Dutch abstract painter Zedz likes to think of his new work in Erie, Pennsylvania as attempting to create a symbiosis. A former graffiti writer, he says that it is the architecture that has inspired him here, and his draftsman eye may be informed perhaps by Mondrian as well.
Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
A layering of geometries are placed in a diagonal dance across the long walls, at once revealing grids, sharp lines, gradiated shadings, punches of sharply shattered color, and enlarge digitization of black/white shapes – a field pattern of many squares and rectangles.
He says that he has hopes for viewers if you let yourself stare for a while at his piece, perhaps “losing yourself in space and time, becoming part of the architectural plan or in fact becoming a part of the graffiti presented.”
Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
“Zedz seemed to be the perfect artist to visually change ordinary
architecture, bring some depth and erase borders between windows and doors,”
says curator Iryna Kanishcheva, who organized this project in the Pennsylvania
town.
Patrick Fisher has a different take on the project – hiring an artist improves social cohesion and accentuates the value of certain areas of cities: “The vacant lot adjacent to the mural had a history of unfavorable behavior,” says from the organization called Erie Art & Culture.
Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
“After the completion of the mural, overgrown weeds in the lot were cleared, disheveled vehicles were removed, and new lighting was installed,” says Mr. Fisher. “All of this creates a better sightline of the mural, but these additional investments also help make the surrounding area safer.”
Fair enough. Also it’s good to remember that young graffiti artists usually get their creative start painting in marginal parts of the urban landscape exactly like this, and are vilified or criminalized for it. Later, some of them actually get hired to paint murals.
Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Zedz. Erie, Pensylvania. 2019/ (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
Street Artist converts mundane sculptures into giant audio equalizer bars at edge of a greenspace.
When you are one of the dance music capitals of the world, it will be evident on the street during the daylight too. And we’re not speaking specifically about the apparent glitter spill on the gas station floor this morning, or the blue-haired millennial sleeping on the bench at the bus stop.
Right
now Ibiza has new audio equalizers popping up from the terra firma, thanks to
the new red, green, and yellow stripes that stand at different levels in the
air, a deliberate reflection of the control-room aesthetics that surround
superstar DJs who rock the stages here almost every night.
The
installation by AMADAMA is part of the BLOOP international Proactive Art
Festival. He’s used to applying technology to his creativity and this
guerrilla-style installation is anonymous to passersby. Veering away from the
star-powered mural programs of recent vintage, organizers of BLOOP are stripping
down and going minimalist – “(we’re) exhibiting open air installations and
artworks in extremely visible points on the island just for the work to be
seen.”
It is a refreshing return to the original spirit of Street Art, and club music for that matter, when the unpredictable eclectic nature of creativity was in full celebration and was unhindered by celebutantes, selfies, and branding.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week, where we are dedicated to showing the news kids on the block in addition to the more established names. It’s a simple inclusive philosophy that in some way is ensuring a more level playing field for the voices on the street, and so far you tell us that is exactly what you like. Street Art isn’t about legal murals, its about people taking their voice and their talent to the streets, sometimes by any means possible.
If you were to look at the works on the street in New York you could get a good representation of the sentiment of its people; worried, confused, proud, playful, defiant, angry, comedic. Shout out to this years’ Art in Odd Places, a reliably eclectic program of artists and performers who take to the streets to engage with the public – and if you think that is easy, I’ve got a Bridge in Brooklyn I’d like to sell you.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Angela Muriel, Anthony Lister, Appleton Pictures, Billy X Curmano, Carmen Rodriquez, Coco Cobre, Connie Perry, El Sol 25, Knozko, Lik, Lister, Lunge Box, Matthew Burcow, Paul Richard, Sheryo and The Yok, Stikman, Texas & Gane.
Flowers in decomposition, pathways to discovery, hidden and revealed – SNIK unveils a certain richness with this multi-staged display of beauty and decay. Lightboxes, textures, curving forms, natural and artificial light wending in and out of layers; the artists approach and examine the mystery of life and death with wholistic poetry, finding beauty in each.
For nearly a decade the English duo of Laura Perrett and Nicholas Ellis have chosen the nomenclature of the gallery when creating larger and medium-sized stenciled imagery for the street. Clean lines, photographic values, increasing sophistication in volume and textures, it is a steadfast dedication to learning that plays out before your eyes. For this show they do it all – scenery, costume, lighting, photography, directing, hand-cutting, and painting.
