August 2016

Artmossphere Dispatch 3: Remi, Luka, Ito and the Move Toward Contemporary

Artmossphere Dispatch 3: Remi, Luka, Ito and the Move Toward Contemporary

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This week BSA is in Moscow with you and Urban Nation for Artmossphere 2016, the 2nd Street Art Biennale, a group exposition introducing 26 Russian and 42 foreign artists who were shaped by street art in some way. Also present are international curators, museums and galleries who have significantly intersected with urban art in recent years.

A few more hours until the opening of the Artmossphere Biennale and we have seen many very successful installations – from the aesthetic to the conceptual, painterly to the sculptural, pure joy and pure politics.

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Brazil’s Paulo Ito recreated a comedic industrial-looking street scene over come by the mythical powers of the can-wielding graffiti writer. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In a word, when Street Art and graffiti artists pass the precipice into a multi-disciplinary exhibition such as this, one realizes that this scene has become an important tributary to contemporary art – and one with staying power that very well may re-direct the flow.

Perhaps the street practice is just a training ground for some or these artistss, a formative touchstone for others. It’s up to you to divine what the through-line is among these pieces, as diverse as the collection is. We think that there is a certain defiance present in many works, and a healthy skepticism toward existing hierarchical structures, but that’s just us projecting perhaps.

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Alex Sena. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Claudio Ethos. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Remi Rough is known for his smartly soaring abstract geometry in painted murals and smaller scale works, and for Artmossphere he wanted to strip his typical practice back to the basics, approaching a white box with one undulating graphic composition.

“My idea was that Moscow’s a bit ‘over the top’,” he says, and he decided to pare the audacity and go for simplicity, which actually takes courage.

“I said ‘you know what?’ – I want to do something with the cheapest materials that you can possibly get. These two pieces literally cost about 3,000 rubles ($50). It’s felt material, it’s like lambs wool. I think they use it for flooring for construction.”

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Remi Rough. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I wanted to do something peaceful and calming and to use natural materials – something that’s different from what I usually do – but I use the folds in the fabric and the pink color – two things that I usually use a lot.”

And the crisply painted pink dot? “The circle takes it back to the wall and takes it back to the kind of perfection that I like to get. I love the imperfection of the fabric as well – I love the rough edges – a kind of counter-perfection. For me this interpretation of my own work was quite freestyle.”

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Misha Buryj. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Moscow’s Alexey Luka is also challenging himself  to stretch creatively by taking his wall collage installations of found wood and converting them into free-standing sculptures.

“For this biennale I tried to make something different so now I am going from the assemblages to 3-D.”

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Alexey Luka. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“My work is made from found wood – I use what I find on the street and with my shapes and my graphics –  so it’s kind of an experiment with three dimensions,” and he says most of this wood is sourced here in Moscow. We watch him completing his singular wall piece and notice that he has painted many eyes into the composition.

“In the 2-D piece I try to combine very simple geometric shapes with the eyes and make a huge composition on the wall.” Perhaps these eyes are Muscovites?

“They are just like observers,” he says.

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Hot Tea. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Minneapolis-based artist Hot Tea usually does huge colorful yarn installations that transform public space, but for the biennale he is taking the conceptual route. The walk-in room is based on the Whack-A-Mole game. With white fabric stretched wall to wall at chest level within the cube, meter-wide holes are cut which a visitor can crouch under and rise above.

Visitors/participants will experience the physical separation of space, and perhaps contemplate facing one another or ignoring each other – with absolutely no other visual distraction. It is something he says he hopes will draw attention to how many walls we have allowed ourselves to distract us from human interactions.

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Gola. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Spiritual, scientific, and environmental topics are often intertwined in the works of Italy’s Gola, who has bundled Moscow branches and buried something glowing and golden within them.

These days, he’s being a bit more formal in his approach. “Now I’m trying to go in a kind of didactic way always – a little bit more more environmental stuff. Yes, I think it’s important.”

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Finok. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mimmo RubKandy. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Torino’s Mimmo RubKandy recreated the Moscow Olympic village from 1980, now a home for hundreds of families, and a hip-hop graffiti scene as well. The soaring towers are painted in scale with tiny graffiti tags, throwies, extinguisher tags, and the like – at the base and on the the roofs.

Curator Christian Omodeo tells us that these are taken directly from the artists investigations of the site as it exists today. It is striking that the scale reduces the impact of the graffiti – yet when experienced at eye-level it has a potency. Accompanying the towers are framed photos of the current site via Google images, including blurred faces and logos.

