The Paris-based graffiti writer and aerosol transformer has been active around the world since the 1980s and has been anamorphosing letters and his home city once again with a scene of industrial destruction/deconstruction caught mid-collapse.
Fresh from his successful exhibition with Aloha, Neok, and Raeone at Garlerie 59 Rivoli, Manyak here takes his brilliant mind outside again to paint with L’association Art Azoï.
It can be a serious challenge to coax some margins of the city alive, but Manyak has the experience and unique ability to create a vibrantly dimensional fantasy scene – even with a pile of broken concrete in a bombed out lot. Here the challenge is to transform this long expanse in Paris – and the length of the piece is difficult to capture well in its totality, so we bring you these details of his new work, courtesy of photographer Michele Garnier.
You could watch the Olympics on you screen – and who doesn’t love those amazing athletes? So inspirational. Problem is there are so many reports across the media that Beijing is quashing dissent (NYT, Human Rights Watch, The Guardian) so its hard to separate the place from the event. The banner for this week’s collection is a sticker we saw in Berlin in October – and it’s small but shocking.
Meanwhile here in the city we’re dropping indoor masking in a number of places, and Covid cases are dropping like Kamala’s presidential expectations. So people don’t have to wear masks, but deer do? Our new Vegan mayor is giving school children Vegan Fridays for lunch and taking the bus to work – at least in his new commercials. Think Bloomberg did the same with the subway when he began too. Also, guess he called white people “crackers” way back in 2019.
No wonder our street art is frequently conflicted – full of beauty, rage, disgust, confusion, fear, flaunting, hope, and poetry. It’s a mirror to us collectively, individually.
And here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week in Berlin, New York and Miami, featuring Tona, Batmanxi, Lahoedealer, Artist Diaz, Anne Baerun, Tinkers Trumpf, FCK WRS, C.M.B., Kiez Miez030, Huckleberry Fuckup, and Roberto Rivadaneira.
“A minimalist artwork charged with surrealism,” says the press release about this new street art piece by Madrid-based Pejac in his city. Taking the opportunity of disrepair as an expanse in the imagination, the tiny forms are ant-like in their industry with flake paint providing oddly shaped morsels to save or cavort with.
Here in the neighborhood of Antoñita Jiménez, the artist adorns the exterior of the new VETA Gallery, perhaps as a meditation on artists role in gentrifying parts of cities – drawing attention to a place generally overlooked. In the southernmost area of the city, “this traditionally working-class neighborhood is one of the most diverse areas of the capital.” That is usually how it begins.
Pejac. “Everything Is Relative”. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)Pejac. “Everything Is Relative”. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)Pejac. “Everything Is Relative”. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)Pejac. “Everything Is Relative”. Madrid, Spain. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Global Street Art: “Cultural Vandals”? 2. DOES: Cement Graffiti piece at Amsterdam’s STRAAT Museum 3. New Border. Imagine a different kind of Southern Border between the USA and Mexico.
BSA Special Feature: Global Street Art: “Cultural Vandals”?
Calmer, more measured perhaps, and still pissed off at those who appropriate the culture and then mow it over, here’s Doug Gillen examining a community led mural program being dissed by a fast food corporation in Cardiff, Wales. More alarming perhaps are the middle people who smooth the path and take a cut, according to this new episode of Fifth Walls, called “Cultural Vandals”.
DOES: Cement Graffiti piece at Amsterdam’s STRAAT Museum
An unusual feat of art-making that brings his piece into another dimension, DOES builds up the foundation for his lettering with a carefully applied layer of cement. STRAAT Museum has the story and DOES brings the skillz.
New Border. Imagine a different kind of Southern Border between the USA and Mexico.
The project is called “New Border” and it proposes a constructive alternative bilateral, ecological and humanistic solution to the wall erected (in part) under the Trump administration on the decaying US-Mexican border.
We need to talk about men who abuse power, are supported by people looking the other way, and who expect to get away with it. This is not the Stone Age and we hold people accountable when they abuse women sexually – is that a revolutionary idea?
It’s a familiar critique in this new billboard-jacking by anonymous INDECLINE, who corrects the sentiment of Showtime’s ad for a shock-u-mentary series they’re promoting at the moment, and presumably profiting off of.
Gen Z grew up distrusting everyone, and who can blame them. Even foundational issues that affect our daily lives are sensationally packaged and sold.
We also need to talk about so-called “media” who try to coat their profit motive with a sheen of “journalism” or “community service”.
