You may have thought that the giant sucking noise you heard was all the street art being pulled down to Miami this week (or Miss California’s video tape turned up to 12).
Have NO Fear – Mighty Tanaka is Here!
Partners Alex Emmart and Caleb James are proud to introduce MIGHTY TANAKA, the gallery
Brooklyn’s Street Art Scene is so gargantuan that we can afford to let Half the Borough go to Art Basel this week and we still have enough amazingly clever artists to OPEN A BRAND NEW GALLERY TONIGHT – which will be packed thank you very much.
Mighty Tanaka Gallery, a labor of love turned a reality with the vision of Alex Emmart, who has been toiling behind the scenes for a couple of years to build a rather strong and fairly eclectic collection of art and artists – many of them fresh out the gate.
Alex also confesses to creating this new gallery in the neighborhood of Dumbo partially to force himself to get off his couch and go to work instead of running his nascent biz out of his apartment. He’s been painting a newly built gallery space in the Brooklyn neighborhood by the water between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges and nearly all his clothes are covered with white paint and his brain has fried, but tonight’s the opening and he is ready.
Avoid (from the Inflation Project) (courtesy Mighty Tanaka)
The inaugural show “Hybridism” gives a nod to oft-expressed opinion these days that the walls between street art and fine art are continually dissolving – as fine art hits the streets and street art hits the living room over your couch.
Emmart brings to the game an education in museum studies, the experience of curating a handful of shows that explore the street-graff-fine art continuum, and a solid dedication to building relationships based on respect.
This too, may be a glimpse of the future of the art world where gallerists treat people fairly and are respected because of it. Just ask any of the nextgen Millenial artists he is working with.
At this auspicious opening, a statement of hope amidst an economy gone ape-crazy, Emmart takes the moment to share the credit on his Facebook page; “Mighty Tanaka studio is one of the finest and most exciting spaces I know of due to the hard work of committed individuals. A VERY BIG thanks to Garrett Wohnrade, Caleb James, Adri Cowan, Mari Keeler, Heidi Alasuvanto, Insuh Yoon, John Michaels, the Mighty Tanaka featured artists and everyone else who has supported Tanaka during this transition. You all inspire me.”
Reginald Pean “Gentlemen of Leisure” (courtesy Mighty Tanaka)
When your van breaks down and dies en route to Florida from New York, you might get a little cranky and freaked out because you have 40 people’s art in the back and are somewhat behind schedule.
You haven’t met the Buxtons.
Ad Hoc and Eastern District are in Miami as BKMIA Thursday Through Sunday
Brooklyn gallerists Garrison and Alison from AdHoc found themselves at a U-Haul truck rental agency when it was obvious that fixing their jalopy wasn’t going to happen anytime soon.
“Yeah we’re definitely making some tangy lemonade out of the lemons we’ve been collecting,” says he.
With a show to mount and open in 2 days (Today) in Miami, they asked for a 14 foot or 18 foot truck but U-Haul was out of that size. So they upgraded to the 26 foot, which made the whole process of moving art a lot easier, and together they steered the MIGHTY BKMIA SHIP southward.
“We just got another beautiful space today”, says Garrison, now that they’ve arrived with a truck of Brooklyn Street Art in the land of orange groves and mobs of art-hungry models in stilettos. They are spreading out into their new giant space on 4141 Northeast 2nd Avenue, which is right across the street from their original space. They had a lot of people’s work with them, “Yeah there was no way it all was going to fit in the original space we had”
And the art itself? One of the first things to be unpacked was this badass sculpture.
UFO and Ryan Doyle at BKMIA (photo courtesy Ad Hoc)
This is an interactive kinetic piece by Ryan Doyle and UFO of 907 crew.
What’r YOU lookin’ at? (courtesy Ad Hoc)
According to the artists, it’s made of found objects and crafted using caveman spaceship technology. Amazingly similar to the squidlike image in the photo below, this sculpture is mechanized with two worm head, gear drive electric wheelchair motors, and is fully operational with a joystick. And yes, Martha, he does look like a writer (check out the fat marker in his tentacle).
Ad Hoc is partnering with Brooklyn neighbor Eastern District in a conceptual gallery called AE District to show off some of Brooklyn’s finest street artists, graff writers, and related contemporary artists in a 40+ name show. Names you might know like London Police and Gaia and Morning Breath will be joining talented newbies like NohJColey and Mario Brothers.
