November 2013

BSA Film Friday: 11.08.13

November 8, 2013 Artists

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

Now screening:
1. José Parlá: Nature Of Language
2. Eno and Shida in New Zealand
3. The Hours present “Neon Golden” in Hong Kong
4. Element Tree / Art Primo: For The City By The City

BSA Special Feature:
José Parlá: Nature Of Language

A great new video of José Parlá as he creates a site-specific mural for a modern library in North Carolina. You can get a real sense of the gestural mark making process as well as his thoughts and intentions while building this wall full of character.

Here is a brief description directly from the artist “Although illegible at first sight, the juxtaposed characters, gestures, hieroglyphs, and words become readable through feeling, as it is my hope that the work evokes the language of your own inner voice – of your own history. In an era when technology is taking over as the driving force of communication, art reminds us of our roots and our need for face-to-face communication. This Nature is our mirror, as art allows this bridge to be possible through the language of calligraphy, I pay homage to this Nature and the history of languages, which are the mirrors of our present condition.”

Eno and Shida in New Zealand

Using only rollers and brushes these two fellas from the north island of New Zealand show off a quick collection of their recent murals together behind a soundtrack by Whanganui local music celeb Jack Michell-Anyon. Choice, bro!

The Hours present “Neon Golden” in Hong Kong

An unusual visitors diary of a group trip to Hong Kong, via the streets and the tunnels and the gallery. In September the Australian based creative group The Hours had a show at Above Second Gallery in Hong Kong’s Central and Western District entitled ‘Neon Golden’. With peeps from graffiti, street art, and the contemporary art world, the video shows a coalescing of interests and skills and a few thrill-seeking scenes like being suspended from the roof and relying on a harness to paint. Aside from the painting scenes the video provides an open window into modern day Hong Kong – full of cranes and high rises and traffic and character.

From the Vimeo page, the artists included are Fintan Magee, Shida, Rone, Kyle Hughes-Odgers, Beastman, Yok, Sheryo, Numskull, Vans The Omega, Roach, Phibs, Twoone, Jumbo and Thomas Jackson.

Element Tree / Art Primo: For The City By The City

Featured artists DISTORT, MR MUSTART and THEN ONE

“Three the Hard Way” Sneak Peek with Kofie, Bruno, and Inscoe

November 7, 2013 Artists

Traditional letterforms are melting and straightening and refracting and layering and abstracting and slicing into geometric forms tonight in Portland Oregon as “Three The Hard Way” opens with men who came up through graffiti and embraced a new enthusiasm for this modern visual vocabulary.

Hard in this case doesn’t refer to their individual dispositions but it may refer to the amount of effort and skill they each have put into building a body of work, and a point of view. Naturally it also name-checks Hard-Edge painting and the surety and confidence you have to have to make choices in your art.

Augustine Kofie for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

So here you are, some fresh images of some of the new works on display tonight by Augustine Kofie, Jerry Joker Inscoe, Christopher Derek Bruno, three artists whose large scale works on the street have taken different directions over the last decades but now all have led to this one place.

Lucky folk in Portland will meet all three if they go tonight. Congratulations to the curator who possesses an architectural sensibility, Sven Davis, for creating this sharp focus on dimension, form, composition, and space. This trio smartly soars.

Augustine Kofie for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Christopher Derek Bruno for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Jerry Joker Inscoe for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Breeze Block Gallery presents:
Three The Hard Way: Augustine Kofie / Jerry Joker Inscoe / Christopher Derek Bruno

Three-person exhibition curated by Sven Davis

Breeze Block Gallery
Portland OR.

November 7 – 30, 2013

<<>>><><<>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

Street Art Tile “Invasion” of New York Cut Short

November 6, 2013 Artists, Interview

An internationally known European Street Artist had a “residency” in NYC last month before being arrested on the street by police last week.

Invader, the French Street Artist who takes his shortened moniker from the 1970s video game Space Invaders, had just debuted his new 25-minute mini-documentary the night before at a Lower Manhattan theater and was flying high on its success when he was nabbed for gluing a tiled mosaic onto a wall. That marked the sudden end of his residency, which he prefers to call an “invasion”.

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A veteran of the global Street Art scene over the last decade and a half, his signature porcelain works inspired by the 8-bit graphics of the early video games have been spread throughout cities worldwide. When we spoke to him two years ago in LA where he put pieces into the “Art in the Streets” museum exhibition, he was planning to place 1,000 of his tiled characters all over Paris, an exhausting experiment that he completed and celebrated with a gallery show entitled “1000”.

