2019

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.28.19

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.28.19

Robert Muller testified before Congress this week and no one seems happy. The spin-masters distort his words and his findings to accommodate their own personal narrative…and to continue to distract us from the thieve’s hands in our cupboards across the country.

Corporate Democrats and Corporate Republicans won’t get rid of this guy, but at least it will distract us from the lowest tax rates on the rich in our lifetimes, global warming, gun violence, increased poverty, racist immigrant-bashing policies, increased homeless populations, and a corrupted medical insurance system. So far, these distractions are working splendidly.

Sorry, that’s an unhappy way of welcoming you to BSA Images of the Week! You deserve better!

The news is that summer is in full swing and people are on the streets cooling off in public fountains, dancing, watching outdoor movies on roofs and in parks, seeing theater and music performances, and hopefully hitting Coney Island for a beach splash or a thrill ride.

The streets are being plastered with art. Some with political and social messages, some with a sense of humor, others with an acute sense of popular culture. A few are just plain pretty to look at. Whatever the style, the intention or the placement, what’s important is the fact that it’s happening again with gusto. Artists are out as well, sharing their ideas and their experiments with us, all for free and with permission to touch and photograph.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Almost Over Keep Smiling, Frederic Edwin Church, Judith Supine, Mattew Hyte, Shepard Fairey, The Postman Art, and Winston Tseng.

Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mattew Hyte (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Winston Tseng (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Postman Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)
To our surprise, we found this large canvas 101″ x 89″ attached to a wall outside. It’s an oil painting. At first, it seemed incongruous as a piece of street art but once we got our faces close to the canvas we discovered that the artist, whose identity we don’t know, included small graffiti tags, exceedingly well camouflaged, on the rocks. This felt like we had won the day’s prize for our treasure-hunting expedition. We thought it was possibly a copy of a Hudson River School of painting. Lo and behold! With some sleuthing, we discovered that the painting is indeed a replica of a painting by Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900) who was a leading member of the Hudson River School of painters. The original painting was executed in 1867 and it now hangs at the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh. The tags on the rocks, those have to be a newer addition. Scroll down for the graffiti details and at the end for a photo of the original painting. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Niagara Falls from the American Side. 1867. Frederic Edwin Church (1826-1900). Scottish National Gallery. Edinburgh.
A reprise of a classic from Shepard Fairey (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shepard Fairey has PeruAna in view. Those two names used to be in Williamsburg, Brooklyn regularly so it is a surprise to see them together on this fresh “collaboration”(photo © Jaime Rojo)
Almost Over Keep Smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Almost Over Keep Smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Back in the saddle again. Cowboy with Sunflowers. Brooklyn, NY. July 2019. photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Cristina Daura and Rocks in Your Head : Contorno Urbano Foundation

Cristina Daura and Rocks in Your Head : Contorno Urbano Foundation

“You must have rocks in your head if you think that you are going out with your friends dressed like that!” says your mom as you add more gel to your hair while pouring over every detail of your magnificence in the mirror. Honestly, your parents are so square.

Cristina Daura. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

“Rocks in your head” is an idiom meant to infer that someone is thoroughly stupid, crazy, absurd — and with world news combined with a firehose of entertainment and disinformation flooding you from every direction today, sometimes you wonder about the thoughts, emotions, and memories that you have to process inside your head just to remain “balanced”

Cristina Daura. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

That’s what artist Cristina Daura was thinking about when she created her new public art mural for the Contorno Urbano community mural program called 12+1 in Barcelona. She went to MICA in Baltimore for illustration, and spent a few years working in dead-end, unfulfilling jobs until she struck out on her own drawing comics and illustrating about things that interest her most for music and publishing clients.

Cristina Daura. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)

“Her artwork plays with the mind, using primary colors in harsh, punk and somehow macabre illustrations, where decapitated or faceless people are often protagonists,” says Contorno Urbano in a recent email.

