December 2018

Michelle Houston, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Michelle Houston, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Michele Houston, enfant terrible, storyteller in the Queen’s English, curator at Monumenta festival Leipzig, at Zwitxhermaschine Gallery in Berlin, for this years very successful Wandelism, and co-founder of Berlin Art Society.


In times where the world seems to have gone mad, with segregation rather than inclusions and the unthinkable such as Brexit becomes a reality.

The photograph I selected is a night street view of the exhibition: “Bonjour Tristesse” by artist KITRA.

The show is titled after the infamous graffiti just off Schlesisches Tor (Berlin), which has crowned the building opposite the exhibition for the past 37 years, which translates to hello sadness and seems to embody the zeitgeist of now.

The public from all walks of life were invited to literally walk in to an artwork, as the walls, ceiling and floor were painted by the artist. It was an exhibition like a candy shop, where one could immerse themselves inside of an artwork.

In 2019 I wish for more colour and light to break through the impending darkness.

Artist: Kitra

Location: Berlin, Germany

Date: 29.04.2018

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Cedar Lewisohn, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Cedar Lewisohn, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Cedar Lewisohn, writer, artist, lecturer and curator based in London, author of Street Art: The Graffiti Revolution and Abstract Graffiti


From Tidemill Eviction Notes:

“Hold the line, hold the line.” The police keep screaming, as if they are some type of military platoon.

“Power to the people!!!” The protesters chant in reply.

I’m in the middle of it. People pushing and shoving all around me. The strong smell of sweat and beer in the air.

I see a placard “GREEN SPACE MATTERS”

“No justice, no peace, fuck the police!
No justice, no peace, fuck the police!
No justice, no peace, fuck the police!
No justice, no peace, fuck the police!”

The chant rings out then fades away.

It’s a bright crisp afternoon in Deptford, South East London. I push my way to the front of the scrum, so I’m facing the line of police and bailiffs. In the mix, I overhear various conversations between protesters and police.

“We can enforce common law or breach of the peace” I hear a policeman explaining. It’s strange, how polite the police are being. Less than two hours ago, there had been violent confrontations.

A tiny squawk of a chant starts up.

“Let him free…. let him free….” Its barely audible, but the crowd pick up on it and soon it’s a booming demand..

“LET HIM FREE! LET HIM FREE!”

The dynamics of protests and the possibilities of civil unrest have always fascinated me. My local council, Lewisham, are spending hundreds of thousands of pounds to clear a small piece of parkland, so new flats can be built. But local residents are unhappy with the plans. It’s gentrification and bad for the environment and air pollution they say. More and more it seems everyone is involved in some type of protest, one way or another. This is the world that’s emerged in 2018.

“His only crime is protecting trees” Screams a voice. It’s the same one that started the “let him free” chant.

“If you charge again, we are going to have start arresting people.”

“We are peaceful people, we are not criminals” comes the reply.

My hope for the future? I just hope there is a future.

~ Cedar Lewisohn 2018


More information: Save Reginald Save Tidemill @oldtidemillgrden www.facebook.com/savetidemill/

Photo credit: Ben Graville bengraville.co.uk

cedarlewisohn.com

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Adele Renault, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Adele Renault, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Adele Renault, the Belgian Street Artist, muralist, and painter of realistic portraits of pigeons and people.


I’ve been feathering many nests this year but this pile of containers best represents the piles of feathers I’ve been producing.

It was also the first time for me to be invited to paint in my home country Belgium. A home coming!

2018 has been a good year, I had promised myself to have a book out by the time I reach 30 and I did 🙂

Northwest Walls, Rock Werchter Festival, Belgium

June 2018

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Mark Rigney, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Mark Rigney, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Mark Rigney, photographer, writer, founder of London-based Hooked Blog


Looking back it was for me a year of adventure and travel as I continue my ongoing journey to document the ever-changing and evolving street art movement.  Each year the number of festivals I revisit annually is ever increasing and throughout 2018 I made return visits to WaterfordWalls in Ireland; Nuart in Scotland and The Crystal Ship in Belgium.

