BSA Film Friday: 08.23.19

August 23, 2019 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Conor Harrington in Manhattan
2. Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada “Reflection” Spring 2019
3. Caratoes at Superchief Gallery in Miami
4. DALeast in Seattle

BSA Special Feature: Focus on Zane Meyer & Chop ’em Down Films

Chop ’em Down Films, a film production company based in LA and spearheaded by filmmaker Zane Meyer, has been capturing the scene incredibly as of late. Wherever we go, there he is – jetting from continent to continent to capture and document with video what’s happening in today’s world of street art and graffiti.

The killer detail for us? His soundtrack music choices. Unusual interludes from unsung heroes, sometimes funky and soulful, other times wistful, tilting on the precipice of morning, or mourning. Excerpted as they are from larger works that are somehow familiar, they might not stand on their own in their entirety in your playlist, but they pour layers of meaning and significance on action flying at you from the whirring eye in the sky.

Zane keeps these videos at one minute to meet Instagram limitations (and short attention spans) but he knows how to work within that time constraint to communicate the news and a great deal more; and capture the muscle, the sleek movement, the unwieldy testosterone, the simple song of the heart, the exquisite detail that assures you of mastery, and craft. You don’t know if you heard it or saw it or if it was simply implied; the rich palette of the towns, the stark expanse of the sky, the singing of the birds, the impatience of the cars, the clack and roar of the trains and the sweet action on the streets, plump with possibility, the locals beckoning. With his ability to alchemize, the art is always in context.

Here are four for your enjoyment. Offered without comment, may it please the court.

Conor Harrington in Manhattan

Conor Harrington in Manhattan. Organized by The L.I.S.A. Project NYC and shot by Zane Meyer from Chop ’em Down Films.

Jorge Rodriguez-Gerada “Reflection” Spring 2019

Caratoes at Superchief Gallery in Miami

DALeast in Seattle

“Cash Is King II” is Rolling In It at Saatchi in London

August 22, 2019 Artists

Now that corporate and global debt has surged to an all-time high, posing unprecedented risk to the value of all money, it’s a sweet and sour nostalgia that drives you into your purse or wallet to pluck out a thin colorful slice of that rumpled paper fiat currency to buy yourself a beer at your local pub.

Bitcoin may be coming, and plastic is fantastic but in some parts of the world, cash is still king. And it rules everything around you.

Icy & Sot. Last Supper Five Dollar Bill (photo courtesy of the curators)

Right now you can see a collection of these banknotes from around the world developed as a series of canvasses at London’s Saatchi Gallery – mutated and defaced and adorned by graffiti and Street Artists, along with a series by Iranian born Aida Wilde, who uses banknotes from Eritrea, Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, and Syria.

Penny. Picasso Ten Pound Note (photo courtesy of the curators)

Cash is King II, a sequel to last years Cash is King – the brainchild book and exhibition of artists Robert Osborne and Carrie Reichardt, the show opened this week to an appreciative crowd who appeared to really enjoy seeing bills reimagined.

Jef Aerosol. Arts Can’t Buy Me Love (photo courtesy of the curators)

Curators Susan Hansen and Olly Walker share these images here with us and tell us they’re also happy that Ms. Wilde’s sales are going to benefit the Help Refugees organization so they are able to continue their work around the world. Not surprisingly perhaps, “Many of these banknotes represent some of the countries that have seen the highest numbers of people become refugees in recent years,” says Hansen.

Olly Walker. Process shot. (photo courtesy of the curators)

Aida Wilde. And We Walk Eritrean. Process shot. (photo courtesy of the curators)

Al Diaz. Samo Dollar (photo courtesy of the curators)

1 UP Crew. Tag Dollar (photo courtesy of the curators)

Anthony Lister. Zero To One Hundred Real Quick Dollar (photo courtesy of the curators)

Bortusk Leer. Art Is Not Serious (photo courtesy of the curators)

Caroline Caldwell. Oil Money Dollar (photo courtesy of the curators)

John Fekner. Greed Dollar (photo courtesy of the curators)

Cash Is King 2: Money Talks. Opening night. (photo courtesy of the curators)

Aida Wilde’s work will available for sale on the Saatchi website from 2pm on Tuesday the 20^th of August. All proceeds will go to support Help Refugees’ work around the world.

Cash is King II: Money Talks features works of art executed on banknotes, an exhibition curated by Olly Walker of Ollystudio.

Cash Is King 2: Money Talks is currently on view at the Saatchi Gallery in London installed in the Prints and Originals space until September 8th. Otherwise, click HERE to view and purchase available works of art.

