BSA Images Of The Week: 04.03.16

April 3, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Dang! The birds are singing! Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near?

An uptick in politically based street art in New York and elsewhere as people are waking up to the reality that Donald Trump is an actual contender for the presidency. Also New York, which tends to vote for the Democrat is now being targeted by former senator Clinton and Brooklyn native Bernie Sanders for New York’s April 19 primary, with both candidates appearing here this week.

Meanwhile a worldwide corruption scandal that was revealed this week about Unaoil and major oil corporations like Dick Cheney’s Halliburton is expanding to include corruption in the (gasp!) banking industry as well. What’s next? Revelations about 9/11 and the war in Iraq? Is it just us or do many of the figurative images on the street look alternately docile, frightened and/or angry?

Here’s our our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Pill NYC, Anarkia, CASH RFC Crew, Crummy Gummy, Damien Mitchell, DKF, El Sol 25, Gold Loxe, Monsh & Grey, Nick Walker, Riner, Sac Six Art, Stray Ones, Thomas Allen, and Twazzo.

Our top image: Never get __________– discouraged, a fake tan, seafood in a land-locked state, health advice from a drug dealer, fooled. From Thomas Allen… you fill in the blank… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sac Six Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A cat and mouse game from Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monsh & Grey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Loser (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DKF (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Pill NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crummy Gummy in Mexico City. (photo © Crummy Gummy)

Twazzo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Riner…or so we think. The signature could actually spell something else… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Riner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CASH RFC Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anarkia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gold Loxe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. Spring 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MP5: “Millennials” Holding Up the Future and Past in Rome

April 2, 2016 Artists

“I wanted to go back to the millennial roots of public and monumental art,” MP5 tells us about the inspiration for the new intervention in Torpignattara entitled “Millennials”. The Naples born Roman artist draws upon contemporary themes as well as classical in their 2D black and white iconic paintings, always with a hint of theatrical scene-making.

MP5 “Millennials” for Wunderkammern in Rome. March 2016. (photo © Nino Russo)

In reference to the new pillars that appear to be holding up the roof on this building, MP5 tells us that the inspiration came from the carved female forms of the The Caryatid Porch at the Athens’ Acropolis around 400 BC.

Reinterpreting classical mythology with an eye on contemporary political and cultural crises and developments has driven much of MP5s work in public murals in many cities in countries such as Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Croatia, Slovenia and Sweden.

MP5 “Millennials” for Wunderkammern in Rome. March 2016. (photo © Nino Russo)

With “Millennials” the artist has just finished in Rome as part of her exhibition “Of Changes” at Wunderkammern Gallery, MP5 says they enjoyed the interaction the folks from the neighborhood while she painted. “Some sounded enthusiastic. Others asked me lots of questions about the meaning of it. In the end everybody was very nice and people from the neighborhood brought me food and treats all the time – or they would just pass by to check if everything was ok.”

Our special thanks to Wunderkammern for these exclusive images to share with BSA readers.

MP5 “Millennials” for Wunderkammern in Rome. March 2016. (photo © Martina Ruggeri)

MP5 painted this wall in conjunction with his exhibition at “Of Changes” currently on view at Wunderkammern Gallery in Rome. Click HERE for further information.

BSA Film Friday 04.01.16

April 1, 2016 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Herakut: Masters Of Wrong from Eric Minh Swenson
2. Shark Toof by Koncrete
3. HM Heads – Copenhagen. Spray Daily
4. Gary Stranger. The London Wall. Global Street Art

BSA Special Feature: Herakut: “Masters Of Wrong”

HERA + AKUT=HERAKUT – a back-to-basics introduction to Herakut today, since new fans are joining the fold and need to become acquainted with a duo that has been on the street around the world for years and has been moving into galleries for a while also.

Here at the white box Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles for their “Masters of Wrong” show it is a different view entirely from the street surely, including paintings evenly spaced across white walls as well as an area for a more immersive environment.

Outside, “The wolf that wins is the one you feed” is the Cherokee wisdom they paint on the side of the local high school, and in the commercialization of the Street Art world, we see this enmeshed dichotomy more daily.

