Artists

The Painted Buses of Raiatea and Bora Bora – French Polynesia

July 11, 2018 Artists

Box trucks are a favorite canvas for many graffiti writers in big cities and have become a right of passage for new artists who want the experience of painting on a smooth rectangular surface that becomes a rolling billboard through the streets advertising your name, making you truly “All City”.

Charles and Janine Williams. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Raiatea, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When in French Polynesia a few weeks ago with the ONO’U festival, a number of artists were given the significant gift of a large truck or school/commuter bus on which to create a mural, a message, a bubble tag.

Together on the islands of Raiatea and Bora Bora there were about 10 of these long and low autobuses that became sudden celebrities in the sparsely travelled streets, debuted as some of them were in Raitea, when painted live at an all night party for the public.

Charles and Janine Williams. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Raiatea, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With a similar sized surface to paint, the comparing and contrasting between styles and techniques among the artists was suddenly on full display. In contrast to the cities that many of these artists began in, you could not have found a more appreciate audience of people for these artists and their talents. The best part is that these buses are currently rolling through the streets even though the festival is over.

Cranio. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Raiatea, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Soten. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Raiatea, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bordalo II. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Raiatea, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cola. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Bora Bora, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Bora Bora, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bordalo II. ONO’U Tahiti 2018. Bora Bora, French Polynesia. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aérosol Creates Huge Fresco in Paris Sud for Wall Street Art Festival

July 10, 2018 Artists

“He wanted to highlight youth, its beauty and diversity,” says Gautier Jordain about French stencil master Jef Aérosol for this new public mural he just completed in Evry, in the south of Paris.

Jef Aérosol. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Evry, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

One of his biggest frescoes to date, the rocker/Street Artist doesn’t usually include this much red in his compositions, aside from his signature red arrows placed alongside the figures in his portraits. The striking graphic nature of these bands of color pops a new wave into his work, creating a fresh look that somehow feels quite modern.

Part of this year’s Wall Street Art festival curated by Mathgoth Gallery in Paris, this new monumental work dedicates itself to the diverse nature of many of the city’s newest immigrant communities, something that many European nations have been faced with in recent years with new arrivals fleeing war-torn countries.

Jef Aérosol. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Evry, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

For some reason, we humans are tribal in our behaviors sometimes and we can have a hard time accepting new members of our tribes. As is a historical practice, we depend on the intuitive knowledge and talents of artists to help us make the transition to being more accepting of others and to possibly help us find the innate great qualities in each other.

Jef Aérosol. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Evry, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

“He portrayed children who are happy to live and to share with you,” Gautier, who curated the project with his partner Mathilde, “without question of skin color, origin or religion.”

“Un enfant, Ça écoute le merle Qui dépose ses perles Sur la portée du vent*,” a lyric from singer Jacques Brel provided the inspiration, Jef says, and he spent some days with local kids and families in the neighborhood to make sure that they know this mural is for them.

Jef Aérosol. Wall Street Art Festival of Grand Paris Sud. Evry, France. (photo © Mathgoth Gallery)

* “A child, he takes your dream and turns it into a song.” (approximate translation)

The Hate Lovers. “SAVE THE PLANET!” in Barcelona

July 9, 2018 Artists

Collectives of artists frequently form based on common styles, interests, and philosophies. In Barcelona an all female group of artists coalesced to form The Hate Lovers a few years ago to promote the empowerment of women in creative fields.

The Hate Lovers. “Save The Planet“. Contorno Urbano Foundation. Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. San Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Founded by Spanish graffiti/Street Artists Malicia and Vegan Bunnies, The Hate Lovers participate in group shows and aerosol jams in Spain to advocate for feminism and greater recognition of female artists in street and contemporary art.

With backgrounds in painting, illustration, photography, and tattoo, the troupe creates a variety of murals and frescoes, including this new character-based, cartoon-style imagery that excites kids and engages adults in Sant Feliu de Llobregat.

The Hate Lovers. “Save The Planet“. Contorno Urbano Foundation. Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. San Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

They tell us that they’re focused on our collective misuse of the planet’s resources, creating “a mural full of details that denounce our lack of commitment to the environment.”

