December 2014

ART – Das Kunstmagazin: Street Art New Special Issue

December 9, 2014 Artists

Gruner + Jahr, Europe’s largest publishing firm has just released a hot issue of their magazine ART that focuses exclusively on Street Art and we are pleased that they asked us to participate. You’ll see a number of names you recognize in this magazine that reads more like a book – although you’ll need to be familiar with German.

Of special note for us are the spreads that include many images by BSA editor of photography Jaime Rojo whose shots of work by Brooklyn’s Swoon make us happy just to see them here across the pages of this prestigious magazine.

ART Magazine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Swoon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Swoon. All top small images here by Jaime Rojo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Swoon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We don’t usually mention print releases on the editorial part of the site but it just so happens that today a new screenprint edition of “Dawn and Gemma” by Swoon is being released at 12 noon New York time. We saw this image first this spring at the Brooklyn Museum exhibit “Submerged Motherlands” and spoke about it during our In Conversation show there with her in April. Currently she’s just done a version of this in Miami as well. Her print is being released alongside a new print by another Brooklyn Street Artist Elbow-Toe. Check out more news on Paper Monster’s site.

ART Magazine: ECB. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Banksy- some of these same shots are in the new Banksy in New York book by Ray Mock that we wrote the introduction to. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Os Gemeos. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Alexis Diaz – currently knocking them out in Miami. (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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Specter Shows Versatility in His Approach to the Street

December 8, 2014 Artists

Specter’s Ad Takeovers Signal a New Direction Toward Photography and Abstraction, for now

A curator at a major American museum told us this weekend that he’s discovered there are two major categories of great artists: the first one hits on a great idea or process or technique and stays with it throughout the rest of their career, employing the creative spirit to evolve and reinforce the same idea again and again. The second artist type is more taken with the creative spirit itself and moves nimbly from one technique or process or discipline to another, exploring and experimenting with new approaches, discovering and often mastering one after another.

Specter appears to be the latter.

Only five years ago Specter was a realist painter who wheatpasted his large labor intensive portraits of people who collect scrap metal and other materials in New York neighborhoods. These social studies captured hours of time in studio carefully rendering and depicting – and when the enormous works appeared across old signage or construction walls, you felt like you had just run into someone you knew.

Other more sculptural installations were still lifes and ready-made in nature, employing shopping carts, bottles, hardcover books. Specter is not afraid to experiment with new mediums and messages and to carry them to fruition.

In the last year or so Specter began a much more conceptual and abstract series of bus stop takeovers using his own photography. Less obvious in their meaning, they nonetheless are contextual – often reflecting, refracting, relating to the geometry and perspectives of their location. Easy to miss as Street Art installations, they can be arresting as well – especially when you realize they may be mimicking their immediate surroundings…and that they are not selling you shampoo. Some times you realize he has ingeniously taken the street you are standing on and tilted it into a parallel world – which you may or may not occupy.

As a one-off, we were a little intrigued about this new creative direction for Specter. Now that time has passed and we have a little collection gathered of these installations, we can see that he is helping us see the city differently once again.

Specter. All photos © Jaime Rojo

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BSA Images Of The Week: 12.07.14

December 7, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Adnate, Amanda Wong, Clet, Dasic, David Walker, Droid 907, Eurotrash, Hunt, Jim Vision, Mr. Oneteas, Specter, and WUFC Crew.

Top Image >> Adnate for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate for The Bushwick Collective. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Wong . Droid907 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eurotrash. WUFC Crew (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eurotrash. WUFC Crew. Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Walker at work on his new wall with Jim Vision in London, England. (Photo © Tamara Elha)

David Walker new wall with Jim Vision in London, England. (Photo © Tamara Elha)

Specter. Ad take over. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. A different version of the above Ad take over. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. OneTeas (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. This stencil appears to depict an orthodox Hasidim man with a Woman from an Arab country wearing a burka. Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenny Scharf . Julian Schnabel. An unidentified artist spot marked the names of the two well known artists on a wall famous for Graff writers to get up in Brooklyn. Not sure what the story is. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

HUNT (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clet (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Busker on the L train platform. Brooklyn, NYC. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Windows of Her Soul: Saint Bernadette Appears at Sicilian Church

December 6, 2014 Artists

Collettivo FX and Saturday Prayer Services in Sicily

She’s a saint! A patron saint for Catholic believers who looks out for the poor, the ill, and shepherds and shepherdesses, who lived in France in the 1800s and is buried there at a convent. Collettivo FX gave her windows for eyes at this abandoned church in Sicily.

