Graff started on the street, I think. Street art started in the studio.
Main difference. That was easy, right?
Now graff keeps going into the studio, the gallery, the museum. And now we are watching as fine art, or some approximation of it, is continuallly leaving the home studio (kitchen table), gallery, collective, etc. and flooding the streets. The explosion of street art is having it’s effect and the opinions it produces are as varied as, um, people. The point is that the veil has been punctured, and the creative spirit is not willingly being confined today. Everything and everyone is becoming a hybrid.
Last weekend in a neighborhood in Brooklyn that’s home to a lot of variety at the moment – Bushwick – a three day Bushwick Open Studios event took place, featuring over 200 open studios, live music, parties, workshops, panels, student art shows, puppet shows, the whole enchilada. Don’t worry, it’s not all high-minded, or necessarily thought provoking. It’s just an indication of where we are moving. It’s impossible to see everything so you just have to pick and choose a few of your favorites and see which way the slimey wind leads you.
Started off at “2012” the new show at Factory Fresh featuring the work of graff/street art youth – the place was pretty young and sweaty and full of excitement, and parts of the inside looked like it could have been outside – plywood, tags, partial messages, and organized chaos. Sorry for the crappy pics from the phone, but you get the idea.
A wall of 9"x9" pieces by Faro, Bloke, and Avoid. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Faro, UFO, others that you may know at "2012" at Factory Fresh (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Bad Kids, Erotic Kids, Charles Barkley, Krink markers (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A is for Apple, Abbreviation, Aiko, Anarchist, Arriviste, Artist? In this case, probably it's for Avoid (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Then Kings County Bar also hosted a show that night for ELC and their new collaborations, which were kind of hard to see because it was, uh, a dark bar. Also there were other gyrating distractions that may have taken patron’s focus off their art show. Included in the show were Royce Bannon, Anera, Infinity, Celso, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ad Deville, Dark Clouds, and Matt Siren.
A quick way to cut through a crowded bar is to tiptoe across the top of it. (photo (cc) Hrag Vartanian)
Following a rainy Friday, the rest of weekend was nice. In fact, a new Bishop 203 appeared out of nowhere on this abandoned building, like an urban flower.
Bishop 203 with a black heart (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Pocket Utopia had it’s last show this weekend, featuring a 16 foot tall fiberglass monster that dispensed beer in the back yard, a performance by artist/musician/dynamo Andrew Hurst in the basement that was viewable through a hole drilled in the floor, and this large scary portrait by Kevin Regan. You might recognize the revolutionary jowls. It’s not street art, per se, but certainly we’ve seen this king of photographic mutation on the street in the work of MBW, Judith Supine, Dain, Bast, and others.
Kevin Regan at Pocket Utopia (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Speaking of Judith Supine, English Kills was showing a large piece by said street artist called “God of Mars” Chris Harding, visionary owner of the space, explained that this is the biggest canvas Supine has ever done, and that numerology figured into it’s actual dimensions to bring good luck to the piece.
Chris points out a detail on the Judith Supine piece (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Large new canvas by Judith Supine (courtesy English Kills)
Later, after too many beers, we stumbled into a salon of 20-something Illinois settlers (Illinois in the House!), a true sign of the everchanging makeup of the music and art scene. An appreciate audience of 50+ people were spread out over salvaged furniture (and one in a bathtub) to listen to old timey folk inspired singers and bands.
Rockin the autoharp, which is slightly older than wearing trucker caps (photo Steven P. Harrington)
While thumping house music from down the block and the occasional police siren wafted in the cracked 4th floor factory windows, singer-songwriters plucked on autoharp, glockenspiel, electric guitar, and a variety of hand held percussion instruments. The really remarkable part was the lack of manic cell-phone snapping, texting, or Twittering among such an assembled group of youthful beauty during the performances. They appeared to be paying attention. Is that even POSSIBLE? Maybe this was a movie set. Or maybe Illinois artist-peeps are just more respectful. I was going to try to get through this paragraph without mentioning Sufjan Stevens, but there, I’ve said it. Baahhhhhhhhhh!
