Our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Brilla, Demo, El Sol 25, En Masse, Evereman, Feral Child, Issa, Lambros, Luca Missoni, MOR, Olek, Rae, SSDD and Swampy.
In town for their opening at ICA Boston next week, Os Gemeos got this sweet gig in the center of town on the exterior of a ventilation building above the famed “Big Dig”. Up until the end of the show at the end of November or a little longer, the city has an uncommon opportunity to see the work of the twins and have a picnic. Photographer Geoff Hargadon has been there since the beginning and will be sharing his exclusive documentation of the installation with you on BSA next week. For now, here’s a teaser and if you are in Boston stop by to see the progress!
Italian Street Artist JB Rock created a giant wave last week on a 32 feet high by 65 feet tall wall in the small and quiet Tuscan town of Arcidosso, Italy. Participating in Alterazioni 2012, the town’s Art and Music festival, the artist used 15 different stencils of clenched fists and other hand gestures, repeating them more than 200 times to create his “Quiet Storm”. He says that part of his inspiration comes from the Japanese printmaking aesthetic, and this one in particular is in the style of the 19th Ccentury Master-Printer Hokusai.
Let the Games Begin! (oh no, does that violate an Olympic copyright?) Here’s our Olympian sized Olympic Fun Friday Olympiatastic list, sponsored by nobody.
1. BOB ROSS REMIX (VIDEO)
2. KingBrown Group Show at Klughaus (NYC)
3. Quel Beast Solo Reception at Gallery Bar (NYC)
4. Believe the Hype at Pandemic Saturday (BKLN)
5. REVOK and SABER at Known Gallery (LA)
6. Matthew Silver Goes for the Gold in his Speedo at Union Square (VIDEO)
7. Pura Vida Presents: Entes Y Pesimo A Short Film (English) (VIDEO)
BOB ROSS REMIX (Video)
Bob Ross is back! Updated and autotuned, this visual medley ties together the overriding themes that his long-running show imparted to many people who may have been timid about reopening that creative spirit that we’re all born with. Some kids think they’re too cool and too street for this sh*t but really they like Bob’s message too, because he’s right. Get out your paintbrush and cans!
KingBrown Group Show at Klughaus (NYC)
Mike Giant is in New York and he brought some juicy markers with him. The New Show at Klughaus Gallery in Manhattan’s Chinatown hosted him yesterday with folks from Kingbrown Magazine to mark the release of their issue #8. The group show of small pieces in the gallery is smartly, densely packed with names you’ll like and is now open to the public after last nights hot and sticky grand opening that ended with Mother nature blowing exhibition skateboarders sideways with sudden summer storm high winds and pounding rain. The show was presented along with the dudes from Fountain Arts Fair.
Artists include Morning Breath, Andy Jenkins, Chris Cycle, Dave Kinsey, “Grotesk” aka Kimou Meyer, Stefan Marx, Kevin Lyons, Mike Giant, Raza Uno aka MAx Vogel, Greg Lamarche, Zach Malfa-Kowalski, Steve Gourlay, Jay Howell, Ben Horton, Beastman, Phibs, Hiro, Reka, Kyle “Creepy” Hughes-Odgers, Meggs, Sean Morris, Yok, Sheryo, Ross Clugston, Daek, Lister, Numskull, Ian Mutch, Rone/ aka Tyrone Wright.
Further information regarding this show click here.
Quel Beast Solo Reception at Gallery Bar (NYC)
The Gallery Bar on the Lower East Side of Manhattan hosts the opening reception today of Quel Beast’s solo show of portraits full of emotion as he continues in the journey of self-study. In a short career on the street that has depicted everything from anguish to rage to frustration, it is good to report that there is now an occasional smile.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Believe the Hype at Pandemic Saturday (BKLN)
PARTY! PARTY! PARTY! @ Pandemic Gallery tomorrow. “Believe The Hype” Is Pandemic’s title for this summer party including: The Yok, Sheryo, UFO 907, Swampy, Royce Bannon, Matt Siren, David Pappaceno, Darkclouds, Keely, Don Pablo Pedro, Cost KRT and Deeker. All the artists will paint the interior of the gallery in one collaborative mural. Go get wet and play. There will be limited prints, T shirts, zines and drawings for sale.
For further information regarding this show click here.
REVOK and SABER at Known Gallery (LA)
Double billing Revok and Saber in one night? You know the crowd will be big and enthusiastic to see these two concurrent solo shows and as Known Gallery hosts REVOK’s “Gilgamesh” and SABER’s “Beautification” simultaneously Saturday.
For further information regarding SABER show click here.
Matthew Silver Goes for the Gold in his Speedo at Union Square (VIDEO)
Miao Jiaxin captures some of the magic moments of this public performer who may be borderline bananas and who knows how to engage people, to help and flip their “I’m Free” switch to the “On” position.
