Rocking “THE HAUS” : A 5-Floor Berlin Bank is Transformed by Artists

March 16, 2017 Artists, Interview

“Normally we paint advertising – hand-painted advertising, mostly with cans. So we work all over Germany, with a lot of crews, “ says Kimo, a bearded, bald energetic and sharp witted guy who is lighting up a cigarette in this tattered, beige ex-conference room. That explanation doesn’t prepare you for what you will see in the rooms upstairs.

Size Two. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The floors are piled with unopened paint buckets and brushes and cans and the walls in this organizing office are covered with scotch-taped project timelines, to-do lists, and floor plans of the old bank. Each former office space is plainly labled with names of German Street Artists or graffiti crews, some you recognize, others you don’t. More recent Street Art names are next to classic Graff heads, installation artists mix freely with Optic Artists, photographers, sculptors, even a live moss installation.

Case Maclaim is right next door to Turbokultur with Stohead out in the hall on floor 1. El Bocho and Emess are in small rooms to either side of 1UP on the 3rd. Herakut in a corner room numbered 506 is right next to Nick Platt and Paul Punk in 505.

1UP Crew. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What are all these artists, more than 175 of them and almost entirely German, all doing throughout a five-floor bank building in central Berlin on the Kudamm?

You’ll find out in April when the doors open to thousands of graffiti/Street Art/contemporary art fans to tour through THE HAUS, an enthusiastic life-affirming joyful and pissed-off D.I.Y.-flavored fun-haus of fully realized installations, painting, projections, exhibits, and interventions.

You’ve been to (or at least read about) these last-hurrah urban art installations before – celebrations of artists’ visions that inhabit a building destined to be demolished soon. Possibly because of their ephemeral nature or a lack of serious interest in art-making, often the artworks and their execution are a bit slap-dash and loosely committed.

Not at THE HAUS. You’ll likely be surprised by the conceptual sophistication at times and wowed by technical dexterity, stagecraft, attention to details, and genuinely mind-challenging immersive environments.

Super Bad Boys. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But this is Berlin after all, an urban art capital where graffiti crews are known for getting way up on impossible walls with foolhardy and militarily precise plans – sometimes implemented with rehearsal and execution under cover of night.

The logistical planning of Street Art and graffiti interventions here often centers around devising a slick and ingeniously resourceful roll-out of the aesthetic attack- some times given as much attention as executing the artwork.

Innerfields. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We do not curate any of the room concepts,” explains Kimo as he leads you from room to room, sometime removing protective tape over doorways and turning on lights to allow a guest to see inside. “There is no over all concept. It has to be really really nice, but that’s it.”

Okay, there are some challenging themes around violence, graphic sexuality, and the horror of human trafficking. More often they are driven by character, text, and slaughtering with paint and pattern. As with most creative ventures of this size, it is impossible for organizers to know when or if to draw the line on content.

Herakut. Process Shot. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There is also a darkened and completely life-sized realistic portion of a train-yard with a capped train over head, rails below, and cables and ground stones. A companion “white box” installation is said to be somewhere right now inside an underground Berlin train station. It is evident that weeks of preparation went into many of these dioramas and scenes.

“We just called around 50 artists to invite them here to take a look at the building and we told them, ‘If you know guys who have skills like you, just tell them.’ We’re looking for more artists,” Kimo says.

With more than three times that number coming and installing in the HAUS building over the last four months, there are still more artists who are clamoring to get in. “Now we have 100 artists on the waiting list”.

Case Maclaim. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The existence of this list would sound like bragadoccio coming from another organizer of an event like this, but when you see the calendars, lists of names, video scheduling, website design schedule, team responsibilities, art materials, contracts, even marketing plans printed and thumb-tacked on the walls of the Orga, you know that these three partners have created a supportive art-making environment with a sense of purpose.

“Bolle and Jörni have been painting for 25 years,” says Kimo of his two partners. The three are members of their own crew called DIE DIXONS. Kimo says he cannot paint. “I tried but I can’t, I don’t have the patience to paint”. Instead he says he has great organizational abilities and love for the art subculture and the graffiti/Street Art game.

Kaleido. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Together the DIE DIXONS also own the professional sign-painting company Xi-Design who originated THE HAUS project, and it is their multiple contacts with real estate, construction, lifestyle brands, paint suppliers, and highly-skilled commercial painters that makes this endeavor a POWER HAUS like few you’ll find.

This show is planned to be destroyed in a few months along with the building for a new project with condos and retail, but the quality here in many cases actually rivals art fairs we have seen in the last few years. Based on the buzz it has it safe to say that by the time the doors open in April, it will already have been declared a success.