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Mimmo RubKandy. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mimmo RubKandy. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artmossphere Dispatch 2 : Li-Hill, M-City, and Invisible Walls

Artmossphere Dispatch 2 : Li-Hill, M-City, and Invisible Walls

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This week BSA is in Moscow with you and Urban Nation for Artmossphere 2016, the 2nd Street Art Biennale, a group exposition introducing 26 Russian and 42 foreign artists who were shaped by street art in some way. Also present are international curators, museums and galleries who have significantly intersected with urban art in recent years.

Startlingly similar in theme to the multidisciplinary exhibit about borders and boundaries curated by Raphael Schacter this spring in St. Petersburg, Artmossphere has asked artists to think about and address the “invisible walls” in contemporary life and societies.

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Li-Hill. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The themes are understandable of course, and perplexing to us all as walls are falling down rapidly while the foundations of new ones are taking shape. Catalyzed perhaps by the concept/practice of so-called “globalization” – where capital flows easily and humans are restricted – we are all examining the walls that are directing our lives.

Artist Li-Hill says his piece “Guns, Germs, and Steel” directly relates to the divisions between civilizations due to a completely uneven playing field perpetuated through generations. Inspired by the 1997 trans-disciplinary non-fiction book by Jared Diamond, Li-Hill says he combines it with pieces by the Russian sculptural group called “The Horse Tamers”. Together the forms represents mankind’s “ability to harness power of the natural world and to be able to manipulate it for its advantage.”

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Wes21. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The horse is one of the largest signifiers and is a catalyst for advancement in society because it has been for military use, for agriculture, for transportation,” he says.

“It was the most versatile of the animals and the most powerful.” Here he painted a mirror image, balanced over a potential microbial disaster symbol, and he and the team are building a mirrored floor to “give it this kind of infinite emblem status.”

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Pink Power. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With 60+ artists working simultaneously throughout this massive hall, walls are the imperative for displaying art, supporting it, dividing it. Many are being built in this exhibition hall as we speak. These are the visible ones. With so many players and countries represented here, one can only imagine that there are a number of invisible walls present as well.

Afloat in the middle of some of these walled areas M-City from Poland is choosing to be more direct thematically in his three dimensional installation of plywood, plaster, aerosol and bucket paint, and machine blown insulation.

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M.City. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“It is an anti-war piece,” he says, and he speaks about the walls between nations and sense that it is a losing battle of dominance that ensures everyone will be victim.”

“It’s kind of a monster who destroys arms,” he says of the lording figure who crushing tanks below. “He is destroying the tanks – but at the same time he is also a destroyer. So it’s a big circle. Nothing positive can come out of this. There is always someone bigger.” M-City tells us that the piece is inspired by the political situations in Europe today and the world at large.

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Remi Rough work in progress. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For our part, we’re impressed by how quickly these walls are going up and the relative calm that the teams of artists and installers are working under, even as the deadline of the opening of this years’ Artmossphere draws perilously close.

See you tomorrow!

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L’Atlas. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Krzysztof “Proembrion” Syruc. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Johannes Mundinger. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Galo. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (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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Artmossphere Dispatch 1 : L’Atlas, Sepe, Martha, and All Female Graffiti Jam

Artmossphere Dispatch 1 : L’Atlas, Sepe, Martha, and All Female Graffiti Jam

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This week BSA is in Moscow with you and Urban Nation for Artmossphere 2016, the 2nd Street Art Biennale, a group exposition introducing 26 Russian and 42 foreign artists who were shaped by street art in some way. Also present are international curators, museums and galleries who have significantly intersected with urban art in recent years.

August is the month and August is the name of the driver and Russian graffiti/Street artist who is taking us through Moscow in his car with Martha Cooper to discover fresh new work by L’Atlas on a tall wall in a parking lot.

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L’Atlas. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As you ride the scissor lift on hydraulic legs higher to get the right shot in the late summer sun and see the final strokes of L’Atlas’ bar coded geometry, you may find it purely abstract. It’s actually his name.

The French graffiti writer explains that his linear roller piece is an evolution from his first days spraying tags in more traditional ways.

“You know my idea is always to write my name in the same manner that I used to do in graffiti,” he explains, “It’s not so easy to see my name – like you cannot read it the first time. It’s about form, it’s about color, geometry in relation to the architecture.” Here the color is red, because we’re in Moscow, he says.

