November 2013

Paris Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 19, 2013 Artists

As we continue our one week residency on BSA for Street Art fan Spencey Elzey, he takes you to Paris to see what is happening on the street there right now. If you were to try to characterize the nature of the work, you may say that it favors illustration, a clean defined line, and a purposeful classical aesthetic.

For years we have associated the romantic city and it’s historical culture and architecture with Street Artists like the stencil pioneers Blek Le Rat and Jef Aerosol, along with Miss Tic, Invader, FKDL, Fred Chevaliar, C215, and Alice Pasquini, to name just a few. Spencer finds some of those artists’ work and and he shares some others here with you too. Naturally, because we don’t cover this city regularly, locals will surely tell you that some of these pieces are a couple of years old, but for an American tourist in Paris, it all looks new from here!

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“It did feel like there was some form of respect for the older architecture, especially in Paris,” says Spencer when comparing his observations of Paris, Berlin, and London. “While all three cities are old (especially compared to NYC), Paris feels the oldest and there seems to be certain buildings or doors that remained untouched.” Maybe that’s why we always think Paris is romantic. Also, Edith Piaf.

Speaking of romance we begin the image survey with two current giants on the Paris scene Jana und JS, who are a collaborating Street Art couple who basically bonded over their mutual love for shooting images. Advocates of photography on the street, you will find they’ve also an affinity for spray paint and stencils and their subject often is themselves. It’s rather a marriage made for the street. You can read a full interview with them here on Street Art Paris.

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“Walking around Paris I also found myself looking up a lot more as compared to other cities; while this was mostly due to the fact that I was looking out for the 100’s of Space Invader pieces, there were lots of other pieces stuck to the walls up high. I thought it was also notable that the walls within the metro tunnels between stations were covered with graffiti in Paris.”

“Paris has street art defined to a few areas specifically,” explains Elzey, “including some of the murals in the 13^th arrondissement that were put together by Galerie Itinerrance, a few areas up around Belleville, and areas throughout Le Marais, which includes sections of the 3^rd and 4^th arrondissements.”

Jana & Js. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jana & Js. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC (photo © Spencer Elzey)

ETHOS (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ella & Pitr. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Clet Abraham (photo © Spencer Elzey)

A large wall by the Chilean Street Artist Inti (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shadeek (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alexis Diaz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shepard Fairey (photo © Spencer Elzey)

RERO (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Invader (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Not Invader. Megamatt. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Daco (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Bristolian Nick Walker has a heart (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Tona and Alias (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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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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Street Art in Vitry-sur-Seine (France) : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 18, 2013 Artists

BSA is lucky to be a clearinghouse for many people who participate in and celebrate the Street Art scene – artists, curators, designers, collectors, galleries, museums, researchers, academics, historians and fans. Because we have never taken advertising readers tend to trust our platform and people in the community give us great behind-the-scenes opportunities to learn and share freely with others about the creative process and the culture on the street. It also gives us the freedom to do whatever we want when planning editorial or content.

Claire Pinatel (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Recently we had this idea about giving our site out to artists or art-lovers a week at a time so they could also fully share their personal experiences of the Street Art/public art/graffiti/ scene. So this week before Thanksgiving we’re giving the whole week to one person as a “residency”, our way of sharing this valuable platform and inviting you to have a greater voice in this conversation.

Spencer Elzey loves art in general and is an avid Street Art fan in particular and he likes to take trips that include shooting images on the street in whatever city he visits. He also supports artists by buying their art, regularly attending art exhibitions, reading and studying about them and following their evolution. Over the last couple of years we have seen that he is also a dedicated Street Art hunter with camera in hand on the streets of New York City when he isn’t at his regular job – and he loves to share what he finds with others on social media and as an occasional contributor to BSA.

