January 2016

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.31.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.31.16

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How are things with you? Did you survive the snow/slush/sludge? Did you check out the launch of SOLD magazine this week? It’s made by artists for artists, and straight out of Brooklyn – check out their Instagram here. Proceeds from the show will help keep it going. We start this weeks images with a few from Nick Walker’s show at the Quin hotel. See Nick in February in person with Daze and KET at the Museum of the City of New York.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Col Wallnuts, Jilly Ballistic, Kai, Nick Walker, RAE, REVS, and Tuco Wallach.

Our top image: Nick Walker. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker’s exhibition at the Quin Hotel in Manhattan is currently on view and open to the public.

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Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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REVS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KAI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tuco Wallach somewhere in the world with one more of his Manimals. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

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RAE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklym NY. January 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is His Muse

Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is His Muse

Active on the city’s urban art scene since the 70s and 80s as a teen hitting up trains on the Broadway line, this New Yorker transitioned to studio art thirty five years ago and never lost his love for his city. Currently on view at the Museum of the City of New York, this collection rightly typifies an era and is the best way to appreciate the inspirations that have driven him.

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DAZE. Reflections on Time Square #2. 2013. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There are personal and topical narratives here and storylines to investigate, always rendered with the distinct DNA of the original aerosol train writers, his own style and undampened sense of wonder throughout.

Looking at the collaged approach to painting figurative scenes you may feel like they are frozen in a moment, a near relief of archetypes, character, symbols and typical New York scenes assembled at different perspectives.

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DAZE. Electric Boogaloo. 1982. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

His people are ones you recognize, sometimes with ghosts mingling with the earthbound. Coney Island and the beach, the Staten Island Ferry, Times Square, taxi cabs, police – these are his memories colored brightly and rendered palpable.

“City as Muse” ultimately is a commentary and diary that fuses memory with emotion, attesting to an undimmed romance with NYC.

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DAZE. Revisitn a Dream. 2004. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Coney Island Pier Study. 1999. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Parachute Drop. 1997. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. The Duel. 2012. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Queensborough Plaza. 2010. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. The Odyssey. 2015. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. The 7 Yard. 2011. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAZE. Portrait of Daze by Tom Warren and Tagged by Chris “Daze” Ellis. 1983 Chris “DAZE” Ellis: The City Is My Muse. Museum Of The City Of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Chris “DAZE” Ellis” The City Is My Muse is currently on view at the Museum Of The City Of New York. Click HERE for more information.

See Daze February 9th at 6:30 with Alan KET and Nick Walker for “Urban Art Legends

See Daze March 2nd at 6:30 with BSA’s  Steven Harrington & Jaime Rojo for “Street Art Stories”

 

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BSA Film Friday: 01.29.16

BSA Film Friday: 01.29.16

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

Now screening :

1. DEOW1 in British Columbia : Maple Syrup
2. “From Street To Art” Exhibition in New York
3. Monkeybird and Said Dokins ‘Devenir animal’ (Becoming Animal)
4. Painted Oceans: Trailer

 

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BSA Special Feature: DEOW1 : Maple Syrup

This is an energetic vacation video with DEOW travelling in British Colombia, hitting freights and underpasses and the occasional deep woods spot surrounded by complete natural beauty, dreaming of a girl in a headdress and weaving fat caps to the beats. The sound track by Canada’s Tribe Called Red adds a popping exhilarating native vibe via the dancefloor. DEOW definitely traveled a long way north, considering he likes to call himself the southernmost graffiti artist in the world, hailing from Invercargill in the South Island of New Zealand. The trip goes fast even though the video clocks in at over 6 minutes.

“From Street To Art” Exhibition in New York

In August of 2014 Simone Pallotta brought 10 Italian Street Artists to New York to have an exhibition at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York. Along with Chiara Mariani, who helped produce the show, Pallotta helped us to examine these artists on their own merits apart from the fact that they each work on the street. In the words of one of the participants, Hitnes, as he takes a break from a mural on a Bushwick roof, the variety of artists who are working on the street is not homogeneous at all. In fact, he says, “you would need a different word for every artist.”