Ostap. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Please note: Under the agreement with the organizers we agreed to publish only details of the pieces, so the surprise is not ruined. Some of these are installations in progress along with completed installations.

Tape That. Process Shot. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tomislav Topic . Thomas Granseuer. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dr. Molrok. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steffen Seeger. Process shot. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Base23. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vidam. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Telmo & Miel. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paulo Consentino. Process shot. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anne Bengard. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Arsek . Erase. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Arrou-Tea. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Go Go Plata. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Honsar. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insane51. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Popay. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniela Uhlig. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felix Rodewaldt. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DeerBLN. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klebebande. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mario Mankey. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One Truth. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Koikate. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rotkäppchen . Goliath. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Señor Schnu. Process Shot. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urzula Amen. The Haus. Berlin. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We wish to express our sincere thanks to Kimo, Bolle, Jörni and their team for all the time and assistance provided to us for the production of this article. Thank you to Katrin for helping with the artists IDs, and to Lisa Schmidt for her help with information as well.

Elbi Elem Breaks the Rectangle for 12+1 in Barcelona

March 15, 2017 Artists

“Break with the rectangle as the space to intervened,” says artist Elbi Elem, the March painter for this wall curated monthly in L’Hospitalet de Llobregat, Spain. The abstract muralist says she began making kinetic sculpture in 2002 and has an interest in movement, composition and form.

Elbi Elem. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

In fact she has redirected the attention outside of the rectangular canvas with an arching red line that extends beyond the stage, perhaps to annex a part of the sky and add it to the composition.

In her description of the new piece just completed, Ms. Elem says the flexible tube forms “forming a visual circuit” that captures the movement of the trains above – and becomes a framing device for anyone who may want to pose with it on the landing.

Elbi Elem. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Far from the rectilinear boxing of Mondrian and certainly not in his primary palette, the work is nonetheless geometric abstraction, calling to mind some of the heroic adds for locomotives and rail transportation of our last mid century.

By inducing the element of the handrail diagonally bisecting the wall, Elem opens the experience, rather than sealing it closed, symbolizing, as she says “traveling, moving forward, and action.”

Elbi Elem. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Fer Alcalá)

Elbi Elem. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Antón)

Elbi Elem. Contorno Urbano “12 x 1” 2017. Barcelona. (photo © Clara Antón)

For more information about Contorno Urbano please click HERE.

Vegan Activist Artists Don’t Sell Burgers : Louis Masai Speaks Out About Beef

March 14, 2017 Artists

It’s just the irony of it; A guy who makes art in the streets to raise awareness about endangered species has his mural of a bog turtle used to sell burgers and bacon on a bagel by a fast food company that has been regularly accused over many years of creating deforestation that’s caused by cattle production.

McDonald’s of course, didn’t make or contribute much to this graffiti/Street Art/mural scene, nor did they take any time to understand it. Creative culture vultures everywhere know that it is far easier just to seize other people’s work and slap it into a product than to do the homework. If they’d talked to Louis Masai, they would have gotten an earful.

Preliminary signs point to a lot of people not knowing how Street Artists work would have ended up airing without permission in the newest campaign for McDonald’s in Netherlands that purrs with pride over its connection to real street flava in the Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick. AdWeek displayed the videos in an article discussing the campaign, but mysteriously the videos have disappeared from that posting and the McDonald’s YouTube channel. The Street Art blog Vandalog had an article about the matter yesterday, and perhaps that fire added to the unbearable heat in McD’s kitchen, as it were.

Naturally on social media posts fingers have been furiously pointing at Joe Ficalora of the Bushwick Collective because he appears giving a tour in the long-form “documentary” style ads that were made by the creative agency who was producing the campaign. In the montages of images, voices, and music you see interviews with four early NYC graffiti writers and one Brazilian street artist – each of whom Joe invited and who created work for the campaign.

People are quick to pounce and surmise and pontificate about who got paid and what everyone’s good and bad intentions were – and then extrapolate outward into discussions around gentrification, cultural hegemony, parasitic behaviors, selling out a culture, etc. We don’t know for sure what all those details are so we’ll stop short of making accusations at the moment – much will come out in lawsuits going forward no doubt – and really we’re supposed to be writing an intro here…

The thing we do know for sure is there were a lot of shots of other works in those videos by artists – including from another community wall initiative named JMZ Walls – who are all saying that they were never contacted nor did they give McDonald’s permission to use their work in promoting McD’s. This group includes Louis Masai, who writes an editorial essay today here about what his experience was, what his personal opinions are and what he thinks about using his artwork to sell burgers.