Empresario and street artist Celso has a sense of humor about most things, and street art in particular.
Without reading too much into it, it’s easy to understand how some of the hype surrounding the humongus Art Basel in Miami this week does tend to turn off the hot-headed anti-capitalist anti-consumerist anti-consumption anti-homogenization-of-everything-in-our culture-types in our midst.
Not that any of these artists are in that category, but it is pretty funny to learn that this one-day only art show ends with all the art being burned, and none of it added to your burgeoning street-art collection.
But Marge, what are they trying to say? While we prefer to create original content and not simply copy-and-paste, sometimes it just makes sense to take it directly from the press release >>
ART BURN: The Most Combustible Art Show in the World
International Contemporary Art Expo & Immolation
**To be held at LAS TIAS, 2834 N. Miami Ave., in Miami’s Wynwood District at sunset on Thursday, December 3rd, 2009***
(Miami, FL) — ART BURN, the most combustible art show in the world, will combine an international selection of original art with fire. Original works on canvas, wood and paper by a selection of more than three dozen international artists will be displayed and then flambeed in Miami on the evening of Thursday, December 3, 2009 at sunset. The exhibition/grilling, curated by NYC artist El Celso, will take place in the Wynwood Arts District, within walking distance of Miami’s lesser contemporary art fairs.
An exclusive selection of more than three dozen exceptional pieces by the hottest renowned artists and sizzling, cutting-edge newcomers will be displayed from 1pm until sundown. After the brief exhibition, all of these original works will be burned for the public’s viewing pleasure.Nothing is for sale.
We will be exhibiting and burning new works by:
Stikman
El Celso
Aurora Robson
infinity
Nick Fortunato
Skewville
Jayne Surrena
Darkcloud
Fabian Pena
Elbow-Toe
Rex Dingler
LA II
Royce Bannon
Leonardo Furtado (Brazil)
Rednose
Gore-B
Buildmore
Abe Lincoln Jr.
Cake
Paul Kostabi
Ellis-G
Jeannete Vidalia
2esae
Avoid Pi
Stefano Pasquini (Italy)
Keely
Destroy & Rebuild
Veng
F. Trainer
Ski
Joanne Mattera
Deeker
Sam Horine
Avone
Die Dose (Germany)
Billi Kid
Evelyn Metzger
Robots Will Kill
Adam Vincentz
Garrison Buxton (Peripheral Media Projects)
Michael DeFeo
James A. Willis
Dalva
Kristina Maria Lopez
Hargo
Ray Bradbury & very special guests TBA
You can even follow the events on Twitter at @elcelso and @cmonstah.
SPONSORS C-MONSTER.NET
The official media sponsor of the ART BURN VIP Lounge
HYPERALLERGIC
The official blogazine, critic and beer sponsor of ART BURN
BROOKLYN STREET ART
The official street art and corporate snack sponsor of ART BURN
A roster of 80 artists are participating in this years Primary Flight exhibition in Miami – which officially starts tonight. Last night preparations and discussions about the walls and the logistics began before the fans and otherwise curious folks show up.
In attendance in the empty lots and barren walls were Shepard Fairey, Kaws, and Ron English, each scoping out the size of their assignments.
A big pile of clamp lights in the empty lot augur some action for the cameras to come from Ron English
Shep will be smacking up a 200′ by 20′ tall wall, which seems pretty large. But what will he put there, that’s what I wanna know. Maybe it will be related to the pro-gay marriage “Love Unites” posters he did for a fundraiser last month.
Shepard Fairey makes a point with Kaws and an identified person.
Thanks to Logan Hicks for the pics!
And if you are there they have a totally fun and off the hooker opening with a couple people you may have heard of. Thanks but I just washed my hair…
Stencil artist C215 creates portraits of humanity; family, friends, and people who live on the street.
His clarity of detail and multi-lined visages can even give the impression that something more is employed than simple stencilling, but that’s why the word “master” enters the conversation sometimes when people discuss his work.
This street artist has shown in Brooklyn galleries as well as most of the world (most recently in Toronto), and he receives regular invitations to participate in exhibitions.
