The Gray Wolf and “The Art Of Beeing” in Detroit

October 15, 2016 Artists

Louis Masai and his friends Tee and Emil are in Detroit right now on the 2^nd city of The Art of BEEing tour, and the Gray Wolf is on their minds because it is endangered. Their numbers have been cut down in recent years because of humans shooting them and trapping them.

The Gray Wolf has a bad reputation for threatening herds of cattle but it is overrated and Defenders.org says that “wolf predation on livestock is fairly uncommon,” yet “wolves suspected of preying on livestock are often killed.”

Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

Our local deli guy who sells Lotto tickets and sandwiches here in Brooklyn calls Michigan “The Islamic State”, which is pretty funny because the racist hype that leads to Islamophobia in some quarters these days would find that statement bone chilling and confirmation that the newest bogeyman is taking over. It’s meant to be funny, Yo!

It just means that a lot of Muslims are living in Michigan and anyone will tell you that the ones in the Big D are especially cool.

Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

“We discovered a thriving Arabic community in Detroit where children were playing safely in the streets,” says Louis of his visit. So much for stereotypes about this religious group who have lived in the US for about 400 years.

Mr. Masai feels like the city itself is victimized by a few stereotypes as well. “The media talks about Detroit as if it is a derelict forgotten city, but we discovered a whole community that has been here for a long time and they definitely wouldn’t agree with their city is a dead or abandoned space,” he says.

Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

“No one could argue that the city has many abandoned buildings on every street corner, fires and smashed glass are the norm. But within this are thriving communities…we were embraced and invited into the homes of a thriving Latino community, and also by many artists.”

Yeah, but what about the bee population? “The bee community is thriving in Detroit! We met beekeepers who reminded us that when a space becomes uninhabited by humans it becomes the best kind of space for bees to occupy and this city believes in a more hands-on farming way of life, with allotments and backyard vegetable plots being the norm.”

Thanks to Detroit for looking out for these dudes, and thanks to you for thinking about the endangered gray wolf. More about them at the end of the article.

“We leave Detroit wishing we had longer to explore,” says Louis.

Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @emil.walker)

Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @teebyford)

Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Gray Wolf. Endangered. Detroit. Michigan. October 2016. (photo © @louismasai)

Click http://louismasai.com/projects/the-art-of-beeing/ to learn more about the project.

Want to help the Gray Wolf? Adopt one! Take Action, the “Wildlife Action Center to send a message to government leaders.

Species foundation – http://www.wolf.org

BSA Film Friday: 10.14.16

October 14, 2016 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Jazoo Yang x TJ Choe: Strawberry House (South Korea)
2. Solo x Diamond via Grounder (Italy)
3. DeAk Crew: Toxic Graffiti – You’ve Been Infected. (Cyprus)
4. Real Time Web Series: Episode 2 – Askew By Berst (New Zealand)

BSA Special Feature: Jazoo Yang x TJ Choe: Strawberry House

One senior in Busan, South Korea, didn’t like the hasty red aerosol scrawl on houses that were being marked for destruction. So she converted the tags to images of strawberries.

In this video Jazoo Yang and TJ Choe show you how they took inspiration from her act and covered the doomed neighborhood before it was destroyed.

Solo x Diamond via Grounder

Shot like an excerpt from a movie, the Italian writers Solo and Diamond each get half a van to crush before the boss comes back.

DeAk Crew: Toxic Graffiti – You’ve Been Infected.

And now we visit Limassol in Cyprus on a sunny day in June to watch the finer skills of DeAK Crew on a concrete wall.

Real Time Web Series: Episode 2 – Askew By Berst

New Zealand’s Bobby Hung has started this series of long-form audio interviews interspersed with music to accompany the graffiti writer guest as he knocks out a piece. You need a lot of time to invest but you do learn a lot about a person’s perspective and process and history. This episode the guest is Askew One.

Film & edit: Berst GBAK TMD @Berst_1
Audio technician: Peeti Lamwilai @Peetilamwilai

ONO’U Festival 2016 as Captured by Martha Cooper in Tahiti

October 13, 2016 Artists

Lucky Us! Our senior reporter on the ground in Tahiti for this years’ ONO’U Festival is the quick-witted eagle-eyed Martha Cooper, who shares with BSA readers her fresh shots of the action in paradise.

Personable and outgoing, Cooper covers a lot of ground quickly, introducing herself and asking questions and snapping pictures. Of course people often know her before she knows them, especially in the Street Art/ Graffiti game – but frankly she just wants to see artists work and learn about their process. So get working!

