BSA Film Friday: 11.13.15

November 13, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Ugangprosjektet 2015 in Drammen, Norway. A Film by Selina Miles
2. Crack & Shine in São Paulo. A film by Will Robson-Scott
3. Perseverare : Zes and Saber in Downtown LA
4. SatOne: Insomnia

BSA Special Feature: Ugangprosjektet 2015 in Drammen, Norway.

UGANG2015 in Drammen, Norway had two weeks of murals from Street Artists and graffiti writers in late August. A relatively new event curated by local graffiti artist Eric Ness Christiansen (Eazy), the program is already slamming. A small town of 70,000 about 40 minutes from Oslo, they know how to take care of details, including inviting the inimitable Selina Miles to come and shoot it. Any questions?

Crack & Shine in São Paulo. A film by Will Robson-Scott

Vino, Cekis, Peter, Frs, Lead, Stile, Os Gemeos, Finok, Coyo, Caur, Ise, Nunca, Mind, Toes, Remio, and Twist are all featured in this atmopheric assemblage of traffic, extinguishers, kites, and futbol from São Paulo. Part vandal/part street poetry, you can get a sense of the family that grows up together here, choosing each other and pursuing a collective addiction.

Perseverare : Zes and Saber in Downtown LA

“We were painting this neighborhood before it was even coined the Arts District,” says Saber as he talks about the new burner he and Zes paint in LA’s Downtown “Arts District,” the very name of which drips from his lips with disdain. Neighborhoods are changing across the world with the assistance of art and artists and it causes a hell of a lot of fingerwagging and accusations. Meanwhile these two are painting a gesture toward the history of a city with the hope of striking a positive note as well.

SatOne: Insomnia

“At the beginning of October, the project Stadt.Wand.Kunst hosted another artist. Munich-based artist Rafael Gerlach aka SatOne created a mural in Mannheim titled „Insomnia“. SatOne – born in Venezuela1977, living in Munich since the age of two – dipped his big toe into the world of graffiti in 1991, when he began trying out different writing styles in an abandoned factory site near his home. After studying graphic design and testing the waters at different graphic design agencies, SatOne has worked as a freelancer for the past 15 years, illustrating, photographing and creating murals and exhibitions around the world.”

The Genius of C215 In One Storied Tome : La monographie

November 12, 2015 Artists

A rich and storied collection from one of the streets most loved modern stencillists is C215: La monographie.

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On the street and in the studio this guy has pretty much mastered the art of stencils over the last decade in a way that makes the medium have a human depth; something that few can do. He manages to give his subjects a character, revealing even the soul of his subjects in the lines on their faces, bringing life in their eyes. A proud and tormented fellow who honors art history as much as the suffering of people today, this is a talent that is fully engaged in the modern world.

Every letter of the alphabet demarks a new chapter – from Amsterdam to Barcelona to Cinema to Enfants, Justice, Prisons, Tel Aviv and Zurich; An interesting method of marking the travels of an artist as he circles the world that we live in and the one that lives in him.

“I paint in the street for my pleasure as well as for the others, fairly shared. But always and more and more I paint outdoors for the others,” he says in his preface that lays across from a series of photos showing him on various streets in many countries with stencil and can, alone and with an audience.

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Each chapter gives a few examples of Christian Guémy’s work pertaining to the title and as you turn the pages you are struck by the poignancy and the skill, the element of surprise as he moves from homeless to goddesses, cats to couples, religious icons to icons of his daughter Nina as she grows. In studio and gallery you see the translation he makes from the street, but it is most rewarding to gaze upon mottled walls, mailboxes, doorways and remnants of plaster or broken window, seeing well-placed works of monochrome sometimes bloom into full riotous color.

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A small text from the artist in most chapters will bring you back to earth as he describes a memory or an observation, his biography told through his work, and you feel like he is there on the couch next to you narrating his book for you. Notable exceptions are a treatise and recollection of a public display of support he made for the French Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira and to decry racism and incivility, and his remembrances of the Charlie Hebdo killings.

