Opening

“A Hounding Obsession”: Armer, DarkCloud, Deeker, and GoreB at Factory Fresh

“A Hounding Obsession”: Armer, DarkCloud, Deeker, and GoreB at Factory Fresh

November 11, 2009 , , ,

Interview with the artists; Talking about New York, dumpster diving for canvasses, hidden spots, and hounding obsessions.

Dark Clouds

Dark Clouds holds up the sky (photo Jaime Rojo)

“A Hounding Obsession”  is a great name for this show because it aptly describes the ever present drive that these artists feel to make new art and to get it out in front of an audience.  Usually it’s on the street, but this week it comes together at Factory Fresh in Bushwick.

In a way it’s a reunion show, like the Beatles!  Okay, not the Beatles, but they are a fab four that used to work side by side; now have split to different parts of the world.  Only DarkCloud and Deeker are still in the Grimey Apple so the other two have flown in just to install for this show and to hang out again with old friends.

A recent visit to the lush underground FF Studios with the artists yielded a number of raucous  stories from the four about past wild excursions painting walls and ceilings in an abandoned recycling center, a burned out embassy (complete with chandeliers and 12 foot mirrors), dumpster diving for canvasses, and a discussion on how to draw females into the gallery Friday night.

What to expect at the show? Ask the artists –

Armer: I’m gonna try to go big. The back wall is kind of large.
Deeker: Yeah we’re just going to do a good hard smash-down of the whole thing.  We don’t really have a plan on it.  We’ll just get a whole bunch of paint and do it.
DarkCloud: I’ve got a couple of pieces on glass that I’m really liking. I’ve been working on glass a lot and I just like the way they look.
GoreB: My pieces for this show all start off with Audubon-style bird paintings and I started mixing fonts with them, and each takes off with stories in it’s own direction.  There is one menacing bird that looks like it’s going to pluck your eyeball out so that’s pretty cool.

"I had this really cool book with thousands and thousands of birds and I love picture books like that, " GoreB (photo Jaime Rojo)

“I had this really cool book with thousands and thousands of birds and I love picture books like that, ” GoreB (photo Jaime Rojo)

These guys have all painted together at different times and Deeker and Goreb started talking about their escapades a couple of years ago in Brooklyn…

Deeker: For like two solid years Gore and I were painting outdoors, indoors, finding fuckin’ huge canvasses and putting them in our bags and bikIng them home. Then we’d just mess them up and go back and hang them up outside somewhere.
Goreb: There was one time we were painting with images based off of a – what was that photographer guys’ name that we did all those paintings and shit? We found all these old photographs that he had dumped out up on Bedford, like 4 x 8 foot big…
Deeker: Yeah, gigantic
Goreb: Yeah I don’t remember his name but those were actually some of the first collaborations we did – on those photographs. That’s really when I first met Celso and everybody.  (To Deeker) I actually really first met you creeping around the recycling center lot.
Deeker: That was the second time. Actually the first time was fucking drunk on the street.

Deeker

But we digress. Each artist in “A Hounding Obsession” has a background in graffiti at some point and now continues to explore the street art thing.  BSA wondered if NYC was still hot.

Brooklyn Street Art: Is New York still one of the best places to put up work?

Armer: In America, definitely.

GoreB: It’s a great spot; there’s so much neglect and cutty spots, so much discovery as far as strange places around the city.  Like me and Deeker are always talking about the places you can creep to in Queens and Brooklyn.  I think it’s even better to do your work there now because the street art scene is too popular.  You do anything in Williamsburg or on Bedford or in Soho and people find it right away and it gets on the internet but it’s kind of not what it should be about.

Armer

Brooklyn Street Art: What should it be about?

GoreB: For me it’s about withdrawing my art as much as possible and finding little nooks and crannies.

Deeker:  I feel like the one or two kids that find your stuff up in the most random of places – like their reaction is worth more than somebody who finds it right away and ten people go and photograph it and everyone talks about it.

Armer: It’s really about spots. I like spots in high traffic areas but I also like painting in strange places that only young kids might go see.

GoreB

Brooklyn Street Art: And how did you get the name DarkCloud?

DarkCloud: The concept for DarkCloud came because I was hanging out with a good friend of mine who was always in a shitty mood at one point in his life. So we started joking about how he was like the cartoon with the cloud over him always following and over his head.  He was more of a fine art painter and I was only into graffiti solely and I didn’t really want to do anything but graffiti.

