Gallery

Telemarketers Mr. Jago and Will Barras

November 2, 2009 Artists, Gallery, San Francisco

I was a telemarketer for one day when I was eighteen years old. Actually it was half a day. I never came back from lunch.

We were living through a different recession and I had no practical skills and almost zero job experience and no college education. That’s why I even considered the job – desperation for bar money and phat threads. All I remember was sitting on a folding metal chair inside an O-configuration of folding banquet tables in a room looking down to the street with my black telephone, my phone number list, my order form, and my script.

We were selling tickets for the Shriner Circus and we were supposed to stress what a great philanthropic organization they were and how the kids were just thrilled. I didn’t know what a Shriner was, and I didn’t care either. I tentatively dialed people on my list and had a big lump in my throat and my hands were shaking and I would take the slightest hint of rejection personally, like an anvil had come smashing through the ceiling directly onto my head. So, around the third time someone said “NO”, I was emotionally destroyed and my nerves were numb and scarred for life. Wimp. I know. Things haven’t gotten a whole lot better in the self-confidence area, if you want to know the truth.

Mr. Jago and Will Barrass discuss their original gig. (image courtesy Upper Playground)

I bring this horrible memory freshly to mind because I just learned that Mr. Jago and Will Barras, two artists showing new works at FIFTY24SF Gallery in San Francisco, first met each other when they were both working at telemarketing jobs. They both seem like they are unscarred, but sometimes these things are not obvious on the surface.

Walrus TV Artist Feature: Mr. Jago & Will Barras Interview from “The Run Up”

Mr Jago, a pioneer of the doodle, is a founding member of Scrawl Collective and a veteran in the street art movement. Jagos interests in art and design with influences from classic Marvel comics, graffiti and hip-hop culture have help forge his unique freehand style and distinct colour palette.
http://www.mrjago.com/

Will Barras
Living and working London, Will Barras is an artist and illustrator best known for his work with the Scrawl Collective, a collaboration of artist’s centered around Bristol, UK. He has been hailed as one of the artists that best represent the skate and snowboard lifestyle.
http://willbarras.com/

“Darling,We’re Leaving!” features new works on display at FIFTY24SF Gallery from November 5 – November 24, 2009.

Learn more about these guys and the show at Upper Playground

How to Blow Yourself Up? WK Interact Has Ideas

October 28, 2009 Artists, Gallery, Interview, L.A., Opening

Street artists are often in tune with the subterraneal rhythms of the city, its people, the movements: the psyche. Their affinity for the wild unscripted truths that pop up asymmetrically as a normal course of everyday working in the streets makes them better positioned to divine the messages.

Can I help you with something? (image WK Interact)

WK Interact’s new show “How To Blow Yourself Up” addresses the unspoken fear always lurking in our unspoken New York day; dark wire fears strummed by Orange Alerts a few years ago, the smell of acrid smoke in the subway, the installation of thousands of cameras all over Manhattan, and “entertainment” like “2012”, a disaster film based on end-time prophecies of ancient religions where the world suffers cataclysmically.

If only WK was trying to calm your fear.

Hey dudes, is this what you mean by Half-Pipe? (image WK Interact)

Maybe, instead, he is merely calling the bluff of the fatalists by wrapping it around a copper coil of twisted irony. Maybe he is giving you the means of your own self-destruction so you will feel self-empowered! It’s so hard to tell.

The show opening November 7th at Subliminal Projects gallery in L.A. turns friendly accessible objects you might associate with fun into blunt devices of nihilistic doom. It used to be fun when you saw this stuff on “Mission Impossible”, but when you personally see a skateboard equipped with what appears to be a pipe bomb, your blood can turn cold.

He knows that.

He’s added a dash of color to his typical black and white, but it’s not for whimsy. Think of police tape, hazmat suits, 9-Mile Point blinking red alarm lights. Cheery.