We’re thankful that Martha is taking the time to share with us all her images and some details of the surrounding action, which we elaborate on here for you.

Phat1 AKA Charles at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Charles is painting an Omamao bird endemic of Tahiti,” says Martha, “and it is listed as a critically endangered species.” Why do you hear this same story in whatever part of the world you are in today? More importantly, are you doing anything about it?

Phat1 AKA Charles at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Phat1 AKA Charles with help from Lady Diva AKA Jeanine Williams. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

After the mural was finished, Martha says there was a blessing of the mural. Above you can see the minister in the photo above performing the blessing.

Bordalo’s sketch for his installation. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Bordalo shows us the original sketch for his new piece made with recycled trash.

Bordalo II at work. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Bordalo II. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Adnate at work on his mural. Martha tells us that his muse for the mural was a woman whom both he and Martha had photographed in the market. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Adnate. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Adnate & Askew. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Seth at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Returning mural champion Seth made good use of “an odd shaped wall, turning it into the Rainbow Warrior, a Greenpeace ship which led a flotilla of yachts protesting again French nuclear testing in French Polynesia,” Martha tells us. According to Wikipedia, “Fernando Pereira was a freelance Dutch photographer, of Portuguese origin, who drowned when French intelligence detonated a bomb and sank the Rainbow Warrior, owned by the environmental organization Greenpeace on 10 July 1985.”

Martha notes that Pereira also was a photographer and he was trying to save his equipment at the time that the ship went down. “The mural shows Polynesian girl in her fragile canoe pulling alongside the ship.”

Seth at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Seth. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

NIKO at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“This guy says he can paint any animal he’s seen out of his head—very impressive!” says Ms. Cooper about NIKO, whose mural shows animals arriving in Tahiti from around the world from the harbor close to where the wall was. “The USA is represented by an alligator with a Miami Dolphins hat on,” she says.

Okuda taking a break. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Okuda at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

MAST at work on his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Mast sketch for his mural. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

MAST was channeling Brooklyn hard in Tahiti, with this shout out to the honeys back home, the subway at Franklin Avenue, and he reconfigured the train lines to reflect the letters of his crew – The Great Escape (TGE).

Mast. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Cranio. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Leon Keer. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The anomorphic master Leon Keer is pictured here with his wife assisting. Martha says that these figures are “Painting of robots arriving from the harbor.” As usual, Mr. Keers work rather blows your mind when it is completed and you are standing in just the right location.

Leon Keer. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Inkie at work on his wall. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Kalouf at work on his wall. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Kalouf left with Marko on the right. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Peeta. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Hoxxoh. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Jobs & Abuzz. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Tribal Pursuit” is the name of this wall by Tahitians Jobs and Abuzz, named so after the board game called Trivial Pursuit. “The black lines are the Maquesa’s cross,” Martha says, and “the designs are the contradictions of old and modern traditions from Polynesia such as the ‘head breaker’ a traditional weapon and tiki, the sea animal because they are surrounded by water.” The skull, of course, “represents the atomic tests.”

Charles and Askew partake on traditional dance with a local troupe of female dancers. ONO’U Festival 2016. Tahiti. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Gola Hundun Creates a “Tree of Life” for “Land-Shape Festival” in Denmark

October 12, 2016 Artists

Virtually every human culture has an allegorical image that illustrates the Tree of Life. Street Artist Gola Hundun is growing his own in Denmark on the Jutland peninsula – one that he has named the Yggrdasil Crómlech.

Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

The Land-Shape festival in Vrå, a railway town of 2,500 people in the Hjørring municipality of Denmark, is inspired by the American Land Art movement that some trace back to 1960s minimalism and the growth of “installation art”. For many, this geological art hybrid is still a curiosity and Denmark is taking advantage of its rich coastal countryside by opening the land here to 50 or so artists such as street art culture-jammer/rural land portraitist Jorge Rodriguez Gerada, the performance/installation artist Sandro Masai and the color-mapping stone artist Maja Gade Christensen.

Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

The Italian Mr. Hundun has been creating earth science and pagan tradition-inspired hybrids of his own with murals, installations, and sculpture in the last decade and here he takes inspiration from the Norse mythology and its stories that were once more often told in this part of the world.

