October 2015

Boijeot & Renauld: Update #3 (9th Street and Broadway)

October 19, 2015 Artists

Today completes the third weekend in a row that French public performance artists have invited you over for coffee on Broadway in New Yorks busiest borough. Boijeot, Renauld and their trusty photographer Clement just awoke from one of their coldest nights (36° F, 3° C) in their handmade pine beds on the Great White Way.

Stopping by to carve some early Halloween jack-o-lanterns, we saw their noses were red and tongues a little less chatty as they sat at the wooden table recounting the days/weeks events here, just around the corner from Astor Place barbers. As we talked and traded stories, one by one they each slipped away to go to a nearby gym to take a hot shower and returned smiling and content.

Boijeot & Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The last week brought them to Times Square, Herald Square, Union Square – each uniquely different and overrun with hundred-a-minute crowds, creating a potherous plume of activity swarming around them as they hang out and have coffee unfettered.

And the questions keep coming: “Is this a demonstration?”, “Are you guys selling this furniture? Who made it?”, and “Can I ask you what this is all about?”. Fatigue has begun to manifest and even though they probably explain their project in their sleep as cars whiz by at night, Sabastian looks somewhat mournfully at us to see if we will jump in with the answer this time. “These are two French artists doing a public interactive performance on Broadway. They have been traveling south on Broadway five blocks at a time for 23 days. You are welcome to come have a seat at the table if you like.”

Boijeot & Renauld getting a helpful hand from good Samaritans. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

They talk about an interview they did here with a reporter from Le Monde, about a surprise visit from two of their best friends from back home in Nancy who walked up and tapped them on the shoulder. They reminisce about all the people who have happily helped carry the many pieces of furniture a few blocks with them. They marvel about the variety of prices of tobacco in New York with a security guard who walks by to check out the pumpkin carving. “Yo, these (cigar) prices are Manhattan prices man. I have my girl from down south bring me my cigars.” He brandishes a box of ivory plastic tipped medium sized brown cigars. “Depends on the neighborhood you are in – these can run you 8,9 dollars. These right here are 5 across the street.”

As they head toward Houston Street today they know soon they will be Soho and then Chinatown. By Saturday night it will be Battery Park if all goes well. You still have time this week to stop by for a cup of coffee and a chat.

Boijeot & Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.18.15

October 18, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon….

This week was full of great Street Art stories – the main one everyone was talking about was fake TV graffiti by the Egyptian Street Artists who hacked the propagandic “Homeland” drama, in the process revealing the producers’ utter xenophobia by merely writing critical messages in Arabic – the language of the land the show was supposedly so expertly depicting. No one from the show caught it before it aired.

Elsewhere JR thinks Street Art might change the world, Retna scored the cover of the new Justin Beiber album, and the French performance artists Boijeot Renauld were profiled on the Today show and in The New York Times. This week they made it through Times Square and are somewhere just below Union Square now – living on Broadway en route to Battery Park by the end of their sojourn next weekend. Speaking of Times Square don’t miss the very cool Juxtapoz news stand on display right now in the middle of the Selfie-Stick Forest. Today is the last day for that installation.

You may also like to check out this piece we did for a car rental site about non-vandalizing Street Art

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring #364xLos43, Apple on Pictures, Damien Mitchell, Grotesk, Skeindreamz, LoSbieco, Momo, Paul Richard, Pupo Bibbito, Pyramid Oracle, Totoro, and Wane.

Top image above >>>#365xLos43 “Their Pain Is Our Pain, Ours is Their Outrage As Well” refers to the 43 Mexican students kidnapped and killed one year ago. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wane (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Juxtapoz T.SQ Newsstand designed by Kimou “Grotesk” Meyer. This project is in conjunction with Times Square Arts. Today is the last day to visit the stand. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cat with mouse. Artist Unknown. Pamplona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Skein Dreamz makes a crochet portrait of Totoro. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apple On Pictures (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crazy Eye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MOMO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pupo Bibbito and LoSbieco painted this piece in an abandoned factory in Reggio Emilia, Italy. This factory produced the R60 tractor. The factory was fully operating from 1904 through 2008. In October 8, 1950 workers occupied the factory to protest the imminent dismissal of 2100 workers. The artists wanted to pay tribute to that fight for workers rights with this mural. (photo © Pupo Bibbito)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Richard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. West Village, NYC. October 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Skount, Laguna and Cerezo and Their Delusions of Quixote

October 17, 2015 Artists

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

A three man mastery of madness here for you to enjoy from Barcelona with this delusional tribute to Don Quixote by folk spiritualist Skount and and his expressionist friends Laguna and Emilio Cerezo. Onward, to where we cannot know.