He kind of painted his own version of a dark cloud and I was just like, “What is that”?  He said, “That’s the dark cloud”. I was like, “No that’s not what it looks like!” So I painted my own version and I was so kind of hooked, obsessed with getting work out and I was really into the concept of doing bolt ups on signs.  When I first started I only wanted to do them on signs. “

 

GoreB, Armer and Dark Clouds

GoreB, Armer and DarkCloud pose while Deeker is looks for a saw (photo Jaime Rojo)

Thus the Hounding Obsession we have heard about, and the name of the show.  Each one of these artists got hooked a long time ago on making street art, and while it may sound like an exaggeration to call it an obsession, it’s not a far stretch to call it that.  Listen to Dark Cloud…

Dark Cloud: When I first moved to the city that’s how it was. I grew up in Vermont and when I was in Boston I was instantaneously overwhelmed by how people accomplish this stuff. I was so interested right away that it became like an obsession.   Everything else I was into started to fade. It kind of took over. It was too much fun. And the mystery behind it was so much fun.

GoreB: Yeah that is probably a difference between what we do and most artists – we want to get our art out there and don’t want to have it anymore. I think that because of what we’ve done before we have this lack of a feeling of ownership that pervades all of our work. It’s very apparent in how we put it on the public. I think that feeling also comes from that ability to let go of it so easily. Anonymity is powerful too because it raises questions about why the piece is there. You round a corner and you have no idea who this person was or why it was created and it causes a lot more mystery that you wouldn’t get otherwise. It veils the work in mysterious ways.

Dark Clouds

Dark Clouds blue period diptych (photo Jaime Rojo)

Armer thinks that girls in particular are going to like this show and encourages them to come.

Armer: This is kind of my first show indoors, and it may be my last. So if there are any ladies that are interested in Armer, they should definitely roll through.

Brooklyn Street Art: So this is a one–time-only opportunity of a lifetime?

Armer: Yes, I’m retiring after this. Not from the streets though.

Armer

Armer meditates on a topic dear to the heart (photo Jaime Rojo)

And a few little hits from the Streets….

DarkClouds Free Delivery (photo Jaime Rojo)

DarkClouds in situ.  (photo Jaime Rojo)

Botanical Deeker

A botanical Deeker from a few years ago (photo Jaime Rojo)

GoreB

GoreB coming in for a landing (photo Jaime Rojo)

FACTORY FRESH SITE IS HERE

“A Hounding Obsession” is opening Friday

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Interview: Inside the “The Thousands” and Swoon’s lock box with Michael “RJ” Rushmore

Interview: Inside the “The Thousands” and Swoon’s lock box with Michael “RJ” Rushmore

November 10, 2009 , , ,

After spending most of 2009 in preparation, Michael “RJ” Rushmore is one week from the opening of “The Thousands”, a retrospective survey covering artists of the last few decades that led to what we’re calling “Street Art” today.

Nick Walker for The Thousands (courtesy Michael "RJ" Rushmore)

Nick Walker for The Thousands (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

As editor and author of the popular blog Vandalog, RJ has been taking readers on a tour of the Street Art scene from his unique perspective.  Encouraged by his father, an avid and prodigious collector of street art, the recent high school graduate has labored for much of the last 5 months to pull together this show – reaching out to artists, collectors, authors, publishers, you name it.

When RJ first told us about his idea for a “pop-up” show in London, we thought it would be a small affair with perhaps one or three of the larger names and examples of work in an inflatable shop on cobblestone streets. But like so many young people energized by the excitement garnered in an exploding new movement, RJ has worked feverishly to grow this show into what he hopes will set a standard.

Swoon Box Contents

More inside looks at this Swoon Box below (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

A tribute to his dedication and sincere regard for the work and the artists, “The Thousands” will feature many of the antecedent contributors (or pioneers) to the scene (Jenny Holzer, Blek le Rat, Futura 2000) as well as the better known artists that have come to symbolize the current explosion that began in the first half of this decade (Swoon, Banksy, Shepard Fairey) and many others of equal interest.

As if throwing a show of this scope was not enough RJ also created a book to accompany the show, published by Drago, one of the few small presses that have seriously and knowledgeably  documented the growth of the graffiti-to-street art scene.  With dedication, focus, and maturity, RJ navigates the back alleys and side-streets to bring this show in the heart of London to fruition.

Skewville from "The Thousands" (courtesy Drago press)

Skewville from “The Thousands” (courtesy Drago press)

Brooklyn Street Art: What sparked your interest in curating this show of Street Art? How did the whole process start?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I think it was an idea that I’d had brewing in the back of my mind for a while, but I wasn’t taking it seriously until last January when I met with another street art blogger who proposed a similar idea about a having a street art retrospective. Eventually, we went our separate ways and I continued to develop the exhibition further. This is the show that a major museum should put on, but so far nobody has, and I hope that The Thousands helps to change that.

Brooklyn Street Art: “The Thousands” – is this a reference to the rise in this new wave of street art since 2000?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: While probably 95% of the show is work from the last ten years, that isn’t where I got the name. It’s probably a more succinct explanation though.

The show’s title comes from a short story by Daniel Alarcón called “The Thousands”. The story is about this community that is built by society’s outcasts and dreamers and they build their city out of the discarded and disused materials of the city they used to live in. So that reminded me of street art and the street art community.