It is in these texts where you see the fire that burns deep in the artist and you understand how he is able to make that same fire burn bright in the eyes of his subjects.

“All of you carry me on your shoulders and it helps me see farther away and makes the pathe less painful. You are the one who makes me go ahead and I thank you for that.” – C215

C215. La Monographie. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 La Monographie / The Monograph. Éditions Albin Michel. Paris 2015

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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!

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Barcelona: Open Walls Mural Festival and Conference 2015

November 11, 2015 Artists

Barcelona was known as a city at the epicenter of a bustling lively organic Street Art scene in the mid 2000s. Today that has greatly been cracked down upon by authorities but the Spanish city now boasts a mural festival called Open Walls, which celebrated its third edition last month with public works spanning a great number of influences and styles. Of course there is still plenty of autonomous unpermissioned Street Art to be seen as well.

Borondo at work on his sketch for his enormous piece at Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

This years’ interventions included new large format walls from Roc Blackblock, Ethos, Borondo, Zosen and Mina Hamada, and Mohamed Lghacham. Site specific walls included works by BYG, Enric Font, Sav45, Rubicon, Tayone, and Reskate Studio with Marina Capdevila and Amaia Arrazola. Boldly, the festival featured an open call to the first 20 respondents to paint a huge project together, effectively disarming any accusations of hierarchical favoritism or gate keeping.

Borondo. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Open Walls 2015 also featured a conference with speakers, debates, tours and workshops that expand the discussion of art in the urban environment beyond typical Street Art and graffiti fare. The academic and institutional world is gradually grappling with bigger questions around urban planning and public space as it pertains to art in the streets and formal art teaching is still broadening its consideration of an artist movement that started quite outside its purview.

Borondo. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Invited speakers included photographer Martha Cooper, graffiti artist and historian Jay Edlin, RJ Rushmore of Vandalog, Sergi Díaz (ICUB), representatives of the Madrid Street Art Project, philosopher Gabriela Berti, art historian Will Shank, and conservator Rosa Senserrich. The international and multidisciplinary program of professionals addressed issues regarding documentation, conservation, restoration, the history of Street Art, and its evolving role in the urban experience.

Here are some images courtesy of the festival photographer Fernando Alcalá Losa and of BSA contributor Lluis Olive Bulbena.

Borondo. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Roc Black Block. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Roc Black Block. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Zosen . Mina Hamada Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Zosen . Mina Hamada Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

ETHOS. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Mohamed Lghacham AKA Oiter. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

Mohamed Lghacham AKA Oiter. Open Walls Conference 2015. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

SAV45. Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

SAV45. Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Rubicon1. Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Manu Manu . Open Walls Conference 2015. Site Specific Call. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Simon Vazquez . Sebastien Waknine . Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Osnam . Caster . Cayn. Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Mer Bl . Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Copia . Open Walls Conference 2015. Open Call, Banc de Sang Wall. Barcelona. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Jordan Seiler. Open Walls Conference 2015. Bus Shelter Take Over. Barcelona. (photo © Fernando Alcalá Losa)

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post.

Dont Fret Takes Europe, and We All Feel Better

November 10, 2015 Artists

When you hear the name of Street Artist Don’t Fret you can be assured that he means exactly the opposite. Exposing random and selected people’s faults, foibles, and fraternizing habits is just a way to quickly capture the free-wheeling imaginings and inner conversations that Don’t Fret has running through his head almost continuously. On his big 2015 European Tour through Berlin, London, Warsaw, and Viavai, the Chicago-based Street Artist brings his customary wit and observation skills and attacks it all with gusto.

brooklyn-street-art-dont-fret-italy-web-1

Dont Fret. Italy 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

“In Warsaw I was invited by V9 Gallery to come work as artist in residence,” he says of the gradual climb into the gallery world that he is taking. The weather was cold and wet and not great for wheat-pasting so he painted a lot of stuff to stockpile for later. “I created a body of work of busts of influential Polish American artists and writers, including Chicago’s own Ed Paschke,” he says.

