April 2014

BSA FILM FRIDAY: 04.18.14

April 18, 2014 Artists

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

A sort of quiet day for much of Latin America today as it is Good Friday and many observe it, also many are reflecting on the passing of writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez yesterday. Colombia has declared three days of national mourning for this literary giant; Truly he was a storyteller globally known and celebrated. His magical realism was filled with humor and metaphor, taking it just one step further.

Muralists and painters have relied upon this third eye to transcend the mere mundanity of daily existence as well, and we meditate today on the gifts of creativity that everyone can access to discover at least a little magic in life. Each one of these videos in some way make us think of Garcia Marquez and his legacy to us as a master storyteller.

Now screening :

1. David De La Mano at Memorie Urbane
2. Vero Rivera On a Doorway in Santurce
3. Vexta: Life / Death / Life in Mexico City

BSA Special Feature: David De La Mano at Memorie Urbane

Shot by The Blind Eye Factory, this small personal interlude is the first of two videos showing the small brush painting style of muralists. David De La Mano is creating here an interconnected world of fantasy with silhouettes at the Memorie Urbane Festival currently happening in Gaeta, Italy.

Vero Rivera On a Doorway in Santurce

Tost Films celebrates their first year with this six day installation with one artist, Vero Rivera and one small brush on one portal. Where it leads we do not know.

Vexta: Life / Death / Life

In a country known for its love of magic realism, and the home of Gabriel Garcia Marquez for three decades, Vexta contemplates the cycle of life and death and life in Mexico City.

Martin Whatson, David De La Mano, Pablo Herrero and E1000 at Memorie Urbane Festival 2014

April 17, 2014 Artists

Memorie Urbane Festival 2014 in Gaeta, Italy is in full swing. Begun principally as a way to promote tourism by David Rossillo, the mural festival is carefully curated to recognize the common history, traditions and the natural landscape of Gaeta and Terracina rather than simply promoting an international roster of Street Artists. Loosely translated as “urban memories” the site specific installations are meant to recall how the memory of a place is an essential starting point for what evolves from it; a dialogue between past and present, between art and public spaces.

Photographers Lorenzo Gallitto and Giorgio Base of Blind Eye Factory are documenting the works as they are going up and here share their photos with BSA readers for our global audience to enjoy.

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

David De La Mano. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

The thoughtful and careful work of David De La Mano for Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

David De La Mano for Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

Click HERE for more news and details on Memorie Urbane Festival

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El Sol 25, an Original Mix Master and Street Collagist

April 16, 2014 Artists

Like spinning multiple vinyl platters at 78, 45, and 33 RPMs on old beige school library record players, this is a low-fi mixmaster whose visual style stands singularly, compelling and jarring. You have just bumped into a new El Sol 25 on the street.

Digging through the reference bin of your art history and popular culture signatures, you may want to decode where this compositional collision evolves from. Picking the pieces apart there appears to be little in common with the classical, the folk, the agrarian, the Egyptian tunics, the Greek marble, Sioux head dresses, sports trading cards, Depression Era glass, gilt frames and 50s TV depictions of svelte domesticity.

Perhaps it is the painted technique that lifts them to a common vernacular, creating an amber nostalgia for a time that never existed in the collaged paintings from Street Artist El Sol 25. Like crocuses and tulips they have recently appeared plastered around Brooklyn in a new spring campaign and while you never know when he’s coming, you sure know when he’s arrived.

El Sol 25. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

After wading through stacks of books and magazines, cutting and pasting limbs and feathers and tobacco leaves and intersex torsos together, he then paints enlarged versions of them by hand on butcher paper. He’s said that they speak to him, and so do the walls and doorways where they are pasted, and we have no reason to doubt it.

While we draw up short of saying we are fans to maintain an air of professionalism, he did rather tip the scale this time when we discovered that he painted a tribute to BSA on a popular spot in BK, and we’re sort of embarrassed — but of course we’ve already taken multiple selfies in front of it so clearly not that embarrassed. So there’s that. Even so, if the work had not been so consistently risk-taking and experimental and authentic in a pool of copycats, El Sol 25’s work would not have caught our eye and kept it.