McDonalds x Bushwick Collective

by Louis Masai

Right now I should be painting, I have a solo show coming up. Instead my mind is over consumed by the frustration and outrage of an advert that was brought to my attention mid Friday afternoon by another artist.

He said to go check my Facebook or Instagram account, that McDonalds had just released what has to be one of the most culturally thieving adverts I have ever seen. After 3:37 minutes, for almost 4 seconds, there it was; my mural of a New York state, endangered bog turtle.

My mural is now advertising a New York bagel beef burger and I am not loving it.

A screenshot of Louis Masai’s bog turtle in Bushwick from the Dutch advertisement for McDonald’s. This was the first in a 3 month cross country mural program Louis did which BSA followed from beginning to end.
See One Artist’s Mission to Save Endangered Species: Louis Masai Completes “The Art Of Beeing” Tour.

For those that are unaware of my work – I paint about endangered species; I use public walls with granted permissions to highlight issues such as biodiversity, the sixth mass extinction, deforestation, and climate change. I am also a vegan. So even if McDonalds had asked me if I minded to be included in their campaign, I would have told them where to shove that bun with a hole. Today, Monday March 13^th, after over an hour on the phone talking with the founder of the Bushwick Collective, the three adverts have been removed from the Internet – for now.

Why was I so outraged by all this? Here’s why: The Amazon was the place that inspired scientists to coin the term “biodiversity.” The region is home to 10 percent of all plant and animal species known on Earth. There are approximately 40,000 species of plants, more than 400 mammals, almost 1,300 Birds, and millions of insects. All this life depends on each other and cows are not one of those 400 mammals, according to greenpeace.org.

The production of beef is, without question, the biggest cause of deforestation in the Amazon, with figures ranging from 65 to 70 percent of all deforestation in the area from 2000 to 2005. However these numbers account only for the areas cleared for the creation of pastures, and they fail to include the food being produced for cattle consumption.

The Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies stipulates that Brazil alone has 24 to 25 million hectares devoted to the production of soy, 80 percent of which would end up as animal feed. These numbers all contribute to the consensus that the primary reason for rainforest deforestation in the Amazon can be attributed to the beef industry, according to rainforestpartnership.com.

A screenshot that gives that Brooklyn flava from the McDonald’s commercial

McDonalds sells beef burgers, a lot of them. In fact in 2015, despite not being able to disclose exactly how many burgers they sell each year, as this is ‘commercially sensitive information’, it was reported that they expected to sell over 91 million of the world famous Big Mac sandwiches. Who really knows where that hip-hop, New York bagel beef came from? That is why I am outraged that my painting was aired in an advert for McDonalds.

We live in a world where things are perpetually looked at in the wrong light. Think about the text message that you misinterpreted or the tweet that you didn’t manage to squeeze in all the right words for. We live in a “judge me” society, and I’m not favourable of being twinned with a conglomerate company that is directly associated, past or present, with the destruction of biodiversities, lost species and communities.

Portions of another public mural initiative in Brooklyn called JMZ Walls also appear in the commercials.

The fast-food giant announced in 2015 it would be working with its suppliers to end deforestation in its global supply chain. But how much of that is effective? And how aware is the general public? Whether my point of opinions are correct or not, that doesn’t excuse the fact that McDonalds is not a “sustainable” business; they do not help the environment in a meaningful way, and they definitely have a horrendous past track record. These facts I do know.

I also know, the Bushwick Collective allowed McDonalds to have ownership of my artwork and the sharing of my mural on the Internet, even if that did only last 5 days. Why did Bushwick Collective allow for something that they didn’t own the rights for to pass on in the first place, to be sold? It was an insult to me as a vegan, a violation of my artistic rights and somewhat dark waters for the correlation of my works context.

Screenshot of wall by artist LMNOPI, which was done as a result of a private agreement with the landlord.

McDonalds, cowing back to the depths of its shadows, probably due to concerns of legality, removes the issue of copyright infringement but does it remove their intent to exploit a cherished culture. I am sure that this is not the end of the issue as a whole but for now, I hope that this is a warning to others. Artists are not to be taken advantage of anymore, we will not tolerate it and we will fight back.

Now I’m worried about what is next to come. Should I be watching out for Monsanto to use my bee paintings in a ‘documentary’?

The opinions expressed by Mr. Masai are his own and do not necessarily reflect those of the editorz.

How & Nosm Examine “Infinite Moments”, Additional Dimensions

March 13, 2017 Artists

Events of shock, heartache, wonder and euphoria. Inscribed nearly indelibly into our book of life, we return to them again and again as touchstones, trying to unpack them, redefine them, refine them, blur them, to make some peace with them.

