September 2013

INTI, The Good Goat Shepherd in Lodz

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Billy, did you see the 35 meter high mural by Inti for Urban Forms in Lodz? All kidding aside, these goats are huge! Entitled “I Believe in Goats,” the massive piece features Inti’s recurring character as alien shepherd surrounded by five of the hollow-horned mammals. Floating over the composition are wire-frame symbols for currency and religions of the world – along with a few other mystical markers. No we do not know what it all means. But we’ll bet you a buck it all makes sense if you look at it in a mirror over your shoulder.  Just check out the signature.

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INTI. Urban Forms 2013. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

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INTI. Detail. Urban Forms 2013. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

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INTI. Detail. Urban Forms 2013. Lodz, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Michał Bieżyński)

 

 

More on BSA about Urban Forms:

Urban Forms in Lodz, Poland Ready To Go

Urban Forms 2013: ROA Goes First in Poland

Inti Hits 11 Story Building in Lodz

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www.urbanforms.org

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www.vimeo.com/urbanforms

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www.youtube.com/user/UrbanFormsFoundation

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Images of The Week 09.29.13

Images of The Week 09.29.13

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Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Chris RWK, Chuck Barrett, Cs Navarrate, Damien Mitchell, Deekers, Gilf!, JMR, Katherine Daniels, Kuma, Left, Miishab, NM Salgar, Oculo, RVMP, Sheryo, Skewville, Swil, The Yok, Willow, and Zimer.

Top image > Willow and Swil for the Centrifuge Project. NYC 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zimer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Deekers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Oculo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Miishab for Centrifuge Project. NYC 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville at work for Dumbo Walls Project 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville for Dumbo Walls Project 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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RVMP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JMR for Dumbo Walls Project 2103. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CS Navarrete at work for Centrifuge Project. NYC 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Katherine Daniels for Dumbo Arts Festival 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gilf! for Dumbo Walls Project 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Damien Mitchell for Centrifuge Project. NYC 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sheryo and The Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LEFT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chuck Barrett and NM Salgar for Centrifuge Project. NYC 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chris RWK for Dumbo Walls Project 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Pandemic Breaks Out Inaugural Show Featuring Epic EKG Piece

Pandemic Breaks Out Inaugural Show Featuring Epic EKG Piece

It’s baaaaaack.  And not a minute too soon.

Pandemic Gallery re-opens tonight in the Navy Yard area in Brooklyn with a bigger more commodious location for freethinkers unconcerned with the white box. Rooted in the graffiti and Street Art scene, proprietors and co-curating artists Robin Drysdale and Keely Brandon apply their vision of what they love about the street in its rawest form in a way that will never require the bloviating self-appointed art “critics” to know their value.

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EKG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EKG, the down-by-law all-city heartbeat with an orange china marker is the inaugural symbol signifying script writer on the walls of Pandemic tonight – a fitting tribute to the mark making traditions of NYC that predate the modern, communicating and capturing the ions and lightwaves and innerworkings that flicker through his mind. EKG is steeped in history and theory and swimming in a unique diagrammatic flow chart that envelopes his universe and he shares it with guests tonight across “the 528 square foot schematic drawing that I’ve been working on,” he says.

At the end of the show, the mammoth EKG installation will then be deconstructed and sold off in pieces like the former industrial artist neighborhood of Williamsburg that eventually became too expensive for the artists who brought it to life, and galleries like Pandemic.

Included at the opening will be an EKG print release and head rocking performances by Fake Hooker and Unstoppable Death Machines. Also, says EKG, “lots of exclamation points!!!” !!!!!!

Werd!

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EKG. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EKG. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EKG. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EKG. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EKG. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EKG. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pandemic Gallery is located at 22 Waverly Avenue, Navy Yard, Brooklyn

 

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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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Dan Witz Darkly and With a Smile in Rome

Dan Witz Darkly and With a Smile in Rome

Piquing the public’s curiosity is a studied art. Dan Witz is now doing it darkly on Roman streets. It’s out in the open, but let’s keep it between us.

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

The hyperrealist is in this two and a half-thousand year old city drilling and pasting little portholes onto porticos, with illusions and reflections of countenances looking at you from behind them. For Public and Confidential his new show at Wunderkammern, he spent some time in the streets, where he has made a name for himself by tripping the eye, flagellating your fears, popping into your periphery. With his tattooed tapestry wrapped like sleeves around his arms, the wizened Witz studiously attaches his windows to darkness while on canvas he continues in route to mastering light.

