Artmakers Inc. presents Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals, a traveling exhibition curated by Jane Weissmanthat explores how African and Caribbean art, history, religion and myth have influenced mural themes and content. The exhibition will be on view at the African American Heritage Center, Macon Library from May 5 -28.
The exhibition coincides with the publication of On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City by Janet Braun-Reinitz and Jane Weissman (University Press of Mississippi, 2/2009).
In the six years the authors researched On the Wall, Braun-Reinitz and Weissman discovered murals in Harlem from the early 1970s that were hitherto lost to history as well as murals painted since the late 1970s in Crown Heights, Brooklyn, that were unknown outside their immediate neighborhood.
Despite the disparity of time and geography, these murals are related in both theme and content, filled with images of the African Diaspora.The exhibition also looks at diasporan imagery – Caribbean as well as African – found in murals in other Manhattan and Brooklyn neighborhoods, Queens, and the Bronx.
The exhibitionexamines the traditional meaning of diasporan images and symbols and discusses them in terms of philosophy (i.e., the Black Arts Movement, Ghanaian artist Kofi Antubam) and their visual representations (e.g., Black Madonnas, Ethiopian illuminated manuscripts, Bògòlanfini and Adinkra fabrics, and Ndebele house painting).
Over the past 40 years, artists and arts organizations found contemporary meaning in these images and, through new research and interviews, the exhibition describes the relevance they have today.Decoded, the murals become more than striking images; they stand as visual representations of the cultural, social and political currents of the periods in which they were painted.
Weissman (who lives in Greenwich Village) and Braun-Reinitz (who lives in Clinton Hill) are longtime members of the Brooklyn-based Artmakers, an artist-run, politically oriented community mural organization that creates high quality public art relevant to the lives, work and concerns of people in their neighborhoods.
Royce Bannon and a diverse team of talented street artist/graff writers are taking the challenge seriously: Revive the artists’ space in Soho that boasts a proud history and restore it to the constructive, collaborative, democratic roots of a real artists’ community; one that will have a mission of giving back, as well as re-establishing a laboratory for discovery.
These are times for bold actions of hope, and all hands are on deck for a show opening this month called “Work to Do” at 112 Greene Street in Soho, a place that first flourished in the years before the Reagan Revolution.
A Monstrous Welcome to a New Era for 112 Greene Street (Royce Bannon)
Long before Soho became a jewel encrusted haven for high-end couture, over-priced “foodie” groceries, hi-jacking delis, and exclusive password private clubs, the wild-eyed artists were the only people interested in the abandoned buildings south of Houston, and north of Canal. In the decade of the 1970’s, during a financial crisis when a Republican president told our bankrupt city to “drop dead”, that he would veto any bailout for a cash-strapped NYC economy, Soho was a largely abandoned carcass of warehouses and lifeless factories. As is so often the case, it was the perfect playground for the innovative talents of artists and art students needing cheap raw space to create and coalesce and eventually re-start the engine of cultural growth. Like the Williamsburg/Greenpoint/Bushwick neighborhoods in Brooklyn today, Soho in Manhattan was a pounding heart in a hurting city that was drained by an energy crisis, sapped by a costly possibly illegal war on foreign soil, and duped by the ponzi-schemes of corporate titan opportunists at home.
112 Greene Street in Soho was the original home of 112 Workshop, a raw space open between 1970 and 1980, offering exhibition space for installation and performance for the new generation of conceptual artists who emerged from the radicalized minds and cultural upheavals of the previous decade.
With artists having complete control to curate their shows, the space put on challenging and inspirational work of hundreds of people. During the life of this laboratory it produced a list of influential performers and artists that helped shape the cultural cityscape over next 30 years, including names like Vito Acconci, Laurie Anderson, Joseph Beuys, Louis Bourgois, Chuck Close, Spalding Gray, Phillip Glass, Fran Lebowitz, Jeffrey Lew (co-founder), Gordon Matta Clarke (co-founder), Richard Mock, Richard Serra, William Wegman.
A spirit of collaboration and lively exploration returns to this space on March 26 when street artists well known in North Brooklyn today clear out the moribund basement space at 112 Greene and electrify the walls with a new era of youthful big ideas – and with thanks to those who came before in this hallowed space.
