ABOVE Goes Below for His Largest Mural Ever

October 22, 2015 Artists

To see ABOVE you will have to go way down below. Like near the bottom tip of Africa. South. Africa.

Above for the City Of Gold Urban Arts Festival. Johannesburg, South Africa. October 2015. (photo © Cale Waddacor)

That’s where street artist ABOVE just completed this new upward pointing mural for the City of Gold Festival in Jeppestown. It is entitled “Incognito” much like the California man himself, featuring a layered geometry of the symbol he has called his own since on the streets around the world for this century.

ABOVE tells us it is his largest mural to date, at 33 meters by 17 meters. “I think I used over twenty different colors and it took me six full days to paint it.” You may see some guy hanging around the mural in dark sunglasses trying to looking cool – but don’t bother to look for Mr. Incognito himself. He’s already on to his next adventure somewhere in Israel.

Above for the City Of Gold Urban Arts Festival. Johannesburg, South Africa. October 2015. (photo © Cale Waddacor)

Click the link below for more on City Of Gold:

http://www.cityofgoldfestival.co.za/

“Monument Art” Murals Sing of El Barrio in 2015

October 21, 2015 Artists

Some of these new murals are definitely monumental. As are some of the social ills addressed by themes such as immigration and the world refugee crisis. With a dozen international artists painting over the last two weeks, the debut show of the Monument Art Project in the New York neighborhoods of El Barrio, East Harlem and the South Bronx, some logistics have been equally immense, but finally the job is complete and people are talking about the new works they watched being painted.

Ever. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Not quite street art and not quite your local community mural, these finished opus works are more poetic than activist, more visionary than purely aesthetic; occupying a modern mid-way between those archetypes of public art we call the “New Muralism”.

Following on the success of the Los Muros Hablan festival staged a couple of years ago in San Juan, Puerto Rico and New York, organizers Jose Morales and Celso González expand their international reach and bring it back home with the stalwart and vehement support of New York City Council Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito.

Ever. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Argentina, Belgium, Los Angeles, Mexico, Puerto Rico, South Africa – an admirable list of participants for a festival this size. What this dispersed program has that many recent commercial “Street Art” festivals have been lacking is a cognition of community, a connection– however refracted – to the people who are going to live with it. MonumentArt is aiming to engage the community with images and themes that resonate with many of the members – perhaps sparking conversations among chance encounters.

Here El Mac channels his influences of Caravaggio and Chicano culture to collaborate with Cero on a portrait evocative of haloed church icons. This serious and thoughtful figure rising high above everyone’s head is the well known Nuyorican writer Nicholasa Mohr, who has told many stories of Puerto Rican women, their travails and ascendency in the Bronx and El Barrio.

Ever. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Notably Viajero’s boy in a handmade boat of newspaper pages addresses the dangerous figurative and literal waters that refugees are facing today, including children. With his back turned to us and his distrustful glance over the shoulder he may be questioning our commitment to saving those poor and needy in country that congratulates itself for its religious roots.

While quite different stylistically the mural reminds us of a 3-D installation done by Lituanian street artist Ernest Zacharevic in Norway’s Nuart Festival just last month.

Ever. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The topic of immigration is hammered home by Mexican muralist Sego as well as he strips away the skin of the Statue of Liberty, as if in an attempt to see what lies beneath that oxidized copper exterior in New York harbor symbolizing “welcome”. Look again and see the points of her famous crown are transmuted into a feathered headdress, similar to those of the continents’ original citizens. In a nation of immigrants, New York’s multitude of populations typify the immigrant life and their plight is intrinsically tied to our history.

The quality of work is here, as is the articulation of ideas and themes. Curated thoughtfully and selected carefully, the MonumentArt collection gives back to the community it is nested within.

Argentinian artist Ever appropriated local kids as inspiration along with photos taken by Martha Cooper of immigrants in the 1990s and themes related to Puerto Rican independence and the US occupation of the island of Vieques. His signature kaleidoscope visions and voices pile and wind around the head like folkloric waves of energy.