Let the softly kinetic paddling of the marimba escort you through their political and social commentary, now more overt and obvious and satirical than ever, as they show you their new show and their new works for exhibition and for sale.

Shark Toof by Koncrete

Good to hear the story directly from the LA artist about the deliberations that go on when creating the image. It is interesting to see what the construction is, and how skillfully Shark Toof integrates his formal painting training into the vocabulary of graffiti and the street. His sharks are pleasantly realistic and scary and comical all at once – how is that possible?

HM Heads – Copenhagen. Spray Daily

And for those of you who are bored with the legal walls, here is a collection of videos of aerosol train pieces that appear to be largely illegal and immense. HM Heads in Copenhagen lead the tale with stealthy crawling through the weeds on hands and knees up to the locomotive over a dramatic/thoughtful guitar duo of anxious plunking and low wailing. After finding a suitable location between parked trains and some testing of the aerosol valves, the outlining begins in a deliberate and planned lay of lines and fills. The lyrics begin and within the first few lines the vocalist says “I have lost the will to live”.

Shortly thereafter a wall of scourging guitars builds and the camera shot gets shakey – and the shot quiets down again for some smooth linework and polka dots. Aside from the blurred faces and the jaunty, somewhat tentative movements of the painting crew, you would not have reason to think that this is done without permission. Is it? The video ends with a very long sequence of trains pulling into stations – crisp modern cars with colorful outcroppings of characters and letters, sometimes complete cars. The volume hikes upward, the Prodigy starts talking about smacking their bitch up, corks are popped and the furtive busting through fences increases as the unfettered aerosol continues.

Gary Stranger. The London Wall. Global Street Art

And we end this weeks collection with Gary Stranger from the MSK Crew doing this completely legal mural on something called The London Wall, a rotating art gallery that has works related to, you guessed it, London.

Various & Gould: “Permanently Improvised” Temporarily in San Jose

March 31, 2016 Artists

It’s not a surprise that Various & Gould are mixing and matching bodies and faces in their new show – they’ve been doing it for years on the street.

With heads and limbs and torsos prepared in advance, the German couple are just as surprised as you sometimes to see what bionic fluorescent steampunk-inflected portraits and figures are going to emerge on a street wall overhead or around a corner. The aptly named “Permanently Improvised” show at Anno Domini in San Jose is actually compiled in part from friends and family this time out and since October they have been creating and assembling the pieces.

Various & Gould. Process shot. (photo © Various & Gould)

More humorous than hermetic, less dreamlike than Dada, but just as atmospheric as Asimov, these futuristic looking androids are as historical as they are futurist. Gould tells us that it was an unusual 1440 masterpiece by Fra Angelico, the Italian early Renaissance artist, that was quite an inspiration for he and Various while working on the show.

Various & Gould. Process shot. (photo © Various & Gould)

“While most parts of the picture do match with your expectations of the early Renaissance, the center part feels like a picture in the picture with very surreal details,” he says of the image he first bought as a postcard during a trip to Florence at the turn of this century. “There are loose hands and a disembodied head next to Jesus! It conveys the impression of a modern piece of art or a comic panel, being absolutely reduced to the most important elements of the story. Actually this also feels very much like a collage to us! Cut-out body parts, simultaneity of various actions and so on …”

Fra Angelico “Cristo Deriso” C. 1440 – 1441. (photo Wikimedia Commons)

Surreally answering that Angelico call, their piece called “Brutalist Vision” (below) is just one response the duo has crafted during these winter months in their Berlin studio that merges methods of painting, serigraphy and collage. Perhaps because the faces are familiar to the authors, the distance between fantasy and reality is shortened this time in Various & Gould’s panoply of possibilities. But with V& G the poetry is always present, and closeness and farness are simply a matter of stretching and retracting their ever-pliant elastic imaginations.

As a viewer, you’ve been here before. And never before in your entire life.

Various & Gould. Process shot of “Brutalist Vision”. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Process shot. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Process shot. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Process shot of “Sabotage”. (photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. The hot-off-the-press limited screen-print edition “Sabotage” (2016).(photo © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould Permanently Improvised exhibition will open tomorrow at Anno Domini Gallery in San Jose, CA. Click HERE for more details.