“From Street To Art” (Italy to New York) & Hitnes on a BKLN Roof on BSA

 

Monkeybird and Said Dokins ‘Devenir animal’ (Becoming Animal)

From San Miguel De Allende, Mexico, this fresh new mural by the french Monkeybird and Mexican Said Dokins. It’s a strong collaboration in complimentary styles of ornate stenciling, tape masking, and caligraffitic brushwork – creating echoing waves around this trio of mandelas. The gold leaf sets it off!

Monkey Bird Crew in Lille, France and Their Largest Monkey/Bird Stencil on BSA

Painted Oceans: Trailer

An interesting project involving Shepard Fairey, Futura 2000, How & Nosm, The London Police, and Tristan Eaton out at sea, they’re raising money for it through Kickstarter for the next 30 days. Check out the big plan below.

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Collettivo FX Tour Italy, “Behind Every Madman There’s a Village”

Collettivo FX Tour Italy, “Behind Every Madman There’s a Village”

Mad men. Not the sexy selectively nostalgic program about advertising on TV. We speak of the real guys who go mad.

It could be illness. Madness may have been inflicted upon you by life or incredible circumstance. It could just be the sight of Sophia Loren again, reminding you that she hasn’t called you for last 50 years.

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Collettivo FX. O’Barone. Napoli, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

For reasons known and mysterious these are the men who are so idiosyncratic and eccentric in their tastes and behaviors that we are not sophisticated enough to appreciate them fully. Sometimes we say that these men have gone mad, but possibly we are the mad ones. These are the fellas whom the Italian Street Art collective named Collettivo FX decided to paint in towns across their country late last fall.

The anonymous handful of young men and women have a variety of figurative illustrative styles, from realist to expressionist, and often work with local children to complete painting projects.

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Collettivo FX. Hans. Bolsano, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Research was necessary, including entering a town and asking folks for candidates. In what became an anthropologic study of entire towns and how they function, the artists set out to find the one character in each community whom everyone seemed to know because of his unique approach to life. Their theme became “Behind every madman there is a village”, as it became clear that each supported the other in some way.

The artists say that they learned volumes about behaviors, story telling, and memory. Yes, they learned about the men and their fortitudes and foibles, but they also gained a sense of the other characters in the dramatic play that makes up a town. With each inquiry and answer they learned about the stories that are saved and repeated or forgotten; often jogging memories, sometimes along with their passions.

As a painting was completed people stopped by to discuss it. Some to learn, some to remember, others to enhance with gossip, or to fill in some blanks in lore. Some people said they felt guilty for not having done enough, others directed their displeasure at negligent actors in the town who had not sufficiently assisted in a circumstance when help was required.

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Collettivo FX. Totonno, Cosenza, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

“The subject of the tour was the Madman, but the real issue was the village,” one of the collective tells us, explaining that many of the subjects are (or were) revered characters whose presence is valued, some earning a sort of amber shaded folklore in the re-telling of the stories. “In fact the Madman is often in the center of the village, almost a symbolic mayor of some kind, because everyone knows and talks with him.”

Others were more evidently thought of as outcasts, and the act of placing a portrait of them prominently in the town took on curious results and responses as well, revealing the mindset of the village. People lingered for long periods, some posed for photos in front of the portraits. It’s unclear if any of the subjects felt objectified or insulted, but that may be our insecure comprehension of the subtleties of the Italian language.

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Collettivo FX. San Francesco. Roma, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

“Everything happened in this tour,” reports a member of the artist collective. “People were happy, excited, curious. The relatives of the subject could be flattered or be angry. One thing that happened everywhere is that we provoked memories, anecdotes, and stories of episodes that do not belong only to the life of the individual but also the entire community, making these portraits a reflection of everyone involved.”

Following are some highlights from the many stories that were discovered during this project:

They started the tour with “Hans Cassonetto” (Hans Dumpster) a homeless guy who townspeople generally agreed had two hundred and fifty thousand Euros in the bank. The story goes that when his mother died she left him with a legacy of buildings, apartments and a large bank account. However he refused her gifts because he did not want the money from the person who had thrown him out of his house at another time in his life. “While we painted Hans,” a collective member says, “the people there said “He was a man, a great gentleman, and he never asked anything from anyone.”