Dont Fret. Italy 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

In Italy Don’t Fret participated in the Viavai Projeect and did a piece on one of the last textile companies that has not been purchased by a Chinese company.

“I painted a mural of the employees and created two screen prints, one dealing with the issue of Italy’s future as they sell more and more of their infrastructure to China.” The fragments of a classical sculpture are scattered across a wall for the mural, perhaps reflecting the feelings of a once unified, proud and powerful textile industry.

Could be rolls of textiles, could be large tubes of encased meat. Dont Fret. Italy 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

The remainder of his European tour was spent painting a mural in London, followed by hitting the streets there and a brief stop in Berlin. The variety of images attests to the artists habit of observing and reacting to his environment. Depicting everyday people and signposts of history and modern life, you may see yourself and your silliness in them; but you don’t mind the gentle mockery because there is a certain respect or pathos present as well.

Dont Fret. Italy 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

If you were worried that you are not cool, Don’t Fret assures you that really, no one is. Yes, the most closely held rules of your societal relevance are subjected to his theories of relativity and sharp pointed social dissections, and don’t be surprised if his plaintive text and protruding faces call out some heavy truth – but they’ll leave you smiling as well. Like most good comedians, he keeps the sharpest barbs for himself and only infers utter hypocrisy in the lives and behaviors of others while giving them a tribute for hanging in there; humoring the passersby, as it were.

Dont Fret. Italy 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Dont Fret. London 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Fabulous luxury condos on the way?? Dont Fret. London 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Dont Fret. London 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Billboard takeover. Dont Fret. Warsaw 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Dont Fret does a tribute to Władysław T. Benda the Polish born illustratrator, graphic designer, mask maker, costume designer and muralist who moved to New York and became a US citizen, created very well known magazine covers and illustrations in the first half of the 20th Century. Warsaw 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Dont Fret. Warsaw 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Dont Fret. Berlin 2015. (photo © Dont Fret)

Labrona and Troy Lovegates Holding Up the Toronto Overpass

November 9, 2015 Artists

You ever wonder what’s going on under the overpass? People are holding it up, brother. That’s called people-powered infrastructure.

Labrona . Other. Toronto, Ontario. 2015 (photo © Labrona)

“I did the bottoms and painted on all four sides,” says Labrona of the pillars full of people who are holding the structure up with their arms extended overhead. It’s a huge project he and Troy Lovegates (aka Other). spearheaded in Toronto this summer with 20+ artists with a fusion of funding from the city.

His figures may bring to mind the Greco-Roman’s of pillars in your past, but these figures are decidedly warm and decidedly Labrona. Other’s figures are more accurately described as flying overhead of Labrona’s a swarming mass of figures interlocked and bending as if swept along by a river or hurricane. If water ever actually rose to that level most like Torotonians would be comported similarly.

Also in this collection of Summer ’15 works are images of collaborations Labrona did with Gawd at the Upfest in Sudbury, Ontario.

Labrona . Other. Toronto, Ontario. 2015 (photo © Labrona)

Labrona . Gawd. Sudbury, Ontario. 2015 (photo © Montreal)

Labrona . Gawd. Toronto, Ontario. 2015 (photo © Montreal)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.08.15

November 8, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring ADM LOD, Collagism, DAIN, Ernest Zacharevic, Hellbent, Jerk Face, Kremen, La Diamantaire, Martha Cooper, Miss Me, Mr. Toll, ND’A, Norm Kirby, Obey, Pyramid Oracle, Shalom Neuman, Shepard Fairey, Sinned, and Wing .

Top image above >>> Hellbent in New Jersey beaming in the autumn sunshine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sinned (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic’s fourth collaboration with Martha Cooper. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Lithuanian artist Ernest Zacharevic has completed his fourth collaboration with a photograph by Martha Cooper. Well executed in this New York location, Ernest is drawing inspiration from Ms. Cooper’s photographs of children at play on New York’s Lower East Side of Manhattan in the 1970s.

