On the Street

Week in Images 05.17.09

May 19, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, On the Street

New Stuff as the summer explosion begins…

Faile has spun out to Bedford Avenue (or at least a couple feet from it) in one more of these spinning columns to thrill the kids and the throngs of Williamsburg denizens, fans, and followers. Rumor has it that you can also charge your cell phone with the energy stored from the spinning, but we couldn’t find the jack : (

(photo courtesy of SMKjr)

Yes you did! (photo Jaime Rojo)

Overhead shot (photo Jaime Rojo)

Link to SMKjr video of this piece rotating

Aakash in the Eastern District (Aakash Nihalani)(photo Jaime Rojo)

The eventual fate of all (Chrisian Paine) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Pleased to meet you! (el Sol 25) (photo Jaime Rojo)

"Something to do with sports or something I guess" (I'm Keith Hernandez) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Well framed piece (Momo) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Nobody's sculpture, yet everybody's sculpture (Nobody) (photo Jaime Rojo)

A riotous and quirky quilt to keep your construction site warm (photo Jaime Rojo)

(Stikman, Royce Bannon) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Tong-Tong, who's there? (Tong) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Thong-Thong, who's there? (photo Jaime Rojo)

A Barbie moment (God this better not be a product placement or I will scaaareeeem!) (Zaca) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Sunday in the Subway with Posterboy

May 17, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, On the Street

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)

Porcupine and Bear Sighting: Broken Crow in Billyburg

May 7, 2009 Brooklyn, On the Street

Seen on the Street: Work in Progress

After two successful openings over the weekend, Broken Crow gets up in the BK.

During a brief respite from the rain – for about 8 hours yesterday, Broken Crow brought back the wild into our Brooklyn urban environment. All you need is a cool slab of flat, a couple ladders, and giant stencils you’ve been cutting all night, and you’re ready to rock the block!

Amazing how much you can get done in 3 hours! Broken Crow at work (photo Jaime Rojo)

Bear keeping his distance from his prickly cohort. Broken Crow at work on a new large mural in one of Williamsburg's still ungentrified sections. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Kind of makes all the rain worth it. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Images of the Week 04.26.09

April 26, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, BSA Images Of The Week, On the Street

Col from Robots Will Kill (photo Jaime Rojo)

Donkey Skin (photo Jaime Rojo)

Green Dragon (photo Jaime Rojo)

My therapist told me it is so important to just give myself permission to have fun. (Katz) (photo Jaime Rojo)

The Condom Death Princess and her mushroom stormtroopers (Matt Siren) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Tonight on Larry King, makeup tips with RuPaul! (MBW) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Monster Shield (photo Jaime Rojo)

There's hole where my heart was. (Chris from Robots Will Kill) (Photo Jaime Rojo)

Yo! Nice goin' numb nuts (numb nuts) (photo Jaime Rojo)

And now the red dragon (photo Jaime Rojo)

Rednose makes an example of AIG (Tazmat Rednose) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Stikman feeling a bit green (Stikman) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Images of the Week 04.19.09

April 19, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, BSA Images Of The Week, On the Street

The Army of the Creative Spirit must be continuously on guard for the minions of mediocrity! (Nomade ) (photo Jaime Rojo)

“Where’s that durn Tea Party?” (General Howe) (photo Jaime Rojo)

A stunning carved piece of Totemic import! “The Agony and the Ecstasy” (Faile) (photo Jaime Rojo)

The spinning tale of Faile (Faile) (photo Jaime Rojo)

“The Agony and the Ecstasy” (Faile) (photo Jaime Rojo)

The magnolia trees are in bloom in BKLN (photo Jaime Rojo)

Looking for a lodge perhaps. (Mosstika) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Echoes of Easter on the street. (Mosstika) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Insidious corporate branding? (Mosstika) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Smells nice out here (Mosstika ) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Generation Gap (photo Jaime Rojo)

Willoughby Windows presented by Ad Hoc

April 13, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, On the Street

Ad Hoc Art presents Willoughby Windows

Friday, July 10th, 2 – 7pm = Ad Hoc Art presents “Willoughby Windows”

An ambitious creative venture featuring 14 storefronts on an entire block of downtown Brooklyn which will highlight installations by 15+ artists. The opening will be a street party on Friday, June 19th, from 2-7pm. Some of New York’s artistic finest will be representing to the fullest.