WK helped BSA understand more about his new show:

WK takes a moment to reflect on destruction. (image Adam Wallacavage)

Brooklyn Street Art: First, about the name of the show…How alarming! Are you encouraging people to self-detonate?
WK Interactive: We are all wired with our very own internal detonators. The artificial devices, which I provide, are to encourage individuals who find themselves applicable to the scenarios to reflect on their state of affairs, which may bring them to the point of pressing the buttons.

Brooklyn Street Art: As a New Yorker, it is very thoughtful of you to create explosive devices for people who are the move!
WK Interactive: They are also figurative symbols of age, authority or subjection and social position.

Objects on the way to LA for an explosive show (image WK Interact)

Brooklyn Street Art: Lets see now, you have skateboards, bicycles; do you have a nice exploding car? Those are always popular.
WK Interactive: The goal was to keep it economically viable.

Brooklyn Street Art: Some of these pieces look tempting to touch, but I’m afraid my hand might blow off.
WK Interactive: By all means – touch………

Pop a wheelie! (image WK Interact)

Brooklyn Street Art: On the streets of New York, you use almost exclusively black and white. Do you feel more colorful behind closed doors?
WK Interactive: The colors used are all primary and ironically relevant in conveying the importance of the objects in the pieces, for example Police Blue and Dynamite Red.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>> >> > >> >>>>

Oh, the guy’s a real cut-up! The more you try to nail him down, the better he is at evading you. So maybe we should just embrace the chaos, and realize WK is only reflecting back to us what we already knew.

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS Presents
How To Blow Yourself Up
New Works by WK Interact
November 7 – December 5, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

WK Interact Set to Explode in L.A.

October 21, 2009 Artists, Gallery, L.A.

“If you believe the world will end in 2012 and you can’t do anything about it, maybe it’s better to blow yourself up when you feel like it,” says WK. (photo WK Interact)

The clock has been set and is ticking until November 7 when stark street art fantacist WK Interactive detonates his latest cluster of objets at SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS in L.A.

Let’s see what the little Missus packed in my lunch today… (WK Interact) (photo WK Interact)

Always more than pleased to tap into your fears, the original Interactive street artist hand-stretches your comfort level with How to Blow Yourself Up, a corrosive blast of physical possibility and psychic uncertainty.

Where’s my key? Where’s my key? WK Interact (photo WK Interact)

Tune in next week for our Q&A with WK >>>>>>>>

“Brooklyn Street Art: Some of these pieces look tempting to touch, but I’m afraid my hand might blow off.

WK Interact: By all means – touch………”

(final photo Adam Wallacavage)

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS Presents
How To Blow Yourself Up
New Works by WK Interact
November 7 – December 5, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Bad Trains, Colorful Shags, Elisha Cook, and Master Stain: Saturday’s Brooklyn Street Art

October 19, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Interview, NYC, Video

Cold and rainy weather, obscenely bad public train service, great art!

Multi-colored Shag Head by Peru Ana Ana Peru at Brooklynite (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Okay, the train service in Brooklyn was really bad this weekend. Talk to the artists community in the Gowanus Canal section of Brooklyn, who had worked so hard to publicize a large constellation of open studios (AGHAST) this weekend. As if a shrinking economy isn’t bad enough, the trains/shuttle bus service to an area already poorly served by public transportation was so bad that some artists were forced to stuff themselves with the piles of the crackers and cheese they had set out for guests and drown their sorrows in Makers Mark – by 3 p.m. Saturday… Not mentioning any names out of respect for their mothers.

Video screen of a shaggy headed actor sitting in front of a screen that has a shaggy headed actor on it. This screen was embedded in – yes – a canvass of a shaggy headed guy. The piece used wheat pasted drawings on paper, paint, dripping markers, and video. (detail) Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Similarly, just traveling to Bed Stuy we had to take a train to a shuttle bus to a train and endure 3 hours of precious life under flourescent light just to get around the People’s Republic of Brooklyn on Saturday night. Grumpiness subsided when entering the warm gallery and shooting to the back yard to score a beer. In the grey heart of urban cold darkness this show is a bright surprise that warms you up, although my phone pics are bad.