He’s also partial to running art workshops for local kids and counts Brazil, Morocco, even Senegal among the places he’s had the pleasure of playing art teacher. This love for kids is easy to see in the many depictions of nearly glowing children.
We don’t know when he is coming to New York, but we always know when he has been here.Suddenly these new faces are peering from the sides of dumpsters, doorways, and de-commisioned fire boxes.
His images are often portraits of fellow humans of all ages and genders. He captures his models’ character with compassion – You can almost feel the emotions of his models just by looking at their portraits: pain, sorrow, happiness, peace, longing and loneliness seep through the rivers of creases and wrinkles on their faces.
The intensity of gaze and the way in which he draws their eyes is a captivating invitation to go inside their souls and glimpse their lives. It can be difficult to draw yourself away from their piercing and sometimes furious gaze.
His portraits of children in particular are always inspiring and reassuring. With those images he manages to convey a sense of hope and innocence that we hope is no lost yet. By his own account, he makes a new stencil every week of his daughter to remind her that she is on his mind. In that way, every new stencil is really a snapshot.
The technique of using multiple pieces in one stencil means that he can achieve effects that few stencil artists do, and the details – facial hair, folds in fabric, wrinkles… all transcend the pedestrian act of cutting and spraying.
C215 is reported to makes stencils of people in the particular city he is visiting at that time. It is quite possible that some of these stencils are only found here in Brooklyn.
These images are just a few of C215’s work in Brooklyn as well as a couple of old pieces that have not yet been published here before. Hope you like looking at them.
This week photographer Vinny Cornelli shows us a few images from one spot in Gotham that gets hit with some regularity, and then destroyed and re-hit – and always visited by street art followers.
It’s entertaining how abandoned places on the street turn into a “venue” over time. Then, like Elton John taking residency at Ceasars Palace, one or two street artists seem to gravitate to the same spot again and again, nonplussed by the destruction of their last piece.
This spot on Crosby street has been a regular showcase for Haculla, a tripped out pop culture commentator and comedian who weaves criticism with private stories in bold splashes of fluorescence, black and white photos of celebs re-doctored, and thick marker freehand characters.
Of course it all gets piled on by others as part of the “conversation of the street”, and in these layers you can see Matt Siren, Cake, Feral, among others.
Cornelli pumps up the saturation to give the chaos a campy quality and lets the decrepitude dazzle.
orld’s Largest Street Art Mural Installation Expands for Art Basel Miami 2009
Miami-based Street Art collective Primary Flight today announced the addition of a gallery show, Blue Print for Space, that will take place in conjunction with its annual event in Miami’s Wynwood Art District during Art Basel Miami Beach. South Beach’s ArtCenter/South Florida will host the noteworthy event.
MIAMI, Florida – 31 August, 2009 –
After all the frenzied art enthusiasts have disappeared, and temporary exhibition sites have been dismantled, Miami residents are left with a lasting souvenir of the international art phenomenon under the umbrella called, “Art Basel.” Miami-based collective, Primary Flight, is responsible for the expanse of colorful concrete installations throughout the Wynwood Art District. The organization has succeeded in developing community and bequeathing the city of Miami with a priceless collection of Street Art.
Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has hosted site specific, street-level, outdoor mural and performance art projects in Miami’s Wynwood Art District during Art Basel each year. This global arts and community collective project combines an international selection of top galleries with an exciting program of street exhibitions, parties, and crossover events featuring music, film, architecture and design. Primary Flight’s annual event in Wynwood is the world’s largest, multi-site, street-level mural installation. In just three years, Primary Flight has grown quickly from 15 to over 100 artists, the majority of whom travel to Miami for Art Basel. Founders of the street, stencil, graffiti, and skate art movements headline the annual event. Artists collaborate on strategically located walls throughout the Wynwood Art District. Maps outlining the installation are circulated, providing patrons with an opportunity to view street works in process.
Notable participating artists have included Augor, Bask, Blek Le Rat, Boxi, David Choe, Crome, Cycle, Michael De Feo, Dare, Depoe, Dolla, Ellis G, El Mac, Ewok, Frerk, Logan Hicks, Andy Howell, Kofie, Lady Pink, The London Police, MSG, Kenton Parker, Retna, Revok, Reyes, Risk, Santiago Rubino, She Kills He, Chris Stain, TCP, Tes One, Typoe, WK Interact, Marc C. Woehr and Agustina Woodgate. Primary Flight is a launch pad for some Street Artists, and a homecoming for others, such as Shephard Fairey and Ron English, both of whom transitioned from Street Art to the Fine Art arena.