Confirmed participating artists include:

Cannonball Press (Mike Houston & Martin Mazorra)
Chris Stain
Cycle
Dennis McNett
Ellis G
Gaia
Greg Lamarche
John Ahearn
Josh MacPhee
Lady Pink
Logan Hicks
Carlos Rodriguez {Mare139}
Michael De Feo
Morning Breath
Nathan Lee Pickett
Tom Beale

Week In Images 03.23.09

March 31, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, On the Street

Veng (photo Jaime Rojo)

Sol 25 (photo Jaime Rojo)

Is this about a cat? (Rod Stuart) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Nice earcuff, are those coming back? (Ethos) (photo Jaime Rojo)

AIG is just a Scapegoat (photo Jaime Rojo)

Sol 25 (photo Jaime Rojo)

Rod Stuart Loves the Hamptons (photo Jaime Rojo)

We Invented the Remix

March 10, 2009 Brooklyn, On the Street

No it’s not another 80’s song with a drum track and lyrics flowing over top,

it’s a brash re-ordering of a postering campaign in Williamsburg, Brooklyn over the past couple of weeks, where hundreds of copies were on surfaces everywhere. The original picture appears to be of Lewis Allan Reed, a purported musician of some type, wearing a t-shirt of the advertiser’s name, as interpreted by photographer Terry Richardson.

Within the first week (or day) the campaign appeared on abandoned lots and on the sides of condo construction sites, the rows of repeated posters were re-faced by street artist collective Faile, neating placing tiger’s heads over the bespectacled rocker and the word “Vanit y” over the logo on his t-shirt.

Saturday night on Bedford Ave. we spotted this total reapportioned interpretation, using what appears to be multiple pieces of the image in a bag and then dumping it out. It’s not signed but we have a good guess who this collab is. You just can’t be sure who to shout out to sometimes.

: Poster Diddy featuring Bid Daddy A. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Week In Images 03.01.09

March 5, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, On the Street

Halt! Step no further! I’m guarding this brick wall. (Veng from RWK) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Honey there’s an alien in the stairway (UFO) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Been awfully windy lately (Skewville) (photo Jaime Rojo)

There’s a Party Up in Here! (photo Jaime Rojo)

Derivation of Contemplation (NohjColey) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Which way is the wild side again? (Nobody) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Pass me a cupcake, with you? (Karat) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Okay Erykah is Hot but check out my T-shirt (Goons, The Dude Company) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Sweet Tamed (Faile) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Wild photog on the Loose! Watch out! (Billi Kid) (photo Jaime Rojo)

A hero to the Lehman family apparently (Billi Kid) (photo Jaime Rojo)

That’s funny, bunny (Aiko) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Overnight delivery in a flash! (Poster Boy and Aakash Nihalani) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Transformer Boxes (Aakash Nihilani) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Are you sure? (Zoso) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Midwinter spring is its own season (Shin Shin) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Week in Images 02.22.09

February 23, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, BSA Images Of The Week, On the Street

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)

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)

LA II New Panels at Woodward Gallery Project Space

January 27, 2009 Artists, NYC, On the Street

Walking along in lower Manhattan (yes, that is part of Brooklyn, people) you will notice a smart installation across from Woodward Gallery on Eldridge Street that they like to call their project space. It’s brand new, and it is by LA II, who showed new work at the A MAZE show in November at Factory Fresh.

Colorful Cacophony (LAII) (Image courtesy Woodward Gallery)

LAII is the nickname of an artist named Angel Ortiz, who was an early collaborator of Keith Haring’s, working closely with the artist between 1980 and 1986. Credited by Haring in John Gruen’s Keith Haring: The Authorized Biography with advancing the Pop artist’s creative development, and has been called Haring’s “silent partner. Currently on a tour, LAII is bringing on his style, which added some color since those days.

Keith Haring and LA II (1981) (courtesy Haring.com)

Ready for Obama

January 20, 2009 Artists, Barcelona, Brooklyn, Interview, On the Street

Congratulations to the new President, Vice President, and their families.

For we know that our patchwork heritage is a strength, not a weakness.We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers. We are shaped by every language and culture, drawn from every end of this Earth; and because we have tasted the bitter swill of civil war and segregation, and emerged from that dark chapter stronger and more united, we cannot help but believe that the old hatreds shall someday pass; that the lines of tribe shall soon dissolve; that as the world grows smaller, our common humanity shall reveal itself; and that America must play its role in ushering in a new era of peace.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals. Our Founding Fathers, faced with perils we can scarcely imagine, drafted a charter to assure the rule of law and the rights of man, a charter expanded by the blood of generations. Those ideals still light the world, and we will not give them up for expedience’s sake. And so to all other peoples and governments who are watching today, from the grandest capitals to the small village where my father was born: know that America is a friend of each nation and every man, woman, and child who seeks a future of peace and dignity, and that we are ready to lead once more.

Text of the inauguration Speech

Reaction to Oath at Brooklyn Academy of Music

Brooklyn High School Steppers at Inauguration

November Election:

The Streets of Brooklyn Got Your Back, Bro!

Who Says It Better Than Artists?

Image by David Choe

(photo by Michael Tercha) (Chicago Tribune)

Cornfield Art (photo Jimmy May) (Bloomsburg Press Enterprise)

Etch-A-Pres (by Tim George) (Chicago Tribune)

Sands of Time (Jorge Rodriguez Gerarda in Barcelona)

Studio 360 did a nice piece on the impact of Street Art on the election, and the impact of the election on street artists and other artists as well. Interviewed are David Cho, Shepard Fairey, Ron English.

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