Surgeon General says that pipe smoking is dangerous for toddlers. Just so you know. (Peru Ana Ana Peru) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

In the street art-to-gallery transition of the urban art/street art/graffiti art continuum you never know for sure if an artist can make the jump. Peru Ana Ana Peru did the jump in flying colors.

Most followers of the current street art events can readily recount some missteps by some and total train wrecks by others – but we love you and try to be positive. Anyway, bad news travels faster than helicopters after a balloon boy these days, so we wouldn’t need to report it, would we?

The original Balloon Children, in 3-D (Peru Ana Ana Peru) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Blissfully, Peru Ana Ana Peru gave a jolt to the happy crowd on Saturday at Brooklynite – and it was tongue-in-cheek to cheek in the gallery space. From the “Goat Check” with pinatas hanging on a clothes bar, to the video screens embedded in the already multi-media canvasses, to the formal portraits with faces scratched out with a pen-knife, pieces brought sly smiles among even the smart-alecs in attendance.

Simple but horrid scenarios jumped to mind upon seeing this piece by Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Adding to the excitement was a story circulating that their film entry into an International Film Festival competition had just been awarded first prize that day. Certainly their love for film was evident.

Stills from their films were mounted next to one another on this piece by Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Overall it was a fun, snarky, witty, surreal, sexy, colorful show – aptly combining their various interests and moving them forward.

That night BSA received a nice vinyl piece by Street Artist Billi Kid:

A freshly silkscreened over stencil portrait of much loved street art photographer Elisha Cook Jr.

Elisha Cook Jr. has been on the streets capturing street art (among many other things) for a while, which has earned him a loyal fanbase, including Billi Kid.

At first glance we thought it was a tribute to Chris Stain’s work, and certainly there are similarities between this and Stain’s depictions of the working people. But stencillists do have individual styles, and closer inspection reveals this to be true.

Chris Stain on the wall (photo Jaime Rojo)

Says Mr. Kid, “Elisha Cook Jr. (AKA Allan Ludwig) and I have collaborated quite a bit on the streets as well as inside. He is one of my favorite photographers,” says Billi.

In fact you can see Elisha behind the wheel of one of Billi Kids’ favorite pink convertibles below:

Image by Billi Kid

Here is another collaboration between the two

Speaking of Chris Stain, he was busy putting up a piece Saturday night at “Art In General”

The fundraiser was to benefit the gallery and their artist in residence program. Art in General is nonprofit organization that assists artists with the production and presentation of new work. Also featured were works by Street Artists Cake and Cern.

The piece Chris did is of his son and his two friends from preschool last year. Says Stain, “I took the photo at the aquarium in Coney Island and adapted it to the urban landscape.”

The new Chris Stain oil pastel and acrylic wash piece stands at 12’H by about 20’W.

Instead of aerosol (mostly because the fumes would have killed some of the guests who had just plunked down some bucks to support the place ) he used oil pastel and acrylic wash.

“I like this technique because it shows the texture of the wall, although it’s more labor intensive than spray paint,” said Chris. Luckily, he had some help from Kevin, Heather and Robin, and Art in General fed the crew. “It was good,” he said.

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

For more on the Peru Ana Ana Peru show see

PERU ANA ANA PERU COLORFUL ABSURDITIES AT BROOKLYNITE
http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=5278

Dennis McNett “Year of the Wolfbat” Space 1026 (Philadelphia)

September 28, 2009 Artists, Gallery, Opening, Philadelphia

“Year of the Wolfbat” An installation by Dennis McNett

Show dates: October 2nd –October 31st

Opening Reception: Friday October 2nd 7-10pm

Where: Space 1026, 1026 Arch St. Philadelphia, PA 19107

The “Year of the Wolfbat” began in NYC in June and has since trekked across the US stopping for exhibitions, artist talks and workshops along the way. The migratory flight of the Wolfbats has swooped in for shows at Fecal Face Dot Gallery in San Francisco and Thinkspace Gallery in Los Angeles. Their tour will culminate at Space 1026 in Philadelphia with an installation of print-derived sculpture and mural, accompanied by unique and editioned works both large and small.