This was the year I made it to my first PowWow which also happened to be the first European edition of the festival taking place in a city new to me, Rotterdam. Each year I make an effort to pick one or two new festivals or destination to visit and along with PowWow in Rotterdam; FestiWall in Ragusa Sicily, CVTA Fest in Civitacampomarano deep in the Campobasso countryside in Italy were just some of the new events that will now join my annual list.

Of the thousands of photographs I shot this year I have selected this image of British street artist Phlegm. I took this photograph on a particularly cold day earlier in the year while the artist was taking a much needed coffee break from working on a large mural in the East London neighbourhood of Walthamstow.

We talked about his Cigarette card series, which has seen him producing a magical series of wood engravings, copper engravings and copper etchings each no bigger than 7×3.5cm. Working under a magnifying glass these beautiful miniature artworks are packed with delicate line work with which Phlegm plans to scan and produce a mini book.

Phlegm spoke about experimenting and challenging himself so as not to become comfortable and how working on the series at such a small scale has really altered his line work in the larger murals he is painting. I look forward to seeing the entire collection in the forthcoming book which I hope will get released in 2019.

 

— Location: London, UK

— March 2018

 

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Elisabetta Pajer, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Elisabetta Pajer, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:
Elisabetta Pajer,
Curator of Imago exhibition at Munich Museum, cultural manager, founder of laNori Management


The image I choose for the 9th edition of the BSA End of The Year Tradition is the mural Lagrangian by artist Addison Karl. The artwork was painted in July 2018 in Munich for the MUCA Museum.

The engagement I have with the artists I work with sometimes raises challenges that immediately become a dialogue. This helps us find solutions and pushes both sides to get out of the comfort zone. The surface where this artwork was executed was irregular and pretty hard to paint on. However, this project triggered a very interesting conversation with Addison ending in this beautiful artwork.

The powerful piece represents a man looking at the horizon. It translates for me into a metaphor of hope, challenge, and strength.  May the ‘good’ challenges, a feeling of hope and strength be with us all in 2019.

Artist: Addison Karl

Title: Lagrangian

Size: 40m x20m

Location: Munich, Germany

Date: July 2018

Photo Credit: @AddisonKarl

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Joe Russo, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Joe Russo, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Joe Russo, Brooklyn-born former graffiti writer now photographer, Joe captures Street Art, celebrities, big name music heroes, and entertainment portraits ..always on a relentless pursuit to capture the raw energy, beauty, and emotion of everything he shoots.


I first met and photographed Portuguese Graffiti / Street Artist Alexandre “VHILS” Farto on July 11, 2018 in New York City. He was in town to release a special limited edition artist label Hennessy bottle. While here, the good folks at L.I.S.A. Project had lined up a wall at 140 Elizabeth Street for him to create / install his latest mural. The subject of the mural is of the late RUN DMC Jam Master Jay’s son TJ Mizell as part of his ‘Scratching The Surface’ project.

To understand VHILS’ process is something to be seen in person. Using a myriad of power tools, chemicals, chisels, hammers and sometimes even pryotechnics / explosives, he carves through and peels back layer upon layer of brick, stucco, plaster, etcetera to reveal his latest subject matter. The artist believes that ‘destruction is a form of construction’.

I am almost inclined to believe that this philosophy is being mirrored and applied currently in the political chaos that we here as Americans are currently enduring and trudging through…after all of the chaos, digging and probing; when the dust settles…what beauty, infrastructure, message, will be revealed.

Photographer: Joe Russo

Artist: Vhils

Location: Manhattan, NYC

Date: July 2018

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Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas From BSA

Happy Solstice, Merry Christmas From BSA

Photographer Jaime Rojo feels lucky to have caught this shot of the moon here emanating over the Atlantic Occean, waves of amber glowing outward last night across the sky.

The spectacular full moon solstice this month fills our hearts with hope for peace and joy for you and your loved ones.  If you celebrate Christmas, we wish you a merry one from your friends at BSA.