As the twins examine their own perceptions of events that took place or didn’t, time is also introducing subtle shadings that were not there in black and white only a few years ago, and tints and echoes of gentle rose and blood red expand the possible interpretations.

How & Nosm Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For years narratives of troubling skullduggery and thuggery and whimsy, real and imagined, have compounded and built upon themselves. Swirled and whirled concentrically inside these compositions, How & Nosm have invited viewers to go inside their panoptic scenes of mirrored and mutual memories to twist and spin around realities, metaphors, motifs, patterns, symbols, and fictions.

How & Nosm. Hanging by the Thread. Detail. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Depending on your depth of field the paintings could be largely decorative or deeply nested works to be pored over, imagined, interpreted. Presently there may be a loosening of the more strictly rhythmic balance, some departures of asymmetry, some playing with the palette, some relaxing into feelings of beauty for the sake of it.

Ultimately you have these infinite moments because of interpretation and perception and because the brothers generously share with you as much information as you can handle, each an illustrated and implied moment so multidimensional that you can return to it again and see one more aspect every time.

How & Nosm. Hanging by the Thread. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Hanging by the Thread. Detail. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Calm Before the Storm. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Aim for the Moon. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Aim for the Moon. Detail. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Autumn Breeze. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Autumn Breeze. Detail. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Conclusions. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. High Tide . Memorial Day. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm. Infinite Moments Jacob Lewis Gallery. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How & Nosm Infinite Moments is currently on view at the Jacob Lewis Gallery in Manhattan. This exhibition closes on April 1st.

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.12.17

March 12, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

A fun time on the streets this week in New York and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere as parts of spring infuse the air with excitement and hormones – later to be drowned in rain, or smothered under snow!

The rolling dumpster fire keeps frightening and perplexing everyone and we are gradually figuring out that as dreadfully entertaining as the occupant of the White House is, the real story is the wealthy men behind him stabbing at the poor and the elderly and the sick and the immigrants. Please, the only thing that is going to help us is a sense of humor and a lot of yelling apparently.

Almost every day you see new Street Art about this situation, this multi-pronged attack on the people, which quite possibly has begun to frighten those people who thought they were voting for a populist who cared about them.

Today we even have a homemade sign that has been scotch-taped into a car window on BSA Images of the Week. No one can say we’re elitist, bro. We’re down with your moms too, son! Get out that scotch tape!

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Adam Fujita, DeerBLN, Fred le Chevalier, Li-Hill, Moe79, Ostap, Senz.

Top image: Moe79 at The Haus in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Moe79 and Akut at The Haus in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Moe79 on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A billboard takeover by an unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A billboard takeover by an unidentified artist. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An ode to the most humble of papers: The toilet paper by an unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christian Rothenhagen AKA deerBLN on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Senz tribute to Biggie Smalls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fred Le Chevalier on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ostap on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oh not you again. Looks like your Big Brother is back. Probably never left. Unidentified Artist on the streets of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our own very ephemerous lil’ phone booth ad takeover…wink wink… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Domino Sugar Plant. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faring Purth and “Grace” in Forest Park (Chicago)

March 11, 2017 Artists

“A woman’s guess is much more accurate than a man’s certainty.”
~Rudyard Kipling

We mention this Kipling quote in this description of Street Artist Faring Purth because

a.) she often seems like she’s plucked out of a traveling adventure from a Kipling tale,
b.) her instincts for creating new pieces are frequently on-point and a bit happenstance and magic, and
c.) we know enough men who are resolutely, absolutely certain of their opinion who are also wrong on a semi-regular basis. Like Uncle Marty, for example, and that guy Hakeem at the bagel store on Bedford Avenue who is always pontificating about the METS or the right way to barbecue a steak…but let’s not get into that.

Faring Purth. Grace. Forest Park, Chicago. March 2017. (photo © Faring Purth)

So here Faring Purth is in Chicago just for the weekend and she decides to paint one of her ladies. It was just a quick trip with a friend from St. Louis to visit with a friend for a couple of days; “mostly just to explore and touch surfaces,” she says.

“I wandered on foot from where I was staying, bundled up, head phones echoing, and came across signs that read, ‘I (heart) FP’,” she says, still not really knowing what the abbreviation stood for. In fact, as we have learned, she felt “like Alice down the rabbit hole – no idea of exactly where I was.”