You can expect to see a loud psychedelic woodcut landscape covering several walls of the gallery in which nature’s bass has been cranked up to 11. Duck your head walking in and make way for an entire flock of hotheaded Wolfbats swooping overhead, not to mention the supercharged eagles diving out of their path to let them through.

Also on view will be several new wood carved pieces, relief cut prints, masks and oversize tapestries. Leopards with serpent tails, goat heads wrapped in snakes, angry beasts, eagles fighting snakes, bats, and of course, Wolfbats are just a few of the images you’re likely to come across.

Event Announcement
For information please contact Space 1026 gallery@space1026.com 215.574.7630

Rain for Dain but everything is Copesetic: Brooklynite Gallery opens with first Solo Show of Street Artist Dain

September 14, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Gallery, Opening

Funny sculpture of a street sign overhangs the entrance to Brooklynite Gallery (photo Jaime Rojo)

The dance floor was wet, some of the work in the back yard had to come off the walls to protect it, but the orchestra played “In the Mood” brightly and the guests gamely took a twirl for the fun of it at street artist Dain’s first solo show of his fine art at Brooklynite Gallery .

Umbrellas on the dance floor (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Saturday’s show hinged itself on the theme of 1940’s glamour in old Brooklyn, and the gallery was quite literally transformed into a middle class apartment with flourishes and pitch-perfect detail enough to make you think that maybe it always looks like this.

(image Steven P. Harrington)

The work showed a graduated movement forward by the artist from his street art work, with greater layering and collaging, finer detail, thoughtful splattering of color, and a thick coat of lacquer. Despite the weather, the mood inside Brooklynite was warm, congenial, and celebratory.

(photo Steven P. Harrington)

Smaller works were framed like photos and hung salon style in a family room corner (photo Steven P. Harrington)

(photo Steven P. Harrington)

And the band played on (photo Jaime Rojo)

The captain ran a tight ship with her watchful eye all night. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs Mugs the Masters (and the Flickr-ites) for Fun

September 3, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Gallery, U.K.

Street Artist Dives Shallowly for Inspiration

Nothing will stir up the ire of artists and their fans than another artist’s appropriation of style or technique. It’s considered “lame”.

And nothing will produce audible cries from artists, art historians, collectors, publishers, fans, and armchair lawyers about copyright infringement and utter lack of creativity than when wholesale appropriation is at hand. Of course sometimes it doesn’t hurt your market value to roil them all at once. Miss Bugs has “the touch” right now.

You’ll remember the Joe Black and Miss Bugs show at Brooklynite this spring, where Ms. Bugs opened the eyes of many with wide swipes of fairly newly minted pop imagery into the poppy pieces.

Obama by Fairey sliced across Kate’s breast (Miss Bugs) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

In promoting the show the term “2 Many Artists” was bandied about as a reference to the snip and clip musical mashup/bootleg pioneers of 2 Many DJ’s, who would be analogous to another hairy white guy named GirlTalk today.

A Mondrianic grid of transparency (Miss Bugs) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

This month a very large street art piece in Brighton, England by Miss Bugs has enlivened the debate about any number of things, including copyright issues, right down to the amount of imagination of the artist may possess.

Miss Bugs in Brighton

What seems to have gotten street art fans in a froth is that Miss Bugs is not using old campy print advertisements or bits of classic paintings as reference; rather, it is that the work is using very recent and pretty well-known pieces of STREET ART in the STREET ART.

In fact, barring Mr. Brainwash (MBW), Miss Bugs may be the first to appropriate images so historically quickly, so frequently, and so enormously.

Miss Bugs in a big way.

But then, that’s exactly what entertains others, “to me Miss Bugs is not so much appropriating, but b**ching up modern art, Hirst, Daffy Duck, Fairey, King Kong, Munch, Koons, DFace, Banksy whatever – it’s graffitin’ graffiti, vandalising vandalism…,” says a poster on a well regarded online forum.