When we heard that Spencer was planning a trip to Europe this fall we proposed to him the idea of him keeping a photo journal to be shared exclusively with BSA readers and we offered to help connect him with some friendly guides on his trip so he could get some splendid and exclusive photos. He enthusiastically accepted the offer and here is the first day of Spencer’s one-week residency on BSA, an edited treasure trove of images and insights from the guy himself. We know you’re going to dig it.

STeW (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Here’s this weeks schedule:

Monday is Vitry-sur-Seine Street Art.
Tuesday will be Paris Street Art.
Wednesday will be a special collection of the installations from the Le Tour Paris 13 project.
Thursday will be his adventures in Berlin.
BSA Film Friday will feature a selection of videos reflecting the cities he toured.
Saturday will be Spencer’s London showcase.

ROA (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Of all four cities Spencer visited over a two week trip, this one seemed to really embrace the value of street art to the culture, he says. “In terms of which city was the most welcoming of street art I’d have to say Vitry-sur-Seine was because this is really a grassroots campaign kickstarted by C215,” he says of this city of 83,000 that is called a commune and lies on the outskirts of Paris.

It’s not hard to believe that the scene is attributed in large part to the influence of the well-regarded stencil artist C215 as this is a guy who considers his work to be community service and who regularly features people from the city he is in as subjects of his portraits. That’s why he was the perfect guide for Spencer, who says he learned a huge amount of information in a short time.

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“I have to say that C215 is one of the more interesting, opinionated and knowledgeable artists that I have come across. We started the morning at his local café with a coffee. I explored around a little by myself while he was attending to some prior engagements with his gallery and then he caught up with me out on the streets. We eventually had lunch and then went back to his house. Topics ranged from his opinion on the scene in general, on other artists, on galleries and it even touched on street art websites and documenters.

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“I hadn’t realized that he has only been doing stenciling for seven years but it was easy to see how far his pieces have come from the few monochrome stencils that still remain around Williamsburg (Brooklyn) from around 2008,” remarks Elzey.

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“What C215 has done in Vitry-sur-Seine is much bigger than I expected it to be, both in terms of quantity of work in the area as well as the impact on the community. The first piece that he put up there was about five year ago and within that time there have appeared at least 150 different pieces from him and other artists throughout the area,” says Spencer.

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Naturally, Elzey was shooting whatever odd or curious or thrilling piece he found on his travels through this city that celebrates artists, in addition to the work done by his host. “I was definitely surprised with how much Street Art there was in Vitry-sur-Seine. I took around 200 pictures of different pieces while there and I’m still seeing pictures on Instagram of things that I had missed,” he says.

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

One piece in particular by C215 impressed him a lot – because of it’s impact visually and its perfectly contextual placement. Additionally, Elzey felt that it illustrated the regard that the residents have for the artists work and the fact that people didn’t appear to think of it as illegal or vandalism, per se. “While I was exploring and taking pictures, various residents pointed with excitement about pieces just around the corner that I should go look at,” he says.

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“There was one older gentleman, probably in his 70s, who just simply said “La porte” and smiled while pointing in a certain direction. I rounded the corner to see a stencil of the Virgin Mary on the back door of the main church,” he says of one of the few religious themed pieces that the artist has created. “C215 had indicated that this was one of his favorite pieces in the area and it was nice to see that residents appreciated it as well. Had it not been for this project there really would be no other reason for me to have travelled down to Vitry-sur-Seine but it was definitely worth it.”

C215 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jorge Rodriguez Gerarda (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Yuri Romagnoli (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC to the left with Guy Denning to the right. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ripo (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Nychos (photo © Spencer Elzey)

EmileOne (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Amour (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cristian Sonda (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Kashink (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cope (photo © Spencer Elzey)

MP5 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Nunca (photo © Spencer Elzey)

David Walker (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Etnik (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Indigo (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Gaia (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alice Pasquini (photo © Spencer Elzey)

We hope you enjoy this one week residency on Brooklyn Street Art and we congratulate Spencer for his dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm.

