Editorz

Happy Thanksgiving from BSA With Love

November 28, 2013 Artists

Our very best to you and your loved ones for a Happy Thanksgiving. And for some of you we wish a Happy Thanksgivikkuh!

Hugo Rojas. Moss Turkey in Dumbo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA Gets Up With New Animals In Tow

November 27, 2013 Artists

BSA travels with ROA to Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the US.

Today we visit with Street Artist, urban naturalist, and globe trotter ROA to see what walls he has been climbing since we last checked in with him and his traveling curious circus of animals. Alternating between the cuddly and the killing, the endoskelton and the excrement, the pugnacious, playful and the putrefying, this Belgian world citizen is no romantic with his subjects and he isn’t asking for you to be either necessarily.

ROA. Lagos, Portugal 2013. (photo © Roa)

If you consider the brutal natural and man-made world that animals have to survive in and the ruthless depravity of humans throughout the ages (including right now), perhaps ROA’s depictions of these regionally based creatures are a healthy counterbalance to the fictional storytelling we customarily see in large public depictions of animals. Rotting Big Bird, anyone?

ROA. Lagos, Portugal 2013. (photo © Roa)

In one instructive example, a local town meeting in Chichester in Great Britain erupted into a heated debate this spring and a vote was called over whether to remove one of ROA’s fresh paintings from public view. The aerosoled portrait featured a rotting badger lying belly up and pock-marked across the front of a neglected building.

“It’s not appropriate, it’s grotesque and I hope it will be removed,” said the district and parish councilor who was outraged at the factual representation of a dying animal, according to a local website. The article does not mention if she was equally outraged at the culling of badgers locally, which ROA was drawing attention to, or if she would call the culling of undesirable animals “grotesque”.

ROA. Ibex at the harbor in Linz, Austria 2013. (photo © flap.at)

You wouldn’t cheapen the spray-painted monochromatic realism of ROAs work as activism per se, or even moralizing. Sometimes a bear is just a bear.

But sometimes the poses and positions and selectively illustrated details are more pronounced than one may see in nature, so clearly his desire is to draw attention to them. And why not try to give a voice to them? Otters don’t do email and bison hooves are too clunky for texting and nary a narwhal has his own Facebook page. If they have been displaced, marginalized, or are suffering, you won’t see a cluster of clamoring squirrels arrayed before a bank of microphones and cameras issuing a press conference.

ROA. Detail. Linz, Austria 2013. (photo © flap.at)

But slowly and gradually and almost systematically the former graffiti artist has been raising the awareness of even the dullest among us bipedal primates that the animals we are sharing the world with are plausibly pissed about that whole “dominion over nature” clause that pious Pulcinellas spout when justifying treating some animals like trash even while their blue-blooded poodles are having pedicures. Now that you think of it, this may not be exclusively about the animal kingdom.

Certainly we have all learned from ROAs travels that nature isn’t pretty – and can possibly be very alarming – and he won’t likely let you forget it.

So start trotting, galloping, swimming, scurrying, slithering, and scurrying! We have a lot of catching up to do with ROA as this year he’s been in Austria, Canada, Great Britain, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the US.

ROA. Linza, Austria 2013. (photo © flap.at)

ROA. Linz, Austria 2013. (photo © Roa)

ROA. Mural Festival. “Still Life With Bison and Bear” Montreal, Canada 2013. (photo © Roa)

This wall was featured in our coverage this summer of the MURAL festival, where we wrote;

“For his first visit to Montreal, the Belgian Street Artist named ROA says that he had a great time creating this ‘still life’ with a bison and a bear. When talking about his inspiration, ROA says that he was impressed with the history of the so-called American bison, which was incredibly abundant in the early 19th century, numbering more than 40 million. After being hunted almost into extinction with a population of 200 a century later, the bison slowly have reestablished their numbers in Canada to 700,000. He decided to add a bear laying on top because it tells a similar story of a native mammal in the region.”

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ROA. “Catch of The Day” Open Art. Örebro, Sweden 2013. (photo © Roa)

“This is the first time I actually painted a narwhal,” says ROA about the curiously speared whale that lives year-round in the Arctic.

“Their tusks make them a unique example of a species; in a way the narwhal is a mythical sea creature; The unicorns of the sea,” explains ROA about this Swedish piece. “The young male narwal that I painted here is unfortunately caught in a fishing line. I wanted to draw attention to how they and many other species become a victim of hunting and pollution.”

ROA. “Catch of The Day”. Deatail. Open Art. Örebro, Sweden 2013. (photo © Roa)

ROA. Vienna, Austria 2013. (photo © Roa)

At the start of July ROA opened his second solo show – this time with Inoperable Gallery in Vienna.

The exhibition was called “PAN-ROA’s Box” and it was an animal curiosity focused show.

ROA. Detail. Vienna, Austria 2013. (photo © Roa)

ROA. Wall Therapy. Rochester, NY 2013. (photo © Roa)

ROA. “Two Blue Tits” in Chichester, Great Britain 2013. (photo © Roa)

ROA was there as part of his invitation to participate at the Chichester Street Art Festival in May.

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ROA. Chichester, Great Britain 2013. (photo © Roa)

Here is the painting referred to above that upset a number of people in Chichester and called for a vote to take it down (it was 50/50 so they’ve left it up).

