Aretha Franklin, Our Gratitude to a National Treasure

August 16, 2018 Artists

A subway sign reconfigured today in New York to pay tribute to The Queen of Soul (© Reuters)

There are many reasons to be grateful today to Aretha Franklin today as we celebrate her life and her talent. We’re thankful that she was here with us. She enriched and wove and strengthened the fabric of this culture, brought the streets alive, the house parties alive, the churches alive, made AM radio alive, made FM stereo alive, made MTV alive and made Lincoln Center alive. She soothed us, yelled at us, encouraged us, rocked us, sent us soaring, exhorted us, inspired us, opened our minds and our hearts to a deeper understanding, made us cry, made us appreciate, made us dance and sing together and to yell out loud and Ms. Franklin filled us with joy time and time and time and time and time again. As each of us deals with her passing in our own way across the country and many parts of the world there is no doubt that she was a national treasure who more than earned all of our respect.

Simone de Beauvoir: “La Clausura Del Infierno” (The Closing Of Hell)

August 16, 2018 Artists

“It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our lives that we must draw our strength to live and our reasons for living.”

French existentialist, feminist, and intellectual Simone de Beauvoir saw the hell created by us and held us accountable to be performative agents in actively transcending the facts of our existence. Since April three artists have been depicting that hell on the exterior wall of Torrent de les Bruixes Institute in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, and they give Ms. De Beauvoir heroic role, triumphal; rising untouched and ebullient above the pit of vipers, monsters, dragons and fantastical embodiments of evils.

Sebastien Waknine . Simón Vázquez . Juanjo Surace: “La Clausura Del Infierno”. Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain. 2018 (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

They call it “La Clausura Del Infierno”, roughly translated as “The Closing of Hell”. Perhaps it could be called “The Opening of Hell” as well.

Because we know you love to see the process as well as the final piece, here is a prime example of how the artists conceive the beginning of a mural by codifying colors. It is impressive how artists Sebastien Waknine, Simón Vázquez, and Juanjo Surace decided to sketch the forms and composition on the wall, using colors and shapes as code.

Our special thanks to photographer Lluís Olivé Bulbena, who shares these images with BSA readers.

Sebastien Waknine . Simón Vázquez . Juanjo Surace: “La Clausura Del Infierno”. Santa Coloma de Gramenet, Spain. 2018 (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Social: @IES Torrent de les Bruixes @Sebastien Waknine @Simon Vazquez @Juanjo Surace @Gloria Ortiz @Arnau Art

Scenes from Eugene: Murals of the 20x21EUG Festival in Oregon

August 15, 2018 Artists, Interview

The city of Eugene in Oregon is preparing for the 2021 IAAF World Athletics Championships and like many cities these days it is transforming itself with murals.

With a goal of 20 new murals by ’21 (20x21EUG), the city began in 2016 to invite a slew of international Street Artists, some locally known ones, and a famous graffiti/Street Art photographer to participate in their ongoing visual festival.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

A lively city that is bustling with the newly blooming marijuana industry and finding an endless array of ways to celebrate it, Eugene has been so welcoming that many artists will report that feeling quite at home painting in this permissively bohemian and chill atmosphere.

With a goal of global diversity a selection artists have included a variety of Street Art names from around the world including Blek le Rat, AIKO, Dan Witz, HUSH, Martha Cooper, WK Interact, Hyuro, Jaz, Alexis Diaz, Telmo Miel, Hua Tunan, Beau Stanton, Matt Small and local talents like Bayne Gardner and Ila Rose. With some luck organizers say they hope this year to also include artists H11235 from Nepal and Shamsia Hassani from Afghanistan.

Today you can see a lot of the painting action thanks to 2018 “20x21EUG” participant and famed photographer Martha Cooper, who had an opportunity to meet the artists this year and catch up on some of the work from previous years. We’re proud to be able to show these new images with BSA readers and we thank Ms. Cooper for sharing them.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

We spoke with two important pillars of 20x21EUG, Debbie Williamson-Smith, Director of Communications and Paul Godin, Director of Artist Relations, to get a little background on the festival and to see what makes it unique.