Royce Bannon, core member of the collective ELC (Endless Love Crew), is curating an audacious and boundless graphic cavalcade of street art styles to christen the historic space that honors the creative spirit. While ELC has a rotating roster that sometimes totals as many as 9 artists with a variety of styles, the currently active members of the ELC for this project will be Abe Lincoln Jr., Anera, El Celso, infinity, and Royce Bannon. With everyone working collaboratively, the “Work to Do” show pays homage to the new president and embraces a new reality that artists and creatives in the city are feeling right now.
The 112 Greene Street space is christened The Combine with this inaugural show. Steve Loeb and John Robie are creating The Combine to provide a new environment for the exhibition of art; an alternative to the traditional gallery opening and exhibition, transforming static work into multi-media, performance oriented events.
Detail from Kosbe at “Work to Do” (photo Steven P. Harrington)
On a recent sunny Saturday, with Soho sidewalks anxiously trampled with tourists dragging shopping bags out of Prada, Dean & Deluca, and the Apple store, Royce and Chris from Robots Will Kill are laboring below street level on work for the new show. Descending the stairway you hear the blasting remixed hip-hop jams, see the spray-painted names along the walls claiming space for pieces; Ad Deville of Skewville and U.L.M. have staked their real estate, as has Cake and the Smart Crew. Others have already created pieces on their wall allotment; a 7 foot tall Mochni from Veng on the landing, a chaotic collage from Kosbe as you hit the floor, a manic back wall collaboration with Deekers, infinity, and Celso.
A complete history of 112 Workshop
Royce sits at his makeshift table of plywood and saw-horses, pouring over a large book about 112 Workshop, marking its’ pages with post-its, and eyeballing every available inch of the entire basement space, thinking about how to fill it, and with whom. His phone keeps ringing, but he’s concentrating on the long rectangular room. He’s loving this moment, and proud of the work his friends have put into the space. Chris from RWK climbs a ladder to lay-in the first wash of color that will build the backing of… perhaps a robot?
Did you hear the new one about Octomom? (Royce Bannon, Dain, and AVOID Pi) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The mottled concrete floor is marked with blue tape where a stage will be built for Afrika Bambaataa and Soulsonic Force on opening night, and the backdrop wall is already claimed by an undulating AVOID Pi tentacle, some Dain wheatpasted portraits that well up with fluorescent tears, and some smart-aleck monsters from Mr. Bannon himself, and a space remains for Abe Lincoln Jr.. Walk past a stack of plywood into a makeshift rectangular “gallery” room where many 3’ x 8’ foamcore canvasses lean – soon to showcase Deekers, infinity, Celso, and Royce pieces and hung in the windows of a music store further north of here.
Brooklyn Street Art: So who decided to put on this show? Royce Bannon: Steven Loeb (composer, arranger, producer) and John Robie (composer, musician and record producer). They both have really extensive resumes in the music industry that go back to the 70’s – have worked with so many great musicians and artists that have impacted most of us – Kurtis Blow, Public Enemy, James Brown, LL Cool J… and a lot more. This is their space, and they’ve given me full control to make this show rock.
This is how we do it (Chris from Robots Will Kill) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: How did you get involved? Royce Bannon: They hit me up on MySpace about a year ago, I guess. They knew about ELC and liked our work. About November or December they asked me if we could throw an ELC show and I was like “Sure!” We got together and had lunch and they showed me the space. It was a mess when I saw it. It was full of a bunch of wood, tables, broken furniture, junk… it was basically used for storage, hadn’t been used for anything I guess for years.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are they planning to use the space after the show? Royce Bannon: Yeah, they are turning it into an event center, mainly for charitable events. They want to make money, but they want to give back as well. This will be the first kind of event that is following that approach.
Brooklyn Street Art: So they first contacted you to do an ELC show, but you actually know a lot more people who can do work in a space like this. Royce Bannon: Yeah exactly, they were like “we like ELC” and I said, “This is a lot of room to fill for just ELC, so why not invite people who I admire, and some of their friends and we can just crush this whole place up?”
Waiting for the Smart Crew (Cake) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: Have you had to tell people “no” since this roster started filling up? Royce Bannon: Yes, (laughs) I’ve been telling people “no” a lot, and that’s really hard. What I’ve been telling them is to hold on, and once everybody paints, there will be other smaller or tight spots where they can do “fill-ins’, cause some people like those smaller spots too.
Brooklyn Street Art: Looking at this giant space, you are giving people a lot of real estate; these spaces look like 8’ by 8’ chunks of wall. That’s pretty generous. Royce Bannon: Yeah definitely, why not? The spaces are claimed, and we’ve got lots more space to do, and about a third of it is done already.