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

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Dan Witz. “Public and Confidential” Rome, Italy 2013. (photo © Giorgio Coen Cagli)

“Public and Confidential” opens today at the Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome. Click HERE for further details.

 

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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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BSA Film Friday 09.27.13

BSA Film Friday 09.27.13

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

Now screening: Graphic Surgery for “The Canals Project“, OLEK inRussia’s PRIDE“, Team OBEY Visits FAILE,  STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt, and M-City in Paris.

BSA Special Feature: Graphic Surgery
for “
The Canals Project

Erris Huigens and Gysbert Zijlstra, artists from Amsterdam who together are called Graphic Surgery, work here in the industrial fields along the waterway near London’s site of the Olympics last year.  The primary audience will mostly be floating by in this area once known for local spontaneous Street Art and now curated, and Graphic Surgery’s silhouetted geometrics will be sharply cutting as you pass, minimal and constructivist while you propel through the rippling canal. All the mirroring and refracting of angles and shapes are flattened momentarily, wavering and ricocheting off and with their surroundings in black and white.

As they speak the two artists take you with them to see how it is done, and how it is inspired – capturing the lines and the physical context of placement with intention while their intersections with modernism and industry are distilled.

Graphic Surgery: The Canals Project.  London 2013. Produced by Cedar Lewisohn.

OLEK “Russia’s PRIDE”

A new video documenting Street Artist Olek as she did a public art installation in St. Petersberg last week. You can also read her interview this week with BSA here: OLEK Interview and Exclusive Photos “From Russia With Pride”.

 

Team OBEY Visits Team FAILE

A quick look inside Faile’s studio as they prepare for their currently running show at Dallas Contemporary museum.

STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt

Ending today the Schrirn Kunsthalle has been showcasing the diversity of Brazilian graffiti art as Brazil was the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Artists included are HERBERT BAGLIONE, GAIS, RIMON GUIMARÃES, JANA JOANA & VITCHÉ, NUNCA, ONESTO, ALEXANDRE ORION, SPETO, FEFE TALAVERA, TINHO, and ZEZÃO

 

M-City In Paris: Interview

A relaxed look at stencil Street Artist M-City as he completes a huge wall in central Paris, followed by an interview at Itinerrance Gallery by Chrixcel.

With special thanks to Fatcap.com

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Bien Urbain 2013 Update

Bien Urbain 2013 Update

With a theme of “Recover the Streets” the Bien Urbain festival is not so much a Street Art festival as an experiment with public space and our interaction with it. It has been interesting to see how the current romance with Street Art is absorbed by a variety of constituencies during the last decade – whether as tools of change, gentrification, commodification, commercialization, education, or simply celebration, artists are being challenged to see their work differently as well. Here in Besancon, France, we find a very inclusive experience where students and citizens and planners are all invited to participate, discuss, and evaluate the impact of the artists work on the built environment.  It’s culture as a wholistic practice.

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108 from Italy at work. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Elisa Murcia Artengo) His bio says he spent 15 years working with traditional graffiti abstract shapes and feels that all of which contain organic roots.

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108 from Italy. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Elisa Murcia Artengo)

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Erosie from The Netherlands. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Yorit Kluitman) With a background in graffiti and lettering, Erosie has been working on a series of paintings and cycles and is a fervent proponet of urban art without blinders.

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Erosie from The Netherlands. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Yorit Kluitman)

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Akay from Sweden. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © David Demougeot)

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OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © OX)

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OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © OX)

OX has been repurposing billboards and commercial space to bring it back to its more basic elements. With relatively simple changes directed at the viewer, his reconfiguring gives a new sense of context and purpose to these places, now acting as geometry and sculpture instead of simply a vehicle for commercial messages. The result also makes you reconsider the environment it is placed in.

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OX from France. Bien Urbain 2013. Besançon – East of France (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

With our gratitude to David & Johanna for sharing these exclusive images with us.

http://bien-urbain.fr/en/

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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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MSK Crew and the 2013 Summer Family Reunion in Brooklyn

MSK Crew and the 2013 Summer Family Reunion in Brooklyn

Before we lose the warmth of the sun we wanted to reflect on one of the largest graffiti shows curated under one theme that was mounted this summer right on the streets of Brooklyn by members of the long-running graffiti crew known as Mad Society Kings, or MSK. It’s a Summer tradition for many families to convene at a selected location to enjoy a familial get-together and as the writers and painters of MSK consider themselves a very tight family spanning a few generations, they, like many American families, decided to have their own Family Reunion.