 

sdf

Veng from Robots Will Kill featured in “The Thousands” from his piece at the Mark Batty Urban Arts Fest in Brooklyn last month (courtesy Drago)

Brooklyn Street Art: Are most of the pieces in the show privately owned?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: Yes. More than 2/3rds of the artwork comes from private collections. I wanted this to be as much like a museum show as possible, almost a pop-up museum, and the way to do that is fill the show with amazing pieces from private collections.

The process of finding work has at some times been a challenge because I don’t know every street art collector in England, but it’s also been a unique opportunity to view some truly spectacular collections.

 

Chris Stain (photo Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain will be represented in “The Thousands” (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What piece surprised the hell out of you?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I’m saving pictures of this particular piece until after opening night, because I want people to come into the gallery not knowing exactly what to expect, but Roa’s piece is very cool and different. When Roa was in London recently, we spoke about his piece for The Thousands. He told me to wait and to trust him, that it was something special, so I did. Then he sent me the jpegs and I was definitely surprised. All I will say for now is that the piece is on venetian blinds.

 

Brooklyn street artists Faile will be in "The Thousands" (courtesy Drago)

Brooklyn street artists Faile will be in “The Thousands” (courtesy Drago)

Brooklyn Street Art: The show also has a handsome book to accompany it. What was the experience of putting it together?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: Everybody at Drago, my publisher, has been extremely supportive of the show and the book. I would even say that Paulo, Drago’s founder and head guy, was the first person to actually believe that The Thousands was going to happen and not be a complete train wreck. So working with them has been good fun. But the process of putting together a book in such a short amount of time was very stressful and even led to a few days of working 12 hours straight on the layout and design.

The best part about the reading book was also my favorite thing about putting it together. The book is split into sections, and most sections cover one artist. Since everything was already organized by artist, I was able to get a number of other artists and art world personalities to write about their friends and favorite artists. For example, Know Hope has written about Chris Stain and Elbow-toe has written a piece on Veng.

 

Swoon Box

A hand-made box by Brooklyn street artist Swoon that will be in “The Thousands” (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

Brooklyn Street Art: The Swoon Box for “The Thousands”; Did she construct the box herself or was it a found box that she then later decorated?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I’ve never asked Swoon, but I would guess that she constructed the chest. It looks like the wood is salvaged from a bunch of different sources, and the hinges are so mismatched that the lid can’t sit parallel to the walls of the box.

 

Swoon lock box (top detail)

Swoon lock box (top detail)

Brooklyn Street Art: It could be a time capsule, or a lock box of mementos and inspiring objects. What do you think?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: Right now, I think of it more like a lock box, but 15, 20, 30 years from now… the meaning will probably change with time as street art and Swoon become more or less important. Maybe one day Swoon will be written about in art history books and the box will be seen in an entirely different light. But at its core, and for my family, it will always see it box as a lock box.

There is this old deerskin chest in my house that my family calls The Treasure Box. It’s been in my dad’s family for generations and dates back to some time in the 1800’s. It’s full of old letters and locks of hair and things like that going all back though more than 100 years of Rushmore family history. My family and I see The Swoon Box as very similar to our Treasure Box, so we will always see The Swoon Box as full of mementos and not just a piece of art history.

 

Inside the Swoon lock box. (courtesy Michael "RJ" Reynolds)

Inside the Swoon lock box. (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

Brooklyn Street Art: What’s your favorite object in the box and can you describe it for us?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: I usually like to get a behind the scenes view of things, so my favorite pieces in the box are the sketches for pieces that eventually became familiar Swoon images. In particular, I think the drawing for Zahra is a favorite. The sketch is beautiful, the end result is one of my all time favorite images by Swoon and I happened to meet Zahra earlier this year as well as her child.

 

Swoon's "Zahara" (courtesy of Black Rat Press)

Swoon’s “Zahara” (courtesy of Black Rat Press)

The Zahra sketch is pretty abstract, you can tell that there is a woman, but it’s really rough and seems to be more about the colors than any details about Zahra’s features. Without the image of a rising sun that is in both the sketch and the end result, you wouldn’t even connect the two pieces.

Swoon Box Contents

Swoon box has an original sketch for “Bethlehem Boys” (courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

Swoon's Bethlehem Boys as seen on the streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn.

Swoon’s “Bethlehem Boys” as seen on the streets of Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: If you have a show in ten years called “The Teens”, what do you think we might see in it?

Michael “RJ” Rushmore: What really interests me right now and what I’ve been noticing lately is the continuing fusion of graffiti and street art. In most cities that have graffiti and street art, somebody is trying to merge the two cultures. In London some of those artists are Part2ism, Sickboy, the Burning Candy crew, Kid Acne, ATG crew, Elate and Word To Mother. Maybe that’s just my particular interest, but I’ve heard Pure Evil say that he is seeing something similar.