Regarding the Badger Cull 2013

“After several emails from Louise Matthews about the upcoming badger cull in GB, I painted a badger to support their efforts to save the badgers,” says ROA. The controversial practice in Britain has gained a number of very adamant foes, including Brian May from the rock group Queen.

ROA. Bethenal-Green London 2013. (photo © Roa)

As a guest of Griff from Street Art London, ROA did this piece in Bethenal-Green.

ROA. Nuart 2013. Stavanger, Norway. (photo © Roa)

ROA. Malaga, Spain. (photo © Roa)

As part of his invitation to the Maus Festival, ROA painted this in Calle Casas De Campos, Malaga, Spain.

ROA. Malaga, Spain. (photo © Roa)

ROA. “Fighting Squirrels”, Southbank, London 2013. (photo © Roa)

“If you have ever witnessed a squirrel fight, you might recognize the action,” says ROA of these two enraged fellas in mid air. He explains that when the North American Eastern Grey squirrel (top) was introduced it caused the red native Squirrel (bottom) to lose habitat and population, so now the red one is protected by conservation laws.

ROA would like to thank the Southbank Centre at the canal.

ROA. Dulwich, London 2013. (photo © Roa)

ROA. Baroque The Streets Festival. Dulwich, London 2013. (photo © Roa)

Regarding the dog above, ROA says :

” It took me a detailed search into the Dulwich Picture Gallery to find an animal expression that was involved with the daily life of the time and express on it’s own a fragment of the ordinary life. My eye was caught by a pooping dog in a large scale hunting scene; I found that an interesting detail. The people of the museum told me they have more hunting scenes with this same curious detail, but those were currently not exhibited.”

Dulwich: ‘Baroque The Streets: Dulwich Street Art Festival’ May 10-19, 2013. The festival was organized by Street Art London & Dulwich Picture Gallery

ROA. Urban Forms Festival. Lodz, Poland. 2013. (photo © Roa)

Roa wishes to extend his most sincere thanks to the following people:

In Southbank, London he sends thanks to the Southbank Centre at the canal.

In Linz, Austria he says thanks to Bubble Days Festival in Linz, and thanks to Poidle.

In Montreal, he says thanks to MURAL for all their good care and for the retreat in Quebec. Thank you also to Yan, Andre, Alexis and Nico!

In Malaga, Spain he says thank you very much Fer.

In Rochester he says thank you to Ian, Steven, Dan and Wise, who “made my stay excellent as usual.”

In Lagos, Portugal he says thanks to LAC Laboratório Actividades Criativas.

In Stavanger, Norway he extends his thanks to the NUART festival.

In Lodz, Poland he says thanks to Michael and the crew.

And we here at BSA say thank you to you all, and of course to ROA for sharing all his travels with BSA readers.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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A Freddy Mercury Tribute in Rome

November 26, 2013 Artists

Italian artist John Mayho has been on BSA a couple of times over the years with his commentary about the MOB and a tribute to John Lennon. This weekend he was thinking about another western pop idol when he did his own tribute to Freddie Mercury – exactly 22 years after he passed. The powerfully over-the-top lead singer of the British rock band Queen had many electrified performances and fans during his career and he still inspires younger fans quite possibly because he gave them the sense that anything is possible.

And of course, it’s true.

John J. Mahyo. South Rome. November 2013. (photo © John J. Mahyo)

Word To Mother in the Tenderloin in San Francisco

November 25, 2013 Artists

In San Francisco for his solo gallery show that is running until December 7, the Street Artist/graffiti artist/fine artist named Word To Mother had some time to hit a truck or two and a roll down gate in the Tenderloin.

Word To Mother. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Brock Brake)

Photographer Brock Brake caught him catching a tag on a truck that collects cardboard even as he was giving the White Walls gallery truck some old-school inspired lettering. He’s been quoted as saying he was first impressed with SF’s graffiti scene when he visited with his family as a near-teen in 1996 – and work by Twist, Amaze, and Reminisce captured his imagination then even though he hadn’t had much exposure to graffiti previously.

Raised in a town along the sea in England and currently hailing from London, WTM has a soft spot for those memories of that trip and you’ll see that the brightly colored nostalgia is back in his show California Coming Home now on view.

Thanks to Brock for sharing this personal collection of shots with BSA readers as we see how the art-school trained illustrator seized a sunny day and a box full of cans to play a little.

Word To Mother. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Brock Brake)

Brock Brake is a photographer in San Francisco and a regular contributor to BSA. Recently he and his partner created an independent educational platform, ArtlyFesf, to foster the love of art to youths in the bay area.

“Our priority is to engage imagination and curiosity in young minds while teaching and building the confidence and skills necessary to bring creative ideas into realization. We help young artists discover new materials and techniques so that they can express their ideas with freedom,” says Brake.

Please visit ArtLyesf web site to learn more about this project.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Images Of The Week: 11.24.13

November 24, 2013 Artists

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ainac, Bunny M, F. Caba, Kitty Kitty, Mgr Mors, Mr. Styles, Mr. Prvrt, Mr. Toll, Never, Owen Dippie, Reka, Sarah Rutherford, SheWolf, Veng RWK, and Zimer.

