November 2015

Coney Island Dreaming: Following the Signs to Stephen Powers

November 18, 2015 Artists, Interview

Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull) is one of 3 new exhibits inspired by the historic attractions of Brooklyn’s seaside

Graffiti artist-turned-sign painter Stephen Powers is dreaming of Coney Island and he is bringing a colorful collection of found and freshly produced signage that evokes a forgotten era to climb the columns of a Brooklyn Museum gallery.

Given the boisterous parade of brands and logos into museums that is happening as part of the institutional funding and programming mix, its fun to see the ninth episodic installation of this traveling ICY SIGNS shop here; its simplicity and guile recalling amusing persuasive techniques from the mid-century American advertising lexicon. Simultaneously, for those who have been lucky enough to sicken themselves on cotton candy and The Wonder Wheel, the new show imparts a rather reassuring and seedy nostalgia for Coney Island, complete with an inexplicable hankering for a thick beef hot dog.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Just as warm weather recedes and late autumn’s chill darkens that historic city seaside amusement park, the popsicles and sand and titillating oddities are all rushing inside for the winter at Brooklyn Museum. Here and in adjacent galleries, the stage-directing showfolks at BKM are offering conjoined triplets for you to gawk at: Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull), Coney Island: Visions of An American Dreamland, 1861-2008 and Forever Coney: Photographs from the Brooklyn Museum Collection.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In tandem with his merry band of mostly reformed graffiti writers-turned-sign painters, Powers’ installation pops up and outward chaotically like nighttime fireworks seen from the boardwalk on the 4^th. The fast talking Philadelphia-born Powers is a natural carnival barker, showman, and punny word player, and this textual chorus of messages invites you to consider the tantalizing language of the pitch as well.

While you tumble layer upon layer, feel free to revel in the clever permutations of implorative doublespeak delivered with non-linear panache, a cluster of colorful visual cues here cut from their tether and flying above your head. Rather than actually selling you something, however, it’s the method of delivery that Powers is celebrating. It’s a joyride of icons that trumpets the juxtaposition of the graphic, the selection of the symbol, the wink of an eye, the turn of the word, the jocular joust.

Just like any rollercoaster or peeping attraction, its a thrill best enjoyed by holding on tight, alternately letting go completely, blurring your eyes and drinking in the candied, fried, salty sweetness. And just like any tourist attraction that helps those yearning for a closer view, a classic binocular tower viewer is sited center stage for you to gaze further than the human eye.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In a city that is quickly stamping out the last remaining handmade signage that was once ubiquitous on bodegas, candy shops, record stores, laundromats, restaurants, bars, pizza joints, and hot dog stands, it is ironic that these new signs recalling that communication vernacular are being brought into the museum. If any of these signs remain in public space today, they are faded glories overlooked, often called “ghost signs”. Powers brings the language back to life, inverting the expected, cleverly blending in his own sense of Coney Island romance, heavily salted and smothered in ketchup.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anne Pasternak, the new director of this encyclopedic institution, saw the value in preserving this particular character of New York when she was President and Artistic Director of Creative Time and the organization collaborated with Powers for the first time in 2004 and 2005 on The Dreamland Artists Club in Coney Island. Those first two projects were the genesis of their collaboration in Coney Island again in 2008 with The Waterboard Thrill Ride. Emblazoned by Powers’ hand painted wit the darkly satirical project was sited in a Coney Island peeing booth/grindhouse that stirred controversy for its animatronic depiction of torture.

More often Powers’ installations in a dozen or more cities are affectionately referred to as Love Letters, including massive text-based projects that cover walls and neighborhoods in Philadelphia, Baltimore, Syracuse and 2011’s Love Letter to Brooklyn, which wrapped a building with city inspired phrases of 250 or so words in downtown BK.