“As if it were an x-ray, the artist has represented a head full of things, thoughts, and emotions. On the one hand, the flowers symbolize the illusion and the deepest dreams of human beings. On the other, the rocks are destructive and cause a transformation.”

Cristina Daura. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Anton)
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BSA Film Friday 07.26.19

BSA Film Friday 07.26.19

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

Now screening :
1. ShowZart – Man One / A Street Art Story
2. “Opening Lines” with Pat Perry
3. Kids Dancing it out on the streets with murals …because it’s summer baby!
4. The “Go Back to Your Country” Singers

BSA Special Feature: ShowZart – Man One / A Street Art Story

Artists helping artists – yes it actually happens. Here in downtown Los Angeles, where Street Art has been a large part of the scene for quite a while, a residency in an old abandoned hotel gives artists an opportunity to live and create. One artist curated a brother artist who was homeless into his own residency, and the results are inspiring.

ShowZart – Man One / A Street Art Story / Film by Vonjako

“Opening Lines” with Pat Perry

Michigan Street Artist/muralist/commercial artist Pat Perry lives in Detroit but created this sister city mural duo that bridges the gap between countries and cultures. With children as messengers, this video illustrates universal truths and the power of art to break down barriers, build bridges between people in Biddeford, Maine and Slemani, Iraq. Also, its cheaper than bombs – although less profitable for the war industry.

Kids Dancing it out on the streets with murals …because it’s summer baby!

Summer’s here and the time is right for dancing in the streets! Where better to shoot a video of these kids doing their stuff than in front of Welling Court murals in Queens. Students from Arya Dance Academy, these Bollywood beauties act like tough stuff as they incorporate South Asian dance techniques with the latest global youth culture moves, making New Yorkers proud.

The “Go Back to Your Country” Singers

Breaking down the ignorance in the most glamorous way.

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Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: When the Lion Roars Back, a small overview

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh: When the Lion Roars Back, a small overview

We’re excited because today we get to spend a few minutes on stage with one of our hometown heroes, the artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh. Leveraging her artistry with her politics with her desire to support women and others who are harassed, its a special kind of gold that she creates.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)

By putting these images of people of color, women, LGBTQ+ folks on the street with their blunt-force sentiments addressed to would-be harassers, she not only stands with them, but Tatyana has also used her work and vision to give them the courage to stand proud, assert their voice and to take public space.

After all, it belongs to the public.

Please join us this evening for a special BSA TALKS program with Tatyana Fazlalizadeh at the Beyond the Streets exhibition in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NYC.

Today! This event is FREE. Click on the link below and enter coupon code BSATF to get your free ticket.
https://www.showclix.com/event/summer-in-the-streets-bsa-tatyana
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh for Coney Art Walls 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
More info about the artist and event;
Women are not outside for your entertainment”, a startling truth for some guys that pointedly highlights abusive behavior toward women on the streets of Brooklyn and many cities around the world. Brooklyn Street Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh has been targeting daily oppressive experiences of marginalized people with her campaigns of art on the streets – and in the gallery.
Addressing themes of social justice, racism, LGBTQ+ rights, and sexist street harassment, her beautifully drawn campaigns on wheat-pasted posters and painted murals across the globe have brought attention to issues sorely in need of addressing during hostile rhetoric from some men in the highest offices.
Profiled in major media from The New York Times, NPR and Time Magazine and asked to speak at universities and museums like the Smithsonian, the New School and the Brooklyn Museum, Tatyana’s work can currently be seen on Spike Lee’s Netflix series, She’s Gotta Have It.

Come join Tatyana as she shares her experiences, observations and perspectives with Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo from Brooklyn Street Art in this riveting discussion on Street Art as change-making activism.