brooklyn-street-art-skount-laguna-emilio-cerezo-barcelona-10-15-web-2

Skount . Laguna . Emilio Cerezo Barcelona, Spain. October 2015. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Laguna . Emilio Cerezo Barcelona, Spain. October 2015. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Skount)

BSA Film Friday: 10.16.15

October 16, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Welcome To America Owen Dippie by Erin Dippie
2. Covert To Overt: Photography of Obey Giant by Jon Furlong
3. Taken By Storm: The Art Of Storm Thorgerson And Hipgnosis Trailer
4. Sobecksis Mural “Motion” in Mannheim

BSA Special Feature: Welcome To America Owen Dippie by Erin Dippie

A nice homemade video this week by New Zealand painter Owen Dippie’s talented wife Erin, who documented his trip to New York and LA. Without the hype this gives you an idea what it is like to be a tourist here, and it is good to see the experience through the eyes of a loving partner.

Covert To Overt: Photography of Obey Giant by Jon Furlong

A unique way of promoting a book and a photographer, this video introduces us to Jon Furlong, who has been trailing Shepard Fairey for about a decade and has become a trusted and valued member of the team.

Taken By Storm: The Art Of Storm Thorgerson And Hipgnosis Trailer

Commonly called “The Best Album Designer in the World”, Storm Thorgerson was the guy most responsible for many teens twisted and sublime view of the world before video was the normal accompaniment for popular rock music. These artists all had many album covers conceived and executed by Storm over roughly five decades: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Nik Kershaw, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Al Stewart, Europe, Catherine Wheel, Bruce Dickinson, Dream Theater, Anthrax, The Cranberries, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Alan Parsons Project.

Sobecksis Mural “Motion” in Mannheim

In September in Mannheim the artist duo SOBEKCIS put up a new wall in this “City of Music” as part of the Stadt.Wand.Kunst Project.

Swoon and 20,000 New Roof Tiles: “Braddock Tiles” Project Takes Off

October 15, 2015 Artists

We’re all about this project.

Street Artist Swoon and many friends and volunteers are getting this huge community art project in full swing and it is more than just a feel-good project. This impacts people first-hand and builds something that can house a community.

And you can support it right now.

The Braddock Tiles project – designing and making 20,000 tiles to fix this old church and make it into a community center is underway and you can be a part of it.

“As artists who spend our lives attempting to build spaces that induce wonder and bring people joy, we felt we were the right people to work together with friends and neighbors in North Braddock to help invent a new life for the building. Our goal is to reopen this building as a living work of art that is in service to it’s neighborhood. To do this, the first thing we need is a new roof.”

Simple enough! You get great swag too. Everybody is jumping on this — your turn.

Check out the KICKSTARTER Campaign and Get Amazing Swoon and Braddock Tiles stuff.

Thank you for your support.

Off the Path: Street Art & Graff in An Old Military Compound in Sweden

October 14, 2015 Artists

Street Art festivals are popping up like mushrooms across the globe, bringing murals, not street art, to cities primarily as a means of injecting life and culture into a community or business district. When we travel to see these walls we also like to check out the local organic spots off the beaten path where real street art and graffiti can run wild.

Shai Dahan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You go exploring partly out of respect for the roots of this rapidly evolving art practice – It was the graffiti writers, Situationists, radical hippie students, culture jammers, political anarchists and all manner of freewill installationists who brought us to this moment where cities are almost pleading for murals.

You also hike into tunnels, abandoned lots, underpasses, and neglected former industrial sectors because that is where you know the scene will be alive with experimentation, the spark of discovery, and a splash of old-school in-your-face rebellion without censorship.

Shai Dahan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For teens and 20-somethings of a certain disposition there’s nothing like grabbing some cans on a sunny Saturday and slaughtering a burned out bus with paint. Even better if its in the middle of a decommissioned military training site used by testosterone raging paintballers with guns full of color ducking behind concrete facades in camouflage fatigues. Amid the clouds of aerosol and bonfire smoke you find these paintings in the ruins, the remaining signs of an un-wasted youth.

According to locals people all the way from Stockholm and Gothenburg travel to paint at this 18,500 square meter former training facility for the Swedish armed forces. It’s built to mimic a real city to practice urban warfare training with rudimentary buildings, marked streets, and below ground tunnels to crawl though. No one remembers when it was first built but it was closed in 1989, left for hikers, berry pickers, and x-urban explorers to discover.