It is all part of a broad outreach of styles and practices that Contorno Urbano has facilitated on Barcelona streets to give artists a platform to show their work and to give city folk new art to think about and react to.

The Hate Lovers. “Save The Planet“. Contorno Urbano Foundation. Kaligrafics. 12 + 1 Project. San Feliu de Llobregat, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.08.18 Selections From Welling Court 2018

July 8, 2018 Artists

“Anxiety is normal in an unjust society” says the new piece by Disordered in Welling Court, Queens, a working class neighborhood of New York where the latest Ad Hoc mural party was held a couple of weekends ago under the direction of Garrison Buxton. He started this festival with his former partner Alison Buxton nine years ago to create community here with a number of artists from across the graffiti/Street Art spectrum, and it has always been a great day to see families and kids interacting with artists on the street.

Anxiety rings true when the giveaways to business interests for nearly four decades under both dominant parties have gradually placed folks like these in this neighborhood constantly in fear of missing the rent, the grocery bill, the car payment, the cost of providing for their kids.

Some companies adore this dynamic exactly the way it is because when you are always feeling anxiety about losing your job and worried about paying the bills you won’t speak up to notify anyone when your boss is dumping poison in the river or placing his hand upon your seat. Imagine working so hard and getting paid so little that you are still relying on public assistance, as Walmart is known for now. Anxiety is normal for many today, and it is reflected in the art on the streets as well.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Cern, Caleb Neelon, Col Wallnuts, Damien Mitchell, Daze, Disordered, FKDL, Hellbent, JCBK, Joe Iurato, John Fekner, Lena McCarthy, LMNOPI, Maria Wore, Michel Velt, Never, NYC Hooker, Praxis, Queen Andrea, Robots Will Kill, Rubin415, Seeone, and Toofly.

Top image: Joe Iurato . Rubin 415. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Fekner. Don Leicht. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Disordered. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michel Velt. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lena McCarthy . Caleb Neelon. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze . Crash. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JCBK. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Praxis. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Col Wallnuts . WaneOne . EpicUno. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hooker. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SeeOne. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toofly. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Robots Will Kill. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FKDL. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maria Wore. Welling Court 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton and Summer “Intermission” on the Bowery/Houston Wall

July 7, 2018 Artists

And now its time for a mid-year intermission to pause and reflect upon the events that have happened in the first act. We’ve had plenty of treachery, intrigue, jailbirds and back alley suspense. Clearly it is time for a serendipitous summer romance, with Tristan Eaton as director.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An historic reenactment of sorts, this scene is usually full of its own drama; the painting of the Houston Wall in Manhattan appears once again on this drive-by screen, crammed with special effects as multi-talent Tristan Eaton explodes for days with the coursing traffic roaring and halting and honking and rumbling behind him.

The action unfolds and cameras are ablaze as documentors are there to capture it, including the stalwart Martha Cooper, the in-flight Zane Meyer, and our own private-eye Jaime Rojo.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan’s cunning recombinative practice of recalling images from pop, television, cinema, and advertising languages, selecting many of their most emotionally charged aspects in exquisite fullness is all leveled here with a tropical lushness almost never found in this forbidding city, safely encased behind a protective gloss.

It’s the nostalgic stuff of marquees and beige canvas directors chairs, patterned jacquard wall tapestry, crimson velvet curtains, butter soaked popcorn, sticky floors and a certain smokey Saturday matinee reefer madness. This all once reigned in cinematic and tawdry Manhattan; mixing showgirls and space scientists and dames with sex-workers and 25 cent peepholes. Of course, the glam and the grind are all still here in Gotham – they’ve just become uberized and swiped right.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eaton’s influences from Sunset Boulevard and Detroit’s motor city grit translate well here in the thick of our own version of mid-summers’ insouciance. It’s all hustle, hormones, and a finely pulsating particulate matter that sticks to you; a humid cloud of complex desires clinging to your skin, now flickering in warm succulence as you ride by on your wheels.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our guy on the street rolled past the one-man show many times over the past couple of weeks to check on progress and mingle with the ever-more-gilded gentry that frequent the sidewalks/runways here. Cuffed tonal highwaters, PVC wedges and fugly white dad sneakers aside, New Yorkers still walk the walk and have a certain respect for their Street Art, if only to pose before it for the 1,000th selfie.