Brooklyn hometown heroes Faile may have lifted their images from lesser-known sources, and thus the images quickly became associated with them and “owned” by Faile in the minds of fans (photo Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs doesn’t so much adapt the original Faile image as adopt it wholesale.

This calls into question the creativity of the artist in the minds of some. In fact, you may hear cries of “Emperor’s New Clothes” more often than during an Orange Alert in the “War-On-Terror” Bush years.

A dab o’ O’ for your mural? (Miss Bugs)

And then there’s the Holy Grail of Modern Street Art Imagery. Shep Fairey takes his hits, most of them because of his public stature, but chopping up an Obama “Hope” image and splaying it across the wall as a collaging effect makes the Fairey Faithful pale and weak from disbelief.

In the heart of Brooklyn street art circa 2008 (photo Jaime Rojo)

On this side of the pond we have some troubles this summer with what street parlance calls “Haterz” – those folks who are looking to shred the first year president at every turn, most likely because of our sad history of racism. To the supporters of Obama, seeing this iconic street art image so quickly mutilated only adds to the sting of the horrible epithets that are hurled from the neanderthals.

Oh, let’s see. There’s Picasso, Warhol, and Haring and I haven’t left her chest. What about the Munchy Mickey Mouse ears? Now those could get you in trouble. And the Rakkoon eyes? (Miss Bugs) (photo Jaime Rojo)

But let’s not all get our wheat-pastes in a wad.

Either you support free expression or you don’t, and frankly, this mixing of High with Low, Touchstones with The Banal, has been a fabulous feature of “the modern” now since Pop became Popular. Perhaps this willful free-association appropriation is simply a harbinger of what’s to come – or what is already happening elsewhere. Every piece of recorded history is now reduced to 1’s and 0’s and used as easily as paint from the tube.

Rae McGrath, owner of Brooklynite, speaking in reference to Miss Bug’s techniques, says, “I think they are remixing things to make them their own, but because the images they are using are current they get more scrutiny. (It’s an) Interesting debate that you can obvious take the side you feel strongly about.”

Miss Bugs continues to work.

Or maybe it’s not about the art at all. As one collector remarked to another on a forum online recently, “People do get testy once the (Miss Bugs) prints are market price, don’t they, Bob?”

Take a look at the GirlTalk video below and tell us about all the cultural “Sacred Cows” you’re going to defend and preserve.

“Copasetic” DAIN takes us to the 1940’s this fall at Brooklynite

August 19, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Opening

This just in over the teletype wires….

Brooklyn born Street Artist Dain is hitting Brooklynite Gallery September 12 to revisit a time when socialism in America was WELCOMED via government work programs, the G.I. Bill, and Social Security. Now, during a national healthcare debate when such inexplicable, intractable ignorance is on display about the true nature of representative government, DAIN is doing his part aesthetically to usher in an era of social responsibility and community connectedness.

Dain 1943 (photo Jaime Rojo)

His black and white portraits of everyday working men and women from 65 years ago have been rearing their coiffed heads all over the streets this spring and summer, usually with a pastel painted background and selected garment features highlighted in a nod to Warholian oversplash.

Describing the work of Dain, Brooklynite says, “Infusing the glamour and glitz of the 1940’s together with a Brooklyn working class edge, he seeks to turn back the hands of time— Even if we were never there before.”

A usual phenomenon, street artists are a societal crystal ball.

Dain! There’s somethin’ in mah ahh! (photo Jaime Rojo)

*************************************************

DAIN
“COPASETIC”
SEPTEMBER 12 – OCTOBER 10

OPENING RECEPTION SEPTEMBER 12,
7-10PM EASTERN (19:00 UK) SPECIAL MUSICAL GUEST:
BIG BAND SWING MACHINE

Brooklynite Gallery

334 Malcolm X Blvd.

Brooklyn, NY 11233

ph. 347-405-5976

www.brooklynitegallery.com

Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque Preview – Tonight at Factory Fresh

August 14, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Gallery, Opening

Lights, Camera, Banker!