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One Street Portrait a Day: Artist Mel Waters Celebrates Black History in San Francisco

March 30, 2016 Artists

“There are some beautiful people out there that have left the world better off. I’m glad I could share some of them over Black History Month, one portrait at a time,” says Mel Waters when talking about his piece-a-day project in San Francisco’s Mission District in February. Funded from his own pocket, the 34 year old artist devised the project for himself and executed it on city walls (and one delivery truck) to pay tribute to famous African Americans during Black History Month.

Rosa Parks by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

“It struck me as a very interesting concept, particularly in an art culture that mostly lacks social content,” says graffiti and Street Art expert, photographer and famed historian Jim Prigoff, who first shared the story with us after he began spotting black and white aerosol portraits of folks like Rosa Parks, Amiri Baraka, and Gil Scott Heron popping up around town.

“Piquing my curiosity I found they were part of a series of 29 portraits painted one a day throughout the month, principally in the Mission District, but running from Chinatown on the north to the south. Given that Mel either walks or takes public transportation it became logistically challenging,” says Prigoff.

Muhammad Ali by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

As he painted the portraits, Mr. Waters says his interest in these historical figures grew stronger and the project affected him in positive ways. “During the project, I did research nightly on who I was going to paint the next day. There are so many amazing stories and choosing who to paint was another challenge for me,” he says. “During my research I stumbled upon people I never heard of. That was an amazing experience in itself for me.”

It is an unusual story, as Prigoff observes, because so much of graffiti has been traditionally about getting one’s name up and marking territory and a large number of the new Street Artists appear to avoid political or socially themed work today. “In the beginning of modern Graffiti it was tags, then letters and characters,” Prigoff explains. “As ‘pieces’ were developed, few raised social concerns as the focus was principally on the writer’s names with various embellishments.”

Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Waters says the act of painting daily, and painting quickly, has tightened his game and he also learned how to be more efficient with his time. “It was a real challenge from the start, not only to pay for it, but also to find the time to paint daily while keeping up with my other obligations and to find locations where I could paint,” he says.

“I learned how to paint faster and I developed some new techniques. For example, I would roll out the face with bucket paint so I didn’t have to spend much time filling the face in with spray cans. Then I would just come in with the spray paint for shading… There was no time to create masterpieces, so I learned to let go of that need for perfection, too.”

Josephine Baker by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

With figures as varied as statesman and abolitionist Frederick Douglass to singer Josephine Baker, poet Langston Hughes, and Major League Baseball player Larry Doby, Waters gives San Franciscans a taste of the vastness of African American contributions to history. Additionally he says he felt encouraged on his self-elected one man sojourn from people on the street who stopped by to talk with him while he was working.

“There were nice reactions from the communities I painted in and good feedback on social media. I love celebrating my culture, which is African American and Filipino, through my art. I think it’s good to know about our past so we can use it to help us for the future.”

Mr. Prigoff tells us that he was elated to meet the artist in person and to get a tour of the paintings and to find a hopeful and positive project like this – especially in a Street Art scene that he has been documenting since its inception. “The use of public space to raise political awareness is meaningful to me and I hope it will be to others,” he says. “In this era of celebrated artists with major funding, Mel’s “street story” in creating a dynamic project is heartening and in the spirit of how this street art movement came to be.”

W. E. B. Dubois by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

A collection of four important female figures: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Septima Poinsette Clark by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Frederick Douglass by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Marvin Gaye by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Nikki Giovanni by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

A partially buffed portrait of the 2nd Negro player in Major League Baseball, Larry Doby. Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Langston Hughes by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Emory Douglas by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Coretta Scott King by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Kendrick Lamar and Charles Mingus by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Art Shell by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Mario Woods by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Gil Scott Heron by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Dr. James E. West by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Our very special thanks to James Prigoff for sharing his observations, insights, and photographs here for BSA readers.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Bifido: “Meanwhile” …on a London Train Platform

March 29, 2016 Artists

Hurry up and wait.