Our sincere thanks also go to those who offered their hospitality and agreed to give Spencer a tour on our behalf; to the stencil artist C215, who graciously took him around Vitry and who shared with him a history and background on the scene there, to Maroune and Mehdi at Itinerrance Gallery for providing Spencer with special solo access to Le Tour Paris 13 while hundreds were queing outside, and to the dynamic German duo Various & Gould who welcomed him into their studio and showed Spencer some really cool spots around Berlin. This open and generous community spirit really makes the work that we do feel so inspiring to us, and we thank each of you for playing host to Spencer and for sharing your knowledge with the BSA family.

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Images of The Week: 11.17.13

November 17, 2013 Artists

A beautiful week weather-wise in New York – a brisk and sunny week that was great for discovering your city without sweating like a hog. Before we all get clobbered by the holidays and start piling on pounds it has been stupendous just to wind through the streets and burn off the calories and see lots of good new pieces popping up.

Also, we see a lot of street related movies and videos pretty regularly and were fortunate to attend the NY premiere this week of a documentary by Cheryl Dunn that you’ll probably dig too. It’s called “Everybody Street” and it floods you with decades of NY street photography by so many great shooters in this every-changing weird and wooly city we all love. Photographers include Bruce Davidson, Elliott Erwitt, Jill Freedman, Bruce Gilden, Joel Meyerowitz, Rebecca Lepkoff, Mary Ellen Mark, Jeff Mermelstein, Clayton Patterson, Ricky Powell, Jamel Shabazz, Martha Cooper, and Boogie, and also featured are historians Max Kozloff and Luc Sante. Yes, this is a short list of all the great photographers who have been capturing the NY scene, but its a cool collection. Look it up while it is here and if you aren’t living here it’s also on paid Vimeo too.

So here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Axel Void, Bunny M, Danielle Mastrion, Don Rimx, Icy & Sot, Invader, Kitty Kitty, Labrona, LMNOP, Mr. Toll, Nepo, Pixel Pancho, Reka, and Robert Janz.

Top Image >> Icy & Sot create a stenciled image based on the Hollywood adage about the good cop and bad one. See Slate’s full examination of the technique and whether it is actually a real thing – plus they made a video compilation of scenes from many movies here. Also, here’s some clip art that looks familiar doesn’t it? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader and a little R2D2 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lmnopi (Chris Stain briefly flies in from the right) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Call me maybe? Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This corner doorway is like a custom gallery frame for Axel Void. Wait, actually it is! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho for NYst Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY and Pixel Pancho for NYst Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nepo for NYst Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx for NYst Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ramiro Davaro-Comas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Labrona’s bus-shelter ceiling in Montreal. Detail. (photo © Labrona)

Kitty Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REKA for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robert Janz for Woodward Projects (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan seen from Brooklyn. Fall 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Various & Gould Spark a Witch Hunt on Streets of Berlin

November 16, 2013 Artists

Witches are burned at the stake. Or hanged, drowned, beheaded. Ask the American Puritans.

Of course, demonizing and ostracizing and terrorizing never quite went out of style since those formative years of the US, and the global history of the race is rife with this inclination. From Salem to today, ignorance and fear can be stirred rapidly into hysteria, usually by an invisible hand. In a tumultuous period of finger pointing and fear mongering that is often laced with latent prejudice, it is possible to whip people into a fevered frenzy of sanctimonious vigilante vitriol to purge that evil that resides amongst us, and within us.

brooklyn-street-art-various-gould-witches-wanted-berlin-web-2

Various & Gould. (photo © Various & Gould)

A riveting interactive witch hunt, complete with matches, candles, smart phones and QR codes, has just begun on the streets of Berlin – the creation of conceptual Street Artists Various & Gould. Better yet, you know many of the 13 ‘witches’, as they are people from modern times who have suffered fates of being accused and depicted as evil.