The tunes were folky and relationship-centric, but she did say "f*ck" a few times in one song, so that's what gives it the edge. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
So there you have it, one shard of a giant shattered crystal mirror that is Bushwick. The torch is passed again to a new generation of weirdos and misfits to develop beauty. Since most of the real estate developers are trying to hatch their stalled projects in Billyburg and lure in more “consumers”, maybe the recession has bought some time and the multi-feathered flock of “creatives” will continue to fly here for a while. That way the nests will stay affordable, and the space aplenty.
The art on the street, naturally, has plenty to say on these and other matters…
Choosing a moniker after the Greek goddess of the earth, Gaia uses animals, folklore, fairytales and stories from other cultures to convey a narrative within his pieces. Having first been exposed to street art by Cheekz, Gaia’s awareness of street art came as a truly momentous direction for his artistic endeavors. Gaia continues to experiment with different processes as he brings his works to the galleries and the streets of NYC and beyond.
Imminent Disaster first started doing street art as a way of culture jamming. Since then she has gradually been developing pieces that explore the tensions between present day and historical New York. From bits of cobblestone and defunct tramlines to old warehouses gutted and resold as hip condos, Imminent Disaster turns a classical eye toward modern urban life, and reveals what has been lost.
When we talk about street art, graff, fine art, high art, low-brow art, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich art, it’s all about the CREATIVE SPIRIT. Like an orgasm, pretty much whatever it takes to access it, people are best served by tapping into the creative spirit.
Here’s a threesome everyone can enjoy – Swoon, Chris Stain, and the Poloroid Kid.
So, when two artists do it together, it’s a collabo, right?
(That’s a fancy abbreviation for collaboration, for those of us who are sequestered on the inside of coolness.)
And when one artist smacks their stuff over top of another artist’s piece, that is a sign of disrespect right? Diss.
How about when one artist deliberately puts a piece on top of the work of another artist and subsequently a NEW piece of art is created by it? Serendipity?
Who the heck knows these things? And who the heck put this Audrey Hepburn head on top of a 19th century “call-girl” body by the artist Imminent Disaster?
Breakfast at Disaster (photo Steven P. Harrington)
It sort of looks good though, right? This stuff can only happen on the street, by the way – where the rules seem to be rather unruly, and completely ineffective anyway. As soon as you try to write a definitive statement about the rules of the street, you will suffer street-hotdog heartburn. Don’t even.
Now that I mention it, did you see the arrows on that Bacon piece?
"A Piece of Wasteland" by Francis Bacon
Holy Canoli! Do you see what I see?
Do you think street artist Jef Aerosol went to see the show and smacked it up with some of those red arrows when the security guard was eyeballing the Miss Cataract’s 8th Grade Art Appreciation Field Trip? He seems pretty sneaky.
Probably not, but that would be a new twist wouldn’t it?
Francis Bacon has been dead for a while, so if somebody started doing their art on top of his art, that would be kind of like Natalie Cole doing a duet with her father Nat King Cole on that record, “Unforgettable”. As long as it’s a “tribute” can it really be called “desecration”? It’s rumored that on Frank Sinatra’s final “Duets” album he didn’t even sing with half of his other halfs. They just sang by themselves and mailed his studio a disk. Two alive artists making art together, separately.
And let’s not even talk about Jim Morrison’s grave.
Back to the “Breakfast at Disaster” piece at the top. Is this fine art? Street Art? Street Art 3.0? Non-permission-based Art, Hybrid, Mashup, Sampling, Bootleg, Marbled Bundt Cake Art?
Damn, son, somebody better get some labels up in here!
Fitful growths of irregularity (Pork) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Less boxy, more planular (I made up that word), Mr. Nihalani is experimenting with new abstractions. (Aakash Nihalani) (photo Jaime Rojo)
On the lookout for incoming battalions of duncery approaching in their cargo shorts and Abercrombie t-shirts (General Howe) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Hey everybody! Come look at this new Jack Black movie! I won't bite, promise (Hellbent) (photo Jaime Rojo)
A needed Herakut (photo Jaime Rojo)
Boy, the way Glenn Miller played.... (KH1) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Its a Revolution! (Nine Flies) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Nomade keeps good company (photo Jaime Rojo)
Roof Pork (Pork) (Photo Jaime Rojo)
Which way? I'm always getting lost in this part of town. (Space Invader) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Sexy Blossoms of Wisteria only this time of year (photo Jaime Rojo)
Akash Nihalani, Poster Boy, and Passenger Pigeon become far out and psychedelic (photo Jaime Rojo)
Welcome back to the hideout (Dain) (photo Jaime Rojo)
These beer-swilling men, they're all flat and grey to me. I need someone with excitement, know what I mean? (EllisG, Leif Mcllwaine) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Shark Toof flies the friendly skies (photo Jaime Rojo)
Sometimes we have no idea what is on the wall. One of the many mysteries of the street art scene. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Tiny Bubbles in the Wine, Make Me Feel Happy, Make Me Feel Fine…
Pop!