Ever. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But even working directly with the community, Ever tells us that things don’t go as smoothly as you might expect. He also discusses how intrinsic the topic of immigration is to his piece and to the story of New York.

Brooklyn Street Art: The top figure on your mural is of boy. Can you tell us who he is?
EVER: This is funny. I was here doing some research and these kids were playing basketball on the courts and I saw one of them and he caught my attention and I decided to approach him. It was kind of hard for me since I’m not from here and I didn’t think I’d have the right words to talk to him so I was a bit nervous.

I told him my pitch and his first reaction was “No I don’t want you to take my picture”. So it was hard for me because he was the one I wanted to paint on the wall. And he told me he didn’t want to be a part of it. So I said cool. But when his friends, one by one came forward and told me that they would like to do it and got excited he then at that moment he changed his mind and told me he wanted to do it.

Ever. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

I was very happy but when I told him he had to pose of a photo first he said, “OK but take only three pictures”. I said to myself, ‘Come on you are like Madonna.” Finally he posed and I got my photo.

Then for the other kids I went to Martha Cooper’s studio to do some more research on East Harlem and to find more photos related to the neighborhood. The other two figures are from photos Martha Cooper took in the 80’s and 90’s in El Barrio. One was taken during a Latin-American parade more than 20 years ago.

Faith 47. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When I was on the plane coming here I had an idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to talk about the issue of immigration in my piece. For me is insane that in the 21st Century we are still having problems with immigration. I’m a product of immigration. My parents came to Argentina from Spain. Most cities in most nations are created by immigrants. So it is crazy that there are still some people who see immigrants like the enemy. They are talking about people who live next to them, people who are their neighbors. So we must accept immigration as a reality of all nations and New York is a huge example of different cultures living together without big problems. In New York one can breath freedom. And that’s the subject I wanted to approach.

We all move to different places all the time. As humans it is in our nature to be nomads. When we look up at the sky we see the birds flying around without papers, without limits. And we humans we have to be limited to a piece of paper that determines if we are allowed in or not.

Faith 47. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These three figures on this mural represent the future of this country: The next generation. It is absurd to hear politicians when they talk about immigration and they make the immigrants their enemies. This is a beautiful country and for the most part people who come here are trying to find a better future. Furthermore I think that most people dream of someday being able to go back to their countries of origin.

I was recently in Tijuana and I noticed two individuals having a conversation but they were separated by this fence, this wall. You could see the two families on two different sides of the fence and it was something that made a big impression on me.

Luis R. Vidal. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SEGO. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Viajero. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Mac and Cero. Detail. Collaboration on this Mosaic and paint portrait of poet Nicholasa Mohr. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Mac. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CERO. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Mac and Cero. Collaboration on this portrait of poet Nicholasa Mohr. The mosaic portion was done by Cero and the portrait by El Mac. Monument Art Project 2015. El Barrio, East Harlem, NYC. (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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This article is also published in The Huffington Post.

A Tidal Wave of Lodz Reborn: “Lodz Murals” Distinguishes Polish City

October 20, 2015 Artists, Interview

New work from DalEast, Borondo, Alexis Diaz

“My aim is to create a permanent exhibition of great art in the public space of Lodz,” says Michał Bieżyński, founder of Lodz Murals in the Polish city of the same name. It is highly likely he will after six years curating Galeria Urban Forms, for which BSA has been a media partner. Since 2009 Bieżyński has been selecting and organizing artists from around the world to create almost 45 murals throughout the city for permanent exhibition by people like Os Gemeos, Aryz, Roa, Vhils, M-City, Etam Cru, Inti, Remed, Daleast, Sat One, Kenor, 3ttman, and Nunca to mention just a few.

Dal East. Lodz Murals. Lodz, Poland. October 2015. (photo © Maciej Stempij)

“Now I don’t want to create any new festival, any new brand – just want to keep the name as simple as possible,” he says of Lodz Murals, an ongoing program that functions year round rather than focusing specifically on a short-term festival. With all responsibilities for organizing, promoting, and working with city and private business under one roof, Michał says that his vision is to create the same sort of iconic image of Lodz with murals as Paris with the Eiffel Tower.

