May 2014

OWB2 : Open Walls Baltimore 2 Winding Up (VIDEO)

OWB2 : Open Walls Baltimore 2 Winding Up (VIDEO)

Two years after Baltimore opened its walls to Street Art, the street artist Gaia has again summoned artists this spring and summer to regale walls with murals throughout the up and coming neighborhood it was meant to help develop and revitalize, the Station North Arts & Entertainment District. From March through June this year fifteen artists from hometown Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, Europe and South America were slated to come through and hit big walls.

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Escif. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

With the majority of the original works still remaining from the first phase, the new walls OWB2 were scheduled for Lesser Gonzalez Alvarez, Betsy Casanas, El Decerter, ECB, Escif, Gaia, LNY, Logan Hicks, Santtu Mustonen, Nanook, Ozmo, D’Metrius (DJ) Rice, Ernest Shaw Jr., Katey Truhn & Jessie Unterhalter, Zbiok, and the Urban Playground Team.

Thematically derived in many cases from local history and figures and culture, the publicly/privately funded mural program is complemented by a series of free performances and workshops throughout the duration of this year’s installations.

Here are some recent images of walls being completed thanks to Martha Cooper and M Holden Warren. Back in April we also published a selection of images from OWB from photographer Geoff Hargadon.

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Escif. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Santtu. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Santtu. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Gaia. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Gaia. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Ozmo. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Ozmo. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Nanook. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Nanook. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo courtesy © OWB)

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Logan Hicks. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

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Logan Hicks. Open Walls Baltimore 2014 (photo © M Holden Warren)

 

 

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BSA Film Friday: 05.30.14

BSA Film Friday: 05.30.14

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

Now screening :

1.”Cast A Shadow”- Hiroyasu Tsuri (TWO ONE)
2. Spring Fling/ Rural Mural (Scotland)
3. The Pony Thief (Denmark)
4.Puddles Swings from the “Chandelier”

BSA Special Feature:
“Cast A Shadow”- Hiroyasu Tsuri (TWO ONE)

Visual storytelling and psychological portraiture here by film maker Michael Danischewski as he conjures the interior/exterior of Japanese graffiti/fine artist TWO ONE.

How the innerworld manifests – whether in sculpture, mural, or quickly rendered on a corrugated pulldown gate in the commercial district, Cast a Shadow  remains enigmatic and bouyant, occupying a layer between the conscious and subconscious.

 

Spring Fling/ Rural Mural (Scotland)

A further integration, a further erosion, a further foundation. Urban is meeting rural increasingly, if still tentatively, and in the process these artists and others like them are engaging a new audience and beginning conversations about what we may more comfortably refer to as Contemporary Art.

Last month artists were paired off for and event called Spring Fling Rural Mural in South West Scotland to create new works on architecture in the rural areas – barns, farm buildings, substations.

The film by Fraser Denholm and Richard Watson gives a broad and specific overview of the events and a number of the organizers, artists, and new works.

 

The Pony Thief (Denmark)

According to Wikipedia, “Horse theft was very common throughout the world prior to widespread car ownership. Punishments were often severe for horse theft, with several cultures pronouncing the sentence of death upon actual or presumed thieves.”

Aren’t they nice in Denmark? The artist tracked down the three meter high pink pony that had disappeared. See how it all ends up.

 

Puddles Swings from the “Chandelier”

Awww, let’s have a pity party for poor Puddles. Except that he is an emotive and stunning performer with a gorgeous golden voice. Poor Puddles.

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BSA Picks for Bushwick Open Studios 2014

BSA Picks for Bushwick Open Studios 2014

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So Summer is officially here and with it comes Bushwick Open Studios (BOS) – in fact close to 600 venues are opening their doors for the next 3 days and you are encouraged to just wander the streets or to be strategic about it.

As always, the arts and culture festival is hosted by the volunteer organization Arts in Bushwick (AiB) and as always BSA has an eclectic collection of a few highlights we think you’ll like. They are not in any particular order and they are not all related to Street Art, but yo, isn’t everything related to Schtreet Aht in Bushwick?

BAnner-Brooklyn-Street-Art-BOS-PICKS-LOGO1. Maps N Mimosas at Norte Maar
2. Art Brooklyn
3. Bushwick Smushwick
4. blokactivity: A People’s History
5. Exit Room Group Show and Art Battles
6. Meg Hitchcock
7. Secret Project Robot Renaissance Faire
8. “Vacancy” with Pufferella in the Factory Fresh Penthouse
9. The Bushwick Collective Block Party and Art Show

 

Norte Maar for Collaborative Projects in the Arts

Yes, there’s the launch party on Friday but the place to get your bearings will be Maps-N-Mimosas on Saturday morning with Norte Maar, who we want to shout out.

In their seventh year at BOS, Norte Maar has been a unique and steady force in the evolution of the arts scene in Bushwick. Free of the posturing characterized by round-tables and panels, Norte Maar dove into its programming by involving the public and the neighbors, showing leadership and piquing curiosity thanks to co-founder/ Director Jason Andrew.  A myriad of cultural programs have unfolded, each with a strong commitment to collaboration and inclusiveness.

For BOS 2014 Norte Maar is giving you a chance to explore your voyeuristic side by opening his private collection of art comprised of local Bushwick artists, including drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, and sculpture. And yes, Jason will likely welcome you at the door with a mimosa. GO!