0907 Feels Like “The Radiant Child” in Beijing

August 21, 2019 Artists

The resonance of Brooklyn/New York Street Arist Jean Michel Basquiat continues to amaze us, in his reach, in his relevance to people who he may have never imagined that he would inspire. Today we bring you 0907 in Beijing, who is telling us that he went on many spots throughout the city with his new cardboard composite work – a stencil that captures his feeling about an artist on the other side of the world who lived and died, perhaps before he was born. As an additional cultural mashup, he employs the vocabulary of a secondary Street Art, Shepard Fairey.

And Mickey Mouse for good measure.

0907. Radiant Child. Beijing, China. (photo © 0907)

“One day I watched a movie called “Basquiat,” he tells us, “and another called is ‘Ridiculous Years’ I had some insight into the age of his life. So I made a poster which borrowed Obey’s style.and I posted these on my city. At that moment I felt I am the radiant child in my city.”

Nicola Alessandrini Balances Body and Earth Systems Holistically in Santa Croce di Magliano

August 20, 2019 Artists

Painting with a holistic approach to life, the earth, the physical-psycho-social balance of humans in daily life – why not?

Nicola Alessandrini. Premio Antonio Giordano. Santa Croce di Magliano, Italy. August 2019. (photo courtesy of Premio Antonio Giordano)

talian painter Nicola Alessandrini has produced a somewhat surreal body of drawings and paintings during his relatively short career that appears to be turning the body, the animal world, and the plant world inside out to better understand the core systems that create balance and imbalance. In this new mural he just finished in Santa Croce di Magliano, you can see that again he is creating relationships between our corporeal systems and those of the earth.

“The artwork represents a human body connecting two different forms of life, soil and lymphatic systems,” he says. He tells us that the two plants are embraced by the body and that the woman’s floral dress is a fertile soil that connects the two plants and gives energy and nutrition to the body.

Completed as a the sixth edition of Premio Antonio Giordano, the artist consulted with public health initiative called AVIS (Association of Voluntary Italian Blood Donors) and hoped to develop a metaphorical way to represent their conversations.

“I like the idea that giving blood is not just something physical,” says Allissandrini, “but it is also a mental predisposition, a practice of giving and sharing.”

Bifido and Jacoba Niepoort “Playground Love” Under the U-Bahn

August 19, 2019 Artists

Bifido in collaboration with Jacoba Niepoort. Calle Libre Festival. Vienna, August 2019. (photo © Bifido)

Just below the Vienna U-Bahn, and above the street, there are two new archangels shielding their eyes from us, possibly looking into one another’s.

“The only true voyage, the only bath in the Fountain of Youth, would be not to visit strange lands but to possess other eyes, to see the universe through the eyes of another, of a hundred others, to see the hundred universes that each of them sees, that each of them is; and this we do (with great artists); with artists like these we do really fly from star to star.”

Italian Street Artist Bifido tells us that this quote is part of the inspiration for his new collaborative piece that spreads its wings below the rumbling of rolling wheels in this busy city. The other inspiration is drawn from the experience of working for the first time with his painting partner, the Danish artist Jacoba Niepoort who adds the extending wings to Bifidos photorealistic searching figures.

“When I saw Jacoba’s work for the first time, I thought, ‘I absolutely have to work with this artist,’ ” he tells us, remarking on the intensity that he rarely finds in the world of Street Art. “It’s not just something decorative; it digs deeper, touching the most intimate and emotional part of people.”

The pair met at the Calle Libre Festival in Vienna this summer and decided that their first project together would examine the intimacy of human relationships. The experience has enabled them both to look at the same scenario with each other’s eyes, he says, and now passersby in Vienna can as well.

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.18.19

August 18, 2019 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Icy cold coquitos, sidewalk barbecues, walking for hours in Central Park, music booming from party boats on the East River, a birthday party with 30 on the roof. Who can resist New York in the summer? Yes everyone is warning about an economic crash that is coming and you’re still in debt even though you have three roommates and Trump is just making us all feel like we live in a big chaotic racist world.

But for this sunny summer afternoon, let’s just prove him wrong and get some beers and sit on the stoop saying hi to all our neighbors who walk by – asian, black, latino, Middle Eastern, Jewish, white, sihk, Polish, Nigerian, Mexican, muslim, Italian, Swedish. It don’t matter, bro. We’re all New Yorkers and we like it like that.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Broken Heartist, Budha Delight, City Kitty, Early Riser, Emma Gonzalez, Joe Iurato, Logan Hicks, Lunge Box, Mowcka, Ouch, Sara Lynne Leo, Skewville, and The Postman Art.

Sara Lynne Leo addresses pain and mental health. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sara Lynne Leo…and climate change… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Chinga La Migra”, loosely translated as Fuck the Immigration System. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Postman Art in collaboration with Broken Heartist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Emma Gonzales is an American activist and advocate for gun control. As a high school senior she survived the February 2018 Stoneman Douglas Hich School shooting in Parkland, Florida, and in response co-founded the gun control advocacy group “Never Again”.