The original photograph of kids climbing a fence in an abandoned lot in NYC (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ernest Zacharevic’s fourth collaboration with Martha Cooper. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic’s fourth collaboration with Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kremen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Parisian Street Artist La Diamantaire visiting and adding a bit of glitter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

La Diamantaire (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A typical New York apartment with a somewhat packed roommate situation. Mr. Toll three D metaphor for life in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miss Me. Someone is not taking responsibility? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rent increase? Racist Donald Trump on SNL? iPhone OS update? ADM LOD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Where is my passport? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Prague artist DIAN with the Life is Porno Crew. Bullshit elephant. The GOP icons were added later and weren’t part of the original concept. The Bullshit sign was installed by fusion artist Shalom Neuman. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Norm Kirby (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NDA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collagism (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. November, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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!
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How & Nosm At The Center Of It All – In New Jersey (VIDEO)

November 7, 2015 Artists

Existentialist brothers How & Nosm brought their skillz to Mana Contemporary in Jersey City this week to knock out a huge new wall for their Urban Art Project, and you may ask yourself what is at the center of it all.

How & Nosm. At The Center Of It All. For Mana Contemporary. Jersey City, NJ 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Name-checking themes that recur throughout their body of work that loosely can be translated as “mankind f**ks everything”, these four-decade twin graff bros have been rocking new Op Art/Japanese graphics lately that elevate their multi-layered metaphorical narratives and set them sliding on vibrating tectonic plates.

It’s magnetic, euphoric, chaotic, curiously calming. People say that still waters run deep – but these guys will tell you that its the rough seas that shape your character. Count on the aerosol sailor boys to come bobbing to the top of storming turbulence each time, smiles on their faces and middle fingers in the air.

How & Nosm. At The Center Of It All. For Mana Contemporary. Jersey City, NJ 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Props to Jonathan LeVine Gallery and Mana Urban Art

BSA Film Friday: 11.06.15

November 6, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Your Tour Through Dismaland with Butterfly and Lars Pederson
2. “The Wave”, Shepard Fairey in Jersey City
3. DIAN and his Bullshit Elephant in Brooklyn

BSA Special Feature: Butterfly & Lars Pederson Give a Tour of Dismaland

It’s 30 minutes of sheer edutainment as the blogger/writer/documentarian named Butterfly gives a tour to the urban art curator Lars Pederson through Banksy’s Dismaland in cooperation with ARTE Creative TV.

The views are sadly hilarious, pure sarcasm and commentary on issues and behaviors. If Street Art is meant sometimes to hold a mirror to us as we pass by, this is a genuine funhouse of mirrors at every turn. Of course, this isn’t Street Art – its site-specific contemporary art – and many of the artists are street artists, but not all. Butterfly and Pederson discuss the installations as they encounter them and the viewer feels at though they have gotten a true sense of the wonderful world of Dismal.

We asked Butterfly about the video and her impressions with it and she tells us that the whole Dismaland has been overwhelming for her on many levels. “From the excitement of seeing new artworks by Banksy, to discovering new artists, to confronting depressing moral issues, to having fun – for me it’s his most ambitious project to date in scale and objectives and he nailed it like no other artist.”

“Banksy’s curating role is fantastic as everything fits together as a whole, and it also highlights that consciousness on consumerism, the environment, politics is happening internationally and that everybody needs to take action,” she says.

You’ll recall that Butterfly shared her images with BSA readers in August when the show opened and gave us her review at that time, but now in retrospect, does the show hold up? “Yes,” she says, “We’ve seen previously some politically engaged artists focusing on the environment, politics etcetera, but when it is all gathered together in Dismaland the impact is “Boom!”. The messages sadly need to be reiterated because we are inundated by information / disinformation and we tend to become oblivious.

The most impactful of the installations for her was the one depicting immigrants attempting to escape to a better part of the world and the tragedies of families broken apart, some killed in the process. “It was very moving and disturbing to see the “Mediterranean Ride’ installation,” she says, “the migrant boats with floating corpses in the sea where the public could navigate the boats, but the boats never reached the shore.”

