When we asked Shepard Fairey if he would be up for a new remix of a Martha Cooper photo for our exhibition celebrating her career, he quickly said yes. Not only did he create a new original piece of art based on one of her classic “Street Play” images to hang in the gallery of our “Marth Remix” section, but he and his excellent team have also produced a new print – 250 of which sold out in 20 minutes on the Urban Nation website last night.
Shepard Fairey. ”People’s Discontent” 2020. 75,00€ Screenprint on thick cream Speckletone paper. Limited Edition of 550. 24 x 18 inches (61 x 46 cm) Embossed with Martha Cooper’s tag and Hand-signed & numbered by Shepard Fairey
The good news is Shepard will be selling another block of them on November 4th, so watch his announcements on social media!
But we still had a long line of lucky buyers snaking through the museum last night waiting for their opportunity for Martha to counter-sign their print, which had already been signed by Shepard. Because Shepard himself couldn’t attend he sent a warm video message to guests at a ceremony we had celebrating the print.
Martha Cooper’s original photo as shown in the exhibition next to the original art by Shepard Fairey.
What a complete HONOR it is for us to introduce this unique collabo between Martha Cooper and Shepard Fairey to celebrate our curation of her very FIRST career-wide retrospective, now showing at Urban Nation museum until May of 2022.
Very special thanks to our beautiful partners at YAP Berlin for making this event happen.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Shepard Fairey Talks About New Collaboration with Martha Cooper During Studio Visit via New Deal 2. “Landless Stranded” by Pejac
BSA Special Feature: Shepard Fairey Talks About New Collaboration with Martha Cooper During Studio Visit via New Deal
BSA is proud to debut a new collaborative print with Shepard Fairey and Shepard Fairey – a true honor really. Released by Urban Nation today it is a print made from a brand new original artwork commissioned for the Urban Nation Museum and our exhibition “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures”.
During his development of the canvas last year Shepard was interviewed in Studio Number 2 by New Deal. See this video and you can learn a little about the new print going on sale today.
Shepard Fairey Studio Visit via New Deal
“Landless Stranded” by Pejac
As long as we’re in Berlin, we’ll be checking out PEJACs new show here this week and of course, we’ll be heading out to Holy Cross Church to see this powerful new public statement, “Landless Stranded.”
“As most people are familiar with distressing scenes involving refugees only through television images, it’s a bewildering sight to behold in an urban setting, high above street level. It’s as though reality has been dismantled in one location and anomalously constituted anew somewhere else,” says Pejac.
50+ years of taking photos of artists at work means you have thousands of images of graffiti writers straddling trains, street artists leaning off ladders, muralists hovering 20 stories above the street in cherry pickers. One of 11 sections comprising “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures”, our Artists at Work area has 400 printed images from around the world, floor to ceiling, and across a half dozen decades.
Not only can people find their graff and street art heroes on these walls as seen through Martha’s eyes, we have also created a database searchable iPad of 1300 more images of Artists of Work that have never been seen before. Just enter a country name, or artist’s name, or even a Street Art festival name, and you’ll get a whole lot of eye candy, artists, and tools of the trade.
Since the beginning of the week, we’ve been reporting from Berlin on the Martha Cooper entire career retrospective “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures” exhibition curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of BrooklynStreetArt.com.
To celebrate the one-year anniversary of the opening and some 40,000 visitors despite a few closings due to covid, a new facade honoring the photographer had just been painted on the Urban Nation museum here in the Schöneberg neighborhood of Berlin. Lady Aiko, the Japanese street artist living in New York City was asked to paint the facade of the museum with selected portraits from Martha’s best-known documentation of breakers who formed the Hip Hop scene – along with Aiko’s own iconic bunny character.
Martha is in Berlin with us to see the exhibition for the first time to actually see Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures in person since travel restrictions held us all back from being here in person up to now. Here she is looking at the mural for the first time as well. And, of course, taking pictures of it.
After Covid kept us all away from this exhibition, BSA and Martha finally got a chance to see her retrospective in person, rather than through virtual 3-D tours or videos and photos. Here she is at a vitrine this morning for our first official tour together in person.
They say you shouldn’t believe your own press releases, and we agree. We also are beyond excited to be in Berlin this week with Martha Cooper for a slate of activities celebrating our curation of her career-spanning retrospective including: The brand new museum facade painting by Lady Aiko celebrating the exhibition inside and Martha, a tour with the curators for lucky raffle winners on IG, the introduction of a brand new Shepard Fairey/Martha remix print edition of 550, the official Grand Opening of the Martha Cooper Library, and a 24 city country-wide simulcast of the Selina Miles directed, Martha: A Picture Story film to be shown in theaters across Germany – with Martha and Nika Kramer and us and special guests at the Babylon Theater in Berlin. Tom from Blackstreets tells us it is almost sold out!
As always, we are very grateful to BSA readers for your years of support as well as the entire team at Urban Nation Museum, at YES, AND productions (YAP) in Berlin, and the non-profit foundation Berliner Leben. None of these events could have happened without you and your dedication and talents.
