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.

Ernest Zacharevic x Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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.

Ernest Zacharevic x Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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.

Ernest Zacharevic x Martha Cooper. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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.

Top image above >>>Icy & Sot for #NotACrime Campaign. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jorit Agoch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2:12 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fanakapan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Voxx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Haculla finds the whole thing funny. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REVS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As Putin’s Russia co-bombs Syria with the US, someone is assessing the politics. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty with friends Miishab and Lungebox. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

drsc0 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How dare you, Myth? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boxhead (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AW (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Sky Landscape. Manhattan. 2105 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze Does a “Paix” Piece in Port Au Prince, Haiti

October 10, 2015 Artists

New York graffiti artist DAZE just got back from Haiti where he was inaugurating a mural project for The Academy of Peace and Justice in Port Au Prince, Haiti. Along another admired and well-revered New York graffiti artist KET, DAZE worked with local students to create some new pieces for a huge new project spearheaded by pop artist and APJ advisory board member, Peter Tunney, who hopes to launch it as the “Haiti Walls” project.

Daze (photo © Daze)

“The design that I came up with doesn’t deal with peace in a political or military sense, but is more about inner peace,” DAZE tells us. “I wanted to create something that would be offering a kind of inner peace in order to achieve further goals.”

Daze (photo © Daze)

In his original design (above) for the huge piece DAZE included an area for students to add their own voice, enabling this school of nearly 3,000 students on 100% scholarship to take ownership of the artwork as well. Not only did students paint, they also played music for the team just in time for the beginning of the school year.

Taking inspiration from the letter forms, patterns, and color palette used in signage and everyday street life, DAZE incorporated a gently held and supported “PAIX” (peace) to the streets as well.

Daze. Selfie. (photo © Daze)

“During my time in Haiti I did see many examples of extreme poverty that were hard to bear,’ DAZE says of his daily explorations while there. “A lot of the students I worked with came from an area called ‘Cite de Soliel” which is the largest slum in Haiti. I also saw many examples of the 2010 earthquake that remained. Having said that, I saw many examples of a resilience, resourcefulness, and creativity that could only be found there. The Hatian people were kind, generous and open to my presence there. The cultural creativity there is incredible. Haiti is a really beautiful country that I encourage people to experience firsthand.”

A lot of horse power in the Puissance Devine bus! Daze. Haiti bus. (photo © Daze)

Daze. Market (photo © Daze)

KET (photo © Daze)

Daze . KET (photo © Daze)

Daze (photo © Daze)

Daze. Students (photo © Daze)

Daze. Students group shot. (photo © Daze)

Landscape (photo © Daze)

Daze. CLICK on photo to enlarge. (photo © Daze)

BSA Film Friday: 10.09.15

October 9, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Dale Grimshaw Heroically Celtic in Camden, London.
2. Zalez Surfs and Stencils a Goodbye to Summer in France.
3. Hama Woods and “Children of the Forest”
4. Zlatan as Jumping Jack back in His hometown Malmö

BSA Special Feature: Dale Grimshaw Heroically Celtic in Camden, London.

“It’s always what I end up doing. It’s always kind of concerned around the human form and flesh and the face in a portrait. It is very theatric in a way but it’s the very dramatic lighting. It’s a reference to European figurative painting that I’ve always liked anyway.”

Zalez Surfs and Stencils a Goodbye to Summer in France.

The French west coast is strikingly similar to the US west coast in this ode to our fading friend summer. Interesting how the chillax Ibiza soundtrack of wistful longing smoothly integrate ocean view longshots, skateboarding, surfing, and the occasional spraying of stencils on concrete into the same milieu.

Hama Woods and “Children of the Forest”

Straight from the Smaabyen Festival 2015 in Flekkefjord Norway here is a skewed view of distribution of resources, err, strawberries. The mural by Hama Woods features a giant rabbit being fed by small frogs, inspired by a popular youngster’s tale called “Children of the Forest” by Elsa Beskow.

Zlatan as Jumping Jack back in His hometown Malmö

This jumping jack appeared outside of Malmö Stadium at a recent Wednesday night game. Look a little closer and you may recognize Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s face – it’s his hometown afterall. The marionette-like footballer actually works too. So far the artist remains anonymous.

