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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.29.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.29.17

October 29, 2017 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Halloween this year is on a Tuesday so its hard for people to know when exactly to celebrate it – we had 20 or so Trick-or-Treaters Saturday night so that tells you the kids vote in this part of Brooklyn.

Of course with the folks we have running the White House, every day feels like Halloween. “Here, I’ll trick you with this POPULIST costume, and my treat will be to take whats left of your middle class chocolate.”

Trick or Trick!

It doesn’t help that Tabloid TV loves the “Zombies on Parade” – they are like sugar addicts dancing for eyeballs and advertising dollars.

But from a Street Art and public performance perspective, New York is a thrill, a regular monster mash! The East Village parade 2017 on Tuesday will have puppets, 53 bands performing different types of music, dancers, artists, and thousands of New Yorkers in costume. Be safe out here ya’ll.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Karl Addison, Bifido, City Kitty, Denis Ouch, Don Rimx, Elliott Routledge, Julien de Casabianca, Julieta, Lungebox, Nevercrew, Outings Project, Revok, Sipros, Strayones, and TurtleCaps.

Top image: Elliott Routledge (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Revok – MSK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Denis Ouch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Portraits of a clown king. Denis Ouch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Strayones brings out Cat In The Hat. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sculptural Street Artist Strayones tells us that the story represented here is a critique of “how business people and wealthy men are making us step over the edge into the abyss”.

Nevercrew. “Dimensional recipe”. Los Angeles. Part 1 (photo © Nevercrew)

“Dimensional recipe” is a series of three interconnected mural paintings realized in Los Angeles (USA), curated by Anne­Laure Lemaitre (FatCap), 2017.

About the work:

This is a work about mankind’s relation with creation, about the mutual influences between creativity and reality and the anthropological loop
that originates from this continuous correlation. It is about the feeling of being part of a system, of being a participant and being able to view it from a certain point of view, for what it is and for what it could be.”

Nevercrew. “Dimensional recipe”. Los Angeles. Part 2 (photo © Nevercrew)

Nevercrew. “Diposing Machine”. Melano, Switzerland. Part 1 (photo © Nevercrew)

“Disposing Machine” is the new mural from Nevercrew in Melano, Switzerland for Artrust. Their statement:

“Habits, attitudes, principles and awareness are conditioned by reality, and reality is conditioned by the perception everyone has of it. The position of humankind in its environment, in its World, is at the same
time part of its nature and a point of view from which to perceive it.

Systems are then interpretations, a way to give human shape to
something that’s not necessarily made for it, as well as a way to decide
which shapes to give and how to read them. As reality could be built and
altered by systems, so nature could then risk to be detached from
human sensing; an human reconstruction of something that exists
outside this given shape but that still is directly subjected to each action
that’s made on it.”

This image of Dreamers reminds us of our grandfathers and grandmothers and the stories of refugees all over the world overcoming obstacles to make a better life.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dom Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collaboration between Bifido and Julieta in Lecce, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

The Italian Street Artist Bifido and Spanish artists Juelieta completed this fantastical work in Lecce, Italy this week for the 167 Art Project. Bifido tells us that the title is “First Fire” and it “talks about the possibility to love each other in a fantastic way, and it focuses on the importance of play in our lives.”

Collaboration between Bifido and Julieta in Lecce, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Turtlecaps . City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An atmospheric Addison Karl . “Okchamali Nebulae”. Washington, DC. (photo © Addison Karl)

Lungebox (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One question: what is a furring channel? Sipros for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Outings Project in Paris. (photo © Julien de Casabianca)

Outings Project in Paris. (photo © Julien de Casabianca)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Selections From “SHINE” Mural Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida.

Selections From “SHINE” Mural Festival in St. Petersburg, Florida.

October 28, 2017

Here are new images from St Petersburg, Florida, where The SHINE mural festival was thrown in September for the 3rd year in a row.

Kryptk. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

“Shine is a good example of a mural project when the community is involved,” says an organizer Iryna Kanishcheva, who has had a great deal of experience working with Street Artists in the last few years, including a very successful program in Kiev.

Regarding this Floridian community she says, “They started in 2015 with many local artists and family-friendly public activities. The event received good support from the community, so much so in fact that produced more murals next year.”