BSA: Can you speak about the genesis of 20x21EUG? Why did you decide to start an Urban Art Festival?
Debbie Williamson-Smith: The concept of a large-scale public art project such came from Isaac Marquez, Cultural Services Director for the City of Eugene, and is rooted in Eugene’s rich history of public art, dating back to the Oregon International Sculpture Symposium in 1974. Mr. Marquez gathered a committee of arts organizations and community members passionate about the project and street art to bring the concept to fruition.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Paul Godin: We wanted to invite the very best street artists from around the country and around the globe, to create a living outdoor art gallery in Eugene for the world to see when they came. We have curated a mix of street art legends, rising stars and local heroes, all with very different artistic styles and strong voices. Street art is a global movement, of increasingly high profile, and it was a shared passion that united our committee members.

If you want to take it way back, the origin may well have been a trip to the east end of London ten years ago, on a failed quest in search of a Banksy that led instead to the discovery of the wonders of Brick Lane.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

BSA: How is a project of such quality as this funded?
Debbie Williamson-Smith: Funding for the project comes from the City of Eugene Cultural Services transient room tax revenue, sponsorship with City of Eugene Parking Services and contributions from wall owners and local businesses through donations of goods and services. We have had over 50 businesses support this project since it started and volunteers have donated hundreds of hours of time. It takes a village to make a mural and a full list of partners can be found on our website.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

BSA: Is it difficult to get landlords’ permission to paint on their properties in Eugene?
Paul Godin: Heck no. We have found many landlords very open to the idea of putting street art murals on their walls. Civic pride in our project, and the high quality of the work here has made it very easy to sell more wall owners on involvement. Now they are coming to us. Our biggest problem in Eugene with walls is that we do not have as many big blank walls as larger cities do. Our kingdom for a blank 12 story wall!

Eugenians are generally thrilled by the transformation that 20x21EUG has wrought. Just last week, a city police officer brought a woman to her favorite piece, a group of elderly women were seen admiring Matt Small’s piece and chatting.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Debbie Williamson-Smith: It is so electric that we have coined the phrase “mural magic”. This project has ignited the civic pride in our community and has already inspired another mural project, Urban Canvas. This initiative of the City of Eugene’s Cultural Services department matches local walls with local artists and three murals have been added to the cultural landscape since it launched in 2018. People are making mural watching a regular activity, taking children to watch artists in action and bringing visitors to see the murals.

WK Interact. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

BSA: What are you personal observations regarding the experience as a whole? What would you do different for next year?
Paul Godin: One thing that became clear about our festival this year is that we have created a family, uniting our committee, our volunteers, our artists in a unique and inspiring way. We have bonded through our shared experience, the long nights, the controlled chaos days, the communal dinners, and the stains of primer on all of our clothes.

AIKO. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Debbie Williamson-Smith: This has been one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. As an arts advocate, I am so inspired by the changes art is making in my community and this is one of the reasons why public art and street art are so important. It gives immediate access to art for the public. We are also in a time of political upheaval and for some people, including myself, this has been a difficult time for our country. To welcome people to my part of the world is my form of resistance. We can unite each other through art and as anyone who has studied art history knows, the arts have gotten us through some dark times.

AIKO. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

If I could do anything differently, it would be to make certain all the artists travel here at the same time. When we had Dan Witz here last summer, he talked about what he called artist equity, meaning that festivals for him provide an opportunity to work with artists that he has not worked together before and that always influences his decision to attend. One of my highlights from last summer was watching him and Blek le Rat work on separate installations on the same building.

I was almost as giddy as Dan was. Almost.

Martha Cooper standing with windows full of her images at the Rising Moon makers store. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon.