Shai Dahan . DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The traces of bonfires most likely are from paint ballers having a barbecue during their games,” says one of our guides named Anders, “or possibly they’re for heating their hands during winter games.” Either way the aerosol tags, characters, paintings, and occasional wheatpastes are still popping up and fresh ones ride alongside some now decades old.

So nevermind the prickers and the poison ivy and take a hike off the path and see some free-range artworks in their naturally unnatural environs – directly to you from Sweden.

Simple (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio . MSCR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SMUH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

S Camilla E Bostrom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NESH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JARN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GWC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HANS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HAS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GOBS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GES (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PEBS . DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mogul . Hoplouie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mogul . Hoplouie . Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AGUA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><bsa<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><bsa< p=””>

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

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><bsa<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><>

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Nemo’s Hangs Us Out to Dry “Without Name” in Italy

October 13, 2015 Artists

Nemo’s is hanging us all out to dry with his newest mural on a multi-story factory wall in Messina, Italy that features his familiar hapless chaps clipped to a clothesline, sans clothes.

Nemo’s. Messina, Italy. October, 2015. (photo © Nemo’s)

His critique is of a shallow and shock-addicted press and media that exaggerates and simplifies the suffering, the unmitigated tragedy of people – sometimes for our comfort.

His focus is on immigrants escaping oppression who have drowned and the pseudo-compassion of contemporary news coverage and grand-standing politicians that feed xenophobia. He says we are overlooking the complete desperation of an escaping individual that causes them to take such risk, only to be swallowed in a watery death due to unseaworthy vessels.

Nemo’s. Messina, Italy. October, 2015. (photo © Nemo’s)

“I’m depicting an insane state imbued with selfishness, where the deaths of the sea are overshadowed by sterile discussions on how migrants can create much discomfort to our conditions,” he says. Here he points to us behaving as outsiders, perhaps guilty of xenophobia, willing to flatten a tragedy of its dimension in order to keep the “other” at arms length, distancing ourselves from any responsibility.

“With those four naked bodies I am representing, through a surreal metaphor, the total and absurd unconsciousness that newspapers and diplomacy use for talk about the theme of the deaths in the sea.

In the tragedy of death, the worst and selfish aspects of our society, with banal and thoughtless actions, take the bodies from the sea and hang them out like clothes to dry. It is as if the problem of these people is to be wet and not to be drowned.”

His method is a dark comedy, depicting these very similar looking guys in an unlikely situation. His attached message may not be clear to the average unlooker, but it may pique their curiosity to inquire what NemO’s newest piece is about.

Nemo’s. Messina, Italy. October, 2015. (photo © Nemo’s)

Ernest Zacharevic Painting Martha Cooper in Brooklyn

October 12, 2015 Artists

If you are looking for a neighborhood that is analogous to what the Lower East Side of Manhattan was like in the 1970s, you have to go to the outer part of the outer boroughs because very few working class everyday people can afford to live on the island anymore. When photographer Martha Cooper was shooting with black and white film in those days the LES was more or less a bombed-out scene of urban abandonment and municipal decay.

Drugs were prevalent, so were gangs, police were not. Nor were jobs, opportunities or parks that kids could safely play in. Cooper was interested in capturing the games that kids devised, sometimes out of the most common items that were available – like giving a ride to your brother by commandeering his stroller around the sidewalk at top speed.

Ernest Zacharevic x Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lithuanian Street Artist Ernest Zacharevic is sitting cross-legged on a sidewalk in Bushwick, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is rapidly changing – at least that’s what real estate interests have banked on. On a typical weekday you will see many families struggling to keep the bills paid, more carefully selecting food and household items from the stores along Broadway and Graham Avenue and Metropolitan than in previous years – many just balancing their payments, others falling behind. Here on a graffiti tagged wall Zacharevic is painting with brushes to bring Cooper’s 37 year old photo from Manhattan to life in Brooklyn.

Ernest Zacharevic x Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As he has done in Malaysia principally and in selected other cities in Europe, Zacharevic is creating street art that includes a sculptural aspect that pops his portraits out from the wall, bringing the street scene closer to you, somehow closer to life. The image of children at play is integrated with its surroundings, a scene that may be repeated in the flesh here on the sidewalk while you watch him carefully checking his source image and replicating with brush.

In this second of three installations he is creating in New York using Cooper’s photos, Ernest is an unassuming figure and completely focused on his work as the car horns honk, brakes squeal, and the elevated train rumbles inelegantly overhead. In fact, most people walk by without taking note of his work and few stop to ask a question, so integrated is his small scene with the surroundings.