Mikael B. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Included this year are names you’ll find familiar like Cryptic, Hueman, Joram Roukes, Lauren YS and Yok & Sheryo. You’ll also find a fair share of local talents at SHINE because the festival makes a point to keep the mix local and international.

“They try to keep the ratio 5:10 local artists versus traveling artists, thanks to curator Chris Parks,” says Kanishcheva.

Axel Void . L. E. O. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

So what stood out in 2017?

“The difference in this year’s edition is an exhibition, a group show called “Outside In” with large-scale installations by The Yok and Sheryo, James Oleson, The Artwork of Ricky Watts, Vitale Bros., Sentrock and artwork by many more,” says Kanishcheva. “I’d like to acknowledge Axel Void’s piece, which is based on a series called ‘Nobody.’”

“A few years ago Axel painted a mural in Atlanta and he used a portrait of a boy – a random image from the Internet. Months later he received an email from a man in the original photo – his sister had alerted him to it after spotting it in a magazine. Axel Void kept in touch with him and even developed an idea for the film, show and canvas series. One of them is here in the ‘Inside In’ collection.”

See the original Axel Void wall shot by Jaime Rojo at “Living Walls” in Atlanta that year here; Living Walls 2013 ALIVE in Atlanta

Hueman. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Jose Mertz. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Jujmo. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

Joram Roukes. Shine Mural Festival. St. Petersburg, Florida. October 2017. (photo © Iryna Kanishcheva)

2017 SHINE artists:

Axel Void & L.E.O.,Cryptic, Daniel “R5” Barojas, Herbert Scott Davis, Hueman, James Oleson, Joram Roukes, Jose Mertz, Jujmo, Lauren YS, Mikael B, Ricky Watts, Sentrock, Sam Young, Stephen Palladino, Suarezart, Thirst & Zulu Painter, Vitale Bros., Yok & Sheryo.

We wish to thank Iryna Kanishcheva for sharing her observations and photos with our BSA readers. Please visit http://kanishcheva.com/ to learn more about Ms. Kanishcheva projects.

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BSA Film Friday: 10.27.17

BSA Film Friday: 10.27.17

October 27, 2017

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. Joe Caslin: “We will let no life be worth less”
2. VERMIBUS – IN ABSENTIA
3. Fernando Leon / 12 + 1 Contorno Urbano
4. Graffolution. By Carl Friedrich

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: Joe Caslin: “We will let no life be worth less”

Street artist Joe Caslin, known for his large-scale black and white drawings, has released a compelling and emotive short film entitled ‘The Volunteers – We will let no life be worth less’. The film follows his installation of a four story drawing on House Two in Trinity College’s Front Square. The film focuses on drug addiction, mental health, and our collective response to both and showcases the efforts of 20 people in Ireland working toward re-framing the conversation around de-criminalization and rehabilitation.

 

VERMIBUS – IN ABSENTIA

BSA has brought you Vermibus since he started messing with glamour, testing the limits of passersby ability to ignore his melted models. A protest against the classist beauty brands that insult us in our public space, Vermibus’ posters re-frame the conversation, jolting you into a grotesque brutalism, sometimes ornate, sometimes darkly disturbing. Here his latest solvent-based poster campaign appears on the metro in Paris, neatly framed and waiting to catch you eye. He calls it “In Absentia”.

 

Fernando Leon / 12 + 1 Contorno Urbano

The latest video from Contorno Urbano with Fernando Leon.

 

Graffolution. By Carl Friedrich

A post-modern meditation on mark-making. A soul-stirring piano score accompanies this layered montage of graffiti writing and abstract painting. Here there is destruction. And deconstruction. And recollecting of playful errant thoughts and passionate impulses and suite soliloquies, machine gunned and splashed like hot massage oil across the surface like so many erudite dialogues you pined for. Masterful? Maybe. Poignant. Positively. Transcendent! You decide.

Also, it’s an ad for a book duo called Graffolution and Dead and Afterlife of Graffiti, both which we hope to read one day. Until then, this video puts us in a great state of mind.

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Spogo for Parees Fest 2017 in North of Spain

Spogo for Parees Fest 2017 in North of Spain

October 26, 2017

“Spogo is one of the most reknowned abstract street artists in Spain,” says photographer Fernando Alcalá of the Barcelona based geometrist who has installed a balanced composition that anchored at the base of an elevated freeway here in Oviedo, Asturias in the North of Spain.