Much of modern life is like this. In cities especially where bottlenecks in tunnels, on bridges, on highways and streets can slowly… drive… you… crazy. We have long lines for dance clubs and drivers licenses, sample sales and Shake Shack, airport security and air-headed pop stars. And of course we wait for buses and trains. Time itself appears as a liquid commodity; pooling up and quickly slurping down a drain.

Bifido. Work in progress. London. March 2016. (photo © courtesy of Bifido)

Italian photographic collage Street Artist Bifido is giving people who wait for the train on the Forest Gate platform in London something to contemplate that might make the wait entertaining, if not transcendent. Shooting his own photos of people and props in studio for perfect clarity, Bifido plays with proportion and relationships to create an Alice in Wonderland effect with otherwise normal looking images. Here’s a woman nearly falling into a huge cup of tea. There is a tree man is surrounded by swirling leaves that appear as butterflies in someone else’s stomach. A mammoth sized snail speaks to a small woman with an umbrella.

Bifido. Work in progress. London. March 2016. (photo © courtesy of Bifido)

Bookended by clocks, this is the space you have between rushing.

Meanwhile, he calls it, and he is doing it as part of a vast urban regeneration program curated by Preznt Project on a MTR Crossrail commission.

Standing on the platform you can free your imagination for a moment and have some creative time, before the next train slides quickly into view.

Bifido. Work in progress. London. March 2016. (photo © courtesy of Bifido)

Bifido. Detail. London. March 2016. (photo © Bifido)

Bifido. Detail. London. March 2016. (photo © courtesy of Bifido)

Bifido. The Team. London. March 2016. (photo © courtesy of Bifido)

Bifido. Detail. London. March 2016. CLICK on image to enlarge. (photo © courtesy of Bifido)

Geoff Hargadon & “Cash For Your Warhol” Store/ Exhibition/ Performance in Boston

March 28, 2016 Artists

Pedro Alonzo is a Boston-based independent curator and art advisor who has charted an important trajectory on the Street Art-Contemporary Art continuum as it pertains to institutions, public/private organizations and emerging and recognized artists of related genres since the 1990s. We’re very pleased today that Pedro brings BSA readers insights from a unique one month performance/exhibition space just mounted in the Boston area by the fascinating pop-social satirist Geoff Hargadon, creator of CFYW (Cash For Your Warhol).

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A brick and mortar staged “store” offers Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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~by Pedro Alonzo

The artist Geoff Hargadon is responsible for the street art campaign Cash for Your Warhol (CFYW). As part of CFYW Geoff opened a pop up store for 7 weeks in Inman Square in Cambridge, MA. The store was open from Wednesday through Sunday where Geoff could be found surrounded by props and Warhol paraphernalia that created the setting for the pseudo business. Fake checks made out to local collectors and institutions adorned the walls, empty crates sat on the floor. I went to visit him on the last day of business. Throughout the interview friends, fans and strangers visited the store, interacting with Geoff. Some people brought booze, others just wanted to chat with the artist.

A folded vinyl billboard sign at the back of the store. Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: What led you to do the pop-up store?
Geoff Hargadon: I wanted to do a physical store that would look like a pawnshop but would only buy and sell Warhols. I went by this space and it looked perfect because you don’t have to go inside to see everything that’s going on. It’s almost like a gigantic vitrine. However, it’s better to go inside and see the details. Like the “cease and desist” order, the crates, the note that came with the flowers from David Zwirner…..

Pedro Alonzo: What? David Zwirner sent you flowers? I didn’t know he sent you flowers. How did that happen?
Geoff Hargadon: No, I just sent myself flowers and had the note signed from David Zwirner.

Pedro Alonzo: Do people see that?
Geoff Hargadon: Very few, but I’m okay with that. I don’t think there’s a single person who’s seen everything that’s going on in the store. Which is okay. Most people come in and they want to know if the checks are real or ask, “Can I have a sign?” “How much are the signs?”

Pedro Alonzo: Are you selling anything?
Geoff Hargadon: That wasn’t the original intent but people have come in and bought a couple signs.

A posted sign in the window describes the hottest pieces sought by Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: What about the Shwag?
Geoff Hargadon: The reason schwag makes sense is that if we are pretending to be a real company, we have to have schwag to give away. It makes fun of the industry that makes things for companies that are trying to promote their product. That amuses me. I have a lot of stickers from the Cash for your Warhol campaign, pencils, and stress balls.