It’s been a rapacious slide down this economic razorblade this past year, and despite the momentary uptick in “the numbers on the Street”, no one is saying we have hit the bottom yet. Also what they are not saying, the hyper “experts” (with flying motion graphics, props, and multiple camera angles) is that the banks are the only ones doing fine (thanks to your taxes), while you lose your job, your house, your health insurance, your teeth, your wig, your favorite hanky, your reputation, your girlfriend, and finally, your mind.
Um, not to burst anyone’s bubble. So far, the streets are still open to public discourse:
Free Free, set them Free (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Art:21 recently featured an insightful interview by Hrag Vartanian with the artist (or artist consortium, as the case may be) who have been smacking up ironic phrases in bloated shapes and 1980’s fonts all over the Lower East Side/Chinatown part of Manhattan, and now in parts of Brooklyn:
Hrag Vartanian: Is there something specific, other than the obvious economic meltdown, that triggered the EnjoyBanking campaign?
EnjoyBanking: You are partially correct—the financial meltdown is a direct catalyst for the campaign. However, the true heart of the campaign lies in responding to an underlying cause of the collapse: misinformation. Read the full interview here
Bushwick Open Studios is this weekend, and of course that means that in between scattered studio visits and avant garde performances you will have to go to bars in the ‘hood to soak up that local D.I.Y. flavor. Conveniently, there will be art there too.
Not to be confused with the Kings County Bar Association, the name of the bar is Kings County (so is the county by the way) and the ever morphing roster for this round of ELC mayhem is: RoyceBannon, Anera, infinity, Celso, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ad Deville, Matt Siren, and Dark Clouds.
Brooklyn Street Art:What themes have you been working with?
Royce Bannon: The theme is ELC on a smaller scale, collabos, transmissions, hot chicks, and monsters
Brooklyn Street Art:Who has more fun? Monsters or voluptuous babes?
Royce Bannon: I think that when you combine monsters and voluptuous babes the only outcome is fun… its been proven.
Brooklyn Street Art:Will you be serving cheap shots?
Royce Bannon: Shots are cheap.
New piece by Matt Siren and Royce Bannon (photo courtesy ELC)
Oh, it’s all good fun! Piles of tires on fire, people running in the streets, acts of desperation, pestilence, unending video surveillance; This is one vision of 2012 we hear these days.
Avoid, Bloke, and Faro have been holed up inside Factory Fresh building a destroyed urban scene in the front room for about three weeks to warn us of the impending cavalcade of calamity headed our way in only 3 short years.
And they haven’t been doing it alone. Ask the Factory Fresh interns, the woodworking engineer Garrett, or the curator and producer of the show Alex Emmert, “We are all working together on this. We are all learning from each other at all times.” In short, to create an end-of-times societal and environmental meltdown, you need everyone to collaborate.
Start placing your bets, neighbors, because you know it is definitely coming – the end of civilization as we know it. The end of civilization has been of course predicted for most of human civilization – Everyone from the Montanists to Nostradamus, Hippolytus to Pope Innocent III, to Jim and Tammy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Jerry Falwell; they have all claimed to have the inside special knowledge revealed only to a select few.
The year 2012 is being gazed upon by prophets and prognosticators as the next possible sunset to civilization and/or spiritual awakening. At your fingertips on the WWW is a swirling bubbling caldron of relevant indicators and evidence of this ominous date where a few of the worlds major religious belief systems and the Mayan Calendar neatly dovetail.
It’s not really clear whether Avoid, Bloke and Faro really believe that there will be a calamity that marks the end of civilization in 2012, or if they are just reacting to the ever-increasing pressures of economic insecurity, loss of personal liberties, and the threats of war and strife that exist in the modern world. If you are in the right audience and living under the right conditions, you may be convinced that it is very near the end of the world, and who could blame you?