Brooklyn Street Art: Are people excited to be in the show? Royce Bannon: Yeah, very excited, I think it’s gonna be like a madhouse in here. It’s about 4,000 square feet floorspace.
This place is Smokin’ ! (detail from Kosbe) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: You have been working long hours to accommodate all these artists? Royce Bannon: Yeah, since mid-January I’ve been here like 12 hour days, sometimes late at night. First we had to clean up the space, figure out what materials we wanted to keep. We’re using everything they had left here and re-purposing it, cause “why not”. Better than throwing it away. Like my monsters are cut out of some bookshelves (laughs). They’ve been supplying us with whatever tools we need, gave us a bunch of paint. So with extras, like ladders and tools, I just go to them and we can get to work. They are really supportive of us, plus they’re collectors.
Brooklyn Street Art: So some of the artwork is going to be on sale? Royce Bannon: Yes, I think some of the people are going to actually put their artwork on top of their pieces. We’re going to make a little gallery (gesturing to a 10’x 14’ room) – I think some people are going to put their stuff in there. We’re going to cover the floor, I think, in fake grass… brighten the space up a little bit. But we still got a lot of work to do.
***********************
In planning for the new show, Royce and all of the artists have been inspired by the words of the 44th president:
“In reaffirming the greatness of our nation, we understand that greatness is never a given. It must be earned. What is required of us now is a new era of responsibility – a recognition, on the part of every American, that we have duties to ourselves, our nation, and the world, duties that we do not grudgingly accept but rather seize gladly, firm in the knowledge that there is nothing so satisfying to the spirit, so defining of our character, than giving our all to a difficult task. It has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things – some celebrated but more often men and women obscure in their labor, who have carried us up.“
So far the lineup for the show includes: Endless Love Crew, Moody AA, Cabahzm, Cake, 2Easae, Avone, Chris RWK, Veng RWK, Brando * Nev1 * Sinatra Smart Crew, AVOID pi, infinity, Deeker, Keeley, El Celso, Dain, Pufferella, Skewville, Royce Bannon, AnerA, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ellis Gallagher AKA Ellis G., Matt Siren, Overconsumer, Kosbe, Aiko, Abby Goodman, Alone art, Bast, Ben Jackson, Bobby Hill, Buildmore, C. Damage, Chris Brennan, Christopher Gordon, Dark Clouds, Deeker, Destroy and Rebuild, Erica Faulke, Keely, Pufferella, OHM, Smells, Stikman, U.L.M.
Artmakers Inc. leads two art workshops for teens — May 7 and May 19 — where participants, inspired by symbols found in African fabrics and painting, create an original work of art based on traditional symbols found in bògòlanfini or mud cloth, developed by the Bamana people of Mali.
The workshop begins with a look at the Center’s current exhibition — Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals, curated by Jane Weissman, co-author with Janet Braun-Reinitz of the recently published On the Wall: Four Decades of Community Murals in New York City (University Press of Mississippi, 2/2009). Scroll down for exhibition press release.
Providing cultural context for the art making portion of the workshop, Janet Braun-Reinitz’s Signs and Symbols: From Mali, West Africa to Brooklyn, NY shows an East New York (Brooklyn) park house covered with both traditional bògòlanfini symbols and contemporary images representing urban New York City life.
Janet Braun-Reinitz, Signs and Symbols: From Mali, West Africa to Brooklyn, NY
1996, East New York, Brooklyn, acrylic on brick, 10’ x 55’
Each piece of mud cloth tells a story. No two pieces are alike and each pattern and color combination has meaning. Mud cloth is also used to define a person’s social status, character or occupation.
Participants will be shown examples of traditional mud cloth as well as contemporary symbols other teens created in the making of Signs and Symbols — city, food, friendship, love, stop violence, celebration, music, sports, nature, rivers and, from images that already exist, recycling and the AIDS ribbon.
After the teens develop their own symbols — working with white chalk on black construction paper — they will collaborate with Artmakers muralists to create their own piece of mud cloth. The result will be put on display.
Note: For traditional bòfòlanfini, cotton cloth is woven, shrunk, and then soaked in a preparation of leaves from certain plants. Men usually perform the weaving, and the women the dyeing, first outlining the intricate designs with fermented mud. The mud is treated with caustic soda, bleaching the designs to create white figures on a dark ground.
Funding for Images of the African Diaspora in New York City Community Murals and related programming has been generously provided by New York Council for the Humanities and Independence Community Foundation.