Here at the museum you are best served to get in close and go full bore into the jumbled chaos of words always at play in Power’s work and mind. The installation features the twisted phraseology of a country baked in advertising jingles, slogans, and blustery bromides and each of the artists (Justin Green, Matt Wright, Mike Levy, Dan Murphy, Mike Lee, Mimi Gross, Alexis Ross, Sean Barton, Eric Davis, and Tim Curtis) bring their own handstyles and witticism to these conversations, a playful and sarcastic examination that bubbles and splashes like waterfalls of words beneath the rotunda.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As Powers and team completed their installation this week for Friday’s opening we spoke with curator Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director of Exhibitions and Collections Management, to see if the newest iteration of ICY SIGNS has been the fun house that it appears to be.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the intersection of the three exhibits here as expressed in the signage of Powers?
Sharon Matt Atkins: Our three Coney Island exhibitions capture the spirit of the seaside community and give a feeling for how the place has inspired generations of artists. Powers’ installation in particular brings the visual language of Coney Island to the Museum by recalling the great tradition of hand-painted signs.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How much of the exhibit is specific to this installation and how much is heritage pieces from its pre-iterations?
Sharon Matt Atkins: This installation combines found signs alongside those created by Powers and ICY SIGNS. The works by Powers and ICY SIGNS include both earlier work as well as new signs and paintings created for this exhibition.

Brooklyn Street Art: Brooklyn Museum is once again embracing the language of Brooklyn streets and public space, bringing it into a gallery and presenting it as vital and worthy of consideration. How does this one compare to the shows you organized for Swoon and Faile?
Sharon Matt Atkins: I have loved seeing the Cantor Gallery transformed with each artist’s installation, and also with recent exhibitions like Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic and Crossing Brooklyn. It’s a beautiful space that lends itself to different kinds of experiences.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How does the space lend to or present a challenge for the displaying of the multiple signs?
Sharon Matt Atkins: Powers and team really wanted to respond to the architecture, much in keeping with how signage becomes layered in cities and places like Coney Island. Working with the piers of the Museum’s Cantor Gallery, they built layers and stretched upward about 40 feet, creating these soaring towers of signs that are anchored by sign benches at their bases. Providing a lively and educational element to the exhibition, we will also have sign painters at work here on Thursday evenings, and afternoons on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays.

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stephen Powers . ICY SIGNS “Shameak” “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve Powers “Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To A Seagull)” Brooklyn Museum. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve Powers’ site specific installation “Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull)” is presented in conjunction with “Coney Island: Visions of An American Dreamland, 1861-2008”. Both exhibitions will open to the public this Friday, November 20th and will run until March 13, 2016. Click HERE for more details.

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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 is also published on The Huffington Post

Nina Pandolfo in New York on a Wall for “Little Things”

November 17, 2015 Artists

In town for her solo show at Coburn Projects on the Lower East Side, Brazilian graffiti/Street Artist/fine artist Nina Pandolfo is determined to retain a childlike innocence on this wall outside of her show. Three wide eyed figures are preserved in an age of wonder, small creatures popping from ones mouth and pastel patterns softly couching them like winter sweaters or quilt pieces decoratively filling the background.

Nina Pandolfo for Coburn Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Her debut solo gallery exhibition here, this new mural features Pandolfo’s deftly understated use of freehand aerosol spray, stenciled geometrics, and brushwork. Part of a graffiti scene growing out of São Paulo during the last two decades, Pandolfo continues to establish her individual voice as a muralist on the street with a distinctly soft and feminine view of lifes’ details rendered with dreamy sensitivity.

Nina Pandolfo for Coburn Projects. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nina Pandolfo exhibition “Little Things For life” at Coburn Projects in NYC is currently open to the public. Click HERE for details.

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Invader Comes To New York In Peace

November 16, 2015 Artists

As you may know the Parisian Street Artists named Invader is doing a series of installations with his tiles in New York right now. With the help of L.I.S.A. Project’s Ray Rosa and Wayne Rada the digital inspired tile art is popping up in a variety of Gotham locations. Known for his pixelated tile portraits in recent years (as well as Rubic’s cube paintings), we’re still looking to find the Woody Allen one we’ve heard about….

Invader. The L.I.S.A. Project. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader Ninja. The L.I.S.A. Project. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader. Cheers! The L.I.S.A. Project. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader. The L.I.S.A. Project. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.15.15

November 15, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

We start this weeks “Images of the Week” with a new piece on the street in Paris and we end the collection with many more inspired by the same events. A large number of artists took to the streets Friday night and yesterday to express grief and solidarity for 129 people killed Friday in Paris by terrorist attacks.