The corporate media quiver with excitement every time a new war is on the horizon. They dutifully “reported” with feigned outrage the orange man as he degraded his office, attacked our institutions, and debased everyone in his path daily, hourly – covering each sad development without true examination till the next commercial.
“The billboard was vandalized late Sunday night and is located on Fairfax Avenue & 6th Street,” the group says in an email, adding “We needed to talk about Cosby decades ago.”
A sophisticated layering of pieces and decorative patterns create a very effective feat of perspective on this new wall in the Chelyabinsk region, Russia, by artist Daniil Danet at the “Our Mural” festival organized by Graffiti Russia.
The apexed crescents frame a picturesque fishing scene and his added textures borrow from traditional decorative iron arts and street graffiti techniques – an act of equating vastly different histories that is common for those born into the Internet, as Daniil surely was.
Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)
He says that the city of Kasli (pop. 16,000) in southwestern Russian Federation is a reflection of the lakes and the Ural mountains that surround it – as well as the culture and industry that grew up around the iron plant and the iron castings it is famous for. Not to mention its proud heritage of sculptures.
Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)
“In the drawing, I combined these two elements into one through abstract fragments and thematic composition,” he says. “The main plot is a fisherman who fishes in the vicinity of the lake, enjoying the recreational areas of the city. And in the texture of the lake, patterns of Kasli casting from forged metal, rich in decorativeness, can be traced.”
Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)Daniil Danet. “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia Festival. Kasli, Russia. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Area: 216 sq m, 24x9m Location: Palace of Culture. Zakharova, st. Lenina 16, Kasli city, Chelyabinsk region, Russia Organizers: festival “Our Mural”, Graffiti Russia
Artist couple Twee Muizen (Two Mice) complete a new mural for a scientific environmental organization.
20 meters of the mural has just been completed that organizers say celebrates science, art, and the International Day of Women and Girls in Science in Barcelona, which is next Friday, February 11.
The center itself has a long name, so let’s get that out of the way first: Instituto de Diagnóstico Ambiental y Estudios del Agua (Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research), or IDAEA-CSIC for short.
Artist couple Twee Muizen integrated all of the ideas collected from an extended work session through a participatory process between IDAEA staff to decide what themes and symbols needed to be included in the multi-paneled work that welcomes visitors to the center.
“We had scientific, technical, administrative and maintenance staff,” involved in the process, says Alicia Arroyo, project coordinator. In collaboration with the urban art project called B-Murals and funded by the Barcelona City Council.
Barcelona-based duo Twee Muizen (Cristina Barrientos and Denis Galocha) are now working professionally in their ninth year and are originally from Galicia. The two both grew up in towns near Santiago de Compostela surrounded by mountains, animals, and natural beauty. Full-time illustrators and doll makers with a workshop and gallery in Sant Pere, the two interpolated into this mural the IDAEA goals of integrating themes of natural resources, air, water, their molecular and chemical aspects, and the impact of human interactions with all these systems.
“This project arose from the need to raise awareness on the importance of the work and research we carry out at our center in a visual, approachable way and with an innovative format”, says Diana Blanco, coordinator of the project.
A hybrid of your childhood coloring books that you poured your creative energy into and the superhero comic books that helped you escape from home, street artist/fine artist Anthony Lister’s new one-off drawings that keep you forever 13.
Anthony Lister. Thor. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Marketing himself directly to fans through his website, the brashly bright brutalist with a certain foppish elegance offers blistering tributes to all of your childhood protectors like Thor, Aquaman, The Avengers, and Captain America. It’s a dizzying punk collection made with oil stick on 225gsm Museum quality paper – screamed out with the style of an early colorist and the rage of a misunderstood truant teen.
It’s a blast from the past.
Anthony Lister. Captain America. (photo courtesy of the artist)Anthony Lister. The Flash. (photo courtesy of the artist)Anthony Lister. Green Lantern. (photo courtesy of the artist)Anthony Lister. Aquaman. (photo courtesy of the artist)Anthony Lister. X-Force. (photo courtesy of the artist)Anthony Lister. The Avengers. (photo courtesy of the artist)Anthony Lister. Silver Surfer. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Happy New Year of the Tiger! We found some on the street this week in New York, no surprise perhaps.
In other news, OG train writer Chris “Daze” Ellis captured the attention of The New York Times this Friday with his new contemporary art show “Give it All You Got” at P·P·O·W Gallery, and in a related story, according to the New York Daily News, there were 120 graffiti-related incidents on subway trains in January 2021, a 21% increase compared to the same period last year.
