Contemporary Urban Art fans, collectors, gallerists are coming together again this year in Madrid for Urvanity, a unique survey of current movements and trends along the Street Art/ graffiti/ urban art continuum, with a focus on canvasses and sculpture.
Again this year comes a strong program of talks with some scintillating professionals who have high profiles in many sectors of this ever-expanding field of art in the public sphere. We hosted last year and the conversations we had were enriching, the people whom we met well versed and passionate.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street featuring Add Fuel, Almost Over Keep Smiling, BR163, Crash, Degrupo, Disordered, Early Riser, finDAC, Fours, Jason Naylor, Leleus, JL, Maya Hayuk, Obey, Sara Lynne Leo, Surface of Beauty, Telmo & Miel.
Innovative artist in the public sphere, Daniel Weissbach aka DTAGNO aka COST88 has charted new territory many times with his hand made experimentation that makes graffiti and street art search themselves for new definitions.
Creating new tools and techniques for applying the traditional aerosol spray to the wall, he inspired many imitators and redefines the artists’ relationship to art in public space. Rooted in graffiti culture but scaling a number of disciplines, he has trail-blazed his own idiosyncratic routes and aesthetics full of humor, discovery, and contradiction for more than two decades at work, and in the process he’s created new paths for us to explore.
Beginning next week with a special showcase of works by admiring peers in the graffiti/ Street Art/ Urban Art/ public art Berlin family, a large number of works will be auctioned to benefit the 44-year old artist as he lives with a medical diagnosis that is a great challenge. Since 2016 he has faced the challenge bravely and will need to have greater care as time moves forward, so the community is reaching out to help.
Following on the heels of a successful campaign on GoFundme last month, this multi-stage online auction of works donated by many local and international artists will assist him and his family during this time, so that he can spend it “in his familiar surroundings, at home, with his 8-year-old daughter and with us,” says artist Christian Hundertmark in his GoFundme essay.
“Get Well Daniel” is the charity auction initiative begun by Steffen Köhler, Markus Mai and Matthias Wermke with the support of many others.
BSA invites you to join with the family of admirers, companions, and friends and to participate at the opening exhibition this Friday, February 21 in Berlin to see many of the works donated Friday night and all day Saturday. If you cannot attend the exhibition please look online beginning Sunday night February 23 at 8 pm for the first group of 30 items.
The benefit auction, which gives 100% of the proceeds to Mr. Weissbach, will continue throughout the month of March and will be updated with new works March 2, 9, and 16, with the final group being unveiled March 23rd.
“Get Well Daniel” Exhibition
21.02.2020, 4 p.m. – 10 p.m. // 22.02.2020 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
@ Salon am Moritzplatz (Oranienstrasse 58, 10969 Berlin-Kreuzberg)
CHARITY AUCTION
The first auction starts online Sunday, February 23, 2020 at 8:00 p.m.! www.getwelldaniel.de
Participating artists include: Adams & E.B. Itso, Adrian Nabi, AKIM, AMIGO, André Simonow, Angabe noch zu klären, Anna Herms, Antwan Horfee, ARIS ONER, BARTO, Beerbird Press, Bernhard Uhlig, BIO, Brad Downey, BUNY, CHEERIO, Christian Falsnaes, Christian Schellenberger, Clemens Behr, Coco Bergholm, Conny Maier, CREAM – 247/MAD, CYOP & KAF, Dan Murphy, DEJOE, DELTA (Boris Tellegen), DEON, DES78, Dmitry Ilko, DRIK, DTAGNO & TRYONE & Jürgen Große, Dumar Novy, EGS, Emmett Edelstein, Enzo Ricordo & Mr.Z, Eric Winkler, ERUPTION (JB. Institute), ESHER, EXOT, Fabian Treiber, Felix Amerbacher, FISTER, Flatliners & Tuff City Kids, GATE, Gambette, Graffitimuseum (Joachim Spurloser, Stefan Wartenberg), HuskMitNavn, ICOS, IDEE, IMOS, Jakob Traxlmayr, Jan Kaláb, Jeremias Böttcher, Jeroen Erosie, Jeroen Jongeleen / influenza, JOLIE, Julien Fargetton, Kaos (VIM), Katdog Wartenberg, Kevin Kemter, Kiddo Oh, KingOfVoid / NICK, Konsens Berlin, KROK, LOFKER, Louise Drubigny, LOVER, LuluGazel, Markus Mai & Markus Butkereit, Matthias Wermke, Max Schaffer, Max Stocklosa, Mischa Leinkauf, MISERABLES, Mister Adam & Gijs Weijer, MONKEY, MOSES & TAPS™, Norman Behrendt, OLABO & AKAY, Olivier Stak / O.K-T, Pablo Tomek, Paul du Bois-Reymond, Paul Simon Krüger, Philip Emde, Philipp Clasen, Philipp König, Possible Books, RACHE, REACT, REVOK, REW KREUZBERG, ROY1st, ROZER, Ruohan Wang, SEEK, SOME SOScrew, SPAIR, Stefan Haehnel, Stefan Marx, Stefan Strumbel, Steve Paul Steven Paul, Streetfiles, SWOON, The WA, Thomas Bratzke, Thomas Korn, Tony Savas, VELI & AMOS, Velo Tramp, Vincent Grunwald, Wilhelm Klotzek & Konrad Mühe, 1UP Crew and φαντομας!
For further press information, please contact Katia Hermann // press@getwelldaniel.de
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. “Who is TAKI183?”, Jim Prigoff and Cedric Godin 2. ESPO: A Love Letter For You 3. Exquisite Waste Of Time – Telmo Miel
BSA Special Feature: “Who is TAKI183?”
Graffiti writers were going hard in New York City in the mid-late 1960s but it wasn’t until the elite cultural avatar The New York Times did a story on the prolific TAKI183 in July of 1971 that many felt that the graffiti scene was somehow validated. From that point forward, the writer’s reputation as being all-city and unofficial representative of taggers everywhere was gold plated among his peers, and competition to get up all-city was suddenly on fire.
Writer, photographer, author, lecturer and storied nonagenarian Jim Prigoff, who published Spraycan Art with Henry Chalfant in 1987, has just produced a new video with Cedric Godin that more closely examines this tagger/standard-bearer and lets the camera roll on stories from him and others inside his family’s car repair shop.
“A lot of the earlier graffiti was scratched or done with paint brushes. There weren’t really spray cans. I think because markers were available and you could do it quick,” says Taki.
“I discovered the first graffiti in NY as Taki 183. I was stunned. This
determined my life direction,” says French Street Artist Blek le Rat.
“But in New York, it was the media capital of the world,” says Philadelphia graffiti king Cornbread, who was writing in the 1960s as well. “When they had done something, it was magnified. To be honest with you, New York overshadowed me.”
The storytelling leads to stylized writing and people like Stay High 149 and
the dawn of more formalized or experimental gallery spaces like Fashion Moda in
the Bronx. But Taki retained his tagger status, and remained a touchpoint for
an era. “I never had a relationship with the art world because I was just so
removed from it.
So much of this history is lost already, mostly because our art institutions
and universities have been ignorant and adamantly so about the importance of
graffiti in the language of society and its evolution as the most democratic
global art movement ever. Videos like this one by Mr. Prigoff and Cedric Godin act to preserve
and archive the images and voices of those at the forefront of a movement that
influenced so many other parts of global culture.
WHO is TAKI183 A film by Jim Prigoff and Cedric Godin
ESPO: A Love Letter For You
“To mark the 10th anniversary of A Love Letter For You, ESPO and the film director Joey Garfield held a Q & A in Brooklyn’s Night Hawk Cinema. With this documentary, Mr. Garfield captures the artist’s process while directly asking the residents of this Philadelphia community, which was once ESPO’s own hood, what they wish was painted on the walls. ESPO took the inspiration that he received from the community and went onto painting 50 walls.