In addition to the outpouring of expressions and opinions on social, electronic and print media, it is good to see painting employed this way in the public space because it provides a common sense of our physical place, a location for people to meet and discuss and grieve together. “We were just folk that needed to get away from watching the news and met up on the train tracks,” one artist tells us.

Many of the pieces called up the Latin phrase that has been an unofficial motto of the city of Paris since the mid fourteenth century Fluctuat nec mergitur (Classical Latin: flvctvat·nec·mergitvr) which is translated today to mean “Tossed by the waves but not sinking (or sunk)”. In the coming days we hope that this continues to be true, but also that the shock and pain of such events do not lead to a cycle of violence and inaccurate generalizations, as presumably the actions were intended to provoke. Even in these difficult times it is important that cooler heads prevail.

Our thoughts and prayers go out to those families and friends who are in such utter pain because of these atrocious acts as well as others who are suffering because of war throughout the world.

Our personal thanks to BSA Facebook fans and friends who helped us find these new images; Susanna Allende, Jérémy Berjon, Jul Ben, Ona Sis, Yogesh Saini, Matthieu Ribo, Gaëlle Boscolo, Sylvie Arrondo, Mike Lambert, and Meli Venegas.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alex McNett, Bifido, Caserta, City Rabbit, Dasic Fernandez, Espion, Gaia, Gregory Gentois, Grim Team Crew, JCorp, Kai, Kashink, KLOPS, Mint & Serf, Moamed Abla, Moze (ODC Collective), Myth, Nepo, Pawn Price, POI, Shepard Fairey.

Top image above >>> MOZE in Paris (photo © Moze ODC Collective)

KAI (photo © Jame Rojo)

Bifido in Caserta, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Gaia in Jersey City, NJ. Portrait of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange and a portrait of a man intended to represent the Lenape people native to the Delaware river watershed, Ackingsah-sack Wetlands, Lower Hudson Valley and Long Island. (photo © Jame Rojo)

Shepard Fairey in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jame Rojo)

He’s either lifting it… Heart (photo © Jame Rojo)

Kashink (photo © Jame Rojo)

Alex McNett (photo © Jame Rojo)

Dasic in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jame Rojo)

What’s the chance of that happening? Myth (photo © Jame Rojo)

This guy seems to have a lot on his mind. City Rabbit (photo © Jame Rojo)

A 3D sculptural tag from Mint & Serf (photo © Jame Rojo)

Stairway to Graffiti heaven. (photo © Jame Rojo)

JCorp (photo © Jame Rojo)

OBEY . DZN (photo © Jame Rojo)

KLOPS (photo © Jame Rojo)

Let’s see, who’s here: Jimi Hendrix flanked by Steve Winwood and ? and then possibly Jerry Garcia, then Johnny Cash, John Lennon, and Bob Marley. No women. Pawn Price in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jame Rojo)

POI (photo © Jame Rojo)

NEPO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kashink in Paris. (photo © Rory Kavanagh)

Grim Team Crew. Place de la Concorde, Paris. (photo © Sylvie Arredondo)

Grim Team Crew in Paris. (photo © Gregory Gentois)

Espion in Montreal, Canada. (photo © Espion)

Artist Unknown. Paris. (photo © Us Of Paris)

This art wall was created Saturday morning at Khan Market in New Delhi by visiting Egyptian artist Mohamed Abla as part of a Delhi Street Art collaboration. New Delhi, India. @delhistart (photo © Yogesh Saini)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. November 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OverUnder: “My Sentiments Abstractly” Opens in Oakland

November 14, 2015 Artists

A mark.

That is all most of us can hope to make on the world, or even to get through it. The Celebrity Industrial Complex that is busily distracting us also routinely overlooks masses of beautiful people who are daily just trying to pay the rent, tend to their ill, worship their deity, grow their garden, pen their poem, make their mark.

Overunder. Process shot. (photo © Brock Brake)

“My Sentiments Abstractly” says the title of OverUnder’s solo show opening tonight in Oakland, California, continues the fine/Street Art/graffiti artists’ examination of his mark making, and . Feeling mortal, OverUnder is taking a wider view of the path with this collection of recent wheatpastes, painting, photography, mixed media and site-specific installation.