Norte Maar
83 Wyckoff Ave., 1B
Brooklyn, NY 11237

 

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Art Brooklyn

Mighty Tanaka Gallery owner Alex Emmart will be in residence for this pop-up and a handful of the names associated with Street Art in the late 00s and some new friends too.  Guest artists include JM Rizzi, Chris RWK (Robots Will Kill), Rubin415, Reginald Pean with Kristin Maher and Karina Herrera, Brandon from Greatest Hits Gallery. The event will have free refreshments.

2 St. Nicholas Ave., 2nd floor
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Friday May 30, 12-6pm
Saturday May 31, 12pm-6pm
Sunday June 1, 12pm-6pm

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Bushwick Smushwick

A collection of drawing, mixed media, painting, photography, sculpture, and some street artists thrown in for spice with Skewville, Jon Burgerman, Allison Sommers, Vahge, QRST, Rachel O’Donnell, Lev Sloujitel, Caroline Harrison, Alden Stover, Megan Watters, Daniel Mitchell, Peter Striffolino, Herm, Ariel Hellwitz, Alex Feld, Sasha Braginsky, Dane LaChiusa, Glenn Friedel, Chip Moeser, Hsin Wang, Ben Ripley, Ryan Ford, and Ronit Zvi.

Bob Jefferson
308 Jefferson St.
Brooklyn, NY 11237

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blokactivity: A People’s History

blokactivity: A People’s History is an art event that limits itself to just one block in Bushwick and the change that it has undergone in the last two decades. Curated by Clare Stack and photographer Brenda Kenneally, this is the story of their neighborhood, their culture, their love for their home, and they have created this show with other local artists to bring the block and it’s history to life for BOS 2014. The photos alone are a rare eye-opening opportunity to appreciate life in Bushwick  and to provide insight into how things have changed.

“There will be a display of personal photographs and stories belonging to people who are either long time residents/grew up in the area or those who have made it their home more recently. Some of these images will be displayed on a wall-sized map of the block, drawn especially for the show by Victor Llanos and Hannah Lichtenstein. There is an interactive component for those who want to share their own stories. This show also includes many original works by local artists including video pieces by Kevin Little and C. Stack, collage by Zak Vreeland, photography by Oriana Fine.”

rare form studio/ pop-up gallery
1102 Broadway, 3rd Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Friday May 30, 4p.m.- 7p.m. (event at none)
Saturday May 31, 12pm-7pm (event at tba)
Sunday June 1, 12pm-6pm (event at none)

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Exit Room

This experimental show space that has provided opportunity to Street Artists in the last year will host Art Battles, a group show of about 20 artists, live painting and video projects.

270 Meserole St., Ground Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11206

Friday May 30, 2pm-8pm
Saturday May 31, 2pm-8pm

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Meg Hitchcock

Artist Meg Hitchcock has been building her text-based practice for a while in Bushwick and her astounding works on paper using letters cut from sacred texts will be on display as well as some older pieces.  By separating the text from its original moorings, she finds that these spiritually infused symbols are set free to rearrange themselves across walls and re-present rather decoratively, rhythmically, organically.  Formerly evangelical, now she is simply angelical.

698 Hart St., Ground Floor
Brooklyn, NY 11221

Saturday May 31, 12pm-7pm

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Secret Project Robot Renaissance Faire

A not-for-profit artist run art space that moved from Williamsburg to Bushwick a few years ago, Secret Project Robot is celebrating its 10 year of introducing new artists to new opportunity and new audiences. For Bushwick Open Studios they are converting the outdoor garden into an artist’s made installation of a Renaissance Faire. It will be “Fully equipped with outdoor stage, artist made goods, beautiful masks and decorations that have come to define both the aesthetic of a renaissance faire and the hand-made feel of Secret Project Robot.”

Featuring work by Raul De NIeves, Thomas DeLaney, Chris Uphues, Erik Zajaceskowski, Rachel Nelson, Cameron Michel, Vashti Windish, Korey Helburst, Dave Kadden, Alexandra Drewschin, Greg Fox, Zachary Lehrhoff, Eli Lehrhoff, Poison Dartz, Ovary Reaction, Barry London, and Kid Mi.

Secret Project Robot
389 Melrose St.
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Friday May 30, 7pm-11pm
Saturday May 31, 12pm-9pm
Sunday June 1, 12pm-9pm

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Vacancy

Not part of the BOS 2014 slate of events, Street Artist/fine artist Pufferella nonetheless belongs in Bushwick. One half of the duo that brought Factory Fresh to Flushing Ave in the late 00s, Pufferella invites you to the Penthouse, where you have always secretly wanted to go. Her most recent hand sewn artworks will be on display.

Factory Fresh Penthouse,
1053 Flushing Avenue, 1 Flight Up
Brooklyn, NY 11237

Saturday, May 31st & Sunday, June 1st, noon-6pm

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THE BUSHWICK COLLECTIVE BLOCK PARTY AND ART SHOW

After all the darting in and out of studios for three days you are invited to stay outside in the more democratically available Street Art environs of The Bushwick Collective Block Party on Sunday. Not really a BOS event and not really a collective, Joe Ficalora is really Bushwick, so get your facts straight knucklehead.

There will be live Street Art, food trucks, a beer tent, bands, DJ’s, giveaways and raffles. In addition there is an art show featuring Bleck Le Rat, Solus, Rubin415, Chris Stain, Dan Witz, Zimad, Jerk Face, Joe Iurato, Sexer, Beau Stanton, Atom and FKDL.

Sunday June 1st 11:00 am – 7:00 pm
Troutman Street between Wyckoff and St. Nicholas
Brooklyn, NYC

 

 

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San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” so says Charles Dickens in the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, and who can’t believe it is true that he was speaking of today? Whether you are Darnay or Carton, that books two protagonists, this is the prism through which you will see the twin beasts of wisdom and foolishness in all the writings on the walls in our cities.