By combining the symbols of the Yggdrasil, a common name for the tree of life that you may see today in full-back or arm tattoos, and the Crómlech, a concentric circle typically made of standing stones, Gola creates the Yggdrasil Cromlech. In this case, the cromlech is more of a moat than a wall.

Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

Quite opposite of the Street Artist’s common expectation of ephemerality, Gola expects his new piece to grow into something magnificent over the next decades. “Yggdrasil Cromlech is a living piece, which every year will look different,” he tells us.

“In 3 to 5 years the climbing plants that I planted on the main structure will grow on all of the element, and in about 30-50 years the young trees will start to look like a column. The central part will be completely transformed by vegetation. It will be interesting to go and check the process from time to time. I promise myself to go and visit it every 5 years.”

Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

The current shape of the installation is already arresting, and you are invited to step inside the enclosure to experience the energy – you may not be alone however. “The underlying idea that inspires this project is to create a sustainable sanctuary for Jutland’s wildlife with a permaculture approach,” he says. “The installation’s goal is to increase resources for local fauna, especially during winter time but also in the summer season, providing food sources and opportunity for refuge.”

Inspired by Norse mythology and his own study of various designs of the Yggdrasil throughout history to design and construct the new and unique holy place/ art installation.

“The Yggdrasill is an immense tree that is central in Norse cosmology and it functions in connection to nine worlds which constitute the entire universe. My structure also has nine branches that symbolize these worlds.”

“The Ash Yggdrasil” (1886) by Friedrich Wilhelm Heine

He speaks of the many depictions and variations of the Yggdrasil in history and cultures, and describes the one he is inspired by for this work.

“The Yggdrasill is populated by and related to the many animals that protect it, take life from it and menace it. On Yggdrasill’s top an eagle with a hawk perch inside his eyes, four deer between its branches, a squirrel moving up and down its trunk and a snake on its bottom.,” he explains. “In my piece Yggdrasil is the core of the Installation, and the audience can reach it by jumping on two step stones on the water ring that hug the structure. The structure has a small door that invites anyone who wants to get inside it, to find some isolation or a relaxing atmosphere.”

Gola Hundun “Yggdrasil Crómlech” Land Shape Festival. Vrå, Højeskole. Denmark. October 2016. (photo © Gola Hundun & Emil Schildt)

Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

Beau Stanton: A Vibrant Beacon Rises From the Ruins in Detroit

October 11, 2016 Artists, Interview

Artist Beau Stanton has a studio practice and a street practice, but most wouldn’t think of him as a Street Artist, per se. Classically trained in illustration and oil painting, his precise and hand-rendered style borrows from traditional, historical, nautical, and religious influences. Related from their original context, his appropriated icons, figures, and sense of ornamentation are placed in relation to one another in a way that creates new timeless stories that are rooted in the past but are also in this moment.

Beau Stanton. Detroit, USA. September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On leave from Brooklyn for a brief residency in Detroit, lately Stanton has been spending his time urban exploring 20^th century American civilization by wandering through abandoned car manufacturing plants and old churches that have left to crumble, taking inspiration from both the orderly design and mechanical interplay observed in factories and the ornamentally inspirational language used in sacred houses of worship.

Environments and implied histories like these overlap in varied practices during his short career that includes oil paintings, murals, larger scale installations, stained glass, and multimedia. Back at his residency studio he is now trying his hand at the artful laying hand cut tile, glass, ceramic, brick, found materials and mortar. Mosaic work is next and you can see him applying his study of the century-spanning craft with the same meticulous attention to detail that earmarks his work elsewhere.

Beau Stanton. Detroit, USA. September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We were also exploring in Detroit recently and came upon a lone house painted by Stanton in a pavement gridded grassy field that once was a neighborhood. It is a common sight in modern Detroit, these remnants of a working class and middle class decimated by “free trade” and corporate greed. Entire neighborhoods now are barren and dotted with huge overgrown trees that were once in front yards, perhaps holding a swing or shading a couple of lawn chairs. Block after block one can see how livelihoods crumbled and burned to the ground – and now there is only the occasional house or church or small business still standing where once there was a community.

Painted during last years’ Murals in the Market festival, Stanton’s multi-sided mural uses vaguely familiar figures and ornamentation in eye-popping hues that suggest vibrant life is here again. The new construction of a house is made a beacon by his vision, a hopeful note that some think is a harbinger of the big D’s resurgent and budding future. Within it you may see allusions to Detroit’s Victorian architecture and mansions, ornamental gears of progress, rays of vision and inspiration. Of course, its all subjective.