Pedro Alonzo: How do you get started with Cash for Your Warhol?
Geoff Hargadon: It started with signs in early 2009, during the peak of the financial crisis. I noticed that signs kept popping up “cash for your house”, “cash for your this and that” it made me think, this crisis is affecting everyone, so where are the signs for the 1%? Actually, that is probably not what I said because that was before the term 1% was used. The phrase, “Cash for your Warhol” popped into my head, it sounded funny.

I decided to make signs and put them up to see what would happen. However, I did it in a rush and I put my cell phone number on the first 100 signs. That was a mistake because even though I thought everyone would be in on the joke, that wasn’t the case. People were calling at all hours. I solved that problem by getting a Google voice number.

Pedro Alonzo: How many calls do you get on average?
Geoff Hargadon: I get a call every day but most of them hang up. I think the reason for that is that people want to know if this is real. When they hear the voice on the answering machine they hang up. Some people leave messages, a few people actually call because they have Warhol’s to sell.

Artworks for shipping and receiving at the Cash For Your Warhol storefront. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: Have you had legitimate offers?
Geoff Hargadon: I’ve been shown about 30 Warhols. It’s all done through the Internet, I have not met anyone in person. People send pictures, certificates of authenticity, proof of purchase, close-ups of the signature, etc. Some of the Warhol’s have been the real deal. I was shown a painting that was estimated at around $6 million. It seems kind of silly that someone would show me a $6 million Warhol. I’ve also been shown stuff that Andy Warhol supposedly autographed; programs, pictures, a napkin, a dress. The problem is that people who have Warhol’s seem to think that because it’s a Warhol it is worth 1 million bucks. I get a lot of bogus offers from people who are fishing around – which I’m okay with.

Pedro Alonzo: Is your intention to start a dialogue?
Geoff Hargadon: It’s a commentary on the art world that sees art as commodity. It’s part street art, it’s part performance art. Being here is kind of a performance. I’m performing as if this were a real store.

At that moment a group of young women walk by and read out loud, “Cash for you Warhol. This is supposed to be an art project or something.”

Geoff Hargadon: This project is a parody of the enterprises that are financial predators. They prey on people who get into difficult situations and are forced to sell their house to somebody who put a phone number on a telephone pole. This seems kind of crazy but people must do it or we wouldn’t see so many signs.

Examples of huge payouts are posted for your perusal at the Cash For Your Warhol business. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Pedro Alonzo: Are there any influences?
Geoff Hargadon: A big influence was Banksy’s pet shop in New York. That was pretty epic. As well as Faile’s arcade, which I saw in Miami and in the lower East side. They are good examples. In many cases, pop-ups are about selling prints. Faile and Banksy’s pop ups were really about a concept.

Pedro Alonzo: You’re spending a lot of time here. What has been the pleasure of doing this?

Geoff Hargadon: The pleasure has come from a number of different sources. Friends and artists have been dropping by. Several artists have come to trade art works. Which is really great, I love to trade. I’ve also had a couple of people come in who want to wire money through Western Union. That was a little awkward because we have a Western Union sign but we are not set up to send wires.

I have also enjoyed the quiet of the store. Sitting in here reading, catching up on emails. Minding my own business, when out of the corner of my eye I see somebody walk by, pause and look completely confused. They will look at the store for a few seconds and then keep on walking. To me that really indicates the success of the design of the store. Because it looks real enough to possibly be a store were people might buy your Warhol. I like the fact that most people walk by and think it’s just a pawnshop and are not interested in coming in. Many people come in and say, “I’ve been following your project for years, this is so great, nice to see you.” Then they take some stickers and hang around. It’s kind of a lovefest. I have really enjoyed it.

Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Ben: Sorry to interrupt. I have been a big fan of this.
Hargadon: Thanks. I’m Geoff.
Ben: I’m Ben. I have an Andy Warhol story to tell you. I was an usher at Radio City Music Hall in the 80’s. During the intermission of a Johnny Mathis concert I was sent to stand in front of the orchestra with my back to the stage facing the audience. 10 rows up on the isle was Andy Warhol slumped down in his chair with his hair sticking up. I noticed he was looking at me and we basically started playing peekaboo. Andy Warhol who would hide behind his program. That was so cool. I think what you’re doing is nuts and kind of funny and I’ve even bought some your signs.
Hargadon: Really? That is awesome.
Ben: Yeah, I’m one of those guys that buys your signs.
Hargadon: Do you want to take a sign?
Ben: My wife won’t let me put it up but I will take it.

Pedro Alonzo: Why did you pick this location?
Geoff Hargadon: I live about a mile down the road but I haven’t really explored Inman Square. It’s an interesting collection of people, that’s what makes Cambridge and Somerville so great. It is important that the pop up take place outside of an arts district. This needs to be a destination. It would not work if it had been next to a Gallery. It has to be ambiguous.

Geoff Hargadon: Did you hear that? That guys was explaining to his girlfriend that this is an art installation. I love that.

Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Hargadon: Hey Man. How’s it going?
Keith: I brought a celebratory beverage, a final day thing.
Geoff Hargadon: Jesus! Wow, champagne.
Keith: You want to throw some down?
Geoff Hargadon: I tried to convince Pedro to have some beer earlier but champagne is actually better.

Keith was followed by a rush of more friends, fans and admirers. Some of whom brought beer and wine turning the Cash for Warhol store into an impromptu party. Once the booze was finished everyone went home and we continued the interview.

Pedro Alonzo: Watching today unfold with all of these people coming to see you and experience your store makes me think how insipid just looking at art inside a white box can be.
Geoff Hargadon: A museum has many advantages over the store but the advantage here is that people can engage with the store in many different ways. Like the guy who was just here, he’s not going to go to a museum with a bottle of wine. Even the people who came in to wire money, they weren’t pushed away. I tried to be as accommodating as possible even though I couldn’t send their wire.

Pedro Alonzo: It seems that your intention was to encourage gathering, socializing, and an exchange of ideas around your art.
Geoff Hargadon: It is an art project that poses as a business but actually has no commercial intent – which is kind of weird when you think of it. I’m not really here to sell stuff and I like that ambiguity about it. I opened this temporary store and whatever happens, happens. This project is subversive to the art establishment in that it raises the issue of art as commodity. Museums are some of my favorite places in the world, and they play a very valuable role. But I also feel that Street Art plays a very valuable role by working outside of the world.

Pedro Alonzo: What does your wife think about all of this?
Geoff Hargadon: She likes it but she will be happy when it’s over.

Pedro Alonzo: My wife just texted me. I gotta get home to dinner.
Geoff Hargadon: Yeah, me too.

Cash For Your Warhol (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

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Pedro Alonzo is an independent curator whose unique understanding and appreciation for the Street Art scene has made him a strong and trusted advocate for artists such as Os Gêmeos, Shepard Fairey, Dr. Lakra, Faile, MOMO, and Swoon, among many others. His curatorial vision has brought new audiences a greater appreciation for these artists in solo and group shows at places like ICA/Boston, Dallas Contemporary, Pinchuk Arte Centre in Kiev, and the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego. Most recently he curated a citywide exhibition titled Open Source: Engaging Audiences in Public Space for the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.27.16

March 27, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Happy Easter to the folks who are celebrating this day of Christ’s rise from the dead. The rest of ya’ll can just enjoy the Sunday roast dinner we made for you. Cousin Charlemagne has already eaten both the ears off his chocolate bunny and there are two eggs that have not been found during the hunt. Let’s look for them after we eat. Pass the scalloped potatoes please.

Here’s our our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Visual Bliss, Bang Bang Errol, Cash Cash RFC Crew, Chupa, CJ Fly, Dasic Fernandez, Geoffrey Carran, Jay Shells, Jesse A. Edwards, Joseph Acker, KLOPS, Kuma, LMNOPI, Lunge Box, Myth, Papoose, Rocko, Rowena Martinich, Sorick 21, Trifer, Wallplay, Willow, and Zimers.