Butterfly summarizes the event like this, “Being able to make contemporary art accessible to everyone in a family-friendly setting, with an interactive element where the audience is an integrated part into the show, where guests are entertained and at the same time everybody’s conscience is awakened on our society issues – it’s unprecedented.”

The Wave: Shepard Fairey in Jersey City

An unusual mural just completed by Shepard Fairey and team at the request of the mayor of Jersey City, this single image is intended to reflect the way of cultural change taking place in this city across the bay from Gotham. Can’t help but think of natural disasters though. Of course Japanese art history is referenced here, as well as surfing culture, so we shouldn’t interpret it as a harbinger of negative things automatically. Regardless, it is very effective and the placement is primo, no?

Brooklyn Bullshit Elephant in Brooklyn (Dian & Life is Porno street art animation)

“Dian is a street artist from European art label Life is Porno. In 2015, he decided to do a series of stop-frame stop frame animations around Europe and the world. This time he turned a building in Brooklyn, NYC into his animated reality. And grew an elephant from his mushrooms…

Whole animation was spray-painted, without any computer animation. The Bullshit sign was installed by a legendary fusion artist Shalom Neuman. “

Jim Prigoff Writes: “SprayCan Art” and MEETING OF STYLES in San Francisco

November 5, 2015 Artists

MEETING OF STYLES had a huge event celebrating the 28^th anniversary of the seminal book Spraycan Art by Henry Chalfant and James Prigoff in September in San Francisco. Organized by the community organization Mission Art 415, a weekend long celebration took place in the Mission District that drew thousands of visitors and many artists and graffiti writers, and the two authors of the book. Included in the events was a lot of live painting, panels, black book sharing, autographing, sticker swapping and general re-connecting as old friends got together to talk about and discuss graffiti culture.

Today we are proud to present one of the book’s authors, Jim Prigoff as he gives BSA readers some insight into the events from his perspective as well as his analysis of the scene then and now.

Henry Chalfant with Jim Prigoff with Lisa Brewer and Randolph Bowes, creators of Mission 415 (photo © Craig Potter)

……………………………

~ by Jim Prigoff

The MEETING OF STYLES is an international concept whose main organization is based in Germany and their events are supported in cities and countries throughout the world including the Spraycan Art event that was held in San Francisco on the weekend of September 18-20 this year.

Hundreds of writers came, many from international countries like Mexico, France, the UAE (Dubai), Columbia, Costa Rica, Germany, and Guam. They painted long alleys in the Mission District including on Lilac, Osage, Cypress, Lucky, Orange, Horace and in the El Capitan parking lot. The event tied into the 28^th Anniversary of Spraycan Art because it was the first book to show the emerging art form as it left the NYC subway tunnels and walls and traveled around the world. With over 200,000 copies sold over the years many writers have told Henry and I how the book changed their lives, and in some cases people have said that it even saved their lives.

Dare from San Jose was at the launch of the book in 1987. He came back to support his friend being honored. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Friday night there were awards and honors plus a panel discussion at the Mission Cultural Center as writers began to prep their walls and fill the air with the smell of spray paint. At the book signing, the graffiti writer Picasso came with a book he had signed in 1987 during the San Francisco introduction of the book. Carefully wrapped in a silk cloth, two new autographs were added.

The original spray cans used were developed for painting small areas with a broad spray and writers would rack caps from oven cleaners and other spraycan household products and adapt them to develop a different paint flow; even developing their own techniques to alter the paint flow. The paint was highly pressurized. At the time paint manufacturers recognized and were delighted with the expansion of their market, but for many years they pretended that this new demand did not exist.

Spraycan Art books ready to be signed by Jim and Henry. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Today many new brand names have entered the field with lower pressurized paint flow and specially developed paint content and are marketing directly to the writers. Caps of all varieties are marketed and sold and business is big.