Top Image >> Reka at The Bushwick Collective. If grasshoppers were invited to Burning Man we imagine this is how they would look:-) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Owen Dippie at Low Brow Artique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SheWolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mgr Mors & Mr Styles in Poland. (photo © Mgr Mors)

Mr. PRVRT and Sarah Rutherford collaborate at The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Prvrt and Sarah Rutherford. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kitty Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Knock On Wood (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zimer at Low Brow Artique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ainac (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK at The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never paints a cicada at The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. 14th Street Subway Station. NYC, NY. (sculpture by Tom Otterness) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Eye on London Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 23, 2013 Artists

For the first week-long “residency” on BSA, Spencer Elzey has been sharing his experiences and Street Art photos from his recent trip to Europe. Today we finish with London, a polished and presentable collection of some of the current scene from the streets.

The city has long played host to a rolling panoply of urban art and artists and is a prime example of the professionalization of the practice featuring a greater absorption into the culture and economy at large with galleries, museums, shops, and paid tour guides all joining in. The upshot is you will see some of the best examples of talent and it may at times seem all quite combed over and generally safe for a general audience. Not that there isn’t dynamism and risk taking, and you will still find unsanctioned work to be seen inside and outside of the tourist hotspots.

Sweet Toof and Roa (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Hosting the Olympics last year brought a self cleansing of much of the organically grown graffiti and Street Art, and the chilling effect of living in an electronically surveilled society with cameras nearly everywhere will undoubtedly be sited to when historians look at the nature of art on the streets from this era.

“London had a lot of Street Art but it felt more corporate and organized for the masses,” says Elzey of his time walking through Shoreditch, Brick Lane, Hackney, Bethnal Green, and Camden. “In the week that I was there I walked by around five Street Art tours.”

Sweet Toof (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“Most of London’s street art is confined to these places – The other areas that I explored around London all seemed pretty clean. This may have been due to the fact that there are security cameras everywhere,” he says. An international first world city, London usually is a destination for the international “circuit” of Street Artists whose names tend to reappear on lists of the various street/graffiti/urban art festivals that now pop up in global cities from Lima to Łódź and Living Walls to Nuart to Upfest and the recently ended FAME.

As with any art form that begins as transgressive and underground and evolves to be adopted by the dominant culture, at times the whole scene begins to resemble the commercial and institutional interests it once mocked or attempted to subvert. “London is great but felt more catered to the bigger players and had the most street art in commissioned form (by the various Street Art organizations), which is good to see some amazing work but cheapens the art a little,” he says.

In the images he shares with BSA readers today you can see the really strong work that is throughout those neighborhoods as many of the artists consider strongly what they will do – and it results in some quite striking pieces. As always, you want to keep an eye on London. Surely it will keep an eye on you.

Miss Van and B. Schu (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Otto Schade (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Shok 1 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Gnasher (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alexis Diaz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ben Eine (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cranio (photo © Spencer Elzey)

For The Love Of Dog (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Banksy (photo © Spencer Elzey)

A sculptural installation by D*Face (photo © Spencer Elzey)

ROA (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Swoon (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Guy Denning (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Urban Solid (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Sokaruno (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Vinie and Reaone (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Anthony Lister (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Finabarr DAC (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Phlegm (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Faith 47 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

El Mac (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Conor Harrington (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Klone (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dal East (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Dscreete (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Insa (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Martin Ron (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Jana & JS (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Christian Nagel (photo © Spencer Elzey)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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The “Aqueduct Murals” Are Off and Running!

November 22, 2013 Artists, Interview

“He’s pissed off. He’s like… he has an attitude. He’s ornery. In my work I’m always looking to relate my own feelings to the images that I see and try to express them through painting.”

Chris Stain and Katherine Huala at work on their first collaborative piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain is looking at a black and white photo of a victorious and defiant jockey covered in mud – a guy named Webber who raced “Broiler” at Aqueduct – and talks about why he is immortalizing the fella in paint for this thoroughbred race track that turns 120 years old next year.

“So when I saw him I was like, ‘Yeah I feel like that sometimes, most of the time, ninety-five percent of the time.’ ”

Any seasoned wagerer knows it is a bit of a gamble to work with graffiti and Street Artists – untamed and unbridled as they can be – but Street Artist Joe Iurato has corralled a small herd and coaxed them inside off the streets for this one race. The Aqueduct Murals are out of the gate and if last nights marathon of painting was any indication, the odds are good they will all hit the finish line by Saturday.

Chris Stain found this vintage photograph as an inspiration for his collaborative piece with Katherine Huala. Jockey Weber finished second place on his horse “Broiler”, and it looks like it was a rainy and muddy day at the track here in 1941 in Jamaica, Queens. Original photographer unnamed. (This photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Equestrian racing, jockey related – the only criteria they gave us was they wanted to see something that was more in the spirit of the place,” says Joe as he looks around the mainly beige walls of the facility in Queens that is filling with aerosol fumes as the clock nears midnight. He still has to get up on a cherry picker and get working on his collaborative mural with Logan Hicks, but as the organizer, Joe discovers he needs to make sure all the other artists are getting taken care of first – its all part of the care and feeding of Street Artists.

Tomorrow night the opening bell on the reception rings at 6 pm at Aqueduct with a DJ and a print release with all the artists in attendance and Ellis G doing some live chalk drawings, but for right now Joe is looking at some peeling paint and figuring out how to seal it.

“They gave us a photo bucket that was full of about 300 pictures from the past 60 years,” he says of the racetrack reference material that roughly half of the artists are using in their murals. “We were able to use any of those and a lot of them were just brilliant.”