Shepard Fairey comments, “There is an immense pool of talent that travels to Miami for the art fairs and many of them prefer to share their work with a broad audience on the street. The Primary Flight project is an ambitious endeavor to allow artists to create murals on sanctioned street spots. I was fortunate enough to be provided with a great wall near the Scope show and I not only received great feedback about my mural during the art fair, but continuously ever since. With the recent increased interest in street art from the fine art world, it is great that Primary Flight has created a program to legitimize and broaden the audience of Street Art.”
The 2009 edition of Primary Flight is sponsored in part by Miami’s Margulies Collection. Curator Katherine Hinds said, “Primary Flight brings a dynamic and exciting dimension to the Miami art scene and we are very pleased to serve as one of the sites for this year’s Street Art installations. Many Contemporary artists have drawn on the urban landscape Primary Flight for subject and inspiration, Basquiat, Walker Evans, Barry Mcgee to name a few. The artists in Primary Flight add a new voice to the urban genre in a big bang of painting, poetry and pavement.”
This year, Primary Flight broadens its reach with the addition of Blue Print For Space, a collection of contemporary Street Artists and Graffiti Writers, hosted by ArtCenter/South Florida. The art exhibition that complements to the Wynwood installation will showcase over 25 of today’s most active and unique street artists. Blue Print For Space proposes that these “Street” artists’ works are not just thought provoking or visually pleasing, but are also the voice of a contemporary generation.
During Art Basel, ArtCenter/South Florida will serve as the venue and co-organizer for a gala opening, panel discussions, book signings, private viewings and additional collaboration for artists. Event sponsors include MTV Latin America, The Margulies Collection, Majestic Properties, Lombardi Properties
and Miami Spaces.
Primary Flight founder, BooksIIII, commented, “The Street Art movement has become a standard, reaching out to almost every city across the globe, empowering any person with an interest to ‘get up’ in the street with an unofficial license to do so. This year’s exhibition at ArtCenter/South Florida will be a transition from the street to the gallery, but will nonetheless maintain the same edge and voice that wails in the street each and every time we go to sleep.” Through this annual project, Primary Flight provides a basis for dialogue and interaction among a diverse group of social players: world-renowned artists, property owners, gallerists, collectors and community residents. The unique and exciting Street Art that is left behind has become a Miami attraction, providing a destination for tourists, film crews, fashion photographer and art lovers.
ABOUT PRIMARY FLIGHT :
Primary Flight is a collaborative curatorial organization dedicated to the production of site-specific, street level, mural installations. Since its inception in 2007, Primary Flight has brought together over 100 of the world’s most influential Street Artists to install their bodies of work live in the streets of Wynwood. These projects provide a catalyst for burgeoning arts communities. Two books about Primary Flight events are scheduled to be released in the summer and winter of 2009, through Ginko Press Publishing.
ABOUT ART/CENTER SOUTH FLORIDA: Established in 1984, ArtCenter/South Florida (located at 800, 810 and 924 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach) is a non-profit 501(C)(3) organization that provides subsidized studio and exhibition space as well as teaching opportunities for emerging and career artists in their facilities at 800, 810 and 924 Lincoln Road, Miami Beach. The mission of the ArtCenter is to advance the knowledge and practice of contemporary visual arts and culture in South Florida while providing affordable programming and work-space for professional artists. ArtCenter/South Florida is open Monday through Thursday from 11:00 a.m. until 10:00 p.m. and Friday through Sunday from 11:00 a.m. until 11:00 p.m. For further information please call 305.674.8278 or visit the website at www.artcentersf.org.
