October 2017

Felipe Pantone Hits NYC Streets and GR Gallery with Solo “Planned Iridescence”

October 19, 2017 Artists, Interview

Street Artist Felipe Pantone opens a new show tonight and gifts two new outside walls to NYC. BSA talks to him and GR gallery director Alberto Pasini about the exhibition.

An established studio in the north-eastern Italian town of Sacile since the late 1970s, the Studio d’Arte GR has specialized in Kinetic, Op, and Programmed art for decades. Curating what they estimate to be over 300 shows worldwide over that time, their GR Gallery is relatively new to New York, opening in 2016 with a 40 piece group show spanning the most unusual and dynamic techniques of the genres.

As it turns out, they are here just in time to offer a show to Argentinian/Spanish Street Artist Felipe Pantone, who has been expanding upon a geometric graffuturism vocabulary that the last decade has set free on the streets in cities around the world.

Felipe Pantone for St. ART Now in the Lower East Side. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Already a recognized and rising name due to his ocular experimentations with graffiti, video, sculpture, computer graphics, digital and other visual glitchery, Pantone is defining while discovering – tonight with “Planned Iridescence,” his debut solo New York exhibition.

The 1600 square foot gallery in the Bowery gives plenty of room for movement to the 14 pieces that include wall collages and sculpture, each using some of the experimental patterns and visually vibrating elements you’ve come to expect, yet are still surprised by.

The iridescence referred to is in the form of panels of controlled synthetic oil spills, cut into shimmering quadrilaterals, deliberately placed within a a neat cluster of visual tremor. In addition to the indoor exhibition, Pantone has created two new murals in the neighborhood, welcome gifts to a city that never tires of being blown away by new talent.

Felipe Pantone for St. ART Now in the Lower East Side. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spoke with Pantone about his work inside and outside, his optic/kinetic influences and his evolutionary approach to learning.

Brooklyn Street Art: So much of your work is capturing the optical/informational/technological chaos we are countenancing daily. Do you think you are mastering the chaos, or reflecting it?
Felipe Pantone: I am trying to reflect it. I’m not trying to send a message but to propose questions. Some people look at my work and they find it overwhelming, loud, strident. Some other people relate to its dynamism, the speed, and find that it might even evoke the way they interact with the world and our modern cities.

Felipe Pantone for St. ART Now in the Lower East Side. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Part of the graffiti writer life is about disrupting a space, taking it, claiming it. Your Street Art also can be described as disruptive, competing for attention. Is this true?

Felipe Pantone: Graffiti was my first way to show my work immediately, for free, and worldwide, before the Internet was available for everybody. Graffiti is to art what H&M is to fashion, or what Ikea is to furniture: disposable, ephemeral, but a true product of our times. Thanks to my quest to claiming my space on the street I found the style that today has become my work, and now everything makes sense to me because I feel like a true product of my times myself, and as an artist one should always be oneself.

BSA: You’ve talked about your work as belonging to the present. With its references to 1960s/70s optic art, a low-fi video recalling 80s art installations, and graphics reminiscent of 80s/90s early consumer computer paint programs, could you also say you are recognizing the past?
Felipe Pantone: The fact that Op-Art explored movement in the 60s is something that has always attracted me irrationally but it’s also something that today I include in my work intentionally to convey dynamism. I usually have elements that might remind you of 80s computers graphics to bring some sort of technological idea, but it’s not in my interest to talk about the 80s or 90s in particular.

Of course I recognize the past, I’ve always been really curious about what happened in history, but it’s not my intention to talk about history in my work.

Felipe Pantone. Detail. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Is art a means of transmission, and if so, what is your art transmitting?
Felipe Pantone: I intend to talk about what I understand about the world as a person that travels constantly and lives intensely.

BSA: The current speed of technology and the volume of images that we are consuming must be met with new skills for processing them or at least editing them. What skills are you learning?
Felipe Pantone: I try my best to keep myself up to date with all the new techniques that I think are interesting for my work. I studied fine arts, mostly model painting and sculpture. So everything else I learned online: design programs, 3D, video editing, photography, film. I’m working with CNC and laser cutters, UV printers, vinyl cutters… but there’s so much still to be learned!

We live in exciting times.