Below it they inscribed: “Questa è Santa Bernardette, patrona dei pastori e delle lavoratrice della terra. Decidete voi se non ha occhi per quello che avete fatto qui non si può vedere oppure ha la luce negli occhi per illuminare le vostre teste”

We just want to see it with the lights coming through her eyes…

Collettivo FX. “Santa Bernardette” Sicily, Italy. Nov. 2014. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Collettivo FX. The abandoned church in Sicily, Italy. Nov. 2014. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Collettivo FX. “Santa Bernardette” Sicily, Italy. Nov. 2014. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Collettivo FX)

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BSA Film Friday 12.05.14

December 5, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Street Artist GAIA, Super Modernity in Italy, Austria, Turkey
2. JR: RIVAGES a film by Guillaume Cagniard
3. Curiot at the Mexico City’s Youth Institute

BSA Special Feature: Street Artist GAIA, Super Modernity in Italy, Austria, Turkey

“Traversing places in order to respond to place, what an absurd proposition.”

And yet, that is what Street Artist Gaia has been doing for the last 3 years or so. In route he has been seeing many other artists doing the same thing, and has been feeling super modern about it.

While Street Art grew out of the graffiti tradition of tagging your local city with your name and your artwork and calling it a day, few are satisfied with that audience today. True fame happens via the Internet and mural festivals, and Gaia has made it one of his goals to study the history and culture of his host city and the resulting art works have been affected by his self-education and observation.

In this new video mini-treatise, an existential examination of his own journey to this point, Gaia poses questions while cleverly jabbing at the roving rootless lifestyle that has arrested many artists in the Street Art scene; reveling in its benefits — possibly counting its costs.

The petite piece is scored by Max Muffler in a postmodern electronic timber, evoking the charging swing of perpetual cross-cultural travel that can be rich and repetitively banal.

Sounds like the beginning of a larger work to come.

JR: RIVAGES a film by Guillaume Cagniard

Curiot at the Mexico City’s Youth Institute

Gualicho: “Hexagonario” in Tiny Argentinian Barrio, Isla Maciel

December 4, 2014 Artists

Today we have a few simple images of a new piece in a very modest neighborhood on Isla Maciel in Buenos Aires by Gualicho called “Hexagonario”. Gualicho tells us that he was inspired to do a public painting here because a local school teacher organized an art festival here with almost no money or support from the government as a way to improve the living situation here. The island that was once known principally for its brothels because of its proximity to the ships and sailors arriving to Buenos Aires, and the area hasn’t quite shaken itself from those negative associations in the minds of many.

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho “Hexagonario” Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gerardo Montes de Oca)

“Nowadays there are no more brothels, but it is still a very dangerous place,” says Gualicho, “Most of the people are workers and a lot of families live here. Every day at the end of the day when I came back from painting I saw all the people on the streets, sitting in the front door of their houses, under the shadow of the trees, drinking mate and watching the people passing by.

There is no such thing as a Street Art “scene” here, but Gualicho liked the friendly environment where he put up his piece that mimics the repetition of decorative pattern on the walls insides some peoples homes. “I thought this work as a big wallpaper; an organic pattern of Elodeas (an algae very common on the Río de la Plata). I mixed it with other organic / abstract shapes organized over a hexagonic structure. I left the background as it was, because I love the colors that the passing of time leaves on the wall.”

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho “Hexagonario” Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gualicho)

Gualicho says he believes that this is a good “first step” toward encouraging people to take pride in the neighborhood and he has seen some positive developments in folks disposition since he started to paint. He also gives a lot of credit to that teacher.