Our top image: Rocko and Zimer painted this tribute to King Biggie Smalls back in October of 2015 for Spread Art NYC. We just hadn’t been able to flick it. So here it is. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And speaking of Biggie Smalls, urban artist and lyric lover Jay Shells left this plaque just across the street recently. His unique campaign of placing original rap lyrics at the geographical spot they refer to has taken him to cities across the country. These new platters have just popped up like spring tulips. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jay Shells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI brings the street a new portrait of “a Haitian girl I met when I was in Port Au Prince in 2010.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sorick21 . Trifer . Chupa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kuma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth “A culture fixated on female thinness is not an obsession about female beauty, but an obsession about female obedience” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Koch Brothers. Portrait by Joseph Acker – Prision ID #15967538. Mural by Willow. The Captured Project in conjuction with The L.I. S.A. Project. People in prison drawing people who should be. More information here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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6 New City People on the Streets of Beijing from ROBBBB

March 26, 2016 Artists

“Cityscape” is a word that usually refers to the architecture and urban design but Robbbb refer’s to Beijing residents when he calls his ongoing series by that name. “These works reflect the real living environment of the contemporary China,” he says of these everyday people painted and pasted in unlikely/likely locations as if they are an echo of a spirit that inhabited the space only moments earlier. Exclusively for BSA, Robbbb shares these six new people, who he says are each contemplating everyday issues of contemporary Chinese society.

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BSA Film Friday: 03.25.16

March 25, 2016 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Seve Garza Paints Homeless People in Austin
2. Stik: London Street Artist by Ben Hanratty
3. Chris Dyer’s Artventure: Florida Art Road Trip
4. Time Travel Subway Car

BSA Special Feature: Seve Garza Paints Homeless People in Austin

It only takes one person to make a difference.

You.

Never mind the hype and all those things that make you forget what Street Art can do. Artist Seve Garza is not going to change the world but he may change a couple of people’s world with his personal brand of art activism. It’s better than smugly commenting on an Internet forum.

Stik: London Street Artist by Ben Hanratty

“That was my first documentary film, but definitely hope to make more. He was a really interesting man, very intelligent,” says 18 year old film maker Ben Hanratty, who is just completing his first year studying film and television at University of the Arts in London. He’s done a splendid job and we all learn a great deal about the artist and the man, Stik, thanks to Mr. Hanratty.

Chris Dyer’s Artventure: Florida Art Road Trip

Painter Chris Dyer is often on an artventure with his work, interacting with people at festivals who are celebrating spirituality and positivity and advocating for an enlightened approach to heavy issues. Here’s the latest installment that follows Chris and many “LIVE” painters to the Zen Awakening Festival in Orlando, Florida to the Dali Museum in St. Petersburg and the Moksha Family party in Miami while the Basel madness is happening.

Basically we really just want to ride that giant slide at the Zen Awakening Festival!! With this fresh new video Chris sends positive vibes out to the BSA family for this holiday weekend.

Time Travel Subway Car

Because, you know, what seeds you plant today will grow….

Valencia Dispatch: Illustrators, Thinkers, and Riddles

March 24, 2016 Artists

Thought provoking, curious, underplayed. There is a certain circumspect quality to the Street Art scene in this seaside city in Spain that ranks third in population but which may be vying for the Street Art title that once was held securely by Barcelona.

Admittedly it is an unthankable task to try to characterize the urban art of any city, but the eclectic street works like those found in Valencia’s neighborhoods like El Carmen, with its peculiar configurations of streets and plazas and little in-between places, are often a trifle more cerebral in their culmination. With challenging riddles and allegories you’ll find yourself studiously unpacking meanings and subtext with these often small and midsize works that call to you, rather than scream.

Yes, Valencia inherited the grafiteros romance and hip-hop aerosol aesthetic in the late 20th century, as many cities around the globe did, and you can see ample evidence of those fame and style influences here as well. However there is an almost Lo-fi illustrator vibe in Valencia and many figurative pieces are singular, influenced by cartoons and modernly ironic illustration styles, from deadpan dry in black, grey, and white to fully realistic and photorealist aerosol portraits.

It is not unusual for works to have a message or point of view, where symbols stand in for sentiments and metaphors abound. The “cute” quotient may also be lower than many cities, as is the need to fill in a background to occupy space. In a genre that can get very cluttered, with pieces chock-a-block and smashing into one another with no discernable through-thread, Valencia looks like it can give artists the space, and artists are using that space effectively.