Beau Stanton. Detroit, USA. September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We asked Beau about his house and his observations on Detroit during his time in the city right now.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you find out about this cinder-block house?
Beau Stanton: Last year for the first Murals in the Market, the festival directors Roula David and Jesse Cory approached me to paint this house having known I’d been interested in doing a house intervention piece for a long time. This was basically a dream scenario for me.

BSA: How do the designs you painted respond to the area around it?
Beau Stanton: The house is really visible from St. Aubin Street as one of the only remaining homes in a several block radius so I wanted to do something really bright and colorful that would make this weird little house appear renewed and re-occupied after being abandoned for almost a decade. The images on the vertically oriented sides are both symbolic, a rendition of a classical bearded god figure crowned by historic Detroit architecture emerging from my usual mechanical wave patterns, and on the opposite side a tree with mostly bare branches with leaves starting to sprout as if coming into Spring.

Beau Stanton. Detroit, USA. September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: You are preparing for an upcoming show this fall, right? What will you be focusing on?
Beau Stanton: I am currently a resident at the Red Bull House of Art in Detroit’s Eastern Market, the three month residency culminates with a large exhibition in the on site gallery where I will be showing alongside the other two residents Coby Kennedy and Lala Abbadon.

I’m using this residency as an opportunity to try out some new techniques and installation ideas I’ve wanted to do for a while involving a lot of resources one can only find in Detroit. The main focus of my work will be large scale mosaics that are composed of locally sourced glass, ceramic, brick, marble, and other materials that I’ve been finding mostly in abandoned factories. I want the work to have Detroit DNA while also playing with ideas of urban archaeology, alternate past/future scenarios, and ultimately creating something beautiful from the remains of Detroit’s glorious past, while celebrating the renewal and sense of optimism that is really palpable here.

Beau Stanton. Detroit, USA. September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Often you have included mythical and/or nautical themes in your paintings. Did you have in mind the Detroit River or surrounding cityscape when conceptualizing this piece.
Beau Stanton: The main image of the head and crown incorporate about half a dozen historic homes from the nearby neighborhood of Brush Park. Although most of these beautiful Victorian buildings are no longer around, a few of them have been recently restored to their original grandeur including the iconic Ransom Gillis house, one of my early Detroit obsessions.

BSA: How would you describe Detroit and the artist scene right now?
Beau Stanton: One of the first things I noticed on my first visit here several years ago was how supportive and tight knit the art scene is in Detroit. When you come to this city, the abundance of space creates a sense that you can do or make anything, this can be intoxicating at first causing one to dream really big. Eventually you come back to Earth but the essence of that feeling remains and I think that this is why you see such great work coming out of this city right now, both on the street and in the gallery.

Beau Stanton. Detroit, USA. September 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: “The Art Of Beeing” Tour Kicks Off in NYC to Save Endangered Species

October 10, 2016 Artists

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Activism and Street Art go hand in hand and some artists are skilled at activating public space for hearts and brains to spark and cogitate. During the last 15 years we’ve documented a number of seriously affecting artworks on the street that use text and/or imagery to address political, social, environmental, and economic issues and opinions by artists as varied as Shepard Fairey, Banksy, John Fekner, Ganzeer, LMNOPI, Myth, Gilf!, Gaia, LNY, Jetsonorama, and any number of one-shot authors. In this election year there are too many Trumps to count, and a few Hillary pieces as well.

Undaunted by commercial interests and able to deliver directly to the passerby, Street Artists know that their visual message isn’t guaranteed acceptance but they take a chance anyway. The ones that reflect the sentiments on the street tend to last longer, aesthetics count, and so does spelling, at least that is our inductive observation.

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One London artist who seriously raises awareness about the Earths’ endangered species is Louis Masai, a painter, sculptor, illustrator and Street Artist. Starting this week in New York Masai is beginning a 20 mural tour across the United States to talk about the hard working, honey-making, pretty pollinating bee – and a number of our animals that are in danger of dying off completely.

He calls this tour The Art of Beeing and with a small team of friends he will travel over the next 2 months to Detroit, Reno, Sacramento, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, El Paso, Austin, New Orleans, Nashville, Atlanta, and finally Miami. BSA is proud to be a supporter of this project and we hope to bring you every last little animal and mural that Louis creates in this grueling march.

Each city wall will feature animals from that region which are endangered, and the list is fairly shocking, truth be told. Who knew the New England cottontail bunny was borderline endangered, for example. Don’t they mate like, um, rabbits?