Pura Vida Presents: Entes Y Pesimo A Short Film (English) (VIDEO)
As part of their Vandal or Visionary Series, where BSA selects one Street Artist to curate a show that follows their specific vision of the scene, BSA is proud to introduce Hellbent as curator of the inaugural show of the series titled “GEOMETRICKS” at new Gallery Brooklyn in the Red Hook section of Brooklyn, New York City, opening September 22, 2012.
GEOMETRICKS turns the spotlight on the movement on the streets that boasts bold color, wild patterning, sophisticated lineplay, and a modern approach to abstraction.
As the stylistic circle widens on the street, GEOMETRICKS grabs a razor-sharp cross section of the growing number of graffiti artists who depart from traditional forms of lettering, Street Artists who are not interested in Pop-inspired icons or irony, and fine artists who never considered the “rules” of the street to begin with.
GEOMETRICKS references modernists, tribalists, and the rhythmic symmetry of the natural world, with it’s hexagons and spirals and comforting repetitions. Old labels about graffiti and Street Art mean little; this group takes the formalist clarity that references geometry, folk art, and science, and often smashes it with an abstract hammer.
Parallel, perpendicular, rigid, curvilinear; lines and shapes intersect and play off color-rich pattern – challenging the shape, form and expectations of many in the Street Art scene. GEOMETRICKS show how graff and Street Art right now are exploding in a new direction together without first asking for permission, again advancing the conversation of art on the streets.
“I’m stoked to be able put together this GEOMETRICKS show with some artists who I’ve really admired for a long time as well as some of the new players on the scene. This show is a great opportunity for me to create a vision and really put a dream team of artists into one room and show people what I am diggin’ right now.” – Hellbent
The Vandal or Visionary Series presented by BSA GEOMETRICKS
Curated by Hellbent
The Vandal or Visionary Series calls into question the simplistic characterization of artists who work on the street as one dimensional vandals and it wonders aloud what a gallery show would look like if viewed through their eyes. Many artists have always had a better understanding of the scene than academics or experts who talk about it and this series allow us to see a show curated by someone with a direct view and a very unique perspective.
BrooklynStreetArt.com is a daily source for Street Art reporting, interviews, and photography in New York and around the world.
We’ve been thinking a lot about this show and recently published examples on the street that are indicative of this new direction;
“Art from the streets has been heralding a new eye-popping geometric disorder that can now fairly be called a movement.”
~ From our recent piece on The Huffington Post : “Color, Geometry and Pattern on the Streets”
ArTicks Gallery is pleased to announce PEETA – A SOLO SHOW, a solo exhibition consisting of new paintings and sculptures by the Italian artist Peeta.
Peeta endeavours to realize the sculptural quality of individual letters, namely the ones that spell out his own name. Being aware of the Greco-Latin origins of today’s modern alphabet which give it a certain abstract, rather than figural, quality, his task departs from this graphical history to follow the formal methods of Chinese and Islamic calligraphy. With his works, the artist always selects the specific letters “P-E-E-T-A” and breaks them from their generic typographical form, stylizing them with shape and volume beyond their mere semantic function. Thus his lettering is brought into the fluidity of the urban, where words are continuously ruptured from their own histories, readapted into idiom and gestures learned from the street.
And it is this urban terrain that Peeta is always drawn to: street walls, trains, abandoned factories. In a way, his work is record of evolving inscription—not in its traditional sense, but in terms of a fluency acquired through the urban vernacular. Peeta calls this a “geometry of writing”, where the rules are changeable and words are modified, deconstructed and regenerated as they intersect with convention and the new.
Peeta, also known as Manuel Di Rita, has been active as a graffiti artist since 1993 and is currently living in Venice. He is a member of the EAD crew (Padova, Italy), FX and RWK crews (New York City) and has participated in graffiti jams and Meeting of Styles events in Europe and the Americas. His work explores the potential of sculptural lettering, both in painting and in three dimensions. Peeta has exhibited at the Santorini Biennale (2012); Megastore Gallery – The Hague (2007); Magazzini del Sale – Venice (2007-2008); Edgeart Gallery – Manchester (2008); PrettyPortal Gallery – Düsseldorf (2009); Baron Gallery and Ayden Gallery – Vancouver (2010-2011); Da Baker Gallery – New York (2010); and H+ Gallery – Lyon (2011), among many others.
“PEETA – A SOLO SHOW” runs from 10th August – 30th August, 2012 Vernissage: Friday 10th August from 18:00 – 21:30
Thinkspace is pleased to present Dirty Laundry, an exhibition of new work by painters Brett Amory and Adam Caldwell. Amory and Caldwell each mobilize their unique representational strategies to invoke the modern day disconnect between time and space, self and other, and present and past. Amory’s atmospheric preoccupation with memory, the moment, and nostalgia, is dynamically in contrast to Caldwell’s abrupt composites and recombinations of imagery, from sources spanning mass media to antiquity. Both artists approach their medium as a means of problematizing temporal identity, and the social experience, by exposing the nitty gritty polarities and paradigm shifts of an increasingly fractured reality of the self.
