“The Nashville Walls Project 2017” Brings Jason Woodside and Ian Ross

May 16, 2017 Artists

“The Nashville Walls Project,” a privately funded business improvement initiative in the downtown district referred to as “The Gulch” has already brought Street Artists like Rone, Above, Herakut, Curiot, Mike Shine, Niels “Shoe” Meulman, Adele Renault, Mars1 and Louis Masai.

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Now there are two more. Thanks to gallery owner and art dealer Brian Grief, who also starred in and produced the “Saving Banksy” movie, we have images today of two new walls just completed by artists Jason Woodside and Ian Ross.

Stylistically very different, they each nonetheless knocked out massive walls here between April 10-18, as the weather turned pleasantly Spring-like before the punishing southern sun arrives for summer.

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Jason would like to thank local artist Nathan Brown who helped him with the mural, and Ian would like to thank local artist Chris Zidek, who was his trusty assistant for the duration of the project.

Looks like coming up next will be Guido Van Helten, who will be painting a massive mural on a 200-foot abandoned concrete grain silo in an area called The Nations, where real estate developers say they plan for the silo to be the centerpiece of a new West Nashville mixed-use development.

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Ian Ross for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Chris Zidek. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro Paint “Carmencita” Tilted at 90 Degrees

May 15, 2017 Artists

The tea brand. The nightclub. The paella.

The dancer known as the “Pearl of Seville.”

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Carmencita is a name synonymous with the florid, proud and fanciful folklore of Spain expressed through the image of a colorful dancer. Castenets please! Flowers tossed at her feet, swirling skirt dizzying and brilliant.

While the famous dancer named Carmecita whom most Spaniards are familiar with was born in 1868 and was painted by John Singer Sargent (Musée d’Orsay, Paris) and William Merrit Chase (The Met, New York) among other notable painters, her image is less that of a person than of an archetype for mural painters Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro, who were both born in the mid 1990s.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Their new collaboration on a long wall in Sant Feliú is an opportunity to paint an image on the street that is impressionist and classical, and then to almost turn it on its head.

“Neither of us know the figure in the foreground, and it does not really matter except to know that she was connected to the world of entertainment and that the public admired her,” they tell us.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

The image is compelling, ebullient and a bit of a mystery – even more so as it has been rotated ninety degrees counterclockwise along the sidewalk of this busy street.

“We decided to represent the figure horizontally because it is a perspective to which we are not accustomed and it is shocking,” they say.

Clearly it is an unusual presentation and interpretation of the image of Carmencita and perhaps it is a furtherance of the concept of a street “intervention”.

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro created this painting in conjunction with Contorno Urbano, 12+1 of Sant Feliú, organized in part with Kaligrafics.

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.14.17

May 14, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

As New Yorkers (and the world) discuss whether Trump will self-combust, start a war, take control as a dictator, be revealed as a Russian operative, or be impeached, some things are for sure – every day the reputation of the US is sustaining damage among friends and allies, billionaires are grinning like Cheshire Cats and US citizens are feeling insecure as hell.

In New York, his “hometown”, we found this article from the Bronx Weekly to be full of informative responses from every day neighbors like the ones you see on the street and in the subway, at the laundromat, in the grocery store. Protests against him and his policies keep happening and more are planned; According to this piece in AM New York we’ve already had demonstrations this year outside Trump Tower, Trump International Hotel and Tower, at the Stonewall National Monument, Battery Park, Tompkins Square Park, Washington Square Park, Times Square and outside Kennedy Airport. And of course, we had Melissa McCarthy as Sean Spicer riding his podium through Midtown on Friday morning.

With this as a backdrop, its amazing that more Street Art isn’t overtly political. But what most of us are worried about these days isn’t specifically political – its our lives. And the street always has its way of reflecting us back to ourselves.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Aito Katazaki, City Kitty, Crash, Crime Scene, drsc0, Extinct Species, Felix Semper, GM.145, Himbad, Megzany, Pink Power, Raf Urban, SacSix, Stikman, and Xors.

Top image: Himbad for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pink Power for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash for Coney Art Walls 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GM . 145 Extinct Species. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crime Scene (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Megzany (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Japanese Street Artist Aito Kitazaki for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felix Semper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Raf Urban (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Abe and SacSix keeping it real for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Xors for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC, May 2107. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AXE Colours – Two Graffiti Friends, Now Creative Partners

May 13, 2017 Artists

Sometimes you can parlay your graffiti and Street Art practice into a career that sustains you, and many artists work hard to find opportunities that assure that they can continue to be creative. Friends since childhood and painting graffiti and murals together since 1999 in Barcelona, Adrià (Smaug) and Oriol (Gúma) together call themselves AXE Colours.