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Collettivo FX. Oreste. Palagno, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Oreste lives in a village in the mountains that has completely adopted him, according to the artists. He leaves his small house in the morning and one family feeds him breakfast, another family washes his clothes, another gives him small jobs. He’s known to never miss a wedding, and he usually brings roses for the couple. “He is of mythic proportions here in this town,” says an artist.

Everyone remembers Ciclon for his jokes, and he often was found in the town square talking with passersby. A frequently repeated story about Ciclon is the time he took a rabbit in a bag to pay the doctor with it. According to the story, the doctor was surprised and said, “But Ciclon, this rabbit is alive!” and Ciclon replied, “Doctor for you it’s not a problem to kill the rabbit … you are always killing people!”

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Collettivo FX. Messer Raimondo, Castiglione, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

And don’t forget Dog Man (“Cane Uomo”), a homeless guy who locals say arrived in town in the late 1930s not long after the disappearance of a famous physicist named Ettore Majorano. Rumors and tales surround his disappearance and what his relationshipship to Dog Man may have been. According to local stories, Dog Man used a walking stick with the letters “EM” carved into it, and he was known for solving impossible science questions posed to him by students.

In general however, he didn’t interact with or talk much with people in Mazara del Vallo for the roughly twenty years he lived there and he took care of many stray dogs, earning him the name. Upon seeing his portrait a number of townspeople gathered in front of it and debated whether Dog Man had actually been the disappeared physicist.

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Collettivo FX. L’Uomo Cane. Mazara del Vallo, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Genesis in Mantua was a musician of thirty-seven who burned to death in a horrible event a few days before they arrived, although the artists could not provide the exact circumstances that took place. Clearly he had affect a number of folks however and the artists quickly discovered that their portrait of him became a memorial wall – a central location for people to express their emotions and tributes to Genesis, including many tears. There were some who said “we could have saved him”. Some asked to paint and others wrote dedications on the poster.

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Collettivo FX. Genesis. Mantova, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Finally there is the story of Bruno Cartò, who collected cardboard boxes in the center of Jesi for many years before he went to live in a more formal home. “While we painted his portrait, the people stopped and said, ‘I know him!’, ‘I saw him every day,’ and ‘He was my friend,'” says one of the artists. But no one knew exactly what had become of him.

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Collettivo FX. Bruno. Carto, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

Just before finishing the job Bruno appeared onsite in the flesh, surprising many there. “We asked him, ‘Bruno, do you like your portrait?’. He said “Yes I like it … I want a drawing for my room.’ We asked him ‘What kind of drawing do you want? and he answered, ‘One on a cardboard!’” (see Bruno below)

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Collettivo FX. Cotgnola, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

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Collettivo FX. Chiarenza. Messina, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

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Collettivo FX. Birimbo. Cesena, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

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Collettivo FX. Beps. Grassano, Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

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Collettivo FX. The map of their adventures in Italy. (photo © Collettivo FX)

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Collettivo FX (photo © Collettivo FX)

Colletivo FX are happy to share more of these stories with you if you inquire at their Facebook page.

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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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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen Bed Stuy Collabo: “Cypress, Top Wrung”

Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen Bed Stuy Collabo: “Cypress, Top Wrung”

The dynamics of collaborations between artists are often informative, even revelatory to the viewers as well as the artists. By deliberately casting your creative lot with that of another you are taking a bit of a risk, experimenting with your own conceptions, responding alongside and in tandem with the style and vision of your partner.

Sometimes it is symbiotic, like Warhol with Basquiat. Or hilariously stunning, like Christopher Walken dancing to Fat Boy Slim. More recently the reviews were awfully mixed with the performance art collaboration of Jay Z and Marina Abramovic.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Today on a windy Brooklyn roof we look at a fresh collaboration with Oakland’s Faring Purth and Rochester’s Thievin’ Stephen, and we wonder how it will play to the J train audience who pass by it in Brooklyn’s Bedstuy neighborhood.

Purth travels the country in service to her nearly spiritual in-the-moment musings, her willow-limbed figures ephemeral and hash-marked, comporting themselves outside of realism. The surety of a knife-cut line ensures that stencil-wielding Stephen would not be as on-the-fly when spraying out a portrait, even that of a surrealistic frog sponge being squeezed by his main lady.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spoke with the artists to get their take on the collaborative experience and we learned that despite their stylistic differences the creative partnership was strengthened by “Cypress, Top Wrung” and by facing the challenges of painting outdoors in Brooklyn during January.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did the collaboration come about?