**************************

Felipe Pantone. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spoke with GR Gallery Director Alberto Pasini, who sees the work of Pantone as an evolution of other optic/kinetic artists, some of them founders and masters, whom they have represented in the past such as Bruno Munari, Gianni Colombo, Giovanni Anceschi, Davide Boriani, Getulio Alviani, and Dadamaino.

Luckily, these movements of Street and Optical art have coalesced just at the right moment and there are already a few eye-popping players, enabling a new generation to push the boundaries on the street and here in the gallery setting; all fusing together striking elements of graphic design, lettering, and an endless sophisticated manipulation of geometric shapes.

BSA: Why did you decide to give Felipe his first solo exhibition in NYC?
Alberto Pasini: We made contact with Felipe in the last two years because he represents the new generation of this movement. He is the one who is bringing this art movement established in the 60’s back to life. So that’s why we picked him, why he picked us and why we have started this collaboration.

Felipe Pantone. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: We are constantly bombarded with images. How in your opinion does Felipe integrate into his work the chaos that we see on our daily lives and what we experience on TV, billboards and the news?
Alberto Pasini: Felipe obviously pays attention to light and movement but he also brings the Optical and Kinetic Art to the next level and brings it up to date because he takes a lot of inspiration from the street, from the billboards, from TV.

Nowadays our lives are heavily influenced by Social Media, computer design and technology – so this is what he brings in his art and how he keeps up to date and how he re-invents Optical and Kinetic Art.

Felipe Pantone. Detail. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: How many artworks will comprise this exhibition and can you talk about the medium?
Alberto Pasini: There will be 14 pieces. With this exhibition Felipe is introducing for the very first time a brand new series on this new body of work. This is the first time he is working with this new kind of material.

Basically he adds to his normal material, which is enamel, plastic, and aluminum – different elements, which are made of several overlapping layers of plastic that are printed and carved. All these overlapping elements give the viewer the illusion of an optical interference. They give the sensation of movement even when they are not actually moving.

BSA: So the art moves when we move?
Alberto Pasini: Absolutely. The art changes according to our eyes. It changes according to the environment. It changes according to the illumination. It changes according to our reference point. The art then becomes very interactive, especially with the sculptures. When the viewer goes around them they change color and the interaction is even stronger.

Felipe Pantone. Detail. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: What’s the difference between this new series and what he has shown in his previous group shows in this gallery?
Alberto Pasini: Basically the difference is in the materials. Before he was just painting on aluminum or on board. Now there’s this new element which gives the viewer the actual sensation of movement. The people attending the exhibition will be able to experience the making of this series in a video which will be shown at night in the window of the gallery so people walking on the street will be able to see his process.

We are very proud of this exhibition and also for the fact that this is the first time Felipe is presenting this new series. This is his best work to-date. I also like the fact that this exhibition is not constrained just inside the gallery but it is also outside on the street. He’s painted two walls in the neighborhood close to the gallery.

Felipe Pantone. Planned Iridescence. GR Gallery. NYC. October, 2017. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone “Planned Iridescence” opens today at the GR Gallery in Manhattan. For further details click HERE

Street Art’s Tropical Spray into Tahiti: ONO’U Murals Wow

October 18, 2017 Artists

The Completed Murals from Okuda, Felipe Pantone, Astro, FinDAC, MrZL & Kalouf

“I think it’s the island that inspired me to do the painting,” Okuda says of this brand new surrealist dream on a four story wall here in Tahiti.

Okuda. Process shot. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With multi-colored geometric planes that form her bare shoulders, the Spanish artist says this architectural woman holding a piece of fruit is based on a painting by another famous European artist, the French post-Impressionist Paul Gauguin, who lived here in French Polynesia the 1890s.

It is a radical yet reassuring interpretation of a contemporary painter who counts surrealism painters like Dali, Ernst, and Magritte as favorites over the more romantic Impressionists. Aside from some of the rich hues and compositional elements, Okuda’s newer painting is a stunning departure from the revered original.

Akimbo looking out with Okuda on the lift. Process shot. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda’s wall is one of five large new murals at ONO’U, the Tahitian mural festival now in its fourth year that has invited international Street Artists to this neighborhood in Papeete to paint and to get to know the locals, many of whom work in the tourist industry, sell produce, crafts, and jewelry.