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Both are interested in architecture and design and plastic arts and have done a number of commercial projects together including recently a long tunnel inside the stadium complex for the footballers del Camp Nou del Futbol Club in the city.

While Oriol practices as an architect in London and Hong Kong, Adrià is fully dedicated to AXE COLORS personally and commercially and he is currently painting a series of portraits of TV personalities and sports figures. Here’s a recent painting of TV horse racing jockey Tommy Shelby and his horse for the 12 + 1 Project – with photos by Fernando Alcalá Losa.

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

BSA Film Friday: 05.12.17

May 12, 2017 Artists

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

Now screening :
1. Calligraphy, Layers and Screen Play; Said Dokins / Ugly Food House
2. Paolo Troilo: The London Afternoon
3. Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro for 12 + 1.
4. Jason Woodside and Ian Ross at Nashville Walls Project.
5. The Infinite Now – Armand Dijcks

BSA Special Feature: Calligraphy, Layers and Screen Play; Said Dokins / Ugly Food House

Happy Friday. Time for fun in the studio together.

A snappy glitch-flecked soundtrack lifts and carries this black and white series of brushstrokes, screen sprays, and inky dance steps as layers of calligraphy, automatic pens, Luthis pens, Japanese brushes and a nattering of nibs stack up and slide. Street Artist/fine artist Said Dokins is with the Master Printer of Ugly Food House, Ivonne Adel-Buereos, and the sunset is the theme that inspires all of this activity.

With the world in motion, it is an atmosphere that we desperately try to capture, to somehow document that inspirational moment. Perhaps its not in the activity, but the shared sense of possibility unleashed through play and collaboration.

Paolo Troilo: The London Afternoon

Let your multiple brushes at home? No worries, you can use your fingers. Return to your senses, your ability to create gestural motion upon a canvas, the tactile interaction with the world you first learned. Paolo Troilo is clearly inspired by the same beauty and makes a performance of it through the front window.

Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro for 12 + 1. Contorno Urbano

For the 12 + 1 Project Elisa Capdevilla + Ivan Floro turn this grande dame to the side in Barcelona, an introduction of classical into everyday, for everyone.

Jason Woodside and Ian Ross at Nashville Walls Project.

Tough to draw the correlation stylistically between Jason Woodside and Ian Ross but Those Drones/Brian Siskind places them in a series of adoring sweeps of Nashville and it’s real estate, backed by a glowing modern reassuring nostalgia.

…And a quickie of Jason Woodside’s completed piece via Nashville Walls Project

A focused and glad review of the explosion of color and pattern that Jason Woodside plays for the business improvement district in Nashville.

The Infinite Now – Armand Dijcks

Not so much palette cleansing as mind-blowing, awe-inspiring oceanscapes created as cinemagraphs that basically leave you speechless.

Armand Dijcks worked with Australian photographer Ray Collins to set these into infinite motion, surrounded and regaled with music by André Heuvelman from the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra along with pianist Jeroen van Vliet.

May we all be inspired and run out to the world to create the positive change we need to have.

The Infinite Now from Armand Dijcks on Vimeo.

Liliwenn Paints “Liberty Asleep” in Vannes, France

May 11, 2017 Artists

“Liberty Asleep” is the name of this image by French artist Liliwen who paints it at a time when liberty needs to be awake.

Liliwenn. “Liberté endormie”. Vannes, France. May 2017. (photo © Liliwenn)

A painter of paradoxes, usually on wood or canvas, Liliwen has painted on walls in Los Angeles, London, Paris, Berlin and Buenos Aires, among others. She has taken three years off of wall painting since having a child, she tells us, and this is her first since then. As part of an event called “Vannes et sa street” in a walled town city of about 50,000 in the Brittany region of northwest France.

The mural of the nude woman is meant to speak to the fragility of humans as well as purity. She places the skull of a dove on the figure’s head and an olive branch in the hand. “It’s a poetic artwork and political at the same time, as everyday we lose a little bit more of our fragile liberty,” she says. “Some are waiting for an awakening of consciousness.”