Naturally there were lawn chairs, aerosol cans, and razor wire.

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FASR MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gathering across three sprawling blocks in Bushwick just ahead of the July 4th holiday and while the Houston Wall in Manhattan was poised for takeover by members Pose and Revok, all the MSK uncles and aunts and cousins gathered before corrugated metal and cinder block walls in the still-industrial neighborhood to create a pre-fireworks display of their own. Adding to the reunion feeling, many of the folks seemed to be from out of town and had traveled a distance so you really got the idea that pretty soon there would be a kickball game, a pig rotating on a spit, and grandma MSK wheeling by handing out colorful pinwheels on sticks to the kiddies.

What made this reunion so remarkable was not just the variety of styles on display but the unanimity of the theme; each piece was dedicated to their recently departed brother, the writer NEKST, who passed away in the winter months.  Graffiti culture and community murals have been intertwined for as long as anyone held a spray can, with lists of the departed sometimes on display in a neighborhood for years as memorial, so the outpouring of love and creativity on these walls really was at its best.

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El Kamino MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We decided to wait until the dog days and the picnics were officially over to turn the spotlight on these walls and say goodbye to all the great memories of Summer 2013 on the streets of Brooklyn, and to give witness to the power of memories that we all have of people we’ve lost. These tributes are rendered in an explosion of color and styles – but all with the same idea, with the same name, with the same person in mind. Themed shows like this also allow the viewer to compare and contrast and better appreciate the more subtle and obvious differences in style, technique, and approach.

The results are a stellar sampler of some of the best graffiti writers working today on the streets.  Full of force, character, attitude, color, shape, dimension and craftsmanship, here is a selection by photographer Jaime Rojo for you to see. All of them are still up in Bushwick if you are out on a bright Saturday – they are just a short walk from the L train on the Morgan stop.

 

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Cease MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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TRAV MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Omens MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rime MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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REVOK MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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POSE MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Vizie MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skrew MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DMOTE MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DMOTE MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Steel MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Owns MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KC ONE MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Navy8 MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Wane COD MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dabs & Myla MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MSK . NEKST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

 

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OLEK Interview and Exclusive Photos “From Russia With Pride”

OLEK Interview and Exclusive Photos “From Russia With Pride”

Shortly before she left New York for Russia a couple of weeks ago to do an installation across the entrance of a shopping center with her signature camouflage crochet treatment, Street Artist Olek was feeling a bit nervous. Because of her Polish background and her regard for the Russian arts historically, she was excited to have an opportunity to create her handmade and storied personal art for the public sphere there. But due to Russia’s harshly homophobic atmosphere in recent years and the recent high profile anti-LGBT laws that reportedly have sparked a wave of new violence against gays and any of their supporters, the street artist questioned what her own role was and whether to show support through silence or with her creative voice.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Compounding those fears were the very ambiguous terms in the newly passed laws against “propaganda” that equates or encourages “nontraditional sexual relations” or “nontraditional sexual attitudes”.

Understandably, as an artist you may not want to address the topic at all – considering the jail time and fines threatened against foreigners. Not typically a wallflower, the fluorescent hued crochet queen eventually decided to go, and in the process addressed her opinions through a rainbow of camo, hoping to give a sense of hope, show some solidarity with the gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender and queer folks in Russia who are currently oppressed in a somewhat muted, if deliberate, way.

Many who work in the arts prefer to keep them separate from politics, especially when the original piece was conceived in a different time in unrelated conditions and contexts. But pretending the resonance of a piece stands apart from its environment may be impossible. Just last night at Lincoln Center protesters disrupted a Russian themed opera to protest the new laws thousands of miles away and while some thought it appropriate, others, including the manager of the Metropolitan Opera, think political struggles should only be enacted on stage when the curtain goes up.

Street Art in recent years has veered toward the aesthetic and less overtly political according to some, but artists like Shepard Fairey have always considered it part of their remit to actively critique the society they live in and to advocate for change with their work on the street. In Olek’s case, this was more public art than street art, and commissioned work at that. Nonetheless, her description of her intent begs the question whether art can or should ever be considered without politics given its personal nature and our individual histories and cultural conditioning. Ultimately it will depend on the reaction of the audience, who Olek considers to be part of the art as well.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Along with some exclusive images for BSA readers of the new installation and Olek at work, we had a chance to ask her a few questions about her perspective and her experience on this trip to Russia. Not surprisingly, she has plenty to say.