Exquisite Waste Of Time – Telmo Miel
Exactly how your dad describes your interest in painting, in music, in social work – an “Exquisite Waste of Time”. Luckily, this video promo for a show by Telmo and Miel will make you drool so much to paint that you won’t care what Dad says.
“They
are criminals. They have assaulted a part of the city that is very special,”
says Sally Capp, Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Australia, to a reporter on the local
television news.
“It’s an
act of vandalism and it’s something that police are taking very seriously,”
says Inspector Troy Papworth, of the Victoria Police.
Alternately, one may describe these unarmed baklava-wearing youth with paint-filled fire extinguishers as performance artists for the tourists. As they slowly rolled through the cobblestones streets defacing in broad daylight you may say they are Situationists with a very healthy respect for satire and a thirst for attention-getting rebellion.
As you watch footage of this mismatched team of what appear to be white young male (and female?) sprayers in comfortable footwear quietly annihilating the sanctioned Street Art and murals on Hosier Lane, it strikes you that it was an appreciative crowd of onlookers who happily recorded them on their phones. Beyond the light whir of propellers keeping the camera drone over your head, also recording, that popping noise you hear in your mind may be the metaphorical sound of heads exploding all around the urban art world.
It’s
nearly impossible to peel back all the layers of irony involved to examine our
history. A previously reviled act of vandalizing property with paint was
eventually circuitously legitimized by galleries, high auction prices,
consumerism, and its ability to aid and abet gentrifying real estate
developers.
Pair it with a renewed interest in murals and attendant festivals, and any signs of its counter-culture originality have been subsumed into themes that are cute and edgy, with a writer in the Guardian commenting that definitions of Street Art have become predictable and formulaic. “(S)o many murals feature instantly recognizable tropes,” writes Sean Irving, “Among them, pop culture references, anthropomorphic animals and recognizable portraiture.”
Our knee-jerk addiction to social media and our seductive romance with AR/VR, of course, are both warping all our accepted archetypes and conventions of human interaction – with reality-based art being as relevant as staged and enhanced Photoshop versions of it. Are you an actual vandal or are you simply playing the role of one in a VR game?
Your
Granddad was just getting used to all this legal graffiti down the lane – and
now these rotten kids have come and vandalized it! Try changing the subject to
football or show him pictures on your Tinder account – because this vandal
topic won’t get any clearer for any of us as we go forward.
Can this
current situation be fixed? Certainly. “Come to Hosier Lane and go crazy on the
walls there,” says the Lord Mayor in her public entreaty to aerosol artists to
cover up this nasty spray paint.
*All images are screenshots from re-shared video alleged to be from the vandals.
Okay, you are not likely to find Michaelangelo’s Pietàor Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, but you will serendipitously discover ruddy-cheeked siren or a pointillist Whistler’s Daughter made of plastic beads or a molten chess set or a brutalist architectural model as you scan the surface of the modern city for sculpture.
Easy to overlook as so much bumpy skin on the face of the metropolis, today’s street art sculptures have personality and drama and echoes of the “high art” that may be stuck on the other side of the wall, but here it is for everyone to enjoy. Or destroy.
Whether commercial or diagrammatic or exquisitely ornate, we always appreciate the added dimension that adds to what can be a rather flat “Street Art” scene sometimes – and an excellent entry point into the scene for your friend who is sight-impaired.
Here is a collection of small sculptures from Leipzig to Hong Kong to Moscow and Madrid for you to enjoy.
Neo-psychedelic-cosmic-abstract-expressionist Sickid took this wall by storm in Wynwood and is blowing minds daily with his curious cast of misshapen feverish oddballs and satiric characters doing nearly unspeakable things that you love to analyze.
Originally from Bristol, the Street Artist has done much travel since those late 2000s where he first hit Shoreditch with his logo and stretched his interpretations of archetypes, architecture, everyday scenery far enough for adventurous viewers to hop inside and slither around, imagining themselves just outside reality.