Jon demonstrates that a donation to the Banker’s Bailout Fund will illuminate his calculating eyes (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Final preparations were being made yesterday for the “Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque” show tonight at Factory Fresh.

Billed as an “International Art Show” and curated by Artist Jim Avignon, it features artists from France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Brooklyn, and promises vibrant colors, playful items, and contemporary weirdness to help bail you out during the rigors of a crumbling economy.

Jim Avignon, cartoon poet, speed painter and performance genius (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Daniel Dueck’s imagination creatures are born from spontaneous spills and splatters of paint.(photo Steven P. Harrington)

Asuka Ohsawa makes these little banks when she is not baking cookies, making sock monkeys and thinking about garden gnomes (photo Steven P. Harrington)

An orgiastic splashtastic abstraction by Jon Burgerman (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Street Artist Ema says, “I have been painting walls since my early teens, and my style has changed quite a lot (photo Steven P. Harrington)

What are you looking at me for, I’m just a banker out of a job? Bail me out! (photo Steven P. Harrington)

“Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque” features Ema, Asuka Ohsawa, Roman de Milk & Wodka, Jim Avignon, Jon Burgerman, Christine Young, Daniel Dueck

LEARN MORE AT FACTORY FRESH WEBSITE

I Know there is AdHoc: Chris Stain and Armsrock (last installment of 3 interview posts)

August 7, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Interview, Opening

Armsrock in a moment of haste (photo Jaime Rojo)

Tonight marks two occasions; Ad Hoc Gallery’s last large-scale opening after blasting open the doors of Bushwick in 2005 to a new audience for street art, urban art, graffiti, tatoo, pop surrealism, screen printing, and good-natured fun-loving creative community organizing, AND the opening of a show called,
“I Know There Is Love”.

COINCIDENCE? I think not.

Chris Stain at Ad Hoc (photo Jaime Rojo)

After lots of pre-planning, conversations, scores of back and forth emails, one big overnight mural, and 10 days of installation in this much respected gallery, Chris Stain knows that the show will mean different things to different people,

“It’s always subjective how people take things, when they see them. If they hear a song, it’s going to mean something to one person and mean something different to somebody else. I kind of think that’s the way it is with the artwork. I don’t really have any expectations or want anybody to get anything out of it more than “Here’s two people that give a sh*t about what’s going on around them in the world.”

Before you can get to the title of the show, there had to be discussions about a more basic question, says Armsrock; questions like,

” ‘What is love?’ And it’s not addressed so directly here but it’s sort of like everything that goes in here is somehow this “note” that comes out of this process work before the show and all the contemplations that we had and the conversations we had.

“I think we have very different opinions on it, but somehow it’s come together inside this space and whether or not people actually are able to decipher it is another question, but I think there is enough information so there is some kind of discourse that is thrown up in the air regarding themes such as ‘hope’ , which is very much at the core.”

Too esoteric a sentiment for street art? No, this show is knee-deep in reality, and is still hoping for a way out.

Ad Hoc show tonight; “I Know There Is Love”

Pandemic 37 Show at Pandemic Gallery

August 6, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, Interview, NYC, Opening

Familiar names in a new gallery

Bixby, Buildmore, Celso, DarkClouds, infinity, Judith Supine, Keely, Kngee, Matt Siren, R. Deeker, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Wrona

Pandemic Gallery

37 Broadway Between Kent and Wythe

Brooklyn (South Williamsburg)

photo credit: hragv

R.Deeker

photo credit: Lord Jim

Celso

photo credit: walknboston

Buildmore

photo credit: Lord Jim

Judith Supine

Oil pastels and drawing together: Chris Stain and Armsrock (2nd installment of 3 interview posts)

August 6, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Gallery, Interview, Opening

In stark black and white, you can only imagine the experiences that Armsrock is drawing. Hopefully, only in your imagination, in some cases. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain talks about the variety of techniques he’s using, including a relatively new one he borrowed from Armsrock,