Easily dismissed for decades by the classists as the uncouth scribblings of the unschooled, the graffiti that persisted throughout train yards and tunnels and cities globally also developed and deepened, expanded and metamorphosed. Once simply seen as outright rebellion, the language around the graffiti scene has  transformed, and with reason. Today sometimes clumsily grouped under the moniker “street art” or “urban art” graffiti and its family gets a second view, and a third; while academia and theorists and philosophers grapple to come to terms with a language they didn’t create, cannot compose in, but endeavor to learn.

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Reyes (photo © Brock Brake)

Meanwhile it is collected, traded, reproduced, emulated and imitated. For its part, new generations of freewheeling graffiti and its practitioners and celebrants continue unabated; uncommissioned, un-permissioned, and despite ever more apoplectic attempts by municipalities and technologies to silence it, it continues to speak.  Further confounding, some of its denizens have taken up arms and laid in the same bed with that most benign and good-willed pillar of public art, the legal mural.

Today we go to San Francisco, one of our most pricey cities, to see what the aerosol writers are saying currently. With new shots that capture part of this moment by photographer Brock Brake, we see that the language of the street and even the row house have become as multitudinous as the dominant culture and as perplexing as it is sometimes powerful. Or not. Are these the best of times?

“..in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only,” says Dickens.

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Niels Shoe Meulman. Detail of ‘ununhappy times’, a larger piece by the calligraffitist. (photo © Brock Brake)

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“Familia” by Reyes (photo © Brock Brake)

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Nekst . Jade (photo © Brock Brake)

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A tribute to a deceased and well loved graffiti writer named Nekst by Steel (photo © Brock Brake)

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Steel MSK (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz. Detail (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz RIP Jade. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Toro (photo © Brock Brake)

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Atomik (photo © Brock Brake)

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Treas (photo © Brock Brake)

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Steel . MSK . d30 (photo © Brock Brake)

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d30 Crew (photo © Brock Brake)

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Ich (photo © Brock Brake)

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Jurne . Amanda Lynn . Mags (photo © Brock Brake)

 

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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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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

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Hot Tea Lights Memorial Luminaries About Loss on Library Steps

Hot Tea Lights Memorial Luminaries About Loss on Library Steps

Site Specific Installation at NY Public Library for New Yorkers

On a recent evening in mid-town Hot Tea lit a candle for those we’ve lost. 180 of them actually.

A conceptual public art piece on the steps of the Mid Manhattan Library, the Street Artist who is known for tagging isometrically with yarn on fences summoned a bevy of volunteers to share the memory of someone they lost by writing a remembrance on the back of a brown paper bag and joining in a collective open ceremony to lift the spirit, lighten the load.

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I wanted to depict the grand stairs of the library at night with 180 bags dimly lit by tea lights,” says the soft spoken Minneapolis based Street Artist who has successfully installed his non-destructive public works around the city while people walk by. Perhaps because of the gravity of the theme of loss, the volunteers worked quietly and with certitude filling paper sacks with sand and candles and carefully lighting them while tourists bought fluorescent propeller toys for their kids from sidewalk entrepreneurs and people posed alongside the marble lions named “Patience” and “Fortitude”.

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

After the luminaries were lit a faint Hot Tea pattern could be discerned across the new façade atop six risers, but mostly it was a warm flickering glow on a breeze-free late spring eve. Participants and passersby posed in front of the temporary holy place, a photographer with a drone recorded the scene from 20 feet above and tourists held up their multitudes of tablets and phones to record. Finally Hot Tea invited mourners and others to gather arms around shoulders to say a prayer and pass strength to one another. People were encouraged to take a hand-scribed bag that remembered someone else with them.

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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LA in Berlin, Urban Nation Unveils Project M/4

LA in Berlin, Urban Nation Unveils Project M/4

Urban Nation in Berlin bellows quietly again as it partners with Andrew Hosner of Thinkspace in LA for an eclectic Project M/4 installation and group show.

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Dabs & Myla on the facade. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

The forth iteration of this open/secret streetside exhibition in the the front windows of soon to be renovated building near Nollendorfplatz, M/4 highlights the myriad influences of the New Contemporary scene that Hosner has crafted and curated for roughly a decade now. With LA-via-Australian couple DabsMyla festooning the five-story façade with signature cartoonish characters, the ground floor windows portend the ever widening array of influences that may reflect in the Urban Art story that UN founder Yasha Young envisions telling in the future.

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Joao Ruas (A) and Fernando Chamarelli (B). Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

In addition to the windows reflecting a titillating tomorrow for this edifice, the group show “LAX/TXL” fills a nearby gallery space with Hosner’s handpicked top 60 artists from the ever growing spheres of dark pop, pop surrealism, tattoo, illustration, street art, graffiti, new folk, and skater culture that have characterized the rolling visual feast that follows wherever he goes. With so many new voices and spirits in this neighborhood that sports a rich modern history of germinating subculture, it appears that Berlin is poised to again reconfigure, even if current passersby may be a bit puzzled.