Brooklyn Street Art: How does this installation speak to a greater story about tolerance?
OLEK: The answer stems from how thoughts and ideas form themselves. I left Poland because of intolerance. People in Poland always pointed fingers and laughed at me merely because I wore colorful, hand-made, and vibrant clothes, because my expression of myself defied expectations. This is the main reason that in New York City I created the camouflage pattern. I transformed the human form into a new species. Once encapsulated in the hand-crocheted suit, you are a citizen of my world that doesn’t pay attention to skin, race, color, ethnicity or sexuality.

Inspiration also comes from life’s small details. Starting from 2002, I have crocheted everything from trees, to bicycles to a stepladder because my ex-girlfriend had one. Everything comes from real feelings, experiences and intuition. The public may not always know the background story, but they accept it or love my work because it is honest. I hope.

My installations are and have always been expressions of my responses to immediate surroundings, international climate, information, images, events in the news, emotions, words, lovers. These responses are what start the conversations that flow through my, and every individual’s, unconsciousness. Ideas are collaborations between environment and time. It is when these collaborations come to the surface that others decide to either accept and tolerate or to discriminate.

My recent work does not only focus on Russia’s suppression of the LGBT community. As I said in my statement to the Russian press, I support all people’s rights, our freedom to be whoever we want to be, who we truly are, to love whomever we choose and marry whomever we love.

I hope this installation encourages Russians and others who see my work elsewhere, to be more tolerant of others’ expressions of themselves. We still have a long way to go.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you feel conflicted about creating work as an artist in Russia?
OLEK: I really had a hard time making this journey. First of all because of personal experience and family history. Two years ago I was jailed in London for defending myself against the sexual aggression of a drunk Russian man. Also, my grandmother has recounted to me many stories about family members who were oppressed and jailed by the Soviet Union. Both of these experiences made a lasting impression on me.

Secondly, in response to Russia’s anti-gay law, many people around the world protested by dumping Russian vodka in the streets and by boycotting visits to Russia. Admirable, but I had already stopped drinking Russian vodka years ago. I also believed that it would be quite easy for me to boycott from afar. But what would it do for the LGBT community still in Russia? It would be much harder to actually cross the border and make my art in public to support those oppressed. Perhaps it would be a more powerful statement to stand within Russia and share my work in solidarity with those thousands who are stifled by this law. I wanted to bring colors. To inspire. To participate in the national culture by sparking dialogue with my art. I also decided, when asked by the press, to explain my personal philosophy, which sometimes is camouflaged by my colors and patterns. And although I was very afraid about being arrested or deported, I followed my intuition.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you consider this work a matter of exercising free speech? Art activism perhaps?
OLEK: I prefer making my art pieces and allowing others to judge, label, interpret, love or hate them. If you are saying that my work exercises free speech, I’ll give you a kiss.

Art can be subtler than a verbal or written statement, but it is still speech. So the ability to make a work of art uninhibited by fear, outdated laws, money or social pressure is absolutely an expression of free speech. We have seen over centuries of history art being censured for displaying accurate depictions of nudity, for incorporating subtle criticisms of religion and for displaying abstract concepts because of what they stood for.

Also when asked about my work I freely offer my own honest interpretation of and the inspirations, events and emotions that drove me to create my art in the particular way that I did. My “Injustice Everywhere is a Threat to Justice Anywhere” piece in London was my personal reflection on the justice system while I was awaiting sentencing.  But more importantly, it spoke to something much bigger social reality.

Similarly, in this case, I did not hide my thoughts or beliefs in fear. So in a sense, my work and statement in St. Petersburg are both exercises of free speech because both are personal expressions of my convictions.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Brooklyn Street Art: This was a commissioned work for commercial purposes originally, right?
OLEK: Yes. Around the time I was crocheting the camouflage rainbow train in Poland, Galeria, a large shopping center in St. Petersburg asked me to transform their incredibly complex façade. They chose my work based upon my previous installations and work. While I install much of my work “guerilla” style, I, like most artists, also work with galleries and private clients who sponsor installations and exhibitions.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Brooklyn Street Art: There is a misconception among some that if artwork is paid, it should be apolitical. Is that even possible?
OLEK: I really don’t know how artists (or authors or musicians for that matter) can separate themselves completely from expressing personal emotions, beliefs and convictions in their work. I believe that there are two main influences that should not dictate the way an artist makes art: money and public opinion. I believe in developing new ways of creating a dialogue with the viewer on both visual and aural levels.  The audience’s senses heighten as they develop new means of interacting with the piece, realizing that their response greatly impacts the art and the ways these forms and colors are moving in time. Their response is also the art, and my work is a mirror. This reflection is very often political and cultural, regardless of whether I am paid or not.

