So many stimulating high minded community-based projects are afoot these days,
as Brooklyn street artists continue to draw our attention to matters more pressing than, say, topless Miss California or the latest Tom Hanks tanker.
Stay tooned for a grand opening of a summer-long project in deep Bushwick that will raise consciousness and get you in the greens. See below the very industrious and stylish action-carpenters Skewville hard at work on their contribution to this seriously fun project opening next month!
Building a better future for Bushwick (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The more you see it, the more you know it down in your heart that we have turned a corner.
Hype be damned, the result of Posterboy’s plundering of the inescapable advertising messages you pay $2 to see in the subway is a new visual vocabulary that continues to pull surreal visual punches when you least expect it.
These portraits below could be the work of Posterboy, one of his admirers, or it could be the work of a team. From the average viewers perspective, that’s hardly the point.
Dear Mr. Black President (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The fact that new subway station banners are made of this easy-to-manipulate vinyl sticky backed material, coupled with the fact that there are rarely subway personnel or police in the subway stations these days, and you have a primo creative laboratory for everyone from “culture jammers” to collage artists to pop surrealists.
It’s the visual equivalent of the mash-up so popular in the digital DJ age; whole cloth samples snatched from fully realized pieces and re-matched with other genres, categories, styles, and eras. Sometimes the results are genius, sometimes clunky, many times causing nauseous feelings of disorientation.
Rockin the new specs (photo Steven P. Harrington)
These modern billboard materials are layered one on top of the another but peel back in a jiffy, easy to slice away and see what might be underneath. You may not even see Posterboy’s remix on the crowded platform while you lean against a grimy column. You may be watching a rat skittering along the third rail with a Snickers rapper in it’s mouth. But your train still hasn’t arrived because of (yet more) service cuts, and your phone doesn’t work down here in the tunnel so you glance up at the ad space and see the mangled headline manipulated to say “Get Head” with two floating mouths wide open beneath it.
It’s not graffiti, it’s not really street art, but it’s eye catching even when it’s not completely successful. It feels more like a studio than a gallery, full of experiments, dead ends, and occasional glimpses of brilliance.
You gotta some pretty lips Miss-ter (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A group show that features the work of a number of street artists, among others.
Eastern District Presents:
“Plenty of Room on the Couch”
Curated by Jesse Lee Denning
Opening reception – Friday June 26th. 7 – 10pm
Special Guest DJ Todd Weinstock a.k.a. Toddlerone (Cubic Zirconia)
The goal of this exhibition is not only to highlight the vast array of talented artists in a summer spectacle but to also allow our peers, friends, and all around art lovers to purchase and own art that is both affordable and quality work!
Ever clever Jon Burgerman has been hanging out in the BK all summer – (minus a two week stint in sandy, spread-out California) wondering where time disappears to and how to get free lunch.
Now he TELLS ALL in this scintillating visual expose called “My American Summer”
Rising street artist Aakash Nihalanistarted “bombing” the streets of New York City with his colorful isometric forms just over a year ago. What began as repetitive silkscreen studies in the studio later developed into Nihalani’s signature approach to open-air installations. Using tape as his sole medium, he highlights the geometry of the city—from subway signage to a slab of concrete —with clean rectangles, squares and cubes. Employing the modus operandi of graffiti writers, Nihalani revamps public space, offering fresh perspectives and creating room for new words and ideas. His installation for Paraphrase will make use of both the walls and floors of the gallery. He will also utilize the windows that run along Arario’s south wall (facing 25th Street) to exhibit new works on mirror.
Super cool stop-action video by the very talented on-the-road artist and filmmaker Maria Juranic, who spent the day with Broken Crow, Over Under, and BSA last week. Coming soon our interview with Broken Crow and more images from that day.
Data rock silver heart (Chris Uphues) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Dain! I got a toof-ache! (photo Jaime Rojo)
Come a little closer so I kin git a good look at cha. (Dain) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Fauxreel (photo Jaime Rojo)
These Keith Hernandez pieces may be promoting an indie documentary (not sure), but they are pretty funny and straddle the edge of advertising and street art. But then, what doesn’t?
Everybody say Cheese. (I'm Keith Hernandez) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Ronnie talk to Keith! (I'm Keith Hernandez) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Under his Ever Watchful Gaze (I'm Keith Hernandez) (photo Jaime Rojo)
(Passenger Pigeon) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Smile, when you're feeling lonely. (Smile) (photo Jaime Rojo)
AVOID, BLOKE and FARO converge at Factory Fresh, bringing with them an assorted collection of unique styles that exemplify the next generation of NYC street art and graffiti. On June 5th they will present their artwork as a group in a gallery for the first time. Through blending their ideals and styles, they create a symbolized view of the streets that transcends one world and ushers in another.