“I would like that people on the global scale would think of Lodz as a city with exceptional public art,” he says grandly while acknowledging that public art shines in many other cities as well. “When you are thinking about public art, one of the first places that you will see in your mind’s eye is Lodz. Of course, comparing the mural project to the one of the most important “pearls” of modern architecture is pure overstatement, but I would like to create this type of mechanism, this type of association.”

Dal East. Lodz Murals. Lodz, Poland. October 2015. (photo © Maciej Stempij)

And he is well on his way with nearly year-round tours of the city’s existing murals by various organizations and more artists currently painting and en route. Is he still committed to inviting top talent artists to Lodz regardless of their fame?

“Yes of course, for me the quality of art is the most important,” he says. “Last year I invited Morik, a great artist from Russia and he was not that famous. His art is just really high-quality, it is as simple as that.” He is thinking in terms of programs – experimental and classical among the themes.

Dal East. Lodz Murals. Lodz, Poland. October 2015. (photo © Maciej Stempij)

“This year we are doing an amazing project with Cekas – the sculptor from Wroclaw, Poland. He will install almost 1500 metal pieces to the surface of the wall, creating a permanent installation that will work with the sun and it will change depending on the angle of the sunbeams. It’s still something on the wall, but it’s a step forward.”

In the mean time he is in the middle of more pieces and artists and walls that he hopes will become iconic in a Lodz sort of way. “I’ve got the plan, I’ve started to talk with some artists, I’m trying to do my best. Now, we’ve just finished the piece with Daleast (China), Alexis Diaz (Puerto Rico) and Borondo (Spain). I’m waiting for Cekas and Agostino Iacurci (Italy) and I’m focused to organize the pieces with them.”

Borondo. Lodz Murals. Lodz, Poland. October 2015. (photo © Maciej Stempij)

Alexis Diaz. Lodz Murals. Lodz, Poland. October 2015. (photo © Maciej Stempij)

For more on Lodz Murals:

www.facebook.com/lodzmurals

https://instagram.com/lodzmurals

Boijeot & Renauld: Update #3 (9th Street and Broadway)

October 19, 2015 Artists

Today completes the third weekend in a row that French public performance artists have invited you over for coffee on Broadway in New Yorks busiest borough. Boijeot, Renauld and their trusty photographer Clement just awoke from one of their coldest nights (36° F, 3° C) in their handmade pine beds on the Great White Way.

Stopping by to carve some early Halloween jack-o-lanterns, we saw their noses were red and tongues a little less chatty as they sat at the wooden table recounting the days/weeks events here, just around the corner from Astor Place barbers. As we talked and traded stories, one by one they each slipped away to go to a nearby gym to take a hot shower and returned smiling and content.

Boijeot & Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The last week brought them to Times Square, Herald Square, Union Square – each uniquely different and overrun with hundred-a-minute crowds, creating a potherous plume of activity swarming around them as they hang out and have coffee unfettered.

And the questions keep coming: “Is this a demonstration?”, “Are you guys selling this furniture? Who made it?”, and “Can I ask you what this is all about?”. Fatigue has begun to manifest and even though they probably explain their project in their sleep as cars whiz by at night, Sabastian looks somewhat mournfully at us to see if we will jump in with the answer this time. “These are two French artists doing a public interactive performance on Broadway. They have been traveling south on Broadway five blocks at a time for 23 days. You are welcome to come have a seat at the table if you like.”

Boijeot & Renauld getting a helpful hand from good Samaritans. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

They talk about an interview they did here with a reporter from Le Monde, about a surprise visit from two of their best friends from back home in Nancy who walked up and tapped them on the shoulder. They reminisce about all the people who have happily helped carry the many pieces of furniture a few blocks with them. They marvel about the variety of prices of tobacco in New York with a security guard who walks by to check out the pumpkin carving. “Yo, these (cigar) prices are Manhattan prices man. I have my girl from down south bring me my cigars.” He brandishes a box of ivory plastic tipped medium sized brown cigars. “Depends on the neighborhood you are in – these can run you 8,9 dollars. These right here are 5 across the street.”