The affable showman Eaton is not shy for the endlessly inquisitive fan, either – ready to layer on additional color and texture. For this particular intermission, our summer romance will continue long into autumn’s golden glow.

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton photo bombs Jessica Goldman, Sheryo and Martha Cooper. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Houston/Bowery Wall. Manhattan, NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday: 07.06.18

July 6, 2018 Artists

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

Now screening :
1. Gonzalo Borondo Matiére Noire
2. r1. on the corner of August House in Johannesburg
3. Banksy in Paris on FWTV
4. Joan Cabrer “Hot Pixel”

BSA Special Feature: Gonzalo Borondo Matiére Noire

A short documentary today taking us through last autumns On October 7^th in Marseille, France in collaboration with Galerie Saint Laurent and Spanish artist Gonzalo Borondo as they presented Matière Noire. A massive collection of individual installations that took over the top floor of an exhibition space normally used for shops, Borondo’s influence in the selections is throughout, a story told in three acts on Projection, Perception and Interpretation.

Artists include BRBR FILMS, Carmen Main, Diego López Bueno, Edoardo Tresoldi, Isaac Cordal, Robberto Atzori, Sbagliato and A.L. Crego, with curatorial guidance from Carmen Main.

Borondo has thrown open the doors to this cavernous space for a vitrine displaying our strong attachments to the fragile, ethereal objects and impressions. Their original meanings mixing with your own, projecting yourself as you do upon them. This is a chance for the artist to experiment and explore – perhaps to pursue something they have not been able to previously. Here is the laboratory, here in the interstitial. Yours is the gift of perception.

Directed by Matteo Dellangelo, reflections blur into paintings and tapestries, shadows morph into cats sleeking moving just beyond your periphery. An army of executives kneel, their faces distraught and mournful as they ask forgiveness for ushering in the fascist age their now caught in; Revolutions of video, scraps of family warmth and other things that aren’t there; benchmarks in social ritual, humble sets for theaters of manners, possibe deceptions, probable blurry sherries, fizzy Tom Collins, tortoise shell horn rims, cracked crystal, hair cream, horny men and haberdashers snapping apart girdles and garters, knocking over the slide tray and projector.

There are dark natural wonders and new highways in this Internet of things; prize winning cakes and first communions and turtles and turtlenecks; crying babies, bonbons, blond wood, great escapes and many lost opportunities mixed among the found ones.

But we wander….The project is to successfully outline an object onto another surface, and each artist in this curiously lit labyrinth of myth, memory and phantasma plays with these objects to bend perception. Carmen Main helps you find the way.

r1. on the corner of August House in Johannesburg

The thrilling drilling of geometic chromadek adornment of the corner installation by artist r1 in South Africa. “It took me 4 days to install and I drilled 688 holes,” he says. “One of the key aspects I love about the work is its placement on the corner wall, creating a 3D like effect. It makes the artwork seem to pop out of the building, creating a sculptural-like mural.”

Banksy in Paris on FWTV

Join Doug Gillen as he assembles and analyzes the recent Banksy installations in Paris.

Joan Cabrer “Hot Pixel”

Dig this dark funky groove that accompanies the sweep of the spray as Joan Cabrer paints a recent wall in Barcelona. For more on the story check out

“Joan Cabrer. “Hot Pixel” Digitizes Life and Nature For Contorno Urbano. 12+1 Project”

“Trashplant” with Forest Dump Et Al : The Completed Installations – Part III

July 5, 2018 Artists

Here at the Trashplant festival in Tenerife, the performance artist and eco-artivist Forest Dump re-added foliage to this new tree that once was a telephone pole that once was a tree. Then he jumped down off the fence.

For those who have been on the fence about their responsibility to the earth and our natural resources, many people in this new generation are making that jump as well.