“This Snow Rising”
opens on August 3rd, at Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, CA. I feel so
fortunate to be working with these incredible people. They are
rarities to say the least and a perfect match for the starry eyes &
working hands you’ve continued to support. I will be sharing a body of
work I’ve been preparing since my return from that insane journey last
year & will be taking over their entire space with pieces scaling from
10x12ft to 3x5in. As many of you know, I have plans to hit the road
again shortly after & it will most likely be some time before I find
my wandering feet in a gallery setting again. I would so love to see
as many of your beautiful faces as I possibly can! Please come …
Give me a hug, share adventure stories, & see the work your inspiring
lives have helped create. All my love.
This Snow Rising
Opens August 3rd, 7-11pm.
Anno Domini Gallery
366 S 1st Street
San Jose, California 95113
In December 2010 a group of artists got together to embark on a project painting London’s skyline, with the aim of inspiring people and reminding them of their voice. At a time where communities across the country feel increasingly neglected and let down by the system they decided to use the roofs of the many council blocks scattered across the city as a platform to communicate with people in the form of painted eyes and up-lifting slogans that beamed down on to the streets below. Their work was to serve as a reminder to the public that they still have control over their surroundings and although we live in the most surveyed city on the planet, where peoples liberties are often compromised for financial gain and control, there is still room to take risks, think outside the box and change the world around you.
This exhibition will see the launch of a limited edition hand bound artist book from ATG. Each book will be signed and numbered with a hand screen printed cover.
The exhibition will also feature limited edition screen prints, originals and photographic work. .
The Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane London. E1 6QL
T:020 7247 2684 E:info@stolenspace.com Open Tuesday to Sunday 11.00am – 7.00pm
Fabien Castanier Gallery is proud to present IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE , the first solo exhibition in the USA by French artist RERO.For the past 3 years, RERO has established his work through his innovative approach to street art. First introduced to the street as a teenage graffiti writer, he eventually felt limited by a spray can and began exploring imagery through the use of typography. His work retains those values of graffiti- which remains at the very core- the confrontation, the aesthetics of destruction and the idea of appropriation. The forms of his letters, always in Verdana font, become the image. With his distinct visual style, RERO often inhabits disused and dilapidated spaces to explore the concept of “negation of the image”, presenting minimalist statements that combat our modern overdose on images and messages.
RERO challenges our understanding of intellectual property, images and computer terminology, through the use of words and phrases with a stark black line crossing them out. Using expressions such as “Trade My Mark”, “Error 404” and “This Image is Free Copyright”, the artist seeks to provoke questions from the viewer to establish their own positions as to their meaning. The use of the strike-through furthers his exploration of negation, as it suggests a notion of denial or censorship.
RERO’s site-specific works enter the gallery space through a variety of media. His works on canvas emulate the abandoned walls where he often intervenes, where there is no distinctive brushstroke or human trace, instead marked by time and by texture. Similarly, he encases vintage leather bound books in resin, his way of making them “fossils” of the 21st century. For IMAGE NOT AVAILABLE , RERO will be exhibiting works on canvas, sculptures, works on paper and resin books alongside several installations.
RERO was born in 1983 and studied graphic design at London College of Communication. He has shown his work in numerous exhibitions and art fairs across Europe. He lives and works in Paris.
We are thrilled to announce the opening of our second show, PUBLIC WORKS, at LALA Gallery on Friday, August 3, at 7:00 pm.
This groundbreaking two-part exhibit, a collaboration with LA Freewalls and MacDonald Media to benefit Art Share LA, features murals by renowned contemporary artists in one of public media’s most controversial spaces – the billboard. Contributing artists include How & Nosm, Insa, Push, Revok, Risk, Ron English, Seen, Shepard Fairey, Trustocorp, WCA Crew, Uglar, and Zes.
The first part of the exhibit will feature the murals up-close-and-personal at LALA Gallery from August 3 to 17. The murals will then be on display on billboards throughout Los Angeles on a rotating basis during the next year.
Climbing up on a roof during the sultry city summer can be liberating, and it turns out to be a prime place for painting too. Away from the cacophony of the sweaty streets, the breeze up here is a little cooler and stronger and aside from the occasional potted tomato plant or sun-tanning waitress, you are on your own. You may not own any personal real estate, but right now this is all yours, this sweeping urban vista of grand, glassy, grimy, gawdy, and gutted.
For years graffiti writers and Street Artists have sought these undiscovered spots as a kind of refuge, an urban backyard for hanging out and going big, often collaboratively. You could say that rooftop spots even have a certain lore, a place to tell stories about and revel in. In a hard-knock nasty city that sometimes seems to swallow people whole, on this rooftop with a view you can do a huge piece and feel like you are holding it all down. Not to mention the bragging rights you can claim for hitting a high profile location that grabs eyeballs and raises the stakes. As for the city dweller, the work, as ever, is subjectively reviled, ignored, or celebrated. No one can truthfully deny its affect on the character of the cityscape.
Here are some choice roof shots by photographer Jaime Rojo across New York, LA, Chicago, and Boston to give you a birds eye view of some art from on high.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