Following is the glowing press release:
DEAR URBAN NATION FRIENDS,
The highlight of the year is coming up: Martha Cooper and Brooklyn Street Art (BSA), the curators of the current exhibition “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures”, will be special guests at URBAN NATION from October 27 – 29! What’s planned? The museum facade is redesigned by Lady Aiko. There will be a raffle to win for an exclusive curator’s tour of the “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures” exhibition. URBAN NATION and Shepard Fairey have come up with a special feature for Martha Cooper’s visit to Berlin.
BOOK SIGNING AND SHEPARD FAIREY PUBLIC PRINT RELEASE
Friday, October 29, Shepard Fairey Public Print Release. Book signing with, Jaime Rojo, Steven P. Harrington and (depending on the late hour) Martha Cooper, at the URBAN NATION Museum Bülowstraße 7, 10783 Berlin From 8:00 pm admission From 8:30 pm onwards public sale of limited-edition prints published exclusively by U.S. artist Shepard Fairey as part of the exhibition “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures”. There will be a book signing session with Martha Cooper, Jaime Rojo, and Steven P. Harrington.
FILM SCREENING
Thursday, October 28, Film screening “Martha: A Picture Story” followed by a panel discussion, at Babylon, Rosa-Luxemburg-Strasse 30, 10178 Berlin.
Martha Cooper is not a legend or an icon. It is much simpler and much more beautiful: Martha Cooper is a photographer who managed to keep the flame in her heart burning until today. Her photos are distinctive, focused on the moment. Snapshots and captured moments, driven by curiosity; unclouded perspectives, no filters or staging. The raw view, the “real” picture with respect for her subject. Thanks to Selina Miles that this impressive story, and especially Martha Cooper herself, receives a tribute in this film that does justice to her, her drive, and her passion.
From 6:30 pm Admission 7:30 pm Screening of “Martha: A Picture Story” Selina Miles, USA/Australia, 2019. In cooperation with Blackstreets Magazine and shown concurrently in 24 theaters across Germany. Followed by Q&A and panel discussion with Martha Cooper, Jaime Rojo, and Steven P. Harrington. Moderated by Nika Kramer.
WIN AN EXCLUSIVE TOUR
Win an exclusive curatorial tour with Jaime Rojo and Steven P. Harrington (Brooklyn Street Art) on Wednesday, October 27, 3:30 – 5:30 pm. Participation is available via Instagram. MORE INFO
OPENING OF THE MARTHA COOPER LIBRARY
On November 2, 2021, the “Martha Cooper Library at URBAN NATION Museum Berlin” (MCL) will open: a library specializing in graffiti, street art, and urban art literature. It will show the development of these art movements since the 1970s as well as the diversity of their genres and forms of expression. One focus is on style writing starting in the 1970s in the U.S. tradition, originating from Philadelphia and New York. The now steadily growing collection is based on a generous gift as well as loans of publications and archival materials by Martha Cooper.
The MCL also assembles relevant materials for research by scholars, artists, and curators, and is available to the scholarship holders of the “Fresh A.I.R.” residency program. Anyone interested is invited to use the reference library beginning November 2, 2021 by appointment. The library reading room is located on the second floor of the URBAN NATION Museum. An inventory catalog is available online. Martha Cooper Library opening hours Tuesdays 10:00 am – 3:30 pm Thursdays 12:00 pm – 3:30 pm Seating for the library can be reserved through our website.
SPECIAL OPENING HOURS DURING MARTHA COOPER’S VISIT
Tuesday, October 26, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Wednesday, October 27, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm Thursday, October 28, 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm Friday, October 29, 12:00 pm – 4:00 pm and 8:00 pm – 10:00 pm Saturday, October 30, 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm Sunday, October 31, 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm Admission is free of charge.
The theaters that will be concurrently showing Martha: A Picture Story film this Thursday:
Augsburg, Mr. Camouflage (Riedingerstr. 26, 86153) TICKTES @ Psychic Shop
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! The streets are alive with fresh cool air, skateboarders, bicyclists, the smell of fresh street art, and of course, shootings.
Our interview with the street today includes BK Foxx, David Flores, Didirok, Drecks, Melski, Miss Me, Peat EYES Wollaeger, Rap Gang, Sticker Maul, Timmy Ache, Villarose, and Vitruvian Truth.
The Italian street artist has created this new old guy on the wall of an abandoned tobacco factory here in the small village of Gambettola in the north of the country. He’s pensive and possibly despairing for sure, possibly because he worked at this factory for decades, Bifido surmises.
“A life at work, a life without life. Life in your free time, spent being entertained in some refreshing recreational activity,” he says.
“I often think of the concept of free time. I hate free time. It is the charity of a society that wants us to be slaves. full with a sweat that exhausts us, without giving joy. Making a work on the concept of work for me meant expressing all my dissent against this absurd idea that work (as mere sustenance) gives meaning to our life.”
Surely there is something redeeming to be said of a lifetime of work in a tobacco factory, but Bifido was not feeling cheerful today. Well, at least he feels more positive about his own work, he tells us. “Making art is my job and I love it.”