The international and locally-based artists all are taking different approaches – and the distances they have traveled vary from South Africa, Australia, Sweden, Italy, Texas, California, New Jersey….and even hometown Queens and Brooklyn guys like Stain, Skewville, and Hicks. In the middle of the progress last night BSA got some shots as some of the pieces were galloping along – some are on the backstretch while a few just started out of the gate.

Participating artists for The Aqueduct Murals include : Logan Hicks, David Flores, Chris Stain collaborating with Katherine Huala, Rubin, Faith 47, Skewville, JMR, LNY, Ian Kuali’i, Shai Dahan, Zed1, Joe Iurato, ThenOne, and Reka.

Chris Stain and Katherine Huala. Chris working on their piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reka. Detail of his piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I’m trying to experiment a little at the moment and in terms of colors I’m just doing strictly gray scale,” says Melbourne Street Artist REKA, who is normally known for his use of vibrant oranges and reds in his tightly fluid character-based street work. “Also this is something a bit more messy, a bit more dynamic anyway – I’m allowing more room for error and be more playful.”

“I want to show the movement in the racing – sections of the horse and the jockey – to show more of the human element and the connection between the rider and the horse. I don’t paint realistically – so that is my representation of the horse.”

Reka at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zed1 at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Italian Street Artist Zed1 stays monochromatic in his palette also but his metaphor is entirely different. “I prefer you see when you finish because it is a surprise !” he says while revealing to us in a conspiratorial tone what the humorous scene will eventually depict. Don’t worry folks, it’s all clean and respectful.

Zed1. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: This doesn’t look like a horse.
Rubin: No. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a horse just because it is a race track.

The least representational of the murals draws a clearer connection to its location and proximity to the city with more abstract depictions of the roaring crowd and the city skyline. Roaring twenties of last century meld well with the spattered street inflections of early teens 21st century here.

“I kind of flipped those Art Deco inspired lines from being horizontal to vertical and so it is my way of paying tribute to New York,” says the Greenpoint, Brooklyn based Swedish artist who says he never tires of going on the roof to look at Manhattan across the East River.

Rubin at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Flores and assistant at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LA’s David Flores used to go to the races at Santa Anita when he was a kid. “but nothing major, we didn’t bet or anything like that,” he says as he steps back to compare his rendering to the piece on the wall. The composition combines the jockey image from a photo from the track with a new mask and a horse and hand from two other sources. “I kind of married them together,” he says of the scene. “I had to make it the way I wanted with a lot of diamonds and stars and stripes – you know how they wear their gear so it’s all colorful.”

Normally more abstract, this wall by Flores is literal in its depiction, but with an illustrators eye. Has he worked with animals in his work much? “I have worked with animals a couple of times but nothing of this scale – or horse racing and I’m super excited because I’m a fan of the sport. I’m stoked on it now.”

David Flores. Sketch for his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY. Detail of his piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New Jersey Street Artist LNY took something with history and shot with the older film based technology and manipulated it with a current digital and returned to the hand rendered painting form to create it on a wall.

“Yeah, especially this,” he says as he rolls a thin screen of crimson over his composition, ” – doing washes is a super traditional technique”

The subject matter for LNY speaks to the regimented hierchy of class that permeates the traditions of racing. “Its always been about social status and that became really apparent when I came here,” he says as he describes his choice of outfielders he researched as subjects.

“The outfielders are the guys that go out there and if a horse goes crazy – they are kind of the cops of the field – so basically they are staff,” he says of the well-dressed horsemen in the original image he started with. “I just got some really nifty iPad apps that cost nothing but they let you transform images so I’ve been having a lot of fun with those and I’m basing my mural on that.”

LNY at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY created this digital collage mock up which served as template for his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shai Dahan at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: I guess it is not that far a stretch for you to paint a couple of horses!
Shai Dahan: “No! I’ve been painting nothing but horses for the last three years”

The LA-New York- now Sweden based artist has been painting his interpretation of Swedish Dalecarlian horses which are traditionally red, so he is making sure to include on in his Aqueduct piece.

Brooklyn Street Art: Had you seen races before?
Shai Dahan: No, this was my very first time
Brooklyn Street Art: What was your impression?
Shai Dahan: It’s very cool. To actually see them race – just to see the quickness and the power and the movement of it is really fascinating and inspiring. I wanted to create some kind of forceful movement to get people out to the racetrack. The graffiti background is to represent the feel of New York, and all the bright colors.

Sahi Dahan at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ThenOne working on the background color for his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New Jersey’s ThenOne says has been a graffiti artist for 16 years and he likes his lines to be crisp and tight. Using his favorite red and black palette he brings perhaps the most historical equine references to the new collection at the race track and skillfully alludes to the practices from the modern graffiti scene he came up from.

ThenOne’s black Arabian horses are silhouetted in a decorative arrangement that recalls his Persian ancestry as depicted in pottery and ceramics and textiles while also recalling the early cave paintings that many art historians trace as ancestors to the Street Art/graffiti practices of today.

As long as the stylized stallions are as close to his original sketch as possible, he’ll be happy. “My style graffiti-wise is I like to be as clean as possible,” ThenOne says, “So the graphic and the clean work perfectly for me.”

ThenOne. Sketch for his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Organizer and artist Joe Iurato is up on his lift, masking out his collaborative piece with Logan Hicks. In between his other responsibilities, he’s planning to paint too.