The Cure take a turn with The Postman Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hewey, Duey, and Lewy are transfixed by Lady Liberty. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash is coming, start stacking. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A reductivist approach to stencil painting. OUCH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman & Dr. Seuss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks revisit their old spot with their sons at The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty . Mowcka (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, August 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Beyond The Streets” New York – Extends Through September 29

August 17, 2019 Artists

This summer New York has been crazily, sometimes chaotically overlaid with tons of graffiti, Street Art, and murals – a testament to the enduring passion of a public that wants to see this organic patterning of the city skin, and the unquenchable thirst that artists and writers in New York have for showing their work to the public without intervening forces. Some of it is illegal, some of it is legal – all of it is part of the New York conversation.

Additionally, and in concert with, this ongoing conversation is a private pop-up exhibition called “Beyond the Streets” that pulls back from this moment and looks at pertinent and fundamental slices of the first 50 years of art in the streets from the perspective of a handful of sharp-eyed curators who have done their homework.

Tenga One, Snipe1, Madssaki, Takashi Murakami. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Presented in the context of historians defining a view of the scene with an eye toward private collectors of contemporary art, the vast show features paintings, sculpture, photography, site-specific installations, commercially branded environments, a large gift shop, historical ephemera – and a 30^th anniversary Shepard Fairey exhibition within the exhibition.

“Beyond the Streets” in Williamsburg, Brooklyn was originally a three-month show that ran through August, it has been extended to September 29^th – as they say – by popular demand. In addition, to celebrate and thank the community for their support, BEYOND THE STREETS will host free admission day on Thursday August 29th.

Jon Naar . Carl Weston. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast . Paul Insect. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fuct. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Huskmitnavn. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Craig R Stecyk III. Detail. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. *Beyond The Streets New York*, (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Film Friday: 08.16.19

August 16, 2019 Artists, BSA Film Friday

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Calligrafreaks Project – A New Era of Writing
2. Who Is My Brother?
3. Graffiti Hunting In NYC – Beyond The Streets 2019 Via Migz Tatz
4. Gray Mountain, Green Room
5. CARDI B Interviews Bernie Sanders

BSA Special Feature: Calligrafreaks Project – A New Era of Writing

In a collaborative gallery space or at a barbecue on Devil’s Mountain, Berlin’s calligraffiti writers and artists are showing off the attitude and exactitude of the city as well as the evolution of this artform.

Hosted by Theosone at the “Scriptorium Berlin” and curated by Makearte, a small selection of scientists artists are convened at the Letters Temple where artists create an exhibition with lucid and ornate letter skillz. Later on Devil’s Mountain (Tefelsberg) they paint together for the first time.

Artists include Theosone, Stohead, Warios, Naok Write, Jan Koke Parisurteil, Scon, Alpha Skao, Belloskoni, YAT, Drury Brennan, CRBZ, Schriftzug, Reano Feros, Paindesign, Alot, Bello, Cay Miles, Naok Write, Scon, Schriftzug, Parisurteil, CRBZ, Reano Feros, YAT.

The sound and editing are sharply done by Abstract Monollog with a certain finesse as well.

Who Is My Brother? A Film about artist Ben Farleigh by his brother Jacob Perlmutter

Those kooky middle class artists, making crafty art and movies about each other. Simply loveable aren’t they?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=89&v=XjXd9hZ0Rw8

Graffiti Hunting In NYC – Beyond The Streets 2019 Via Migz Tatz

Migz Tatz takes people on graffiti hunting escapades on the regular. Here is his hand-made trip to the Beyond the Streets exhibit in Williamsburg, Brooklyn currently on display – and now extended into late September. Not everyone can get to New York so this is one guys personal experience walking through the exhibit.

Gray Mountain, Green Room

Another homemade video tour without complete attribution to the artists, Jared Amiljo-Wardie wanders along U.S. HWY89 in Arizona. He happens upon a collection of illegal artworks from Gray Mountain that BSA published years ago. It is good to see that an arid climate preserves many of these works – even if he doesn’t know who they are by – because he thinks of them as part of his film making expression. He also describes his adventure with a poetic cadence.

“The earth has begun to reclaim most of the parking lots in Gray Mountain and with time the buildings too but for now it remains in the early stages of decay. As I sweat through perfecting a gimble shot a group of people stop to inspect the apocalyptic scene; an abandoned hotel and gas station. While I do my fourth take I hear windows begin to break. “

CARDI B Interviews Bernie Sanders

Nuff said.