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L’Atlas. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It is not unusual for passerby in other cities to stop and take photos and ask questions about the art or the artist.

Do passersby stop and ask questions about his work here? “No they have not asked me anything. Really nobody has asked me anything. I don’t know why. Normally everyone wants to know what I am doing.”

Many people were asking questions at the all-girl graffiti jam named “Code Red” at an artist compound/mini-mall/exhibition space we stopped at. Of course most of them were questions to Martha Cooper, who was stopped every few meters and asked to sign a black book or pose for a photo, which she happily and gamely did.

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Code Red. All Girls Graffiti Jam in Moscow posing with Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A Code Red participant selfie with Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This was her second time here today; she had checked in earlier on the progress of the female writers, many of whom are a bit shy when approaching her. One young buck, however, nearly demands that she write exactly the name of his crew as she dedicates something in his book and asks that she pose in one picture with a t-shirt and one holding her camera.

As ever, Martha is gracious to the last fan.

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Sepe. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Back at the Manege – the massive neoclassical building west of Alexander Garden that once held horses from the Kremlin and is now being built inside to house the Artmossphere Biennale. We show our passports and go through the metal detector and see Sepe, a Warsaw-based artist here with Urban Nation, atop a ladder rolling out a multilayered structured chaos across a huge wall.

His sketch taped on the canvas indicates that there will be forms arranged across this bed of color as the composition progresses. We’re intrigued by his description that is based on this year’s theme of invisible walls and the boundaries of personal freedom.

“It is more like my interpretation,” Sepe tells us. “It is just about the people who are behind everything – who are using others as puppets to do whatever they want.”

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Sepe. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of course, rewards are sought by everyone, and Britains’ Sick Boy is on a ladder of his own painting the outside of what will be a rewarding interactive pleasure house. He calls the project The Rewards System and he shows you where people will climb a ladder and descend down a slide into the darkened house where they will set off a series of sensors that activate a variety of multisensory lights and tantalizing patterns – then you exit on your hands and knees through a too small square door.

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ETHOS. Installation in progress. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The concept of the show is about invisible walls so I was thinking about there being barriers in your life and I thought about the reward of endorphins one experiences for achieving a task – a small amount of endorphins. So I thought I would build a house that signifies the reward system,” he explains with that wry smile you’ve come to expect from an artist who calls himself “sick”.

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Miss Van. Artmossphere. Moscow International Biennale of Street Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The rest of the show production is well underway and many artists are busy painting, sculpting, papering, suspending, or otherwise plotting. Miss Van has brought a carpet to hang, and is going through a brand new set of pieces on paper that she’ll be hanging for the show.

It’s a lot of activity and people will be working late into the night to prepare for Tuesday’s opening. We even get the chance at revealing to the world our non-existent command of the can inside a newly erected metal shed. Yes, Brooklyn is in the дом !

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August with Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The full piece by Kostya August. Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.28.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.28.16

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“Back in the USSR” comes to mind as we touched down in Moscow yesterday to see and speak with the 60+ Street Artists who are creating this impressive 2nd Street Art biennale “Artmossphere” just a stone’s throw away from the Kremlin, Red Square and The International Military Music Festival that runs all week as well. We’ll be bringing you new stuff all week as part of our partnership with Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art (UN), investigating the creative process with artists, curators, and the organizing force behind all of this event.

In the mean time, we bring you work from New York and elsewhere in this week’s fine edition of BSA Images of the Week.

So, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Aduk, Buff Monster, Crisp, Hiss, Lena Shu, Logan Hicks, Olek, and Wolfe Work.

Above: Logan Hicks. Detail of his mural “Story of My Life” on the Houston/Bowery wall,  which pays tribute to the personal and professional friends and family who have helped him in the last 10 years in NYC. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Logan Hicks at work on his Houston Wall mural. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Logan Hicks. Detail. Houston Wall. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Logan Hicks. Houston Wall. New York City. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Olek Our Pink House for Kerava Art Museum. Finland. August 2016. (photo © Olek)

Our Pink House is a new crocheted covering for a house (the second) by Street Artist OLEK – this one associated with Kerava Art Museum’s upcoming exhibition Yarn Visions, which will place the spotlight on knitted, crocheted, tufted and embroidered works.