I think there is often a misconception about my work because it is so bright and colorful. Often I think some believe that there is no underlying conceptual aspect to it. However, each of my works has a concept that it embodies. The colors, the shapes, the patterns – all have distinct, albeit at times discreet, theories and statements supporting my choices.

Brooklyn Street Art: Was there a reaction to your intended messages, or were they too camouflaged for most viewers to discern?
OLEK: With my actions I always intend to create a feedback to the economic and social reality in the community. In this case, I was very afraid that the authorities would not allow me to finish it because I was incorporating rainbows into the work. I experienced a very similar feeling to the one I had during my Wall Street Bull intervention – a sense of urgency pushing me to work at breakneck speed to complete my statement before being stopped. I just wanted to be able to finish the work regardless of public opinion or potential backlash or disfavor.

I experienced certain blindness while creating this piece. The first day, while working in the studio, I got many compliments about the colors. Then during the three long nights of installation, I observed odd expressions from bystanders. It was if they knew what the work stood for, as if they smelled it, but no one wanted to say it. Russia’s anti-gay law was enacted to prevent “propaganda of nontraditional sexual relations to minors”. But as usual, it was the small children in the street who first noticed and openly reacted to my work. Many of them ran to the performers in the crochet suits and embraced them without any inhibition or fear.

I should note that many open criticisms of my work came out of fear after the installation had been finished and I had interpreted the inspirations for my work in my own words. I think many times a percentage of the audience prefers to take the most palatable message from art without considering it more closely because it’s most comfortable and safe. When an artist then verbally contributes to that experience, it can upset that comfort.

To be honest though, any reaction is important. If at the end of the day, the audience just smiles and laughs, or turns on it in hate or chooses not to see it, they have contributed something to the work. It is the beauty of the public art. You might feel hidden in the crowd. But then, one person notices you.

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OLEK (photo © courtesy Olek)

Read more of Olek’s personal account on her blog at The Huffington Post.

 

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GAIA in Progress at The Rice University Gallery in Houston

GAIA in Progress at The Rice University Gallery in Houston

Street Artist Gaia Talks About New Installation and Latest Study

For the opening this Thursday Gaia will be talking about the impressions he has gathered and internalized of Houston’s urban sprawl and of some of the folks on the front lines of the everyday; using painting, drawing, printmaking, and collage. Much like his commissioned installation at the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) in 2012-13, where he created portraits of individuals in the community of Baltimore using techniques inspired by Gauguin’s Vahine no te vi (Woman of the Mango), this new installation will open Rice University Art Gallery’s fall season with faces, textual excerpts, and city/landscape sweeps of the city he is studying.

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Nash Baker)

“Essentially I am creating this mural as a pastiche of Houston and then interviewing faculty, staff and students at Rice University to get a sense of the institution’s place in the greater city,” says Gaia of his study of the city and its international populations. At the moment he is taking a break sitting atop a mountain of styrofoam that will be soon be cut, shaped, and sculpted for the installation – a constructed cloister within the gallery space. “I want it to mirror the campus’ architecturally byzantine quotation,” he explains of the temporary structure.

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Nash Baker)

Since BSA was a very early profiler of the work of this artist, our readers are quite familiar with Gaia’s work on the street and his interest in depicting important figures who influenced the direction he grew personally – remember the large head of his grandfather floating on Brooklyn walls in the late 2000s?

Eventually his examination and studies of important figures expanded to profiling politicians, developers, leaders, architects, city planners, spiritual figures, citizens, workers – all identified as pivotal parts of the DNA that give a city or a neighborhood its true sense of place. With these new oil paintings of participants in his latest anthropological exploration, visitors will be seeing a marbled moment in the storied history of Houston as a city and a society.

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Nash Baker)

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Nash Baker)

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Nash Baker)

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Nash Baker)

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GAIA. Installation in progress. Rice University Gallery. Houston, TX. (photo © Gaia)

 

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Images of The Week: 09.22.13

Images of The Week: 09.22.13

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First day of Autumn, Yo! And we have been harvesting images for you as we enter the new season in NYC. Here is our weekly interview with the street, including CAM, Dasic, Icy & Sot, ILL, Jessie and Katey, MAD, MOR, Paolo Cirio, Pigeon, Rambo, Rubin, Stefan Sagmeister, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Yuko Shimizu.