Okuda, who has become a world traveler of late and a name that is sure to grow in the Contemporary Art field, says memories of his days playing soccer in the neighborhood as a boy with his brother while their parents worked at a restaurant keep him aware of the struggles of the workers whom he runs into. However fantastic the interpretation of a figure or form, he says that his works are often improvised in the moment and he wants them to come from the heart. In this case he used Gauguin’s original as his sketch but felt free to play with size and proportion of the figures and elements in the background.

Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think the most important aspect of my work is to change the place in a more positive way and I hope all of the Papeete community can feel it, you know?” he says on a hot muggy afternoon where the breeze from the nearby marina doesn’t seem to come far in shore.

“I remember that a teacher said to us one day when he was watching me paint that this wall is so important for the kids because they will be affected by my positivity,” Okuda says. “You can’t imagine how much you can change kids lives with art – and it is so important. Maybe the adults are too distracted to see it and to feel it but the kids are very receptive.”

Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The week-long festival included a museum installation, projection mapping, a block party, and even a fashion show that included local beauties modeling gowns painted by graffiti writers like Astro, Phat1, Abuz, Marko93, Lady Diva, Rival, Soten and Inkie.

Here we give you a few of the exceptionally strong pieces from the tight and high quality curation of ONO’U 2017; including works from Okuda, Felipe Pantone, Astro, FinDAC, Kalouf, MrZL, and Inkie on a box truck. Our thanks to all the volunteers and to the ONO’U Festival organizers Sarah Roopinia and Jean Ozonder.

Paul Gauguin. Where Are You Going?, or Woman Holding a Fruit . 1893. Current location: The Hermitage Museum. Russia.

Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASTRO. Process shot. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASTRO. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone. Process shot. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone. Detail. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FinDAC. Process shot. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FinDAC. Detail.. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © FinDAC)

FinDAC. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © FinDAC)

Kalouf and MrZL collaboration. Detail. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This mural was conceived of as an animated projection mapping installation which we arrived a day late for. There is supposed to be a video for the event and animated chameleon coming soon.

Kalouf and MrZL collaboration. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inkie. The festival wouldn’t be complete without a painted box truck. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Papeete, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marko93 & MrZL Video Mapping Collaboration

Using a tracked central element as their starting point, French aerosol artist Marko93 and French digital mapping artist MrZL collaborated on this installation piece that debuted last week at the Tahiti Museum of Street Art.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Case Maclaim Flips a Coin on the Fate of Brexit in the South of Paris

October 17, 2017 Artists

“The painting is resolutely European. A kind of flash about Brexit in England,” says Gautier Jourdain of the new globally framed hand in this working class district of La Grande Borne in Paris.

Case Maclaim. Detail. For Wall Street Art in Grigny, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

The German Street Artist and fine artist Case Maclaim is generally recognized by fans for his expressive painted hands, often mid movement, many times with a transparency to them, as if captured between gestures.

In this case the gesture is flipping a coin to see if it will land “Pile ou Face” (Heads or Tails), the murals name that refers to the outcome of Englands decision to withdraw from the European Union.

Case Maclaim. For Wall Street Art in Grigny, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

Perhaps it feels like the fate of everyday individuals who live here is out of their hands, decided by the flippancy of a casual coin toss, but surely folks on the edge are some of the first to feel the effects such huge shifts in ways that are both social and economic.

The new piece in Grigny in the South of Paris is part of the Wall Street Art festival of Grand Paris Sud and Mr. Jourdain has been organizing walls for new murals this year, mostly featuring international Street Artists whose work he exhibits at his Galerie Mathgoth. In fact Maclaim will be returning there November 9^th for a new exhibition.

For this public art piece Maclaim and his wife Samira, who often travels with him, enjoyed the curious and generous spirit of the local neighbors who often were present during the painting, asking questions, sharing observations, and flipping coins.

Case Maclaim. For Wall Street Art in Grigny, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

SpiderTag Traces Electric Geometry on the Swedish Waterfront

October 16, 2017 Artists

The Argentinian Street Artist named Spidertag has freed his work from the wall these days and prefers to trace geometry in the air.

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 5. (photo © Spidertag)

Using a relatively new glowing fluorescent chording that emulates his previous yarn compositions Spidertag spent a week in Helsingborg, Sweden experimenting and creating one new artwork every day.