Frankly, this comic world he shows is not that much more surreal than this urban swamp called Wynwood, and he’s probably just painting allegory and metaphor to slag the scaley sidewinders he’s been meeting in the sun-beaten neighborhood. Delicious and salty street food for the unsuspecting tourist, this is a hot-steaming stacked meat sandwich baked inside a deep and chipped chafing dish in his fabulous fever-dream, braised with Corona beer and a hint of coconut suntan lotion.
We remember walking down the street somewhere in Los Angeles with Shepard Fairey and a gaggle of other artists after a panel discussion we led at LA MOCA back in the day…Shepard was enthusiastically sharing stories about one thing or another and as he walked, and talked he discreetly and nonchalantly would reach into his back pocket grab a sticker and slap it – sometimes leaping into the air.
Quick. Fast. Done. Noone was the wiser. And that’s how it works. Instantly.
If the artist is a wordsmith he or she can deliver a zinger or a joke. A distilled sentiment can be just as effective as a sermon. A powerful graphic sticker can deliver a cogent idea to the masses.
Legendary photographer and collector, Martha Cooper wrote and published two books about stickers; “Name Tagging”, which shed light on the practice of graffiti writers writing their tag on the ubiquitous “Hello My Name Is” sticker usually displayed at conferences to identify oneself. The second book, “Going Postal” takes its name from the US post office sticker originally intended to address parcels. Graffiti and street art practitioners use them as a platform to deliver artworks and messages to the public on the streets.
Recently during a walk through the streets in Wynwood, Miami we found a set of wooden panels specifically created to be covered with stickers by the multitude of artists visiting the city. Below we share our finds with you. How many artists can you identify?
The pronounced disparities and hypocrisies of society are now on display and on parade in our politics, on our multiple screens, in our bank accounts, our hospitals, our music, our schools, our neighborhoods, and in our Street Art — which again proves an apt and reliable reflection of society, despite the fog.
While our politicians and political machines and corporate media and cultural institutions are now being questioned more openly and often for their alliances, their entrenched classism, and exploitation of the rank-and-file, you can see those dynamics reflected in the messages and alliances that are occurring in Street Art as well – and questioned more often as well.
Will a torrent of populism be unleashed? Will our institutions fall or further erode? Who knows. As ever, one must be vigilant to spot the colorful wolf in populist clothes, often right in front of you in black and white.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street featuring Adam Fu, Albertus Joseph, Anthony Lister, Captain Eyeliner, COSBE, CRKSHNK, JR, Poet Was Taken, Praxis, Sara Lynne Leo, Vivid Trash, Will Power, Wing, and WK Interact.
Crossroads, the new monograph from Alice Pasquini is full of the young daring and confident girls and women whom have been traveling with her since she began painting walls around the world two decades ago.
Rendered in aqua and goldenrod and midnight, withstanding winds and rains, these figures are willing to be there as a testament to the daily walk through your life. A survey and diary of her works and experiences, her style is more human than international in its everyday appeal, advocacy gently advanced through the depiction of intimate personal dynamics and internal reflection.
Perhaps this quality alludes to the invitation of interaction, the ease of integration with the public space in a way that the cultural norms of her Italian roots influenced her.
“In Rome, where I grew up, everything is urban art. Any little fountain or corner was made by an artist. And there were always a lot of expressions of freedom in this city,” she says in an interview here with writer Stephen Heyman.
Alternating between aerosol rendering, ink sketches on
paper, and the sharpened portraiture of street stencils in hidden places,
Pasquini can distill a moment that is perhaps remarkable, perhaps everyday
noblesse.
“I have discovered that art is a universal language,” she
says. Working in the streets I have found myself in countless situations,
whether exhilarating, educational, or expected. I receive immediate feedback,
whether it be surprise, joy or curiosity of the passerby, irrespective of age
or culture.”