Our sincere thanks to BSA Contributor Lluis Olive Bulbena for sharing his photos exclusively with BSA readers.

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BLU Allies : A Counter Exhibition to “Banksy & Co.” Launched in Bologna

March 23, 2016 Artists

An anti-Banksy & Co. Street Art show opened in Bologna Italy the same night as its controversial bank-backed cousin with brand new works by 50 or so Italian and international Street Artists and open admission to their outdoor ‘museum’.

“It is free and spontaneous, as Street Art should be,” says an organizer and participant named About Ponny as he describes the exuberant and sometimes saucy toned exhibition on the grounds of the sprawling former headquarters of Zincaturificio Bolognese which is destined for future demolition.

“The message we want to convey is that true street art is found where it was born, in the street and not in the paid exhibits,” says Bibbito, who along with two other out-of-town street artists named Jamesboy and Enter/Exit found food and couches during their installations thanks to an association of artists called L’Associazione Serendippo. Together, these artists say, they and other organizers want to send a “strong signal” by creating “one of the largest museums of ephemeral street art ever made”. The new coalition named this project “R.U.S.Co” (Recupero Urbano Spazi Comuni) or (Urban Renewal Common spaces).

The new 16,000 m² open-air art show may appear as a rather curious development because its method of protest runs completely counter to that of the shows’ most vocal and high-profile critic, BLU, who last week protested the same show by defiantly destroying 20 years of his own public paintings, rather than making new ones.

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The contested Banksy and Co. exhibition contains, among many other works, walls removed from a privately owned abandoned building in Bologna that were painted by BLU. Displaying the walls and his artwork without his consent so angered the painter that he rallied artists and activists to help him snuff out all his remaining murals and paintings in this Northern Italian city last week. (See A BLU Buffer Talks About the Grey Action in Bologna)

The heavily attended Friday night opening of Street Art – Banksy & Co. at Palazzo Pepoli – Museo della Storia di Bologna was curated by Luca Ciancabilla, Christian Omodeo and Sean Corcoran and features roughly 250 historical and contemporary works spanning about fifty years and highlighting a number of movements within the so-called Urban Art genre. On balance it appears that 90 percent of the the works are studio works, paintings, sculpture, videos, original sketches and ephermera and were probably collected in a more conventional way and the tagged psters, stickers, metal doors, and wall fragments are viewed in the context of the whole scene.

Of the counter exhibit, About Ponny says “Many artists have participated. It’s fantastic foray into an abandoned factory that maybe in the future will be demolished,” on the metal production factory grounds that have laid unused for about 15 years. Completed over three weeks time with freshly painted pieces, many of the new works hint at the Street Artists intentions to lampoon the formal museum show with a bit of sarcasm. Included in some of the pieces are overt references to the contested issues at hand, such as a portrait surrounded by a diagram of scissors and a dotted line by About Ponny and Nemo’s large troubled and naked man pierced through the head with a price tag reading 13 €, the entrance fee for the museum show .

Attendance at the new outside show will be difficult to gauge as the facility is in such disrepair that organizers cannot encourage the public to attend it without putting people at risk because of safety matters. This method of art-making in abandoned places has been a cornerstone of the graffiti and Street Art practice since youth first started to chart their urban explorations and these new pieces seem perfectly at home on decaying walls and crumbling infrastructure, despite any possible dangers present. It is exactly this sometimes-idealized rebellious ethos that is offended by the practice of displaying this art in a more rarified environs.

The Artists participating include: 5074, about ponny, ache77, animelle, carlos atoche, casciu, bdn, bibbito pupo, collectivo fx, dada, dirlo, dissenso cognitivo, distruggi la loggia, ente, exit enter, fuori luogo, hazki, hpc crew, huang, incursioni decorative, hopnn, james boy, leo borri, luogo comune, marcio, nada, nemo’s, pepe coi bermuda, progeas family, psikopatik, pupa, reve+, ricky boy, sharko, snem, standard, stelle confuse, tadlock, valda, and zolta.