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 7. (photo © Spidertag)

The installations on the ground, on walls, on ship docks and piers, and levitating in the air were not always simple to achieve, he tells us, and he required the help of three assistants and a car lift.

“I´m super glad of the result, the effort and the levels that I pushed myself to during this amazing week,” he says, of the multiple configurations that lit the night during Artweek, curated by Peter Erikson for Kulturhotellet. Every day at nightfall his temporary, installations suddenly lit up hidden places, many in concert with the beautiful views of Helsingborg.

The images here show the works in situ, some from multiple angles, without photo manipulation. As his electrified tags and geo-webs continue to evolve, one can imagine more complex pieces developing into the future while Spidertag tests the limits of the medium and his imagination.

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 1. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 2. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 3. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 4. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 4. Detail. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 5. (photo © Spidertag)

Spidertag. Artweek. Helsingborg, Sweden. Day 6. (photo © Spidertag)

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.15.17. ONO’U-Raiatea Special

October 15, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Raitea, or more correctly, Ra’iātea, is the second largest of the Society Islands, after Tahiti, in French Polynesia. A 50 minute plane ride from where we spent a week in Tahiti for the ONO’U Festival, the organizers treated us and some of the artists and documentarians to an additional few days on this island this week.

The experience in this down to earth environment deepened our understanding and appreciation for the history, the sacred sites, and people here – many who have not previously had any interest in so-called Street Art or graffiti- or the current iterations of it anyway. The mainly port town is lush in vegetation with modest architecture, a lot of fresh produce, bare feet, a number of impressive tattoos, coral reefs, brightly colored schools of fish, vanilla beans, pineapples, black pearl farms, and now, murals from Street Artists from New Zealand, Paris, Madrid… Yes, we had the conversations about colonialism, cultural imperialism, hip hop culture, western culture, respecting traditions, giving and receiving. We’ll probably need more.

In the end, the artists thought perhaps more carefully about their work here than usual, sensitive to the audience, wanting to share. It’s this attitude of cultural exchange that inspires us to share them with you as images of our week. With gratitude to the organizers Sarah Roopinia, Jean Ozonder, Sarah’s kind parents, people of Tahiti and Raitea, and to you the loyal BSA reader here are some of the scenes that Jaime shot this week.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Akimbo, Charles & Janine Williams (Phat1 and Lady Diva), Kalouf, Marko93, Okuda, and Soten.

Top image: Kalouf. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kalouf. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marko93. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Akimbo . Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda. Martha Cooper modeling the new pair (0nly pair available at the time) of Okuda sunnies. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Akimbo. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phat1. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phat1 . Lady Diva. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Charles & Janine Williams. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Charles & Janine Williams. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Selina Miles)

Soten. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Soten. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Selina Miles)

SOT for short. Soten. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lady Diva. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. Raiatea Edition. French Polynesia. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miquel Wert Brings Awkward Family Dynamics From the Shadows in Barcelona

October 14, 2017 Artists

Have you ever seen those awkward family photographs that some brilliant editors have periodically culled together and presented in books or websites?

Which one is your favorite? Mom, Dad, and five siblings dressed in identical cowboy/cowgirl outfits in front of a sunset? The family of nudists gathered in the kitchen with dad holding a bowl of bananas strategically? Or perhaps the studio photo of smiling conservative mom in a flowery office blouse posed with two angry punk teen daughters who look like they have given their souls to Satan. There are many voyeuristic hours of entertainment just waiting for you if you start Googling them.

Miquel Wert. Life In Shadows. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Antón)

In most family photos the interpersonal dynamics are more subtle, but a close reading of posture, body language, and facial expressions all give unconsciously a lot of information about the true nature of the relationships officially on display.

Street Artist Miquel Wert has just painted a nostalgic family portrait for his new Barcelona wall with the 12 + 1 Project, and he points to exactly this kind of revealing moment when interpersonal dynamics are painfully on display. He calls the new work “Life in Shadows”.

Miquel Wert. Life In Shadows. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Antón)

He says his work pretends to be an open window to a “typical family” intimacy. It looks like a relaxed scene but the male looks defiant, burning two holes through the camera. Is he reacting to something just said by his aunt? Is he angry at the picture taker? Did he just sit on an open mouse-trap? Is he simply counting the minutes until this insufferable dinner visit with his beautiful wife, child, and his gossipy manipulative emasculating mother is over?