Faring Purth: We met a few years back during the 2013 Wall\Therapy festival in Rochester, New York.  We formed a very unusual close bond after a crazy week of creating – and subsequently surviving a chemical fire on the rooftop of an abandoned building where we were working with a few other artists.  Since then, we have adopted each other as family, becoming very familiar with each other’s work. Collaborating was a natural progression to that.

Thievin’ Stephen: Whenever Faring is back in Rochester we make it a habit to link up, and I’ll take her to paint in one of my favorite abandoned spots. We used to explore together and do separate pieces, but after we had fun on a quick collabo this fall in the abandoned Rochester subway, the next logical step was to work together on a bigger wall. Our schedules lined up, so we decided to take advantage of the bizarre January heat wave and meet in Brooklyn

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faring Purth: It’s our first official, large scale collaboration. We tossed around a few different locations and ideas. Brooklyn ultimately won – we both have a particular love for this area. The piece itself developed through dialogue and then through exchanging sketches until a cohesive blueprint was formed. That blueprint was the basis and we are thrilled with how the piece ultimately manifested.

Brooklyn Street Art: Where did the name Cypress come from, and is that the character in the painting?

Faring Purth: It is. While we were completing the work, two friends of mine gave birth to their first child, a beautiful baby girl whom they named Cypress Valentina. The name immediately struck me and resonated as I continued to carve away at this pearl in the freezing cold. I found myself rolling it off my tongue while shivering and clapping my hands together to get the circulation back in my fingers. The elements tested us to say the very least and “Cypress” became a strange mantra for me the following week – helping me feel a little bit stronger and a tiny bit warmer every time I said it.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thievin’ Stephen: Yeah, Faring usually gives her women a name, and I enjoy using word play related to my imagery

Faring Purth: I ultimately decided the figure in the painting should take the name of her celestial twin.  It’s not every pearl that gets to share their shucking with a human birth. And it’s not every name that carries such profound wisdom. Cypress Valentina is now ten days old.  Cypress, Top Wrung is two days old. I hope one day their paths cross and that they unlock some universal secret not even I know.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The work began immediately after the new year began and that became of certain significance in itself: It’s the first of an epic year to come, the release of an epic year just lived.  This piece exposed me to a very different process than my own and provided me with many tools and lessons going forward. The experience simultaneously tested my body & spirit greatly. By the time the work was actually done, I had massive bruises, battle wounds, & life lessons to show for it.

As for the stylistic juxtaposition of the work & the various narratives the piece inspires, both are open to interpretation and a happy side effect of our familiarity as artists and friends. We knew how to work with and play off of each other’s visions and allow that dialogue to unfold on its own.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Your styles couldn’t be more different yet the balance and the composition works really well within the context of the piece. Can you talk about your thoughts and experiences creating it.

Faring Purth: “Cypress, Top Wrung” was an incredible learning experience both in the complications of the wall itself and in the personal life that was being lived during its creation. As for me, the two are impossible to separate… One always reflects and reveals elements of the other and in so doing provides me with certain personal epiphanies I needed to have at that moment. Suffice to say, creating Cypress was no different in this respect.

Thievin’ Stephen: My favorite collaborations are those where two friends divergent styles come together so that was the most exciting thing about melding my work with Farings’. My color theory mixed with Faring’s grey-scale compliment each other, and I think that’s what makes this mural feel like the true winter-time creation that it is.

It was fun watching the interplay between my sharpness and her fluidity unfold, and you can see it best where the hand and sponge connect, which was the last thing we did. Waiting for that moment to be done, as we went back and forth getting it right, that felt like a big pay off as it was really the first time our two styles merged into one piece. The wall also benefits from the combination of Faring’s painterly line work with my style of stencilism. I put forty something layers of stencils up on this wall. While our aesthetics are certainly far apart, I think the surreal anatomy that Faring gives her women harmonizes with my impossible creatures.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The finished piece probably means quite different things to Faring and me, and I think that makes it a more intriguing creation for the viewer.