As they head toward Houston Street today they know soon they will be Soho and then Chinatown. By Saturday night it will be Battery Park if all goes well. You still have time this week to stop by for a cup of coffee and a chat.

Boijeot & Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.18.15

October 18, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Groovin’ on a Sunday afternoon….

This week was full of great Street Art stories – the main one everyone was talking about was fake TV graffiti by the Egyptian Street Artists who hacked the propagandic “Homeland” drama, in the process revealing the producers’ utter xenophobia by merely writing critical messages in Arabic – the language of the land the show was supposedly so expertly depicting. No one from the show caught it before it aired.

Elsewhere JR thinks Street Art might change the world, Retna scored the cover of the new Justin Beiber album, and the French performance artists Boijeot Renauld were profiled on the Today show and in The New York Times. This week they made it through Times Square and are somewhere just below Union Square now – living on Broadway en route to Battery Park by the end of their sojourn next weekend. Speaking of Times Square don’t miss the very cool Juxtapoz news stand on display right now in the middle of the Selfie-Stick Forest. Today is the last day for that installation.

You may also like to check out this piece we did for a car rental site about non-vandalizing Street Art

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring #364xLos43, Apple on Pictures, Damien Mitchell, Grotesk, Skeindreamz, LoSbieco, Momo, Paul Richard, Pupo Bibbito, Pyramid Oracle, Totoro, and Wane.

Top image above >>>#365xLos43 “Their Pain Is Our Pain, Ours is Their Outrage As Well” refers to the 43 Mexican students kidnapped and killed one year ago. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wane (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Juxtapoz T.SQ Newsstand designed by Kimou “Grotesk” Meyer. This project is in conjunction with Times Square Arts. Today is the last day to visit the stand. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cat with mouse. Artist Unknown. Pamplona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Skein Dreamz makes a crochet portrait of Totoro. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apple On Pictures (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crazy Eye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MOMO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pupo Bibbito and LoSbieco painted this piece in an abandoned factory in Reggio Emilia, Italy. This factory produced the R60 tractor. The factory was fully operating from 1904 through 2008. In October 8, 1950 workers occupied the factory to protest the imminent dismissal of 2100 workers. The artists wanted to pay tribute to that fight for workers rights with this mural. (photo © Pupo Bibbito)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paul Richard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. West Village, NYC. October 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skount, Laguna and Cerezo and Their Delusions of Quixote

October 17, 2015 Artists

“When life itself seems lunatic, who knows where madness lies? Perhaps to be too practical is madness. To surrender dreams — this may be madness. Too much sanity may be madness — and maddest of all: to see life as it is, and not as it should be!”
― Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra, Don Quixote

A three man mastery of madness here for you to enjoy from Barcelona with this delusional tribute to Don Quixote by folk spiritualist Skount and and his expressionist friends Laguna and Emilio Cerezo. Onward, to where we cannot know.

brooklyn-street-art-skount-laguna-emilio-cerezo-barcelona-10-15-web-2

Skount . Laguna . Emilio Cerezo Barcelona, Spain. October 2015. (photo © Skount)

Skount . Laguna . Emilio Cerezo Barcelona, Spain. October 2015. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Skount)

BSA Film Friday: 10.16.15

October 16, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Welcome To America Owen Dippie by Erin Dippie
2. Covert To Overt: Photography of Obey Giant by Jon Furlong
3. Taken By Storm: The Art Of Storm Thorgerson And Hipgnosis Trailer
4. Sobecksis Mural “Motion” in Mannheim

BSA Special Feature: Welcome To America Owen Dippie by Erin Dippie

A nice homemade video this week by New Zealand painter Owen Dippie’s talented wife Erin, who documented his trip to New York and LA. Without the hype this gives you an idea what it is like to be a tourist here, and it is good to see the experience through the eyes of a loving partner.