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

The festival is called Parees, a slang derivation of paredes (walls), and this one is meant specificially for Noche Blanca.

Currently having an exhibition at GKO Gallery in Guipúzcoa, Spogo has also had a busy year painting outside in Madrid, Barcelona, Cantabria, Gante, Oviedo, Badalona and Tolosa, says Alcalá. Enjoy the video directed by Titi Muñoz, and image here from Mr. Alcalá.

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

 

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Spogo. Parees Fest. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain. October 2017. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Spogo: La Noche Blanca. Oviedo, Asturias. Spain.

 

Location: Ramón Prieto Bances esquina con Rafael Sarandeces
Video Director: Titi Muñoz
Music: “Pli”, by Jumo

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Don Rimx in El Barrio with Revered Poet Jesús “Tato” Laviera

Don Rimx in El Barrio with Revered Poet Jesús “Tato” Laviera

October 25, 2017 ,

The revered Nuyorican poet Jesús “Tato” Laviera will be honored this weekend with a new mural by artist Don Rimx in Spanish Harlem/El Barrio in addition to the re-naming of 123rd Street after him. Wearing his signature suit and fedora, Laviera gazes skyward below Rimx’s depiction of plants and architectural elements of New York and Puerto Rico painted with an exalted glow, recalling the stained glass of church windows.

Don Rimx tribute to Tato Laviera at Taino Towers Community Center in Spanish Harlem/El Barrio. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Puerto Rican poet and playwright, whose acclaimed work addressed language, cultural identity and race, passed away in 2013 and is very much missed by the community, many of whom take comfort in the writings he left behind. The artist and man became Don Rimx’s focus this summer and fall, immersing himself into the life of the individual – even staying in his former home at the invitation of Laviera’s family.

We spoke with Don Rimx about the painting and the project:

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the importance of Tato Laviera in New York City and specifically here in El Barrio?
Don Rimx: Tato Laviera was an important and influential writer who left a mark as one of the founders of a movement in the Puerto Rican community in NYC. He set the standard to follow and we learn from his work, his spirit and his integrity as he worked with the community here in NYC but also in Puerto Rico and other states in the union.

Don Rimx tribute to Tato Laviera at Taino Towers Community Center in Spanish Harlem/El Barrio. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Can you talk about his contributions to the Nuyorican movement?
Don Rimx: Tato Laviera is one of the founders of the Nuyorican movement. He promoted what we now know as “spanglish”. One can read in his work the combination of the two languages and the sense of identity in a group of people who live between two geographically distinct places but who share the same feelings of patriotism and community.

BSA: Can you describe your experience working on this mural and the reaction of the community?
Don Rimx: Here what touched my heart was the memory of Tato in the minds of the people. The more I hear them talk about him the better an image of him I have in my mind. Their anecdotes about him were so powerful that without personally meeting him I was able to understand his greatness as an artist as well his persona.

Don Rimx tribute to Tato Laviera at Taino Towers Community Center in Spanish Harlem/El Barrio. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: We understand that you were actually given his rooms to stay in while you were working on this mural. Is it true? What sort of experience did you have while sleeping on his bed and looking at his possessions?
Don Rimx: Being able to live for a few days in his apartment was part of the search and research on him. I immersed myself in the intimacy of his writing. His books, his photographs are still there. So as I was able to experience the trust and the open arms in which his family received me I was able to share my responsibility for his legacy with through my work. I was able to honor his legacy with respect and with my work I continue to promote the legacy, which he left behind for all of us.

BSA: Can you tell us your favorite poem from Tato’s work?
Don Rimx: AmeRícan

AmeRícan

By Tato Laviera

we gave birth to a new generation,

AmeRícan, broader than lost gold

never touched, hidden inside the

puerto rican mountains.

we gave birth to a new generation

AmeRícan, it includes everything

imaginable you-name-it-we-got-it

society.

we gave birth to a new generation,

AmeRícan salutes all folklores,

european, indian, black, spanish

and anything else compatible:

AmeRícan,       singing to composer pedro flores’ palm

                           trees up high in the universal sky!