Forest Dump. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

“We have been building cities for years, replacing nature with concrete and steel,” he says in a recent Instagram post, “We tend to forget but our deepest roots are in Mother Nature and we truly need her to survive.”

Reminds us of all these online orders we’ve been placing lately for all kinds of household items, and the boxes that are piling high under the desk. Cardboard consumption had been reduced by manufacturers in recent years but now the world is consuming about 415 metric tons of paper and cardboard every year, and tons of water is involved in its production as well.

Forest Dump. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

It’s something to think about when looking at the new Coruja owl that Montreal based artist Laurence Vallières has fashioned out of cardboard.

Laurence Vallières. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Beginning with a small clay sculpture that she made for reference that is closer in scale to the diminutive size of the actual owl (usually about 8 inches, or 20 centimeters tall) she brought this one to life over the course of a few days while gazing out the studio window at the ocean. The new sculpture joins a long line of animals that the artist has made in the last few years using this same technique and material, at once impressive because of the volume of the work, then by it’s relative fragility.

Laurence Vallières. WIP shot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Laurence Vallières. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Portuguese artist Miguel Januário pokes at that corner of your consciousness that has stopped making connections through disuse. His new installations for Trashplant are in alignment with his ±MaisMenos± art project that is drawing attention to the connection between the natural internal environment and the natural external environment.

±MAISMENOS± Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

EMPHASEMA is translucently suspended in the air amidst a leafy wooded area that is always cleaning the air and aiding respiration. Similarly his intervention of the word CIRRHOSIS is afloat in the nearby surf where water brings to mind the role of your clean liver in all metabolic processes. As usual, the artist creates gently jarring messaged that may begin further inquisition and examination into our attitudes and behaviors.

±MAISMENOS± Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Trashplant as a project curated by Bordalo II is a potent reminder of the multiple functions that art can play in our daily intercourse and Street Arts’/Public Arts’ potential to reach larger cross sections of people who normally do not frequent galleries or museums. With the obvious, the subtle, and the conceptual at play, this festival takes a meaningful approach to the power of communication to a range of audiences.

Forest Dump has the last word here.

“No matter who you are, where you live, or what kind of life you lead, you remain linked to the natural world! Respect it before is too late!”

Our sincere thanks to photographer Luz Sosa for sharing these photos with BSA readers over the past three days of our coverage of Trashplant.

To learn more about Trashplant please go here: http://trashplantfestival.org/

±MAISMENOS± Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Forest Dump. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Bordalo II. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Catarina Glam. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Diedel Klöver. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

“Trashplant” in Tenerife Corralls Trash and Welds New Life : Process – Part II

July 4, 2018 Artists

It’s our second day of sharing scenes from Trashplant and here we see Icy and Sot are bobbing and diving inside a colorful unnatural environment of plastic trash that is being corralled into a fenced cube, and musician and welder Diedel Klöver is crafting fish fins from corrugated metal fence posts.

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

The German lawn sculptor from Varel on the North Sea is adding a blow-torched fish to his recent animal parade of a lion, a rhino, stingrays, and penguins. The Tenerife truckload of metal he selected at the scrapyard speed is being speed-welded in just four days, thanks to some help from his buddy Alex.

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Curator Bordalo II watches artist Catarina Glam from a safe distance as she wields a power saw to form the wood pieces of a creature that is coming together when he’s not out in the yard with João piecing together what looks like it may be a penguin from the recycled trash they have collected.

The fact that much of the work here at Trashplant in Tenerife is made from recycled refuse is central to the exhibition and one that is easier to understand when we have the opportunity to see how it actually comes together.

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Compound this with the realization that much of the human-made materials that we are using daily actually poison the water and air for these animals and of course our families… and you begin to think that the whole world is really just once enormous trash plant.

To learn more about Trashplant please go here: http://trashplantfestival.org/

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Diedel Klöver. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Catarina Glam. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Laurence Vallières. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

±MAISMENOS± Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Bordalo II. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Artists + Trash as Activism at “Trashplant” in Tenerife: Process – Part I

July 3, 2018 Artists

Art Activism (Artivism) in progress here this past weekend at the Trashplant Festival in San Cristobal de La Laguna, Tenerife, Canary Islands. A dozen artists have formulated installations directly in response to environmental issues at the invitation of the one of Street Art’s main trashmen himself, the street sculptor Bordalo II.