So how did this painting happen? Oh, you know, people you meet in your travels…

Faring Purth. Grace. Forest Park, Chicago. March 2017. (photo © Faring Purth)

“I then met some community members in a local coffee shop,” who happened to like her artwork and asked her if she’d like to paint a mural. Or as she says,” I was introduced to Forest Park via a small spontaneous mural on the corner of Madison and Circle Avenue.”

The name of the new piece in Forest Park? “Grace.”

“The embrace of this small Chicago community was truly heart warming. Excited to wander back in the near future. Perhaps after Uruguay in May.”

Faring Purth. Grace. Forest Park, Chicago. March 2017. (photo © Faring Purth)

BSA Film Friday: 03.10.17

March 10, 2017 Artists

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

Now screening :
1. Rone: The Alpha Project
2. FKDL – Petites Chroniques Urbaines
3. Irene Lopez León: 12+1 Contorno Urbano
4. The Batcave, Henry Chalfant, on The New York Times
5. Isaac Cordal “Giza Komedia”

BSA Special Feature: Rone: The Alpha Project

In this new revelatory video Street Artist Rone appears to unveil romantic and healthy figures from beneath a veil in isolated patches. The austere minimalist soundtrack contributes to a disorientation, a feeling of suspension while a visual wonder appears before you. The ruins of industrial production are legion in parts of the West as manufacturing is now done in the East, so our artists again have discovered enchanting ways to make something remarkable with the tools at hand, even transcendent.

FKDL – Petites Chroniques Urbaines

Mon Film, La Femme Chez Elle.

Only two of hundreds of magazines collected from the fashionable Parisian ladies of the 1950s and 1960s that FKDL flips through. In his studio you find his materials carefully archived and labeled, a well of pleasant and smartly chick ladies to select from and to collage together. A painter before he was a street art, his muses have been many and now he takes his stuff to the street with part illustration, part collage, often upon a bright blue or phosphorescent pink thin synthetic backing. Here he shares openly with you how the process goes, how he first loved these ladies and how he came upon his style for the street, now for a decade or so.

FKDL recalls a moment of epiphany with clarity; “Right. I got it. I’m going to dress up my collage characters with more collages”.

Irene Lopez León: 12+1 Contorno Urbano

See the direct relationship between the studio practice and the mural painting here in this video with Spanish artists Irene Lopez León for the 12+1 wall.

The Batcave, a Graffiti Landmark in Brooklyn, Grows Up

By MATT A.V. CHABAN MARCH 7, 2017 on The New York Times

The New York Times discovered the Batcave just as it is about to be developed, and invited Henry Chalfant, whom writer Matt A.V. Chaban regards simply as “a graffiti expert” to come along and speak about the rather hallowed site. The experience is multidimensional in this gorgeous video, with an opportunity for you to drag your mouse across the screen to glance around the room and ceilings while Henry talks.

“Though few individual pieces in the Batcave are particularly notable, Henry Chalfant, a graffiti expert, remarked on a recent tour how the totality of the art is what makes it special, a reminder of the “outlaw spaces” that once populated much more of the city.”

We found a few pieces that were notable in 2012 in our piece New York Interiors and Urban Exploring.

Isaac Cordal “Giza Komedia”

Follow Street Artist Isaac Cordal as he stages small scenes outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao, Spain, where he has his current solo show at SC Gallery. The corrugated metal shelters mimic closely the undulating shapes of the Frank Gehry designed architecture of the formal museum across the street. We need to get this guy INTO the museum, instead of being kept outside. We will.

ISAAC CORDAL. “GIZA KOMEDIA”. SOLO SHOW. SC GALLERY BILBAO. from SC Gallery + Art Management on Vimeo.

Pejac is Looking for “Redemption” with Particle Board

March 9, 2017 Artists

Each of us is looking for redemption, or probably will be.

At least that appears to be the theme for the new series of works by Spanish Street Artist PEJAC, a few shots of which we have today from his work on particle board in the studio.

“Each drawing in this ‘Redemption’ series are a tribute to nature. Any other subject would have been frivolous,’ he says.

Pejac (photo © Pejac)

With this curious wood product that is made of wood pieces pressed together – sort of like that orange cheese product that is made of cheese products – PEJAC finds a canvas. Using pencil and ink to draw forward certain floating elements while pushing back others, perspective is achieved. The small wooden model raises its palm upward as if to say, “why?”.

“These panels have some sort of aesthetic warmth but at the same time a sense of devastation, making it very contradictory, which directly refers to my way of understanding art. Expressing myself on thousands of small pieces of wood feels like “tattooing” on the stripped skins of trees,” he says.

