BSA Film Friday: 03.10.17

BSA Film Friday: 03.10.17

March 10, 2017

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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-film-friday-special-feature

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

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.

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Pejac is Looking for “Redemption” with Particle Board

Pejac is Looking for “Redemption” with Particle Board

March 9, 2017

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)

Pejac (photo © Pejac)

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

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

March 8, 2017

“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

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

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

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

March 7, 2017

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)

El sol25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Where is He? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist…YES!!! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

45 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fonki World (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dceve . Croma . Above . J0eg (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Detail of the fridge door at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

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

March 6, 2017

“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.

Manolo Mesa at Urvanity Art Fair in Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

~ 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.

Isaac Cordal at Urvanity Art Fair in Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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…

D*Face at Urvanity Art Fair in Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

Pichi & Avo at Urvanity Art Fair in Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

 

Jordan Seiler at Urvanity Art Fair in Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Enric Sant at Urvanity Art Fair in Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

Ben Eine. Urvanity. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

Manolo Mesa. Urvanity. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

Manolo Mesa . Mohamed Lghacham. Urvanity. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Mohamed Lghacham)

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.

Mohamed Lghacham. Urvanity. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Mohamed Lghacham)

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.

L’Atlas. Urvanity. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

Jason Woodside. Urvanity. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

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.

Alice Pasquini Nothing Lost Swinton & Grant Gallery. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Alice Pasquini Nothing Lost Swinton & Grant Gallery. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Alice Pasquini. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Alice Pasquini. Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Roc Blackblock Milicians Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Roc Blackblock Milicians Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Roc Blackblock Milicians Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Roc Blackblock Milicians Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

Roc Blackblock Milicians Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Roc Blackblock)

Roc Blackblock No Es Crisis Es Capitalismo Madrid, Spain. February 2017 (photo © Fer Alcalá FujifilmXT10)

 

 

 

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.05.17

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.05.17

March 5, 2017 ,

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

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.

Top image: UFO907 . Smells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist on the street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sen2 at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mikael Takacs at Trumpomania. Salomon Arts Tribeca. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

King (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Empty Boy . Stinkfish in Medellin, Colombia. (photo © Stinkfish)

Felipe Pantone (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nico Panda . Beast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BustArt. Basel, Switzerland. (photo © BustArt)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Koralie Supakitch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Koralie Supakitch. Deatil. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Epic Uno (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Epic Uno (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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New ROBBBB Nude Figures Playing on Beijing Walls : Virtual & Candid

New ROBBBB Nude Figures Playing on Beijing Walls : Virtual & Candid

March 4, 2017

Beijing based Street Artist ROBBBB continues to bring people to the streets in his city by way of self portraits and art models. The immediacy of the selfie and photo apps has rather eclipsed the traditional methods of figurative presentation and the inclusion of cartoon characters tells you that ROBBBB is fully immersed in youth pop culture where it digital and virtual are easily intertwined with real life.

Oh Snap!

Robbbb Narrow Selfie 1 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

“I try to show the pain, conflict, struggle, loneliness and anxiety of Chinese young people in a absurd way,” he tells us, but many of these new images look like they depict a Millennial generation that is confident, bold, humorous, adventurous, unreserved. But that’s just on this side of the screen.

Here are three recent wheat-paste campaigns he made for abandoned Beijing buildings called “Narrow Selfie,” “Three Sisters”, and “Mr. Lee”. He gets extra points for placement, often in direct relationship to the man-made elements that are adjacent to his figures and by doing so, incorporating them into the overall  composition.