Window murals for Project M/4 are planned to showcase works by Alexis Diaz (aka La Pandilla, Andrew Shoultz, C215, Curiot, Fernando Chamarelli, Glenn Barr, Joao Ruas, Low Bros, Nosego, and Word To Mother

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Alexis Diaz/La Pandilla. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Alexis Diaz at work on his piece. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

The ‘LAX / TXL’ gallery show features 16” square works by
Aaron Nagel, Adam Caldwell, Alex Yanes, Alexis Diaz (aka La Pandilla), Allison Sommers, Amy Sol, Andrew Hem, Andrew Schoultz, Anthony Clarkson, Ariel DeAndrea, Bec Winne, Brendan Monroe, Brett Amory, Brian Mashburn, Brian M. Viveros, Bumblebee C215, Camilla d’Errico, Carl Cashman, Christine Wu, Craig ‘Skibs’ Barker, Cryptik, Curiot, Dabs Myla, Dave MacDowell, David Cooley, Derek Gores, Ekundayo, Erica Rose Levine, Erik Jones, Fernando Chamarelli, Frank Gonzales, Ghostpatrol, Glenn Arthur, Glenn Barr, James Marshall (aka Dalek), JBAK, Jeff Ramirez, Jeremy Hush, Joanne Nam, Jolene Lai, Keita Morimoto, Kelly Vivanco, Kevin Peterson, Kikyz 1313, Kyungyup Kwon, Linnea Strid, Luke Chueh, Mari Inukai, Meggs, Mike Egan, Nosego, Paul Barnes, Paul Romano, Pixel Pancho, Rodrigo Luff, Ryan Hewett, Sam Wolfe Connelly, Sarah Joncas, Seth Armstrong, So Youn Lee, Word To Mother, Yoskay Yamamoto, and Yosuke Ueno.

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Curiot. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Curiot at work on his piece. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Low Bros. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Low Bros at work on their piece. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Glen Barr (F) Nosego (G). Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Nosego signing his piece. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Andrew Schoultz (H) Word To Mother (I). Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Andrew Schoultz working on his piece. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Word To Mother working on his piece. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Detail of Word To Mother piece. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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C215 (J). Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Andrew Schoultz and Word To Mother couldn’t resist the empty walls inside the building. Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

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Word To Mother and Andrew Schoultz beautifying the empty soon to be demolished walls inside the building . Project M/4. Urban Nation, Berlin. (photo © Henrik Haven)

 

Click HERE for more information on Urban Nation and Project M and to see the previous editions of Project M

Special thanks to photographer Henrik Haven for sharing these exclusive images with BSA readers.

 

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 05.25.14

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.25.14

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We start this weeks collection of images from the street with a new piece in Bushwick by Joe Iurato, a New Jersey based Street Artist who also, as we learned via press release this week, has been selected to co-curate the newly announced Mana Museum of Urban Arts in Jersey City with another stencillist on the  street, Logan Hicks. Billed as the first museum of its kind, Director Eugene Lemay says it will be comprehensive and interactive and programming will begin as early as this September.

Mr. Lemay and co-founder Yigal Ozeri have expressed and demonstrated a sincere affinity and enthusiasm for the creative spirit since Mana Contemporary opened here in ’11 and this 100,000 square foot space represents just the audacity of hope that is demanded when building a stage for urban/street/graffiti art and its multitude of tributaries. New York and this entire scene is about 5-10 years overdue for this kind of bold development and we say, nevermind the armchair critics, let’s get going!

Here our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Art is Trash, Bast, Bio Tats Cru, Bishop203, Charlie Chaplin, Crash, Damien Mitchell, Dan Witz, Forest Ghost, Freddy Sam, Hiss, Hot Tea, Joe Iurato, King, Li-Hil, LMNOPI, Nick Walker, Olek, Paper Skaters, Shepard Fairey, Skount, Stinkfish, Tripel, and Zola.

Top Image >> Joe Iurato at The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stinkfish (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paper Skaters (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zola (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI gives a shout out to Occupy Wall Street in this liberty lady (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Freddy Sam. in South Africa  (photo © Rorry Allen)

“Recently South Africa celebrated the 20th anniversary of freedom day commemorating the first post-apartheid elections held on that day in 1994.They were the first national elections in South Africa in which the franchise did not depend upon race.

My mural is of a photograph taken on this day in 1994.With a flock of birds flying through the middle representing freedom.Showing that to be free we need to work together, we need to live together.

Freedom is to be human. And to be human is to be connected.

My mural is not celebrating Freedom day but rather looking at what freedom really means and how far we really have come and how free we really are within South Africa and within a global context” ~ Freddy Sam

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

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Hot Tea. Well, actually, just the T. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Forest Ghost (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hiss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tripel (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dan Witz and Olek just unveiled a new collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Barcelona’s Francisco de Pajaro is a resourceful performance street artist who goes by the name of “Art is Trash” or “El Arte es Basura”. He recently did a number of on the street installations with the Dusty Rebel in tow. Check out his excellent photos of the experience here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bishop203 bursts out of the wall in this new one with The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bast is going over himself;, updating his original comment from Oh Snap! a few weeks ago to Oh Crap!.  Oh, word? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skount did this new piece in Leiden, The Netherlands. (photo © Skount)

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A new signpost piece by KING (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John CRASH Matos, BIO Tats Cru and Nick Walker on their second collaborative wall in the LES with an existing Shepard Fairey in the upper right corner. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. China Town, NYC. May 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Touring the Other Side of Town, A Taste of Asheville Graffiti

Touring the Other Side of Town, A Taste of Asheville Graffiti

When you first pull into a new town you have to trust your personal barometer; a series of individual metrics you have devised over time with which to measure its personality and state of mind.

For example, you may see how good the grilled cheese and tomato is at the diner, inquire whether there is an organized bowling league, ask if there are any dive bars with jukeboxes. Also is there an Olive Garden, can you buy fireworks, do children wear helmets when riding bikes, do tween girls wear Uggs, how many confederate flags are in the windows, what is the overall ratio of skaters to jocks, choppers to fixies, lawnmowers to yard furniture, tacos to fish-n-chips, tracksuits to chinos, tattoos to sports bras, pigtails to pigs?