“Gerardo Montes de Oca is an art teacher at the high school, which is a job that is not easy to do at all because of poverty, violence or difficult family situations and a high rate of absenteeism,” explains Gualicho. “In this context he decided to do something to change the place and organize an art festival “Pintó la isla” to bring life and beauty to this part of the city which is long forgotten by governments and politicians.”

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho. The port. Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gualicho)

Even though he says that Mr. Montes de Oca is not familiar with much of the “fancy urban art world” he was glad to participate and may come back to do another wall. “For me this was very inspiring because I found myself again with the roots of mural art: common people trying to do something to change their own environment.”

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho “Hexagonario” Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gualicho)

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5 Styles Meet On a 30 Meter Diptych in Łódź, Poland

December 3, 2014 Artists

Graffitti artists like to talk about styles of their letter-based art form as if they contain individual DNA from the clans that the particular aesthetic, era or technique of rendering originated from. Whether its bubble, old school, wild style, abstract, hardcore, or any number of subgenres, when graff heads get together for one big painting fest the sessions are sometimes referred to as a meeting of styles to denote the differentiation that is evident to insiders and to give the event an air of diplomacy and cross-cultural cooperation on par with the annual G20 meetings.

While many pieces are completed next to one another on a wall, less often will you see a true melding of styles — two or more distinct design schools working in a complimentary and seamless way: such is the nature of diplomacy.

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

When Michał Bieżyński from the Urban Forms mural festival in Łódź, Poland gave two towers to five local guys with a solid graffiti history and professional credibility to work together on a collaborative piece, he had to trust that they could combine their styles and finally strike a balance. Now clearly closer to what is thought of as a Street Art aesthetic, the murals they create blend together into one voice with an harmonious timber.

“We got two massive buildings to paint entirely free hand and we had to build the team and the project so that we would be able to manage such giant spaces,” says artist Robert Proch, also known as TONE, one of the five artists working together. “The Polish scene is quite integrated in some sense,” he explains, “We know each other well simply because we have been doing numerous walls together for years now.”

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

Leaning toward the fantastic and representative, the two mirroring compositions ripple upward from the figurative to the abstract, melting and exchanging shapes and forms that move from organic to rigid and rhythmic. In fact, it was not a completely smooth process to face the huge project wholistically and represent the perspectives of five different artists.

“Despite the long wall paint experience of our group, we found that it wasn’t so easy to integrate,” describes TONE. Ultimately however, cooperation and synergism of styles began to overtake the process and the artists found a way for their styles to act complementarily

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“We have never had a chance to work together in such a configuration,” says TONE, “but our knowledge about each others styles helped us to separate our appropriate roles. We began with a very rough concept for the general idea; make the composition somehow integrated with the landscape of Łódź suburbs.

The building on the left shows residents rushing at sunrise with all their hopes and frustrations. The right one shows the big return and closes the whole scene in a circular manner. Viewed vertically from bottom to top all the human figures become more and more reduced into pure abstract form. As an accent on each wall a bollard-man who appears standing in the crowd.”

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

The resulting diptych is entitled “Recycles” and each of the 33 meter high walls can be seen from a great distance by many of their neighbors. In fact, it was the act of creating distance to look at the big picture that TONE says finally helped the guys work together harmoniously.

“A team wall requires each painter to make little steps backward to help achieve a general project integrity. Also the rhythm of work with lifts forced us to separate into two groups; the first week was occupied by Chazme, Cekas and Proembrion, and Sepe and Tone joined in for the second week.”

The five artists would also like to give props to the assistants who helped. “We have to mention also our lift-lords: Marek, Mirek and Darek, who struggled during whole process by operating with levels and helpful suggestions and a steady hand. Thank you guys!”