Drawing an analogy of protection and safety in these pink crocheting patterns that stretch from the top of the chimney to the foundation of stone, this building in Kereva in southern Finland, where many bombs fell during The Winter War of 1939-40. Olek says she is concerned about the 21 million people worldwide who lost their homes due to war and conflicts in 2015 and she wants to create community based projects like this one to draw attention to the topic, and to provide some healing as well.

This particular project enlisted the help of a large group of volunteers, immigrants and women from a reception centre for asylum seekers who she brought together to crochet this covering. “Our Pink House” is about the journey, not just about the artwork itself.  It’s about us coming together as a community.  It’s about helping each other. We can show everybody that women can build houses, women can make homes,”she says. – OLEK

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Nailed it! Hiss is caught up in the Pokemon Go craze that has captured the attention of children, teens, and a certain photographer we know who is a perennial child at heart. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Wolfe Work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CRISP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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ADUK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Lena Shu in progress for Artmossphere – Moscow International Biennale of Street Art 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unintended collaboration on the streets of Moscow.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Moscow, Russia. August 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“UNIQA” Public Sculpture Project Begins in Łódź with “LUMP”

“UNIQA” Public Sculpture Project Begins in Łódź with “LUMP”

One of the most successful mural festivals in Europe is shifting the focus to the sculptural, considering seriously the public interaction with objects in the 3rd dimension.

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

6 years of Łódź Murals is now giving way to the UNIQA Art Łódź Project and, by years end. 6 new artists will be installing temporary and permanent sculptures, bas-reliefs, installations, and site-specific realizations in this Polish city of 722,000.

Today we have the first series of installations that reclaim public advertising columns as oversize kitchen objects commonly found in Poland during the 1950s-1980s, when this country was called The Polish People’s Republic.

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

A subtle ode to a period that the new generation of Millenials will not be familiar, the “Kingsize” project by the artist named LUMP recreates a coffee machine, vacuum flask, pepper shaker, jub, washing machine, and seltzer bottle that all would have been common in homes during those decades.

The three month installation along Piotrkowska Street by the Szczecin-based artist are meant to revive a sort of common memory, if not a longing for an earlier time – or maybe just to remind you of Grandma’s kitchen.

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

“ Łódź’s murals are famous all over the world and have become major icons of the city,” UNIQA director Michał Bieżyński, as he explains his new vision for these new artworks in the city that people can view from a different perspective.

“Diverse materials and technologies will be employed to make the project as varied as possible. It is essential that residents be presented with the broadest possible range of graphic solutions so that the project, beside the purely artistic format, will offer some visual education.”

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

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LUMP for  UNIQA Art Łódź Project. Łódź, Poland. August 2016. (photo © Michał Bieżyński)

 

Our most sincere thanks to Mr. Bieżyński for sharing this project in exclusive with BSA. For more about UNIQA Art Łódź Project visit:

www.facebook.com/lodzmurals

https://instagram.com/lodzmurals

.

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BSA Film Friday: 08.26.16

BSA Film Friday: 08.26.16

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

Now screening :

1. Ella & Pitr: Utsira Island
2. Shepard Fairey Paints Fannie Lee Chaney mural “Voting Rights”
3. The Sound of Strijp-S Mural

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BSA Special Feature: Ella & Pitr: Utsira Island

It is funny to see this video stamped with the name “Street Art, Utsira ” because Utsira is an island with about 200 inhabitants off the coast of Norway, and there not many streets.  Also, this piece is not on a street.

Regardless, french roof painting couple Ella & Pitr made a trip there recently and squeezed in one of there cuddly characters, who looks like he is on the lamb from the huge childrens story book that he escaped from. Stay tuned for some exclusive shots and reportage on the making of this piece and their upcoming show at the local pub!

 

Shepard Fairey Paints Fannie Lee Chaney mural “Voting Rights”

It’s not finished yet in this home made time lapse, but it is is educational to see how Shepard Fairey works when creating this mural across from the entrance of Burning Man.

Based on a James Marshall photograph of Fannie Lee Chaney, Shepard is teaching us about civics and the importance of the right to vote. Mrs. Chaney’s son was killed along with two white friends while trying to register black people to vote by the Klu Klux Klan in the 1964 Freedom Summer rides in Mississippi.

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The Sound of Strijp-S Mural

A very slick and commercial mural of artists who have performed here in the Strijp-S district of the Dutch city of Eindhoven.