It’s a personal formula, a mix of criterion that helps you to measure the world, and if we could be so bold, would help somebody else measure you.

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Nekst and Gus Isrich’s portrait. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Our featured photographer today is known for checking out things like home made and semi-professional signage that announces important stuff in front of the VFW, Bob’s Big Boy, the car wash, and Latoya’s House of Hair.

Of special interest are those illuminated roadside box signs with the easy-slide letters that are always falling off – like the ones preaching hellfire out front of The First Baptist Church of Baconbit.  Clever upcoming sermon titles aside, if the church is offering marriage counseling on Thursdays at 6:30 or concealed weapons classes every second Monday at 7 pm or the Men’s Pancake Breakfast coming up on Saturday, Geoff feels like he’s getting some very important information to parse together about a community.

Naturally, he also likes to sample the local graffiti. And that is why we are here today, dearly beloved.

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Cash4, Avoid, Valet and Rezu (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

When Hargadon told us he was heading to Moogfest in Asheville, North Carolina a few weeks ago he also surmised he might check out its graff spots. Organic and locally grown, this aerosol outcrops on certain spots around town, especially the abandoned warehouses and back alleys in the River Arts District. Geoff loaded up his camera card and came back with a treasure trove. Not only that, he found local graffiti expert Mr. Zen Sutherland, who himself is a gold mine on the subject of aerosol and who helped ID the creators of these fine graffiti images.

Our sincere thanks to both for this great taste of Asheville. Burp.

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Nomad offers this petulant ascertainment on a post (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Dogman (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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This area is known locally as Trackside Gallery. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Valet, Stuk, Ahgen, Trek, Unknown. Also a car that might have a pack of Salem 100s in the glove compartment. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Berth. In the foreground and installation by a sculptor who studied at the University of Blairwitch (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Ahgen, Uret, Dogman (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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TFL Crew, Gus Isrich and helpful handle and hashtag. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Fisho, Amanda Wong, Sicr, Sjay (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Uret, Valet, Relek (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Firey Hell and damnation with Berth, GTB, Gyser, Gus Isrich, Wins. In the background the original burning monk by Dustin Spagnola. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Gus, Tribute to Hal, Valet, Fowl, Ahgen, Houla. On the background Dustin Spagnola’s tiger. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Fowl (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Uret (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Eaws (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Still Life with Chairs and Graff. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Marze, Fowl, Ruin (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Kagn, Valet, Tribute to a fallen artist. Building 10 (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Connie, Valet, Aside, Dogman (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Film Friday: 05.23.14

BSA Film Friday: 05.23.14

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

Now screening :

1. “Free Graffiti” with a Mystery Man by Farewell
2. BSA in Conversation at Brooklyn Museum
3. Talk Of The Sea from POW! WOW! Hawaii
4. Decolonizing Street Art: Teaser for August in Montreal (unceded territory)
5. The Tower, a film by Erik Vestman & Nils Petter
6. Banksy’s Acceptance Speech at Webby Awards
7. JANZ Artist in Time (Trailer)

BSA Special Feature: “Free Graffiti” with a Mystery Man by Farewell

A parody of thousands of graff videos which portray the can-carrying outlaw, this one takes an unexpected turn in a Pink Pantherish sort of way.

BSA in Conversation at Brooklyn Museum

Part II of the Brooklyn Museum: In Conversation with Brooklyn Street Art night. This video features the second part of our talk after the multimedia presentation at the Brooklyn Museum on April 24 where we invited guests onstage for a discussion and Q&A about personal engagement with works on the street and the storytelling that lies behind the work; Swoon, Luna Park and Keith Schweitzer with Sharon Matt Atkins of the Brooklyn Museum as moderator.

Talk Of The Sea from POW! WOW! Hawaii

“It’s about reviving this knowledge and also about passing on this knowledge, keeping the culture alive,” says Kamea Hadar as he describes the mural and the educational training that enables students to become navigators.

“The final installation of POW! WOW!’s three part project with Hokulea and the Polynesian Voyaging Society was a mural created by Kamea Hadar and the young artists of the POW! WOW! School of Art and 808 Urban.

“In order to be a navigator, you have to be fierce.” ~ Papa Mau Pialigug

Decolonizing Street Art: Teaser for August in Montreal (unceded territory)

This August a new gathering will converge to further the street art conversation while putting a focus on activism. It’s goal of turning attention to the decolonization of Turtle Island and reminding people who live in Montreal of the city’s colonial history continues the work of people like Jetsonorama and LMNOPI and others on the street. It will be also interesting to see how the discourse of the current street art movement expands itself to include these voices.

Check out their Indiegogo link below:

 

Please click on their indiegogo page to help with their crowdfunding campaing: http://www.igg.me/at/decolonizingstreetart

The Tower, a film by Erik Vestman & Nils Petter

The Tower, a film by Swedens Erik Vestman & Nils Petter  is now showing at Moderna Museet Malmö’s entrance hall between May 20 and June 1. With this project, the film makers take a large advertising sign from the noisy city environment and position it in an idyllic setting in the country side. The structure then undergoes a transformation and becomes a… The two have created a number of projects receiving critical acclaim that question public space and who has the right to use it. This film draws the contrasts effectively by throwing the acceptance of commercial messages in our built spaces into a new context.