Top image, a new billboard with some sage street life advice from RAMBO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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True that. Tatyana Fazlalizadeh from her project “Stop Telling Women To Smile” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dasic. Detail of a wall in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paolo Cirio. “Street Ghost” Series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paolo Cirio. “Street Ghost” Series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paolo Cirio. “Street Ghost” Series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paolo Cirio. “Street Ghost” Series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jessie and Katey. Richmond, VA. (photo © Jessie Unterhalter)

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CAM. Detail for Dumbo Walls Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CAM. Detail for Dumbo Walls Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Yuko Shimizu and Stefan Sagmeister for Dumbo Walls Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Yuko Shimizu and Stefan Sagmeister for Dumbo Walls Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pigeon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia shares with you this sketch for his upcoming installation at Rice University Art Gallery in Houston, TX. (photo © Gaia)

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Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MOR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MAD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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ILL (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Harvest Moon over Manhattan. NYC. September, 2013. (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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French Artist COMBO Wants You To Smoke…POT

French Artist COMBO Wants You To Smoke…POT

French Street Artist and media-savvy prankster COMBO is back with a new street art and social media campaign to affect what he calls “a bourgeoise hypocrisy that reminds us of alcohol prohibition”.

Enter Kermit the Frog smoking a J.

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Someone who looks an awful lot like Kermit the Frog is shown here promoting smoking. COMBO (photo © COMBO)

The new images on the street are meant to “support legislative change on medical marijuana” says the artist, and he invited a number of Street Artists to lend their skills to the project, which so far has focused primarily on Los Angeles but probably won’t stop there.

Here’s Robotbama by Finnish Street Artist Sampsa telling passersby that marijuana legalization could yield taxpayers $1.2 billion, there are the four previous US presidents touting pot use by Egyptian Street Artist Ganzeer, and you won’t miss the billboard of Jack Nicholson blowing an ‘O’ in a cloud of some serious smoke.

Pummeling that fine line between advertising and Street Art that has existed since troupes like the Billboard Liberation Front began taking over commercial space in the 70s and that artists like Ron English continued with his slick satire of major brands decades later, the new gen COMBO now marries it to the hashtag, D.I.Y., and the selfie. Like the JR campaign with a twist, you are encouraged to take a cellphone pic of yourself with a joint and send it to him he can wheat-paste it up on the street.

Given the current trend toward acceptance of weed that is happening legislatively and in popular culture, this campaign will most likely light up.

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French Artist Le Valet. (photo © COMBO)

 

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COMBO (photo © COMBO)

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COMBO (photo © COMBO)

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Finnish Artist Sampsa. Detail. (photo © COMBO)

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COMBO (photo © COMBO)

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COMBO (photo © COMBO)

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Egyptian Artist Ganzeer. (photo © COMBO)

 

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COMBO (photo © COMBO)

 

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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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BSA Film Friday: 09.20.13

BSA Film Friday: 09.20.13

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

Now screening: La Catedral Futumétrica with EC13 + El Niño De Las Pinturas + SpidertagMeggs and FareShare in Australia, and Five More Minutes with C215.

BSA Special Feature: La Catedral Futumétrica
with EC13 + El Niño De Las Pinturas + Spidertag

This week you get to take part in the exploration and re-creation that will inspire you to take another look around the very environment you are sitting in right now. Graffiti/Street Art/fine artists EC13, El Niño de las Pinturas and Spidertag bring you with them, with Spidertag as director Maldito Dwarfi behind the camera, into a sacred space. The Spanish relic of a building is now christened a cathedral, and they backpack into the space to lay out their art materials onto the mottled concrete floor, arranging and rearranging before choosing their locations in this holy place, a gallery for modern abstraction and do it yourself set design.

With nails, tiles, caulking, aerosol, thick yarn, and tape, the two set about occupying space, defining space, tracing and framing and revealing invisible lines and physical relationships – even evoking spirits and memories, if not memorials. Breezes and sunlight wander by, as do flies, nesting birds, and a couple of goat kids. When they are finished, you are invited in for a drink and a melody and meditation. Loosely enclosed by these walls made by hands that resolutely stand while windows and doors and roof go missing, the work of the artists may cause you to re-see and re-define every line you observe as you return to your world.

 

Australian Artist Meggs teams up with FareShare

Five More Minutes with C215

A portrait of the street portraitist by Estelle Beauvais.

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