It’s always great to be surrounded by the humanity you encounter in Brooklyn, and Bed Stuy never disappoints. A lot of crazy shit and hilarious things happened during the creation of this wall, but nothing overshadows the roof top experience. The elevated train line of the J right behind me was a nice inspiration, along with busy-ass Broadway directly below. You know it’s a memory when you have to put rock salt under your ladders! Being at the top of a ladder on the very corner of a roof top definitely attracts attention. MTA construction guys thought we were nuts. Maybe we were. I’m happy with the wall, and glad it felt like the good old days.

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Faring Purth & Thievin’ Stephen “Cypress, Top Wrung”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The artists would like to thank Cernesto and ArtsOrg for their help.

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Mother Nature At Top of Her Game on the Street

Mother Nature At Top of Her Game on the Street

What’s the name of the original Street Artist? That’s right brothers and sisters, it is Mother Nature. While we all are stumbling and climbing on the streets now, digging out of a snow storm for the record books, you have to look around and admit it, she rules.

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’re continuously following the lexicon of Street Art as it endeavors to be more inclusive of art and artists who were not part of the original definition; a point that is thrilling to some, irksome to others.

But when it comes to urban philosophers and public space, who can deny that many of our aesthetic discussions necessarily must allow for the work of Mother Nature? She is Old Skool for sure, but her legacy is felt throughout the scene and she knows how to keep her work fresh, timely, relevant. Not everyone can say that.

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Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Surely wo/mankind’s egoistic approach to the designed and built environment causes many to be arrogant, even bellicose about our incredible command of the elements. We act as if white gloved or uniformed captains of design and art have trumped the forces of nature.

The more seasoned will tell you that, at the most, architects, sculptors, planners, painters and civil engineers can only hope to be collaborators with this dynamo.

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And what fine work it can be! Her career has an astounding track record and the mastery of line, form, variety, materials is unmatched. Need we mention the soaring volume, the scale of installation, the level of engagement? Christo is but a speck of dust in comparison. Attendance at her New York opening over the weekend was 8.4 million, and the consensus is that Mother Nature is still at the top of her game.

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Smells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ella & Pitr Draw You Their Diary of World Travels in “Baiser D’Encre”

Ella & Pitr Draw You Their Diary of World Travels in “Baiser D’Encre”

Who knew that babies could use so many diapers! What to do when you are in a foreign city and both of you are sick as dogs? Also, we may need a crane to help us finish the world’s largest roof mural.

These considerations are things you draw into your travelogue diary when you are Ella & Pitr, the painters of enormous kings, pilots, and couples cuddled in bed on fields, rooftops, and beaches around the world.

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Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre” Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The French street art couple are never very far from home in their thoughts, even when scoring paint for an enormous multi-roof portrait or flying in a helicopter over top of it – especially when they have a toddler and an infant waiting back at the hotel or at their grandparents’ house in France.

This new book “Baiser D’Encre” (Kiss Ink) captures the drawings Ella & Pitr make at restaurants, bus stops, hotel rooms, and while waiting for a plane – little entertaining sketches from the road with entire stories attached to them that they can share with their kids and family.

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Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre” Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here is a city we went to, these are odd people whom we met, this is Mommy coughing uncontrollably and Daddy ready to vomit.

This hand-drawn diary contains more information about personal and professional relationships, relative personalities, attachments to objects, struggles in life and their ability to lighten a rotten situation with humor than a written diary could.

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Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre” Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Doodles, daydreams, depictions of everyday circumstances, and collaboratively drawn pieces with their kids tell the reader about their interconnected emotions and imaginings in way that thousands of words may fall short.

Encompassing roughly a year of their life, Ella & Pitr give you the good, the bad, and the option to laugh at it all.

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Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre” Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre” Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre” Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Ella & Pitr “Basier D’Encre”. Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015. To order this book click HERE

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BSA Images Of The Week: 01.24.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.24.16

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Happy blizzard weekend New York! Who knew it would be so much fun to run free literally in the streets thanks to a travel ban on all non-emergency cars. It’s a bit of genius really, because if you DO get hit by a car, its probably an ambulance.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Anser, AX, Blek le Rat, BK Foxx, Cern, Domenico Romeo, Horace Panter, Key Detail, LMNOPI, Marthalicia, READ, Sean9Lugo, Solo Selci, This Is Awkward, and WERC.