If you find this old photograph in a shoe box at a garage sale you might not give it much thought. When it is translated to a large painting in a public space you can see that it makes people a little uncomfortable as they walk by, not quite sure how to address the tension. Not even sure what is bothering them actually.

Miquel Wert. Life In Shadows. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Antón)

Mr. Wert says that he defines his work as “a research about quotidian life’s theatricality, questioning how we represent the collective subconscious, trying to avoid a purely nostalgic aspect – the image is treated as a scenography, full of anonymous actors who are acting in front of the curtains of an imaginary theatre. Often, these actors are coming from some documents I inherited, or are the result of a difficult selection in several files.”

The Spanish-Swedish painter has been building a body of work since finishing fine art studies in 2000 at Barcelona University, and he has exhibited his works at festivals and in galleries nationally and internationally, in solo and group shows. About this wall he says the name of the mural comes from a classic and forgotten Spanish drama film and it’s also a reminder of the shadows described by Russian writer Maksim Gorki in 1896, when he had his first cinematographic experience.

“Last night I was in the Kingdom of the Shadows”

Miquel Wert. Life In Shadows. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Antón)

For more on Contorno Urbano and the 12 x 1 Project please click HERE.

For more on Miquel Wert please visit HERE.

BSA Film Friday: 10.13.17

October 13, 2017 Artists

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

Now screening :
1. Swoon: Fearless

BSA Special Feature: Swoon: Fearless

Using existing and new footage of Street Artist Swoon and selected interviews with people in her orbit, director Fredric King presents and hour long documentary that looks over two decades of art making. The stories told and the insights that Calendonia Curry aka Swoon presents while en route to her next adventure illustrate the fluidity with which she pursues the creative spirit, whether on the street, on a vessel down a river, or installing in a museum. An integrated explorer, Swoon brings you into the fold to go on this journey that always feels like its just begun.

ONO’U Tahiti – Murals from the Raiatea 2016 Edition

October 12, 2017 Artists

This week BSA takes you to the French Polynesian Islands to see the new murals going up for this tropical island cultural festival called ONO’U Tahiti 2017. We’re happy to bring you the daily events and the insights as we discover them.

As we were scouting around the island of Raiatea with Martha Cooper and Selina Miles and the artists watching the new murals going up for ONO’U Tahiti this week we thought we would collect the walls put up by artists in last year’s edition. To say that this island is picturesque isn’t enough praise, and that its inhabitants are friendly doesn’t capture the kindness – on this homeland of the Māori people that was/is called Havai’i.

Kalouf. ONO’U Tahiti 2016. Raiatea, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In the main township of the island called Uturos most of the 12,000 or so inhabitants live and many folks stop to watch the artists paint, asking questions, making observations to one another. In an environment like this the artists noticeably recalibrate their work to be be more relevant to the context, responsive to the people who live here and meaningful to the daily living of everyday.

Here are some shots of murals from 2016.

Kalouf. ONO’U Tahiti 2016. Raiatea, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marko93. ONO’U Tahiti 2016. Raiatea, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Seth Globepainter. ONO’U Tahiti 2016. Raiatea, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inkie. ONO’U Tahiti 2016. Raiatea, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Charles Williams . AskewOne. ONO’U Tahiti 2016. Raiatea, French Polynesia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The text reads “I am the seed scattered from Havai’i”. Havai’i is the traditional name of Raiatea. Askew One writes about the wall on his blog:

“On first visiting the wall it struck Charles & Janine Williams that it had the shape of a Wharenui (Māori meeting house) and the vacant lot in relation was like the grounds of a Marae. Charles had the idea to take the Māori proverb featured in the Tupaia documentary which was ‘He kakano ahau, ruia mai I Rāngiatea’ or ‘I am a seed scattered from Rai’ātea’ in english. After consulting with Viliamu we got the Maohi (Tahitian) translation which read ‘E heuro puehu vau no te fenua Rai’ātea” and then after further advice from many locals we changed Rai’ātea to Havai’i – the islands original name. Janine took on the task of painting the text onto the wall.”