Bayne Gardner. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Matt Small. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Alexis Diaz. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Alexis Diaz. WIP. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2018 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Blek Le Rat. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2017 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Dan Witz. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2017 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Hyuro. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2017 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ila Rose. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2017 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Telmo & Miel. 20x21EUG Mural Project / 2017 Edition. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stefan Ways was in Eugene assisting Aiko with her mural this year. He wasn’t in the official line-up of artists but didn’t stop him from getting up. (photo © Martha Cooper)

And of course there are tracks and trains in Eugene, Oregon ready to painted…(photo © Martha Cooper)

There are bargains everywhere in Eugene, Oregon… (photo © Martha Cooper)

As well as consciously aware and decent residents. Eugene, Oregon. (photo © Martha Cooper)

For more information about 20x21EUG in Eugene, Oregon, please CLICK HERE.

New Show Celebrates A Decade of “Beautiful Losers”

August 14, 2018 Artists

We’ve had the privilege of introducing ‘Beautiful Losers’ to theater audiences and to give away copies of it for a holiday event and even getting to meet a few of the Losers, so to speak. That’s why we’re excited about a new exhibition coming up in ten days in Manhattan at The Hole gallery to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of this classic documentary that debuted at the IFC in August 2008.

Directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard, it brings back a little of the magic of New York in the 90s – specifically the last years when Manhattan felt somewhat lawless and full of creative possibilities on the streets. The community of artists profiled had something that reflected the time and it was good to celebrate the ethos that ‘Beautiful Losers’ so warmly conveyed.

Hope you can make it to the show, or at least to see the movie. It’s always an inspiration for anyone looking to recover the creative spirit.

“DIY / ‘outsider’ art and its acceleration to the cultural forefront will be revisited with the ‘NOW & THEN: A DECADE OF BEAUTIFUL LOSERS’ exhibition. On site will be both artworks and collaborative RVCA merchandise from artists including but not limited to: Aaron Rose, Andre Razo, Ari Marcopoulos, Barry McGee, Cheryl Dunn, Chris Johanson, David Aron, Deanna Templeton, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Ivory Serra, Jo Jackson, Margaret Kilgallen, Mark Gonzales, Mike Mills, Rita Ackermann, Shepard Fairey, Stephen Powers, Susan Cianciolo, Thomas Campbell, Tobin Yelland, and Tom Sachs.”

The Trailer: Beautiful Losers

Featuring Ed Templeton, Barry McGee, Mareraret Kilgallen, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Thomas Campbell, Geoff McFetridge, Mike Mills, Stephen Powers, Harmony Korine and Shepard Fairey. A film by Aaron Rose with music by Money Mark.

An exhibition to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of “Beautiful Losers” will open at The Hole Gallery on Thursday, August 23rd. Click on the title of the exhibition next for more details: “NOW & THEN: A DECADE OF BEAUTIFUL LOSERS”

Astronaut Street Art : Ground Control To Major Tom…

August 13, 2018 Artists

Aside from signing the Outer Space Treaty that was ratified by 107 nations in which member states promise to not militarize the celestial heavens, US Vice President Pence tried to pull a fast one last week by announcing an idea for a US Space Force, the 6th branch of US Armed Forces.

Evidently being in 7 wars right now on Earth isn’t enough for the masters of war. There is surely more money to be made by further bloating a global weapons industry that focuses primarily on destruction rather than construction.

Victor Ash. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What is Mike Pence needing defense from exactly? Gays? Gay aliens? Intelligent assertive women? African-American or immigrants struggling to make ends meet, living day-to-day from paycheck to paycheck? We decided to take the whole ridiculous announcement with humor and found ourselves pawing through the archives for Street Art images of astronauts. We found many!

As we contemplate war in space, we turn to our collective fascination with astronauts and cosmonauts and nauts of many kinds. Since the dawn of this popular spaceman fixation there has been this guy or gal floating around weightless in our collective imaginations, bouncing along at the end of his tether, or untethered altogether.