Contact:
PRIMARY FLIGHT: BLUE PRINT FOR SPACE @ ArtCenter/South Florida:
Therry Norton / Dejha Carrington
Phone: 954.609.6496 Phone: 305.751.9641
e-mail: pr@primaryflight.com e-mail: dejha@treskoipr.com
Somewhere between drawing the drapes and playing “I’m a little teapot”, Emma’s hair began to grow and curl like a Victorian furniture, causing her head to become heavy. (Imminent Disaster) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Imminent Disaster (detail) (photo Jaime Rojo)
OverUnder (photo Jaime Rojo)
Thanks to nanotechnology, soldiers can be shrunken and posted in fairly well hidden locations (General Howe) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Okay, everybody push your chair away and stand up from the Thanksgiving table and reach for the ceiling with me. One, two, three, streeeeeeetch! (Elbow Toe) (photo Jaime Rojo)
The Doe Fund in Williamsburg, Brooklyn is feeding 500 people for Thanksgiving. This organization helps the people in our community who have fallen to get back on their feet. Here’s a link for donations. http://www.doe.org/donations/
Hope you enjoy this video of one of our favorite songs by some of our favorite artists!
Featuring The London Police and Galo Show Opens Thursday, December 10, 7-10pm
This December, Factory Fresh pulls out all the stops as we welcome The London Police and Galo as they return to New York to celebrate more than a decade in the game.
Known for their iconic characters collectively these artist work have respectively graced streets and galleries in 35 countries and have been feature in numerous publications throughout the globe. The artists will be showcasing new canvas, featured films of the artist and installation works created site specifically for Factory Fresh.
Show Runs till January 10, 2010.
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For more info on Factory Fresh and it’s upcoming shows go to www.factoryfresh.net or email info@factoryfresh.net
“The Workhorse” gallops through Brooklyn and Sets Another Record
Stencil artist Logan Hicks completed his largest stencil to date today on the streets of Brooklyn. Then he posed for a few photos and ran off to his next art gig.
Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
As he goes he leaves in his wake a 30′ x 8′ mural dedicated to somebody that keeps Logan’s horse power pumping at full speed, titled simply “Sailor”.
Fresh from his trip to Toronto for a show with another modern stencil master C215 and just before heading to Miami for Primary Flight to do the world’s largest site-specific street level mural with artists like D*Face, Shepard Fairey, Chris Stain, and the London Police, Logan Hicks gave his biggest present to his current hometown of Brooklyn and to his family.
Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
Moving away from subject matter involving city canyons, tunnels and teaming crowds that he has been closely identified with over the last couple of years, Hicks has been feeling lately like it is time for him to concentrate on the stuff that really matters to him. Family, art, sanity.
Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
The 5-layered piece required about 150 stencil plates to execute, and we watched what a logistical bad dream can ensue just laying out all the pieces on the sidewalk and following the plan. Not to mention how wind can whip those well placed plates down the sidewalk toward the East River.
Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
Curated by Brooklyn Street Art for Espeis Outside, this mural is a hot blast of Logan Red to take us through the impending winter holidays and into the new year. Not that the burly plain-talking-force-of-nature stencil master has any plans for 2010.
Unless you count the shows he’s scheduled to do in Hong Kong, Paris, Gambia, London, Rome, Vienna, Miami and of course The People’s Republic of Brooklyn (at the Opera Gallery).
“Next year is going to be a little nuts. So basically I am not going to sleep until 2011. I keep telling myself that this is the life that I asked for. The stress gets to be a little much, but I think I secretly like it.”
Logan is pretty psyched to be working in what he calls “vector-based” stenciling, and his process is quite complex, even when planning a portrait of a boy with a toy train (photo Jaime Roj0)
Adding a layer, Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art was really happy to hang out with hard-charging but surprisingly somewhat normal Hicks for a couple days this weekend, even helping out with a paint brush once in a while. The sun was pretty bright although it’s duration brief, and the wind did keep everybody humble – but the continuous racket of skateboarders in this industrial neighborhood kept the pace of work lively. Below is an interview where Logan let’s us know what the story is behind the piece he debuted here.
Yep, Brooklyn is part of the Empire State. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Your earlier subject matter tended toward architecture and large anonymous crowds on the street. More recently you have become more personal in your work. Where did you get the inspiration for this piece?
Logan Hicks: My son – Sailor Hicks, and watching him grow. The funny thing about time is that you don’t realize how fast it is passing until you have a kid to remind you. Each day my son grows, and although I love watching him sprout up, it reminds me of how quickly time is passing. Because I communicate with so many friends through email, I don’t normally realize that so many months have gone by when I see them in the flesh. Now though, when I see someone, I can take note “I haven’t seen you since Sailor started walking” or “I haven’t seen you since he started talking”. It really punctuates how quickly things go by.