The resulting experience of the show is a seamless continuity in sensual gentility, a collection of figurative works and environments that seem familiar, enveloping you with the more subtle stirrings of nature. Analogous to the ephemeral qualities of art in the street, you can possibly see that there is a way to embrace the changes that they bring, and suggest. SNIK aims to help you to embrace this ephemerality.
British artist duo SNIK present EPHEMERAL, an exhibition of new works at The Crypt Gallery, London, running from 17- 20 October 2019. The Crypt Gallery, London, 165 Euston Rd, Bloomsbury, London NW1 2B
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. Migrants, Mayra 2. Women are Heroes (Kibera) 3. Chronicles, Portrait of a Generation 4. Giants (Kikito) 5. The Guns Chronicles, A History
BSA Special Feature: JR Explains “Chronicles” at Brooklyn Museum
JR: Chronicles. This Friday’s edition of BSA Film Friday is dedicated to French Artist JR as we feature a series of brief videos he filmed on the occasion of his retrospective now on view at the Brooklyn Museum.
A look inside the gallery today as we go to Hessen in Germany to see the new group exhibition mounted by the River Tales Street Art festival with the Oberhessisches Museum.
Principally organized by the 3Steps art collective, who are also in the show, it is an eclectic survey of 50 works by 30 international graffiti/Street Artists from important locals like Can2 and Loomit to Australia’s Rone and Fintan Magee and New York’s monochromatic WK Interact and old school train king Blade.
Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)
Presented in combination with the festival on the streets, the gallery show gives visitors a protected well-lit environment to look upon the work of artists on canvas as fine artists. As you scan through the space you’ll see the influences are evident from modern, contemporary, abstract, figurative, and digital – as Street Artists are frequently adept at reflecting societal movements, sentiments, and communication styles.
As part of a full-spectrum program at River Tales that runs June through October, the show here is well complimented by new murals on the street, workshops, photo walk tours, screenings, symposia, Djs, breaking, battles, and possibly, beer.
Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)Capture The Street. Oberhessisches Museum. River Tales Festival. Giesen, Germany. (photo courtesy of River Tales)
Oberhessisches Museum
Altes Schloss, Brandplatz 2, 35390 Gießen, State of Hessen, Germany
The exhibition runs from 13th of September till the 20th of October 2019
The museum will be opened Tuesday – Sunday: 10-16 o’clock
You know, Lucy Sparrow’s Delicatessen. The ingenious bodega ingénue and
felt-crafting queen of the quotidian is back in NYC with her handmade
recreation of a New Yorker’s corner grocery store. Each item is painstakingly
recreated – at once making you smile and perhaps drawing attention to the coy
futility of clever packaging that makes you buy stuff like Hornell Chili and Royal
Pink Salmon, as if that were normal.
“Her practice is quirky yet subversive,” says the new press release for this temporary pop-up installation, “luring the audience in with her soft, tactile, colorful felt creations that represent themes of consumerism and consumption.” An interactive public art project on 49th street and 6th Avenue in Manhattan, Sparrow’s uncanny and canned humor will make you laugh, and if you are so moved, buy. Pick us up a quart of milk while you’re down there, won’t you?
Lucy Sparrow’s Delicatessen on 6th is currently on view at Rockefeller Center on 6th Avenue until October 20th. Click HERE for more information, hours and directions.
Like many North American cities, the so-called “free-trade” pacts, globalism, and corporate capitalism have left scars on this city by the great Lake Erie, so-named Erie.
Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
A maritime beacon awash in the middle class life blooming from industrialization in an earlier century, this city on the lake still feels a bit flush with its museums, roller-coasters, and summertime beach life.
A new mural project from Rafael Gerlich aka SatOne brings the idea of recovering from the storm, looking through what is remaining for the clues to the future. Calling this new 12,000 square foot mural “Flotsam” you can see a parallel between the what can be recovered after a natural storm and a man-made one.
Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
The
Venezuelan living in Germany began with graffiti in the nineties but now more
often swims in the seas of abstraction, directing large storms of his own,
splashing walls with color and story for you to float upon.
Here
on Erie Bay leading from the city of Erie, the maritime mixes with the
futuretime, a stirring presentation for the city and the enormous, the great,
lake before it.
Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)Sat One. “Flotsam“. Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvania. (photo courtesy of Iryna Kanishcheva)
Artist: Sat One Location: Observation deck of Dobbin`s Landing, Erie, Pennsylvanie Curated by: Iryna Kanishcheva Funded by: Erie Arts & Culture and Erie-Western PA Port Authority Title: Flotsam
Little Ricky thinks Anna Wintour is someone important whom people consider significant or iconic in popular culture, which is already a humorous supposition. In his multiple street iterations of the fashion editor, he has dressed her as a sheep in Chanel, as a sheep in boxing gloves with Andy Warhol (replacing Basquiat), as an American Express fashion gladiator in stickers and wheat pastes on the Streets of New York.
Each tiny episode of his ongoing SHEEP series may bring a perplexed smile to the average person who is looking at them while waiting for the traffic lights to change. In the case of the Wintour character preaching and prognosticating and posing, an insider joke that appeals to the fashion gatekeepers in this city, of which many have self-appointed. The question you may ask is, who’s the sheep, who’s the shepard.
A Street Art icon/brand in the making, Little Ricky’s talisman-woman of a candy pink sheep character inhabits the new strata of 20-teens Street Art that reflects the ease of social media commentary here grafted onto actual walls, the fascination we have with visually sampling pop cultural references, and the time-honored practice of lampooning with absurdity. A California-based Gen X Street Artist with uncommon discipline and work ethos in his practice, Little Ricky has been studying, developing, archiving, formulating his campaigns in the Street and gallery for the better part of a decade now.
Recently
in New York to sample the late-summer fragrance potpurri of pot, urine, and Italian
sausages on the streets of Lower Manhattan, BSA had an opportunity to chat with
Little Ricky one night when we were gallery hopping with a buddy. He talked about new art on lightposts and
guard-rails, the nature of his one-off comical creations, and his deep desire to
launch a Keith Haring show here next year using his ewe-inspired interpretations
of Harings work and life.
Brooklyn Street Art:We’ve seen many Anna Wintour pieces recently by you on the street. How does the muse find you? Little Ricky: I never imagined that I’d be spending a year working with Anna as my muse. It’ll be weird once the year comes to an end. But I know that SHEEP will continue to surprise me and Anna will most likely keep popping up in my work. The connection will always be there.
She can find me on IG. But, since she doesn’t have a personal IG account, I hashtag her name #ANNAWINTOUR and I tag @voguemagazine. Maybe one of her PA’s will get the word out to her. A few months ago, I even sent her a large pink manilla envelope with a SHEEP zine/bio and stickers too. Whether she ever received it is another story. I don’t expect to hear from her, but I have a feeling that our paths may cross at some point. Either way, our stars are crossed, at least in my head.
Brooklyn Street Art:People are sheep, aren’t they? Little Ricky: I’d like to think that we’re all sheep but without the negative connotations. Sure we can all follow along with the masses, or maybe not fit in, but at some point we all crave to be ourselves as we are. At the heart and soul of SHEEP is that we’re ALL different. When Alexander McQueen referred to himself as a ‘pink sheep’ I understood that he was making a comment not only on his sexuality, but more importantly on the idea that he was different from even the black sheep. Reading that sentence in his biography altered the course of my life and is what inspired SHEEP.
After 51 years of life and almost 7 years of working on the series, I’ve learned this. (See if you can follow along or if it makes some sense) Being born is what we ALL have in common. Yet at that moment no one ever has or ever will be identical. In one moment we’re connected and different at the same time. We then spend a lifetime searching for meaning/purpose. The secret- to learn, embrace, and honor all those many little things about ourselves that make us…ME! When we do so, we go back to that moment of connection. So yea we’re all sheep finding our way back to an essence of being.
Brooklyn Street Art:Can you talk about your feelings toward Keith Haring and the impression he and his work made on you? Little Ricky: I feel a deep connection to Keith. It goes beyond being inspired by him. I feel him alongside me like he’s guiding me along. I first came across his work in the late ’80s. The simplicity of his images struck some magic in my soul. They still do. They felt familiar. Until now, I didn’t realize that Keith’s passing in February of 1990 coincided with my coming out the month before. Weird! Maybe he passed the torch along. My first boyfriend who I met in January of 1990 even drove Keith around SF the year before. I wasn’t into the art scene in any way, but I started taking art classes while at UC Berkeley. I imitated his lines and figures, but there was no ‘me’ in what I was creating.