Victor Ash. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toven. Baltimore, USA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

B.D. White. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Axolotl Collective. Mexico City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cranio. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Topaz. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The London Police. Boras, Sweden. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton in Collaboration with CYRCLE. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.12.18

August 12, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This is it! The last part of summer when you are still daydreaming, looking at the sky. The trees in all the parks are deep rich green, the city’s swimming pools are still teaming with people, the abandoned lots and railroad tracks are sprouting full-blown bushes and weeds that grow so tall they are over your head. Somewhere in those weeds is a secret hiding place where you’ll find a half pack of cigarettes and a porno magazine stowed by a teenager. Oh, they don’t read porno magazines anymore? It’s all on your phone?

Speaking of that topic, what about the disaster porn across all the corporate news shows every single day? Boy, that stuff sells! Hard to imagine they want to give up that money with all our eyes glued to TV millionaires like Rachel and Shawn and Blondy McBlonderstein and the rows of speaking Barbies and Kens spewing out one more outrageous piece of drivel after another. This presidency is a boon to business in so many fabulous ways! Almost better than war!

Street Art is alive and well and summer has produced a healthy crop of murals, wheat-pastes, stencils, tags, pieces, you name it. New Yorkers have a lot to say in public space – as well as a bounty of visitors, like the Brazilian Eduardo Kobra, who has been painting a new series of socially conscious walls with celebrities carrying the message around New York. On the street it’s always a mixed bag, and we like to see the huge walls as well as the small missives. You’re guaranteed a good crop this summer.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Arkane, Benjie Escobar, Caratoes, CRK, Goodie, Gum Shoe, Key Detail, Kobra, Mike Makatron, Mr. Never Satisfied (Never), Mr. Baby, Primal, R. Heak, and Shaun Bullen.

Our top image: Kobra (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kobra (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Somewhere in the middle there is art. Mr. Never Satisfied took inspiration from Benjie Escobar graphic (pictured below). (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Benjie Escobar. (photo © Benjie Escobar/Instagram)

Arkane for Owley. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Goodie…indeed… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Key Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Caratoes (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shawn Bullen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Bbaby (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gum Shoe. We have published this piece before as a wheat-pasted poster. This is probably the original hand painted canvas piece affixed to the wall with glue. The piece is based on the 1907 painting by Pablo Picasso called “Les Demoiselles d’Avignon”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CRK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Primal. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

R Heak (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. July 2018. New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Illustrator PERRINE HONORÉ Simply Cheerful on Torrassa in Barcelona

August 11, 2018 Artists

As you know the influence of the Memphis design movement is again fully present as the spirit of the 1980s Milanese architect and designer Ettore Sottass has captured the imagination of many young creatives who have tired of mid-century modern.

Perrine Honoré. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Torrassa, Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. August 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

French illustrator, graphic designer and mural artist Perrine Honoré fills her days with drawing figures, flora, and scenes of domestic simplicity with the same panache of those early Memphis designers who valued form over function, played with proportion, and stacked striped, dotted, saturated pop colored geometric shapes adjacent to and on top of one another.

Perrine Honoré. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Torrassa, Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. August 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

The style and world view is a frank form of communicating the complexities of life and relationships without the guile or intrigue, and certain audiences are responding positively to a sort of naïve optimism amidst the chaotic, often negative, news cycle that dominates discourse at the moment.

During August at the open-air art gallery called 12 + 1 in Barcelona, Honoré paints her cheerful vision in “El Barrio” (Torrassa). “Between abstraction and illustration, the idea is to leave the public free to interpret the work as they wish,” she says in a typical show of spontaneity.

Perrine Honoré. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Torrassa, Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. August 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

With formal training in Sweden, Paris, and Barcelona in Fashion Design, graphic design, and illustration, her lines are confident and precisely curvilinear, with a degree of playful insouciance.

Guess it is time to relax, right? – most of Europe is on holiday right now anyway.

Perrine Honoré. Contorno Urbano Foundation. 12 + 1 Project. Torrassa, Hospitalet de Llobregat. Barcelona. August 2018. (photo © Clara Antón)

Check out Perrine Honoré’s recent exhibition “Intimidad Simbiótica” in the gallery @miscelaneabcn and her video tour on Instagram

Learn more about the Contorno Urbano Foundation and their 12 + 1 Project here.