“That these people might have been persecuted and burned as witches in earlier times is a mere speculation here,” say the two artists, whose project encourages you to strike a match across the face of their screen printed posters and light a candle at the base of it. But whether or not these people would have been called witches in earlier days, there are other similarities V&G want to draw attention to. “They still have to fight for their ideas, their freedom, their dignity or in some cases even their lives today,” they say.

Various & Gould. Yoko Ono and Malala Yousafzai (photo © Various & Gould)

Who are you talking about, you ask? Edward Snowden is one – currently a polarizing figure for revealing the extent of spying the US is doing on world citizens and governments – is alternately spoken of as a folk hero and an evil traitor.

Yoko Ono is another – once vilified, now celebrated, for the very same violations in art and cultural orthodoxy. Also she broke up the Beatles singlehandedly for Christs sake. Also she’s a peace activist, so that is upsetting. Now widely considered to have been ahead of her time, Ms. Ono once felt the firey public disdain for her so adamantly that she wrote and performed a song in the 1970s entitled “Yes, I’m a Witch”.

V&G even had a little luck reaching out to some of their witches for the project and got some responses. “Yoko Ono said that she was touched by our mail, but was having an important event elsewhere, which was no surprise,” says Various.

Also, performance artist Marina Abramović is a witch, as well as Antony Johnson and a Pussy Rioter. The reasons for selecting the witches who include journalists, rappers, human rights activists, artists…. may be obvious to some, perplexing for others. Their controversial status is the space of the public mind in which they each hang.

Various & Gould. Yoko Ono. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various explains, “In this respect, the witches series can be understood as a homage to the portrayed people and a reference to the intolerance of today’s apparently enlightened times.” Gould agrees, “Different-minded people are being scape-goated and demonized in the public just as they once were.”

Of the 13 witches you will see a variety of names and if you don’t recognize them you can use the QR code beneath it or go to the special website to read and hear audio giving biographical information in German and English.

Anne Wizorek, a feminist blogger and one of the portrayed witches will even be on hand to introduce the gallery show entitled “Witches Wanted – Wanted Witches” at Open Walls this evening.

Speaking of the installation and the reactions they have received to the witch hunt that spreads across the city, Various says they had been afraid of negative reactions but thus far there have been none. “Somehow we were afraid someone would maybe get our intention wrong or be mad … but so far reactions are good.”

Various & Gould. Malala Yousafzai. (photo © Various & Gould)

In an increasingly polarized political atmosphere throughout the western world due to many factors, Gould says their imaginative project and execution of it hasn’t touched off controversy and has been really well received. “It was also very fulfilling for us to return to one of the portraits that we have in the street and to find some of the candles still burning!”

This witch-hunt in Berlin-Kreuzberg is not to be understood as a chase, but rather as an interactive scavenger hunt they say on www.witchhunt.eu/, where you can see the map locations and follow the hunt.

You can also follow the hashtag #WitchHuntBerlin on Twitter.

The full list of people portrayed as witches includes Marina Abramović, Mae Azango, Ameneh Bahrami, Antony Hegarty, Le1f, Yoko Ono, Nawal El Saadawi, Edward Snowden, Aung San Suu Kyi, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Anne Wizorek, Lana Wachowski, and Malala Yousafzai.

Various & Gould. Edward Snowden. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Edward Snowden . Amenem Bahrami . Le1f (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Le1f. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Lana Wachowski. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Mae Azango. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Aung San Suu Kyi . (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Nawal El Saadawi. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould “Witches Wanted – Wanted Witches” exhibition opens today in Berlin. Click HERE for more information.