In each mural he’ll cover the animal with a metaphorical patchwork quilt, symbolic of the many people and efforts that it will take to save it and protect it from extinction. Hovering nearby is a bee holding a needle and thread to stitch the quilting squares together.

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The shape itself may remind you of a children’s toy, and Louis says that is his intention.

“I’m painting toys because if we don’t act now to stop extinction, only toys will remain in place of animals,” he says.

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It is Mr. Masai’s hope that we will collectively work to protect these animals before they disappear. In an instance of sad irony the artist begins this cross-country tour when the United States has just announced in late September that 7 varieties of US bees are now on the endangered species list (Washington Post).

Last year The Guardian reported that nearly one in ten bees in Europe face extinction and there have been reports worldwide in the last decade of bee colonies collapsing at alarming rates.

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

If you think this is just about honey, think again. It is estimated that bees and other pollinators are responsible for one out of every three bites of food we eat. We obviously have to be the people who push to improve the situation because corporations and industry can’t think beyond the next three months and their shareholders.

Like the Art of Beeing website says, “The extinction crisis is hands down one of the most important issues of our generation,” and 50% of the planet’s species could be erased by 2050.

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. The reluctant subjects. The whole road team. @louismasai on the center with @emil.walker on the left and @teebyford on the right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Bog Turtle. Endangered. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. New England Cottontail Rabbit. Vulnerable. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Art of Beeing needs your donations. CLICK on their Kickstarter link to help.

Click http://louismasai.com/projects/the-art-of-beeing/ to learn more about the project.

Our sincere thanks to Joe Ficalora at The Bushwick Collective for his help.

BSA Images of the Week 10.09.16

October 9, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Donald Trump didn’t change. Your “News” did.

Any New Yorker on the street can tell you that Donald Trump has always been this way – he hasn’t made a “secret” of it. We just called this stuff “tabloid news”, and tabloids were an exception. Now they nearly rule all public discourse.

Lowest-common-denominator “News” has produced a lowest-common-denominator candidate. He almost clinched the highest elected office. There is a trail of polarized destruction in the wake.

For over a year this profit-driven entertainment media actually created a cancerous candidate who gives them daily “clickable content” while they hold their noses and count the dollars. These people aren’t serving you, or democracy. We are all collectively debased – men and women, black and white, Mexican and Muslim, rich and poor, families, children, teachers, workers, nurses, doctors, cashiers, church people, atheists – as a result.

The GOP’s flirtation with starting and fanning racist bonfires over the past decade or so has finally swallowed it in flames, leaving it in smoking embers, their leaders completely covered with fecal matter, quieted and stunned. The reputation of the US around the world took a battering thanks to this tabloid news candidate as well. Traveling to Street Art events outside the US this year, invariably someone would shake us by the lapels and ask us what the hell was going on with this Trump guy?!.

In recognition of the woman-hating man who came dangerously close to the White House, here are a number of different women and girls by Street Artists creating in the public sphere at the moment, covering a range of styles, backgrounds, techniques and points of view.

So, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Beast, Danielle Mastrion, Faile, finDAC, Jilly Ballistic, Kevin Lyons, Leticia Mondragora, LMNOPI, Marina Capdevila, Myth, Never Crew, Ouch, Shepard Fairey, Sipros, Slick, Spaik, Stray Ones, Taker, Who’s Dirk, and Zimer.

Our top image: FinDac (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Detail. For The L.I.S.A. Project in The East Village. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. The L.I.S.A. Project in The East Village. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zimer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion and Lexi Bella collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Beast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leticia Mandragora (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marina Capdevilla in Switzerland for Vision Art Festival. (photo © Marina Capdevila)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stray Ones. Catch him if you can! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ouch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Taker for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never Crew in Luzern, Switzerland for Viva Con Agua. (photo © Never Crew)

Sipros for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic. Palimpsest in the NYC Subway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. Sexual predator for USA President. How can you people defend him still? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. She is not perfect. She is also not crazy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Whos Dirk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Slick. Murals In The Market/1XRun 2016. Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kevin Lyons. Murals In The Market/1XRun 2016. Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Spaik. Sardegna in Italy. (photo © Spaik)

Untitled. Subway dreams. NYC Subway. Manhattan, NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

VNA Magazine #34 with BSA, Martha Cooper, Yasha Young, Selina Miles and More

October 8, 2016 Artists

A constant and influential voice on the contemporary urban art scene for one decade VNA (Very Nearly Almost) has been charting the magnificently murky waters of graffiti and Street Art and many of its most notable discontents. London based with global reach, their story-driven editing and writing has an evergreen quality with a keen eye toward touchstone detail.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. Cover: Martha Cooper’s photo of Keith Haring painting on the Houston Wall.