 

Banksy’s Acceptance Speech at Webby Awards

Not really an acceptance speech and not really an award, this self-produced overview of his one month installation last October in New York also features a shot of the Deitch Gallery when referring to street art galleries who were visited by the police. Since that gallery closed three years earlier, perhaps they taped their “card” to the metal grating? You’ll recognize the narrating voice over as one from his answering machine, and you’ll die when you see the dead animals in the meat market, but mostly you’ll just be happy that you were here and blessed to be in the loving glow and embrace of Ban-sky.

JANZ Artist in Time (Trailer)

“Everything is transient, period. Everything.”

Follow Street artist Robert Janz as he goes through the street and his studio, narrating his experience and philosophy. If someone knows, its probably Mr. Janz.

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Seth, Eime and Ernest Zacharevic at Memorie Urbane 2014

Seth, Eime and Ernest Zacharevic at Memorie Urbane 2014

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A quick look at the current progress for the 2014 version of Memorie Urbane in Italy today with new works by Seth and Eime in Terracina and Ernest Zacharevic in Arce. The festival, which runs April through June, is still receiving artists every week and will continue placing them on walls that are chosen with the artists and the context in mind.

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Eime in Terracina, Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Eime in Terracina, Italy. Detail. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Eime in Terracina, Italy. Detail. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Seth in Terracina, Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Seth in Terracina, Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Seth in Terracina, Italy. Detail. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Ernest Zacharevic in Arce, Italy. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Ernest Zacharevic in Arce, Italy. Detail. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

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Ernest Zacharevic in Arce, Italy. Detail. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto)

Ernest Zacharevic “Toy Mafia” Memorie Urbane Festival 2014

Etnik and Millo Memorie Urbane Festical 2014

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

Opiemme Memorie Urbane Festival 2014

 

Click HERE for more Memorie Urbane Information

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Sixe Paredes ‘Futurismo Ancestral’ Opens at Somerset House in London

Sixe Paredes ‘Futurismo Ancestral’ Opens at Somerset House in London

Starting today, for one week only, the Andes will be inside the Somerset House.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

London’s spectacular neo-classical home of arts and culture along the River Thames will play host to an all-encompassing exhibition experience mounted by the Barcelona-born graffiti artist Six Paredes in his tribute to Peruvian and Andean culture. Futurismo Ancestral: An Offering to Peru by Sixe Paredes has been inspired by the traditional and the modern, and aims to meld the two together surreally, and really.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

For weeks we have been seeing the progress of a loosely banded consortium of brother street artists laying plans and constructing exhibition elements beneath the fountained public courtyard. Today the public can experience a series of walkways leading to large-scale and smaller works evoking the rich color and symbols of the region; tapestries, totem sculptures, ceramics and quipus (a system of knotted cords known as ‘talking knots’), masks and fluorescent chichas (posters).

“We are taking over three spaces at Somerset House, essentially the whole of the lower floor of the building,” explains Rafael Schacter of A(by)P, an organization that enables artists to produce events and exhibit work and who organized the installation with his partners and the Somerset House. Built and installed by a “dream team” of urban and street artists and students from University College London, where Schacter teaches, the exhibition is complemented with daily interactive events including Peruvian and Andean food, music, film, and performance.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

Futurismo Ancestral is born from the travels of Sixe Paredes to Peru beginning in 2009 and his adoration of the richness he experienced in the culture compelled him to bring it back to share. One of the six street artists featured on the river façade of the Tate Modern six years ago along with Faile, JR, Blu, Os Gemeos, and Nunca for it’s pivotal street art exhibition, Six Paredes completed his most recent large scale wall just last month at the Biennale D’Art Urbain in Charleroi, Belgium.  Schacter, who co-curated the Street Art expo at that Tate show and who authored The World Atlas of Street Art & Graffiti with Yale in 2013, says that this return is Paredes first major solo show in the UK .

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

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Sixe Paredes spotting the future on the horizon. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

During the preparation for this much anticipated and lively show, BSA had the opportunity to speak with both Six Paredes and Rafael Schacter about the origins, inspirations, and preparations for Futurismo Ancestral.

Brooklyn Street Art: After touring Peru and being exposed to such eye-popping color, isn’t it surprising to be in such a grey northern city like London?
Sixe Paredes: It was not surprising for me to come here and find myself in a grey city because this color predominates in so many cities in Europe and so many European cities prohibit murals and even have specialized brigades set up to clean and remove color. Throughout my journey in different regions of Peru I’ve seen a lot of color but color can be found in all the different cultures of the world, when they maintain their primordial essence.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Sandra Butterfly)

Brooklyn Street Art: Rafael, can you tell us about Futurismo Ancestral and how it came about?
Rafael Schacter: Futurismo Ancestral is all about the connection between the traditional and the contemporary, the fusion of the Peruvian visual culture and craft tradition with the visual palette so unique to Sixe Paredes himself. Since I last worked with Sixe in the UK, he has been living in between Peru and his hometown of Barcelona, he has become obsessed with the visual culture of the region and has learned the techniques of ceramic and textile production with famous artisans and artists throughout the region. This exhibition is about bringing together the deep history and heritage of Peruvian visual culture, and his love for this tradition with his unique, colorful, distinct style in an all embracing, multifaceted manner.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

Brooklyn Street Art: Sixe Paredes, you have already been incorporating a certain minimalism into your aesthetics over the past ten years. Is it difficult to merge that understated quality with the vibrant enthusiasm of Peruvian and Andean folk?
Sixe Paredes: My art has always been characterized by the agglomeration of shapes and colors. Throughout different periods I started introducing more elements, such as the circuits, which led my paintings towards another dimension – this dimension enhanced my painting, allowing for other interpretations of my work. In recent years I have been synthesizing some of my series. I like to play with this idea because it leaves more room for reflection and I don’t need as many elements to express myself. Some of these elements are iconic to my work, such as crests or beaks which have always been in my compositions and can be found there today.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