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

He once told us in an interview that his inspiration comes from a multitude of sources, “I get my inspiration from everything from walking to work or bad music or bad films or great films or good days or bad days. I get my inspiration from everything. I’m dependent on my work spiritually so I really like the idea of incorporating anything and everything into it. I take inspiration not just from what I’ve put on a pedestal – I enjoy everything.”

So for the gluttonous visual omnivores that are continuously pawing through images on your phone looking for a new sugar rush, this is your man. Because these are one-of-a-kind, labor intensive paintings on paper that decay in the wind and rain, catch them while you can. His pieces don’t usually get tagged over but the shelf life is probably a year at most.

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25. His tribute to BSA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Prime Nipple and Faring Purth in St. Louis

April 15, 2014 Artists

As you pull yourself away from looking at the latest Kardashian thong photo shoot in Thailand, allow us to redirect you to the supremely offensive painted mural that features the outline of a nipple – right next to the “Nails 2000” sign in a St. Louis parking lot. Perhaps the dollar store has a nipple cover we could purchase? Should we create a Kickstarter?

Artist Faring Purth has again provoked the public discourse with her painting, and we’ll let her tell you in her own words below about the outrage caused by her stylized female figure and its comportment.

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Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Presumably those so offended have also a lawsuit against the City of St. Louis for the horribly offensive titillation of La Rivière by Aristide Maillol – especially her wanton position as she spreads herself across the calm reflective pool by the café in Citygarden. And what about the chopped off woman’s head lying on its side, which this kid seems to have his hands up the nose of?

Listen, we all know about family values, since many of us have families – including the folks who shop at Family Dollar and rent movies at the kiosks there, where the covers of DVDs espouse a healthier image of women in a more wholesome respectful way than this mural, such as the fish net wearing gun toting teens of “Suckerpunch” and the pants-free fetal position of the actress on the cover of “Chained”. Obviously this is the case of an outside artist painting with callous insensitivity and disregard for context and norms of a community.

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

As she talks about her new painting, Faring says, “It’s been an experience to say the least. Unlike anything I could have expected.”

She writes below:

When I landed in St. Louis, I was quickly put in contact with Jason Deem, a very ambitious and soulful caretaker to many abandoned properties in the South End of the city. We became fast friends & I went on to create and complete “Prime” on the side of one of his buildings, in the growing Cherokee Art District.

“Prime” caught the attention of the community and local press very quickly. There was unexpected criticism of the vulnerable position of her silhouette and the color of her base coat began a rather shocking conversation of the racist and sexist connotations a few locals interpreted her as bearing. That was very quickly followed by legal threats made by Family Dollar towards Deem’s company, South Side Spaces, based on the mural’s inclusion of a nipple – or rather, the outline of a nipple. It was an outline they claimed was deterring costumers from their business.

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

The ongoing conversation I have faced recently, regarding female nudity in my work, continues to surprise me. Here I have become, “a controversial artist,” without any intent or desire… whispering “keep soul” while trying my best to stay out of sight.

I’m continuing to take it all in though, as an ongoing story; Acknowledging and reflecting upon how powerful the female form has become (when expressed in public art) in contrast to highly sexualized, scantily clad, women in nationally broadcasted commercials. We are, after all, working within the American culture, where one can still be so desensitized to the soul resting within and reflecting through, our naked skin, nipples and all.

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

I’m relieved to say that the gratitude and breathlessness of the locals (The murals’ actual audience,) however, greatly outweighed this. The Cherokee community has welcomed me with open arms which has been quite shocking to my system. The experience, overall, has been enlightening, heart-warming, and profoundly touching. We have undoubtably found ourselves in a city eager, hungry, and ready for a dialogue on public expression & the power of contemporary street art; One that I am proud to continue to build upon with the help of a few others.