Robbbb Narrow Selfie 2 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Narrow Selfie 3 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Three Sisters 1. Detail. Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Three Sisters 1 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Three Sisters 2 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Three Sisters 3 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Mr. Lee 1 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

Robbbb Mr. Lee 2 Beijing, China. March 2017. (photo © Robbbb)

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BSA Film Friday: 03.03.17

BSA Film Friday: 03.03.17

March 3, 2017

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :
1. Icy & Sot “Plastic Shells”
2.  NWO 3 – ABIK “Gestural”
3.  Low Bros #sweet15s Episode 9 / Seattle
4.  NUART / Aberdeen 2017


bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: Icy & Sot “Plastic Shells”

Demonstrating once again that when you are an artist the world is your oyster for creativity, Street Artists Icy & Sot play on a popular folk myth that if you hold a seashell to your ear, usually a conch shell, you will hear the sound of the ocean. The rush and the resonance of swelling and crashing waves upon the sand is captured and forever transmitted by the open cavity of the seashell. In this small conceptual video piece the brothers take you to the beach with a new friend to gather seashells and hold them up to your ear.

New Yorker’s can see a new piece by Icy & Sot that one of them in their studio modeled on BSA a couple of weeks ago tonight in a group show by curators Victoria Latysheva and Melissa McCaig-Welles, as they  present “Trumpomania”. It’s all mixed media from artists in 35 countries, ruminating on you-know-who.

NWO 3 – ABIK “Gestural”

20+ years of graffiti under his belt, Abik is getting abstract.

It’s third in a series of programs he has led and this one will feature work by many of the next generation who are coming to the streets and canvasses with alternatives to the figurative as well as the wild style – sort of a “no wave” approach to walls.

“The name of the event – NWO as New WALL Order – plays with the illuminati & conspiracy theories’ tagging to ironically highlight new horizons of our post-graffiti scene via the signature-wallpaintings,” says Marco Contardi, an Italian free writer and curator.

Previous editions of NWO included artists like 108, 2501, Giorgio Bartocci, CT, Eleuro and Ufocinque, as well as then Abik, Alfano, Alberonero, Aris, Giorgio Bartocci, Centina, G.Loois x Domenico Romeo, Luca Font and Sbagliato Collective.

Call it post-graffiti, or graffuturism, but these guys hope you’ll appreciate the gesture.

Read more in Italian at Gorgo.

Low Bros #sweet15s Episode 9 / Seattle

The quickest shot of LowBros recent wall in Seattle. So brief, yet potent.

 

NUART / Aberdeen 2017

A promo reel with punchy soundtrack and juicy graphics. Isn’t that what you want? Nuart Aberdeen 2017 delivers.

 

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Nuart Aberdeen 2017: Full Roster of Artists Confirmed

Nuart Aberdeen 2017: Full Roster of Artists Confirmed

March 2, 2017

And then there were 11.

With yesterday’s official announcement that Norwegian artist Martin Whatson and Belgian artist Jaune will be participating this April at NUART / Aberdeen the full line up of artists has been announced. It’s 11 international artists from 10 different countries, sort of like a New York melting pot in Scotland over Easter Weekend. Nuart Aberdeen 2017, it’s on, and we’ll be there with you.

Here are some highlights of each artist courtesy the folks at Nuart.

“Leading the line up for Nuart Aberdeen is Scottish-born artist and Venice Biennale participant Robert Montgomery, whose text-based artworks come in the form of light installations, murals and temporary paste-ups.“

Image courtesy of Nuart

Julien de Casabianca is founder of the global participatory art initiative Outings project, which embellishes the streets with portraits plucked from classical paintings. He’ll be raiding the archives and liberating characters from the prestigious collection of Aberdeen Art Gallery.

From BSA:

Julien De Casabianca, Angry Gods, and Hacking Disaster in Kathmandu

Image courtesy of Nuart

“Jasmin Siddiqui and Falk Lehmann AKA HERAKUT will be making the trip to Scotland. Widely regarded as leading lights of the global street art movement, we can’t wait to see what these two get up to in The Granite City!”

From BSA:

Herakut In Paris With A Message for the Kids About Magic

Image courtesy of Nuart

“Portugese visual artist and illustrator Add Fuel is known for producing optical illusions with painstaking attention to detail, Add Fuel’s interventions hint at the history and heritage that lies beneath our cities. We couldn’t think of anyone better to dig below the surface of The Granite City!”