Since then he has recreated everything from digitized versions of the Pink Panther, the Union Jack, and Darth Vader. He’s even created a series of iconic album covers by the Clash, Velvet Underground and Nirvana using only Rubik’s cubes.

His new movie, “Art4Space”, which was screened for free two times for New Yorkers who can’t get enough of his retro-simplicity and thrill seeking, showed him sending one of his invaders literally into space. Viewers get to see him planning and constructing a complicated weather balloon he names “Space-One,” and launch it into the atmosphere. When it falls back to earth the recorded video is recovered and you have an opportunity to now see the little character’s own space odyssey.

Here are images shot by photographer Jaime Rojo of recent work by Invader and a brief email interview with the artist to see what inspired them and if he is still into video games.

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you discover a new cache of vintage video games for the new collection of the characters that you recently put up in NYC?
Invader: No, I have always been inspired by all kind of vintage video games. What is new for this wave of Invasion is that I end up drawing/creating some of the characters like the Snow White and the R2D2.

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Video Games have changed into a very sophisticated multi-billion-dollar industry. Do you watch or play the new video games and do you think you could get inspiration from them for your art?
Invader: I have no game consoles and I have no time to play videogames. My game takes place outside with tiles and cement. Nevertheless, I like to play simple games on my phone. It could become a source of inspiration of course.

Brooklyn Street Art: Because of the digitized effect of the tiles when they simplify complex detail, is it difficult to convey an image sometimes?
Invader: Yes it is always complicated to simplify!

Brooklyn Street Art: When aliens discover one of your pieces floating in space will they consider it art or graffiti?
Invader: But graffiti is art, isn’t it?

Invader’s version of Snow White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This New York based Street Artist named London Kaye works with yarn and was inspired by Invader’s piece above to crochet an homage to him on the street. “The reason I like recreating Space Invaders’ work is because it is simply symmetrical colored squares that make beautiful art. Space Invader is influential because of the sheer space and territory that has been marked with beautiful mosaic art. The simple and classic design is timeless, ” says Kaye. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A collaboration with Invader and Cost and ENX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Nanook and Overunder Saw a Building in Half in Reno

November 5, 2013 Artists

For those who were perplexed by the title of ‘residency’ in Banksy’s recent visit to New York, lets just say it was rather tongue-in-cheek to call it that. Artists have been applying for and getting residencies for many years from benefactors of one sort or another – institutions and individuals offering opportunities for artists to come and create with variables of lodging, materials, and length of stay all tied to the mission of the residency and the resources available.

brooklyn-street-art-nanook-overunder-reno-10-13-web-6

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Street Artist and fine artist Overunder has hosted his own artists residency for a couple of years since leaving Brooklyn for Reno, Nevada called the Big Little Residency. Focused on social practices through public works of art, the residency is one week to one month long and he has had a few artists come out to live in the little cabin he built out back.

Yesterday Nanook finished his visit and today we bring you some images of the site-specific collaborative wheat pastes, paintings, and installations he completed which include a large wooden handled saw that cuts a building in half. The whimsical element is not entirely to be coy, but to re-frame our perspective on size and scale, a recurring visual feature of certain works by Nanook. Given the shrinking economic expectations of many Americans for the forthcoming generations, this sizing down of the dream also feels like an apt metaphor for our growing serfdom.

So enjoy the collaborative intervention with latex paint and wood entitled “Do You See What I Saw”, as well as some other pieces of public art Nanook completed with Overunder within the Truckee Meadows in this part of Nevada.

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

brooklyn-street-art-nanook-overunder-reno-10-13-web-2

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

brooklyn-street-art-nanook-overunder-reno-10-13-web-3

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

brooklyn-street-art-nanook-overunder-reno-10-13-web-1

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

brooklyn-street-art-nanook-overunder-reno-10-13-web-9

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

brooklyn-street-art-nanook-overunder-reno-10-13-web-14

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Abandoned railroad tunnel with Donner Lake and the Sierra Mountains seen in the distance. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

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

BSA on PBS to Talk About the Current Street Art Scene

November 4, 2013 Artists

We recently had the honor of being on the PBS Newshour series with reporter Tracy Wholf, who we toured around New York City with to check out new work on the streets and to put it in perspective for viewers who have been bombarded with Banksy news lately. Here is a video of the four minute story aired nationally Sunday on PBS and a link to the slideshow survey of images by Jaime Rojo on the PBS website.

Our special thanks to Tracy and her team – it was a total pleasure to hang out and work with you.