~Faring Purth

A shot of the wall before the art went up. St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Faring Purth “Prime” on the back ground with Jason Deem on top of the truck. St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Jason Deem)

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Here are two items from The River Front Times about the before and after commentary while “Prime” was painted.

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/02/artist_faring_purth_cherokee_mural_nebula.php

http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2014/03/photos_faring_purths_monumenta.php

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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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Join BSA @Brooklynmuseum with SWOON April 24th (Open Late!)

April 14, 2014 Artists

| #BSAatBKM | @BKStreetArt | @Brooklynmuseum |

In Conversation: Brooklyn Street Art

Hello BSA Readers!

We’d like to invite you to join us at the Brooklyn Museum for “Street Art Stories”,
a presentation and conversation with Swoon on April 24th.
It’s going to be a scintillating, entertaining and fun night
and the museum is staying open late for us so you can see
the brand new Swoon: Submerged Motherlands installation
in person with other BSA friends and fans.

We look forward to meeting you there!

Along with Swoon we are excited to welcome as our guests photographer and graffiti/street art enthusiast Luna Park and curator Keith Schweitzer, who will lend us some of their expertise and insights for our “Street Art Stories” theme. We are honored that our event will be moderated by none other than Sharon Matt Atkins, the Managing Curator of Exhibitions at The Brooklyn Museum and the curator of Swoon: Submerged Motherlands.

The reception will be regaled with the eclectically funky musical stylings of DJ Sleptember!

In Conversation: Brooklyn Street Art, April 24th

Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington,
Brooklyn Street Art Founders

On Thursday, April 24 at 7 p.m. the Brooklyn Museum presents

In Conversation: Brooklyn Street Art. Brooklyn Street Art founders Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo lead a dynamic, multimedia conversation that explores the evolution of street art stories as told by the earliest graffiti writers to today’s D.I.Y. artists. They’ll reveal secret backgrounds, show what stylistic themes are recurring today, and hint at the future of street art in New York.

They are joined in conversation by artists Swoon and Luna Park, and curator Keith Schweitzer.

A reception with a DJ, cash bar, and a guest-inclusive art-making project will follow. Presented in conjunction with the site-specific installation Swoon: Submerged Motherlands, on view from April 11 to August 24 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery on the 5th Floor.

Tickets are $12; include Museum general admission and can be purchased at www.museumtix.com. Free for Museum Members; to reserve please email membership@brooklynmuseum.org.

About the participants

Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo are the Founders of the influential art blog BrooklynStreetArt.com. Proud New Yorkers, artists, and cultural workers for more than twenty-five years, both are experts on the evolving street art scene in New York as well as globally. With daily postings on Brooklyn Street Art (BSA), over 175 articles on The Huffington Post, and tens of thousands of followers on social media, the two have shown and discussed street art, graffiti, murals, and public art in more than 100 cities over the last few years.

Swoon, born Caledonia Dance Curry, currently has an exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, Swoon: Submerged Motherlands. Swoon studied at the Pratt Institute, Brooklyn before bringing her art to the streets in 1999, wheat pasting her large linoleum and woodcuts on the sides of industrial buildings in Brooklyn and Manhattan. Her art is in the collections of the Brooklyn Museum, Museum of Modern Art, and Tate Modern, among others.

Katherine Lorimer (aka Luna Park) is a Brooklyn-based graffiti and street art enthusiast, photographer, curator, librarian, and co-founder and regular contributor to The Street Spot blog. Her photographs have been exhibited in New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago and have appeared in leading street art books and magazines.

Keith Schweitzer is the Co-Founder/Director of MaNY Project (Murals Around New York) and the Co-Founder/Director of The Lodge Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He is also Director of Public Art for Fourth Arts Block, the non-profit leadership organization for Manhattan’s officially designated Cultural District in the East Village.

GENERAL INFORMATION

Admission:

Contribution $12; students with valid I.D. and seniors $8. Free to members and children under 12 accompanied by an adult. Group tours or visits must be arranged in advance by calling extension 234.