Tavar Zawacki: Being Fearless and “Metamorphosis” with Urban Spree

October 11, 2017 Artists, Interview

Globally entire societies are undergoing metamorphoses at a quickening pace today – for a variety of reasons depending on who you talk to; The failures of capitalism and neoliberalism, the rapid development of technology, dwindling natural resources, a widening wealth gap, greater communications – all amidst a cross-cultural consciousness that is revealing truths at an unprecedented rate – even while disinformation does its best to cloud the view.

Whatever form these metamorphoses eventually will take is open to all manner of expert conjecture and prophetic analysis but one thing everyone agrees on is that metamorphosis can include a painful, revelatory, liberating process.

Amidst this continuous sea change Street Artist/ visual artist Tavar Zawacki has chosen to embrace his personal and professional metamorphosis. He’s even published his second monograph and had an exhibition with the name.

“Metamorphosis”

For years you have seen the upward pointing arrow; on stickers, canvasses, screen prints, even mobiles hanging. That is why the name “ABOVE” was appropriate. But for the artist, it became a limitation stylistically and the anonymity of remaining hidden in the shadows behind a street tag increasingly felt uncomfortable, not true to the artist he was becoming. Initially, the tag, or street surname that many graffiti and Street Artists adopt, was perhaps a good way to evade the police, or to simply obscure his identity to others who might be overly critical of his work.

Two decades later, he’s ready to liberate himself and tell you his real name: Tavar Zawacki.

“It’s been 20 years that I’ve been really insecure about myself and my work and I was looking for outward approval and I was really insecure about leaning forward with what I really wanted to do,” he says of the personal journey. “I needed to change my mindset to have the confidence to know that if I am painting these the best I can – that’s all that really matters.”

In the new show with museum-size canvasses at Urban Spree, who also published the new168 page hardcover, you can see examples of his earlier work and the new directions that he is experimenting in. “There’s four different bodies of work,” he says as he walks around the perimeter with you.

On one wall you find the classic ABOVE canvasses: many optimistic pastel hues and tints overlapping in the geometrics of the ever-present arrow. Another features pieces of zoomed-in portions of geometric shapes that highlights negative and positive space, some recalling the op-art of the 1960s and 1970s. “These pieces focus on the areas of geometry that I really like the most,” he says.

Newer works begin to bend and curve the patterned plane, adding dimension and shadow, recalling the crack-and-peel stickers he used for so many years to brand himself as ABOVE prolifically across possibly 100 cities. A centerpiece canvas combines all of these movements, peeling off selected graphic elements and forming new shapes in the air with a sophisticated palette and subtle shading – perhaps the most seamless move into contemporary.

“And with shadow it’s about bending it – it was about having a new shape and I can manipulate this to make it look totally different,” he says. “That is something I feel like personally I am going through as well – I am transitioning to another stage of my life.”

“The whole thing is a metaphor,” he says at one point when describing a particular piece, but you realize that the statement applies to the show as well. A metaphor for the evolutions that an artist must go through to keep alive; a recreation, a metamorphosis, however bold or subtle, that can push him or her into a new direction.

He sits on a window sill and pulls back the sleeve of his t-shirt to reveal a tattooed sleeve that moves from densely inked pattern to bare skin. The finespun graduated marking is repeated on the books’ cover, designed by Kelly Jewell.
“I’m really interested in gradients as well because it’s a slow transition – when you can see the tattoo and the cover of the book; it’s like with each circle, if you look at it compared to the neighboring one, you won’t see a big difference. But over time and with effort you can keep going forward, day by day.”

We talk about the new color dimensions, the zoomed in geometry, the intensity of the new color palette and he says that the change is about “being fearless.”

And perhaps, you think, that is what it takes to face change and embrace a metamorphosis. Being fearless.

“Metamorphosis” the book, published by Urban Spree Books is available for purchase at the Urban Spree Gallery book store.

Published by Urban Spree Books in September 2017, First Edition

Book Design by Kelly Jewell, Texts & Design by Tavar Zawacki

168 pages, Hardcover, 24 x 32 cm (9,5″ x 12,5″)

Silver Foil Cover

www.tavarzawacki.com

MurOne “Video Games” for Contorno Urbano 12+1 Project in Barcelona

October 10, 2017 Artists

“I don’t have a job and a stable life, but painting and giving life to places that don’t have any is very gratifying,” says the graffiti/Street Artist about his wall completed for in September for the 12 + 1 project in Barcelona. He is not joking when he says he travels a lot to pursue his public painting work – he’s been to Taipai, Tokyo, Istanbul and Tenerife since this wall called “Video Games.”