The show is based on the year 2012, which represents a notion of change and transition throughout the world, marking the end of the Mayan calendar. Many view this year with apprehension, prophesying apocalypse, climate meltdown or a spiritual awakening. Currently, through economic crisis and constant warfare, an artistic shift is taking place on the streets of New York City.
As we approach this time of great change, the 2012 show places the viewer in the middle of the transformation, an adventure through shifting paradigms of the world.
2012
Opening June 5, 7-10
June 5 – June 21 at Factory Fresh, Bushwick, Brooklyn.
Fun things to stumble upon while you are singing in the rain
This number 9 is always coupled with a cartoon character like on Sesame Street. Try to check your reflection in the well-positioned convex mirrors when you pass the construction workers – they are revelatory when you take a good look (Peephole). Under these ever grey clouds we cheerfully welcome Judith Supine in acidic fluorescence; who has returned with a step-up in complexity and keeps true to disform.
9 Birds (photo Jaime Rojo)
9 Eagles (photo Jaime Rojo)
9 Elephants (photo Jaime Rojo)
NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 NUMBER 9 – are these related to the Beatles in some way?
“BROKEN HORSE” happened faster than you can say “Mint Julip” – in fact this show was too brief perhaps for such concentrated talent and such a strong collection of work.
Two street stencil artists, Logan Hicks and Broken Crow, inhabited an abandoned bank hall in Cobble Hill this weekend only, and even though their approach to their craft was different, they played off of each other happily while grounding each other in their mutual adoration of cutting stencils.
Broken Horse fans (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Friday night, despite a May Day deluge earlier and a misty fog-like darkness that crept through the Brooklyn streets, a fair number of fans of Logan Hicks and Broken Crow – known names on the street art stencil front – hurried past the tall wrought iron gates into a warmly lit temporary gallery with chandeliers and ceiling fans.
Athens Alley (Logan Hicks) (courtesy the artist)
Logan Hicks is a meticulous multi-layering documentarian of imposing man-made structural engineering, architecture, the common byways worn by use and neglect, and the small matter of large groups of humanity. Veins, cracks, surface textures all create a heavy web of detail in a photorealistic way. Even when there are no human forms in the frame and you are looking at the worn geometry of a back alley, the evidence and activity of the throbbing mass is felt as it pounds through it’s ritual of living.
Locust Plague (Logan Hicks) (courtesy the artist)
In one near-epic foreboding scene set on Broadway in Soho, the stark pairing of glistening industrial hues with hot acid red skies feels apocalyptic, yet the multi-headed horde plods on unimpressed and unaware of encroaching doom. Hicks has chewed his way through the tunnels and streets of cities around the world and is frequently drawn to weighty matter, whether marble, concrete, steel, or humans – and sees it without sentimentality.
Golden Insight (Logan Hicks) (courtesy the artist)
Injecting a bit of levity, the Minnesotan duo Broken Crow (John Grider and Mike Fitzsimmons) are primarily concerned with the animal kingdom/queendom, and their less layered style of stencil work promotes the creatures of the natural world back into our unnatural one with a big dollop of irreverence. Normally outside on ladders making large-scale murals, Broken Crow presented gallery-show sized portraits of animals snapped out of their context. Their open expressions talk directly to the viewer, joking or mocking what a fabulous job we’re doing.
Bears on Wall street wreckin' s__t? "Optimism" (Broken Crow) (image courtesy the artist)
There’s a grizzly on his hind legs in front of rubble in the street, here’s a porcupine looking you in the eye as he’s poised to stick a metal fork in an outlet, and now a monkey couple laughs together like they are watching “All in the Family” on the boob tube.
"Fine Whisky Products" (Broken Crow) (courtesy the artist)
The out of context surrealism of some pieces will make you question a comparatively normal scene of birds flying past telephone poles. Broken Crows’ poppy colors, wide lines, and op-art backdrops keep it light, but the subtext may not be.
Broken Horse show - wall of Broken Crows(photo Steven P. Harrington)
“Broken Horse” is a jolt of energy by observant and studied street artists refining their craft and leaving a mark. Hope you caught it, but if you didn’t you can see more work by the artists here:
"I'm not a player I just Crush a lot" (Broken Crow) (image courtesy the artist)
And now for something completely different: Have you heard that song about Taco Bell and Pizza Hut?*
– “gimme a enchilada slice with extra pepperoni and sour cream! Or better yet, lemme have a jalapeno ricotta slice with spaghetti and that orange cheese on top. I’m a rock this burrito pie, son!”
Tonight’s is going to welcome you to a Great Recession-era cardboard box village created by contemporary and urban (street) artists, to register a commentary on the on-going squeeze people are feeling here.
Who better than street artists could help us live on the street in style? With jobs evaporating, the public sector heaving, the hand-out happy banks still refusing loans, and landlords still scalping, it’s easier than ever to imagine a future with the hapless hordes resorting to building their homestead in an empty lot with shipping boxes and various found objects. Think of this show as Martha Stewart for the skid-row set.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