Tatyana Fazlalizadeh for Coney Art Walls 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh in collaboration with the L.I.Z.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh in collaboration with the L.I.Z.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh for Art In Ad Places. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tatyana Fazlalizadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Giulio Vesprini Lights the Aerosol Smoke for “Pennelli Ribelli”

Giulio Vesprini Lights the Aerosol Smoke for “Pennelli Ribelli”

“Do it with passion or not at all!,” says Giulio Vesprini on this acid red cloud of paint that engulfs a portion of his new mural. The fog effect has become popular in public performance of late, adding a mystery of murk to photoshoots and videos, but not so many Street Artists have found a uniquely intrinsic way to make it work with their painting.

So, fresh from the Pennelli Rebelli Festival in Bologna, here’s his new wall in hot cherry flames.

Giulio Vesprini. Struttura G044. Pennelli Ribelli Festival. Bologna, Italy. (photo © Giulio Vesprini)
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Allessia Innocenti and Mariadela Araujo and Textile Experiments

Allessia Innocenti and Mariadela Araujo and Textile Experiments

The community-based Contorno Urbano continues to provide opportunities to local and visiting artists to access public space for their explorations on walls in a suburb of Barcelona. Not necessarily from the graffiti or Street Art world, they none the less are examining the practice of putting your stuff up to a general audience of passersby. Today we bring you some shots of their textile-influenced Midsomer walls with Alessia Innocenti from Chile and Mariadela Araujo who is originally from Caracas.

Mariadela Araujo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Clara Anton)

Ms. Araujo studied fine arts and painting and spent much of her early career teaching children and adults. Here she’s still working collaboratively to install a grouping of geometric shapes of yarns that take their influence from fractals and studies of symmetry.

Mariadela Araujo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Clara Anton)
Mariadela Araujo. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Clara Anton)

Ms. Innocenti presents a study for a new textile pattern she has created- a repeating pattern of subtle shading that has similarities to sixties optic art. Having completed projects of embroidery on a large scale in Caracas, Rome and Helsinki, here she presents a piece of embroidery in large format as a mural, in all of its chromatic variations.

Alessia Innocenti. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Clara Anton)
Alessia Innocenti. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Sant Vicenç dels Horts, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Clara Anton)
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BSA & Beyond The Streets: A Conversation with Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

BSA & Beyond The Streets: A Conversation with Tatyana Fazlalizadeh

You are invited Thursday to join BSA Founders Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo for a very special BSA TALKS program with the conscience-raising and conscious Street Artist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh as we look at her work and talk about her campaigns addressing catcalling and marginalization, invisibility and intersectionality, “America is Black” and “Stop Telling Women to Smile”.

We know it will be a lively and LIVE talk at this summer’s blockbuster exhibition Beyond the Streets in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Curated by Roger Gastman, Evan Pricco, David “Chino” Villorente, and Sacha Jenkins, this massive 150 artist, 100,000 square foot exhibition traces the graffiti/Street Art scene from the last 5 decades as wells as the Kings and Queens who claim the mantels of many titles in this global grassroots D.I.Y. arts scene in the streets.

Please join us Thursday as we welcome one more!

BSA TALKS with Tatyana Fazlalizadeh at BTS July 25th

A limited number of free tickets are available to BSA TALKS with Street Artist and activist Tatyana Fazlalizadeh at BEYOND THE STREETS this
Thursday 7/25 at 7 pm in Brooklyn.

1. Go to Beyond the Streets website (button below)
2. Enter “1” General Admission ticket
3. Click “Get Tickets”
4. Scroll down to “Have a coupon?” section
5. Enter this code BSATF to get your free ticket

READ the full announcement and descripti HERE https://madmimi.com/p/e452ee/

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.21.19

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.21.19

Dog days of summer be damned, the Street Art in all of its fabulous illegal varieties, the true Vox Populi (and self-advertisment) persists and insists through the streets this July.

On the topic of illegal, we’ll state it again for the many persons who have an incorrect impression – Street Art, by definition, is illegal. If it is not illegal, please do not call it Street Art. That work you are looking at is probably a mural. Unfortunately we’ve seen some recent flagrant misuses of the term by some folks who probably should know better.