Pejac (photo © Pejac)

RUN: “Time Traveller Artist Man” Tells All With His Hands

March 8, 2017 Artists

“Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
Carl Jung

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

The founder of analytical psychology would have looked at the hands of RUN and perhaps understood more about his lifelong psychological process than the average intellect, and yet seeing RUN’s carefully formed people on the street captivates your imagination as well.

These are the dreams he creates with his expressive hands, conscious or unconscious features that over time have developed into archetypes to be combined, adorned, alone, and recombined. Not surprisingly, his people often have a grasp, a hold, a flair for the five fingered gesture as well.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

His graffiti days as a teen in the 1990s were formative, not least because after tagging he discovered his passion for the figurative and his enthralling respect for the materials of art making. It also helps that his outgoing personality helped him mix easily with peers on multiple secretive artistic escapades.

When you see the list of his compatriots it occurs to you that RUN had no choice but to be astounding. It also occurs to you that Italy has produced many of the best quality and imaginative, innovative Street Artists. “At the beginning of 2000 we started a sort of Italian school of underground muralism,” he says of his colleagues Blu, Ericailcane, Dem, Hitnes, Allegra Corbo, 2501, Basik and Moneyless. The muralism continues, and some of these names are possibly walking toward canonical.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

The writer and Street Art authority Tristan Manco helps capture the significance of this person’s journey;
“Part travelling diary, part monograph, Time Traveller Artist Man charts the triumphs and tribulations of an imaginative soul with a passion for travel, whose worldwide voyages have become a catalyst to create art that is elemental and playful, with the ultimate goal of engaging with people from all walks of life.”

On the occasion of his first serious monograph, the artist has taken the time to point you to his studies abroad in a solid tome published by Unicorn. In studio you contemplate the tools, in the street you contemplate the technique.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

In his wall painting travels, which include The Gambia, Senegal, UK, Poland, Shenzhen, Croatia, Morocco, and many cities in his home country you see the nature and the wisdom of Giacomo Bufarini’s people – and his regard for them lies in the pattern, the abstraction, the gesture.

He cannot stay still for long, his subconscious and his dreams are full of movement. Thus, RUN. There is too much to see, too much to think about, too much to respect and explore. Rather than talk about it, his hands will tell you all you need to know.

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London. UK. 2016

Giacomo Bufarini AKA RUN Time Traveller Artist Man Unicorn Publishing Group. London, UK. 2016

RUN Time Traveller Artist Man is published by Unicorn Publishing Group. London, UK. 2016

“It does not suffice in all cases to elucidate only the conceptual context of a dream content.
Often it is necessary to clarify a vague content by giving it a visible form.
This can be done by drawing, painting, or modeling.
Often the hands will solve a mystery that the intellect has struggled with in vain.”
Carl Jung

Slap It! Slick Stickers Spread Across City Surfaces Speak and Surprise

March 7, 2017 Artists

Stickers, or slaps, are small but formidable graphic and text messages, especially when massed together on a doorway or light pole. They are also fast and surreptitiously placed, as simple as a gesture, undetectable in their ease of application.

A board covered with stickers at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Begun exclusively perhaps as vehicles for handwritten or hand drawn missives, usually the tag of an artist, today they are often mass produced and designed on a screen, commercially printed on stock that is weatherproof, yet crumbles into pieces when you try to remove it. Personal and political are often on display, as well as that eternal graffiti impulse to simply spread your name.

Phil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stickers and their creation, distribution, and collection are a culture unto themselves, with fans mounting massive sticker shows and books tracing historical roots and telling stories. On the street, just one sticker can alter your day. Because you know it is made and placed by an individual and not a corporation, it feels like a personal message. Because it is small enough for you to get close to, it becomes intimate.

Here is a selection of recent images of stickers caught by our editor of photography, Jaime Rojo, for BSA readers to get up close to.

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Above (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash4 and Smells with friends in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“MADRID ME MATA”: Another Look at “Urvanity”

March 6, 2017 Artists

“MADRID ME MATA…in a good sense,”

says Fernando Alcalá Losa, the avid Barcelona based photographer of street culture. He doesn’t literally mean that the Spanish capital is deadly, but rather speaks of his devotion to Madrids’ energy, its possibility, its history, its people, and to its art. The torrid affairs of the heart are invariably complicated, as is the evolution of graffiti and Street Art from their outlaw illegal roots to their flirtations and trysts with other forms and venues; murals, in-studio practice, gallery representation, institutional recognition, or commercial viability.

We are pleased that Mr. Alcalá Losa comes to talk to BSA readers today and takes us to Madrid for the new art fair called “Urvanity” to see what he discovers with you, courtesy his words and his lovers’ view behind the camera.