Liliwenn. “Liberté endormie”. Vannes, France. May 2017. (photo © Liliwenn)

Liliwenn at work on “Liberté endormie” (photo © “Vannes et sa street“)

Young New Yorkers, Street Artists, and Keeping Teens Out of Jail

May 10, 2017 Artists

The Street Art community donates time and art to a program that keeps teens out of jail in New York. An annual auction overflows with work by today’s Street Artists.

Marco Mazzoni. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the precision indicative of her architect training Rachel Barnard describes the art/criminal justice project for youth that she founded five years ago – which keeps growing thanks to artists’ help, community involvement, and an evermore engaged criminal justice system.

“Alternative Diversion,” she calls it, this court-mandated art program that prosecutors can offer to New York teens as a sentencing option instead of incarceration or doing community service.

“What we’re talking about here are 16 and 17 year-olds in Brooklyn who have been arrested for things like jumping the (subway) turnstyle or having a small amount of marijuana on them or petty larceny,” Barnard explains in a new video for YNY.

Peeta. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Say you get a misdemeanor record at 16,” she says “What that means is that you’re less likely to get employment, even though you are more likely to be poor and need employment more than most other 16 year-olds.”

Each year the programs called Young New Yorkers (YNY), which Barnard founded, work directly with these youth to redirect their route in life, to provide guidance, foster self-analyzation and to set productive goals for the future.

A photo by light artist Vicki da Silva. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To some observers it may sound ironic that Street Artists, many of whom have done illegal artworks on walls throughout New York City, are the principal artists pool who are donating their time and talent here to the fundraising auction in lower Manhattan.

With high profile names like Shepard Fairey, Daze, Dan Witz, the Guerrilla Girls and Kara Walker on this years list of artists donating to the auction, the program boasts a cross section of established and emerging Street Artists, graffiti artists, culture jammers and truth tellers who heartily support this program that since 2012 has given more than 400 city youth a second chance.

Guerrilla Girls. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But then we think more about the history and psychological/anthropological makeup of the Street Art scene and it makes perfect sense: What segment of the arts community has such a rich history of activism, self-directed industry, challenging the norms of society, using public space for intervention – and a penchant for consciousness-raising?

Even after 50 plus years of youth culture in love with graffiti and Street Art these artists and their practice are seen as outside the proper curriculum of many universities with art programs and museums have arduous internal debates about supporting exhibitions that are dedicated to Street Art and graffiti specifically.

Kaws. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This is precisely the kind of marginalized movement/ subculture that has necessarily thrived often with little encouragement or funding – overcoming the barriers to success that more institutionally recognized art movements don’t encounter. In fact, many have gone to jail for what they do.

Uniquely, Young New Yorkers continues to build its partnerships with artists, teachers, lawyers, volunteers and several agencies within the criminal justice system, including criminal and community courts, the District Attorney’s Office and the Legal Aid Society. The program’s art shows mounted by graduates are frequently attended by members of the justice system as well and art becomes a facilitator of strengthened community ties.

Joe Russo’s photo of Street Art twins OSGEMEOS. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA has supported YNY every year since its first auction benefit and this year is no exception. Please go to Paddle 8 to see the items for sale or better yet, go to the auction in person. We stopped by while they were hanging the show yesterday and we were able to take a few shots for you to see what’s up for grabs.

Sean 9 Lugo. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

K.R. Kitsch. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Young New Yorkers Silent Art Auction Honoring Actor and Activist Michael K. Williams

Wednesday, May 10, 2017
548 West 28th Street
New York, NY
6:00 VIP hour with Michael K. Williams (Star and Super Star Tickets)
7:00–10:00 party (Regular tickets)

More information at YoungNewYorkers.org http://www.youngnewyorkers.org/

To learn more about the work that Young New Yorkers do and to get involved click HERE

Banksy Hits Brexit With New Piece, MaisMenos & BLU Used EU Flag Earlier

May 9, 2017 Artists

The appearance of a new mural by Banksy in Dover, England caught the attention of many followers on his Instagram account and the mass media folks quickly reported on the new piece that comments on the current state of the EU.

Banksy. Dover, England. Photo @banksy Instagram

10 months since the Brexit vote, the anonymous artist has created a thoughtful piece marking the crack in the European Union, depicting a white male worker on a ladder chipping away one of the stars on the EU flag, a fissure produced by the action reaching upwards and outwards toward the others.