Directions:

Subway: Seventh Avenue express (2 or 3) to Eastern Parkway/Brooklyn Museum stop; Lexington Avenue express (4 or 5) to Nevins Street, cross platform and transfer to the 2 or 3. Bus: B41, B69, B48.

On-site parking available.

Museum Hours:

Wednesday and Friday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Thursday, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Saturday and Sunday, 11 a.m. to 6 p.m.; first Saturday of each month, 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Closed Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Year’s Day.

200 Eastern Pkwy, New York, NY 11238

From BSA: “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands”, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Museum

Images of the Week: 04.13.14

April 13, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Street Artists have been exhibited in museums before so Swoon’s “Submerged Motherlands” doesn’t break ground because of its presence inside a grand institution, even if said institution also holds one of the largest collections of Egyptian art, and is also hosting the largest US exhibition of Ai Weiwei next week, for example.

What surprised us most this week as the Brooklyn Museum threw open its doors to a seven story installation that includes a tree, a gazebo, and two boats that sailed the Adriatic was the rapid rate that this artist has gone from running the streets under cover of night of Brooklyn plastering her linotypes to being invited inside to spray the walls of the Brooklyn Museum with a fire extinguisher. The total time elapsed between her first hand cut paper wheat paste on tattered walls and Friday’s opening was a decade and a half. That is noteworthy in itself, and worthy of someone’s exhaustive examination, but suffice to say that you have to have vision and commitment to pull this off.

Here are new images from the exhibit along with our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Cost, Elbow-Toe, London Kaye, Myth, Nick Walker, Paul Richard, Swoon, and Tava.

Top Image >> Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read our interview with the artist this week – “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands”, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Museum.

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe goes over himself and he feels a bit nostalgic. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker. Dona Isabel is a member of the undead. She is coming home after a night of blood hunting on the LES. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. A new tribute to SAMO and Andy Warhol. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye calling it right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Have You Seen Me? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Richard. Discuss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tava (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Her face carried some unseen burden as she swallowed down her shot and our eyes connected from across the room,” Eduardo Jones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lord have mercy. COST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. Save the bees peeps! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Winter 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skount and Kera on a Wall and a Train in Germany

April 12, 2014 Artists

Skount has been experimenting with abstract patterns in some of his new work, especially this new wall with his bro Kera in Berlin. The attraction of abstraction continues to appear in Street Art and murals, and our theory today for its resurgence is that it is an unconscious way of assembling the multiple media/entertainment streams that we are bombarded with today and imposing some order on the chaos.

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Skount . Kera. Detail. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

In addition to this new wall the guys had an opportunity that most street artist/ writers would jump on if given the chance – a whole train car in Jena. A modern urban archetype of near mythic proportions, hitting up a train is immortalized in many artists minds as a symbol of the earliest days of graffiti, even if the car is out of commission. These two friends took it and gave it their best shot.

Skount . Kera. Detail. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Detail. Jena, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

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BSA Film Friday: 04.11.14

April 11, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. URBAN ART 2014 on Auction
2. Building Detroit – Revok, Nekst, Pose
3. Sheryo and Yok in Indonesia
4. Coachella Walls: Date Farmers by Medvin Sobio
5. Spaik and Libre. Mexico City 2014

BSA Special Feature: URBAN ART 2014 on Auction with Artcuriel

A film by Jérémy Jaoui

This is what it looks like now; a powerful visual documentation and summary of one plainly commercial aspect of this moment in the evolution of graffiti art/ Street Art/ urban art – and its collectability with a growing global artworld fan base. The video follows Artcuriel and it’s personable auctioneer Arnaud Oliveux as the crowd gathers and clinks glasses, listens to speeches, views live art-making and inspects a collection of fine art created by graffiti and Street Artists which will soon be auctioned.

As one observer notes while thumbing through the show catalog “Urban Art is becoming something real!” Now the vulgar rap lyrics that describe sexual acts to a beat which accompanied the visuals of the artists in the gallery are replaced with rarefied classical strings and no percussion when we enter the auction room where commerce takes place.