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Ocean Cleanup: “That’s A Big A** Catch” 2. PichiAvo: Venus de Mil in Sao Paulo, Brazil. 3. ASVP in NYC via Tost Films
BSA Special Feature: Ocean Cleanup: “That’s A Big A** Catch”
Are you looking for career fulfillment? To do work that actually matters? Here’s a path you may look into. Just look at the reactions and the faces of the people involved.
“The crew offshore in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch achieved our largest ocean plastic catch to date in a single extraction with System 002 on September 22nd, 2021. This load amounts to 3.8 tons and concludes the last short test of the campaign.”
Ocean Cleanup: “That’s A Big A** Catch”
PichiAvo: Venus de Mil in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
A fresh new wall from the dynamic duo PichiAvo in Largo da Batata square in São Paulo. One of their strongest works to date, for the Nalato Festival.
ASVP in NYC via Tost Films
Filmmaker Mario of Tost Films captures a brand new abstract wall by Brooklyn’s own ASVP.
Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)
In a town with a stultifying 112 murals and only 400 inhabitants, you already know that your work will be judged by experts – since everyone is looking and communing with multiple murals in the course of one day all over their city. This unusual urban occurrence is thanks to the Gar Gar Festival which has invited local and international artists for six years under the curatorship of the duo Binomic, formed by Maria del Mar López and Jordi Solana.
Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)
For the MEXPANIA installation, the artists Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz all joined ranks to symbolically relocate a mosaic painted on Pino Suárez street in Mexico City – itself a reproduction of an original work made by Juan Correa in the 17th century. Joining languages, histories, and iconography, this unique enterprise could have ended in disaster, yet here presents a unified composition that speaks with poetry and authority.
Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)
To appreciate the work completely, we asked curators Arcadi Poch and Édgar Sánchez to describe it for BSA readers.
“The two main characters are Moctezuma and Hernán Cortés, who have been transformed into two symmetrical doors, crowned by two divided suns. The floor of the scene is transformed into a map that collects a series of migratory paths through the history of humanity. Two surrendered horses fall on the map, followed by two eagles, meant to represent the fall of the symbols related to all the warlike and racist conflicts that occurred 500 years ago. The play speaks to the public about the richness of the past to inspire us to build a reunion and hence a future of greater integration.”
Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)Mexpania II. Paola Delfín, Sixe Paredes, Pilar Cárdenas AKA Fusca and Daniel Muñoz. Penelles, Spain. October 2021. (photo courtesy of Nueve Arte Urbano)
The abstract expressionist New York graffiti writer John Andrew Parello AKA JONONE has called Paris his home for a couple of decades. So it only makes sense that his oeuvre is well suited here at le mur du Pavillon Carré de Baudouin – an expansive public work that shows his sophisticated eye for pushing a color palette.
JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)
Whether stylized and slippery text-based detonations or pod-like geometric landscapes that jauntily swerve and swoop, JONONE rarely errs in the field of hues. In this new work, he joins a strong roster of talents who have created new city environments in collaboration with ART AZOÏ.
JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)JONONE in collaboration with L’association Art Azoï. Pavillion Carr´e de Baudouin, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)
It’s a whole new era! Or error. It’s hard to tell with events and scenes of daily life going in and out of focus, isn’t it?
Sebas Velasco. 15 Step. 120 x 120 cm. Oil on Canvas. “A new error”. Soho, London. (photo courtesy of Charlotte Pyatt)
Post-urban dislocation has been ratified as a modern aesthetic in recent years – late-term capitalism deflating before your eyes, you may say. Or empty consumer culture run amok with no plan for the future. Perhaps these thematic scenarios are personified by the subjects in these canvasses here from Sebas Velasco, who began this fine art career writing graffiti in the early 2000s back home of Spain.
Graffiti writers are used to viewing a city’s marginal areas, and its refreshing to see a talent like his capturing the scenes without maudlin commentary. That makes it brutal, indeed.
Sebas Velasco. Hotel Silesia. 162 x 130 cm. Oil on Canvas. “A new error”. Soho, London. (photo courtesy of Charlotte Pyatt)
Hosted in a temporary event venue at 15 Bateman Street in London, W1D 3AQ, the transience and economic insecurity of the rudderless gig economy is driven home here as well for “A New Error”. These are scenes you once associated with fallen regimes, now they are merely benchmarks along the route to empty ruin. Velasco’s realism is not quite a love poem, but it hints at it.
“The works are inspired by the freedom of travel and the isolation we all shared the past year, with artists adapting their process to painting at home,” says the artist in a press statement. “The iconic structures are juxtaposed with scenes I came across in transit, just getting lost in a country, stumbling across a village or moment in the final hours of daylight. A romantic view of the journey and process, rather than outcome. Others are very small creations, studies I produced while in lockdown.”
Sebas Velasco “A new error” is currently on view in Soho, London at 15 Bateman St. The show closes tomorrow October 20th. For further detail DM @charlotte_pyatt
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