“Yeah, basically, the gallery told us that in order for me to use spray paint to do the installation I needed to contact the tenant who lives above the gallery because the fumes will rise up to their apartment. I thought that would slow me down and I remembered that last year when Armsrock and I worked together that he was using these oil pastels, crayons. And I tried that out last year when I was in Norway and I liked it. I didn’t really explore it like I wanted to so I figured, “What the hell”, I’ll do it for this show because it will tie-in more with what he is doing with charcoal and watercolor. Spray paint can be rather bold and striking, whereas his work is more softer looking. So I think it worked out well and I liked it. I like the softness of it. It’s more hands-on drawing… you’re in direct contact with the wall . ”

Chris Stain using the full scope of the wall, and stretching his skills (photo Jaime)

Instead of solo shows, Armsrock said that they each wanted to do a two-person show,

“Basically because it is more fun and it makes it a little easier going. We’re not often drawing on each other’s things but there’s constantly this talk going back and forth.”, Armsrock

Armsrock (photo Jaime Rojo)

Armsrock (photo Jaime Rojo)

“I Know There is Love” at Ad Hoc Gallery August 7

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Mr. Jago and Will Barrass discuss their original gig. (image courtesy Upper Playground)

“If you believe the world will end in 2012 and you can’t do anything about it, maybe it’s better to blow yourself up when you feel like it,” says WK. (photo WK Interact)

The clock has been set and is ticking until November 7 when stark street art fantacist WK Interactive detonates his latest cluster of objets at SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS in L.A.

Let’s see what the little Missus packed in my lunch today… (WK Interact) (photo WK Interact)

Where’s my key? Where’s my key? WK Interact (photo WK Interact)

Tune in next week for our Q&A with WK >>>>>>>>

“Brooklyn Street Art: Some of these pieces look tempting to touch, but I’m afraid my hand might blow off.

WK Interact: By all means – touch………” (final photo Adam Wallacavage) SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS Presents How To Blow Yourself Up New Works by WK Interact November 7 – December 5, 2009 Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

Cold and rainy weather, obscenely bad public train service, great art!

Multi-colored Shag Head by Peru Ana Ana Peru at Brooklynite (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Surgeon General says that pipe smoking is dangerous for toddlers. Just so you know. (Peru Ana Ana Peru) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

The original Balloon Children, in 3-D (Peru Ana Ana Peru) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Simple but horrid scenarios jumped to mind upon seeing this piece by Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Stills from their films were mounted next to one another on this piece by Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Steven P. Harrington)

That night BSA received a nice vinyl piece by Street Artist Billi Kid: A freshly silkscreened over stencil portrait of much loved street art photographer Elisha Cook Jr.

Elisha Cook Jr. has been on the streets capturing street art (among many other things) for a while, which has earned him a loyal fanbase, including Billi Kid.

Chris Stain on the wall (photo Jaime Rojo)

Image by Billi Kid

The new Chris Stain oil pastel and acrylic wash piece stands at 12’H by about 20’W.

“Year of the Wolfbat” An installation by Dennis McNett

The work showed a graduated movement forward by the artist from his street art work, with greater layering and collaging, finer detail, thoughtful splattering of color, and a thick coat of lacquer. Despite the weather, the mood inside Brooklynite was warm, congenial, and celebratory.

(photo Steven P. Harrington)

Smaller works were framed like photos and hung salon style in a family room corner (photo Steven P. Harrington)

(photo Steven P. Harrington)

And the band played on (photo Jaime Rojo)

The captain ran a tight ship with her watchful eye all night. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist Dives Shallowly for Inspiration

Nothing will stir up the ire of artists and their fans than another artist’s appropriation of style or technique. It’s considered “lame”.

A Mondrianic grid of transparency (Miss Bugs) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

This month a very large street art piece in Brighton, England by Miss Bugs has enlivened the debate about any number of things, including copyright issues, right down to the amount of imagination of the artist may possess.

Miss Bugs in Brighton

Miss Bugs in a big way.