The new mural by the Banksy team reminds us of a 2014 version of the EU flag done by the Portuguese Street Artist MaisMenos, who used his rendition as a comment about Norway’s position in relation to joining the EU, namely ‘No way’. It may have been a preliminary Street Art indicator of the rising sentiments against the union which leads us to this new one. A participant of the Nuart Festival in Stavanger that year, MaisMenos smartly employed a smokestack above the mural, placing Norway’s star outside the circle, far to the north.

A 2014 mural by the Portuguese Street Artist in Stavanger, Norway also used the EU flag to express a certain discontent. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

For the new Banksy piece, some thought the unveiling was timed to coincide with the French elections on Sunday – but the outcome of that election wouldn’t contribute further to the dissolution of the EU, rather the opposite if Mr. Macron is to continue that countries membership. Perhaps it is just a visual realization that Brexit appears to be irreversible and Mrs. May will continue to withdraw her country from the economic arrangements.

Italian Street Artist BLU in 2012 creates a barbed wire periphery for the EU flag. Photo © BLU

And thumbs up to Don Stone of From Here to Fame Publishing for reminding us of BLU’s shot at the EU flag in 2012, which depicts the yellow star symbols of each nation member as barbs on a wire fence that points to the xenophobic elements that influence national debates.

Detail of barbed wire periphery in the EU flag by Italian Street Artist BLU in 2012. Photo © BLU

That circular fence in this case is being used to keep people out of the EU and it would be a reasonable reading of the piece that they are refugees seeking safety and asylum. They’re all blue (or blu) but you can also guess that the masses outside the fence are brown and beige and black skinned folks from countries under siege by economic and oil wars.

Watching how far those cracks reach throughout Europe… Banksy. Dover, England. Detail Photo @banksy Instagram

Please note: This article was updated to include information on BLU after the original published post.

Karl Addison Paints In Refugee Camp in Greece with Syrian Kids

May 8, 2017 Artists

If your house is destroyed and you are chased from your neighborhood by bombs, anything that recalls normalcy is welcomed. Street Artist Karl Addison tells us a recent project with two other artists where he hopes their painting gave residents a sense of hope for their future.

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)

Based in an abandoned textile factory in Thessaloniki, Greece, the individual tented rooms are in rows on large open floors with common areas created for kitchens and space for children to play. Outside in the parking lot Karl smashed the walls with an ocean of blues over the course of six days – something comforting and reassuring perhaps.

“We were creating the artwork with the objective to make the place feel more like a home than an old factory,” Karl says, and she says that he invited people to be a part of the process of art making “hoping to inspire or provide some sort of normalcy to their lives.”

Mostly families from Aleppo, Syria, many of these families were previously in other camps and “have been split up along the journey and/or the war from their homes,” he says.

“I wanted to paint some of the kids from the home and only managed to do two portraits. For the rest of the canvas, we engaged the kids to put the theory of Abstract painting into practice. Inspiring them with contemporary painters like Rothko, Pollock & Cy Twombly. The movement and mark of paint becoming their expression.” An unusual exposure to 20^th century painting, no doubt, and one that some of the kids got to participate in as well.

The project is sponsored and organized by apART, an organization that brings arts into places like the Elpida Refugee Home. Karl would like to thank Sam from apART, as well as give a shout out to the two other artists who were working at the camp with him, Billy (*http://www.billycolours.com/), and David Shillinglaw (*http://davidshillinglaw.co.uk/).

“I can only hope that during the time we were there, there was a difference made. If it’s a particular painting, phrase, or text from the beautiful artworks,” he says, his intention was to show “empathy for other humans in need – involvement through compassion.”

aptART: http://www.aptart.org/

Elpida Home: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/elpida-home-project-thessaloniki-greece-refugees-factory_us_57a3ab7fe4b03ba68011d08f

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.07.17

May 7, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Whether by design or organically grown, we have always gravitated to what we call “Magnet Walls” – those graffiti/Street Art gardens in a town or city that are an open canvas for artists to get up, try out new ideas, experiment with materials, implement a strategy. These walls play an important role in the ecosystem of what we call Street Art or Urban Art. They’re not always explicitly illegal because their reputation draws 10s or 100s of artists to pile on year after year without interruption. The building owners could be allowing the expressions to take place for charitable reasons, more likely just neglect.

