now sometimes described as post-graffiti. No longer reliant on text or tags or even imagery, Hellbent continues to mix his favorites in search of something new.

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here is a short list of some of the songs and titles of Hellbents’ new pieces for “The Mixtape Series”. In addition to sighting everybody from Lollapalooza 1, 2, and 3, his references can include early British shoe gaze, 90s indie rock, early and contemporary rock n roll, country music and Bob Dylan.

“Vapor Trail” by Ride http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygGw_zo_W8A

“No God, Only Religion” by Spirtualized http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE0lBbBNR1Q

“Benediction” by Thurston Moore  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEe9H6fa7uM

“My Ways” by The Concretes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaePFbCPWzE

“Start Choppin” by Dinosaur Jr. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrRPQqvwjFE

“Youth Against Fascism” by Sonic Youth http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ot_w3LAPH3s

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Even Romantics Love Violence”

Hellbent Solo at Brooklyn’s Mighty Tanaka Gallery

Friday, May 10, 2013 at 6 pm – 9pm

***********************

Other references

BSA Presents GEOMETRICKS, Curated by Hellbent

Color, Geometry and Pattern on the Streets by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo on The Huffington Post and BSA

Sneak Peeks from Geometricks

 

***********************

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

Read more

Featured Video | Martin Wong’s “Houston Street”

Recent Articles on BSA