BSA Supports Paste Up Festival 2019 Germany in Berlin

August 15, 2019 Artists

BSA is in Berlin again to help an international grassroots Street Art effort like the Paste Up festival this September. Open to artists around the world, the event is organized by artist Senor Schnu – who is providing this platform that encourages artists who work in the medium of paper to submit work for the Berlin to paste up – even if you don’t live in Berlin.

Drop off your work if you live nearby, or mail it to:
Kultur Spaeti.
Gabriel-Max-Straße 13,
10245 Berlin,
Germany

Come to the opening on September 6, 2019 (beginning at noon (12 Uhr)) to paste up your work or assist to paste up the work of your international brothers and sisters. The festival is supported by @kultur_spaeti @deinestadtklebt.de and @bkstreetart. The event is organized by artist @senor_schnu.

Dourone’s Consolidated “LITA” in Sweden

August 14, 2019 Artists

The artist duo Dourone (Fabio Lopez Gonzalo, Elodie Arshak) are in Sweden this week and have created their first large format installation – and they are calling her LITA. The 170 anchor points, when pulled together, are a consolidation of this visage – a uniting of multiple fragments. Finished in Angelholm, it is good to see public works in an often pristine cityscape.

Dourone. *LITA 00 :00,0*2. Angelholm, Sweden. August 2019. (photo © Dourone)

NeSPoon and Regue Fernández Bring Bowling Women to the Square in Belorado

August 13, 2019 Artists

StARTer Proyectos Culturales, an independent cultural organization just finished a collaboration of two artists in the plaza, and you can almost here the voices of the women whose memories they evoked.

A unique project that brought the images of women playing a local game similar to bowling to the frontages of Plaza San Nicolas, the combined talents of Street Artists Nespoon and Regue Fernández brings back images of people who lived here in this northern Spanish town of Belorado, population 2,100.

NeSpoon. StARTer Proyectos Culturales. Belorado, Spain. Summer 2019. (photo © NeSpoon)

“This square was a place where local women played bowling,” says the Polish Nespoon. “I found and painted local lace motifs and Regue created the figures of the local women based on old photos he found from the city’s newspaper.”

Conceived and led by curator Estela Rojo and Fernández, the project is meant to address the presence of women in public space; and the heavy attendance at the opening here, it looks like it was a success.

“Many people came to the opening of the square to see the new décor,” Nespoon says, describing the large crowd gathered to watch women playing the game and to see the new artworks. “There was a lot of joy, laughter and fun.”

Check out the work of StARTer Proyectos Culturales HERE StARTer Proyectos Culturales

NeSpoon. Regue Fernández. StARTer Proyectos Culturales. Belorado, Spain. Summer 2019. (photo © NeSpoon)

Major JR Exhibition Is Coming to the Brooklyn Museum; “The Chronicles of New York City”

August 12, 2019 Artists

The Brooklyn Museum Announces the First Major North American Exhibition of Works by French Street Artist JR

Brooklyn Falls for France this autumn as photographer and Street Artist JR comes to the Brooklyn Museum as part of a cultural season organized by the Cultural Services of the French Embassy and FACE Foundation. In a cultural exchange of sorts, BSA is also going to be in Bayonne, France October as part of Points de Vue.

The Chronicles of New York City, a massive new work from JR promises to be one of his most iconic projects as the Brooklyn Museum debuts the first major North American exhibition of works by the French artist. The new mural will cover 20,000 square feet of the Museum’s Great Hall, featuring more than 1,000 people photographed and interviewed in New York last summer.

JR. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Many Street Art fans will be familiar with a number of the artist’s iconic Street Art/photography works that feature every day and specially chosen people from the neighborhood in which they are plastered; from his early photographic projects in Paris like Expo 2 Rue (2001-4) featuring graffiti artists, Portrait of a Generation (2004-6) featuring young people from Les Bosquetsin the Parisian suburbs, to Women Are Heroes (2008-9, Inside Out (2011-ongoing The Wrinkles of the City (2008-15, and newer projects like and The Gun Chronicles: A Story of America (2018). Many New Yorkers will also remember Portrait of a Generation. Face 2 Face (2007) – which featured images of Israelis and Palestinians pasted on both sides of the separation wall

Curated by Sharon Matt Atkins, Director of Exhibitions and Strategic Initiatives, and Drew Sawyer, a curator of photography, the show is unprecedented in representing the scale and reach of the artist and promises to be a highlight in a city known for grand gestures. Today we feature a number of images taken by photographer Jaime Rojo of JR’s work on the street over the years.

JR: Chronicles will be on view at The Brooklyn Museum from October 4, 2019, through May 3, 2020.

JR. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. Times Square, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. Atlanta, Georgia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. Venice Beach, CA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. The Bronx, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. Lincoln Center, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. High Line Park, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. Houston/Bowery Wall, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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