Deity (photo © Jim Prigoff)

After 40 years in the streets of the world, how could I not reflect on what is taking place today as contrasted with the days when literally thousands of scrawling tags confronted me as I traveled through the streets of NYC hunting painted murals and community art. What a journey! Who could have conceived that a relatively small band of basically untrained, creative youth could be the start of a worldwide art form that became the most important art developed in the last 40 years? Greatly aided by the Internet, where posts of new creations can now be seen instantly, literally millions of practitioners have gravitated to the medium in every corner of the world.

There was no going back. The traditional name letters and characters have morphed over the years into a much broader concept labeled Street Art and also today is known as Urban Art as multi-story buildings are commissioned to be painted using expensive lift apparatus, writers travel the world and their canvases sell for major dollars at art auctions in Paris and beyond. A look at BSA is clear evidence how the imagery created by the spraycan has basically changed to a whole new image focus.

Twick . ICP (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Like the small trickle of water that begins giant rivers like the Amazon, the Nile and the Ganges, this art form called Graffiti Art, Spraycan Art, Aerosol Art, Street Art or Urban Art, has emerged from its very humble beginnings to become a giant tide that I believe will continue to develop and change in the coming years.

Will there still be some traditional letters and characters created? Yes, but the vision and creativity of youth will be the driver of the future.

~Jim Prigoff

Steel (Nekst RIP) (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Eon75 (photo © Jim Prigoff)

LORDS . Anemal (photo © Jim Prigoff)

El Diore (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Illegal Squad (photo © Jim Prigoff)

ARM (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Crayone, Eon 75, Deb, Jim Prigoff, Henry Chalfant, Mark Bode, and Cuba during a special panel discussion. (photo © Craig Potter)

Karl Addison Paints Pilot Seattle Wall for Next Year’s “artSEA”

November 4, 2015 Artists

artSEA and its producers are planning ahead. It’s ten months until the 10 day festival that will coincide with the Seattle Art Fair, but already artSEA is putting together their lineup of public artwork and artists.

Today we are showing you the first wall, a “pilot art work”, as he calls it, by the muralist Karl Addison. He tells us it is part of an on-going series rooted in intimate portraits of humanity – this one is called Messier. Karl says it focuses on the power of primary colors blue and red, “to build the composition’s figurative strength.”

Executive director of The World is Fun (TWIF), Amy Faulkner, the volunteering organization that produces artSEA, explains what will be happening in this Washington seaport city of 3.6 million next August 14-14, and who will be there so far.

“Each artist in the artist exchange will be creating one public artwork (mostly murals), one community exchange (which will consist of a talk, workshop, or nonprofit benefit), and will participate in a group exhibition which we are working with an outside gallery to curate and execute.” We don’t know the name of the gallery but so far artists confirmed are Rylsee, TWOONE, Cern, Alice Mizrachi, Jessie & Katey, Paola Delfin, David Walker, Addison Karl, ROA, and Andrea Wan.

http://www.artseaproject.org

NUART 2015 Box Set Boasts Jamie Reid, Martha Cooper, Futura, and More

November 3, 2015 Artists

A quick shout out today to a not-for-profit organization we work with in Norway called Nuart, whose Street Art festival is one of the best and which celebrated its 15^th year this September. As a fundraiser for the dedicated art collectors this year Nuart produced a collection of 15 plates in boxed set to fund-raise and to make a record of their evolutionary timeline.

Limiting the color range to red, black and white, the collection includes works by artists whom have crossed paths with and made important contributions to the graffiti/Street Art/urban art oeuvre – in some cases spanning decades.

The boxed set of plates is for the seriously committed collector and contains original signed works by Bortusk Leer (UK, Jamie Reid (UK, Dotdotdot (NO), Isaac Cordal (ES), Martha Cooper (US), Futura (US), Fra Biancoshock (IT), Martin Whatson (Handfinished) (NO), Icy & Sot (IR), Ella & Pitr (FR), Sandra Chevrier (CA), Dotmasters (UK), Mobstr (UK), M-City (Hand-sprayed original) (PL), and Pixel Pancho (IT).