Together with carefully selected photography, probing interviews and pithy witticism, VNA imparts an insight about this fluid global phenomenon that few know how to adequately represent. Freights, train writers, tattoo, skater culture, photography, tagging, even the muralists – the wingspan is there. Knowing what kind of work, imagination and expertise goes into producing a serialized print publication, especially in this age of digital, we have always appreciated the magazine and the folks who care enough to create it.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. Martha Cooper profile.

That’s why we’re especially proud that the BSA Instagram account is spread across two pages of the current issue #34 of VNA. A daily-curated collection, all our photos on BKStreetArt are from Jaime Rojo, not appropriated from other sources and all our followers are organically grown, so the roots are deep and strong. An artist behind the camera, Rojo doesn’t just document the artwork of others, but has his eye on the environment that engenders, cavorts with, frames the so-called “scene”. With 100K photos now under his belt, we think Rojo is starting to get the hang of this thing.

And really, if there was ever a VNA issue to be included in, this is the one! With three of the defining people who have shaped and will shape your experience of graffiti and Street Art – Martha Cooper, Yasha Young, and Selina Miles – all featured, these combined self-made talents pack a punch that spans the last 50 and the next 50 years with no problem at all.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. Martha Cooper’s shot of Dondi painting trains on the yards.

Cooper’s early photographic documentation of a nascent graffiti scene in NYC is unquestioned (check the cover photo of Keith Haring) and her globe-trotting capturing of Street Art and artistic process is in effect to this very minute when she is in Tahiti for the O’nou Festival.

Once private gallery owner and art dealer and now the founding director of Urban Nation, Yasha Young is an expansive visionary who is daring to jumpstart an audacious project that creates a Berlin museum housing a definitive collection of Urban Contemporary Art intended to exist long after doors open in 2017.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. BSA Instagram Spotlight with all photos taken by Jaime Rojo around the world.

The 20-something Australian film maker Selina Miles has already re-defined visual storytelling of the graffiti and Street Art scene in only five short years of work in a way that has made her a rising star. We have every confidence that her core strengths and vision are yet to be fully explored and that she will blast open new pathways ahead, so be prepared!

To be included in the mix with these folks and Invader, Seen, Fafi, James Jean, Kai & Sunny, Ghostpatrol, Dave White, Todd Francis, Usugrow, and a series of London photographers in VNA is totally an honor and we sincerely thank Roland Henry for inviting us.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. Selina Miles shines.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. Yasha Young talks.

VNA Magazine. Issue 34. Fafi installation.

BSA Film Friday: 10.07.16

October 7, 2016 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Felipe Pantone by Selina Miles
2. NUART FESTIVAL 2016 : POST-STREET ART
3. Stik in Shoreditch as it Succumbs to the Final Throes of Gentrification
4. “The Giant Walls.” West Auckland High School Teaches Graffiti & Street Art

BSA Special Feature: Felipe Pantone by Selina Miles

Director Selina Miles catapulted Felipe Pantone into the minds of many art fans and Urban Art curators when she made this brief but densely rich and enlightening profile of him a little while ago. It is impossible to tell who is more talented here – the artist in front of the camera or the one behind it.

NUART FESTIVAL 2016 : POST-STREET ART

Nuart 2016 is taking a victory lap after another very successful festival and exhibition in the town of Stavanger, Norway.

This year the artists featured are Add Fuel (PT), Axel Void (ES), Eron (IT), Evol (DE), Fintan Magee (AU), Henrik Uldalen (NO), Hyuro (AR), Jaune (BE), Jeff Gillette (US), KennardPhillipps (UK), MTO (FR), Nipper (NO), Robert Montgomery (UK) and SpY (ES)

EXHIBITION : ‘POST-STREET ART’
11 September – 16 October 2016

Stik in Shoreditch as it Succumbs to the Final Throes of Gentrification

“I wanted to create that feeling of alienation and isolation but with the feeling of hope,” says Stik of his new mural in old Shoreditch. In the process of research and development for the mural he spoke with people in the neighborhood and nearby surroundings to gather a sense of history of the place as an artists conclave before the bankers decided to cash in on the culture. Why do we hear this story again and again?