The role of these magnet walls is important …and so we are happy to see that while some walls have ceased to exist in some New York neighborhoods in recent years, mostly due to the voracious appetite of developers and the dulling effects of gentrification – “the shack” in Bushwick, the candy factory in Soho to mention just two of them – others are flourishing elsewhere. Today we have many images from a block known as the Great Wall of Savas in Queens.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Aito Katazaki, A Cool55, Amanda Marie, bunnyM, Dirt Cobain, Hektad, JerkFace, Key Detail, Martian Code Art, Pat Perry, Stikman, Thrashbird, What Will You Leave Behind, and WhisBe.

Saint Francis reaching out to an Angry Bird – as he would, because he’s a saint. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A small poem in the corner reads, “Email me your heart. Then in the morning while we watch the sun rise, kneeling down by the river, the blood drips freely as we wash our hands clean”

“GO GO GO” BYG in Spain for 12+1 Project

May 6, 2017 Artists

Maybe it’s because we just saw Mark Mothersbaugh interviewed live onstage at NYU by Carlo McCormick, but when we saw this mechanically growing text it reminded us of DEVO and Kraftwerk and possibly Dadaist collage. And Russian Constructivists and the Bauhaus.

Ding Ding Ding! We knew if we kept guessing we were bound to get it right, right? Patricia and Luis, of the art collective BYG, tell us that their new piece for the 12 + 1 project ”is a tribute that BYG wants to do to Rodchenko and Russian Constructivism.” Made with paper and plastic paint on a wall in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, the renowned illustrators are passionate about collage and have done a number of street interventions using the technique, as well as legally in spanish art festivals like Asalto in Zaragoza, Open Walls in Barcelona or Poliniza in Valencia.

The constructed environment becomes the norm through repetition, so it is refreshing, sometimes jarringly so, to see deconstruction. Says BYG about their new wall,”Collage is what unites and what separates, it is the encounter, the surprise, it is to subvert and decontextualize, it is discovery.” Go Go Go!

BSA Film Friday: 05.05.17

May 5, 2017 Artists

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

Now screening :
1. Stick to It, Episode 1 : Sticky Community
2. Ella & Pitr / Frappés Pinpins
3. Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen.
4. 12 + 1 Oriol Vlat.

BSA Special Feature: Stick to It, Episode 1 : Sticky Community via Juxtapoz

“People had the same idea I had; ‘I wanna make stickers,’ I wanna put characters on stickers, not necessarily all graffiti, and we’re just gonna trade and we’re gonna put your stickers up in my city and you’re gonna put my stickers up in your city,” says artist El Toro.

“Right now it’s just like a storm.”

Running concurrently while graffiti and Street Art get most of the attention, the sticker slap game may turn out to be the portable protest that may get the most mileage in the end. Once a sly critique of the methodology of brainwashing that advertisers use, in the case of Shepard Fairey’s initial OBEY campaigns, today advertisers mix their messages in with the organic scene as a way to market to fans of it and to burnish their “street” bonafides.

As it turns out, we’ve learned that graffiti and Street Artists use the same methods of repetition and branding to get their name out and the ease and mobility of the sticker practice also means that small voices get into the mix quickly. Keeping it up depends on your industry – and many times your resources. This video highlights the organic artist culture that gave birth to and continues to grows around the stickering practice with guys like Roycer and Chris from Robots Will Kill, and naturally it slips in clothing and lifestyle brands seamlessly to sell you their products and strengthen their name.

Ella & Pitr / Frappés Pinpins

The French duo Ella + Pitr here revel in the simplicity of the gestural act of a full-body full-bucket splash of black paint.

Carnal, visceral, overlaid with psychographical information, the motion of splashing inky pigment across a white quadrilateral is an act of defiance and a release of the inner chaos – instantly recognizable as chaos elsewhere in the world.

The uncontrollable quality, especially when purveyed within an atmosphere of prim control, provokes amplified emotions in some. Fear, liberation, rage, release. Which ones will you experience?

Herakut. Nuart Aberdeen. Via Fifth Wall TV

“Don’t hide, because you are that light,” a quick summary of Herakut’s singular message in their mural at Nuart Aberdeen. Be a lighthouse bro.

12 + 1 Oriol Vlat.

A simple and clean presentation of Oriol Vlat’s new wall for the 12 + 1 project in Barcelona by video director Alex Miró.