“Travelling and discovering different cultures is a gift, I feel lucky to make my living with what I love,” he says. The illustrator and graphic designer takes his brightly abstract compositions that call to mind 1990’s video games to festivals around the world and has done commercial illustration work for corporate names like Procter & Gamble and Vodafone.

MurOne says his peers in the current mural scene are continuously inspiring him and says his “acid mix of pop and design elements” are also influenced by more established and known painters like Dalí, Mati Klarwein, Lichtenstein, Mc Escher, and Moebious.

YZ Yseult “Empress” Brings More Strong Female Images to the Street

October 9, 2017 Artists

It’s good to see YZ Seult continuing her portraiture of women of African heritage and to see such strong female warrior images being put out on the street for the “Graffeterie Festival” in Uzerche, France.

Currently living on the Ivory Coast in West Africa, she calls the series “Empress”, presumably from her ongoing studies of African history. YZ says she is exploring the cultural wealth of communities and in particular, she is examining how ornamentation in costume and on the body of women is used to indicate ethnicity and social station through the manner of embellishment.

The new works are first projected, outlined and then blended and built with brushwork. Additionally she is incorporating found tools, implement, wood, and custom shaped materials to add a lot of dimension – giving the new works a stunning weight psychologically. “I will be continuing this project using local material and collaborating with women,” she tells us.

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.08.17 ONO’U Tahiti Special

October 8, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

“Flying Omaomao
Spirit of Tahiti
Bird of my homeland
Messenger of love from the night
Messenger of peace from the light.”

And so the summary of the genteel and warm Tahitian week we have just spent here for the ONO’U Festival. The words above from a local proverb that appear on the wall of Phat1 and Lady Diva’s newest painting inside the small museum here. The message has been peace, in words and deeds.

And yet we know that the War Machine is threatened once again as our overcompensating low-information leaders are ready to start a war somewhere, anywhere, out of hubris and spurious self esteem. Killing has become profitable, regardless of what rationale is offered. To them, profit is what matters most. Perhaps that is why it is most poignant for us to look for a messenger of peace from the light today.

Interestingly on an island full of natural beauty, we learn that many of the works that are made here on the street give special honors to the natural world, with fears for the future of the planet, disappearing species, the poisoning of the air, water, soil, food supply.

According to Sarah Roopinia, who began this festival four years ago here in Papeete, most of the 80 or so international and local Street Artists who are invited here have gravitated to the natural world in their work. It was also interesting to learn that one of the biggest names on the graffiti scene here is an environmental consultant; a friend of the fern and the fauna and the marine life. With no direction on themes for the museum show the artists chose their own. Are we listening?

We decided for Images of the Week to take you inside the museum show at ONO’U for Friday night’s opening, to show you the new installations on display because collectively they speak to matters that typically transcend street culture as we know it – and that is worth considering.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Charles & Janine Williams (Phat1 & Lady Diva), Kalouf, Marko93, MrZL, Romain Lardanchet, and Soten.

All week we watched sculptor Romain Lardanchet as he constructed this three dimensional fish while sitting on an overturned plastic bucket on the sidewalk outside the museum. Using sheets of wire mesh, a glue gun, aerosol can tops, and two clear plastic half-spheres, he created this surreal vision popping through the concrete, illuminated from within.

A special installation by Māori graffiti artists Charles and Janine Williams uses two life stages of the OMAOMAO bird to speak to the changes that life takes. Charles tells us “the red link is the messenger of love and the bird is holding onto love in the middle of Tahiti”. Schooled by local orinthologists, the Williams painted from a gentlemen’s photographs of the bird. During the opening the an audio recording of the birds’ songs was playing in the room as well. To the left is a proverb provided by local wise people – words that tie the spiritual message of the work together beautifully.

Marko93 & MrZL – a stunning aerosol/video mapping collaboration. Museum installation. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo) The small video below shows the work in progress. Later on we’ll bring you the entire run of the video mapping.

Martha Cooper and Selina Miles with the iconic head dress attending the closing block party. ONO’U Tahiti 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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