Excitement in the packed house is palpable and the auctioneer is the entertaining and electrified ringmaster, with poised assistants tensely perched on the telephone with international bidders.

“With an artist like LUDO, Arnauld is being very avant-garde,” says a knowledgeable admirer while we see the piece reach a record price to applause and pieces are placed on the mantel by men in white gloves. “Urban Art is now happening as we wanted it to,” says Monsieur Oliveux to us from his desk.

Well edited and skillfully presented, the film by Jaoui Jérémy gives you a rare glimpse into a world far removed from the street yet inextricably tied to it – where one time vandals become art stars, collectible artists, performers and celebrity endorsers. It’s your call whether it is a celebration or an indictment, and perspectives will vary according to where you sit, but here the elements are all on parade before your eyes and presented in a passionate way.

Building Detroit – Revok, Nekst, Pose

The graffiti and Street Art scene in abandoned Detroit is “thriving like I don’t think we’ve seen in the US for quite some time,” observes artist Pose, one of the few writers/artists who is straddling the street and commercial gallery world. “When you leave something and don’t care about it, we come here.” It’s a rallying cry for painters, a cautionary statement for authorities that encapsulates one of the primary dynamics of the graffiti/street art/public art scene.

But then Pose offers an additional sentiment that gets missed in these often simplified arguments. “We care about it, we’ll paint it all day.”

From MOCA in LA to MOCAD here, where both Revok and Pose have created large scale works, the institutional recognition of the contribution of the art form is remarkable. Simultaneously the freewill act of it a few blocks away from the museum has greater implications from a legal aspect.

Oh no! Complexity to contemplate.

Sheryo and Yok in Indonesia

“Sheryo and The Yok go to Indonesia to learn batik and sculpture” says their description but we think they may already know a thing or two about both. Here they are line illustrating with hot wax, adding a third dimension in clay to characters with phallus noses, and hitting up random walls throughout the city and on the beach with aerosol. Like any good guests, they make sure to credit their hosts here, which is real nice. Oh yes, and there’s a gallery show at Turner Gallery in Purth March 21 – mentioned at the very end.

Coachella Walls: Date Farmers by Medvin Sobio

Hey man, ¿Qué haces? For this Coachella street-art-related event the dude Medvin Sobio is setting the scene again with unscripted social outtakes and interactions are positioned as the main story – and he is framing it with this jukebox music. Yes, this is where The Eagles are national treasures, Marvin Gaye is a nice reminder of a time when singing about the environment could still get airplay, and MJ is always a party starter. Errrbuddy get up!

Spaik and Libre. Mexico City 2014

Part of a commercial gig for a traveling corporate electronic dance music festival, Spaik and Libre knock out a colorful wall while participants pile onto the big lot in DF for the multi-screen festivities.

Hot Pink Flamingos in Miami with Ives One

April 10, 2014 Artists

Pink Flamingos are known as lawn ornaments, a ladies drink, and of course the classic John Waters movie. Pink Flamingos is also the name of a drag show down the strip from the 2 star hotel you flopped in last time you went gambling were out of town on business.

Amsterdam based Ives One was splashing and splattering and dripping his way through some Miami walls last week and rendered a few of the iconic feathered friends as long as the sun was shining. Wait, the sun is always shining there, isn’t it?

Ives One (photo © Pati Laylle)

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“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands”, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn Museum

April 9, 2014 Artists, Interview

Six years ago these boats of salvaged materials were floating down the Hudson, teaming with twenty-something sea-worthy souls and bohemian performers in costume aiming for the dock at Deitch Studios. This week they are beached up against the base of a massive seven story soft sculpture tree for the opening of Swoon: Submerged Motherlands at the Brooklyn Museum. In between these events each vessel has travelled down the Mississippi River and also crossed the Adriatic Sea from Slovenia to ceremoniously crash the Venice Biennale.