Image courtesy of Nuart

 “Transferring his participatory art project, Mission Directives, from Stavanger to Aberdeen this Spring is Bergen-based artist Nipper. Through utopian ideals of sharing, creativity and citizen-led communication in public space, Mission Directives questions who has the power and authority to communicate messages and create meaning in our shared spaces.”

Image courtesy of Nuart

“Born in 1985 in Lismore, Australia but of Scottish descent, Fintan Magee is considered one of the world’s leading figurative street artists. Following his blockbuster ‘rorschach’ inspired mural for Nuart Festival 2016 we can’t wait to see what Fintan has up his sleeve for Nuart Aberdeen!“

From BSA:

Fintan Magee in Rome and Rising Tides Around Your Knees

Image courtesy of Nuart

“M-City is an artist and lecturer at the Academy of Art in Szczecin, Poland. A long-time collaborator of Nuart, M-City is best-known for his large-scale, industrial-themed murals, which involve piecing together hundreds of carefully cut stencils to create a coherent imagined cityscape. Always a joy to work with and guaranteed never to disappoint, we can’t wait to let him loose on Aberdeen’s walls!”

From BSA:

M-City Meets the Commercial Buff in Mexico City

Image courtesy of Nuart

“Alice Pasquini is a multimedia artist from Rome whose affectionate street art explores the brighter side of human relationships. Encompassing murals, paintings, and illustrations which tell stories about various acts of kindness and love, Pasquini leads a new breed of female street artist bringing some much-needed femininity to our public spaces.”

From BSA:

Australian Italian Museum Honors Immigration With Alice Pasquini Mural on Façade

Image courtesy of Nuart

“Leading our penultimate artist announcement is Spanish sculptor and interventionist Isaac Cordal, whose small-scale installations capture the humour and absurdity of human existence. At just 25cm tall and hidden in multiple locations throughout the city, little by little Cordal’s characters transform the urban environment in its natural habitat.”

From BSA:

Nuart Day 1: Isaac Cordal Installs His Preoccupied Little Businessmen

Social Isolation, Isaac Cordal, and Neighbors (Sasiedzi) in Łódź

Massive Installation by Isaac Cordal in Nantes “Follow The Leaders”

JAUNE

“Celebrating the unsung heroes of our everyday lives is Jaune, a stencil artist and urban interventionist from Brussels. Sanitation workers (Jaune’s ex-profession) are the protagonists in his humorous installations and paintings, which playfully draw on the paradox between the visible and the invisible in our cities. Jaune’s participation comes courtesy of our good friends at The Crystal Ship festival in Ostend, Belgium.“

Martin Whatson

Image courtesy of Nuart

“Completing this year’s artist line-up is a Nuart favourite and one of Norway’s leading stencil artists, Martin Whatson. Cleverly combining the aesthetics of abstract graffiti and stencil art, Martin Whatson’s distinctive urban scenes have brought him worldwide acclaim and an international band of fans and followers. We are greatly looking forward to seeing how he responds to the unique environment of Aberdeen!“

 

For more info go to:

Website: http://www.nuartaberdeen.co.uk/

Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/nuartaberdeen

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/nuartaberdeen

 

 

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Spring / Break 2017 : This Years’ Times Square Show in Corporate Office Space

Spring / Break 2017 : This Years’ Times Square Show in Corporate Office Space

March 1, 2017

Braving the crowds at the 2017 Spring/Break show means meandering the floor plan of former corporate offices and encountering the daydreams of artists who usually work as temps here. After traversing the un-grand lobby and showing your ID, this high-flying glass and steel Times Square fantasy flips the lights on the funhouse as soon as the doors open to Greg Haberny’s elevator bank installation of hundreds of rough wooden sculptures dangling overhead while a hardcore soundtrack rams you through the glass doors to the reception area.