As he constructed the visitors experience this week to prepare for tonights’ show, OverUnder says he is bringing the grit, the weeds, the marginal stories of people he has met and places he has visited – like weeds growing through the cracks; insistent, imperfect, perfectly full of life. Only a romantic can find beauty in places like these, and he does.

Overunder. Process shot. (photo © Brock Brake)

Overunder solo exhibition “My Sentiments Abstractly” opens today at the Athen B. Gallery in Oakland, CA. Click HERE for details.

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BSA Film Friday: 11.13.15

November 13, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Ugangprosjektet 2015 in Drammen, Norway. A Film by Selina Miles
2. Crack & Shine in São Paulo. A film by Will Robson-Scott
3. Perseverare : Zes and Saber in Downtown LA
4. SatOne: Insomnia

BSA Special Feature: Ugangprosjektet 2015 in Drammen, Norway.

UGANG2015 in Drammen, Norway had two weeks of murals from Street Artists and graffiti writers in late August. A relatively new event curated by local graffiti artist Eric Ness Christiansen (Eazy), the program is already slamming. A small town of 70,000 about 40 minutes from Oslo, they know how to take care of details, including inviting the inimitable Selina Miles to come and shoot it. Any questions?

Crack & Shine in São Paulo. A film by Will Robson-Scott

Vino, Cekis, Peter, Frs, Lead, Stile, Os Gemeos, Finok, Coyo, Caur, Ise, Nunca, Mind, Toes, Remio, and Twist are all featured in this atmopheric assemblage of traffic, extinguishers, kites, and futbol from São Paulo. Part vandal/part street poetry, you can get a sense of the family that grows up together here, choosing each other and pursuing a collective addiction.

Perseverare : Zes and Saber in Downtown LA

“We were painting this neighborhood before it was even coined the Arts District,” says Saber as he talks about the new burner he and Zes paint in LA’s Downtown “Arts District,” the very name of which drips from his lips with disdain. Neighborhoods are changing across the world with the assistance of art and artists and it causes a hell of a lot of fingerwagging and accusations. Meanwhile these two are painting a gesture toward the history of a city with the hope of striking a positive note as well.

SatOne: Insomnia

“At the beginning of October, the project Stadt.Wand.Kunst hosted another artist. Munich-based artist Rafael Gerlach aka SatOne created a mural in Mannheim titled „Insomnia“. SatOne – born in Venezuela1977, living in Munich since the age of two – dipped his big toe into the world of graffiti in 1991, when he began trying out different writing styles in an abandoned factory site near his home. After studying graphic design and testing the waters at different graphic design agencies, SatOne has worked as a freelancer for the past 15 years, illustrating, photographing and creating murals and exhibitions around the world.”

The Genius of C215 In One Storied Tome : La monographie

November 12, 2015 Artists

A rich and storied collection from one of the streets most loved modern stencillists is C215: La monographie.

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On the street and in the studio this guy has pretty much mastered the art of stencils over the last decade in a way that makes the medium have a human depth; something that few can do. He manages to give his subjects a character, revealing even the soul of his subjects in the lines on their faces, bringing life in their eyes. A proud and tormented fellow who honors art history as much as the suffering of people today, this is a talent that is fully engaged in the modern world.

Every letter of the alphabet demarks a new chapter – from Amsterdam to Barcelona to Cinema to Enfants, Justice, Prisons, Tel Aviv and Zurich; An interesting method of marking the travels of an artist as he circles the world that we live in and the one that lives in him.

“I paint in the street for my pleasure as well as for the others, fairly shared. But always and more and more I paint outdoors for the others,” he says in his preface that lays across from a series of photos showing him on various streets in many countries with stencil and can, alone and with an audience.

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Each chapter gives a few examples of Christian Guémy’s work pertaining to the title and as you turn the pages you are struck by the poignancy and the skill, the element of surprise as he moves from homeless to goddesses, cats to couples, religious icons to icons of his daughter Nina as she grows. In studio and gallery you see the translation he makes from the street, but it is most rewarding to gaze upon mottled walls, mailboxes, doorways and remnants of plaster or broken window, seeing well-placed works of monochrome sometimes bloom into full riotous color.