Skewville at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art wordsmith Squewville grew up in Queens so his trip here was one of the shorter ones. The text based entreaty he is taping out here will say “Update Your Status” – in one short phrase bringing the track into the “social” sphere. The well known slogan for people using sites like Facebook also doubles as a reference to the incoming status of races as the bets and odds are displayed across screens and horses cross the finish line.

Skewville at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks working on his stencils for his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Brooklyn based Logan Hicks is prepping for his seven layer stencil that will depict a crush of horses in the thick of the race (not seen here). First he is applying a patterned background to his collaborative piece with organizer and Street Artist Joe Iurato.

Logan Hicks at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally from Hawaii, artist Ian Kuali’i is laying in the abstractly energetic background for his sliced paper piece that will float over it.

“I’m going to paste up a cutout. It’s about three quarters of the way done, “ he says as he describes a finished piece that will incorporate collage of actual vintage Aqueduct posters from the past and themes relating to horse husbandry and the thrill of the race.

Ian Kuali’i at work on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tomorrow, Saturday the 23rd a reception will be held for the artists at the Aqueduct Racetrack to celebrate “Aqueduct Murals”. The event is free and open to the public. Click HERE for all the details.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Film Friday: 11.22.13

November 22, 2013 Artists

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

Now screening from the cities we’re featuring all week as part of Spencer Elzey’s residency on BSA. It’s a short European tour from professionals and amateurs with video:

1. STREET ART: VITRY SUR SEINE
2. STREET ART: PARIS
3. LA TOUR PARIS 13
4. STREET ART: BERLIN
5. STREET ART: LONDON

STREET ART: VITRY SUR SEINE

STREET ART: PARIS

LA TOUR PARIS 13

STREET ART: BERLIN

STREET ART: LONDON

Unbridled Berlin Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 21, 2013 Artists

Berliners are hard to crack, they say, but probably not for New Yorkers. We “get” them because of their no-nonsense frankness, sometimes sharp tongues, and because their “creative types” are unhinged in a way that New Yorkers have been historically.

When it comes to the volume and variety of art that is being loosed in Berlin these days, they are setting some standards that many are still catching up with. Right now when you look at the freewheeling expression that bolted out from a broken wall more than 20 years ago and never looked back, you realize that Street Artists in Berlin are not hard to crack, they may simply be a little bit cracked.

Various & Gould (photo © Spencer Elzey)

In the third city of our series this week for Spencer Elzey’s residency on BSA, we visit Berlin, which some argue is the preeminent scene for urban art right now. It does appear to have a perfect mix for vibrant arts growth – a creatively permissive atmosphere and affordable lifestyle prevails in this city of design. And while uncommissioned public art is not legal, it is also not verboten.

The kids may come for the music and the art collectives and the dance parties, but they stay for the aerosol and the expressive faces and figures that accompany you while you walk. So far, people seem happy to let this arts scene continue to evolve and not surprisingly, tourists are magnetically drawn to it.

Victor Ash (photo © Spencer Elzey)

As you walk through certain neighborhoods you may prepare to have your pre-conventions subverted and inverted. Awash with a decade plus of unbridled art, the scale, style, influences, and techniques of pop, illustration, and graffiti are all truly playing with each other.

Where a large spate of legal mural work has monopolized creative energies of many Street Artists in New York recently, some players have commented that the content is being tamed and neutered and the resulting scene is less risk-oriented stylistically. As you look at the work Elzey found in Berlin, you are reminded what it looks like when art laborers don’t have to self-censor or look over their shoulder. Also, it is still affordable for artists. Oh, wait, did we already mention that?

Robi The Dog (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“Out of the cities I visited the one that contrasted the most with NY was Berlin. It felt like a beautiful lawlessness with graffiti and rollers everywhere,” says Elzey as he tries to put his finger on the attitude of exploration and discovery that floods large areas of the city.

“Berlin by far had the most graffiti and Street Art in its most raw and authentic form, which is how I think it should really be experienced. It felt more free and genuine. Besides RAW and Urban Spree, which are commissioned areas, Berlin felt like a giant playground. There was graffiti and rollers everywhere and lots of abandoned factories to explore and have fun in.”

Blu (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Berlin has been an international draw for artists and arts institutions for the last decade at least and many of the Street Art world make sure to head here at least once, sometimes staying months and couch surfing and partying an staying out all night. Since the graffiti scene and the Street Art scene are not so polarized in the minds of people here there is also a freedom to experiment without fear of upsetting your peer group.

Luckily for BSA, local Street Artists Various & Gould were very hospitable and more than helpful and willing to tour Spencer around some of the hot spots and to give him some background on the Berlin streets. “Meeting someone you admire, be it an artist, musician, or actor, is always a special experience,” he says about being with V&G, “It feels a little different when that person is a Street Artist, or at least it does to me. The fact that part of their job means that they do illegal things, being trusted enough to be welcomed into their inner circle has deeper meaning.”

Blu. Detail. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

So he was in good hands with these two who have deep roots with the artist community and who frequently challenge themselves to look at their own work with new eyes – and to find new ways to engage with passersby with their art and a bit of theater. “In the case of Various & Gould in Berlin and C215 in Vitry I was able to meet these artists on their own turf. They showed me some of their new work in their studios and then toured me around the neighborhoods that they know best,” he recalls with some delight.