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BSA Film Friday: 11.15.13 – Exclusive Premiere David Choe / Aryz

November 15, 2013 Artists

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

Now screening:

1. David Choe/Aryz PREMIERE on BSA: Medvin Sobio’s “L. A. Nights”
2. Niels “Shoe” Meulman Calligraffit
3. Tom Herck aka Atek84 2012-2013
4. The End Of The Line Pt 2; NYC Train Lines by Janosch Delcker.
5. NUART 2013: Showtime
6. M-City in Norway. Time lapse.
7. Alex Yanes: Woven Into Me

BSA Special Feature:

BSA EXCLUSIVE DAVID CHOE/ARYZ PREMIERE:
Medvin Sobio’s “L. A. Nights”

Director-film maker Medvin Sobio takes another unconventional spin on the now somewhat conventional mural-painting subgenre by playing with time signatures, hitting straight up wrong angles, and stirring in a thick sinuous sucrose veneer that makes us begin asking existential questions by the time the droll closing credits roll by.

It’s all here directly from the perfectly banal and brutal life on the street, with little clusters of gadflies and homies swimming around sort of drunkly – aided by a soundtrack heavy with Spanish-language 45s that were left sitting on the radiator. Just as you get the groove, prepare for Sobio to switch it, and for David Choe to glide by the screen like a ninja/Vader/suburban lawncare specialist from San Antonio with leaf blower in hand. The new film captures just a little bit of the LA street insanity of summer where almost everyone is baked — and its debut is here for BSA readers today exclusively.

YOU MUST ENTER THE PASSWORD TO WATCH THE VIDEO: Here it is>>>>> bang

Niels “Shoe” Meulman: Arts In The Streets

Shot and edited by Colin M. Day

“I guess it all started with me as a little kid being into looking at signs and letters,” says Niels in an understated way as he traces his evolution into an amalgam of graffiti and calligraphy that he has fashioned. Follow him as he narrates through the studio environment into a number of venues, all the while rhythmically marking walls, floors, cars with his signature U and N characters.

Tom Herck aka Atek84 Video Compilation 2012-2013

A sizzle reel of sorts by artist Tom Herck that hits upon his tangling with the meaning of selling ideas and beliefs and the paranoiac behaviors bred by surveillance. At least, that’s what we think. Guy has some good ideas and a knack for dramatic symbols, but some may be jarring – like the burning cross at the beginning, for example.

The End Of The Line Pt 2; NYC Train Lines by Janosch Delcker.

Journalist and documentary filmmaker Jonosch Delker offers the companion piece to his “End of the Line” film that explored the final stops on the train lines in Berlin two years ago; Today he brings us the final stations of the NYC subway system. He likes to say they are “non-places” because tourists rarely see them but just the glimpses of human interaction that he captures tell you that these are full of life and possess an urban poetry of their own. It’s true, a rare tourist will ever see these termination stations, as the major hubs of visitor activity are smack in the middle of many train lines. An adventurous or dozing visitor can find these places, though most probably won’t. With his choice of Moby to accompany you on your trip to the ends of the lines, you won’t need to do it either – but you may be encouraged to.

NUART 2013: Showtime

Time for a victory lap on the 2013 installment of Nuart.

M-City in Norway. Time lapse.

Quietly he works. M-City in Norway.

Alex Yanes: Woven Into Me

“Every artist that I ever met that is successful has paid dues,” says visual artist Alex Yanes in this tight video shot and edited by Duffy Higgins that traces the process Yanes followed to create and mount his first New York show – a show we caught at Low Brow Artique for its opening. It captures the energy and enthusiasm of the artist who had some trepidation about bringing his Miami style to Bushwick and the ready to rumble every day life of New York.

Sr. X Makes an Escape

November 14, 2013 Artists

Spain’s Sr. X has a good knack for placement with his realistic figures incorporated into the streetscape, whether peering out from a broken façade or up from the edges of a pothole.

Sr. X “Bye” London, England. November, 2013. (photo © Sr. X)

A guy who carries the weight of the world on his shoulders thematically, whether addressing fears of terror or the New World Order, Sr. X often mixes retro-looking sci-fi creatures or clean-cut idealized folks with apocalyptic themes in a winking ironic way. Here is a new piece that creates the missing bricks in a London wall to facilitate an escape, hopefully to a better world.