BREAKTHROUGH UK ARTISTS MISS BUGS & JOE BLACK EMBARK ON THEIR FIRST U.S. SHOW @ BROOKLYNITE GALLERY
“2 MANY ARTISTS” APRIL 4 – MAY 2, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, April 4th from 7:00-9:00pm, with special guest legendary hip-hop producer PRINCE PAUL spinning on the wheels of steel.
Miss Bugs and Joe Black‘s work is a public summit on the infallibility of comic books, fairy tales, and emerging artists – a cut to the core of blue chip art and born-into pop culture. We, Brooklynite Gallery, give you “2 Many Artists”: Cut it up how you want – that’s what they do, paying tribute to legions of artists. British collaborators Miss Bugs and Joe Black lead a grim but loving procession through hives of art world iconography.
For Miss Bugs, “2 Many Artists” celebrates their role as middlemen, spinning toward answers in the marketplace where art titans and street artists remake each other. Who owns art and why do people make it? With a warped sexiness, their work is fantastical and tangible as a bloody nose. Miss Bugs is an image-maker using collage and layering silk screens with other found materials to generate stories. Often the work is not about Miss Bugs, but the images themselves, displaced from their usual habitat.
Joe Black wields Lego’s like arrows — which is funny because they end up facing everyone head on. His technique of assembling photorealistic images from found objects is extremely advanced. The scarily precise formal elements are mirrored content-wise. His specific icons and way of depicting them highlight a sinister piece of pop culture and the art world that, through infinite generations, will not leave.
Brooklynite Gallery is located at 334 Malcolm X Blvd. (between Decatur & Bainbridge Streets) Brooklyn, NY 11233, just two blocks from the Utica Ave. subway stop on the A or C subway lines, in Stuyvesant Heights. Gallery hours are Thursday – Saturday 1:00pm -7:00pm or by appointment. For all press inquiries and info about the artists contact Hope McGrath at 347-405-5976 or PR@brooklynitegallery.com.
All Shook Up: Jef Aerosol
January 29 – February 21, 2010
Opening Reception – Friday, January 29, 2010, 6-10pm
Ad Hoc Art
43 Bogart Street
Brooklyn, New York 11206
(via subway take the L Train to Morgan Avenue Station)
For an online version of this document and pictures to download go to this link http://mim.io/3a6f1
Ad Hoc Art presents international stencil master Jef Aerosol in New York City for “All Shook Up”, a stunning show of cultural icons by a Street Artist with 30 years in the game.**
The show with Ad Hoc Art, a gallery widely regarded as one of Street Art’s polestars, features brand new stenciled works as well as the now-classic pieces that have made Jef Aerosol’s name itself iconic; on paper, wood, and found objects.
A true originator who helped spark what is now known as “Street Art” when he sprayed his first stencil series across the city of Tours, France one night in 1982, the self-taught Aerosol has continuously rocked the streets with his oversized portraits and helped define a new public art nomenclature with other French artists like Blek Le Rat, Miss Tic, and Speedy Graphito.
Steadily from the ’80s to the ’10s Aerosol has cut and sprayed stunning portraits of his heroes; cultural icons who stand undiminished by the hype. They connect directly with the masses and shake public opinion with humor and provocation; Strummer, Cash, Vicious, Hendrix, Bowie, Bardot, Cobain, Lennon, Smith, Jagger – all brainy agitators and vixens cut and sprayed in stark layers of black, grey and white. And each with Aerosol’s signature hot red arrows affixed nearby for exclamation.
In Street Art and in the gallery, Aerosol has not purely focused on those well-known personages. Among the faces you’ll find a number of self-portraits and portrayals of the more anonymous among us such as those living and working in the streets.
Like the best photographers, Aerosol catches the instant of truth in his portraits, and reveals a universal humanity in each subject. “In my work I love to call up my feelings and emotions to honor these modern day heroes who have fed my life with their music, art and ideas. This new show is a powerful and vivid collection of these inspirations that I am really excited to bring to New York for the first time,” Jef Aerosol.
Three decades of getting up on walls in cities including Paris, London, Lisbon, Chicago, New York, Bejing, Venice, Amsterdam, Rome, Zurich, Berlin, Dublin, and Tokyo have given him all the “street cred” Jef Aerosol will ever need.