BSA Film Friday: 08.10.18

August 10, 2018 Artists

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

Now screening :
1. VHILS Splash and Burn
2. MONUMENTA PREPARES with The Intelligence of Many SEPT 2018

a. Yairan Cinco Montejo
b. What Inspires You?
c. Super Fresh Air

BSA Special Feature: VHILS Splash and Burn

“The prime location we have to communicate is the public space. It can have a huge impact on society,” says Vhils in the introduction to this new video, and it is a mantra we have been repeating for over a decade. Powerful work well placed with authenticity – that can have resonance.

In this new piece to raise awareness about endangered species in general and the Tapanuli Orangutans’ habitat in specific, the Portuguese artist creates a portrait that is perhaps outside his usual collection.

“The world is not taking the time to consider how to move forward, there is no effort to reflect on the real impact of decisions,” he says in a warning that should send a chill up your spine.

Click on the link below to sign the petition to save the Tapanuli Orangutans’ habitat:

https://secure.avaaz.org/campaign/en/save_the_tapanuli_orangutans_42/?cRimElb

MONUMENTA PREPARES with The Intelligence of Many SEPT 2018

A magnetism of like minds is pulling together in Leipzig, Germany next month; a modern merging of current critical thinking in the fields of urban art, public performance, city planning, architecture and the flattening of the hierarchies that once defined how we interact with our cities and with each other. As paradigms rapidly shift it is The Feelers, The Thinkers, and The Fun-Seekers who are all in attendance, and BSA introduces the MONUMENTA Talks on September 1st in this inspiring hulking former home of industry.

Our guests; artists, futurists, planners, architects, curators, thinkers all – we’ll hope to have on parade the intelligence of many.

Enjoy some titillating video tidbits for MONUMENTA

MONUMENTA: Yairan Cinco Montejo

MONUMENTA: What Inspires You?

MONUMENTA: Super Fresh Air

Italian Street Artist in Navajo Nation: Gola Hundun Finds the Mountain

August 9, 2018 Artists

Today is #indigenouspeoplesday – but of course we talk about them more often than this. The Native American people of the Southwestern United States are called the Navajo, or the Diné. Italian spiritual-cosmologist-naturist Street Artist Gola Hundun spent three days walking in the desert here recently going to the Navajo National Monument and Monument Valley trying to get in touch with the native folks to better understand the culture and the significance of the land itself.

“I tried to combine those two elements with very different weights to generate an united image that would suggest how I feel the heart and the mind of Diné people,” he says as he describes the one story desert mural he ultimately painted with his botanical and natural motifs. Bright and optimistic, the landscape mimics the stunning views that surround and permeate the life here and he says his time here has altered his own vision of reality. The structure itself is classic; a typical abandoned petrol station you’ve probably seen in those road movies.

“The piece represents Navajo Mountain that is in the background,” he says, and the spiritual searcher finds a kinship with traditional Navajo stories about the foundational relevance of the land mass.

“This is the head of their main goddess generator for everything of their world. For me it also includes a reinterpretation of the Hózhó in the middle of the mountain at the top – flowing in spiral way. Hózhó is the bedrock of Navajo religion, which, as I understand it, means it is a combination of existing state of balance, harmony, peace and completeness. They call it walk in beauty.”

The Painted Desert Project, begun here and regularly refreshed by local Street Artist/activist/doctor Chip Thomas, continues to invite Street Artists from around the world to paint here. The cross-cultural connections have been a boon to greater understanding – and continue to affect the visual experience of riding through this rich landscape.

“I am so glad and grateful to have had the opportunity to be in the Navajo Nation and to try to share my love and respect to these amazing people,” says Gola.

Gola Hundun would like to thank his host Chip Thomas @jetsonorama. He would also like to thank @danieljosley and @ballroomdaze for helping him realize this piece and his adventure there. “A special thanks to all the native and non-native people that helped me on this trip and helped me see reality with a different point of view.”