AmeRícan,       sweet soft spanish danzas gypsies

                           moving lyrics la española cascabelling

                           presence always singing at our side!

AmeRícan,       beating jíbaro modern troubadours

                           crying guitars romantic continental

                           bolero love songs!

AmeRícan,       across forth and across back

                           back across and forth back

                           forth across and back and forth

                           our trips are walking bridges!

                           it all dissolved into itself, an attempt

                           was truly made, the attempt was truly

                           absorbed, digested, we spit out

                           the poison, we spit out in malice,

                           we stand, affirmative in action,

                           to reproduce a broader answer to the

                           marginality that gobbled us up abruptly!

AmeRícan,       walking plena-rhythms in new york,

                           strutting beautifully alert, alive

                           many turning eyes wondering,

                           admiring!

AmeRícan,       defining myself my own way any way many

                           many ways Am e Rícan, with the big R and the

                           accent on the í!

AmeRícan,       like the soul gliding talk of gospel

                           boogie music!

AmeRícan,       speaking new words in spanglish tenements,

                           fast tongue moving street corner “que

                           corta” talk being invented at the insistence

                           of a smile!

AmeRícan,       abounding inside so many ethnic english

                           people, and out of humanity, we blend

                           and mix all that is good!

AmeRícan,       integrating in new york and defining our

                           own destino, our own way of life,

AmeRícan,       defining the new america, humane america,

                           admired america, loved america, harmonious

                           america, the world in peace, our energies

                           collectively invested to find other civili-

                           zations, to touch God, further and further,

                           to dwell in the spirit of divinity!

AmeRícan,       yes, for now, for i love this, my second

                           land, and i dream to take the accent from

                           the altercation, and be proud to call

                           myself american, in the u.s. sense of the

                           word, AmeRícan, America!

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Fintan Magee and “Follow the Leader” in South of Paris

Fintan Magee and “Follow the Leader” in South of Paris

October 24, 2017

Back to the south of Paris today to see a trio of children on the new wall done in late September by Sydney based muralist Fintan Magee.

Fintan Magee. For Wall Street Art in Savigny-le-Temple, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

“He asked 3 young people to come with winter clothes and he took photos,” says Gautier Jourdain, who organized the wall for his Wall Street Art festival, as well as the solo art show for Fintan at his Galerie Mathgoth.

“Follow the Leader” appears to be a commentary on the current obsessive behavior of humans toward their phones, even the little ones. Placed on a wall in the center of the city very near the railway station, the 22 x 18 meter mural in Savigny-le-Temple is sure to capture the attention of commuters…if they look up from their phones long enough.

 

Fintan Magee. For Wall Street Art in Savigny-le-Temple, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

Fintan Magee. For Wall Street Art in Savigny-le-Temple, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

Fintan Magee. For Wall Street Art in Savigny-le-Temple, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

Fintan Magee. For Wall Street Art in Savigny-le-Temple, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

Fintan Magee. For Wall Street Art in Savigny-le-Temple, France. September 2017. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery – Paris)

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Dusty Rebel Captures Street Life and Art in Eclectic NYC

Dusty Rebel Captures Street Life and Art in Eclectic NYC

October 23, 2017

The Dusty Rebel in action in this still from the documentary Stick To It.

Dusty Rebel has been delivering New York street life and Street Art to you for close to two decades and now he’s bringing it to your photos. A native of the suburbs living in the city, Daniel Albanese aka The Dusty Rebel has a keen sense for the eclectic performers, insurgents, kooks, and iconoclasts who grace our public space and he captures them in their element.

Performer Matthew Silver (2014) Union Square, NYC (© The Dusty Rebel)

Sartorially somewhere betwixt a bemused beekeeper and refined bartender, the Dapper Dan whom wields a camera may appear to be from a more genteel era with his poker face and unassuming demeanor on the sidewalk, but don’t assume. He’s Gotham street-smart and he has his eyes peeled for the next pirouetting diva, barking shaggy activist or furtively sticker slapping Street Artist who he can catch in action.

A collaboration by Street Artists Balu and Art is Trash, NYC (© The Dusty Rebel)

These are the people who give the gritty flavor to a city that has always celebrated quirksome expressions of originality, expressive creativity, cross-eyed wonder, love-lorn poetry and blistering outrage. Sometimes on the same block.