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Narcelio Grud, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Narcelio Grud, BSA Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:


Narcelio Grud, Brazilian Street Artist, sculptor, public interventionist and inventor. Founder of the Concreto Festival of International Urban Art, now in its 5th year in Fortaleza.


May the bells of 2019 chime new chords, may the sea wash and clean all that is needed and change the energy of the world!

May the fascism that shakes Brazil and other countries be swept by the firmness and tenderness of love.

And may we be strong, resistant and conscious in these times of struggle.

Sea Bells

Photographer: Difusor Art Films

Location: Brazil, Fortaleza

August, 2018

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Denis Leo Hegic, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Denis Leo Hegic, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Denis Leo Hegic, Curator, cultural manager, architect, Co-Founder of Monumenta in Leipzig, Wandelism in Berlin. Big talker, bigger doer.


You wake up one morning and snow has fallen on all the roofs – how can you not be happy?

This sharp rooftop bombing was created during my last exhibition “Monumenta” in Leipzig by SNOW21, an iconic writer known for his impressive large scale works.

I wish that SNOW21 will not remain the only snow in Germany this year and that we take responsible action for our planet in 2019.

 

Denis Leo Hegic

Location: Leipzig, Germany

Date: September 2018

Artist: Snow21

Photographer: Nika Kramer

 

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Tony Depew, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Tony Depew, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Tony Depew, Street Artist, painter, poet


This image selected is from July 6, 2018, and depicts a friend playing around on a trash can I had painted in Canton, Ohio, 2007. I had chosen this image because it reminds me of fun happy silly times, yet, a sort of sadness exudes from the eyes on the trash can.

Recently I noticed the sign on the pole reads- Burn Calories, Stress Less, Get healthy— and found that to be a nice motto. As for 2019, there are many things I think about and wish for— but as long as I’m a better version of myself, and still creating— that’s what really matters.

Artist: Tony DePew

Location: Canton, Ohio.

Date: July 2018

Photographer: Tony DePew

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Pascal Feucher, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Pascal Feucher, Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Pascal Feucher, Impresario, articulate thought-leader, badass Founder of the Urban Spree compound in Berlin, Germany


Pixação is a form of graffiti rooted in the São Paulo underground, a rough colonization of verticality by writers who are prone to take extreme risk on makeshift scaffolds but usually, as in the sub genre of balcony writing, without any form of security. It is the most extreme form of graffiti in a sense where you put your own life at risk for the thrill of the game, in a time where street art becomes more and more colonized by branding and consumerism.

The photograph is also important as it marks the first collaboration between São Paulo’s Os Cururu and Berlin-based Paradox (Berlin Kidz), two of the most important pixacão writers who united their skills to invade Berlin in the summer of 2018.

The photograph was taken In Berlin Kreuzberg by @cpt_olf, whose remarkable photographic work is based on documenting urban exploration in extreme altitude, and specifically the works of the Berlin Kidz.

Artist: Berlin Kidz

Title: Signal

Location: Kreuzberg, Berlin. Germany.

Date: Summer 2018

Photographer: CPT Olf (@cpt_olf)

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Sabina Chagina : Wishes And Hopes For 2019

Sabina Chagina : Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.


Today’s special guest:

Sabina Chagina,
Co-Founder of the Artmossphere Biennale in Moscow, Russia


Dear BSA readers!

Happy New Year!

I want to wish you a pure art in your daily life, because art is actually a very important thing to start with. It’s not a dessert or a hobby.

That is why I chose this photo as one of the recent works by Shepard Fairey, whom I worked with this year during his participation in the 3rd Artmossphere Biennale in Moscow. The work called “Tunnel vision” was inspired by the aesthetics of Russian constructivism and made in his signature OBEY style.

In the center you can see the inscription in cyrillic “Art must be spread everywhere”.

Be happy, be with art.

Artist: Shepard Fairey

Title: “Tunnel Vision”

Location: Moscow

Date: September 2018

Photographer Vasiliy Kudryavtsev

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