With SHEEP, almost 30 years later, I can see his influence in my work, always will. But now I know, that I’m creating a world of my own with a little touch of his magic. It’s been an effortless process. For that, I give some credit to Keith. When the idea for SHEEP came to mind in 2013, I didn’t know what I’d be creating. I purchased a toy sheep and started doodling. After a while, a shape took form and it looked familiar like I had seen it before.
Thinking about this now, I realize that it was like finding my own Haring ‘baby.’ I wasn’t looking for it, but when I saw it, I knew it was the beginning of everything. P.S. Last year in May, I did a 31-day study I called SHEEPDOG. Each day, I painted an image combining Keith’s dog and my SHEEP. I was surprised that I hadn’t thought of it earlier. It was magical seeing it evolve.
Brooklyn Street Art:Recently Dusty Rebel has been traveling around the world speaking with and filming Street Artists from the GLBTQ community. Why is it important to know if a graffiti writer or Street Artist is GLBTQ? Little Ricky: As I get older, labels have become less important. I jokingly tell my sister that I’m the ‘+’ in the GLBTQ+ If I’m to label myself, it’s definitely queer over gay. I like qweirdo even better! When I started the series, I assumed the street art community was a bunch of heterosexual males. Other than the names Bansky and Shepard Fairey, I knew nothing about it. Knowing that the SHEEP were queer, I felt some hesitation about how the community would embrace them.
Unknowingly, I’d even censor myself so that they weren’t too ‘gay.’ That all changed after the Orlando shootings when I was reminded of the importance of living out loud and proud. But once I started meeting the artists, I came to find out that no one cared about how I identified or if the sheep were gay or not. All that mattered was that I was getting up and they loved what I was doing. Meeting all these artists, queer or not, has been one of the greatest parts of working on SHEEP. So, it’s not so much about knowing who’s queer or not, because in the end, we’re all doing the same thing. But thanks to Dusty, there’s a new found community.
Once I started, other than HomoRiot, I wasn’t aware of anyone else. It took me a few years before we eventually met up. Now, I have a new community of peeps that I get to call friends. I’m excited to meet many more along the way. I feel grateful to Dusty and all his work. He’s shedding light on an untold story and the many artists who often go unrecognized. It’s like the M&M commercial- we do exist!
Brooklyn Street Art:Which city is more fun for Street Art right now? Little Ricky: As much as I love my beloved city of LA, I feel like I’m living ‘in’ art when I’m in NYC. Art’s everywhere! Aside from SHEEP, walking is a great passion and there’s no better city than NY to combine my two loves. When I was there recently, I put in 20 miles in one day. The opportunity to paste-up SHEEP is everywhere and anywhere. LA’s different that way. Even though I do walk a lot and I paste-up wherever I go, it’s not the same. It’s very random. Plus you’re not going to see my work whiledrivingaroundd. SHEEP is definitely for the pedestrian and NY is the perfect place. Initially, I thought my little SHEEP would get lost in it all, but came to find out that New Yorkers do pay attention while walking.
When it comes to the queer art community, street or not, I often wondered if my work didn’t fit in because it wasn’t erotic or specifically depicting a ‘queer’ image/message. But I now know, that regardless, they’re queer and they’re pink! It’s in the heart and soul of the each SHEEP. Whether this is conveyed when coming across my work is not as important as the feeling you have when seeing them. Feel the JOY!
Brooklyn Street Art:In what way is your work political? Is it commentary? Critique? Little Ricky: This was a tough question. I don’t see it as being overtly political or even commentary. There are some pieces that may be so, but overall they’re expressions of joy. I keep it simple. If you smile or laugh out loud when finding my pieces on the street, I know I’ve done my job. I often laugh out loud when creating them. There’s such silliness. For example, the idea of Anna Wintour as a pink sheep in roller skates makes me laugh. When I began the series, they started off as ‘gay’ sheep and now they’re more a symbol about a feeling.
I’ve always felt different, it goes beyond my sexuality. As I age, I feel more and more different. And the more different I feel, the more connected I am. So the SHEEP being out and about, regardless of the character or message, are a symbol of that feeling that we all feel. Being different, feeling different is a beautiful thing!
Now that we think of it, all of these topics are directly and indirectly addressed through our Street Art as well.