A writer, lecturer, and guide as well as a documentarian, Dusty Rebel launches a new project today with a growing collective of celebrated street artists from around the world who are turning their art into sharable digital stickers called “Street Cuts” with artists like Abe Lincoln Jr, City Kitty, and Hiss.

Performer in Union Square, NYC (© The Dusty Rebel)

We asked him about his experience on the street and how his affinity for New York has brought a trove of his rich observations to so many.

Brooklyn Street Art: You have become somewhat of a fixture on the New York street scene—really immersing yourself in life on the streets. Can you talk about what you like to shoot?

The Dusty Rebel: Much of what I shoot today is what drew me to New York in the first place. I love the vibrant street life of this city, which is what I’m primarily known for documenting: buskers, protests, Street Art, and people who hang out with pigeons. I love that in New York people are free to explore and live outside the box. As much as people want to say ‘New York is dead,’ it’s still an amazing place to be artist or straight-up weirdo.

City Kitty, NYC (© The Dusty Rebel)

BSA:How did you connect with Street Art and how did you forge friendships with Street Artists?

The Dusty Rebel: Since I was kid in the late 80s/early 90s, I was fascinated by graffiti and Street Art, particularly Jim Powers’ “Mosaic Trail” in the East Village—I was so curious to know who made them and what they meant. I loved the idea of people just taking to the street and putting art out there. I grew up in the suburbs just outside of New York City, and I used to sneak into the city every chance I could. I hated the suburbs; the city was a place of freedom.

City Kitty, NYC (© The Dusty Rebel)

As the years went on—and digital cameras made photography more affordable—Street Art became something I loved to document. Then in 2011, I decided to make The Dusty Rebel a public blog rather than just photos I shared privately on Facebook. My friends kept asking to share the photos, so I thought a site would make it easier. I never thought much about the world outside, but soon after, street artists began contacting me to thank me for the photos or asking if they could use them. Then they started inviting me to shoot them in their studios or when they put work out on the street. It might seem weird to some now, but before Banksy came to New York in 2013, there wasn’t a massive army of people shooting Street Art.

Anyway, before I knew it, I went from an observer to a friend of many of these artists. I’ve collaborated with several of them over the years, particularly City Kitty. And I guess in some ways became one, with my Resistance Is Female and Resistance Is Queer ad-takeovers.

 

A photograph of a photographic takeover for the #ResistanceisFemale campaign, NYC (all © The Dusty Rebel)

BSA: There are many character-based artists working on the streets right now—especially on wheatpastes and stickers. Have you shot many of these?

The Dusty Rebel: I think so. I love original characters who bring us on an adventure in the street. I’m always curious to see what Frank Ape, City Kitty, or one of Chris RWK’s characters are up to. I also love to see what “should” be a flash-in-the-pan kept fresh in creative ways, such as Clint Mario’s ingenious ad-takeovers with ME.

 

One of Dusty Rebels photos with new stickers from his Street Cuts app. (© The Dusty Rebel)

BSA: What makes you excited to find on NYC streets?

The Dusty Rebel: I’m excited by people using the public sphere to connect with one another. In terms of Street Art, I really love work that’s mysterious and tells a story (Dee Dee is great at this) or the one-of-a-kind, handmade pieces, such as Bunny M, HISS, or REV’s sculptures. Nora Breen blows my mind: She puts video installations out on the street! Her work pushes the boundaries of Street Art and technology in a way I have very rarely seen. And it’s pretty obvious to anyone who follows me that I particularly love finding work by Robert Janz—perhaps New York’s most prolific artist working on the street—who happens to be an 80-something year old.

One of Dusty Rebels photos with new stickers from his Street Cuts app. (© The Dusty Rebel)

 

Portrait of the artist, photographer, documentarian Daniel Albanes aka The Dusty Rebel (© Gianluca Vassallo)

***

Meet The Dusty Rebel in person tonight at Arlene’s Grocery as he and number of Street Art friends and fans celebrate the launch party and art show for STREET CUTS.