Fanakapan Bubble Letters Flying High in Bushwick, BK

October 8, 2015 Artists

The UK’s Fanakapan popped by Brooklyn for some balloon lettered mural painting recently, something he has been doing for about five years — when not painting cakes, sweets, and phallic shaped balloon creatures that spell out your name or initials. He calls his signature metal work a bit of nostalgia on acid and people have been dropping whatever he’s giving out in Jersey City and at The Bushwick Collective. He’s floated off to Texas but you can still check out the sound of the balloon underground here in BK.

Fanakapan. The Bushwick Collective. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boijeot + Renauld Update : Rain, Wind, & Inquisitive Upper West Side

October 7, 2015 Artists

The French duo Boijeot & Renauld have logged one full week and three days of crossing Manhattan via Broadway. As you know they are embarking on an ambitious project where they intend to cross Manhattan with their living room, breakfast room and bedroom in tow. They started in Harlem on 125th Street and the last time we caught up with them they were moving down the Upper West Side and running into the inquisition of friendly and sometimes oddly parochial locals.

The first few days they enjoyed typical NYC Autumn weather with crisp air and sunny days. Then things turned for the worse with the prickly hurricane season wrecking havoc somewhere offshore in The Atlantic bringing heavy winds and downpours.

Boijeot . Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“One night we woke up and right before our eyes we experienced a cascade of water falling down from our plastic tarp. The water was taking the edges of the mattress and everything was so soaked that we used our photographer friend as a pillow, ” says Laurent Beijot.

Sebastien, Laurent and photographer Clement are keeping their spirits high despite the cold, the rain and the wind. New Yorkers are their fuel, their source of warmth and entertainment. They recently have been regaled with an impromptu recital on the street composed of two opera singers and one young violinist. As the singers and the musician performed on the street for the artists and their street guests a rather large crowd of spectators formed around their encampment for a quintessential New York Minute.

Boijeot . Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So far the love affair between the artists and the Upper West Side denizens continue with multiple offering of generosity: Food, well wishes, bathrooms and showers and many gestures of gratitude. “This is the first crossing ever where we have been told by so many passersby ‘Thank you for doing this’. It hasn’t just happened once or twice but all the time and we are floored with how nice New Yorkers are. When we did this in Berlin and in Paris almost no one stopped to offer any support let alone say thank you to us,” says Sebastian.

Boijeot . Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There were a couple of occasions when anxious merchants told them to move away from their storefronts and the police were called. Upon further inspection the police deemed the artists free of culpability or guilt of trespassing or blocking traffic and allowed them stay.

When we were visiting with them we witnessed several pedestrians stopping by to inquire about their presence on the street with so much furniture. The questions ranged from “Are you selling these furniture?” to “I give up! Can you tell me what’s going on here?” Unfazed, the artists responded to each questions with candor, humor and enthusiasm. The inquisitors usually seemed satisfied with their answers and wished them good luck.

Boijeot . Renauld (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boijeot & Renauld: Crossing Manhattan With Your Living Room on the Sidewalk

Leanna Valente: “Instant Art Exposure” 1000’s of Instant Photos of NYC Graff/Street Artists

October 6, 2015 Artists

Today we want to shout out a photographer on the street and to ask you to support the KICKSTARTER for Leanna Valente’s very first book project.

YOUR CHANCE TO GET ART
and support her KICKSTARTER
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/instantartexposure/instant-art-exposure-by-leanna-valente/description

Pledge Leanna’s Kickstarter Right Now to get T-Shirts, Prints, and Hand Painted Originals from NYC and International Graffitti and Street Art names like

BINHO, TATS CRU, NICER, BIO, JOHN “CRASH” MATOS, LUIS ‘ZIMAD’ LAMBOY, LENNY ACHAN, JERMZ & TOPAZ, CHRIS RWK, SOLUS, SEAN LUGO 9, DAMIEN MITCHELL, ATOMIK, ICY AND SOT, KING BEE, JOE IURATO.

Leanna Valente. Insta with Jef Aerosol. (photo © Leanna Valente)

Leanna Valente’s book project will feature images from 1,000 PLUS instant photos she’s taken on the Streets of New York with some of the best on NY Streets today.

She helps artists get their work seen, now artists are helping her by giving this incredible collection of T-Shirts, Prints, and Hand Painted Original Artworks.

You can help get this book published by pledging her Kickstarter and scoring a cool piece all for yourself!