Our top image: BK Foxx does a black and white mural based on a photograph by Brenda Ann Kenneally for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Solo Selci in Sabina, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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A restaurant uses David Bowie to sell food in Manhattan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Horace Panter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cern heating things up for “Top To Bottom.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Marthalicia for “Top To Bottom“. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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READ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blek le Rat for Wunderkammen Gallery. Rome, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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Blek le Rat for Wunderkammen Gallery. Rome, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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Blek le Rat for Wunderkammen Gallery. Rome, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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This Is Awkward (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Key Details for “Top To Bottom“. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anser for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bathroom graffiti in layers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Domenico Romeo. Monza, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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Sean9Lugo for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ax on the streets of Chicago. (photo © AX)

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WERC for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. January 2016. (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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James Marshall DALEK “The Redistribution of Destruction”

James Marshall DALEK “The Redistribution of Destruction”

A quick look at new works by James Marshall aka Dalek for his show, “The Redistribution of Destruction”. His bright colors and geometric op art is bent through the lens of Murakami and yet glows occasionally with the hallucinatory play of light that Turrel can emanate.

These new pieces are more minimal than we are used to seeing from Dalek and perhaps indicate a comfort with minimalism, and all the courage that implies.

Impeccable, precise geometry, crisply rendered forms, all radiating energy. Please step into the light.

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dalek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

James Marshall DALEK “The Redistribution Of Destruction” is currently on view at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. Click HERE for more information.

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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 :01.22.16

BSA Film Friday :01.22.16

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

Now screening :

1. Narcelio Grud: Public Music Box
2. OXYGEN: Michael Beerens for #Cop21
3. Vera van Wolferen: How To Catch A Bird. Stop action animation based on a childhood memory.
4. Wasteland 2: Trailer by Andrew H Shirley

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BSA Special Feature: Narcelio Grud: Public Music Box

Narcelio Grud has a track record of transforming public space in an unassuming manner that actually engages people directly. Here is his latest urban intervention – a music box for pedestrians to listen to while waiting for the light to change.

OXYGEN: Michael Beerens for #Cop21

A sultry blues and jazz soundtrack gives a laid-back tempo to the unassuming spraying and rolling of white paint, then light blue, then blue, then black. People and police saunter by in this rather poor district of Aubervilliers, near Paris, and sometimes they linger while this swarming school of fish unveils itself before them.

With this painting, I wanted to create a window of oxygen, firstly, to give a bit of fresh air to this area,” Bereens tells BSA. “Especially I wanted to remember that more than half of the oxygen we breathe comes from the oceans, thanks to phytoplankton.”

This large pool of reflection in an otherwise grey area occurred at the invitation of Olivier Landes from the association “Art en Ville” that created the project in combination with the Cop 21 climate conference in Paris last month.

 

Vera van Wolferen: How To Catch A Bird. Stop action animation based on a childhood memory.

This is not related to street art but is possibly inspirational. At the least it succeeds at an almost impossible feat – causing a New Yorker to calm down for 4 minutes and actually follow a story, contemplate it.

“When I was eight; my dad taught me how to fish. He told me to take the worm off the hook after fishing, but I had no idea why. After fishing I forgot about the worm and left it dangling on the hook. If I only knew then what the consequence of this action would be. “

 

Wasteland 2: Trailer by Andrew H Shirley

“This is UFO, his work is everywhere!”

“I’ve been following his tag all over the place!”

“He’s All City?”

“He’s All Knowing.”

This and more thrilling, chilling, and existential dialogue is promised for the upcoming D.I.Y. film “Wasteland 2” from visionary and bon vivant Andrew H Shirley this summer.

With a stellar animal-headed graff cast of Wolftits, Avoid, Smeller, Rambo, Noxer, EKG, and UFO 907 crew on the roster, it’s anyone’s guess where the adventures will take viewers, but there may be beer and weed involved.

“I’m a drop of paint flowing through a rushing river of confusion.” Hilarity ensues!

 

 

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Icy & Sot Stencil An Enormous Blue Whale in LA

Icy & Sot Stencil An Enormous Blue Whale in LA

Street Artists Icy & Sot are thinking about the ocean. More specifically they’re thinking about its largest resident, the blue whale.