In his curatorial incarnation, Carlo has been organizing an enormous new exhibition about New York’s ‘downtown’ scene that he’s curating with Peter Eleey to open this July at UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing featuring “several defining works of this generation, such as paintings and drawings by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring.” McCormick, you will remember, originated the concept and title for his book Trespass : a History of Uncommissioned Urban Art, which made the direct connection between fine art, the avant-garde, and the various street/public art practices of serious radical art movements like those popularized in the 1960’s by Guy Debord and the Situationistes Intérnationales. With these movements and arguments informing our view, it’s simplistic to be so polarized when assessing the value given/damage done by illegal graffiti writers and street artists.
Today our public/private debates about whether someone’s aerosol creation is vandalism or art are far more complex, more palpable than before. Thanks to the validation of graffiti and street art as a cultural force by fashion designers, toy manufacturers, home goods stores, clothing chains, commercial brands, film directors, art collectors, auction houses, artists, writers, professors, and respected education and art institutions, these practices of art-making on the street are enmeshed in the culture, fully a part of it.
One of these days a train car covered with graffiti will head to the yards for buffing… and reappear at an art fair, a Sotheby’s auction, or in the back yard of an avid collector. Our thoughts turn to the “Fun Gallery” refrigerator covered with graffiti tags in that is currently on display at the Phillips “Graffiti” show on Park Avenue right now.
And so we turn to our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Billye Merrill, BK Foxx, Crash, DrewOne, Elle, Eraquario, Eskae, Jenkins2D, Lamour Supreme, MAD, Manuel Alejandro, Osiris Rain, Praxis, REDS, Sipros, The Creator, The DRIF, and Twice.
More than a hundred thousand or so visitors have come to our exhibition at Urban Nation in Berlin which takes over the entire museum. 350 photos, a few thousand more digitally, black books, drawings, ephemera, cameras, film slides, toys, miniatures, a mural, a complete timeline from 1943 to today, 70 original artworks, a 16 screen film collage by director Selina Miles… this is an endless collection of Martha’s personal and professional work and collections for all visitors to see.
The traffic is beginning to increase now that the end of this unprecedented life-spanning exhibition is nearing its end in May of this year, and we want to show you a few of the hidden gems just in case you have a free afternoon to visit the museum. It has been our honor and privilege to share this exhibition, to work so closely with the photographer herself, and to mount the first exhibition at Urban Nation that features the career of one artist – and thousands of artists.
Cey Adams, AFRO, Andres Art, Blanco, Mark Bodé, Bordalo II, Buster, C215, Carja, Victor Castillo, Cosbe, Daze, Jane Dickson, Owen Dippie, Ben Eine, Shepard Fairey, Freedom, Fumakaka, Futura, Grotesk, Logan Hicks, HuskMitNavn, Japao, James Jessop & Dscreet, Nicolas Lacombe, Justen Ladda, Lady Aiko, Lady Pink, The London Police, Mantra, John „Crash“ Matos, Nazza, Nunca, Okuda, Os Gêmeos, Alice Pasquini, Phlegm, Pixel Pancho, Dr. Revolt, Seth Globepainter, Skeme, Skewville, Skolas, Chris Stain, Tats Cru (Bio, BG183 and Nicer), Vhils, Ernest Zacharevic.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Gregory Orekhov Rolls Out the Red Carpet in Moscow 2. A Brief Look Inside Icy & Sot’s Studio 3. Snowy Athens with INO is Paradise
BSA Special Feature: Gregory Orekhov Rolls Out the Red Carpet in Moscow
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Always watching celebs walking the red carpet? Now it’s your turn as the Russian artist Gregory Orekhov distills the magic of expectation and elegance and historical notions of royalty here in a Moscow forest.
The work titled “Nowhere” is the artist’s most recent and consists of 250 meters of polypropylene.
A Brief Look Inside Icy & Sot’s Studio
In preparation for their solo exhibition at Danysz Gallery in Paris, opening on Saturday, February 12 the gallery visited the artists at their studio in Brooklyn. We wrote about the exhibition HERE.
Rare snowfall in Athens prompts INO to grab his drone to shoot his murals under the coat of snow
Snowy Athens with INO is Paradise
Street artists and muralist INO tours his various works in his hometown of Athens, Greece on a snowy day flying with a drone. The musical score of piano and cello warms and stirs.
Street art welcomes all manner of materials and methods, typically deployed without permission and without apology. This hand-formed wire piece …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