Here’s the event https://www.eventbrite.com/e/street-cuts-app-launch-party-art-show-tickets-38849397594

And here’s the new Street Cuts APP: https://streetcuts.co/

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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.22.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.22.17

October 22, 2017 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Absent worries that the banks and oligarchs are poised to crash our economy into the ground and that the privatized profiteering war machine wants Trump to start WWIII its been a fantastic and sunny and crisp warm week in New York.  Of course the city is a little more somber since the Yankees missed their chance at the World Series last night. In the spirit of sportspersonship we wish the best to the Astros.

Aside from new street art pieces going up on the street JPO had an opening at Wall Works in the Bronx, Bezt was at Spoke Art, Royce Bannon and Matt Siren had Ember City, Philipe Pantone was at GR Gallery, Dusty Rebel is launching his “Street Cuts” App Monday, and we’re just getting a look at the new show we’re co-curating for VINZ Feel Free in a couple of weeks.

Speaking of Pantone, the two walls he did this week were strong and optically dizzying/thrilling as you would expect – while the subtley more sophisticated walls were inside for Planned Iridescence near by at the GR Gallery on Bowery. The big wall done with The L.I.S.A. Project presented several technical and material difficulties which the artist eventually solved but not without having to spend a whole lot more of time on it than originally estimated: a remarkable feat, even if the wall itself isn’t a large one compared to many others he’s executed around the world. Sure enough it got the New York welcome from a graffiti artist who took the liberty to vandalize it under the cover of darkness and on the very same night of the opening party for his show.

We have grown accustomed to see the artworks by Street Artists and muralists in public vandalized, disrespected and gone over. We don’t know what justification or reasons a graffiti writer has when tagging a well executed wall and the so-called “rules” on the street depend on who’s telling them. It is interesting that the color fits right into the palette, almost as if the tagger found an unspent can that had been left on the sidewalk nearby.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Arrex Skulls, Bunny M, City Kitty, D7606, Dain, Felipe Pantone, Fintan Magee, Gods in Love, Megzany, RUN, Stikman, Stray Ones, and Thrashbird.

Top image: Felipe Pantone in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andrew Tarlow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain in collaboration with The L.I. S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Strayones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gods In Love in Cerignola, Italy. (photo © Gods In Love)

The Street Artist who goes by the name Gods in Love did this mural in the San Samuele district of Cerignola, Italy last month. He says that this part of the city is called “Fort Apache” by the locals – an indirect reference to the 1981 movie (and 1976 book) about a crime-ridden neighborhood in the Bronx during the 1960s-70s. The Native American tribe named The Apache that preceded the European’s arrival who lived/live in the mid-western part of this continent were known for being fierce warriors – thus the connotation with a violent proud, yet financially destitute, neighborhood in The Bronx, New York.

“A totem is a natural or supernatural entity that has a particular symbolic meaning for a person or tribe, and to whom it feels bound throughout life,” explains the artist. The term derives from the word ototeman used by the Native American people Ojibway. My choice of working on this figure arises from the need to create an image that can be symbolic of belonging to a neighborhood to a group, a symbol of belonging to the protection of the offspring and therefore of the future, a need for legality and correctness to fight or understand, integrating and accepting it, the illness stemmed from the discomfort of life in a changing neighborhood, willing to redeem. Mine is a metaphor, a symbol in which the neighborhood can fully recognize.”

Thrashbird (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RUN in Anacona, Italy. (photo © RUN)

City Kitty in collaboration with D7606 and Arrex Skulls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Megzany (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee in Raiatea, French Polynesia for ONO’U Tahiti 2017. (photo © Jean Ozonder)

Untitled. Busker in the NYC Subway. October 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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In-Studio Preparation for “Innocence” with Vinz Feel Free, Models, New Screenprints

In-Studio Preparation for “Innocence” with Vinz Feel Free, Models, New Screenprints

October 21, 2017

Vinz Feel Free hand-customizing one of the new prints in studio for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

Fresh new images today from behind-the-scenes preparation for the Vinz Feel Free exhibition here in Brooklyn in a few weeks. Over the past two months or so Vinz has been in his studio in Valencia as well as a workshop he rented in Perpigan, France doing photoshoots of art models as the first phase of creating the new works for “Innocence”.

Vinz Feel Free photoshoot in studio for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

Emulating the guerilla-style and often controversial protests by the feminist activists FEMEN and combining them with the knit hooded Russian Pussy Riot, VINZ brings in his own established archetypes that feature nude bodies topped with heads of the animal world. It’s a symbiotic blending that is producing imagery that evokes a mix of emotions. We happy to provide a sneak-peek inside the process that helps build the images.