The view of the top at “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Newly arrived through U.S. Customs on New York shores from Italy, the seaworthy works of art have returned “home” to Brooklyn as Swoon, the Florida native who came to New York as an art school student, has called it for seventeen years. A singular Street Artist who once wheat-pasted her hand cut portraits anonymously in hidden city doorways, she is also known for her fervently collaborative projects that have carried her to galleries, museums and socially-rooted arts activism in places like Kenya, Haiti, London, Oaxaca, New Orleans, Miami, Braddock (Pennsylvania), Boston, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

No matter where Caledonia Dance Curry goes, there is usually a cadre of handsome and delightful crafters and co-creators in tow; talented friends and valued confidants who help bring her ideas and vision to fruition. While she is clearly at the helm, this dynamic exceeds the typical artist and her studio paradigm; hers is rooted in a regard for collaboration, community, experimentation, and discovery. Oh, and a bit of theater.

Fire extinguishers in the foreground and rear during the multi-layered preparation of the exhibition for “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We are pouring so much into this show and for me I think part of the reason I’m willing to do it is because it is my home. The museum has been awesome and they have given me as much as they can and I have just thrown everything at it because I’m like ‘I’m home, this is my place.’ For me this show is different from installations I have done in other museums and other places,” Swoon explains.

Managing Curator of Exhibitions at the museum, Sharon Matt Atkins, talks about the command of the space and its transformational effect. “Swoon did not hold back in fully utilizing our grand rotunda gallery. She has been working for three and a half weeks at the museum with a large team to get the installation ready. Much of the work involved assembling parts made in the studio, but then bringing it all together with the finishing details onsite,” she says.

“Sharon brought me in here and said, “What is interesting to you in the building?” and I really love that because the thing about working on the street is that you are always thinking site-specifically. And so that thinking has to translate into your work in all places. For me if I make something in a museum I want it to be very site-specific and this is probably one of the most site-specific pieces I’ve ever done,” explains Swoon.

Under the advice and guidance of an engineer, the artist also modified her design process to allow for foundational considerations like truss sections and lift points. “I showed him an initial model and he showed me an engineered system and then I built another model based on the system that he engineered.”

It is probably unusual for a grand museum to be so amenable to the requests of an artist for a site specific piece that literally inhabits the furthest reaches of a space, and Swoon says she recognizes the leeway she received. “You know, they have been really adventurous in letting us create this. We’ve been sort of pushing a lot with the creation of this piece.”

For Matt Atkins, the opportunity to bring an internationally known street artist and neighbor into the museum has been the result of just over two years of planning. “It’s been so wonderful working with Swoon to realize her vision for this project. This is the first time we’ve really used the full height of the 72-foot dome, so it’s quite spectacular. I am thrilled to see her boats back in New York and for them to have this new life. The underlying ideas about climate change in the installation also make this project an appropriate tie in to the Museum’s focus on activism with our other exhibitions and collections,” she says.

Guests who walk into the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery on the fifth floor will need to crane their gaze upward to see the full expanse of the tree that reaches to the cupola, now embroidered across the sky’s light with her lace patterning. Softly gnarled limbs are clustered with outsized and filigreed leaves that cast shadows on the maritime layers of sprayed blue washes streaming to the floor.

Looking up at the multi-textured and tinted bark that skillfully, if playfully, emulates the trunk of a tree, Swoon talks about the demands of production. “We worked it all out in the studio and then we just spent weeks tearing and shredding and dying the fabric, cutting out paper leaves, and building up these kind of “roots”, crocheting pieces, putting dyed fabric on them, sewing sleeves for the rings to put dyed fabric on – It’s just been immense! It’s one of those things where I’ve never built something on this scale so I really don’t realize how much energy it absorbs when it is that size.”

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” The fabrics used to build the bark of the tree trunk were custom dyed and are shown here at the studio drying. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To contemplate the rotunda installation and the finer details of the rough rafts Swoon provides an equally festooned gazebo to rest on and nearby linotype images of caretaking and motherhood to see — including a more recent portrait of the artists’ own mother that has also been spotted wheat-pasted in the street.