Covert To Overt: Photography of Obey Giant by Jon Furlong

A unique way of promoting a book and a photographer, this video introduces us to Jon Furlong, who has been trailing Shepard Fairey for about a decade and has become a trusted and valued member of the team.

Taken By Storm: The Art Of Storm Thorgerson And Hipgnosis Trailer

Commonly called “The Best Album Designer in the World”, Storm Thorgerson was the guy most responsible for many teens twisted and sublime view of the world before video was the normal accompaniment for popular rock music. These artists all had many album covers conceived and executed by Storm over roughly five decades: Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, Nik Kershaw, Black Sabbath, Scorpions, Peter Gabriel, Genesis, Al Stewart, Europe, Catherine Wheel, Bruce Dickinson, Dream Theater, Anthrax, The Cranberries, The Mars Volta, Muse, The Alan Parsons Project.

Sobecksis Mural “Motion” in Mannheim

In September in Mannheim the artist duo SOBEKCIS put up a new wall in this “City of Music” as part of the Stadt.Wand.Kunst Project.

Swoon and 20,000 New Roof Tiles: “Braddock Tiles” Project Takes Off

October 15, 2015 Artists

We’re all about this project.

Street Artist Swoon and many friends and volunteers are getting this huge community art project in full swing and it is more than just a feel-good project. This impacts people first-hand and builds something that can house a community.

And you can support it right now.

The Braddock Tiles project – designing and making 20,000 tiles to fix this old church and make it into a community center is underway and you can be a part of it.

“As artists who spend our lives attempting to build spaces that induce wonder and bring people joy, we felt we were the right people to work together with friends and neighbors in North Braddock to help invent a new life for the building. Our goal is to reopen this building as a living work of art that is in service to it’s neighborhood. To do this, the first thing we need is a new roof.”

Simple enough! You get great swag too. Everybody is jumping on this — your turn.

Check out the KICKSTARTER Campaign and Get Amazing Swoon and Braddock Tiles stuff.

Thank you for your support.

Off the Path: Street Art & Graff in An Old Military Compound in Sweden

October 14, 2015 Artists

Street Art festivals are popping up like mushrooms across the globe, bringing murals, not street art, to cities primarily as a means of injecting life and culture into a community or business district. When we travel to see these walls we also like to check out the local organic spots off the beaten path where real street art and graffiti can run wild.

Shai Dahan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You go exploring partly out of respect for the roots of this rapidly evolving art practice – It was the graffiti writers, Situationists, radical hippie students, culture jammers, political anarchists and all manner of freewill installationists who brought us to this moment where cities are almost pleading for murals.

You also hike into tunnels, abandoned lots, underpasses, and neglected former industrial sectors because that is where you know the scene will be alive with experimentation, the spark of discovery, and a splash of old-school in-your-face rebellion without censorship.

Shai Dahan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For teens and 20-somethings of a certain disposition there’s nothing like grabbing some cans on a sunny Saturday and slaughtering a burned out bus with paint. Even better if its in the middle of a decommissioned military training site used by testosterone raging paintballers with guns full of color ducking behind concrete facades in camouflage fatigues. Amid the clouds of aerosol and bonfire smoke you find these paintings in the ruins, the remaining signs of an un-wasted youth.

According to locals people all the way from Stockholm and Gothenburg travel to paint at this 18,500 square meter former training facility for the Swedish armed forces. It’s built to mimic a real city to practice urban warfare training with rudimentary buildings, marked streets, and below ground tunnels to crawl though. No one remembers when it was first built but it was closed in 1989, left for hikers, berry pickers, and x-urban explorers to discover.

Shai Dahan . DAWG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The traces of bonfires most likely are from paint ballers having a barbecue during their games,” says one of our guides named Anders, “or possibly they’re for heating their hands during winter games.” Either way the aerosol tags, characters, paintings, and occasional wheatpastes are still popping up and fresh ones ride alongside some now decades old.

So nevermind the prickers and the poison ivy and take a hike off the path and see some free-range artworks in their naturally unnatural environs – directly to you from Sweden.