Logan Hicks putting the black frame on to finish the piece (photo Jaime Rojo)
So watching him, it has made me reflect on my life. Made me thing about how much I am changing. Not so much in the physical aspect, but mentally. Striving to refine my craft. Striving to sustain stability. Striving to be a good parent. All this makes me want to be a better person. I look at myself 6 years ago, and I don’t even recognize that guy any more. So with this mural, I just think of it as a quick snapshot of my life. It give me a chance to pause and appreciate my life as it exists now.
Father and son. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art:Does Sailor know he’s going to be immortalized?
Logan Hicks: No, but I don’t think he’s too pressed to take note of anything other than trains, letters, toys, and cars. I wouldn’t have it any other way. One of my reasons for doing this piece is because of an early conversation I had with C215. When I first met C215 I noticed that he kept doing a stencil of this one girl. I asked him who it was and why he kept doing stencils of her. His response floored me. He said that it was his daughter. He didn’t have full custody of his daughter and didn’t get to see her as often as he would like. He said he did at least one stencil a week of her because he didn’t want her to ever think that he forgets about her. That punched a hole in my heart. It was the most brutally honest comment that he could have said. I was amazed that he opened his life up so quickly and said something that was so personal. I guess for me I have always been a bit guarded. The older I get though, the more I realize that I’d be better if i shared more, instead of trying to protect it.
Logan Hicks with the original illustration he did taped to the mural (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art:How can an artist put something so personal out in the public?
Logan Hicks: How can an artist NOT put something that is personal? For so long I feel like I have been striving to hone the craft of using stencils. I have worked on the technical side of things and I feel like in the past year or two I have, for the most part, conquered that. So now the question becomes, not how you make it, but what you make with it. For me. I feel like I have started back at square one. I have started to speak about what is most personal to me. I am tired of trying to be witty or technical or vague.
I am trying to filter out all the background noise in my life and make my art. All the haters, all the fans, all the blogs or magazines, or other artists. I think it’s gotten to a point where the best thing that I can do is just retreat into myself and speak honestly about what I am going through. For so long I have worked to gather information. Information about galleries, artists, processes, blogs, magazines, curators, etc. Lately I realized though that none of it matters. The only thing that matters is the here and now. The only thing that matters is what I am going through.
Brooklyn Street Art:How many layers are involved in this stencil?
Logan Hicks: There are 7 colors, but only 5 layers of stencils.
Brooklyn Street Art:What are some of your goals as an artist who works on the street sometimes? Logan Hicks: Just to do a good job
Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art:Does Sailor know he’s going to be immortalized? Logan Hicks: No, but I don’t think he’s too pressed to take note of anything other than trains, letters, toys, and cars. I wouldn’t have it any other way. One of my reasons for doing this piece is because of an early conversation I had with C215. When I first met C215 I noticed that he kept doing a stencil of this one girl. I asked him who it was and why he kept doing stencils of her. His response floored me. He said that it was his daughter. He didn’t have full custody of his daughter and didn’t get to see her as often as he would like. He said he did at least one stencil a week of her because he didn’t want her to ever think that he forgets about her. That punched a hole in my heart. It was the most brutally honest comment that he could have said. I was amazed that he opened his life up so quickly and said something that was so personal. I guess for me I have always been a bit guarded. The older I get though, the more I realize that I’d be better if I shared more, instead of trying to protect it.
It’s an artist’s tradition to use their own life for inspiration. (photo Logan Hicks)
Brooklyn Street Art:How can an artist put something so personal out in the public? Logan Hicks: How can an artist NOT put something that is personal? For so long I feel like I have been striving to hone the craft of using stencils. I have worked on the technical side of things and I feel like in the past year or two I have, for the most part, conquered that. So now the question becomes, not how you make it, but what you make with it. For me. I feel like I have started back at square one. I have started to speak about what is most personal to me. I am tired of trying to be witty or technical or vague.
I am trying to filter out all the background noise in my life and make my art. All the haters, all the fans, all the blogs or magazines, or other artists. I think it’s gotten to a point where the best thing that I can do is just retreat into myself and speak honestly about what I am going through. For so long I have worked to gather information. Information about galleries, artists, processes, blogs, magazines, curators, etc. Lately i realized though that none of it matters. The only thing that matters is the here and now. The only thing that matters is what I am going through.