NUART FESTIVAL 15TH ANNIVERSARY BOXSET: 2001 – 2015

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Futura. (photo courtesy of NUART)

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Mobstr. (photo courtesy of NUART)

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Martha Cooper. (photo courtesy of NUART)

NUART 2015 . Box Set. Sandra Chevrier (photo courtesy of NUART)

See more HERE

Visit www.nuartfestival.no for more details.
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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!
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Malik and “Note” Bring 17 Street Artists to a Swiss Prison: “4661m2”

November 2, 2015 Artists

It’s the ultimate captive audience for your artwork. That wasn’t the original intention for this Swiss prison mural project called 4661m² but it is one of the outcomes – and one of its myriad ironies.

Initiated by Aarau-based graffiti/street/fine artist Malik in May of 2012, the project eventually corralled 17 Street Artists, all but one from Switzerland, to enter the confines of the new high security Lenzburg Prison to paint murals on exterior walls, courtyards, hallways, and common areas.

“I was looking for a new challenge and a new and exciting project where I could show my art,” says Malik and while the 18 month project originated with his vision of getting a nice wall for himself, quickly the project grew far beyond his expectations to become an educational, sociological meditation on the penal system, the appropriate role of art within it, and our collective humanity.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artists featured on this page: Malik, Note, Benjamin Solt. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With help from partner artist Claude “Note” Luethi and funding from the “Lenzburg Prison Christmas Fund,” the successful mural program has also led to a short documentary this spring and the brand new release of a handsome tome by the two documenting a cross section of the images and the human experience as told by artists, prisoners, prison employees and even the director.

“The exterior wall is always also an interior wall. How we view it depends on our relative position,” says author and cultural scientist Johannes Binotto, in the forward to 4661m² – Art in Prison. The number is both the name of the project and the the quantity of concrete that the paintings eventually covered. In his examination of crime and punishment and our relationship to it, Binotto brilliantly uses the wall as metaphor from multiple perspectives by way of illuminating the ramifications of being inside or outside of any given wall throughout one’s life.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Ti Lain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For graffiti writers and Street Artists, the wall has been destination, a vessel of communication, but the historical examples Binotto examines fairly mutate the wall as obstruction, unifier, protector, divider. The theme continues throughout the well-photographed and documented book with artists and organizers reflecting on, reacting to, their experience and their art practice. One every present irony is that many of these street artists undoubtedly risked arrest for painting on various city walls in their earlier days.

Opening the many doors of the prison to an unsolicited offer by Malik, the Director of the prison, Marcel Ruf, says his knowledge of Street Art and artists was admittedly limited, but he knew the place needed some color. “The corridors and work spaces were judged rather negatively by the majority of the over 7,000 visitors that came to the prison open day in May,” he says in an interview, “with most finding the premises dreary and colorless.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Mizzo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The book gives ample space to opinions and experiences of the artists in stunning before/after shots of spaces and pieces that you can only see now if are a prisoner or employee. Even here the experiences express a range of perspectives. Most found the atmosphere constricted, oppressive, depressing. Each artist say that they felt a certain responsibility to the audience that they wouldn’t normally have and adjusted their work accordingly because these pieces will be looked upon, in some cases, for years, or the remainder of life.

Artist Daniel Zeltner says, “I thought long and hard about the mark I would like to leave on a prison, and about who would see it, how they would react and interpret it, how they would feel. It is difficult, because the painting would not only be seen by the prison guards, but also by the prisoners – I also wanted to create something I could be proud of. Therefore, it was important to me that I paint something that’s open and leaves room for interpretation.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Lain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ranging from abstract, figurative, and representational, to collage, illustration, and photo-realistic, the entire collection has something for many tastes, but we learn that the most critical audience was the staff of 180 who not only live with the art but the manage the daily affairs of the people who live in the facility. We learn that staff opinions on certain works are not unanimous but in general the replacement of monotonous grey is regarded as an improvement for the employees – and the new works provide visual signposts for navigating in a sometimes confusing maze of concrete.

One two page spread features the quotes from prisoners who have answered a survey about the project, the art, and the artists. Responses range from dismissive and critical, to suspicious, grateful, and laudatory.