Sr. X “Bye” London, England. November, 2013. (photo © Sr. X)

Aerosol Texting: The Power Of Words on City Walls

November 13, 2013 Artists

Brief Analog Messages on Walls Ape Our Digit-driven Discourse

Whether satire, slogan, or soliloquy, the anonymous street scribe shapes our experience while we walk through the city.

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boffo or blustery, a piece of poetry can sling or sting your unsuspecting heart as you round the corner or look above your head and a rallying cry will bring color to your cheeks or dread into your head. A well-crafted counterpoint can clearly confound and a cleverly flipped script will turn up your lips, but no-one can crack some cryptic confessionals or meandering non sequitors that pop and squirm under your quizzical gaze.

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Whether cute or contentious, the hand-rendered words that we daily see on walls throughout the city are all speaking to us in a cooly comforting lo-fi handwritten way across the bricks and mortar, but somehow they often obey a 140 character limit too. Mercifully brief, as if targeted to our hurried pace and tightly tailored for the twitter-brained among us, these textual communications are looking for a more general audience, but an audience nonetheless.

And here we are.

Today we look at a kaleidoscopic collection caught by photographer Jaime Rojo, cobbled together here for you.

Rambo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Love Me (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

3tt Man (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

B.D. White & Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bagman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pesk ACK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA’s Jaime Rojo at Swoon’s “Braddock Tiles” Fundraiser Saturday

November 12, 2013 Artists

New York street photographer and co-founder of BrooklynStreetArt.com, Jaime Rojo, contributes an original gelatin print to Swoon’s Braddock Tile Fundraiser this Saturday alongside a stellar list of works by Street Artists like Swoon, ROA, Faile, C215, Retna, Chris Stain, CFYW, Joe Iurato and many others who support her efforts to convert a Pennsylvania church into a center for art and collaboration.

“Central to Swoon’s work has always been the concept of community and like her we have always worked to build and support community through our blog and our other creative endeavors over the years. It is an honor to be part of this collaboration to create a community focused art space in Braddock — this is just the kind of project we love to support,” says Rojo.

A Saturday afternoon and evening event, there will be film screenings and musical performances, as well as an exhibition of original works by many artists who are participating in this one night only fundraiser November 16 at the Anita Shapolsky Gallery on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. All proceeds from the event go the continuing work on the landmark building in North Braddock, Pennsylvania.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Small-Untitled_Coney-Island-Copyright_Jaime_Rojo

Jaime Rojo Untitled. Coney Island. 2002 8 x 10 Gelatin Silver Print 3 of 4 Note: This piece is framed with archival materials and UV Plexiglas.

Speaking of his practice shooting on the streets of New York, Rojo says he has learned to have a sharp eye and to move fast. “I think my formative years as kid in a large family influenced my approach to photography because I learned to be quick with my eye. When you grow up with 10 brothers and sisters in a family you don’t always have much time to ponder what the moment is, you just move quickly,” says Rojo.

“Similarly with photography on the street you don’t ponder what the shot is going to be, you just have to grab what you see that moves you and not wait until the next opportunity – particularly in a metropolis that is always in motion.”

Offered for your donation will be Rojo’s Untitled. Coney Island, number 3 of an edition of 4 gelatin prints. This piece is framed with archival materials and UV Plexiglas.

Swoon’s Braddock Tiles Fundraiser
Anita Shapolsky Gallery
152 East 65th St, New York, NY 10065
Saturday, November 16th, 4-10pm

Tickets are $10.00 and are on sale now through Eventbrite!  http://www.eventbrite.com/event/4068827974  
For inquires or a PDF of available works please contact mima@swoonstudio.org

Alice Pasquini In South Asia

November 12, 2013 Artists

Urban and fine artist Alice Pasquini just finished a three week trip through Southeast Asian which took her to Singapore, Yogyakarta, and Ho Chi Minh City and where she called forth her aquamarine palette of thoughtful women to walls in new environments while getting to know the local urban art scene and meeting local artists.