Simple (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ollio . MSCR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SMUH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

S Camilla E Bostrom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAWG (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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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Nemo’s Hangs Us Out to Dry “Without Name” in Italy

October 13, 2015 Artists

Nemo’s is hanging us all out to dry with his newest mural on a multi-story factory wall in Messina, Italy that features his familiar hapless chaps clipped to a clothesline, sans clothes.

His critique is of a shallow and shock-addicted press and media that exaggerates and simplifies the suffering, the unmitigated tragedy of people – sometimes for our comfort.

His focus is on immigrants escaping oppression who have drowned and the pseudo-compassion of contemporary news coverage and grand-standing politicians that feed xenophobia. He says we are overlooking the complete desperation of an escaping individual that causes them to take such risk, only to be swallowed in a watery death due to unseaworthy vessels.

“I’m depicting an insane state imbued with selfishness, where the deaths of the sea are overshadowed by sterile discussions on how migrants can create much discomfort to our conditions,” he says. Here he points to us behaving as outsiders, perhaps guilty of xenophobia, willing to flatten a tragedy of its dimension in order to keep the “other” at arms length, distancing ourselves from any responsibility.

“With those four naked bodies I am representing, through a surreal metaphor, the total and absurd unconsciousness that newspapers and diplomacy use for talk about the theme of the deaths in the sea.

In the tragedy of death, the worst and selfish aspects of our society, with banal and thoughtless actions, take the bodies from the sea and hang them out like clothes to dry. It is as if the problem of these people is to be wet and not to be drowned.”

His method is a dark comedy, depicting these very similar looking guys in an unlikely situation. His attached message may not be clear to the average unlooker, but it may pique their curiosity to inquire what NemO’s newest piece is about.

Ernest Zacharevic Painting Martha Cooper in Brooklyn

October 12, 2015 Artists

If you are looking for a neighborhood that is analogous to what the Lower East Side of Manhattan was like in the 1970s, you have to go to the outer part of the outer boroughs because very few working class everyday people can afford to live on the island anymore. When photographer Martha Cooper was shooting with black and white film in those days the LES was more or less a bombed-out scene of urban abandonment and municipal decay.

Drugs were prevalent, so were gangs, police were not. Nor were jobs, opportunities or parks that kids could safely play in. Cooper was interested in capturing the games that kids devised, sometimes out of the most common items that were available – like giving a ride to your brother by commandeering his stroller around the sidewalk at top speed.

Lithuanian Street Artist Ernest Zacharevic is sitting cross-legged on a sidewalk in Bushwick, a neighborhood in Brooklyn that is rapidly changing – at least that’s what real estate interests have banked on. On a typical weekday you will see many families struggling to keep the bills paid, more carefully selecting food and household items from the stores along Broadway and Graham Avenue and Metropolitan than in previous years – many just balancing their payments, others falling behind. Here on a graffiti tagged wall Zacharevic is painting with brushes to bring Cooper’s 37 year old photo from Manhattan to life in Brooklyn.

As he has done in Malaysia principally and in selected other cities in Europe, Zacharevic is creating street art that includes a sculptural aspect that pops his portraits out from the wall, bringing the street scene closer to you, somehow closer to life. The image of children at play is integrated with its surroundings, a scene that may be repeated in the flesh here on the sidewalk while you watch him carefully checking his source image and replicating with brush.

In this second of three installations he is creating in New York using Cooper’s photos, Ernest is an unassuming figure and completely focused on his work as the car horns honk, brakes squeal, and the elevated train rumbles inelegantly overhead. In fact, most people walk by without taking note of his work and few stop to ask a question, so integrated is his small scene with the surroundings.

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.11.15

October 11, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 2:12, Boxhead, Buff Monster, bunny M, City Kitty, drscO, Fanakapan, Haculla, Icy & Sot, Jilly Ballistic, Jorit Agoch, Lungebox, Miishab, Myth, REVS, Stikman, Voxx, WA, and What Will You Leave Behind.

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