So if my taste is anything to go by, a decade from now I would like to see a show with classically trained painters showing off their lettering style and hard-core train bombing kings painting with a brush and telling everybody why Lee Quinones is their hero, except we won’t even notice the supposed role reversal I’ve just described.

And of course, since I’ll be nearing 30 years old, I’d want to include some artwork by actual teenagers to help support the next generation of street art/graffiti/whatever we’ll be calling this in ten years time.

Swoon box's contents

What are you looking at? (Swoon courtesy Michael “RJ” Rushmore)

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

“The Thousands” features artists Adam Neate,  Aiko,  Anthony Lister,  Armsrock, Banksy, Barry McGee, Bast, Blek le Rat, Burning Candy, Chris Stain, David Ellis, Elbow-toe, Faile, Futura 2000, Gaia, Herakut, Jenny Holzer, José Parlá, Judith Supine, Kaws, Know Hope, Nick Walker, Os Gêmeos, Roa, Sam3, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, Swoon, WK Interact

November 18 "The Thousands" opens

November 18 “The Thousands” opens

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Logan Hicks and C215 in a “Parallel Universe” at Show and Tell

November 9, 2009 , , ,

Street Art Stencil Masters Join Talents in first Collaborative Show in Toronto

LOGAN HICKS - SELF PORTRAIT 2
Indicative of a new technique Logan has been exploring since the end of summer – a new piece called”Self Portrait 2″ (courtesy Show and Tell Gallery)

Last week two street artists, Brooklyn’s Logan Hicks and C215 from Paris, left New York to head further north to Toronto to install their new show “Parallel Universe” at the Show and Tell Gallery.

Aside from some travel complications and a smashed shipping crate that damaged some of Logan’s work, the show went well and the art patrons of Toronto had the opportunity to see for themselves the stupendous work of two of the most talented stencil street artists working today.

C215 - SELF PORTRAIT

The Parisian stencil master takes a moment to reflect ("Self portrait" by C215) (courtesy Show and Tell Gallery)

The two friends were pretty stoked to have a show together.  Their collaborative work was so seamless that a casual observer may not have discerned the difference in styles. While Hicks leans more toward meditations on the geometry and vanishing horizon perspective created by formal architectural convention, C215 easily blends his gentle pathos for the streets and the people who live on them.

LOGAN HICKS - CHINA TOWN
“Chinatown”, by Logan Hicks and C215 (courtesy Show and Tell Gallery)

Mr. Hicks also sent some pics of preparations of the show. Thanks Logan!

Parallel Universe Logan Hicks and C215 installing the show
“Parallel Universe”  installation in progress.

C215 work ready to be hang
C215 work is on the floor and put in order to be hung.

Logan Hicks work ready to be hang
Back allys, street canyons, and fire in the sky: Logan Hicks work ready to be hung.

Parallel Universe people's Universe
Toronto fans begin to arrive at “Parallel Universe” show at Show and Tell Gallery.

For more information on Show and Tell Gallery click here

For C215 click here

Logan Hicks Website

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Sneak Pics of “ShineBox” at Brooklynite & A True childhood Shinebox story.

November 7, 2009 , , ,

Coming up November 21 a show of work with one of the most curious themes you have ever heard of is brushing up big at Brooklynite –

“Go Get Your Shinebox”

– where shelves are being sawed while we speak – to display 100 international artists’ interpretation of the shoe shine box familiar to an earlier era; an earlier depression, I like to say.

NOVEMBER 21 Opening at Brooklynite

NOVEMBER 21 Opening at Brooklynite

In the meantime, our favorite street-art photographer Jaime Rojo writes about his own personal experience being a shoe-shine boy one summer in his little town in Mexico.

“Go get your shine box!” My mother commanded it and she meant business. A rite of passage for the five boys in my family: for one week take your shoe-shine box down town to the commercial district of our small town and learn about earning a living.

I imagine that my parents had more than one goal in mind. To inculcate us with the values of honest work and to make us study hard at school so we wouldn’t have to shine shoes for a living.  I got that lesson fast.

Sure enough, for my 11th birthday I got a shoe-shine box with my name on it. And that box was not a toy. “You don’t play with this”, my father told me.

I only lasted a week shining shoes of businessmen and the boots of caballeros. And I got myself in big trouble.  I broke a cardinal rule; no CANTINAS. They were dirty shameful places no respectful boy should go in.

I thought, “How come the real shoe-shine boys are allowed into the cantinas but not me? That’s where the money is!” I got in trouble with another boy who said I was in his territory and he punched me. The bloody nose from that cantina-whooping made me look tough, but not tough enough to take on my parents. After a lot of yelling and the ROJO INQUISTION my little entrepreneurial adventure on the street was slammed closed like a shine box.