“While seeing art on the streets is one thing, getting the first hand history behind it makes it more meaningful,” he says. “You get more history and depth that way.”

Blu (photo © Spencer Elzey)

How long Berlin will continue to be a petrie dish for experimentation and discovery? Forever. Just kidding. But for the moment this ephemeral art movement is fiercely alive and more independent than many cities. Artists have always made life a bit of a moveable feast. Today its Berlin, tomorrow it could be Mexico City, or Lima, who knows?

“I think I would recommend it if you were a younger artist who was trying to break into the game and establish a name for yourself,” says Elzey.

Blu (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Alaniz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Herakut (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Various & Gould (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Os Gemeos (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Nunca (photo © Spencer Elzey)

JR (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Cooked (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Vhils (photo © Spencer Elzey)

MTO (photo © Spencer Elzey)

MTO gives Alias a shout out. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Klone (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Neurotitan (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Vidan The Weird (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Tafe (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Reaktor and Paulo Ito (photo © Spencer Elzey)

G (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Inti (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Ema Jones (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Klub 7 (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Broken Fingaz (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Blek le Rat (photo © Spencer Elzey)

BLO (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Maclaim (photo © Spencer Elzey)

ROA (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Otto Schade (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Nychos (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Our sincere thanks to Various & Gould for their hospitality and time.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Towering Gallery Full of Art to Be Demolished : “La Tour Paris 13”

November 20, 2013 Artists

The numbers are astounding; 105 artists, 9 floors, 36 apartments, 30,000 visitors.

One hour.

That is how much time Street Art enthusiast Spencer Elzey had to himself inside the largest gallery of Street Artists and graffiti artists ever assembled specifically to transform a building for a public show. As he looked out a window to see the snaking lines of Parisians and tourists restlessly waiting to get in, he couldn’t believe his luck to be able to walk through the exhibit by himself and get off some clear shots before the throng hit.

El Seed. La Tour Paris 13. Exterior of the tower. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

“The La Tour Paris 13 experience was something that I’ll never forget,” Elzey recounts as he thinks of himself nearly running from apartment to apartment with camera in hand, each room a new discovery, many of them inspiring awe.

“I was on an adrenaline rush while I was inside since I only had an hour by myself before it opened to the public. It wasn’t until later in the morning when I looked back at all of my pictures that I was able to fully understand exactly how much art I just witnessed,” he says.

Kan. La Tour Paris 13. Come in. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Mehdi Ben Cheikh from Galerie Itinerrance, who curated the project La Tour Paris 13 gave permission to Elzey to get these shots for BSA before the crowds arrived and now he was snapping as many as possible.

Over the course of the year artists have devised specific paintings, sculptures, and installations inside the housing tower knowing that it would be exhibited for a month before being demolished. “The number of artists and the amount of space dedicated to this one exhibit is something that I don’t think will ever again be replicated,” he says.

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

While touring former living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens Elzey quickly discovered that aerosol and markers were not the only materials used by this global pool of street/graffiti/urban artists who came from far places like Brazil, Iran, US, Tunisia, and even Saudi Arabia in addition to many European countries.

a1ONE. Detail. La Tour Paris 13. (photo © Spencer Elzey)

Some artists had staged new perspectives and environments by combining sculptural elements that married into their wall pieces, others like C215 cut into the floorboards to create a relief, still others worked in and around the decaying, partially destroyed infrastructure to create venues that slid into the fantasies of subconscious. “It was a free-for-all in a sense that once inside the apartment the artist had free reign to transform it however they wanted,” he says.

“What isn’t apparent in the pictures is how dark a lot of the rooms were. There were at least three rooms that were essentially dark with the exception of a little black light, while others were dimly lit by a solo lamp or fluorescent bulb. Sometimes you had to walk through holes in the walls to access further rooms.”

In his images here you can see the variety of styles and influences that the artists brought to the game, each accepting that it was a one-time-only installation. Maybe this group wasn’t so hard to convince, since the very nature of art on the streets is ephemeral.

“Street Art on the street has an expiration date, but the exact amount of time in which it will stay up isn’t known,” says Elzey, “It can either be covered up by graffiti or another wheat-paste, it can be removed by the building owner, or it can just wither away from being exposed to the elements.”

La Tour Paris 13 brings to mind the multitude of urban explorers who regularly trek into abandoned and neglected places all over the world and leave their mark, activating previously moribund spaces with art, but no one has ever launched a show like this with such genuine quality or with this scope.

“The closest thing that I can compare it to is 5 Pointz,” Elzey says of the grouping of buildings in New Yorks’ Long Island City that provided what was perhaps the original group show venue for urban art from the 1990s until yesterday. In an ironic mirroring of events, 5 Pointz and its multitude of external paintings underwent “the buff” the night before last after running an every-changing show for about three decades.

The 5 Pointz factory buildings themselves are also slated for demolition and will make way for new condos. “We all knew that its days were extremely numbered,” he says sadly of what had become a New York cultural heritage icon to some and a holy place for graffiti writers and Street Artists and fans from around the world.

The true impact from the La Tour Paris 13 project and 5 Pointz may happen in the mind and heart of the artist and the art fan; perhaps the beauty of this exercise, however short lived, is that the public is being encouraged to re-imagine old buildings for new uses, to consider what else we can do with private and public space.