This is the home of electronics giant Phillips, which explains the shout out on the mural. The eclectic lineup of artists includes Belin, Zenk One, Vincent Huibers, Sven Sanders ,Pim Bens and Studio Giftig.

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The London Police Arrest The Quin Hotel

The London Police Arrest The Quin Hotel

Chaz and Bob, those lads from London, have come to 57th street in Manhattan to show some new and previously displayed artworks in the lobby of the Quin Hotel. Under the direction of curator DK Johnson, the lobby has been home to a number of brief exhibitions in the last couple of years by Street Artists and their ilk.

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The London Police. Detail. At The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a limited time you can see the precise handiwork of these two as The London Police takeover the welcoming area of the hotel, as well as adding to the shipping/receiving doors to the left of the entrance on the street.

In addition to the new collaborative black ink drawings by the The London Police, there are a few larger canvases featuring more expansive otherworldly scenes hinting at their global exploits, studies of space, architecture, robots, graffiti tags, favorite bands, assorted friends, and their iconic LAD characters.

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The London Police, with special guest, Jane Fonda. Detail. At The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of particular note are the animated sequences of images floating gently across the multi-screened collage in the lofted lobby, a permanent digital display that has become part of the Quin gallery experience and provides a new way to appreciate the featured artist/s.

Don’t forget you can catch their huge wall at Coney Art Walls as we enter autumn and you can see this summer’s collection of walls by some of the best public/fine/street/urban artists in one dizzying maze.

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The London Police. Detail. At The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. Detail. At The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. The Quin. Curated by DK Johnston. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

The London Police Solo exhibition at The Quin in Manhattan is currently on view and open to the public. Click HERE for further information.

 

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1UP in Berlin : “ ‘All City’ Doesn’t Even Begin to Cover It ”

1UP in Berlin : “ ‘All City’ Doesn’t Even Begin to Cover It ”

An amorphous shape-shifting consortium of Berlin-based aerosol hooligans named 1UP is one of those graffiti crews who eventually make the entry into graffiti street lore because of the scope and daring of their travails.

Primarily Berlin based, you’ll find their almost-commercial sounding name on roofs, walls, abandoned factories, and in tunnels in many cities around the globe. Without a clear idea of the exact number in their association nor precise membership these daredevils are most often described as white men in their twenties and early thirties reveling in the athleticism and sport of graffiti, in addition to style. The tag itself appears to be rather “open source” at times, with only insiders able to keep track of the distinct hand styles forming the ubiquitous name on thousands of surfaces.

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spent a few days in Berlin recently and easily collected a handful of images here to share, but it the actual number one could capture would fill a bulky tome.

“1Up Crew…? ‘All City’ doesn’t even begin to cover it, these guys smash walls like sledgehammers,” says Roland Henry, managing editor and a journalist for VNA (Very Nearly Almost), the UK-based independent magazine that has featured interviews with some of the world’s top artists, illustrators and photographers from the urban art scene over the last 10 years. Living in Berlin this spring and summer after calling London home for many years, Mr. Henry says he still hasn’t stopped seeing new 1UP’s.

In a city famously permissive, even celebratory, toward graffiti culture like Berlin, once you notice one 1UP tag on a wall you can’t stop seeing them – like the time your brother started dating that Mexican girl in high school and suddenly you realized that there were hot tamales everywhere! – In the hallways, at the laundromat, in the park, at the corner grocery.

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1UP in progress. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Spend any time in Berlin and one thing is immediately glaringly obvious: 1UP have their hometown on lockdown,” says photographer and graffiti expert Luna Park, whose forthcoming New York contemporary graffiti book (UN)Sanctioned will be released on Carpet Bombing Culture books in October.

“Take the time and dedication that your average all city bomber expends in getting their name out – now multiply that by 20. Maybe you’ll come close to grasping 1UP’s prodigious output. If there were an Olympic sport for team graffiti, surely 1UP would be gold medal contenders. Not only do they excel at all graffiti disciplines, they take what it means to push a crew to the most logical extreme.”

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Park’s point about disciplines is well taken, as not one discernible specific style or medium is used by this one united power – throwies, bubble tags, wildstyle, rollers, juicy markers, sculptures, extinguisher tags.

But it is working as an organized crew covering multiple cars on trains that they are perhaps most well known for – covering cars top to bottom, end to end – in a few short minutes.