Check out the screen show here:

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.03.13

November 3, 2013 Artists

Banksy. His last piece in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Alone In Cell with Banksy Thieves and Car Jumper

No, you can’t make stories like this up. Sounds like a tabloid story right?

Many had just photographed the two twenty-somethings as they scaled a ladder to cut down Banksy’s final installment of his New York “residency” in front of a growing audience of hecklers and fans underneath. Now the photographer, reporter and co-founder of Brooklyn Street Art Jaime Rojo found himself freed from his handcuffs (and shoelaces) to sit in a Queens jail cell on Halloween with the very talkative and nervous young guys who were discussing how their plan hadn’t panned out.

Only one day after BSA published “Banksy’s Final Trick” here and the Huffington Post, the enigmatic British Street Artist kicked in just one more treat for NYC in a plastic candy wrapper spelling out his moniker like a stylized throw-up, and Rojo was privy to more bon mots than he had planned.

Surprisingly, the art sites that had been breathlessly “covering” the events blow-by-blow somehow blew this story as the well known ubiquitous Street Art photographer and author was apprehended by police under their noses – taken by the arm as he photographed the bundle of Banksy balloons being stuffed into the back of their official van.

Luckily the mix-up was swiftly cleared as a case of mistaken identity that the chief lieutenant confirmed when he poked his head in the police car to look at Rojo and told the officer “You have the wrong man”. Apparently somebody had jumped on top of a car and damaged it while the accused thieves were yanking Banksy and the crowd swelled below, and the auto acrobat had worn a cap similar to Rojos. Moments after it was clear they had the wrong guy, the presumed right guy landed on the back seat next to Rojo.

Two hours later at the precinct, our photog was freed by the fairly friendly officers and he walked back to the now-deserted Queens site and hopped on his bike to continue looking for new stuff to photograph – but not before sitting in a cell with the accused Street Art thieves and an assumed car jumper while Banksy’s last October surprise slowly deflated into a curious pile of expensive plastic.

31 days of mischief went by and this anonymous Street Artist had mounted a full-scale multi-part series of installations in the public sphere and presumably has now left town. Meanwhile they’re saying the French artist Invader got popped the night before Banksy’s last balloon tag showed up. His new tiled characters started appearing on Manhattan’s Lower East Side just this week. You can read more about it here.

Aside from that, not much excitement happened here on the Street Art scene.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Banksy, Cost, ENX, Invader, Mika and Swoon.

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy. SOLD! $615,000. Banksy purchased the painting on display at the Housing Works Thrift Shop in Manhattan while here for the ‘residency’. After painting the figure sitting on the bench and returning to Housing Works it sold for this incredible price – with all the proceeds going to help people living with AIDS/HIV. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NOT Banksy. Artist Unknown. This piece appeared on the last day of Banksy’s NYC Residency. His official page is not claiming authorship of it. But we’re going to wager a slice of pizza that his is his too. Let’s see what happens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Goodbye Lou and Thank You

November 2, 2013 Artists

A small tribute and thank you and good bye to pure New Yorker Lou Reed, who passed away this week.

If anyone catalyzed and captured and relayed a moment in the underground art and music scene, it was him, especially in the 1960s and 1970s. In the last few days there were so many great tributes to this guy, and even though we knew he had been ill, it was hard news to learn of our loss. Our condolences and thoughts are with his partner and friends and family.

Without falling into clichés and overstretching our abilities to describe how important his music, his energy, his attitude, his person was, we’ll just say that for more many a lost kid who felt like they were living in the margins Lou was a one of the powerful magnets drawing us to big gritty New York City to be ourselves, together.

Thank you Lou.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Gus-Cutty-Lords-Crew-blue-reed

Here is a tribute wall completed this week by Gus Gutty of the Lords Crew in Asheville, North Carolina, painted with aerosol freehand. “Lou Reed was one of my all time favorite song writers,” says Gus. (photo © Gus Cutty)

BSA Film Friday 11.01.13

November 1, 2013 Artists

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

Now screening:
1. ICY & SOT Double Header
2.”Wish” by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerarda
3. Buenos Aires Street Art Part 1 & 2
4. The Lurkers in NYC

BSA Special Feature: ICY & SOT Double Header

Two Brand New Videos from the Street Art Bros Who Are Not Twins

Iranian brothers and Street Artists Icy & Sot have been painting and observing a great deal about New York since moving to Brooklyn a couple of years ago. You may remember that BSA was one of the first to interview them as they prepared for their first show in New York and they were getting acclimated to the streets here. We’ve been able to see the work evolve and the artists discovery the city and the people here in their process and it is gratifying to watch.