When that conversation takes place we often realize how the limits of creativity are determined in no small part by imagination.

While we keep tracking the routes and machinations of this first global people’s art movement that has evolved into Street Art, we fully expect that we will continue to be surprised and inspired by the creative spirit and by artists.

For Spencer, this Tour was a lot more personal. “Having experienced something like this on such an immense scale and with a definitive end date made me feel like I was part of something special.”

Visit La Tour Paris 13 site for a full set of photographs, details and a full experience of the project.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Artists participating include: 108 ( Italy) – 2mil (Brazil) – Add Fuel ( Portugal) – AGL ( France ) – Lacurci Agostino (Italy) – Alexone ( France ) – A1one (Iran) – Amin ( France ) – Aous (Saudi Arabia) – awer (Italy) – Azooz (Saudi Arabia) – Belem (Portugal) – BOM.K ( France ) – Btoy (Spain) – C215 ( France ) – Celeste Java ( France ) – Cope2 (USA) – Corleone (Portugal ) – Dabro (Tunisia) – Dado (Italy) – Dan23 ( France ) – David Walker (UK) – Eime (Portugal) – eL Seed ( Tunisia) – Ethos (Brazil) – Etnik (Italy) – Fenx ( France ) – Flip (Brazil) – Gael ( France ) – Gilbert ( France ) – Guy Denning (UK) – Herbert Baglione (Brazil) – Hogre (Italy) – Hopnn (Italy) – Indie 184 (USA) – Inti Ansa ( France ) – Inti Castro (Chile) – Jaz (Argentina) – JB Rock ( Italy) – Jimmy C ( Australia) – Samina Joao (Portugal) – Jonone (USA) – Joys (Italy) – Julien Colombier ( France ) – Kan ( France ) – Katre ( France ) – Kruella (Portugal) – Legz ( France ) – Lek ( France ) – Liliwenn ( France ) – Loyola (Brazil) – Ludo ( France ) – Mrs. Sanbor ( France ) – March (Portugal) – Marko93 ( France ) , Mario Belem (Portugal) – Maryam (Saudi Arabia) – Mateo Garcia Leon ( France ) – Maz (Saudi Arabia) – moneyless (Italy) – Mosko ( France ) – Mp5 (Italy) – Myra ( France ) – Nano (Chile) – Nebay ( France ) – Nemi Uhu ( France ) – Nilko ( France ) – Orticanoodles (Italy) – PANTONIO (Portugal) – Paulo Arraiano (Portugal) – Peeta (Italy) – Philippe Baudelocque ( France ) – Rapto (Brazil) – Rea 1 ( France ) – Rodolphe Cintorino ( France ) – Roti ( France ) – Sambre ( France ) – Sean Hart ( France ) – Sebastien Preschoux ( France ) – Senso (Italy) – Seth ( France ) – Shaka ( France ) – Shoof (Tunisia) – Shuck2 ( France ) – Sowat ( France ) – Spazm ( France ) – Speto (Brazil) – Stew ( France ) – Stinkfish (Mexico) – Sumo (Luxembourg) – Tellas (Italy) – Tinho (Brazil) – Tore ( France ) -Uno ( France ) – Uriginal (Spain) – Vexta (Australia) – Vhils (Portugal) – / Maismenos (Portugal).

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Paris Street Art : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 19, 2013 Artists

As we continue our one week residency on BSA for Street Art fan Spencey Elzey, he takes you to Paris to see what is happening on the street there right now. If you were to try to characterize the nature of the work, you may say that it favors illustration, a clean defined line, and a purposeful classical aesthetic.

For years we have associated the romantic city and it’s historical culture and architecture with Street Artists like the stencil pioneers Blek Le Rat and Jef Aerosol, along with Miss Tic, Invader, FKDL, Fred Chevaliar, C215, and Alice Pasquini, to name just a few. Spencer finds some of those artists’ work and and he shares some others here with you too. Naturally, because we don’t cover this city regularly, locals will surely tell you that some of these pieces are a couple of years old, but for an American tourist in Paris, it all looks new from here!

“It did feel like there was some form of respect for the older architecture, especially in Paris,” says Spencer when comparing his observations of Paris, Berlin, and London. “While all three cities are old (especially compared to NYC), Paris feels the oldest and there seems to be certain buildings or doors that remained untouched.” Maybe that’s why we always think Paris is romantic. Also, Edith Piaf.

Speaking of romance we begin the image survey with two current giants on the Paris scene Jana und JS, who are a collaborating Street Art couple who basically bonded over their mutual love for shooting images. Advocates of photography on the street, you will find they’ve also an affinity for spray paint and stencils and their subject often is themselves. It’s rather a marriage made for the street. You can read a full interview with them here on Street Art Paris.

“Walking around Paris I also found myself looking up a lot more as compared to other cities; while this was mostly due to the fact that I was looking out for the 100’s of Space Invader pieces, there were lots of other pieces stuck to the walls up high. I thought it was also notable that the walls within the metro tunnels between stations were covered with graffiti in Paris.”

“Paris has street art defined to a few areas specifically,” explains Elzey, “including some of the murals in the 13^th arrondissement that were put together by Galerie Itinerrance, a few areas up around Belleville, and areas throughout Le Marais, which includes sections of the 3^rd and 4^th arrondissements.”