“On the Eve of Armageddon : an Account of the Scriptural Teaching Relating to the War Among the Nations Which Will Engulf Civilization, and Immediately Precede the Universal and Eternal Kingdom of Peace.”, Haynes, Carlyle Boynton. Washington: Review and Herald Pub. Association, 1946.
Yo, What’s Good?
I clearly remember sitting on a hardwood church pew while a tall bearded Charismatic Pentacostal dude stood in front of an audience of 300 and revealed to the hushed and horrified crowd that the seven year “Tribulation” would begin in 1981 (as per messages from God that had been revealed to him and other elders of the church). Across the congregation, people’s knees weakened and stomachs grew nauseous with fear and hands jolted into the air, and voices raised in exultation and praise. At that moment, you could have convinced that crowd to impale live babies with spears or eat at Olive Garden or even vote for a B-list Hollywood actor to dismantle the middle class, so strong was the power of prophecy and fear. Thankfully, those days are safely behind us and people don’t use fear to manipulate crowds anymore.
Oh sure, NOW you tell us!! New Hampshire Street Art! (Mark at Nozell.com)
But here we are and “2012” is nearly upon us. As you walk into the main gallery space you will be greeted by a burning city of plywood. Although it may be hard to be too frightened when the ominous clouds are in fact fluffy, and the licking fire that engulfs the cityscape reminds you of PeeWee Herman playtimes. Even the surveillance cameras are swervy and playful. “Yeah, we wanted it to be kind of ‘Adult Swim’, kind of absurd”, explains Faro.
Alex holds the clouds, that’s how powerful he is. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Signs are painted brightly with a loose hand, and are covered with mixed symbols from scientific, religious, and graff influence. Avoid springs avidly over to the corner booth where a video will be visible through a rectangular viewer, and describes that visitors will see scenes of, “chaos, car crashes, people jumping off bridges”. As they happily describe the scene of urban apocalypse you could get the idea that “evil” might actually sport a tail and some pointy horns.
Letter and Symbols for the future (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Alex Emmert explains the concept of the room, “My background is in exhibition design, I have a Masters degree in Museum Studies and I focus on exhibition design. So I’ve been wanting to have the freedom to put together an art show that uses some of the things I’ve learned as well as the ideas of the artists so that we can all kind of work together. It’s better than just having me be the curator.”
Avoid agrees that Alex is a real teammate, “You can do some things a lot better than we can. Otherwise, this show would just be some cardboard!”
“I think if Alex wasn’t willing to do this then none of this would have turned out,” says Faro
The scene in the gallery last weekend. A lot of building yet to do. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Beyond the opening stage-setting scene room is a gallery where the three artists, variously from graffiti and street art backgrounds, display a series of smallish (9” square) wooden canvasses that spell out their tentative entry into the hallowed halls of fine art.
Hovercrafting into the future (Bloke) (photo by Steven P. Harrington)
Bloke presents a series of variations on his submarine-dirigibles in whimsical line-drawn variations. Each one is afloat, and looks like it could crash were it not for powerful propulsion mechanisms at work.
Avoid being recorded in front of his wall (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Stopping mid-circle to show his stuff, Avoid quickly shuffles through hand-painted Superman 3-D text-based gold leaf slogans; ringing ironic bells of recognition or standing quizzically on your tongue. Faro, with an illustrator’s hand, renders symbols and patterns with precision and lyric.
Each artist takes a crack at a larger scale canvas (40”x 60”), and that’s when their differences break out and the personal voice gets stronger. The backyard cinder block walls make their individual focuses even clearer. Collectively, it’s a multi-headed monster with many messages and developing storylines.
A pile of tentacles waiting to be installed (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: Has Alex been directing you guys?
Faro: Yeah, I mean, he just got it.
Alex: Then we also brought in this guy named Garrett Wohnrade who is one of my business partner Caleb’s old friends, who is a wood worker and he just has been knocking sh*t out. Garrett has really embraced this project and it has given him the opportunity to show what he’s up to.
Avoid: His knowledge structurally of how things work is great … I mean this is a large structure we are building.