Today we have first phase installation shots of the artists preparing their new pieces thanks to photographer Luz Sosa, who shares these images with BSA readers. Included are ±MaisMenos±, Bordalo II, Catarina Glam, Diedel Klöver, Forest Dump, Icy & Sot, and Laurence Vallieres.

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

The garbage that we generate can also transform into art and the Trashplant Festival was born – an unparalleled event where a large group of the best plastic and urban artists from all over the world come together to carry out one of the greatest tasks of environmental awareness through art.

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Bordallo II tells us that the point is to draw attention to how we can reuse, recreate, and reflect on how we generate waste. It’s an obsession for many in this troupe of like minded artists, and guests observe and investigate their new figurative and conceptual pieces here while attending music concerts as well, hopefully “inoculating” them with awareness of the need for all us us to transform society to preserve the natural environment.

To learn more about Trashplant please go here: http://trashplantfestival.org/

Icy & Sot. Trashplant Festival. Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain. June 2018. (photo © Luz Sosa)

Nevercrew: “Home Ground” in Chur, Switzerland

July 2, 2018 Artists

The Alps, the lakes, the 360 degree views; yes this bear is in Switzerland. It is newly painted by Nevercrew for the young Street Art Festival here in Chur, a quiet town of 35,000 and the oldest town in the country.

The old part of the city is car-free and rather pristine and quiet most of the time, which is a mind-blowing concept for people in congested cities like New York where the morning radio traffic report is more important than the weather report.

The Swiss duo was back in their home country for a change for this one, which may have contributed to the name “Home Ground”. They tell us a very general background of it’s influences – which can be summarized as addressing natural resources, political borders v geographical boarders, cohabitation, and a broader discussion about who owns the earth and our natural resources.

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.01.18

July 1, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This week’s edition of BSA Images Of The Week is heavy with messages, especially on the subject of refugee children and our responsibility to keep them safe. Family Values, as we once heard on a near daily basis here, are apparently not to be mentioned when applied to certain families according to the people pulling children away from immigrants – certain immigrants anyway.

New York streets had people marching yesterday about these families, and our top Street Art image by Ernest Zacharavic features little kids set afloat figuratively. As Mexico elects a new president today, the US Supreme Court looks rightward with Kennedy’s resignation last week. Meanwhile the country will celebrate “liberty and justice for all” this week – and the streets are thick with politics like we haven’t had in a while.

On a practical, art-making level, we have also noticed the prevalence of wheat-pasted posters on the streets this spring/summer. Whether mass-printed or labor-intensive one-off paintings, wheatpasting is a practice that has been a staple since we began documenting the arts on the streets worldwide. We are glad to see that the ‘paster, like the humble one-color stencil, hasn’t lost its appeal in the face of the current fascination with big murals.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adage, AJ LaVilla, Baron Von Fancy, Boutros Buotros Bootleg, C3, Damon NYC, Drsc0, Ernest Zacharevic, Indie184, Jason Naylor, Jeff Henriquez, LMNOPI, Praxis, Simon (Xi An), REVOK, Tristan Eaton, Unapologetically Brown Series, and Voxx.

The wheat pastes above and below remind us of the early works of Faile and Bast…on the streets of Williamsburg. It’s fun to see their influence on the streets today.

Untitled. An spectator taking in Tristan Eaton’s crafty work at the Houston/Bowery Wall. NYC. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ori Carino, Lea Thenari & Friends in New York Pop Up: “NYC Out Of USA”

June 30, 2018 Artists

Can you get more New York meta than having a group art show on Manhatttan’s Lower East Side in an empty storefront – with a sculpture by Ori Carino and Benjamin Armas on the sidewalk out front?

The bricks in the sculpture of a mini façade that is common to the East Village are actually made from the bricks of a destroyed East Village building. All of the duo’s collaborative sculptures are – a tribute to the history and the people of this neighborhood as well as a commentary on the ravaging/restorative effects of gentrification.