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Street Art in Vitry-sur-Seine (France) : Spencer Elzey in Europe

November 18, 2013 Artists

BSA is lucky to be a clearinghouse for many people who participate in and celebrate the Street Art scene – artists, curators, designers, collectors, galleries, museums, researchers, academics, historians and fans. Because we have never taken advertising readers tend to trust our platform and people in the community give us great behind-the-scenes opportunities to learn and share freely with others about the creative process and the culture on the street. It also gives us the freedom to do whatever we want when planning editorial or content.

Recently we had this idea about giving our site out to artists or art-lovers a week at a time so they could also fully share their personal experiences of the Street Art/public art/graffiti/ scene. So this week before Thanksgiving we’re giving the whole week to one person as a “residency”, our way of sharing this valuable platform and inviting you to have a greater voice in this conversation.

Spencer Elzey loves art in general and is an avid Street Art fan in particular and he likes to take trips that include shooting images on the street in whatever city he visits. He also supports artists by buying their art, regularly attending art exhibitions, reading and studying about them and following their evolution. Over the last couple of years we have seen that he is also a dedicated Street Art hunter with camera in hand on the streets of New York City when he isn’t at his regular job – and he loves to share what he finds with others on social media and as an occasional contributor to BSA.

When we heard that Spencer was planning a trip to Europe this fall we proposed to him the idea of him keeping a photo journal to be shared exclusively with BSA readers and we offered to help connect him with some friendly guides on his trip so he could get some splendid and exclusive photos. He enthusiastically accepted the offer and here is the first day of Spencer’s one-week residency on BSA, an edited treasure trove of images and insights from the guy himself. We know you’re going to dig it.

Here’s this weeks schedule:

Monday is Vitry-sur-Seine Street Art.
Tuesday will be Paris Street Art.
Wednesday will be a special collection of the installations from the Le Tour Paris 13 project.
Thursday will be his adventures in Berlin.
BSA Film Friday will feature a selection of videos reflecting the cities he toured.
Saturday will be Spencer’s London showcase.

Of all four cities Spencer visited over a two week trip, this one seemed to really embrace the value of street art to the culture, he says. “In terms of which city was the most welcoming of street art I’d have to say Vitry-sur-Seine was because this is really a grassroots campaign kickstarted by C215,” he says of this city of 83,000 that is called a commune and lies on the outskirts of Paris.

It’s not hard to believe that the scene is attributed in large part to the influence of the well-regarded stencil artist C215 as this is a guy who considers his work to be community service and who regularly features people from the city he is in as subjects of his portraits. That’s why he was the perfect guide for Spencer, who says he learned a huge amount of information in a short time.

“I have to say that C215 is one of the more interesting, opinionated and knowledgeable artists that I have come across. We started the morning at his local café with a coffee. I explored around a little by myself while he was attending to some prior engagements with his gallery and then he caught up with me out on the streets. We eventually had lunch and then went back to his house. Topics ranged from his opinion on the scene in general, on other artists, on galleries and it even touched on street art websites and documenters.

“I hadn’t realized that he has only been doing stenciling for seven years but it was easy to see how far his pieces have come from the few monochrome stencils that still remain around Williamsburg (Brooklyn) from around 2008,” remarks Elzey.

“What C215 has done in Vitry-sur-Seine is much bigger than I expected it to be, both in terms of quantity of work in the area as well as the impact on the community. The first piece that he put up there was about five year ago and within that time there have appeared at least 150 different pieces from him and other artists throughout the area,” says Spencer.

Naturally, Elzey was shooting whatever odd or curious or thrilling piece he found on his travels through this city that celebrates artists, in addition to the work done by his host. “I was definitely surprised with how much Street Art there was in Vitry-sur-Seine. I took around 200 pictures of different pieces while there and I’m still seeing pictures on Instagram of things that I had missed,” he says.

One piece in particular by C215 impressed him a lot – because of it’s impact visually and its perfectly contextual placement. Additionally, Elzey felt that it illustrated the regard that the residents have for the artists work and the fact that people didn’t appear to think of it as illegal or vandalism, per se. “While I was exploring and taking pictures, various residents pointed with excitement about pieces just around the corner that I should go look at,” he says.

“There was one older gentleman, probably in his 70s, who just simply said “La porte” and smiled while pointing in a certain direction. I rounded the corner to see a stencil of the Virgin Mary on the back door of the main church,” he says of one of the few religious themed pieces that the artist has created. “C215 had indicated that this was one of his favorite pieces in the area and it was nice to see that residents appreciated it as well. Had it not been for this project there really would be no other reason for me to have travelled down to Vitry-sur-Seine but it was definitely worth it.”

We hope you enjoy this one week residency on Brooklyn Street Art and we congratulate Spencer for his dedication, professionalism and enthusiasm.

Our sincere thanks also go to those who offered their hospitality and agreed to give Spencer a tour on our behalf; to the stencil artist C215, who graciously took him around Vitry and who shared with him a history and background on the scene there, to Maroune and Mehdi at Itinerrance Gallery for providing Spencer with special solo access to Le Tour Paris 13 while hundreds were queing outside, and to the dynamic German duo Various & Gould who welcomed him into their studio and showed Spencer some really cool spots around Berlin. This open and generous community spirit really makes the work that we do feel so inspiring to us, and we thank each of you for playing host to Spencer and for sharing your knowledge with the BSA family.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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