Greg Haberny. Detail. Curated by Ambre Kelly . Andrew Gori . Catinca Tabacaru. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This curator-focused show never allows you to be bored, ensuring an alternate-world full of possibility, often delivering on its promise, sometimes fooling you. Like a beehive of compartmentalized activities and scenarios playing out in a fractured psyche, you find comedy, fluid sexuality, bejeweled fantasies, a satiric art-factory performance, D.I.Y. cardboard set design, light illusions in closets, wide photographic vistas, costumed performers, photo shopped hyperfantasy, Basquiat photos by his ex-roommate, and fully immersive environments like a live barbershop delivering dramatic haircuts with multi-screened secret surveillance in the backroom – tracking movements and conversations here and on the street below.

Alexis Adler’s photos of her room mate Jean-Michel Basquiat. Curated by Jane Kim. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo by Jaime Rojo)

While the aesthetic/mythic/pop culture influences are Diluvian and flattening our traditional hierarchies in this information age, shows like this also highlight our level of distraction – and test your ability to edit. It’s not as libertine or scummy as you would expect from a Times Square show in a what looks like a former den of lawyers, but then Times Square is not the flawed and blinkered glam and muck and whirl that it once was. Although who knows what lurks behind those brightly Disneyesque and moldy fur costumes…

Here is a pile of laundry from one perspective. From another it is an anamorphic portrait of activist Hellen Keller. Noah Scalin. Curated by Dawne Langford. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Noah Scalin. Curated by Dawne Langford. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ask Jane Dixon, whose “Male Nourished” paintings of men and their dicks fill an office and overlook the action on the street below. She says she is rather celebrating men’s continuous love affair with their genitalia and portrays them as nearly obsessive relationships.

Jane Dickson. Curated by Michelle Loh. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dixon knows these scenes better than most since she and husband Charlie Ahearn made their own Times Square home movies out the window and overlooking the street action in this famous nexus when gangs beset passersby, drugs were not delivered to your door via text message, arcades were dark  rooms full of pinball machines, and hookers and Johns were just “locals”. Dixon is also an alum of the famous “Times Square Show” mounted with 100 artists in 1980 in a massage parlor on 41st and 7th Avenue. The show later became regarded as a turning point in New York low/hi art and uptown/downtown culture with a list of young artists who became well known in certain circles; Tom Otterness, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kiki Smith, Jenny Holzer, Kenny Scharf, Nan Goldin.

Jane Dickson. Curated by Michelle Loh. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a moment you can forget the high rents that have driven most of these artists out of Manhattan and into the crowded lofts of Brooklyn, Queens, even Jersey. Quirky, searching, forcefully unique and hoping for a break. The excitement among these 150 curators and 400 artists is palpable on opening night and you want these visionaries to succeed, and indeed they do through this dark lookingglass. Many themes continue out to the street, and for a few boisterous moments this chaotic labyrinthine in fluorescent glow mimics the streets below.

Lee Quinones takes a US propaganda ad which he salvaged from the Brooklyn Navy Yard and adds modern military bombing of Babylon as a backdrop. Curated by Sara Driver. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lee Quinones. Detail. Curated by Sara Driver. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A barbershop in the front, a surveillance room full of screens in the back. Curated by Eve Sussman . Simon Lee. Barbershop. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cate Giordano creates an apartment of papier mache. Curated by Suzanne Kim. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Michael Zelehoski. Curated by Che Morales. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

David Kramer. Curated by Ambre Kelly . Andrew Gori. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist, writer, publisher and jazz saxophonist Noah Becker does a self portrait against a backdrop of Basquiat. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Curated by Carole Vobe playfully displays that great leveling force of death. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tamara Santibañez and a monochrome hand-drawn teen bedroom from the 1980s. Curated by Justin De Demko. Spring / Break Art Show 2017. NYC, 02-2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Check out Spring/Break 2017 March 1-6.