Vinz Feel Free art models preparation in studio for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

“Usually I ask them to do specific poses,” he tells us of the art model shoots. “So first I show them some drawings that I’ve prepared in advance of the shoot and we talk about how they can position themselves to imitate the drawings. Then they have an exact idea of what I want and am hoping to achieve. Once those initial pictures are done sometimes we improvise.”

Vinz Feel Free desk and materials in studio for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

In addition to the full size and large photo-painting collage pieces that he is doing for the show, Vinz Feel Free is releasing brand new prints for “Innocence” – a series that he is currently printing and many which he will hand customize as he continues to explore how to accentuate certain aspects of the image.

Vinz Feel Free poloroid test of art model for photoshoot in studio for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

“Yes I’m very excited about the prints!” he tells us, and we include a small piece of video of one of the initial results here:

 

“It’s something I’ve been trying with old lithographs that I have found in flea markets,” he says. “I paint with watercolors – so it’s like those old pictures and movies in black and white that later someone painted overtop with washes and tints. “You see that it has been colorized – like in movies like The Wizard of Oz, in a wicked ghost-like way.”

Vinz Feel Free new prints in process for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

“So I’ve been experimenting with 3 of my own photomontages – the figures with the rabbit head and ones wearing the balaclava (hood). I printed one as a black screenprint and later I colored it with watercolor. Each one is unique and I can say I’m so proud with the results.”

Vinz Feel Free hand painting new photo-paint collage in studio for “Innocence” (photo © Vinz Feel Free)

“INNOCENCE” Exhibition by Vinz Feel Free
Curated by BSA and DK Johnston

Saturday, November 4, 2017

6 pm – 10 pm

The Marcy Project
275 South 2nd Street
Brooklyn, NY 11211

“INNOCENCE” Facebook Event Page https://www.facebook.com/events/299402303796881/

 

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BSA Film Friday: 10.20.17

BSA Film Friday: 10.20.17

October 20, 2017

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1.  INDECLINE: Rail Beast
2. INDICLINE: DREAMERS
3. Basquiat, Banksy & Brutalism in London
4. Restoring Banksy
5. Erik Burke: Park Blossom


bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: INDECLINE: Rail Beast

“This reminds why I hate vandals! All this does is create more unnecessary work for the guys at the paint shop,” says a commenter on the Vimio page where INDECLINE has posted this locomotive takeover. You see kids, this is why we can’t have nice things. I just mopped this floor and you come running in here with your muddy boots! For Pete’s sake.

Truthfully, this decidedly unpolitical piece is a surprise coming from INDECLINE. Guess they were taking the day off from railing against hypocrisy and injustice with this animated train that recalls Saturday morning cartoons like Bugs Bunny and the Road Runner.

 

INDECLINE: DREAMERS

Ahhh this is more like it, the acidic satire. A short punchy video that shows the creation of a satirical take on Trump’s frightening attitude toward kids brought across the border into the US. These days, they are called Dreamers and have protections and options to do radical things like go to college and get a job. But not if this clown has anything to say about it. Want a balloon?

Basquiat, Banksy & Brutalism in London. Brought to you by Fifth Wall TV

And all this time you thought it was abstract expressionism! Please people, you can throw those labels out the window.  Here Doug tells you about the new Basquiat exhibit and in a fit of perfect timing, the Banksy piece that appears in support of it in London. Doug says its arguably the city’s finest hour.

 

Restoring Banksy. Doug Gillen of Fifth Wall TV

This is the second time London has seen a snorting copper, since this 2006 Banksy piece has resurfaced, or rather was re-surfaced, as the case may appear.

Favorite quote out of context, “just so happened to oversee the sale of ‘Slave Labor’ “.

 

Erik Burke: Park Blossom

“My name is Erik Burke and I am a muralist,” says the Nevadan about his new blooming temporary Mall parking lot piece. For those fans playing at home, he’s also a graffiti writer/Street Artist and there are clues embedded here in the video for you to piece together.

 

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

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

October 19, 2017 ,

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

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

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

October 18, 2017

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 128

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

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

FinDAC. Process shot. 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)

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

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