Writing the dedication (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art:How many layers are involved in this stencil? Logan Hicks: There are 7 colors, but only 5 layers of stencils.
Brooklyn Street Art:What are some of your goals as an artist who works on the street sometimes? Logan Hicks: Just to do a good job
“Sailor”, by Logan Hicks (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art:How important is risk-taking in art?
Logan Hicks: Guess it depends on how you define risk. For me I just want to feel like i have accomplished something. I want to feel that i have done a service to my craft. to my trade. I want to feel that I have spoken honestly about my work, and done the best that i can. One of my favorite quotes is by Paul Rand, who designed the logos for companies like IBM, ABC, UPS, Westinghouse even Enron. He said “Don’t try to be original. Just try to be good.” That’s a motto that I have sort of lived by. I just try to do a good job. If that means that there is risk involved, so be it, but I don’t search out risk. It’s the sort of thing that you drive by on your way to the final destination.
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Check out the time-lapse we did with Mr. Hicks – and at the end you’ll see the Sailor himself in action with his train.
So if you need to confess to an eating disorder or that you were molested by the mailman or if you have a book on self-empowerment for toads, you better call your P.R. agent and get yourself booked because in 2012 the world as we know it simply ends.
I saw the entire story from multiple perspectives on CNN today in the dentists’ waiting room as I counted the minutes till my wisdom tooth was scheduled to be yanked (OOOWWWWW).
Incidentally CNN had a little story about the US Senate debating the passage of the largest federal program in United States history. That 90 second story was sandwiched in between Oprah graphics and and heated conjecture about what the future without Oprah would look like.
And now it’s time for FUN FRIDAY!
WK Turns His Opening Into a Perp Walk
At his recent opening at Subliminal Projects in Los Angeles, 200 people were arrested.
He’s such a blast, isn’t he?
Usually at an art opening the artist is (A.) lingering around the gallery uncomfortably answering questions about the work, posing for a picture in front of it, collecting phone numbers of groupies. Unless you are the shy type, in which case (B.) you are huddling in the back office taking nips out of a flask, doodling on the desk calendar, and waiting till the gallery starts turning out lights.
Recently apprehended art fan flattened against the wall and photographed by WK.
OPTION (C.), if you are WK Interact, is you think of almost everything as performance art, and every person as part of an installation. Then at YOUR opening you criminalize any willing participant and arrest them and put them through some playful militaristic institutional dehumanizing.
After finger printing there are some forms to fill out.
“I was really impressed by the turn-out and the audience enthusiasm to partake and let me ‘book’ them. Almost 200 people [about half the audience] waited in line to be fingerprinted and have their mug shot taken, incorporating another sense into the interactive experience: touch. It’s not often I get to be that intimate with the viewers, who actually became a part of the show through their participation and who are now part of the installation that hangs in the gallery for the duration of the show,” said WK.
Who knew jail could be so much fun? “I simply did a mug shot that night and I let the crowd be part of my show.”
The artist posed in costume and ran the guests through the penal mill with dry wit and gentle but firm authority. According to attendees, at first the experience was disconcerting, then funny, then funnier (that could have been the wine). WK himself at first tried to keep a mean-looking demeanor but clearly was having too much fun. This is why I always meet him in a public cafe, preferably with a bodyguard around the corner.
After booking, the criminal records were posted as a public safety measure.
Brooklyn Street Art asked WK what was the procedure for processing the criminals in attendance:
“I simply did a mug shot that night and I let the crowd be part of my show. Then I put their arrest record on the wall ….. each one was finger printed and I Polaroid-ed them. I ask them their age and height in a typical arresting scenario. I recreated a desk at the entrance,” he recounted with satisfaction. And what was the reaction of the gallery guests? “The crowd was very enthusiastic!,” he reports. And for the officer on duty? “It was busy night of 4 hours’ work.”
His firearm was how big?
I’m not sure if there will be more audience interaction and role playing at WK’s next opening, but for this group, it was certainly captivating.
The arresting officer with guests.
Thank you to WK Interactive for these photos.
HERE is a good video to further describe the criminal records theory.
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