Ori sees both sides of the gentrification equation and speaks colorfully about it while balancing on the curb next to an overflowing garbage can as an ambulance with it’s lights and siren’s ablaze cruises by you, interrupting his autobiographical data flow only at it’s ear piercing peak of 7 seconds as it rumbles down Avenue A. Born in a loft on Houston Street in the 80s, raised by 2 New York artists, and a graffiti writer starting at age 12, his insights are well considered.

Benjamin speaks to the natural choice of murals they use to adorn these façades when deciding what to paint on these mini- facades, owing their stylistic influences to time spent studying with Pema Rinzin, the Tibetan painter, and their own studies of Buddism.

“It’s a story it’s a narrative sometimes of our experiences and everyday moments with buildings and life that we try document,” he says. “This is one of the first paintings that we made where we were trying to capture our relationship to Buddhist religion,” he says.

“NYC Out of USA” is the name of the pop up show in this former bicycle shop just closed possibly because of high rent prices, and Ori co-curated it with artist Leah Tinari whose canvasses of painted graffiti in bathrooms and delis using latex, spray, and oilstick are only surpassed in LES realness by her customized fashion accessories.

Painted sign language hands announce the show on the awning, a somewhat cryptic advertisement of a name that may refer to a number of activist chants against US imperialism around the world over the last decades (“US Out of El Salvador,” for example). In this case, it is almost like the artist community is considering applying for citizenship elsewhere before an impending fascist state.

Oh, but people have been saying that for years, haven’t they?

Artist Karmimadeebora McMillan shows us her first three of twenty five “Miss Merri Mack” figures that she has begun to exhibit. The dual sided mobiles feature the character she borrowed from common negatively stereotyped visual images of black folk in US history. “These figures you see a lot in the South,” she says. “People used to have them in their yards.” Influenced by an image on an old sign gifted to her back in Charlotte, she named the character after a children’s song she and her friends sang while playing jump rope.

Only as an adult she learned that the name Merrimac in the song referred to a slave ship, fairly cementing her abiding love for the character she had baptized with the name. The flip side of her mobiles contain fictional scenes that combine natural pastoral views with figures borrowed from a FBI propaganda comic book distributed about the Black Panther’s during the COINTELPRO campaign to turn public sentiment against the activists fighting for empowerment and equality.

“They sent these out to 100,000 white families to scare them,” she says. “So I take these characters and I put them with her,” Mima says, “It’s really violent and crazy and I just can’t stop,” she says with a rich joyful laugh that tells you there will be many more of these pieces coming.

The show is full of gems like a large carved stone piece by Ken Haratsuka, an important figure in the New York Street Art movement since the 80s when he made his marks literally in the streets of New York. A temporary exhibit, you’ll continue to hear more about some of these artists regardless, but it closes tomorrow so stop by Avenue A and 3rd Street if you are in the neighborhood.

NYC OUT OF USA is a Pop-Up exhibition at the old bicycle shop on 3rd Street and Avenue A in The East Village. The exhibition will stay open until tomorrow Sunday, July 1st.

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December 16, 2025
As we move through the holidays and look back on the year, it’s a pleasure to reconnect with photographer Fer …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 12.14.25 / Miami x New York
December 14, 2025
Welcome to BSA’s Image of the Week! It’s our first snowy December day with swirling clouds of the white snowflakes …Read More »
Michal Škapa: Building Worlds from Letters and Light in Prague Studio
December 11, 2025
Michal Škapa (b. 1978, Prague), known in graffiti circles as Tron, is one of the defining figures of the Czech …Read More »
Between Spires and Spray Cans: The Rise of Prague’s Street Art Biennial “Urban Pictus”
December 9, 2025
Launched in 2022 and heading into its third edition in 2026, Urban Pictus is the mural festival shaping Prague’s public …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 12.07.25 / Wynwood, Miami.
December 7, 2025
Welcome to BSA Images of the week, where we have been surfing through street art in Miami for 7 days. …Read More »