Brooklyn Street Art: The work here is simultaneously modern and folk – with the bold colors and raw patterning and symbols combined with a certain minimalism. Rafael, can you walk us through the spaces in a way that helps translate this convivial duality in an exhibition space.
Rafael Schacter: Somerset House is really an amazing location for us to be working in, we are both proud and excited to be working here! After you have exited our introductory area, our visitors will go outside into the Lighwells, an amazing outside space which has been used for films such as Sherlock Holmes among others; within this arched space, we have built a series of 3 meter high trapezoidal arches – shapes which are highly significant in Inca culture. Acting as a rite of passage, as a journey from one sacred space to another, visitors well make their way into what is called the Deadhouse, an underground catacomb which exists directly below the famous Somerset House courtyard. This space, aptly, will function as a sacred temple space, within which Sixe’s ceramics, quipus and tapestries will be housed.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Rafa Suñen)

Brooklyn Street Art: Not only are the color palettes from the traditional Peruvian culture warm, so too are the materials. Can you talk about the warmer, more earthen properties of wood, of yarn, and hand made masks – and how they affect your work?
Sixe Paredes: Peru has had a considerable influence on my painting palette, bringing more color to it and motivating me to use new mediums, materials and techniques, some of which have endured since ancient times. I always wanted to move towards a new path, a more ancestral path, revalidating primal techniques through a contemporary perspective.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

Brooklyn Street Art: You have a stellar group supporting this one week event – some of these folks have had big shows of their own so it’s good to see them supporting another artist.
Rafael Schacter: One of the key things about A(by)P is that we want to be for artists by artists. We don’t want to simply get in a bunch of contractors to assist in bringing the project to life but want rather to recreate the group dynamic and energy that is so crucial to these artists’ worlds. As such, for every project, we want to bring the artist’s family together to help bring it to life; in that way, the creative juices and creative possibilities can flow in a much more organic manner. And not only that, but all these artists on the team are people who we will  continue to work with in the future on solo shows of their own.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

For Sixe’s show for example, we really have got a dream team working together, a group who like you say are all artists of massive acclaim themselves. Both Eltono and Nano4814 are two of my favourite artists in the world; Eltono has just had a superb solo homecoming show in Madrid at Slowtrack and Nano4814 and insane solo show at the Delimbo Gallery in Sevilla. Pablo Limon, our exhibition designer is one of the most amazing makers I have ever come across, a creative genius. And Lucas Cantu, who is working on our graphics, branding and exhibition production, is the director of the Savvy Studios as well as the founder of the Nrmal Festival in Mexico.  As I said, the dream team! And then alongside this we have had amazing support from the students of University College London, who have all been absolutely incredible.

 

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

Brooklyn Street Art: Many Street Artists are bringing the animal world into their work today and sometimes artists will say they are giving the animals a voice to speak to us. How have animals been important in your compositions?
Six Paredes: In my case, the animal theme has been present in my work for many years, and this partly because of the admiration I feel for them. For me, among the most fascinating creatures of the animal kingdom are birds, mainly because of the wide variety of species, thousands of colours and silhouettes – and their relationship to the celestial and to flight. In terms of my compositions, this theme is important to me because it reminds us that we are also animals within the same world.

Brooklyn Street Art: In what way do you think of your work as something that evokes the future?
Six Paredes: I think my work evokes the future because it merges two different visions, the ancient and the contemporary and the bond between them which leads us to reflect about many of the things that humans have left on their way and some of them I think would be important to remember.

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Sandra Butterfly)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Sandra Butterfly)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © A(by)P)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Sandra Butterfly)

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Sixe Paredes. “Futurismo Ancestral” Somerset House. April 2014. London, UK (photo © Sandra Butterfly)

Sixe Paredes Futurismo Ancestral: An Offering To Peru at Somerset House in London, UK.  Click HERE for more information on this exhibition.

 

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12 Mexican Street Artists Stray Far from Muralism Tradition In NYC

12 Mexican Street Artists Stray Far from Muralism Tradition In NYC

Name Checking Rivera, Following Fairey

A new show of gallery work by Mexican street artists currently running in Manhattan’s Lower East Side questions the assumption that the nationalistic, social and political messages championed by that country’s famed muralism movement retain the impact and relevancy to artists a hundred years after the revolution.

To hear the story told by some, you may think that this is a generation following in the footsteps of the great syndicate of technical workers, painters, and sculptors who were funded by government programs in the 1920s, 30s, and 40s to promote a vast array of social and educational messages to a newly federalized citizenry. However people born in the last decades of that century comprise a much wider spectrum of individualists and self directed visual authors who are redefining narratives on streets in cities and their position as inheritors of that lineage may not have as much relevance to them as you thought.

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Sego (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“12 Mexican Street Artists” features a few of the names you recognize from that scene and leaves perhaps a couple of them out, but the scope is a sufficient sampling to give you an idea of the current moment of art on the streets. Included in the show are Saner, Bebo, Dhear, Fusca, Meca, Meiz, MilAmores, Minoz, Sego, Seher, Smithe and Undo. Photographer Christophe von Hohenberg, who organized the gallery show, draws your attention with portraits of this loosely connected group and there are a variety of works on paper by these  street artists, graffiti artists, muralists, and public artists who come from a multiplicity of backgrounds and disciplines.