The act of even considering the opinion of convicted criminals is offensive to the more penalizing among us, and this resistance to an art program of any sort is present throughout topics addressed and perhaps those avoided in the contributions here. These prisoners are likely serious offenders given their 23 hour restriction to their cells and opinions about their living conditions are surely contested.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Never Crew. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Benjamin Solt talks about briefly getting to know some of the prisoners and then questioning the wisdom of that decision. “I often chatted with them and we discussed the paintings. One of them was very open and approachable, and at some point I asked him why he was there. Just a few moments later I regretted asking.”

The austere modern brutalism of the new prison is heightened by its minimalist technological details of sensors, cameras, phone signal blocking, and iris scanning. Often participants reference disembodied voices within the compound comingling with bird songs and cow bells just outside the perimeter of the compound.

With varying degrees of discomfort and a respect for a sense of mission, the artists describe their art and their emotional and psychological responses to working in the compound. Daniel Zeltner, who worked with David Lucco on a collaborative mural in an exercise yard, describes redoing his piece nearly entirely because he was unsatisfied with the somewhat chaotic energy that he had infused it with.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artists featured on this page: Toast and Shark. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Onur contemplates his expected audience of primarily seniors when creating his mountain range and remarks that he felt troubled by the continuous surveillance, “I often felt watched. The knowledge that there were cameras everywhere was always at the back of my mind and as I usually work by myself in the studio this situation was quite confusing.”

Chromeo was reminded of his own previous stint in jail for doing illegal graffiti. “I found being locked in extremely difficult. Even though I wasn’t locked in this time, I struggled with the same oppressive feelings.”

For one recreation room, Malik and Note combined their painting efforts to create one continuous visual story that ignored the four planes and gives a view from the rooftops of an imaginary city at night that flows into day and subsequently spans a vast valley and stream. But bucolic scenes and sensibilities notwithstanding, their painting experience met one common description; “Intense.”

“We were surrounded by four solid concrete walls and were working in extreme heat, with continuous yakking and jeering from the inmates locked in the cells above us and all of that for four weeks, eight hours a day locked in the same room,” say the pair.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Mizzo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Among the descriptions of the exigencies of the prison and project, there are occasional sparks of institutional levity. Bruno Graber, Chief Director, shares his observations of the project and working with the artists and he inadvertently stumbles on a truism. “Seeing the artists at work was exciting. They seem to be night owls, early mornings were not really their thing.”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Malik. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ultimately this is a group show new works by 17 artists, but you will not be free to see them, even though you are free. The many ironies are summed up in one of Binotto’s recollections.

“The knowledge that the locked spaces within the prison are blocked from our collective gaze challenges our typical differentiation between captivity and freedom. This is like the joke where the mathematician solves the task of fencing in a herd of sheep not by herding the animals together but rather by putting up the small fence around himself and then declaring ‘I define myself to be on the outside.’”

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Daniel Zeltner. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In fact 4661m² plays with the definitions of internal and external space so well that it throws both into question. You may reassess the role of artists, particularly street artists, in the dialogue they bring to public space as we rush from from one task to another, sometimes just keeping our heads above water.

“I always took a deep breath as I exited through the revolving door,” says Note, “I was free again – at least until what felt like five seconds later, when my iPhone began informing me of all the obligations I’d failed to meet.”

The project 4661m² – Art in Prison was curated by Malik and Claude “Note” Luethi, and involved artists including: Malik, Note, Onur, Chromeo, Shark, Ata Bozaci, Robert Proch, Nevercrew, Mizzo, Daniel Zeltner, David Monllor, Benjamin Solt, Lain, Ti, and Sarah Parsons.

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Onur. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Note. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Robert Proch. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: David Monllor. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Sarah Parsons. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4661m² Art In Prison . Malik . Claude Luethi. Niggli Imprint. Zurich. Artist featured on this page: Chromeo. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

www.4661m2.com

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This article is also published in The Huffington Post

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