Sighted in numerous books and by authors like Tristan Manco (Stencil Graffiti, Street Logos), blogs like Wooster Collective and Brooklyn Street Art, and newspapers like The New York Times as one of the lynchpins in the stencil art movement that came to be called “street art”, Jef Aerosol’s work has become a perennial favorite of collectors. His work resides in hundreds of private collections, has exhibited in numerous galleries in Europe, the U.S. and Australia (list below), and is regularly auctioned with Bonhams (London, New-York), Artcurial (Paris), Drouot (Paris), and Dreweats (London).
In 2007 Aerosol published a gallery of portraits in VIP Very Important Pochoirs (éditions Alternatives, Paris, 2007).
Galleries where the work of Jef Aerosol has been shown include: Galerie Brugier-Rigail (Paris), Galerie Raison d’Art (Lille), Signal Gallery (London), Zozimus Gallery (Dublin), Art Partner Galerie (Brussels), Galerie Anne Vignial (Paris), Galerie Storme (Lille), Galerie Onega (Paris), Carmichael Gallery (Los Angeles), ATM Gallery (Berlin), and Famous When Dead Gallery (Melbourne).
*********************************
Sponsored by BrooklynStreetArt.com Brooklyn Street Art Loves You More Everyday
We’ve been a little busy on that “Street Crush” KRAZEE-ness for a few weeks,
so we thought everyone should just take it easy, and not put up any work on the street until we could get back out there and take a look around. Well, that didn’t really work very well, did it? What the heck?
Remember your patriotism being questioned at every corner a couple years ago? Specter would like to continue the conversation apparently. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Don't know where Zoso is going with this, but Shin Shin is surrounding it with spring flowers (photo Jaime Rojo)
Oh, you are like, such a square. I mean, like you are so square you are like a cube, or whatever. (Aakash Nihilahni) (photo Jaime Rojo)
This was on a floor, which means it is probably destroyed by now. (Aakash Nihilahni) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Dreaming of Brownstones and affordable mortgages. (Blanco) (photo Jaime Rojo)
I'm watching you. (c215) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Someone needs a bib (Robots Will Kill) (photo Chris)
The Amish Robot (Robots will Kill) (photo Chris)
All tied up (Chris from Robots Will Kill) (photo Jaime Rojo)
unknown (photo Jaime Rojo)
Ellis G. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Can't tell if he's petting it or snapping it's head off (Gaia) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Obama and Iraq war veteran Tammy Duckworth at Arlington Cemetery - on a gravemarker covered with lace. (General Howe) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Like my new Stoll? Filene's Basement of course! I know, PETA would probably have a fit, but it was 40% off. (Art Goons, C215) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Damn! Forgot my gloves! (Art Goons) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Siiiiinnngggiin in the Rain, Just Singing -- In the Rain!! (Haculla) (photo Jaime Rojo)
I used to live in this apartment on the upper east side near Gracie Mansion, and sometimes at night a golf-ball sized cockroach would run across my bed and thump onto the hardwood floor and run away. I kid you not. (Hellbent) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Hope, expressed as a garish, heavy pyramid-like sculpture. (unknown) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Imminent Disaster (photo Jaime Rojo)
Keely (photo Jaime Rojo)
Keely (photo Jaime Rojo)
That famous kiss by two of our visionary leaders (MBW) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Momo (photo Jaime Rojo)
Sometimes the right hat can just MAKE the whole outfit. (Mr. Afternoon) (photo Jaime Rojo)
A temple to Sex. (photo Jaime Rojo)
Deeks and Stikman on a corroded wall (photo Jaime Rojo)
The Dude Company honors Dr. King (photo Jaime Rojo)
Bishop 203 (photo Jaime Rojo)
I know Why the Caged Bird Sings (Veng from Robots Will Kill) (photo Jaime Rojo)
Long before Flickr was a Flicker in your daddy’s eye, Martha Cooper
was “all-borough” out on the streets and subways of New York with her camera capturing and documenting the legacy of graffiti images for future generations. A quarter century later, Ms. Cooper picked up her first digital camera and found it’s diminutive size and ease of use was perfect for capturing one of her new street loves, the postal sticker, in it’s multitude of incarnations.
*******************
On Friday night Ad Hoc Gallery hosted a lively show, party, and sticker fair to fete Martha and her new book “Going Postal”, the bound document that presents what she’s been snapping since 2002. To paraphrase Ms. Cooper, the book recognizes the aesthetics of the postal label and preserves the ephemeral form in print.