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A small text from the artist in most chapters will bring you back to earth as he describes a memory or an observation, his biography told through his work, and you feel like he is there on the couch next to you narrating his book for you. Notable exceptions are a treatise and recollection of a public display of support he made for the French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira and to decry racism and incivility, and his remembrances of the Charlie Hebdo killings.

It is in these texts where you see the fire that burns deep in the artist and you understand how he is able to make that same fire burn bright in the eyes of his subjects.

“All of you carry me on your shoulders and it helps me see farther away and makes the pathe less painful. You are the one who makes me go ahead and I thank you for that.” – C215

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 La Monographie / The Monograph. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015

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Barcelona: Open Walls Mural Festival and Conference 2015

November 11, 2015 Artists

Barcelona was known as a city at the epicenter of a bustling lively organic Street Art scene in the mid 2000s. Today that has greatly been cracked down upon by authorities but the Spanish city now boasts a mural festival called Open Walls, which celebrated its third edition last month with public works spanning a great number of influences and styles. Of course there is still plenty of autonomous unpermissioned Street Art to be seen as well.

Borondo at work on his sketch for his enormous piece at Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

This years’ interventions included new large format walls from Roc Blackblock, Ethos, Borondo, Zosen and Mina Hamada, and Mohamed Lghacham. Site specific walls included works by BYG, Enric Font, Sav45, Rubicon, Tayone, and Reskate Studio with Marina Capdevila and Amaia Arrazola. Boldly, the festival featured an open call to the first 20 respondents to paint a huge project together, effectively disarming any accusations of hierarchical favoritism or gate keeping.

Borondo. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Open Walls 2015 also featured a conference with speakers, debates, tours and workshops that expand the discussion of art in the urban environment beyond typical Street Art and graffiti fare. The academic and institutional world is gradually grappling with bigger questions around urban planning and public space as it pertains to art in the streets and formal art teaching is still broadening its consideration of an artist movement that started quite outside its purview.

Borondo. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Invited speakers included photographer Martha Cooper, graffiti artist and historian Jay Edlin, RJ Rushmore of Vandalog, Sergi Díaz (ICUB), representatives of the Madrid Street Art Project, philosopher Gabriela Berti, art historian Will Shank, and conservator Rosa Senserrich. The international and multidisciplinary program of professionals addressed issues regarding documentation, conservation, restoration, the history of Street Art, and its evolving role in the urban experience.

Here are some images courtesy of the festival photographer Fernando Alcalá Losa and of BSA contributor Lluis Olive Bulbena.

Borondo. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Roc Black Block. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Roc Black Block. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Zosen . Mina Hamada Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Zosen . Mina Hamada Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

ETHOS. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Mohamed Lghacham AKA Oiter. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Mohamed Lghacham AKA Oiter. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

SAV45. Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

SAV45. Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Rubicon1. Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Manu Manu . Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Simon Vazquez . Sebastien Waknine . Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Osnam . Caster . Cayn. Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Mer Bl . Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Copia . Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Jordan Seiler. Open Walls Conference 2015. Bus Shelter Take Over. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post.

Dont Fret Takes Europe, and We All Feel Better

November 10, 2015 Artists

When you hear the name of Street Artist Don’t Fret you can be assured that he means exactly the opposite. Exposing random and selected people’s faults, foibles, and fraternizing habits is just a way to quickly capture the free-wheeling imaginings and inner conversations that Don’t Fret has running through his head almost continuously. On his big 2015 European Tour through Berlin, London, Warsaw, and Viavai, the Chicago-based Street Artist brings his customary wit and observation skills and attacks it all with gusto.

brooklyn-street-art-dont-fret-italy-web-1

“In Warsaw I was invited by V9 Gallery to come work as artist in residence,” he says of the gradual climb into the gallery world that he is taking. The weather was cold and wet and not great for wheat-pasting so he painted a lot of stuff to stockpile for later. “I created a body of work of busts of influential Polish American artists and writers, including Chicago’s own Ed Paschke,” he says.