Faro: Yeah, actually I learned that some people can do certain things like sawing wood, that I cannot do. I’ve learned to stick to what I do, do what I do good. I paint and I draw.
Studio inspiration; Hawthorn & Black Angels on vinyl, Egyptian Art History for symbols and history of Alexandria for architecture (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Alex: This show gives us a chance to provide something that is real, something that is authentic. It’s not “street art”. It’s not grafitti. It’s fine art from artists otherwise known as a grafitti artist or street artist. That’s what makes it so special, you know, it’s like this is the fine art aspect of that rebellious side.
Brooklyn Street Art: So you are presenting both graff and street art in the show as part of a continuum…
Avoid: In some ways we are presenting neither as well, because it’s not on the street, it’s not grafitti. It’s the fine arts presentation of artists that also do graffiti and if you want to call it street art you can. “Street Art” is a label, I think, that was made to sell a product. And that is fine, if you want to do that.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s probably worthwhile to try to differentiate between one type of expression so that people can understand what you are speaking about in a conversation. If you say “graff” then something specific pops into your mind. You say “street art” and you think “that could be a number of different things”.
Faro: That’s true.
Alex: I don’t know, I just feel like New York City has been in some ways years behind the rest of the world in terms of “Street Art” and graffiti. Because it seems like everybody else has just been meshing the two cultures. – You’ve got that in Barcelona, Tokyo, in Brazil. But New York City has this traditional graffiti culture and we can pay respect where respect is due, and that’s awesome. But something needs to happen to bring NYC on par with the whole resurgence and renaissance that is going on in the rest of the world. And that is what this show represents, it’s the culmination of street art and graffiti, regardless of what they mean externally to many people. We want to expand together.
Vision of Avoid (detail) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Avoid: You approach each letter separately and you also approach the way that they relate to the next letter, and the balance of the overall piece, like in traditional graffiti. But also, each day I wake up and I feel different so I come up and take a different approach.
Brooklyn Street Art: Faro, do you feel different every day when you wake up to make stuff?
Detail of Faro’s big piece (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Faro: It’s phases for me. The way I look at my stuff is that it should somehow all make sense. And that’s how I draw and how I do everything. Somehow it has to all make sense, for me at least.
I do not care what you think of my artwork. You can call it graffiti, street art, call it whatever the hell you want. I’m just doing for myself and I just love it, I enjoy it, I like it, it’s just like my hobby, it’s what I do. What else am I going to do? Go steal something? Rob people, be a gangsta? No. I don’t want to be a gangster. I’d rather just sit and draw and stuff. And ride my bike. And I also meet a lot of people through it.
Wizardry with Symbols, shy Faro (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: What about the collaborative process you’ve experienced with these guys?
Faro: Beautiful. It opens my eyes to a lot more things, you know what I mean? I wasn’t really into abstract until I started seeing Avoid’s artwork, more and more. And I just understood it now for the first time.
Thanks to the “2012” team for taking a minute out of the preparations for this show, an undertaking they are taking quite seriously. These may be the “end days” and that is one of the themes expressed in this show. But from the excitement and industry, the volley of ideas and the spirit of collaboration surrounding this beehive at Factory Fresh, you may also see that these are the beginning days, days of promise and discovery when you can witness these artists finding new ways to express the creative spirit, even as they build a scene of destruction.
Address: Carmichael Gallery / 1257 N. La Brea Ave / West Hollywood CA 90038
On Thursday, July 9 Carmichael Gallery will play host to The A – Z of Change, the debut LA solo exhibition of Eine. Internationally recognized for his super-sized lettering in urban areas, Eine will unveil a new body of works on canvas that combines his trademark typeface, a vivid color palette and provocative imagery to powerful effect.
Vandal, graffiti writer, street artist, fine artist, Eine has over twenty years experience of drawing a crowd. The former master printer at UK publishing house Pictures On Walls takes deceptively simple typography to a new level with iconic lettering which graces storefront shutters and city walls throughout the world.
Eine has enjoyed successful group and solo shows at galleries throughout London, Scandinavia and the US and has participated in numerous art events and festivals, including Santa’s Ghetto (2004-2007) and Nuart (2007). His work has been featured in numerous books, magazines and other publications. Eine most recently entered the Guinness Book of World Records for hand-pulling the most colors (78) in a silk-screen print.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