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

WWW.GALERIAURBANFORMS.ORG

www.urbanforms.org

www.facebook.com/urbanforms

www.vimeo.com/urbanforms

www.instagram.com/urbanforms

www.youtube.com/user/UrbanFormsFoundation

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

QRST Sends You Dead Flowers : The Time of the Season

December 2, 2014 Artists

For everything, there is a season. Now that autumn turns to winter we see the remainder of the leaves and the flowers succumbing to the cold temperatures and bitter winds. As an experiment this fall the Street Artist QRST began posting small paintings of flowers around Brooklyn and we were lucky enough to catch them as they charted the natural life cycle in slow motion. He told us that the project is about how ephemeral life is, and he thought the flowers illustrated his point well.

Following are the newest shots from this weekend of the flowers in final stages of decay. After that are a couple of series of images charting the evolution.

A series of sunflowers as they gradually decayed this autumn on Brooklyn streets by Street Artist QRST.

A series of lilies as they gradually decayed this autumn on Brooklyn streets by Street Artist QRST.

The Zombies from the 1960s – Time of the Season

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NEMO’S Watering Thoughts to See What Grows

December 1, 2014 Artists

It’s just another comedic grotesque figurative painting from the Italian Street Artist Nemo’s. Nothing to lose your head over.

Hidden in an abandoned place in the mountains, Nemo’s and Julieta Xlf share with you their collaboration entitled ‘Watering”, with Julieta painting the branches and leaves. Have you ever heard that saying “geranium in the cranium”? Now you have! Glad we could help.

brooklyn-street-art-nemos-JulietaXlf-italy-11-14-web-1

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ART Magazine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Swoon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Swoon. All top small images here by Jaime Rojo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: ECB. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Banksy- some of these same shots are in the new Banksy in New York book by Ray Mock that we wrote the introduction to. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Os Gemeos. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ART Magazine: Alexis Diaz – currently knocking them out in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter’s Ad Takeovers Signal a New Direction Toward Photography and Abstraction, for now

Specter. All photos © Jaime Rojo

Top Image >> Adnate for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate for The Bushwick Collective. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Wong . Droid907 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eurotrash. WUFC Crew (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eurotrash. WUFC Crew. Detail. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Walker at work on his new wall with Jim Vision in London, England. (Photo © Tamara Elha)

David Walker new wall with Jim Vision in London, England. (Photo © Tamara Elha)

Specter. Ad take over. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. A different version of the above Ad take over. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. OneTeas (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. OneTeas (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. This stencil appears to depict an orthodox Hasidim man with a Woman from an Arab country wearing a burka. Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenny Scharf . Julian Schnabel. An unidentified artist spot marked the names of the two well known artists on a wall famous for Graff writers to get up in Brooklyn. Not sure what the story is. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

HUNT (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clet (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clet (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Busker on the L train platform. Brooklyn, NYC. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collettivo FX and Saturday Prayer Services in Sicily

Collettivo FX. “Santa Bernardette” Sicily, Italy. Nov. 2014. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Collettivo FX. The abandoned church in Sicily, Italy. Nov. 2014. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Collettivo FX. “Santa Bernardette” Sicily, Italy. Nov. 2014. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Collettivo FX)

BSA Special Feature: Street Artist GAIA, Super Modernity in Italy, Austria, Turkey

JR: RIVAGES a film by Guillaume Cagniard

Curiot at the Mexico City’s Youth Institute

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho “Hexagonario” Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gerardo Montes de Oca)

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho “Hexagonario” Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gualicho)

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho. The port. Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gualicho)

Pablo Harymbat AKA Gualicho “Hexagonario” Isla Maciel, Argentina. Nov, 2014. (photo © Gualicho)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

“Recycles”. Detail of a diptych by TONE, PROEMBRION, SEPE, CHAZME, CEKAS for Urban Forms 2014. Łódź, Poland. (photo © Urban Forms/Marek Szymanski)

QRST (Photos © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (Photos © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (Photos © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (All photos © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (All photos © Jaime Rojo)

The Zombies from the 1960s – Time of the Season

NemO’S collaboration with JulietaXlf in an abandoned place somewhere in Italy. “The Watering”. Detail. (photo © NemO’S)

NemO’S collaboration with JulietaXlf in an abandoned place somewhere in Italy. “The Watering”. (photo © NemO’S)

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