In Italy Don’t Fret participated in the Viavai Projeect and did a piece on one of the last textile companies that has not been purchased by a Chinese company.

“I painted a mural of the employees and created two screen prints, one dealing with the issue of Italy’s future as they sell more and more of their infrastructure to China.” The fragments of a classical sculpture are scattered across a wall for the mural, perhaps reflecting the feelings of a once unified, proud and powerful textile industry.

The remainder of his European tour was spent painting a mural in London, followed by hitting the streets there and a brief stop in Berlin. The variety of images attests to the artists habit of observing and reacting to his environment. Depicting everyday people and signposts of history and modern life, you may see yourself and your silliness in them; but you don’t mind the gentle mockery because there is a certain respect or pathos present as well.

If you were worried that you are not cool, Don’t Fret assures you that really, no one is. Yes, the most closely held rules of your societal relevance are subjected to his theories of relativity and sharp pointed social dissections, and don’t be surprised if his plaintive text and protruding faces call out some heavy truth – but they’ll leave you smiling as well. Like most good comedians, he keeps the sharpest barbs for himself and only infers utter hypocrisy in the lives and behaviors of others while giving them a tribute for hanging in there; humoring the passersby, as it were.

Dont Fret does a tribute to Władysław T. Benda the Polish born illustratrator, graphic designer, mask maker, costume designer and muralist who moved to New York and became a US citizen, created very well known magazine covers and illustrations in the first half of the 20th Century. Warsaw 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Labrona and Troy Lovegates Holding Up the Toronto Overpass

November 9, 2015 Artists

You ever wonder what’s going on under the overpass? People are holding it up, brother. That’s called people-powered infrastructure.

“I did the bottoms and painted on all four sides,” says Labrona of the pillars full of people who are holding the structure up with their arms extended overhead. It’s a huge project he and Troy Lovegates (aka Other). spearheaded in Toronto this summer with 20+ artists with a fusion of funding from the city.

His figures may bring to mind the Greco-Roman’s of pillars in your past, but these figures are decidedly warm and decidedly Labrona. Other’s figures are more accurately described as flying overhead of Labrona’s a swarming mass of figures interlocked and bending as if swept along by a river or hurricane. If water ever actually rose to that level most like Torotonians would be comported similarly.

Also in this collection of Summer ’15 works are images of collaborations Labrona did with Gawd at the Upfest in Sudbury, Ontario.

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.08.15

November 8, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring ADM LOD, Collagism, DAIN, Ernest Zacharevic, Hellbent, Jerk Face, Kremen, La Diamantaire, Martha Cooper, Miss Me, Mr. Toll, ND’A, Norm Kirby, Obey, Pyramid Oracle, Shalom Neuman, Shepard Fairey, Sinned, and Wing .

The Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic has completed his fourth collaboration with a photograph by Martha Cooper. Well executed in this New York location, Ernest is drawing inspiration from Ms. Cooper’s photographs of children at play on New York’s Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1970s.

A typical New York apartment with a somewhat packed roommate situation. Mr. Toll three D metaphor for life in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Prague artist DIAN with the Life is Porno Crew. Bullshit elephant. The GOP icons were added later and weren’t part of the original concept. The Bullshit sign was installed by fusion artist Shalom Neuman. (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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How & Nosm At The Center Of It All – In New Jersey (VIDEO)

November 7, 2015 Artists

Existentialist brothers How & Nosm brought their skillz to Mana Contemporary in Jersey City this week to knock out a huge new wall for their Urban Art Project, and you may ask yourself what is at the center of it all.

Name-checking themes that recur throughout their body of work that loosely can be translated as “mankind f**ks everything”, these four-decade twin graff bros have been rocking new Op Art/Japanese graphics lately that elevate their multi-layered metaphorical narratives and set them sliding on vibrating tectonic plates.

It’s magnetic, euphoric, chaotic, curiously calming. People say that still waters run deep – but these guys will tell you that its the rough seas that shape your character. Count on the aerosol sailor boys to come bobbing to the top of storming turbulence each time, smiles on their faces and middle fingers in the air.

Props to Jonathan LeVine Gallery and Mana Urban Art

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