Today we have two brand new videos of Icy and Sot to present on BSA Film Friday – one about them and one by them.

First, let’s see New York through the eyes of the artists themselves as they take in the mechanized and sometimes callous quality of the buzzing street life in New York. With rather poignant storytelling, the brothers focus on the ability of the brutal crowd to rush by and overlook the guy in the margins. As immigrants in this city of immigrants and this nation of immigrants it is not surprising that they know how to poetically depict the utter aloneness of being in currents of an ocean.

Icy and Sot by Dan Perez Films

“Wish” by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerarda

“For the 2013 Ulster Bank Belfast International Festival at Queen’s, Cuban-American Artist, Jorge Rodríguez-Gerada, has created WISH, a portrait of an anonymous local girl photographed by the artist in the process of making a pure and simple wish for the future. Spanning an 11 acre site in Belfast’s Titanic Quarter, the photographic image of this girl – made of topsoil, sand, grass and stones – can be seen from various locations around Belfast. This innovative public artwork pushes boundaries and uses cutting edge technologies, making it one of the most ambitious land art projects in the world.”

– from the official press release.

Buenos Aires Street Art Part 1

A bit of insight into the Buenos Aires scene, the heavy influence of murals now in some cities and the state of commercialism and television where it intersects with it all. (via CosmoArteTV)

Buenos Aires Street Art Part 2.

The Lurkers in NYC

Who knew? The Lurkers were here in the BK and nobody even told us! Figures. They only hang out with rich kids and models, two of New York’s primary crops these days. Nice zen-like Fischerspooner early 2000s inflected soundtrack for the slow-mo, bro.

Barcelona Tributes for The Amazing SKE
April 18, 2024
Today, we pay tribute to an iconic figure from the Puerto Rican graffiti scene, Eliezer “SKE” Pagán Torres. Born on …Read More »
Elfo Declares “I’m a Figurative Painter”… and I’m the Queen of England!
April 16, 2024
Elfo, the ever-witty Italian street artist, strikes again with his latest work scrawled across an abandoned building in Italy. Known …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.14.24 / “Return2Burn” in Hunts Point, Bronx
April 14, 2024
Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week. We decided to dedicate this weekly survey to the artists of “Return 2 …Read More »
Martha Cooper and Seth in Kibera. Kenya: Part 2 / “We Are One”
April 11, 2024
Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »
“Tiempos Muertos”. Idle Time With Isaac Cordal in Madrid
April 9, 2024
“Idle Time has become that free moment we have between one task and another in the production process. Productive inertia …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 07.07.24
April 7, 2024
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! To BSA’s Muslim brothers and sisters, we hope your Ramadan has been fulfilling …Read More »
Murals, Art, Childhood, and Community in Lwala: Martha Cooper and Seth in Kenya: Part 1
April 4, 2024
In the heart of Lwala, Kenya, a place where the warmth of the sun is matched only by the warmth …Read More »

BSA Special Feature: José Parlá: Nature Of Language

Eno and Shida in New Zealand

The Hours present “Neon Golden” in Hong Kong

Element Tree / Art Primo: For The City By The City

Augustine Kofie for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Christopher Derek Bruno for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Jerry Joker Inscoe for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Jerry Joker Inscoe for “Three The Hard Way” (image courtesy and © Breeze Block Gallery)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s version of Snow White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A collaboration with Invader and Cost and ENX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Detail. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Nanook . Overunder. Big Little Residency. Abandoned railroad tunnel with Donner Lake and the Sierra Mountains seen in the distance. Reno, Nevada 2013. (photo © Overunder)

Banksy. His last piece in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Alone In Cell with Banksy Thieves and Car Jumper

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NOT Banksy. Artist Unknown. This piece appeared on the last day of Banksy’s NYC Residency. His official page is not claiming authorship of it. But we’re going to wager a slice of pizza that his is his too. Let’s see what happens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mika (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mika (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader and the Ho Ho Florist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader . Cost . ENX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist who wishes to remain anonymous. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Queens, NY. October 2013. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Special Feature: ICY & SOT Double Header

Icy and Sot by Dan Perez Films

“Wish” by Jorge Rodriguez-Gerarda

Buenos Aires Street Art Part 1

Buenos Aires Street Art Part 2.

The Lurkers in NYC

Featured Video | “Bronxlandia” Emerges

Recent Articles on BSA

Enjoy BSA? Please tell your friends :)

Sign up for the BSA Newsletter !

Enter your email address for insight, photography, reviews and news directly in your inbox.

BSA Special Feature:
José Parlá: Nature Of Language