This one is very well told.

The Giant Walls. Massey High School Brings Graffiti/Street Art to Students in West Auckland

An inspiring and simple approach to making sure that art heals the world – which it does. “The Giant Walls” is a simple project at Massey High School on the northern boundary of West Auckland.

These 16 junior students are great and so are the staff and nine artists who cared enough to make this project happen.

Innerfields, Dourone, Le Bonnar, Dima Fatum and Ernesto Marenje in KIEV for “Art United Us”

October 6, 2016 Artists

New work today from many artists who are participating in the the mural program in Kiev called Art United Us. In the wake of war and threats of aggression and instability, it is admirable when an art program can be successful and project an aura of hope despite fears.

Art United Us says they are committed to pursuing positive life-affirming goals and they ask the artists to create works that reinforce themes of peace and brotherhood/sisterhood. The murals in the city are primarily a beautification project and the areas that they appear in are naturally affected by their overall pleasant messages. Here are some of the newest ones.

The Berlin based trio who call themselves Innerfields created this figurative piece where one person is there and the other is not, yet they are hugging. “Present” is the name of the multi-story painting and the authors remain vague about it’s possibly meanings, saying it “deals with desire and interpersonal relations.”

Certainly that arrow looks painful physically, but it may also be a metaphor for emotional pain.

Madrid based world traveler DOURONE brought his fantasy figurative portrait work to Kiev on his largest mural ever to promote “Fraternity,” he says. Our more honorable qualities of respect, freedom, and valuing diversity are being gradually eroded, says the artist in a statement.

“These aspects of life are being erased by other aspects like individualism and selfishness.” Perhaps fourteen floors of fraternity will help to re-focus viewers on our shared humanity and foster mutual respect.

Olivier Bonnard for ArtUnitedUs in Kiev, Ukraine in collaboration with Artsynonym and Pangeaseed Foundation. (photo © @dronarium)

“This combines the role of Cossacks in the historical development of Ukraine and the consequences of human impact on the Black Sea,” says artist Olivier Bonnard, whose painting of a vase is in coordination with the organization named Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans. A peon to biodiversity, the deterioration of our seas and killing off of species is creating “dead zones’ where no animals can survive and the artist wants to draw attention to this.

Olivier Bonnard for ArtUnitedUs in Kiev, Ukraine in collaboration with Artsynonym and Pangeaseed Foundation. (photo © @dronarium)

ArtUnitedUs is co-founded and curated by Geo Leros and Iryna Kanishcheva.

C215: “100 Walls For Youth” Begins with 27 Children in Stencil Portrait

October 5, 2016 Artists

“France has been a crossroads and a host country forever: Greeks, Romans, Teutons, Vikings, Arabs all settled here in antiquity and then in the middle ages. The Spanish, Russian, Italian, and Polish came here more recently, not to mention the North Africans, and Africans, the Indo-Chinese, Lebanese, and Iranians who have taken refuge. Even the Chinese have recently settled here successfully. Today we have the Syrians who come to us and we must welcome them,” says Street Artist C215 of his newest mural of children’s faces.

The inaugural mural for the project 100 WALLS FOR YOUTH, C215 has made a strongly resolute defense of his views on Liberté, égalité, fraternité – the motto of the French. He also throws in one more: Laïcité – a core concept in the French constitution which formally states that France is a secular republic. This is going to be a powerful campaign, based on what we have heard from artistic director Gautier Jourdain of the LE M.U.R. association and the Gallerie Mathgoth, which he runs with his wife Mathilde in the 13^th Arrondissement of Paris.

After sitting with and photographing 27 different school children in June, C215 created stencils of each of them to paint on the street here in Paris where they all live. This would be a remarkable project if only for the effort and the talent, but in a time of stewing anti-immigrant fervor in France and other areas of Europe that has awakened the right wing and the would-be racists among us, this wall takes on additional significance.

This wall is part of what will be a much larger effort under the patronage of Mr. Francois Hollande, the President of the French Republic, says Mr. Jourdain, of the project that will spread to school walls and walls near other schools in partner cities with the help of many other Street Artists around the world.

As these murals and artworks provide an open gallery and an effective method for discussing these issues, organizers hope that this will be an unprecedented artistic adventure reaching many in the contemporary art world along with people on the street. Gaultier tells us the intentions and messages are those “built around altruistic values of respect, solidarity, diversity and brotherhood, citizenship and tolerance.”