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A “Secret Dinner” at the Nascent UN in Berlin

A “Secret Dinner” at the Nascent UN in Berlin

February 28, 2017

Since its explosion of pigment and hue on subway cars and in the streets of New York and Philadelphia a half century ago to its spread to the hundreds of cities worldwide, the truly grassroots movement of Urban Art refuses to be owned by any one city or one people, insisting upon making its own rules and traveling wherever the creative spirit leads.

As if to underscore that global nature of the Graffiti/Street Art/ Urban Art movements, Urban Nation (UN) Director Yasha Young named the origins of the guests who were attending last weeks “Secret Dinner” at the under-construction site of the museum that opens this fall.

Yasha Young, Director of Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art (UN) delivers her welcoming remarks to the invited guests. A painting by Word To Mother hangs in the background. The painting was originally created for Project M/8 and curated by Stolen Space Gallery in 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“You came from Spain, England, Los Angeles, New York City, China, France, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Iceland, Italy, Mexico, every neighborhood in Berlin, from Leipzig, Munich, all across Germany, France, Switzerland, the UK, Norway, Sweden, the Netherlands, and last but not least, Russia,” she said as she stood before a large canvas by the London-based artist Word To Mother and next to Hendrik Jellema, the Chairman of Berliner Leben.

After recounting the three years of accomplishments and aspirations of the new museum to date, Young showed an animated video tour, a somewhat flying birds-eye view of the new museum projected on the wall.

Yasha Young, Director of Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art being introduced by Mr. Hendrik Jellema Chairman at Berliner Leben. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

In two dimly lit street-level raw and cavernous rooms were mounted a number of selected canvasses from the 10 Project M shows that have been curated in the last 3 years announcing the coming museum, each directed and refined by gallerists and cultural experts of various stripes and featuring the work of over 200 artists.

Across the street and Bülowstraße here in the Schöneberg district at the temporary UN headquarters was the grand opening of PM/11. Featuring 16 German artists curated by 3 experts in their respective scenes from Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg, “Radius” points to the vast and diverse urban art community here in a this famous street scene and artists and fans overflowed onto the sidewalk swelling even further when post-dinner guests arrived.

Celebrated photographer and ethnographer Martha Cooper attended the dinner. The library at Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art will bear Ms. Cooper’s name and will house items and books from Ms. Cooper’s personal collection. In this photo Ms. Cooper is wearing a skirt created by the American Street Artist Buff Monster. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

With graffiti artists and street artists spread among the 4 long dinner tables a colorful mix of politicians, cultural ministers, academics, collectors, press, curators, ambassadors, philosophers, photographers, and friends shared dinner, drinks, opinions, and their respective knowledge about the scene and the aspirations of the nascent institution.

We don’t know what everybody said to each other, but we did talk about cooking for a family of five with one guest and the trade routes between South Africa and Cairo during the last century and the importance of fish in the Icelandic diet with another.

Case Maclaim dinner plate. Each invited guest went back home with a gift of a special edition of one plate created exclusively for the occasion by an impressive roster of international artists. One hundred plates were created by almost one hundred artists. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Young burst in the room mid-dinner, as she’s wont to do, with a microphone to show a video series of 4 street art projects showcasing artists engaged with community projects, rather dispersing the often-indulged perception that all graffiti and Street Art is transgressive and illegal. Of course a lot of the good stuff is, but most artists possess additional dimensions outside these stereotypical descriptors, including an interest in helping others.

Artists featured included Norwegian Martin Watson, the German duo Herakut, the Polish crochet artist OLEK, and the German born Brooklyn-based twins HowNosm. The projects highlighted were not necessarily UN sponsored but instead drew attention to overall goals of the museum to be engaged with communities outside the typical art-going crowd.