Ernest Zacharevic x Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.11.15

October 11, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 2:12, Boxhead, Buff Monster, bunny M, City Kitty, drscO, Fanakapan, Haculla, Icy & Sot, Jilly Ballistic, Jorit Agoch, Lungebox, Miishab, Myth, REVS, Stikman, Voxx, WA, and What Will You Leave Behind.

Top image above >>>Icy & Sot for #NotACrime Campaign. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jorit Agoch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze Does a “Paix” Piece in Port Au Prince, Haiti

October 10, 2015 Artists

New York graffiti artist DAZE just got back from Haiti where he was inaugurating a mural project for The Academy of Peace and Justice in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Along another admired and well-revered New York graffiti artist KET, DAZE worked with local students to create some new pieces for a huge new project spearheaded by pop artist and APJ advisory board member, Peter Tunney, who hopes to launch it as the “Haiti Walls” project.

“The design that I came up with doesn’t deal with peace in a political or military sense, but is more about inner peace,” DAZE tells us. “I wanted to create something that would be offering a kind of inner peace in order to achieve further goals.”

In his original design (above) for the huge piece DAZE included an area for students to add their own voice, enabling this school of nearly 3,000 students on 100% scholarship to take ownership of the artwork as well. Not only did students paint, they also played music for the team just in time for the beginning of the school year.

Taking inspiration from the letter forms, patterns, and color palette used in signage and everyday street life, DAZE incorporated a gently held and supported “PAIX” (peace) to the streets as well.

“During my time in Haiti I did see many examples of extreme poverty that were hard to bear,’ DAZE says of his daily explorations while there. “A lot of the students I worked with came from an area called ‘Cite de Soliel” which is the largest slum in Haiti. I also saw many examples of the 2010 earthquake that remained. Having said that, I saw many examples of a resilience, resourcefulness, and creativity that could only be found there. The Hatian people were kind, generous and open to my presence there. The cultural creativity there is incredible. Haiti is a really beautiful country that I encourage people to experience firsthand.”

BSA Film Friday: 10.09.15

October 9, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Dale Grimshaw Heroically Celtic in Camden, London.
2. Zalez Surfs and Stencils a Goodbye to Summer in France.
3. Hama Woods and “Children of the Forest”
4. Zlatan as Jumping Jack back in His hometown Malmö

BSA Special Feature: Dale Grimshaw Heroically Celtic in Camden, London.

“It’s always what I end up doing. It’s always kind of concerned around the human form and flesh and the face in a portrait. It is very theatric in a way but it’s the very dramatic lighting. It’s a reference to European figurative painting that I’ve always liked anyway.”

Zalez Surfs and Stencils a Goodbye to Summer in France.

The French west coast is strikingly similar to the US west coast in this ode to our fading friend summer. Interesting how the chillax Ibiza soundtrack of wistful longing smoothly integrate ocean view longshots, skateboarding, surfing, and the occasional spraying of stencils on concrete into the same milieu.

Hama Woods and “Children of the Forest”

Straight from the Smaabyen Festival 2015 in Flekkefjord Norway here is a skewed view of distribution of resources, err, strawberries. The mural by Hama Woods features a giant rabbit being fed by small frogs, inspired by a popular youngster’s tale called “Children of the Forest” by Elsa Beskow.

Zlatan as Jumping Jack back in His hometown Malmö

This jumping jack appeared outside of Malmö Stadium at a recent Wednesday night game. Look a little closer and you may recognize Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s face – it’s his hometown afterall. The marionette-like footballer actually works too. So far the artist remains anonymous.

Fanakapan Bubble Letters Flying High in Bushwick, BK

October 8, 2015 Artists

The UK’s Fanakapan popped by Brooklyn for some balloon lettered mural painting recently, something he has been doing for about five years — when not painting cakes, sweets, and phallic shaped balloon creatures that spell out your name or initials. He calls his signature metal work a bit of nostalgia on acid and people have been dropping whatever he’s giving out in Jersey City and at The Bushwick Collective. He’s floated off to Texas but you can still check out the sound of the balloon underground here in BK.

Johannes Mundinger: “La Bella Confusione”
April 25, 2024
You are inundated with information, disinformation, propaganda, images, videos, entreaties, siren calls, threats, promises, summaries, conjecture, stunning beauty, deliberate obfuscations, …Read More »
BSA Hits The North! – See You Soon in Belfast, Northern Ireland
April 23, 2024
We are excited to announce that BSA will be part of the exhilarating ‘Hit the North’ 2024 festival in Belfast! …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.21.24
April 21, 2024
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! “It’s the only time of the year when New York City smells good,” …Read More »
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 »