BSA will be bringing you more of these walls by Street Artists as they come to neighborhoods around the city and globe. We have already heard of a number of them in the pipes! But first, here is C215 to start off the festivities.

“For the first of these frescoes, we wanted an iconic artist who is able to send a strong message,” says Gautier. “C215 seemed like the guy who could deliver this.”

On his Facebook page, C215 met with much praise for the project, and a fair number of intolerant, xenophobic, and racist ones. There were even some insisting that the country is being flooded deliberately as part of a neoliberal “One World Order” plan to dilute the culture and ruin everything. Sorry, France. If it helps at all, we’ve had the same kinds of people yelping about those new immigrant groups every twenty years or so throughout history – and the US is a nation comprised almost entirely of immigrants. Go figure.

“France has no ethnic or religious orientation,” C215 says. “France is a melting pot, a crossroads which since antiquity welcomes the peoples and the aggregates, in the mixing for a common ideal, which is today one of the republic.” Laïcité!

Icelandic Murals, Northern Lights, “Wall Poetry 2016” in Reykjavik

October 4, 2016 Artists

The concept album was born in the Stoned Age when TV was black and white, back when disaffected teens had to trudge for blocks and blocks outside on the sidewalk to the record store and carry their rock and roll home on large heavy vinyl platters called albums, sometimes double albums.

In the snow. Barefoot.

Heather Mclean collaborated on her wall with Minor Victories and the song “A Hundred Ropes”. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Rewarded for their hard work and sacrifice, these pioneering music fans opened those two record concept albums and used the big flat surface to pick the seeds out from their marijuana stash and roll a reefer.

Then they dropped the needle, turned up the dial, and lied on their back on their single beds surrounded by the two speaker stereophonic sound that gently vibrated their black-light posters on the wall, reading the song lyrics and metaphorically taking a wild and magical trip inside the cover art of the album.

“We paint the music you love to hear,” says Yasha Young in Reykavik, Iceland, as she imagines the thousands of music fans who will inundate this city in a few weeks for “Iceland Airwaves”.

For the second year Urban Nation, the Berlin-based arts organization working primarily within the Urban Contemporary Art scene, brings the musicians a powerful visual partner called “Wall Poetry”.

By pairing one musician/group with one visual artist/group, Young, the director of UN, wants to re-create the concept album where the eyes have a newly created entryway into the music. Of course its only one interpretation but countless stories can be evoked from this intercultural exchange.

It’s the second year for the program, and we are very lucky to have these exclusive shots from Nikka Kramer of some of the first walls going up in advance of the festival, which this year features over 200 bands. Check out the stunning atmospheric images featuring northern lights; a poetry of their own.

Strøk collaborated on his wall with MAMMÚT and the song “I Pray For Air In The Water”. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Phlegm collaborated on his wall with MÚM The Band. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Lora Zombie was inspired by the songs of L.A. based band War Paint for her wall. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Herakut collaborated on their wall with Kronos Quartet. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Don John collaborated on his wall with Swedish musician Silvana Imam’s “Naturkraft”. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Wes21 and Onur collaborated on their wall with the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

DotDotDot publicly collaborated on his wall with all the volunteers, locals, strangers and passers by using the word “perfection” as officially described on Google/dictionary. Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves 2016 artists in no particular order: Don John, Onur, Wes21, Ino, Heather Mclean, Herakut, Lora Zombie,Phlegm and Strok. Reykjavik, Iceland. (photo © Nika Kramer)

Wall Poetry/Iceland Airwaves is presented in partnership between Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art (UN Berlin) and Iceland Airwaves. For for about Wall Poetry read here.

Buff or Delete Elfo? The Last One For ’25, the First One For ’26
January 6, 2026
Elfo isn’t wrong, as they like to say these days. This photograph shows the phrase “You can remove graffiti with …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 1
January 4, 2026
Street art doesn’t only regale walls, it often reflects us, cracks and all. Call it protest or simply commentary, this …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 2
January 3, 2026
Street art welcomes all manner of materials and methods, typically deployed without permission and without apology. This hand-formed wire piece …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 3
January 2, 2026
The most successful murals are created within the context of a community. Too often, street art festivals operate with little …Read More »
Happy New Year 2026 From BSA
January 1, 2026
Okay let's do this! The future is unwritten. Get out your marker.Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 4
December 31, 2025
We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 5
December 30, 2025
We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family …Read More »