“Sometimes we’re forced to adapt: for instance painting with horrible local spray paints or letting go of our daily habits,” she says as she describes challenging herself to work with new materials and create effects that she liked. “You can create some interesting effects using old spray paint meant for cars.” More challenging for an Italian perhaps was foregoing her habit of daily espresso.

After a week of teaching a mural workshop at LaSalle College of Arts in Singapore, which was organized by the Italian Culture Institute of Singapore, she and photographer Jessica Stewart traveled around Indonesia and Vietnam, “to get some new inspiration and escape a bit to a totally new environment,” says Stewart.

They say it was a very different from their experiences in Europe and North America and yet Pasquini says her search for subcultures that resemble the Street Art and Urban Art environment of the more Western variety. “I was in need of new inspiration,” says Alice, and “what I saw was amazement and admiration for urban art and I was able to encounter growing subcultures”.

Special thanks to Ms. Stewart for sharing these exclusive images of the trip with BSA readers.

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Gaia Is In Rome – Studies Architecture, Palazzos, Clouds

November 11, 2013 Artists

GAIA, il piccone demolitore e risanatore

Here is a new piece from Street Artist Gaia in Rome, where he is studying again the built environment and it’s historical and cultural ramifications, then interpreting through painting in the public sphere.

He says his new wall painting is inspired by Girgio De Chirico and represents the relationship between identity and function in the process that a city uses when building. While in town and working with the 999Contemporary gallery, he cleverly draws a connection between historical Italian architecture and “The Cloud” by architect Massimiliano Fuksas that is currently in formation. Rotten bananas? Check. Undisturbed local throwies next to and beneath his mural? Check.

brooklyn-street-art-gaia-the-blind-eye-factory-rome-10-13-web-2

Curated by 999Contemporary

Supported by OIKOS, ENI, Pescerosso, Municipio Roma VIII

Supervision: Gianluca Marziani

Project Management: Francesca Mezzano

Public Management: Dario Marcucci

Photo/Video: The Blind Eye Factory

http://www.blindeyefactory.com

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Images Of The Week: 11.10.13

November 10, 2013 Artists

Dang, this city is full of a lot of energy and the streets are showing a new-found enthusiasm for art in the public sphere since getting goosed by _____________ (we can’t say that name one more time). And we have a new mayor, by the way, straight outta Brooklyn, yo. And he’s not a billionaire for the first time in 12 years and his family looks just like New York.

So here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D. White, Chuck Berrett, Cost, Hellbent, Hot Tea, Icy & Sot, Marko93, MOR, Mr. Toll, Myth, NM Salgar, Rambo, Smart Crew, The Lurkers, and Vicki DaSilva.

You wonder how the above image was accomplished? Check out this interview with the artist Vicki DaSilva, who has loved graffiti for decades and has found a way to express her appreciation for art and activism in the public sphere using her own unique approach.

“Don’t Look At Me” Herakut Tonight In San Francisco

November 9, 2013 Artists

Hey, don’t look at me. I have no idea where the game console is. I have no idea how the cookie jar got empty so fast. I have no idea how those muddy footprints across the carpet got there. Don’t look at me.

But you can look at this! German street art/fine art duo Herakut have a new show opening tonight in San Francisco and you get an exclusive look at the preparations. A tenuous and lyrical study in duality, the two work with each other in the moment to create most of their work, a photorealistic and gestural dance that parries and plunges with darkness and humor and poetry.

“Don’t Look At Me” features one of the largest canvasses they have done so far, measuring 6’ by 10’, and it will be suspended from the ceiling and providing a powerful focal point for the Shooting Gallery.

Special thanks to photographer Derek Macario for sharing these exclusive images with BSA readers.

“Don’t Look At Me” Opens tonight at the Shooting Gallery in San Francisco, CA. Click HERE for more details.

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