A Daleast dinner plate. Each invited guest went back home with a gift of a special edition of one plate created exclusively for the occasion by an impressive rooster of international artists. One hundred plates were created by almost one hundred artists. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And so now the UN buzz has begun in earnest, with a steady run toward the opening doors of the Museum and significant involvement of international and local contingents of participants in the new institution. If anyone pretends to know how it will all look inside and outside on opening day or the months that follow, they are brave and fantastic in their willingness to prophesy. We say that because despite the much-heralded organizational skills of this land, and they are amazing, you can be sure that a vibrant and alive contemporary scene like this will continue to surprise us.

During the dinner a few films were presented to introduce a new series still under development. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

A general view of one of the two rooms where guests sat for dinner. (photo © Nika Kramer)

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“Urvanity” Fair Opens in Madrid, 68 Artists + Galleries + Walls + Panels

“Urvanity” Fair Opens in Madrid, 68 Artists + Galleries + Walls + Panels

February 27, 2017

You may not realize upon first glance through the series of modular white walled temporary gallery rooms, but this fine art on display all has origins in street practice.

Over the past long weekend Madrid’s Urvanity fair at The Palacio Neptuno showcased a sweeping cross-selection of crisply framed names – many of which are being identified as Street Artists en route to “Contemporary Artists”.

Banksy. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Hung at eye level, carefully spaced, and illuminated under tracked lighting, the studio work of nearly 70 Graffiti/Street/Urban artists went on this weekend in one of the first fairs dedicated entirely to this evermore emerging category.

With fresh works from artists like JonOne, Fin DAC, Pixelpancho, Miss Van, Jef Aérosol, Sixe Art, L Atlas, Stikki Peaches, and Ben Eine, it is a mostly Eurocentric roster of galleries you’ve come to know in the last decade or so from places like Amsterdam, Paris, Milan, Zurich, London, among others, and of course Madrid. Under the direction of Sergio Sancho, an advertising professional who has worked with major global brands, the fair calls the works on display New Contemporary Art and the program includes a companion mural campaign in Madrid streets featuring Eine, Jason Woodside, L’Atlas, PREF, MESA and Mohammed Lghacham.

Laurence Vallières. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

While receiving increasing support from serious press, museums, auctions, and festivals over the last decade and a half, it has been a great challenge for both commercial/social and historical/academic scholarship to agree on a moniker for these combined movements and makers – one that fairly encompasses the myriad motivations, styles of expression and intersecting cultures that have evolved from a half century of art on the streets.

Pro 176 . L’Atlas. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

With the inauguration of the Urvanity Mahou Talks Program during the fair, featuring again the artist Ben Eine and cultural curator Cedar Lewisohn, this topic and many more that continue to be raised can be examined and discussed in meaningful ways. At BSA we are finding that our participation in these panels, presentations, and discussions as well as being in the audience has furthered our understanding and appreciation for this natural and growing desire of scholarship.

The Urvanity program of conferences, debates and presentations here collect artists, curators and cultural managers with these purposes in mind and naturally will help collectors and fans contemplate these artists at the fair and better appreciate the bridge between the street and the fine art presented here. A strong first showing, you can expect to see Urvanity back again next year.

An outdoor mural from the Urvanity Instagram page. “We are excited to be able to be painting incredible murals in #Madrid. This one is by @oiterone on Calle de la Cebada!”

Miss Van . Peca. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Tilt . Moses & Taps. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Nano4814. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Vermibus . Jordan Seiler . OX. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Sixe Paredes . Suso33 Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

D*Face . Jason Woodside . Felipe Pantone . Pref . Okuda. Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Urvanity 2017. Madrid, Spain. February 2017. (photo © Alfonso Herranz)

Sergio Sancho and the Urvanity team outside the inaugural exhibition Palacio Neptuno.
Check out their Instagram here.

For more information please visit:

URVANITY
Palacio de Neptuno
Calle de Cervantes, 42. Madrid
From February 23rd 26th, 2017
www.urvanity art.com

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