The following summer I sold ice cream in the park, but that’s another story.

>>>>> >  >>> >> >>>>>> > >

Brooklynite Gallery will bring back those childhood memories on November 21 with an impressive roster of artists creating their own shine boxes.

Here are some sneak peek images from the show for your pleasure with more to come later. Enjoy!

3TTMAN
3TTMAN

Ben Frost
Ben Frost

Billi Kid
Billi Kid

Brooklyn Street Art has a great little posting coming up about this guy Billi Kid, and an experiment he did on the street with it on Central Park South with his shinebox.

Also we’re hoping to shed some light on the genesis for this unprecedented  show of over 100 artists’ interpretation of the traditional shoe-shine box, a street fixture from our last depression.

>>>>>   >   .>>>>> .>>>>>>>>>>>>

“Go Get Your Shinebox” at Brooklynite Gallery >>> Brooklynite Gallery Website Here

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Dan Witz is Doing Dark Things in West Hollywood

Dan Witz is Doing Dark Things in West Hollywood

November 4, 2009 , , , ,
Dan puts some dark touches on his new installation at Carmichael Gallery (image courtesy Carmichael)

Dan touches up some fingers on his new installation at Carmichael Gallery (image courtesy Carmichael)

You’ve walked by his work a hundred times on the street in plain view.  No really, you probably have, and didn’t know it.  Dan Witz specializes in detailed work that when fully realized, can be be easy to miss.

"Dark Doings" is getting a lot of attention for Carmichael Gallery

“Dark Doings” is getting a lot of attention along North LaBrea Avenue.

A Chicago native, Witz has been in New York since he was an art-school punk at Cooper Union during a drug deranged haze that reigned in the economically bombed-out Lower East Side at the dawn of the Reagan Revolution.  Graffiti art was expanding and morphing into many styles as this thinking-man explored an anti-graffiti that did anything but seek attention for it’s own sake.

gallery

Gallery preparations are underway for the show. (image courtesy Carmichael)

Over the years Dan has specialized in conceptual pranks, street interventions, and Dutch master inspired palm-sized oil paintings.  While inspired by graffiti writers as a student, he instead practiced a more studied craft on the street that almost asked to be overlooked. Much of his work has adorned quietly, a subtle strong commentary to those who would observe.

A ghostlike female visage appears behind the cracked wire-inlaid window (Dan Witz) (courtesy the artist)

A ghostlike female visage appears behind the cracked wire-inlaid window (Dan Witz) (courtesy the artist)

Tomorrow at Carmichael Gallery the prolific Witz, now from Brooklyn, will be expanding on a series he began a few years ago that was meant to draw attention to the new boom in soul-less building design in “up-and-coming” neighborhoods like Williamsburg.  The fake exhaust vents, placed appropriately along the facades of “ugly” buildings, feature fingers and gloved hands pressing between the grates in an act of escape.

Can you keep a secret? (Dan Witz) (image courtesy the artist)

Can you keep a secret? (Dan Witz) (image courtesy the artist)

“Dark Doings”, the new show, takes the experiment a step further to the safety windows that beckon from steel doors in industrial areas. Attached in such a realistic manner, you may think that a woman has her face pressed up against the glass from inside.  Or you may not notice his work in plain view.

New pieces by Dan Witz waiting to be hung for Thursday's show (image courtesy Carmichael)

New pieces by Dan Witz waiting to be hung for Thursday’s show (image courtesy Carmichael)

Brooklyn Street Art: Dan, my front doors have those same square wire-veined windows! One night a drunk neighbor couldn’t find his key so he smashed one with a can of coke and there were little pieces of glass all over the floor. Your people definitely look trapped in there. Little portholes of desperation. Or is that just me?
Dan Witz: I like that story. But I’d change it to little portals of desperation.

Dan did a special installation this week in L.A. for Halloween. Um, scary (Dan Witz) (image courtesy Carmichael)

Dan did a special installation this week in L.A. for Halloween. Um, scary (Dan Witz) (image courtesy Carmichael)

Brooklyn Street Art: Sometimes your pieces on the street are so well camouflaged that people will not know they are there. Would you rather that your work is discovered or looked over?
Dan Witz: I know it’s perverse and probably not in my best self-interest but I love the idea of thousands of people walking by my pieces every day and not seeing them. Eventually though the law of averages (I put up so damned many of them) will catch up with you and you’ll see one. Then I’m hoping you’ll go, ‘Holy shit!” and begin to wonder what else you’ve been missing out there.

Dark doings definitely happening in the gallery (Dan Witz) (image courtesy Carmichael)

Dark doings definitely happening in the gallery (Dan Witz) (image courtesy Carmichael)

Brooklyn Street Art: You like to be outdoors, and many of your pieces in Brooklyn are about people trying to get out through vents of ugly new buildings. Is this work autobiographical in any way?