~ Fernando Alcalá Losa

The 1st edition of Urvanity International New Contemporary Art Fair, which took place in the always vibrant Madrid last week, was the perfect excuse for us for going down there, see some old friends, meet a bunch of new ones, work in our ‘diplomatic relationships’ and, yes, try to take a couple of decent pics.

Today I have a few more words about Urvanity, as BSA has already published an article about the event that you can read here.

It was a great pleasure for us to have the chance to enjoy the art of some of the top names in the biz represented by galleries like Stolen Space (London), Open Walls (Berlin), Montana and Fousion Gallery (Barcelona) or Pretty Portal (Amsterdam).

A special mention goes to PDP Gallery (Paris) and their young troupe of figurative artists Mohamed Lghacham, Manolo Mesa and Iñigo Sesma. Love their work.

Other artists in attendance were Mist, Miss Van, Aryz, Vermibus and Enric Sant – who gave a fantastic lecture about his career that helped a lot to all of us who have been following the evolution of his work to understand what hides behind his nightmare characters. All of it with a constant smile in his face…

So, although the final result of the fair seemed to be very positive for everyone, I needed to know a little bit more about the organizers’ impressions of this 1st edition. This is what director Sergio Sancho, through communication manager Monica Iglesias, told me about it:

What were the biggest obstacles that you had to beat in order to make Urvanity happen?

At first, it was very difficult to find the right spaces that we needed. 1st editions are always difficult and the bet that people have to do for a new project is big. Step by step we have been showing that our proposal was serious and solid and the galleries were entering the project slowly. It’s true that we duplicated efforts in order to get customers from September on, because we couldn’t get the space until July.

This fact caused a challenge for some of the galleries who had already confirmed their presence in other fairs. Nevertheless, we are very happy about the representation that we got this year and we hope that the number of galleries grows next year. We will have more time and we also have learnt a lot. 2018 will be the year when this thrilling project that has generated so much interest will consolidate.

Why there were so many problems getting the walls? Lack of help from local authorities?

Lack of time hasn’t helped with this issue either. The walls pregame was launched once we had confirmed the galleries as we wanted these walls to be painted by artists represented by galleries with presence in the fair and whose artwork was exhibited there. Madrid is a difficult city for getting mural interventions done and it’s worse if they are in the city centre. In the end, we needed to solve some difficulties and changes of locations and we made it happen with a superb level of artists.

Our collaborator Madrid Street Art Project has done a great work here. Let’s say that the authorities have realized the importance of these kinds of projects for the city and for the neighborhoods. We are very happy with the final result.

I notice that the presence of women artists whose work was exhibited in Urvanity (Miss Van, Peca, etc) was very small, in the conferences too and, obviously, among the artists who have painted the walls. Of course, Urvanity can’t decide which artists the galleries decide to present, but have you got any plans about this in next year edition?

It’s true that in addition to the ones you mention, Laurence Vallières y Jessica Hess have been in Urvanity. Nuria Mora closed the conferences in front of a fully crowded audience. But feminine representation is way smaller than masculine one. Personally, I totally support the fact that this will change in next year’s edition and I will try to have more women represented in the fair. We, as Urvanity managers, will try to create some kind of initiative in order to make this happen.

Ok. Galleries, museums and canvases are great. But these do not compare to seeing streets and walls and five walls were painted during the week that Urvanity took place, with Ben Eine, Jason Woodside, L’Atlas, Mohamed Lghacham and Manolo Mesa chosen to get the job done.

Different styles and techniques applied for difficult surfaces (those waves in the Woodside Wall…) and they did a hell of a job. We’ll let the shots speak for themselves. Big props go to Guillermo de la Madrid (@guilloso) and special thanks to Pepa Marteles (@pepamarteles) for allowing us to invade her home.

As I said before, Madrid has a super active cultural scene. It was impossible for us to see everything that we had planned, but there were a couple of things that were a must. One of these things was ‘Nothing Lost’, Alice Pasquini’s 1st solo show in Spain at that paradise on Earth called Swinton & Grant.

Located in front of Tabacalera walls, this venue is the place that you are desperate to have in your town if you love art, books, coffee and culture in general. Besides, Goyo (@goyovn) & Sergio (@sergiobang), the guys running the project, are beautiful human beings.

I asked Goyo if he could tell me some personal info about why they decided to work with the Italian artist and some tips about how their work relationship was…

First time we spoke to Alice Pasquini to host a solo show by her at Swinton Gallery was in December 2013, even before we opened our space in Madrid. Everyone understood that this is a long awaited dream-come-true for us.