Elsewhere in an essay addressing the still-current imbalance of representation of males and females in the Street Art scene internationally, she speaks of a social aspect to her practice, a fulfillment of her desire to engage and encourage women to be themselves and be present, fully immersed in public life.
“Maybe women are presented with a behavioral model that limits our liberty to be ourselves. They tell us how we should be. By painting the women I see, I try to show to them – like a mirror – what they could be but what they repress. It is an incitement for women to do what they wish to do.”
With page after page of images in these Crossroads, the artist presents many people, not unlike herself, and undoubtedly extensions of her. Tender, confessional, timidly hiding in plain view, these figures are public expressions for introverts, observers and dreamers who must confront the harsh chaos of the metropolis, but who are happier without the tumult and able to conjure beauty without the drama.
Longtime stalwart friend, advisor, and manager Jessica Stewart gives readers a warm and close view of the artist and her practice, adding a timbre needed to fully appreciate the work.
“I’ve often remarked to Alice that she’s lucky that she knew what she wanted to do since she was a child. I sometimes think that she doesn’t realize just how rare it is to not only have that calling but to be fearless enough to follow your heart. Through her example, who knows how many others will be brave enough to also take the leap.”
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. 1Up X Hand Mixed – “Love is Love” 2. WK Interact x Kobe Bryant 3. Bordalo II in Studio
BSA Special Feature: 1Up X Hand Mixed – “Love is Love”
Many old school original graff dudes kicked gay guys onto the tracks in the 1970s and 80s and 90s and 00s and…. They may have been rebels against oppression, but they could still use their own power and prejudice to keep people down.
Somewhere during that time LGBTQ people began to vociferate for social and legal equality in Western democracies, and their braver straight allies also began to fight alongside of them, and begrudgingly the graff scene began to let these folks into the mix. But homophobia, like racism, is still present in places where the dominant culture embraces homo/transphobia and has held tight to its exclusionary claims to privilege and power – including in the subcultures of graffiti, hip-hop, tattoo, punk, skateboarding, and street art.
So it’s still remarkable when a graffiti crew stands in the face of all of it and says “Love is Love” and uses its One United Power to recognize the rights of everyone, regardless of their particular crush or kink. Granted, 1UP and Hand Mixed employee rebellion and vandalism to make the point, and no one is going to hire any of these guys/gals to work on the UN Security Council because of their diplomacy, but life is messy, yo. And viewer comments on this video on Instagram and Youtube prove that change is still incremental.
WK Interact x Kobe Bryant
In the wake of the unfortunate death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, we’re reminded of that campaign Street Artist WK Interact did with him for a brand a few years ago. It was a very good merging of styles, with their intersection at the corner of movement and strategically employed power. Our condolences to his family and extended network of friends.
Bordalo II in Studio
A full interview with street sculptor Bordalo II last fall on Camões TV. Also a great opportunity for you to practice Portuguese.
The three-dimensional figures cavort with the thickened and filigreed waves of memory and emotion. They emerge from the wall, flicker across the screen, mesmerizing.
The hand-drawn lines and patterned shadings are familiar to fans of street art over the last two decades, but this goddess seems so real, so haunted. Swoons’ Cicada installations at Deitch Gallery on 76 Grand Street are in movement, fluttering in your periphery, stories from her past melting into motifs and fragments of her memories, and quite possibly yours.
Cicada is a life cycle, and it glimmers in the darkness as you turn. In this collection of drawings, installations, and film you finally reach the pain, the trauma, the escapist desire for divinity to save us. Swoon introduces the fluttering mystic figures into her new stop motion film, again your memories are triggered, but it’s hers that are on display – while they continue to hide before us.
Even though she’s not here with you, it feels like Swoon’s never been so close and so theatrical, even when she sailed the Switchback Seas with this same journeyman Deitch. Her own odyssey continues to be rebirthed in so many surprising ways; often at the center of the stage, and still behind the wings.
Swoon “Cicada” exhibition ran at Deitch Gallery in New York from Nov 14, 2019 – February 1, 2020.