Hope you are out strolling today in your neighborhood looking for Street Aart, in a park looking at the leaves on the trees, or outside the city in an apple orchard or pumpkin patch. Do anything you can to strike a sense of balance – we all need it!
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Alex Face, Buff Monster, Chapter 23, Dan Kitcher, Elyaz, The Pansy Project, Inside Out Project, JR, Michel Velt, N.Dergund, Mishka, Little Ricky, Nass, Rubin415, Shiro, Tar Box, and Winslow World.
“We may have lost the trains, but we’ve gained the whole world.”
That’s a quote on the wall in the new exhibition at the Bronx Museum spotlighting the work of Henry Chalfant. The quote comes from Mare 139, one of the early graffiti writers of 1970s-80s trains in New York, referring to the now-scrubbed subway cars that once functioned as a mobile gallery for the young masters of cans throughout a metropolis that was in the grips of financial and social upheaval. Thanks to the work of artists and documentarians like Mr. Chalfant, the ephemeral works were captured, cared for, preserved, and spread throughout the world in the intervening years, in some ways helping to spawn a global interest and practice among burgeoning artists.
“Henry Chalfant: Art vs. Transit, 1977-1987″ takes one of the original titles that co-author Martha Cooper suggested for the book that they published together “Subway Art” in 1984. That tome, full of both of their images that captured different aspects of the wild and untamed urban scene, eventually gained regard as a ‘holy book’ in certain graffiti circles across the world. Chalfants’ academic and sociological profile with producer Tony Silver of some of the early graffiti artists in the form of the 1984 PBS documentary “Style Wars,” also cemented his reputation as an expert in a rapidly evolving scene that brought untrained artists and original voices to the streets and trains.
The show is the second iteration of an exhibition curated by SUSO33 in Madrid, Spain last year at the Centro de Arte Tomás y Valiente. At opening night September 25th at the Bronx Museum the curator and artist were in attendance for the overflow crowd of artists and fans – many of whose work and faces appear in photos throughout the show. Visitors also got to see the original “Subway Art” book in its initial “dummy” form on display behind glass in its own vitrine.
Spread over multiple rooms filled with original photos, elevated train videos, and an impressive full-scale recreation of subway car facsimiles, the exhibit gives a rich survey of an epoch of an exciting tumultuous visual environment that rocked a city. The thunderous rumbling and screeching of trains adds an audio backdrop, somehow freeing these steel monsters from the past and making them temporarily contemporary. The raucous rebellious spirit of those times organically permutated and redefined itself in intervening decades, but Chalfant’s influence and dedication to preserving this potent moment provides ample evidence of the staying power of graffiti and its impact.
HENRY CHALFANT: ART VS. TRANSIT, 1977 – 1987 is currently on view at The Bronx Museum of the Arts until March 2020. This exhibition is free and open to the public. Click HERE for further details, schedule of events, and hours of operation.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. Minda Hamada y Zosen Bandido in Veracruz 2. Marina Zumi “Lucid Dreams II” 3. Udatxo – Parees Fest 2019. Video by Titi Muñoz 4. Greta Thunberg “How Dare You” Extended Remix
BSA Special Feature: Minda Hamada y Zosen Bandido in Veracruz
Mina Hamada y Zosen Bandido are graphic and poppy in their organic naïve-style collage compositions. Their engaging style lends itself to public arts projects that also promote business and foot traffic. Here they (mostly he) talk about their love of color, their cultural art influences, and their new project this summer in the Art District Boca Del Rio in Veracruz, Mexico.
Marina Zumi “Lucid Dreams II”
Street Artist, muralist, and interactive artist Marina Zumi doesn’t stop exploring the moon and the night sky and those tremulous flickering messages that blip across our consciousness. Perhaps by way of exploring the modern, her newest electronic tracing of shapes and rhythms in the darkness borrow from Tron and early Kraftwerk, comforting and witty in the low-fi and physical familiarity of it all. Part of her show “Techno Poetry,” Zumi continues to break new ground with here lucid dreams.
Udatxo – Parees Fest 2019. Video by Titi Muñoz
Here’s
artist Udatxo painting a new mural at the Parees Fest.
Greta Thunberg “How Dare You” Extended Remix
Get up and dance to a new hit for 2019! Taking recrimination to the dance floor, is the new hit from Greta Thunberg in a heavy German techno style.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