SEBS Skewers Seductive Techniques of Consumer Ad Language in Portugal

August 8, 2018 Artists

Whether it’s the sarcastic stickers from MAD Magazine for Snarlamint cigarettes, Wacky Package trading cards for Crust toothpaste, or that first Saturday Night Live ad for Loggs, the pantyhose for tree-stumps, artists have been lampooning the misleading advertising culture that has fed rampant mindless consumerism for decades.

Early Street Art activists like the Billboard Liberation Front skewered cigarette makers for tying rustic masculinity to cancer-causing tobacco and Ron English liberated a number of billboards by making a humorous and direct link between fast food, children’s morning cereal and chronic obesity – eventually producing toys of commercial mascots in porcine proportions.

In the same spirit we find a few new satiric advertisements today by Street Artist SEBS, who created these colorful attacks on city walls in Loures City and Amodora City not far from Lisbon, Portugal.

“This work is a continuation of the ‘Slaves ‘R’ Us’ campaign that I have been doing,” he tells us. His particular targets this time are fat-free potato chips, the slowly creeping practice of the implantation of RFID electronic chips in people, and a slot machine where you play to win a disease.

“RUN” Plunders Subtle Summer Bourgeoisie Hypocrisies at the Beach

August 7, 2018 Artists

You’ve packed your sandwiches, rolled out your tropically themed beach towel on the sand, applied sun block liberally, sipped your margarita from your thermos, and are finally laying down to daze at the seagulls circling in the blue sky.

Suddenly someone spots with their binoculars the sight of refugees swimming toward shore from their overburdened, partially submerged boat, escaping from an oil war that has devastated their home.

Italian Street Artist and muralist RUN shares with BSA readers his new beach reverie painted in Hackney, and with some closer inspection you’ll see that the politically charged scene is rather dark for a sunny day.

“I wanted to represent a normal, crowded beach-side scene where joyful people who suddenly witness a boat of immigrants in the distance,” he explains.

“They are trying to reach the shore. Some of them make it some others don’t. It is sad but it’s the daily reality.”

He plays with that normality of his figures behaviors and gestures among a privileged society, whose casual gaze out to sea at first only catches view what they must think is an athletic diver enjoying their leisure.

This is the second of two recent murals, and he has something to say in each.

“I have given a political edge to both of my recent murals,” RUN says, as he shows you a busy character who is checking his clock and going through some sort of chaotic time machine.

The artists dim view of the human race at the moment is reflected in the scene of gradual devolution. “The figure is going back to the sapiens and monkey stages,” he says, “caged in a small space, hypnotized by an electronic device.”

Present company not included, of course!

Charlie Ahearn and Crew LIVE this Week in NYC for “Wild Style” Reunion in the Park

August 6, 2018 Artists

Only in New York baby, the 35th Anniversary celebration of “Wild Style,” out in the open amphitheater of East River Park will be jamming this Thursday. And its free. Yes Yes Ya’ll.

The seminal quasi-documentary of early hip-hop and graffiti culture in New York synthesized the elements of style that were all convening on the streets at that moment.

The moment passed but the movie remained, a document and a springboard for all sorts of self-invented personalities – indeed one of the springboards for the very practice of self-invention in the culture – and intervening years have made it required viewing to understand what came next. As time passes, you know that opportunities to see this movie and connect with community like this are becoming fewer, so we recommend you check this event.

Many try to claim the label of legendary and you know when its hyperbole. “Wild Style” is said to have been called a “visual Bible of hip-hop” by NAS, and that sounds right.

The director Charlie Ahearn will reign over the party and screening in the park along with headliner DJ Funk Flex and special guests will make eyes bug, jaws drop, and black books fly – like Almighty Kay Gee, Busy Bee, DJ Grand Wizzard Theodore, DJ Tony Crush, Eclipse, EZ AD, Grand Master Caz, Patti Astor, and Rodney C. Look up the after-party in a hotel with The Fantastic Five, Cold Crush Brothers, Busy Bee, Double Trouble, Fab 5 Freddy, Lee Quinones, Lady Pink and other invited cast and crew- that one requires a ticket.

Check out the FB page for more and follow them on Instagram @wildstylethemovie

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