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

Up to 110 feet long and 330,000 pounds, the blue whale literally can go 1,600 feet deep below the surface and hold its breath for 10 to 20 minutes.

This brand new mural is the brothers’ first stencil to address endangered species and it took a lot of blade wielding in their Brooklyn studio this month to cut the maritime scene before flying to Los Angeles to spray it out. Their work often speaks of social and political ills such as homelessness, war, arms proliferation, immigration. This is their very first that gives voice to those whose habitats are regularly contaminated and polluted by industry and individuals.

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

“We wanted to use a species that lives in water,” says Sot as they discuss the special project with the Justseeds Cooperative for the Center for Biological Diversity.

“California has suffered a lot recently with their lack of clean water and now the oceans are often polluted as well,” says Sot.

“There is so much plastic pollution in the ocean too,” Icy continues. “What it does to the animals is really bad. I was reading this article and turtles eat jellyfish for their diet. But then people throw plastic bags in the ocean and the turtle thinks they are jellyfish and they eat the plastic. A lot of sea creatures have plastic bags inside of their bodies – they find them when the animals are caught.”

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

The brothers spent two solid days hand cutting the multi-layer stencil here on Melrose Avenue. How many pieces? “19 pieces,” says Icy. “Its not that big but it has a lot of details” The composite image features an enormous whale emerging from the sea in full view of a coastline packed with industrial forms which presumably are dumping contaminants directly into the waters.

As ever, the brothers crash into each others sentences while talking to us. “Whatever happens in the ocean… it comes back to us,” says Sot. “Whether is trash or plastics or oil..”

Icy jumps in, “The fish eat them and then we eat the animals and we have the plastics inside of us.”

“Yeah, It’s a cycle. We are all making a lot of trash – we are affecting the world. Then it all comes back to us,” says Sot.

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

In coordination with scientist Noah Greenwald and Roger Peet, an artist who has been painting murals for this endangered species initiative, Icy & Sot are contributing their skill to help raise awareness about our direct impact on the ocean and animal life.

“The goal is to paint murals about endangered species in communities around the country, near to where those species are found, trying to increase awareness of and connection between communities and their ecologies. We’ve done four so far,” says Peet, and he sights locations in Idaho, Montana, Minnesota, and Alabama.

From the mission statement of the project:
“Everywhere on the earth is special, and has qualities that distinguish it from other places both nearby and far away. One of those qualities is the biodiversity of a place, the plants and animals that call that place home and that maybe aren’t found anywhere else. Those plants and animals embody the history of a place and its future, and contribute to what makes a place special. Many of them are, unfortunately, endangered.”

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

 

Recent news headlines:

21,000 Gallons of Oil Leak Into Ocean Off California …

Fracking Waste is Being Dumped Into the Ocean Off California’s Coast 

Legal Petition Urges EPA to Ban Dumping of Offshore Fracking Chemicals Into California’s Ocean

3 Billion Gallons of Highly-Toxic Fracking Waste Dumped

Millions of Tons of Trash Dumped Into World’s Oceans

 

Our special thanks to photographer and artist Jess X. Chen for sharing these images with BSA readers.

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

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Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

 

Here is the link of the project’s site for more information and to find out how you can help or/and get involved: http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/about/creative_media/endangered_species_mural_project/index.html

Thank you to artist Roger Peet for his assistance with this article. More on Roger’s work here: toosphexy.com.

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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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Queens Hit “Top To Bottom” by New Mural Project in L.I.C.

Queens Hit “Top To Bottom” by New Mural Project in L.I.C.

The spirit of New Yorks’ 5 Pointz graffiti/Street Art holy place has popped up in the same Queens neighborhood where it was demolished in 2014, and since last summer more than 50 local and international aerosol artists have been hitting a new project “Top to Bottom”.

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The choice of “Top to Bottom”, a graffiti term that recalls 1970s trains painted their entire height, is no mistake as creative director James P. Quinn reveres the classic style and histories of those original writers like internationally and institutionally celebrated artists Crash and Daze, who have collaborated on a mural here.