But the dream was even brighter when we started to work with her. Those days deciding which found objects she was going to paint, which projects we were going to show, and, after she came to Madrid, those days preparing the show and painting the wall for our “Mind the wall” project were really amazing.

To work next to Alice was smooth, funny, and most of all a powerful breath of fresh air for us. She made us feel comfortable working next to one of the most significant artists in the scene of the urban arts, and that’s something we will always thank her for.

Pasquini’s exhibited pieces at Swinton are intimate and precious. I love the wide range of materials used as canvases: fabrics, stone, wood, and traffic signs. Her collaboration with photographer Stefano C. Montesi has even produced a 3D installation where you can dive even deeper into Alice artwork. ‘Nothing Lost’ will be at Swinton until March 11th. Don’t forget to pass by if you are around…

In the meanwhile, we managed to enjoy some time with artists, cultural managers, photographers, street art aficionados and neighbors. Roc Blackblock is a veteran multidisciplinary artist from Barcelona who was in Madrid to get some things done. A stencil master, Roc’s artwork is full of social consciousness, working class heroes and politics.

Having the chance of documenting his creative process (it wasn’t the 1st time) while listening to him talk about his future projects and ideas was something very close to a master class. He painted two walls during his stay in the capital. The first one was in one of the outside walls of the squat ‘La Quimera’. Title: ‘This is not a crisis, this is capitalism’. The second one was in ‘Esto es una plaza’, a peaceful self-managed urban garden in Lavapies. Title: ‘Milicians’.

This is what Roc has to say about the ‘Milicians’ art piece…

I loved painting in ‘Esto es una plaza’ because of the characteristics of the project. It’s a real example of how neighbors make a public space of their own. They manage it in order to improve their own environment, making decisions horizontally about management, ecology, sustainability, and self management of their own necessities and wishes.

From the very first time I visited the place, I loved how this space was putting different generations together: children playing with sand, grandpas and grandmas growing vegetables, a poetry lecture over there… It seemed the perfect space to me for painting a piece about the militia during the Spanish Civil War. They not only fought against fascism, but they also headed a true revolution; making factories and fields collective, building a more equal society.

Three days in Madrid. That was it. It’s never enough…

I hope that Urvanity will take place next year. I also hope that I can make it there before it happens.

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.05.17

March 5, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

We had a chance at Spring this week, and then it blew away. We’re back to the Antarctic for a few days.

NYC was inundated by art fairs as well, which was swell. Volta, Scope, Clio, Spring/Break – which was surprisingly not political or contentious, given its rather outsider status. Fair talk was glum, attendance was actually light at times, and most people where blaming you-know-who.

Perhaps that’s why Thursday’s opening of Trumpomania was packed and rather sweaty, although when you have 30 countries and 30 artists represented, you will probably fill the place. Even so, the energy was palpable, and guests freely “voiced their concerns”, as your high school guidance counselor might say, about a seemingly corrupt cabal that is practicing shock and awe on/upon the country daily.

One portly fellow at the show with a perspiring red face, beige cardigan, overcoat, and a backpack possibly containing an anvil, accosted us forcefully with champagne flute in hand to nearly yell for 10-12 minutes straight about Russians, cabinet heads that want to destroy their departments, Goldman Sachs, Exxon, the wall, book burning, impeachment, recusals, Jewish cemetery vandalism, teleprompter scripted calmness, possible alzheimer’s, and general viciousness. It was a Greatest Hits album minus the catchy hooks and clever phrasing – but with all the drums and guitar solos. (For you kids, an album was this flat wax disc that contained 9 songs you didn’t want and 1 song you did… oh never mind.) Just before he ignited into flames or triggered the heart attack which appeared to be imminent, we were mercifully interrupted and led away to look at OLEK’s pussy
art and Icy & Sot’s crocheted barbed wire fence piece.

Out on the streets of New York and elsewhere, artists are nearly yelling as well with their text based and figurative Street Art work. There appears to be no rest right now, and everyone is losing sleep or fighting or shaking their heads or “finding healthy strategies to achieve a sense balance” in a chaotic gritty abrasive beautiful city that somehow keeps racing forward no matter what the hell is going on.

City that never sleeps? We hear that.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Ann Lewis, Beast, BustArt, El Sol 25, Empty Boy, Epic Uno, Felipe Pantone, Icy & Sot, Jerk Face, King, Koralie Supakitch, Mikael Takacs, Nico Panda, OLEK, Sen2, Smells, Stinkfish, and UFO 907.

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