“So I’ve been thinking a lot about ‘home’ and this installation is about home and the loss of home in a lot of ways. When I decided on ‘Submerged Motherlands’ I was thinking about climate change and thinking about “Sandy”. Also my own mother passed away while I was in the ideation stage for the installation so I was thinking about the loss of my own mother and that relationship and it all just kind of merged together,” she says.

Brooklyn Street Art: When you speak of your mother passing during the ideation and the title of the show I look at your work and I think of it as a kind of maternal act, of caretaking, of providing shelter. I wonder if there is any relationship between this concept of motherhood and caretaking that feels true to you.
Swoon: I guess the thing that I think of is almost an impulse to build a safe space in the world for myself and my community; some place to be a little bit different from the norm. Then also that same impulse kind of extended outward to projects like working in Haiti after the earthquake and trying to create literal shelter.

Brooklyn Street Art: Thinking about site-specificity and its importance in your work, many of your installations on the street are in the unpolished, eroded areas of town. Contrast that with a museum environment like this where everything is clean and crisp – it occurred to me that you created that same unpolished environment by taking the fire extinguishers and blasting them across the walls.
Swoon: Oh my god the funnest tool ever!

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you used fire extinguishers before?
Swoon: You know what? I never have. Honestly it was just one of those things where I was just like, “How do I get a lot of paint up quickly?” – and I just thought about the fire extinguishers. I mean people use those – it is such an amazing tool. Big props to Craig (Costello), to Krink, who is such a pioneer with that. I never had used it before. I usually take care not to simulate the street environment but maybe that kind of just happened.

Brooklyn Street Art: And when it comes to your work and this installation, you don’t like to talk about metaphors.
Swoon: Well, its not that I don’t want to talk about them – its that I think you can get too literal. I think that part of the strength of the arts is that you try to leave a little openness for the parts of our minds that are a little bit less rational and that don’t have this strict linear codex of how you interpret something. Like in the way that the Motherlands theme has so many different kinds of interpretations and layering – I think it is important to keep that kind of richness.

Swoon: Submerged Motherlands runs April 11–August 24, 2014 at The Brooklyn Museum. For more information visit the museum website HERE.

Join BSA and Swoon on April 24th
In Conversation: Brooklyn Street Art
Thursday, April 24, 2014 at 7 p.m.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Auditorium, 3rd Floor
For more information go HERE.

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

New Shots from Open Walls Baltimore 2

April 8, 2014 Artists

Open Walls Baltimore 2 has begun and only a few pieces have been completed but we thought you’d like to take a look, courtesy photographer and BSA Contributor Geoff Hargadon, who was tooling around one afternoon.

This spring Baltimore will be hosting a list that includes Zbiok, Anttu Mustonen, Ozmo, Nanook, Logan Hicks, Lesser Gonzalez, LNY, El Decertor, ECB, D’metrius Rice, Ernest Shaw, Escif, Gaia, Jessie and Katey, and Betsy Casanas.

Click HERE to learn more about Open Walls Baltimore 2

Dan Witz Goes Hardcore in NYC with Mosh Pit Collection

April 7, 2014 Artists

“After photographing in the mosh pits for awhile I began to get familiar with patterns in the music. Eventually it got to the point where I could sense the moment coming when things would really cut loose and go berserk,” says painter Dan Witz about his process and method for catching the moment when the roiling mass of hardcore music fans hit the perfect state of frenzy.

“NY Hardcore Paintings”, opening this past Saturday night and on view currently at The Jonathan Levine gallery in Chelsea, presents Witz with his new body of convulsing bodies and to say they are a revelation is only part of the story. When we saw his first mosh pit paintings a few years ago we were struck by the raw thrilling chaotic energy and calculated abandon in them – and reminded of many such nights in the 80s and 90s in lower Manhattan when we also joined in the fray.

With this many pieces displayed at once you begin to see mosh pits more as a cultural phenomenon, sociological study, and expression of the cognitive polarity produced when marginalized subculture creates communal gatherings. Disregarding Witz’s masterful command of oil and light for moment, it may occur to you that this cathartic explosion is not terrorful, but a volunteer community jam and permission-based S&M soiree with basically total strangers.