Good to see “Hysterical Men” here in New York, after admiring the campaign from Philly. The artwork reminds us of Robbie Conal as well, who is reliably skewering public officials with his wilting depictions of them on posters on the street. This week we also were reminded of Chicago’s Dont Fret when we saw the work of Matt Starr, with his textual witticisms. Don’t get us wrong, its not a criticism to have similar work – it’s just an observation.

Finally, considering the treatment of immigrants, the mounting fascism, racism, misogyny, and rageful ignorance being modelled and engendered from the highest offices in the land, we’re shocked that, with a few notable exceptions, Street Artists are not taking those messages to the streets. So much for its reputation for being activist. Not so much.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Benjamin’s Brother, Bones, Cammix Vx, Captain Eyeliner, Diva Dolga, Domingo Zapata, Dr. Nothing, Hysterical Men, Invisible Essence, Little Ricky, Matt Siren, Matt Starr, Mattew Wythe, Mr. Djoul, Obey, Praxis, Raddington Falls, Rammellzee, Sara Lynne Leo, Sinclair, Sunflower Soulz, The Postman Art, and You Go Girl!

Sara Lynne Leo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Choose Love (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mattew Hyte (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Obey (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sunflower Soulz (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hysterical Men…fighting for women’s rights…the wrong way… (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hysterical Men (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Matt Starr (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Matt Starr (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Domingo Zapata (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Matt Siren (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dr. Nothing (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bones (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CammixVx (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Invisible Essence . The Postman Art. Captain Eyeliner (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Symbol…FYI (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Benjamin’s Brother (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Diva Dolga . Raddington Falls . Little Ricky (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sinclair (photo © Jaime Rojo)
You Go Girl! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Djoul (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rammellzee looking dapper at Beyond the Streets exhibition in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Palimpsest in Manhattan. July 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Pichi & Avo & Goddess Athena in Barcelona

Pichi & Avo & Goddess Athena in Barcelona

Bringing their unique blend of old-world European white classical sculpture and the bright side of modern urban vandalism to Barcelona, the artistic duo PichiAvo paints the Greek goddess Athena engulfed in bubble tags. Freshly finished this week across 125 square meters, the mural depicts a particular version of the Pallas Athena’s sculpture in the Austrian Parliament that is in Vienna.

Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)

The Great Mother Goddess of wisdom, useful arts, and prudent warfare here emerges from a layered cloud of tags drawn from the artists’ friends and peers, local tributes, and a wide range of styles from modern graffiti practice. Here in Esplugues de Llobregat the multi-story mural graces a student residence designed by the Portuguese architect José Quintela da Fonseca.

Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
Pichi & Avo. Rebobinart. Esplugues de Llobregat, Barcelona. July 2019. (photo © Fer Alcala)
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BSA Film Friday: 07.19.19

BSA Film Friday: 07.19.19

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

Now screening :
1. WK Interact in NYC by Fifth Wall
2. Rub Kandy & Biancoshock: “All the Lights”
3. Not Rented To Humans: Grip Face
4. Elrow’art: Kaos Garden with Okuda San Miguel and Paco Osuna

BSA Special Feature: WK Interact in NYC by Fifth Wall

“It was some sort of freedom,” says WK in this retrospective of NYC locations that he tries to recall with original photo in hand overlaying the original city spot. For some of us, the memories of all of these spots are sufficient, as the city was different then – perhaps more wild and dirty. For WK, the stories and the memories continue to evolve.

Well shot and edited, its a mature way to let the artist speak and evocative of his current manner.

Rub Kandy & Biancoshock: “All the Lights”

In the face of sexy new machine-learning and Artificial Intelligence – and the auxiliary tales related to art-making, perhaps this video is a way of preserving the authentic feeling of human discovery in its unglamorous basicness. Not to overplay this, but this conceptual piece is a meditation on the underwhelming mechanized aspects of industry, a blatant taunt of banality in the midst of high gloss unrealness.