Leanna Valente. Insta with Kobra. (photo © Leanna Valente)

Leanna Valente. Insta with Futura. (photo © Leanna Valente)

Leanna Valente. Insta with Daze. (photo © Leanna Valente)

“Instant Art Exposure” Book – Author/Photographer

Urban Arts Publish Group, Inc.

Instagram: @leannav / #InstantArtExposure

Get Cool T-Shirts, Prints, and Original Hand-Painted Artworks! KickStarter:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/instantartexposure/instant-art-exposure-by-leanna–valente?ref=nav_search

Our Moment of Need: Herakut in Rome

October 5, 2015 Artists

Herakut is in Rome for their current exhibition with Galeria Varsi, “Santa Miseria”. A quote they use on the gallery wall is also repeated here on the exterior wall of a building for this new mural in Tor Pignattare . The duo like to collect personal stories and re-tell the moment they were relayed to them.

In this case a powerful sentiment, an observation that the human response to the suffering of another is often immediate and even overwhelming – but not always, and not sustained. We reflect on this observation drawn from another and appreciate that Herakut brings it to the fore.

Herakut. Rome, Italy. September 2015. (photo © BlindEye Factory)

“Each individual is portrayed with the exact gaze and breath of the instant in which they narrate their experiences to the artists. This powerful moment of interaction gives viewers the chance to feel the strength of those who in life have learned to move on, to overcome their difficulties and to start living again,” says the show description.

The texts on the mural wall read;

“In our moment of need we rely on the family of humans. I wished we could remember these family bonds in our moments strength”

“Nei nostri momenti di bisogno ci affidiamo alle persone come famiglia, sarebbe bello se potessimo ricordarci di questi legami anche nei momenti di forza”.

~Herakut

Herakut. Rome, Italy. September 2015. (photo © BlindEye Factory)

This mural is part of the STREET HEART PROJECT, curated by Marta Gargiulo, Massimo Scrocca and Marco Gallotta.

Thank you to Blind Eye Factory for sharing these exclusive images with BSA readers.

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.04.15

October 4, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Visual Bliss, Buttless Supreme, Case Ma’Claim, Dre, Jaye Moon, KAS, Kelly Towles, Lexi Bella, Mr. Prvrt, Pear, Shark Toof, Specter, Tuco Wallach, and What Will You Leave Behind.

Top image above >>> Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Ma’Claim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. Billboard take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter. Double ad take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tuco Wallach new Manimal someplace warm in France. (photo © Tuco Wallace)

Shark Toof. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon. Is it? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT and A Visual Bliss. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DRE tribute to Dali. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buttless Supreme. Read (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Everyday Magic In The Navajo Nation with Stinkfish, Grafica Mazatl, and Killjoy Press.

October 3, 2015 Artists

Who is your muse? Most artists have one, or a few. The portraits that Street Artists leave on walls usually have a story behind them, a personal connection to the figure depicted. The Bogata based Stinkfish began doing graffiti and Street Art in 2003 and has focused his portraits on anonymous people he sees in streets or public spaces – usually without them knowing he has captured their expression while they are in the midst of daily life.

Creating these images usually only once, they impart their own personal story and create a new narrative when placed into an entirely original location – often in a city far from where they live. Using techniques of stencil, graphic design, and more traditional freestyling aersol graffiti, Stinkfish elaborates on an initial idea and allows it to take on a life of its own. By translating a daily life from one location to another context entirely, Stinkfish highlights our common ground, our shared humanity.

In September Stinkfish and two other artists worked collaboratively on three walls on or near the Navajo Nation courtesy of their host Chip Thomas (Jetsonorama). Stinkfish, Grafica Mazatl and Killjoy Press all intermingled their respective styles and visual vocabulary on structures in the desert – always collaborating with the vast sky all around them.

The sites include an abandoned trailer in Gray Mountain, Arizona which is about a mile away from the southwestern border of the Navajo nation. The remaining sites are on the Navajo nation and include the 89/160 junction near Tuba City and the Crossroads. Together the three created new works that are inspired by their immediate surroundings while bringing their own muses and travels with them.

Original photo from Gulf of Gabes, Tunisia during his time there for the Djerbahood project in August 2014 by Stinkfish (©Stinkfish)

BSA Film Friday: 10.02.15

October 2, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Shepard Fairey: Natural Springs.
2. West One: Future Communication
3. Monica Canilao: Alchemy. Detroit
4. Herakut in Rome by Blindeye Factory

BSA Special Feature: Shepard Fairey: Natural Springs.