Dan Witz: The Ugly new Buildings projects is autobiographical inasmuch as I live in the neighborhood that these arrogant architectural abominations have been inflicted upon. The subtext of the piece was never one of escape, but more of frustration and powerlessness. As a street artist I take what’s happening on my own streets very personally.

 

(Dan Witz) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Another project was to re-create street signs that contain characters or body parts in them, like this one with a scuba diver. (Dan Witz) (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: “Dark Doings” still retains a punk rock flavor. And yet, so much of your work seems luminous and glowing and warm. Does a punk ever lose that rebellious dark side?

Dan Witz: It’s true that much of my youth was spent romanticizing the dark side. I believed that the truth could only be found by a violent rejection of the status quo. I still believe this, especially concerning creativity, but the truth about the so called dark side is that it’s mostly a pose and that the rest is ultimately sad and is the graveyard of a lot of wasted talent.

I’m just glad I made it back to report on it with my faculties (somewhat) intact. At some point after I hit thirty, I noticed that all I wanted to paint was light, and I needed to make it as warm and luminous and spiritually nourishing as I could. Not too ‘hip’ a career concept one would think, but somehow this turned out to be a rebellious act as well–at least for me. I can’t claim the metaphor was intentional but it’s not the first time my work has benefitted from such a suspiciously lucky coincidence.

>>>> > >  >>> >> > >>>

The exhibition “Dark Doings” will have an opening reception
Thursday November 5 from 7-10 PM at Carmichael Gallery in West Hollywood, CA.

Dan Witz’s Website Here

Read an excellent interview with Dan Witz by Ali Gitlow last week on JustSeeds.org

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Will Barras and Mr. Jago in “Darling, We’re Leaving” at FIFTY24SF Gallery (SF)

November 2, 2009 , , , ,

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.

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/

All that doodling at your telemarketer job could pay off!

All that doodling at your telemarketer job could pay off!

“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

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How to Blow Yourself Up? WK Interact Has Ideas

How to Blow Yourself Up? WK Interact Has Ideas

October 28, 2009 , , , ,

brooklyn-street-art-wk-interact-quote-1009

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)

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.

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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)

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.

 

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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………

 

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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.

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Logan Hicks and C215 in “Parallel Universe” at Show & Tell (Toronto)

October 22, 2009 , ,

Two Stencil Street Artists known well to Brooklyn are in a Parallel Universe November 6th in Toronto.

Two of the best on the scene today

Two of the best on the scene today

Show & Tell Gallery is proud to welcome world-renowned international stencil artists C215 (Paris) & Logan Hicks (NYC) to their first exhibition in Canada.

The show titled “Parallel Universe” is a unique look at stencil art, a subculture of graffiti that can be traced back over 30 years. Through their medium of choice both artists aim to capture the essence of city life. Logan creates highly detailed renditions of cityscapes, focusing on architecture, alleyways, and scenes that might not be easily recognized as beautiful. C215 on the other hand aims to capture human emotions and feelings through the subjects he chooses to paint, with his focus mainly on homeless, anonymous, and people who are generally rejected by society. The juxtaposition of both artists style is really something special, while they are close friends and work in a common medium their artistic styles vary significantly. “Parallel Universe” marks the first joint show between the pair and will feature several collaborative works as well as pieces that are inspired by one another.

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Now Showing: Peru Ana Ana Peru Colorful Absurdities at Brooklynite

Now Showing: Peru Ana Ana Peru Colorful Absurdities at Brooklynite

October 16, 2009 , , , ,
"...And Then We Jumped into the Abyss of Numbers: Memories in Absurdity From the Bowels of Peru Ana Ana Peru"

“…And Then We Jumped into the Abyss of Numbers: Memories in Absurdity From the Bowels of Peru Ana Ana Peru” opening October 17 at Brooklynite Gallery

Brooklyn-based street artists Peru Ana Ana Peru see action on the street as cinema in progress, full of color, adventure, and absurdity.

In fact, with their fantastical approach they are telling us what we already know; the logic of the street is illogical, so why begin to explain it. To embrace the swirling and jagged movement, color, texture, smell, sound, and architecture of the street is to embrace chaos theory. You can tell that Peru Ana Ana Peru find it invigorating.

Peru Ana (photo Jaime Rojo)

Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Jaime Rojo)

While graffiti culture has become somewhat codified in many respects, the rules of street art are being written before our eyes. Art theorists, facing ever-increasing irrelevance and impotence, find explanations being flushed out into the ocean as they clutch institutional inner-tubes to stay afloat. Street Art, or any name we finally settle on, is not going to be that easy to explain for a while.

PeruAna AnaPeru

Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Jaime Rojo)

While a public gallery curated by chaos is unsettling to many, Peru Ana Ana Peru have jumped into the abyss and brought riotous color and an ever twisting fantasy narrative that makes sense to – them?