While some in the group refer to themselves as “La Linea” and they may honor the  heritage associated with their countrymen Orozco, Rivera, and Siqueros, these world citizens are equally eager to differentiate themselves from those great muralists of the previous century.  Walking along the collection of mostly small works you’ll see folk influences here, sure, and so are traditional and sociological consideration. But don’t forget the surreal, the pop, the modernist.

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Sego in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never mind borders – we now are becoming accustomed to the staccato race across a boundary free digital fountain of inspiration. Seen through a Mexican filter, these are the same Internet fueled romances currently exploding on the Street Art scene globally; illustration, graphic design, cartoon, tattoo, skater culture, painting, stencil, the conceptual, even the sculptural.

Suffice to say this show of 12 Mexican muralists is an important inclusion in the story telling as the global street art explosion is re-defining how we look at public aesthetic discourse and public art making. A clear break has been made from the heralded lineage of Mexican muralism and this small show may be the first concentrated collection that demonstrates how far the new kids are wandering.

Speaking to a handful of them last week while they hit up walls in Manhattan and Brooklyn, we learned that these artists are as influenced by Fairey as they are Tamayo.

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Sego’s first trip to New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mexico City’s Sego began transferring his illustrations of animals and insects from his notebook to the street about 10 years ago when hanging with graffiti-writers on the street. A designer who has worked with corporate brands, he says the symbiosis of the natural and the man-made world is something he wants to engender with his creatures whether he is in a moneyed neighborhood or a poor and dangerous one.

If you ask him about his connection to the famed Mexican mural tradition, he honors it and then emphatically distances the work of his generation from it. “I was very inspired by them but not influenced by them. I respect their work and we have to learn from their monumental production but we have to be conscious of the fact that we live now in a different time and we have to really propose new things for today’s realities,” he says.

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Sego (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The irony is that those murals were often created in governmental buildings that the poor and indigenous people didn’t have access to. So in terms of how strong the connections are between the people and the art when comparing what they did and what we do today, I feel like our connections are much stronger,” he explains as he talks about the Street Art that goes into any neighborhood and usually on its own volition.

One last thing – “Those muralists had the government behind them and the financial support so they could have as many assistants as they needed. The merits of what we do also rests on the fact that it is mainly D.I.Y. and has more of an independent spirit since we have to self-finance our work.”

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Sego (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mexico Citys’ UNDO, who considers all his work to be an attempt to reverse deleterious political realities, and Tijuana based Bebo, a philosophy and fine art major who discovered modern street art when he was a student at university, both have distinctly different approaches to their work and to how they label it.

Undo: It’s different for everybody. There are some who don’t feel comfortable with the term “muralist”, you know?
Bebo: And some people who don’t feel comfortable with the word “graffiti” or “street art”, but we all do walls. Everybody paints walls and we love it.
Undo: That’s just the terminology.

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BEBO at Dorian Grey Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah it is, but you know some people do care very much about how their work is described. Particularly because Mexico has this wonderful muralism tradition and it is something you can be very proud to be associated with, so I thought perhaps you would want to say you are muralists, who do not do graffiti.
Undo: It’s not the same for everybody. Some of them started directly as graffiti artists and then they went to murals.
Bebo: It’s the way you grow up. You develop a personality in what you do and how you do it.  If you painted graffiti first, you always say you are a graffiti artist.  They don’t necessarily make the connection with the muralists.

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BEBO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As UNDO describes a recent stencil piece that depicts the Mexican Presidents chair with bloody spikes for legs, he criticizes what he sees as a false appearance of democracy and the onerous burdens that are placed upon the everyday citizens. Now he is studying economics and technology and how our lives are being changed by the intersection of the two.

You may think that this is a rebel who is eager to vandalize, but his social conscience tells him just the opposite when it comes to illegal walls. “It is attractive to think about you know, because of the rush of the adrenaline but the idea of tagging – I like that others do that but I don’t feel comfortable to trespass on other people’s walls,” he explains. Right now he’s trying to lighten his themes with a little hope, so he has cut and sprayed a stencilled dove.

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BEBO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“One day Acamonchi came to visit us and also Shepard Fairey came to our school and I said, ‘Okay, this is very easy for me’, ” says Bebo about how he first began making stencils and wheatpastes and putting them out on the street.

Bebo: You have to make a language and that is the interesting part so when I put something in the street I can say “Ah, that’s mine”.
Brooklyn Street Art: Right, it has to have your signature… and what is your typical subject matter?
Bebo: Foxes. I do all kinds of foxes. It’s a visual thing. I began to use canines like foxes and wolves in my work because I feel like they are designed perfectly in nature. Their symmetry is perfect, like the triangle that is formed with their eyes and their snout.

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BEBO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bebo: When I began researching foxes and wolves I moved beyond the purely graphic concept and I found the foxes to be even more attractive. They have the capacity to be in the here and the now, and it is very impressive. For example if the fox stops to smell a flower, he lingers and inhales it and relishes it. If he lies down to have a nap in the sun he really enjoys sunbathing. They do what they need to do at the time that they need to do it.

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BEBO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UNDO says Fairey also influenced him.

Undo: Yeah I definitely have to say that I was inspired by OBEY because I didn’t know how to do it and I saw it and I said, “oh I’m going to try to do it”

Did he also see the well known Fairey speaking at a public forum?

“No I saw him on the web,” he says.

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UNDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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UNDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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UNDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mil Amores at Dorian Grey Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fusca collab with Kazy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fusca at Dorian Grey Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Smithe at Dorian Grey Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Meiz at Dorian Grey Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dhear, York CHK at Dorian Grey Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dorian Grey Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

12 Mexican Street Artists is currently on view at the Dorian Grey Gallery. Click HERE for more details.

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