*******************
Lined up outside in the cold Bushwick night, the guests ranged from 7 to 77, the widest demographic we’ve ever seen at a show like this, attesting to the regard people have for sticker art as an art form, and, more likely, their regard for this strong proponent of the creative spirit, Martha Cooper.
Martha Cooper basking in the sticker glow (with family helping at the sticker table) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
The Crowd Stuck for Hours before Peeling Off to the Afterparty (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Retrieving the newly dry stickers from the clothesline (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Fans flipped through books to select their favorite (Kosbe) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
This troupe of art fans added a new energy to the night! (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Tazz Red Nose says he's been wreckin' stickers since way back in the day. This piece is a full size canvas tribute to two of his most popular characters. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
9 Panels like this with stickers dating back to 1990, were placed around the Ad Hoc gallery. Martha likes the way the two distinct disciplines of graff-styled lettering and street art have intersected on stickers. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Looking hard while posing for a pic. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Trading and giveaways between fans were happening all around (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A new bear by C.Damage (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Kosbe covers the options (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Blanco Explains Why BK is Down (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Dwell and One Unit win the award for most fanciful and otherworldly use of materials on stickers. A small collection of their work incorporated wood patterned shelf-lining vinyl collage on postal labels. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Chris Stain pulls at your humanity with his depictions of our neighbors. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Depoe had more colorful abstracts on canvas in the show. Here is one of his stickers. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Aiko bunny with splashes of paint (photo Steven P. Harrington)
PC? - This may stand for Prince Charming (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Giving generously, Chris from Robots will kill prepared envelopes containing 3 stickers and a button for the show. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Blanco opaqued a postal label completely (almost) to create this stencil tribute to Norman Rockwell. This girl walks the red line - the original "The Problem We All Live With" by Norman Rockwell appeared in Look magazine in 1964, ten years after the Brown Vs. Board of Education decision and during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Hilarious tributes to the cassette tape, Blanco made multiple variations of this stencilled sticker and, with an actual typewriter, gave them labels, including MixTape groupings of old-skool jams, as well as iconic album titles like "in Utero" by Nirvana, and this one. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A contemporary of Keith Haring and a modern-day master of this present day art form, Crash One shoots his metaphorical arrows into art galleries, subway cars and dizzying flashes across concrete walls. His is a lavish gift to the eyes and a statement in time and space that celebrates the movements and change of an ever changing world. His work is a direct descendant of the Roman wall-scribes but he has evolved this inherited gift back to its simplest form: “tagging,” leaving his name. Great artists sign their names on the paintings they leave behind, in this new/old incarnation the artist leaves just his name. A reduction of unadulterated form; or “refined” art.
Daze, aka Chris Ellis, began painting New York City subway trains, the canvas of choice for the serious graffiti artist, in the late 1970s. After moving from subway trains to gallery walls he has exhibited in Paris, Stockholm, Tokyo, Florence and many other cities around the world.
It’s kind of hard not to have fun when you are surrounded by art, artist, homies, kissers, and ladies with sequined tassles hanging from the ceiling.
Fun Valen-Times, a perfect street art/ graffitti marriage, and a mash-up of cultural influences swirling around that may not have happened since chocolate met peanut butter. No time to go into it all right now so here’s a few pics to sate your appetite.
But it is never too early to express a heartfelt Thank You to all the street artists, the burlesque performers, the djs, the projectionists, the electronic drummers, the kissing booth builder, the Kisser volunteers, and the family of Alphabeta.
"Girls Can Play" by Aiko (Detail)
Kissing Booth Happy; The show reflected in Jess's smile.
"The Girl with No Thumbs" (Detail) by Broken Crow
Nasty Canasta and Mimi the Clown (photo Steven P. Harrington)
"Wild in the Streets" (detail) by Jef Aerosol
Kissing Booth Fun
Tigger! and Madame Voulez-Vous debate the necessity of clothing.
"Sex Sells" (detail) by Royce Bannon
Harvest Moon flies above the crowd (photo by Kat)
"Mam'zlle de mon reve!!" (detail) by Titi from Paris
What did he just say? I can't look, but I can't stop staring.
Look what Ali and Ad locked up in their basement! Is this what they mean by Anxiety Room? All week Jon and Jim have been painting like mad men to get ready for this opening tonight. They are all very anxious and excited about the show, which will be full of brilliant characters no doubt (not just the guests).
Jon in a Blue Swirly Mood (photo DA Stover)
"Um, when you are done with the pink can I borrow it?" (photo DA Stover)
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