Flying over the poppy fields (Peru Ana) (Jaime Rojo)

Peru Ana Ana Peru (photo Jaime Rojo)

Embracing the “traditional” wheat pasting is only one option, and while it may be the most pragmatic, don’t be surprised if they move their multi-media paintings, drawings, sculptures and video installations into the public sphere more in the future. And they will not be alone, if nascent trends in projection art (and technology), installation art, performance art, and flash mobs are an indication. Individuals are simply taking their voice to the street and claiming public space more than before.

Peru Ana Ana Peru (courtesy Brooklynite)

Peru Ana Ana Peru (courtesy Brooklynite)

Maybe the only irony in this first solo show by Peru Ana Ana Peru at Brooklynite Gallery opening is that it is located in a formalized gallery at all.  Bringing the abyss inside 4 walls, a ceiling, and a floor feels limiting.  But maybe that’s just my need to define Peru Ana Ana Peru and their work. Obviously the energy and vitality that steams out and around the colorful collection suggest that the idea of venue is no concern  to PAAP’s adventurous minds.  The calliope plays merrily on.

Peru Ana Ana Peru (courtesy the artist)

Peru Ana Ana Peru (courtesy the artist)

Brooklyn Street Art: Do your street pieces express fantasy or reality?
Peru Ana Ana Peru: We are heavily drawn to the fantastic in our work, be it in street art, or even film to a certain extent. Perhaps this is an extension of our beginnings in the avant garde film/video scene more than anything else, but it’s something that seems to have stuck with us. More than that though, we find ourselves repeatedly drawn toward things of a more whimsical nature in our work, things that might express a ‘joy of life’ aspect of things, rather than a heavy handed ‘real life’ aesthetic. In addition to this, we are shamelessly addicted to color, and lots of it, so perhaps this lends itself rather nicely to the realm of fantasy


PERU ANA ANA PERU |

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the importance of cinema in your work?
Peru Ana Ana Peru: We consider ourselves to be primarily filmmakers/video artists first, and artists/street artists after that. It is the medium that we are most comfortable in, and in which we feel we have the most to offer. In this sense, cinema is our most important undertaking, and we are most happy when we are working on our films.

Peru Ana Ana Peru (courtesy Brooklynite)

Peru Ana Ana Peru (courtesy Brooklynite)

Brooklyn Street Art: If Peru Ana Ana Peru had only one medium to express itself in, would it be painting, drawing, sculpture, or video?
Peru Ana Ana Peru: It would most likely be film/video, but with the exception that inside the video we’d use paintings and drawings and sculpture and what not.

…And Then We Jumped into the Abyss of Numbers: Peru Ana Ana Peru even made a promotional video for their first solo show (above)

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you characterize the experience of mounting your first solo show?
Peru Ana Ana Peru: Dizzying.

Three new pieces waiting to be hung for the show (photo courtesy the artist)

Three new pieces waiting to be hung for the show (photo courtesy the artist)

Brooklyn Street Art: Do the streets of New York have a particular personality that you speak to?
Peru Ana Ana Peru: It feels like New York has different personalities that speak differently to everyone. And quite frankly, it wasn’t really until after our foray into the street art/graffiti world that we realized where we fit in to the whole scheme of things. It would seem that graff/street artists can be lumped into a category of people that, when it comes down to it, just want to be noticed, just want to be seen, by anyone really. And from this point, it would seem that New York’s personality is one of indifference, like a rude bartender in a busy bar, and that by trying to put your name out everywhere, you’re really just saying, ‘hey, bartender, get me a beer.’

Peru Ana Ana Peru (detail) (courtesy Brooklynite)

Peru Ana Ana Peru (detail) (courtesy Brooklynite)

Brooklyn Street Art: What messages would you hope the viewer will walk away with after seeing the work at Brooklynite?
Peru Ana Ana Peru: That we are just getting started.

Video still from Peru Ana Ana Peru

Video still from Peru Ana Ana Peru

Brooklynite Gallery

…AND THEN WE JUMPED INTO THE ABYSS OF NUMBERS:
Memories in Absurdity From the Bowels of Peru Ana Ana Peru
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ……………………

October 17 – November 14
Brooklynite Gallery

OPENING NIGHT – October 17th, 2009, 7:00pm – 10:00pm

MUSICAL GUEST: BOMB SQUAD


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“Mutate Britain” installs “One Foot in the Grove”

October 7, 2009 , , ,

Banner-Hello-Brooklyn

The British have such a funny sense of humor – or HUMOUR, that they call this new mega-street-art-show opening in London called  “One Foot in the Grove”.

Or Hpfumourre, in King Oxibald English.