Brooklyn hometown heroes Faile may have lifted their images from lesser-known sources, and thus the images quickly became associated with them and “owned” by Faile in the minds of fans (photo Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs doesn’t so much adapt the original Faile image as adopt it wholesale.

This calls into question the creativity of the artist in the minds of some. In fact, you may hear cries of “Emperor’s New Clothes” more often than during an Orange Alert in the “War-On-Terror” Bush years.

A dab o’ O’ for your mural? (Miss Bugs)

And then there’s the Holy Grail of Modern Street Art Imagery. Shep Fairey takes his hits, most of them because of his public stature, but chopping up an Obama “Hope” image and splaying it across the wall as a collaging effect makes the Fairey Faithful pale and weak from disbelief.

In the heart of Brooklyn street art circa 2008 (photo Jaime Rojo)

In the heart of Brooklyn street art circa 2008 (photo Jaime Rojo)

Oh, let’s see. There’s Picasso, Warhol, and Haring and I haven’t left her chest. What about the Munchy Mickey Mouse ears? Now those could get you in trouble. And the Rakkoon eyes? (Miss Bugs) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Miss Bugs continues to work.

Or maybe it’s not about the art at all. As one collector remarked to another on a forum online recently, “People do get testy once the (Miss Bugs) prints are market price, don’t they, Bob?”

Take a look at the GirlTalk video below and tell us about all the cultural “Sacred Cows” you’re going to defend and preserve.

This just in over the teletype wires….

Dain 1943 (photo Jaime Rojo)

Dain! There’s somethin’ in mah ahh! (photo Jaime Rojo)

Lights, Camera, Banker!

Jon demonstrates that a donation to the Banker’s Bailout Fund will illuminate his calculating eyes (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Final preparations were being made yesterday for the “Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque” show tonight at Factory Fresh.

Billed as an “International Art Show” and curated by Artist Jim Avignon, it features artists from France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Brooklyn, and promises vibrant colors, playful items, and contemporary weirdness to help bail you out during the rigors of a crumbling economy.

Jim Avignon, cartoon poet, speed painter and performance genius (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Daniel Dueck’s imagination creatures are born from spontaneous spills and splatters of paint.(photo Steven P. Harrington)

Asuka Ohsawa makes these little banks when she is not baking cookies, making sock monkeys and thinking about garden gnomes (photo Steven P. Harrington)

An orgiastic splashtastic abstraction by Jon Burgerman (photo Steven P. Harrington)

An orgiastic splashtastic abstraction by Jon Burgerman (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Street Artist Ema says, “I have been painting walls since my early teens, and my style has changed quite a lot (photo Steven P. Harrington)

What are you looking at me for, I’m just a banker out of a job? Bail me out! (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Armsrock in a moment of haste (photo Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain at Ad Hoc (photo Jaime Rojo)

Too esoteric a sentiment for street art? No, this show is knee-deep in reality, and is still hoping for a way out.

In stark black and white, you can only imagine the experiences that Armsrock is drawing. Hopefully, only in your imagination, in some cases. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain using the full scope of the wall, and stretching his skills (photo Jaime)

Instead of solo shows, Armsrock said that they each wanted to do a two-person show, “Basically because it is more fun and it makes it a little easier going. We’re not often drawing on each other’s things but there’s constantly this talk going back and forth.”, Armsrock

Armsrock (photo Jaime Rojo)

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WK Interact: By all means – touch………”

(final photo Adam Wallacavage)

SUBLIMINAL PROJECTS Presents
How To Blow Yourself Up
New Works by WK Interact
November 7 – December 5, 2009
Opening Reception: Saturday, November 7, 8 p.m. – 11 p.m.

That night BSA received a nice vinyl piece by Street Artist Billi Kid:

A freshly silkscreened over stencil portrait of much loved street art photographer Elisha Cook Jr.

Instead of solo shows, Armsrock said that they each wanted to do a two-person show,

“Basically because it is more fun and it makes it a little easier going. We’re not often drawing on each other’s things but there’s constantly this talk going back and forth.”, Armsrock