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Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Jason Woodside for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Nathan Brown. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Ian Ross for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Chris Zidek. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Ian Ross for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Chris Zidek. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Ian Ross for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Chris Zidek. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Ian Ross for The Nashville Walls Project. Assisted by local artist Chris Zidek. April 2017. (photo © Eva Boros)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Elisa Capdevila and Iván Floro at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

Top image: Himbad for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pink Power for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash for Coney Art Walls 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GM . 145 Extinct Species. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GM . 145 Extinct Species. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crime Scene (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Megzany (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Japanese Street Artist Aito Kitazaki for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felix Semper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Raf Urban (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Abe and SacSix keeping it real for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Xors for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC, May 2107. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

AXE Colours at Kaligrafics. Contorno Urbano. 12 + 1 Project. May 2017, Barcelona. (photo © Alex Miró)

BSA Special Feature: Calligraphy, Layers and Screen Play; Said Dokins / Ugly Food House

Paolo Troilo: The London Afternoon

Elisa Capdevila & Ivan Floro for 12 + 1. Contorno Urbano

Jason Woodside and Ian Ross at Nashville Walls Project.

…And a quickie of Jason Woodside’s completed piece via Nashville Walls Project

The Infinite Now – Armand Dijcks

Liliwenn. “Liberté endormie”. Vannes, France. May 2017. (photo © Liliwenn)

Liliwenn. “Liberté endormie”. Vannes, France. May 2017. (photo © Liliwenn)

Liliwenn. “Liberté endormie”. Vannes, France. May 2017. (photo © Liliwenn)

Liliwenn at work on “Liberté endormie” (photo © “Vannes et sa street“)

The Street Art community donates time and art to a program that keeps teens out of jail in New York. An annual auction overflows with work by today’s Street Artists.

Marco Mazzoni. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the precision indicative of her architect training Rachel Barnard describes the art/criminal justice project for youth that she founded five years ago – which keeps growing thanks to artists’ help, community involvement, and an evermore engaged criminal justice system.

“Alternative Diversion,” she calls it, this court-mandated art program that prosecutors can offer to New York teens as a sentencing option instead of incarceration or doing community service.

“What we’re talking about here are 16 and 17 year-olds in Brooklyn who have been arrested for things like jumping the (subway) turnstyle or having a small amount of marijuana on them or petty larceny,” Barnard explains in a new video for YNY.

Peeta. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Say you get a misdemeanor record at 16,” she says “What that means is that you’re less likely to get employment, even though you are more likely to be poor and need employment more than most other 16 year-olds.”

Each year the programs called Young New Yorkers (YNY), which Barnard founded, work directly with these youth to redirect their route in life, to provide guidance, foster self-analyzation and to set productive goals for the future.

A photo by light artist Vicki da Silva. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To some observers it may sound ironic that Street Artists, many of whom have done illegal artworks on walls throughout New York City, are the principal artists pool who are donating their time and talent here to the fundraising auction in lower Manhattan.

Guerrilla Girls. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaws. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This is precisely the kind of marginalized movement/ subculture that has necessarily thrived often with little encouragement or funding – overcoming the barriers to success that more institutionally recognized art movements don’t encounter. In fact, many have gone to jail for what they do.

Joe Russo’s photo of Street Art twins OSGEMEOS. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean 9 Lugo. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

K.R. Kitsch. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. Young New Yorkers 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Young New Yorkers Silent Art Auction Honoring Actor and Activist Michael K. Williams

Wednesday, May 10, 2017 548 West 28th Street New York, NY 6:00 VIP hour with Michael K. Williams (Star and Super Star Tickets) 7:00–10:00 party (Regular tickets)

More information at YoungNewYorkers.org http://www.youngnewyorkers.org/ To learn more about the work that Young New Yorkers do and to get involved click HERE

Banksy. Dover, England. Photo @banksy Instagram

A 2014 mural by the Portuguese Street Artist in Stavanger, Norway also used the EU flag to express a certain discontent. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Italian Street Artist BLU in 2012 creates a barbed wire periphery for the EU flag. Photo © BLU

Detail of barbed wire periphery in the EU flag by Italian Street Artist BLU in 2012. Photo © BLU

Watching how far those cracks reach throughout Europe… Banksy. Dover, England. Detail Photo @banksy Instagram

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)’

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)

Karl Addison for aptART. Elpida, Thessaloniki, Greece. April 2017. (photo © Karl Addison)

Wednesday, May 10, 2017
548 West 28th Street
New York, NY
6:00 VIP hour with Michael K. Williams (Star and Super Star Tickets)
7:00–10:00 party (Regular tickets)

More information at YoungNewYorkers.org http://www.youngnewyorkers.org/

To learn more about the work that Young New Yorkers do and to get involved click HERE