The mosh pit as derived from earliest punk rock shows, while stylistically posed as one of utter chaos, has just as many bylaws and conventions as traditional dance and extreme sport – and is usually well contained so that non participants can enjoy it from the sidelines. Yes, there is the occasional poked eye and heavy bruise, but it’s only the rube or provocateur or boneheaded jock who tramples the line and ruins it for the rest. Otherwise, it can be a communal, euphoric expression of collective rage, measured aggression, and celebratory dissatisfaction where everyone experiences a sense of relief, and release.

As with his street work, Witz is hiding in plain sight, and the myriad social-psychological undertones are the most relevant, as well as the ones they trigger in a viewer. One is remiss to not point out that the majority of participants here are of caucasion descent, and while that may be merely a trapping of the culture depicted, one may wonder what would be triggered in viewers if the majority of participants in these celebratory rage-fests were of another background.

Don’t be surprised by the appearance of a guest star in the silently boisterous “Hardcore” compositions here contained by canvasses and frames – and take note of the passages, outstretched limbs, points of impact, gestures that point more to the supportive than the adversarial.

Dan Witz “NY Hardcore” is currently on view at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan. Click HERE for details.

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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: David De La Mano at Memorie Urbane

Vero Rivera On a Doorway in Santurce

Vexta: Life / Death / Life

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Martin Whatson. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

David De La Mano. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

The thoughtful and careful work of David De La Mano for Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

David De La Mano for Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Giorgio Base . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Detail. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

Pablo Herrero and E1000 collaboration. Memorie Urbane Festival 2014. Gaeta, LT Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto . Blind Eye Factory)

El Sol 25. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25. His tribute to BSA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

The ongoing conversation I have faced recently, regarding female nudity in my work, continues to surprise me. Here I have become, “a controversial artist,” without any intent or desire… whispering “keep soul” while trying my best to stay out of sight.

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

A shot of the wall before the art went up. St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Faring Purth “Prime” on the back ground with Jason Deem on top of the truck. St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Faring Purth)

Faring Purth “Prime” St. Louis , MO. February 2014. (photo © Jason Deem)

| #BSAatBKM | @BKStreetArt | @Brooklynmuseum |

Hello BSA Readers!

In Conversation: Brooklyn Street Art, April 24th

Top Image >> Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon “Submerged Motherlands” exhibition now open to the public at the Brooklyn Museum. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe goes over himself and he feels a bit nostalgic. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker. Dona Isabel is a member of the undead. She is coming home after a night of blood hunting on the LES. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. A new tribute to SAMO and Andy Warhol. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye calling it right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Have You Seen Me? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Richard. Discuss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tava (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Her face carried some unseen burden as she swallowed down her shot and our eyes connected from across the room,” Eduardo Jones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lord have mercy. COST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. Save the bees peeps! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Winter 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skount . Kera. Detail. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Detail. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Detail. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Detail. Jena, Germany. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Kera. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Skount)

BSA Special Feature: URBAN ART 2014 on Auction with Artcuriel

Building Detroit – Revok, Nekst, Pose

Sheryo and Yok in Indonesia

Coachella Walls: Date Farmers by Medvin Sobio

Spaik and Libre. Mexico City 2014

Ives One (photo © Pati Laylle)

Ives One (photo © Pati Laylle)

Ives One (photo © Pati Laylle)

Ives One (photo © Pati Laylle)

The view of the top at “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fire extinguishers in the foreground and rear during the multi-layered preparation of the exhibition for “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail of the top of the tree. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” The fabrics used to build the bark of the tree trunk were custom dyed and are shown here at the studio drying. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail of the bottom part of the gazebo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The artist Swoon at work on the installation. “Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail of one of the boats. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail of one of the boats. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” Detail shot of the interior wall of one of the boats. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Swoon: Submerged Motherlands” View through one of the boats. (photo © Jaime Rojo)