The New Mutate Britain Exhibition One Foot In The Grove Is Launched
Artist ‘Matty Small’ puts on the finishing touches yesterday. (photo Oli Scarff)

The “One Foot in the Grove” exhibition of street art by ‘Mutate Britain’ – I think this is the second year – is getting underway Friday, and preparations have begun IN EARNEST.

The New Mutate Britain Exhibition One Foot In The Grove Is Launched
The K-Guy working on a stencil (photo Oli Scarff)

The exhibition features: sculptures, paintings, stencils and graffiti from some of the world’s most well-known street artists, and Bortusk Leer. (kidding!)

The New Mutate Britain Exhibition One Foot In The Grove Is Launched
SickBoy did a loverly re-facing of this trailer. Which reminds me – I better buy  plane tickets home for Thanksgiving before the prices go up! (photo Oli Scarff)

Situated on the edge of a public transport line, the event hopes to draw over 20,000 visitors and is open to the public every Friday, Saturday and Sunday from October 9, 2009 till October 25, 2009.

The New Mutate Britain Exhibition One Foot In The Grove Is Launched
A giant floral skull hovers over these 2 unsuspecting lads sitting on …. Suburu seats? (artist:Part 2-ism)  (photo Oli Scarff)

Who’s in this show, you ask?
Read them and weep. (Well you won’t weep, just being dramatic.)

Mutate Britain says there are over 12,000 square feet of street art, sculpture and installations featuring: Joe Rush , Obey , Alex Wreckage , Fark FK , Dotmasters , Pete Dunne , Zeus , Snub , Cyclops , Sweet Toof , Best Ever , Part2ism , The Krah , Nick Walker , Teddy Baden , Dr D ,Bleech , zadok , Giles Walker , Remi Rough , Bortusk Leer , Blam , Pure Evil , Milo , Andy Seize , Carrie Reichardt , Milk , Dora , Dep , Alex Fasko , Stickboy , Mr Insa , Mac1 , Miss Buggs , Strappa , Josephine , Mr Wim , Swarm , Misecellany , Joe Black , Auction Saboteur , Busk , Bonsai , Rabodiga , Probs.

photographer Oli Scarff’s site

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Street Art Photographer: Vincent Cornelli

October 6, 2009 , , , ,

There are many photogs on the street today; intrepid wanderers and investigators who are always on the lookout for the most recent Elbowtoe or Bortusk Leer or Deekers.

The affordability of camera technology and it’s rapid deployment have flooded us all with choices and variety of images we scarcely considered even a decade ago.

Stencil artist Indigo must have the gift of clairvoyance to have planned this image for this day. (photo Vincent Cornelli)
Stencil artist Indigo must have the gift of clairvoyance to have planned this image for this day. (photo Vincent Cornelli)

Compound that fact with a large pool of knowledgeable photographers who have a thirst for adventure, many of them with skills in other creative trades like fashion, theater, music, video, fine art, and even art history (egad!), and New York’s street art scene has to be one of the best covered and understood scenes today.

A storm in the afternoon drove almost everyone inside for cover. Almost. (photo Vincent Cornelli)
A storm in the afternoon drove almost everyone inside for cover. (photo Vincent Cornelli)

One way to shoot street art of course is to document it; that is to capture it and record it for posterity with an eye toward the historical. Another approach is to contextualize the art in a sociological or cultural milieu, to give it a greater sense of place in the family of man and it’s inter-relationships.

Truthfully, there are about 57 different approaches that I’ll list in that encyclopedia I’ve been working on.

(photo Vincent Cornelli)
(photo Vincent Cornelli)

One street art photographer whose work you may dig is Vincent Cornelli, who shoots with heart and with an artist’s eye.  When you see the image, you also see the composition, the rhythm, and a bit of Vincent.  Here are some of the great shots he got this weekend at the MBP Urban Arts Festival in Bushwick.  Something about them gives you an additional understanding of what the day was like, and what it felt like to be there.

(photo Vincent Cornelli)
(photo Vincent Cornelli)

If you are Facebook, you can see more of Vinny’s pictures from the event HERE.

Evening came and so did the beer and the smiles (photo Vincent Cornelli)
Later that same day… It was NIGHT. Evening came and so did the beer and the warm smiles (photo Vincent Cornelli)

A multi-layered talent, Vincent has a multi-layered site HERE. Thanks to him for contributing his work.

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Habana Outpost, “All the Pieces on the Wall”

September 29, 2009 , ,

Veng, NohJColey, Milo Carney, Billy Russomano, Alex Mosley, Ca$h4, Awol, Erizk, Avone, Christian Vargas, Brandon Cox, Gabriel Smith, Jay Roberts, Carlito Bragonti, Jenevieve&!#, Nikeisha Nelson, Maximiliano Ferro, Royce Bannon

All The Pieces on the Wall Opening Reception

October 6th, 7-9pm Exhibition

Runs October 6th-27th, 2009

Habana Outpost 757 Fulton Street Brooklyn, NY 11217

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