Additionally, in yet another sign that the celebration of art on the streets is ever more ecumenical, Quinn and his project lead Geoff Kuffner are bringing the newer Street Artists who are expanding and  defining the current era for art in the streets like Case Ma’Claim and Rubin 415. Not surprisingly, both of these artists started in graffiti, as did nearly every name here.

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Case MaClaim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I felt like a comfortable amount of space should be allocated to certain styles,” says Quinn as he describes the process of parceling out spots for the façade and roof of  the 124,000-square-foot former warehouse. Truthfully, he tells us, not all the surfaces and shapes are attractive to graffiti artists, so a variety of styles is best.

“I tried to fit them in where I felt that graff writers could enjoy themselves and do something expansive. There are only a couple of spaces here that fit the epic, horizontally spaced forms of style writing. There are a lot of strange shapes to navigate as a painter here, rather than easy space to develop style as a writer.”

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Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quinn and Kuffner give a couple of visitors a tour around the entire block on a gray day where heavy fog hangs in the air obscuring the top half of Manhattan and they excitedly recall stories about the many installations in this first project of their newly formed Arts Org NYC. Using the word “garden” often, Quinn reiterates that this project for them is a “proof of concept” for bigger projects that will spread further through the city. “Ultimately I’m approaching it as a mural project,” says Quinn, who has organized mural programs a number of times since the 1990s. “It’s just a beginning.”

Street Art has evolved into districts of murals in cities as a gentrification device in the last five years and despite the critique that it is often used for economic development, many urban art watchers would also agree that we’re in the middle of a renaissance of public/private art. Quinn says he wants to capture part of the public’s new interest and make it grow. “I’d like to leverage the current hype and acceptance of mural painting to open up doors to people – old women, young kids, everybody.”

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Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The neighborhood itself feels like it is in transition but it is not clear where it is heading. With Silvercup Studios and the number 7 subway line nearby and MoMA PS1 within a 10 minute walk, a quick survey reveals mixed light industry, sweatshops, corner delis, and the occasional strip club. Below the off-ramp of the Queensboro Bridge, which sweeps past the “Top to Bottom” exhibition, you will see first and second generation immigrants from the areas’ latin and African communities walking by, and Quinn reminds you that the Queensbridge Projects where Hip-Hop storyteller NAS grew up is just a short walk from here.

Conversation turns to plans for more focused programming on the walls in Phase II, possible fine art shows with local gallery spaces, and ultimately a city-wide mural project that offers art and art-making to greater audiences, including school kids.

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I do feel like murals get focused in certain locations but I feel like the entire city as a whole is still suffering. Huge demographics aren’t getting the painting,” he says, invoking the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. “I feel like my ‘I Have a Dream’ speech about this project is that I hope it gets to the point where 10 year-olds can have as much access to a neighborhood as developers.”

Does he think that projects like this are pawns for business interests to draw investments into the neighborhood and push poorer populations out? “You can debate whether or not we are opening the way for more shiny condos… but that shit is happening whether we do this or not. For me the importance is keeping us here; So we’re not totally pushed out 30-45 minutes away from here”

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Because of its proximity to the now destroyed 5 Pointz, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of urban artists painted a much larger block repeatedly for two decades, we ask Quinn if he’s concerned with comparisons.

“I’ve always managed other projects like this in my own style and my own way. There are comparable aspects and I have nothing but a huge sensitivity and respect for Meres and 5 Pointz,” he says, referring to the artist and de facto director of the hallowed spot. “It’s comparable only because it’s a building and it’s in Long Island City. But this is only a jump-off. I want to do way more projects like this across the city.”

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As the business partners walk past new pieces by DMote, Li-Hill, Icy & Sot, and Jick, the topic of the historically strained relationship between graffiti writers and Street Artists appears to be addressed head-on by the project by the inclusion of all manner of painter. The guys say that it is less of an issue than some people would have you think. As a long-time artist and muralist and curator of projects like this, Quinn says he’s over the supposed rivalry of the two camps, and sees mainly just one camp these days.

“I don’t know what the fans of graffiti or Street Art have any problem with. To me it’s all awesome.”

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alexandre Keto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EGS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NEVER and Dirty Bandits (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zumi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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PORK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Key Details (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Yes Two (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pixote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kans115 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze . Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Erasmo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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