“Look up their legendary and brazen daytime whole-car missions on YouTube and you’ll begin to understand this is a crew that seriously rolls deep,” says Ms. Park. “Better yet, get your hands on their “One United Power” film and prepare to be inspired by their global exploits.”

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now in their 13th year, at this point 1UP is a brand (sort of like its older cousin 7UP) – and it probably shows up on scatter charts in PowerPoint slides in advertising and marketing conference rooms – desired psychographics and demographics analyzed, sought after, targeted.

But keep the numbers in perspective – they can’t rival the millions of illegal logos plastered across our cities in violation of numerous regulations. You think graffiti is lawless? Hell, try advertising – it’s nearly completely unregulated in cities like New York and the very few laws that exist are rarely enforced. That Coke crew, for example, they are seriously worldwide with their bombing and tagging – taking over hectares of public space and millions of atoms of mindshare.

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

World-traveling superstar urban art photographer Martha Cooper, who has been tracking graffiti since trains were first plastered with aerosol paint in the late 1970s and whose first namesake library will open next year with the inauguration of the Urban Nation Museum for Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, says she’s had some time to observe 1UP, and she acknowledges their status.

“This very active crew has sprayed the world with an impressive assortment of carefully-planned, well-executed tags, throwies and pieces above and below ground,” says Cooper. “Big Up to 1Up for helping to keep the original outlaw spirit of graffiti alive.”

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

 

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post.

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Skount “Tempus Fugit” : Time Waits for No Person

Skount “Tempus Fugit” : Time Waits for No Person

Spanish Skount in the Netherlands wonders today about the evaporation of time, ever slipping from your fingers.

He says his new mural, of which he has done perhaps a hundred that we know of over the last few years, is inspired by a quote about time by the poet Virgil, “Tempus Fugit”

“Sed fugit interea, irreparavile tempus fugit”

(But time is lost, which never will renew).

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Skount. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. August 2016. (photo © Skount)

Somehow we have not mastered it, and time continues to wait for no one. “I painted this mural as a reflection of the time that eludes us,” the philosopher street artist tells us. “Living life as a pursuit of distant goals that can sometimes be a burden. Rather than live as a set of present moments, planned in the short term; time flies, time slips away, time is diluted and only leaves us memories in the memory.”

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Skount. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. August 2016. (photo © Skount)

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Skount. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. August 2016. (photo © Skount)

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Skount. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. August 2016. (photo © Skount)

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Skount. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. August 2016. (photo © Skount)

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‘Homo Naledi’ in Baltimore Points to Our Modern De-Evolution

‘Homo Naledi’ in Baltimore Points to Our Modern De-Evolution

When you look at the corporate yellow journalism flashing across screens today, the shallow and sensational rhetoric may lead you to believe we are devolving as a race. In fact it is just the opposite in many quarters, so media literacy is more important now than ever to discern who is propagating this narrative, and to what ends?

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Alfredo Segatori and Pablo Machioli (photo © Matt Fox-Tucker/BA Street Art)

Certainly many cultural observers deduct that man and woman have not progressed since prehistory and a new Baltimore mural by Street Artists Alfredo Segatori (Argentina) and Pablo Machioli (Uruguay) is a throw-back to our less-evolved selves. “I believe that cavemen still exist today and this mural is a like a mirror to look back at our roots,” says Segatori about the singular ‘Homo Naledi’ figure whose bones were discovered by anthropologists in South Africa in 2015  “We need to decide what future we want for our kids and if we want to move forward as a human race.”

The mural is part of a larger initiative including more than 20 street artists participating in a two continent cultural exchange between Baltimore and Buenos Aires, an outside component of a gallery show entitled “Roots”. The show is curated by Baltimores’ Richard Best of Section 1 Project and Matt Fox-Tucker of Buenos Aires Street Art along with local Gallery 788.

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Alfredo Segatori and Pablo Machioli (photo © Matt Fox-Tucker/BA Street Art)

As Street Art and murals are continuing to bring more of the social and political themes to the streets in cities like Baltimore and Buenos Aires, traditional organizers of public art programming appear to be on the wane – perhaps because taxpayer funded initiatives have evaporated in most cities and more complex privately funded programs triangulate outcomes.

Actual grassroots organizers of programs like this, while still related to a gallery show, are more likely to respect intellectual rigor and are increasingly carving out their own curatorial niche. It is an interesting crack in the dialogue in public space where the final artworks often respond to society in more challenging ways, rather than producing only pleasing imagery and messages approved by committee or commercial interests.