Ladies and gentlemen, the conceptual mundanity of the Italian urban artists Rub Kandy and Biancoshock, who here demonstrate how to create electricity with a generator in an abandoned industrial space. It’s a marvelously underwhelming demonstration of the means of production. To “jazz” things up they throw in intermittent blasts of pop-star banality as well, sprinkled with blinky graphics.

…Turn up the lights in here baby
Extra bright, I want y’all to see this
Turn up the lights in here, baby
You know what I need
Want you to see everything

Not Rented To Humans: Grip Face

First, they look like run down sheds, these new wooden structures in high weeds – possibly stopped mid-construction, perhaps during the last economic downturn. Here the missed opportunity of housing, suddenly coupled with the found opportunity of art exhibition!

“There’s something both bizarre and magical in abandoned places,” writes Grip Face in the description of this video. “The course of time invades them, colonizes them, makes it into its own. The invisible imprints impregnate the walls and the experiential trace of past inhabitants slips through the cracks like winter would through a badly insulated window.”

Elrow’art: Kaos Garden with Okuda San Miguel and Paco Osuna

A warmup video for multi-disciplinary artist Okuda San Miguel and dj/producer Paco Osuna and their creative intermingling of avant-garde aesthetics with electronic music to create their vision of ‘The Garden of Delights’. The premiere of the artistic partnership of Ink and Movement and elrow will be on September 28 at Amnesia Ibiza. Here’s a taste of things to come! 

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ZMOGK has “Butterflies” in Lieusaint: Wall Street Art Festival

ZMOGK has “Butterflies” in Lieusaint: Wall Street Art Festival

Moscovite graffiti artist/muralist Konstantin Danilov, aka ZMOGK, is our third in a row from the French “Wall Street Art Festival” this summer. A late 90s graffiti artist working primarily with the letter form, ZMOGK has deconstructed it and pushed it through a prism or two, now nearly entirely abstract. Look closely at the finished walls below and you may see why he has titled this one, “Butterflies”

ZMOGK. Butterflie. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. SLieusaint, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

One of the few Russian graffiti/Street Artists that you hear of outside of his mother country, he has participated in a number of Street Art festivals and jams in the last few years. On this commercially owned housing complex in this relatively small town of 13,000 named Lieusaint, the artist channeled his emotions, organizers say, bringing vibrant dynamic colors in a rather chaotic composition.

ZMOGK. “Butterflies”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. SLieusaint, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

A press release says that his “first approach is based on intuition and the subconscious mind. This corresponds to the initial phase of working on a radically free canvas, when he closes the logical and rational mind and lets his hand draw the lines while focusing on his feelings.”

ZMOGK. “Butterflies”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. Lieusaint, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)
ZMOGK. “Butterflies”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. SLieusaint, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

The Wall Street Art festival is organized by Grand Paris Sud, Gautier Jourdain, and Galerie Mathgoth in Paris.


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James Reka at French “Wall Street Art Festival”

James Reka at French “Wall Street Art Festival”

Second in the summer series of walls from the south Paris “Wall Street Festival” is this decorative design work by the English-Australian-Berlinian James REKA. Completed during the recent brutal heat wave you can see some mind melting taking place on the exterior of a city media library in Savigny-Le-Temple.

REKA. “Mother Nature”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. Savigny-Le-Temple, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

Structured, animated, and entirely with cans, this treatment has become the expected output from the now Berlin-based artist, bubbly waves of energy that regale the façade. A former graffiti writer Reka and commercial graphic designer of logos and corporate branding, the artist now shows canvasses with galleries and brings his organically inspired forms from outside inside.

REKA. “Mother Nature”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. Savigny-Le-Temple, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)
REKA. “Mother Nature”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. Savigny-Le-Temple, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)
REKA. “Mother Nature”. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud 2019. Savigny-Le-Temple, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

The Wall Street Art festival is organized by Grand Paris Sud, Gautier Jourdain, and Galerie Mathgoth in Paris.


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