Jersey City hosted Shepard Fairey a couple of weeks ago at MANA Contemporary and naturally he chose this huge wall with a high profile to host his image entitled Natural Springs. If you are going to do a subtle lambasting of the oil economy where better than a location visible to the millions of drivers traveling between Jersey City and Manhattan via the Holland Tunnel.

Shepard Fairey: A Steady Drumbeat Inside and Out on BSA

West One: Future Communication

This promo for a show with West One without words calls for the rise of a third way (or fourth or fifth) that draws connection to graffiti of our earliest days of mark-making and movements of today employing symbol, shape, line to communicate in a monochromatic mode.

Monica Canilao: Alchemy. Detroit

As Detroit is settled by the artists you see the movement here from other cities has reached the former Motor City in this group show featuring the spirit of D.I.Y and re-imagining our empty neglected spaces as stages for aesthetic creation. This long video advertises an upcoming group show with Monica Canilao at the center describing a vision of alchemy.

Herakut in Rome by Blindeye Factory

Promoting their gallery show in Rome the german duo Herakut created this wall in Tor Pignattare forte STREET HEART PROJECT, curated by Marta Gargiulo, Massimo Scrocca and Marco Gallotta.

“In our moment of need we rely on the family of humans. I wished we could remember these family bonds in our moments strength”
Herakut.

“Nei nostri momenti di bisogno ci affidiamo alle persone come famiglia, sarebbe bello se potessimo ricordarci di questi legami anche nei momenti di forza”. Herakut.

Peter Carroll AKA Pet Bird ( 7/1/77 — 9/28/15 )

October 1, 2015 Artists

We first met Peter Carroll in the Spring of 2008 at Ad Hoc Gallery at an opening. He gave us a bunch of his Pet Bird stickers and talked to us as if he had known us for years, making us feel welcomed and like friends. That’s just how Peter was and how he remained over those years as we grew closer.

An honest, witty, straight shooter no-nonsense type of guy with a very clever glint in his eye. He didn’t suffer fools gladly, didn’t put on airs, and when he needed to call out the BS on some blabbermouth or poser he would do it, no problem.

He loved the graffiti scene and appreciated what Street Art added possibly because of what it didn’t require; permission, wordy catalogs, gate-keepers, pomposity, fakes. He loved Luna, cats, cars, graffiti, bicycles, science, medicine, and his friends. He knew how to value material possessions, was a loyal friend, loved good food and good music. When he was feeling well he’d offer to help you if you needed a hand. When the pain and the discomfort of his recent illness was too much to bear he’d stay home reluctantly but would strategize how to keep a good attitude, even though that could be very hard work as well. He’d ideally want to be out with you, playing and hanging out and when he was not being able to do so it bummed him out.

Peter and Katherine AKA Luna Park made a formidable and beautiful couple. You always could tell that they liked each other a LOT and they knew how to make each other laugh really hard and they were very kind to one another. They were an excellent role model for us and we cherished them as much together as on their own. Both were walking encyclopedias of graffiti and spoke about it enthusiastically, always excited to discover new ruins and railroad tracks and new cities together, camera in hand. Equally they were enthusiastic about the writers as individuals and they celebrated their skills together. We were blessed to know Peter, and we are all very lucky to have Luna.

We’re just rambling now, we are filled with sadness writing this, something we shouldn’t be writing, certainly not so soon…

He passed away on Monday evening, probably as a complication from recent illnesses. Our hearts go out to Luna and to Peter’s mom and to their families and to the many friends whose lives were touched by his. Shout out to Becki Fuller who is a strong and beautiful friend to Luna and the community of friends around them.

Please come Saturday night for A Celebration of Peter Carroll AKA Laserburners AKA PET Bird
and in support of his partner Katherine Lorimer AKA Luna Park whom he loved dearly.

Pandemic Gallery
Saturday October 3^rd from 4pm until late
22 Waverly Avenue Between Park and Flushing
Brooklyn, New York

We will post more information on Facebook (Brooklyn Street Art), Twitter @BKStreetArt, Instagram @BKStreetArt as we learn it.

A New Wall in Brooklyn Completed Wednesday

Luna posted the sad news on her IG feed. Below some of the love and kind messages she and Peter are receiving from their friends:

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