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Alfredo Segatori and Pablo Machioli (photo © Matt Fox-Tucker/BA Street Art)

For Segatori, this mural is a direct response to how we are behaving as a race – particularly toward one another. “I believe that in the world today there is still a lot of violence and intolerance so the idea of our mural is to show the reality of the society that we live in,” says Segatori of the new piece.

“There are people around us who are still forced to live in poverty, suffer from racism, discrimination and persecution due to the color of their skin.” Whether locals will take this message away from the mural is anyone’s guess, but the organizers of “Roots-Raices” say they hope to open the discussion between communities about how to assist in our collective evolution.

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Alfredo Segatori and Pablo Machioli (photo © Matt Fox-Tucker/BA Street Art)

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Alfredo Segatori and Pablo Machioli (photo © Matt Fox-Tucker/BA Street Art)

‘Roots’ brings together artworks by more than 20 street artists from Argentina and Baltimore exploring origins, cultural identities and social and racial history. Baltimore street artists who have created new artworks for the show include Gaia, Pablo Machioli, Paul Mericle, Billy Mode, Nether, Reed, Mas Paz, Ernest Shaw, Gregg Deal, Lee Nowell-Wilson and Toven plus photographs by Martha Cooper. Argentine artists represented are Alfredo Segatori are Nazza Stencil, El Marian, Luxor, Ice, Patxi Mazzoni Alonso, Maxi Bagnasco, Primo and Juan Zeballos.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.21.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.21.16

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Here we go! Eat all the last fresh corn-on-the-cob, watermelon, lemonade, tomatoes, green beans, black berries, peaches that you can get before the summer disappears and your local grocer turns all those things into plastic hot-house versions imported from Pluto and transported with a million gallons of fossil fuel to you table. New York has many farmers markets and delis with fresh produce — it is not all expensive either.  Chinatown in Manhattan still has some of the coolest stuff to eat and hasn’t jacked up the prices.

We’ve been riding around New York looking for new Street Art and for those who are complaining that the scene has devolved into festivals and large murals, you are just being lazy and relying on the Internet for all your news. There are so many artists out putting up small one-off individual pieces with social and political messages on the street – and of course there is a lot of aesthetically pleasing stuff as well. Its all alive and well and we are still missing much of it.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Baron Von Fancy, Buff Monster, bunny M, Crisp, El Sol 25, Mister Melty, PaytoPray, QRST, Space Invader, and Square, Suckadelic.

Our top image: QRST. An ad takeover in Brooklyn, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Buff Monster. Mister Melty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Buff Monster. Mister Melty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Baron Von Fancy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Square. Being Their. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pussy Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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An unidentified artist impression of a deranged con artist trying to fool the whole USA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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#overthrownewyork (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crisp (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crisp (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Invader Ninja (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Suckadelic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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#paytopray (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Manhattan sunset and the East River. July 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos “Battlecat” and Lauren YZ “Night Flight” in Providence

Nychos “Battlecat” and Lauren YZ “Night Flight” in Providence

Exclusive shots today for you from Nychos and Lauren Ys in with his “Battlecat” and her “Night Flight” in Providence, Rhode Island. With styles that are complimentarily in some of their fantasy based origins, you can discern differences in personal style. As you might guess, these two artists have also collaborated successfully on pieces, most recently in Brooklyn a couple of months ago.

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Nychos “Battlecat” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

For these pieces that were curated by their hosts from Inoperable Gallery, the two artists were thinking about species of animals that are disappearing due to climate change and man-made threats to their existence. Nicholas Platzer, who curated for the project, tells us that the news on television and the Internet during the days they were painting these was full of talk about racism, violence, division – but that’s not what he was feeling.

Neither were local kids. “The community around us was welcoming, excited, positive, and enamored with the murals. What started as a project to raise awareness for endangered species became more about the unification of people through art and the sustainability of mankind,” says Nicholas.

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Nychos “Battlecat” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Nychos “Battlecat” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Nychos “Battlecat” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Nychos “Battlecat” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Ben Jacobsen)

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Lauren YS “Night Flight” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Lauren YS “Night Flight” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Lauren YS “Night Flight” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Lauren YS “Night Flight” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Jharyd Harrera)

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Lauren YS “Night Flight” for The Avenue Concept in conjunction with Inoperable Gallery. Providence, RI. July 2016. (Photo © Ben Jacobsen)

 

 

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