The Weird World of the Weird Crew in BK

August 29, 2015 Artists

Things are looking weird in Brooklyn at the moment thanks to Cone, Dxtr, Hrvb, Look, and Vidam.

The Berlin based crew are in town for their show at Exit Room that opened last night and as soon as they hit the streets they also knocked out this wall in BK. A collective of 5 individually talented character-based painters and illustrators, the pop-comic-zine-tattoo-ink-skater influences all have an interplay in their various collaborations. Here is the latest in the warped vision of the Weird Crew.

The Weird. CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Weird (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Weird exhibition “Weird World” is now open to the public at Exit Room Gallery. Click HERE for information.

BSA Film Friday: 08.28.15

August 28, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Lilith and Olaf at Nuart ’15 by Ella & Pitr
2. Come Enjoy the Wonderful World of Dismaland!
3. Wall Therapy 2015: Eder Muniz
4. Wall Therapy 2015: Handiedan

BSA Special Feature: Lilith and Olaf at Nuart ’15 by Ella & Pitr

Straight from Nuart 2015 to you, a possibly world record breaking outdoor figurative mural! It could be the largest one ever!

Completed in Klepp, Rogaland, in only four days this week, French artists Ella & Pitr and an “army of volunteers” covered 21,000m2 on Block Berge Bygg’s roof with their original composition entitled Lilith and Olaf. For you non-Norwegians, King Olaf 1 ruled for the final five years of the first millenium. Olaf Tryggvason gets a comparatively small role in this mural – as if he is a toy dropped from Lilith’s hand as she slumbers here on the roof.

This project was completed so freshly that we only have this silent drone footage for you right now. We’re sure there will be a finished video of this in the future and actually BSA will be able to inspect this in person in a couple of days as we travel to Nuart 2015 so we’ll let you know just how big it is.

The mural will be officially ‘opened’ by the Mayor of Klepp, Ane Mari Braut Nese, next Friday at 4, which means we will still have time to bring her back to see our BSA FILM FRIDAY LIVE at the theater in downtown Stavanger. Hope you can come too!

Come Enjoy the Wonderful World of Dismaland!

If this doesn’t send the whole family running for the mini-van then you are not a true believer in the Magic Thingdom. See our review of this heavy-hitting satirical art installation just opened : The Wonderfully Dismal Kingdom of Banksy.

Wall Therapy 2015: Eder Muniz

All you gotta do is check out this dude dancing while he works to appreciate how much he loves to paint and where the joy comes from.

Wall Therapy 2015: Handiedan

Handiedan was the first muralist this year, and one of the most eclectic. Her distinctive cut collages of currency and curvaceous beauties in her fine art is translated in wheatpaste across the facade of this Rochester former church.

Poetry, Prose and Witty Texting: The Conversation on The Street

August 27, 2015 Artists

“True poetry cares nothing for poems” says Raoul Vaneigem, the Belgium Situationist who taught us that we are creating our lives twenty-four hours a day, in his book “The Revolution of Everyday Life.” The act of living is a certain poetry in itself, we have decided.

Jef Aeorosl pays tribute to Andy Warhol on the streets of Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When an artist is acting of his or her own industry, they will think, will consider their choice of written words on the street. Poetry or prose; full stanza, furtive phrase, stalwart screed – the message is not incidental if it has made it into the public space for a theater of many possible audiences.

Over time you will see these hand rendered, scrawled, sprayed, paint-brushed text-based missives as diary entries. Not all are profound, and many are perplexing or maddeningly cryptic or coy. Others are statements of conviction or punch lines. Lucky you on the day the sentiment hits you in the funny bone, hits closer to the heart, or reveals a truth. Perhaps you’ll be inspired to add your own entry in response to, or in spite of this conversation on the street.

John Fekner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dont Fret (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Homo Riot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rambo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tatyana Fazlaliadeh (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chivalry is dead. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Forgive (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peace (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zimad (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Wonderfully Dismal Kingdom of Banksy

August 26, 2015 Artists

Banksy has ventured into the entertaining resort business. One that would possibly be your last resort.

A scathing social and political critique of any number of targets that routinely come under the purview of this artist/curator/commentator/showman, this big tent brings everyone inside for a beating. Rampant capitalism, civic hypocrisy, the war industry, advertising deceit, an encroaching police state, environmental destruction, the widening gap in social equality, xenophobia with its inherent racism, and our insatiable penchant for sunny denial are a partial list of woes addressed. If you don’t feel sickened or guilty after visiting Dismaland perhaps you could affect a certain smugness that says, “Finally, someone is talking about all of these important issues that I’ve been going on about.”

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Cheerfully cynical and sarcastic, this magic kingdom is most successful when you are challenged to reconsider a behavior or position – and with 50 or so invited co-exhibitionists, some whose bodies of work are substantial on their own, Banksy clearly intends to challenge you and indict you with a relentless barrage of over-the-top funhouse symbolism and metaphor. If, for example, you are enthralled by those American right-wing Christian Halloween “Hell House” installations that feature pregnant teen girls in stirrups and sallow-faced gay HIV-positive patients in hospital beds you’ll cherish the harrowing Banksy path to salvation. Alas, there may be no salvation, sorry.

Here you can see bright yellow bathtub ducks swimming in an oil spill, there you can play paparazzi with the other flashing bulbs recording Cinderalla’s overturned carriage crash. Next, get a load of the toy boats dangerously overloaded with refugees and the knife-wielding butcher eye-balling the horses he’s riding with on the merry-go-round. If Disneyland clobbers you with candy-covered bromides and implausibly rosy fantasy, Dismaland brings you to the edge of the abyss of man’s folly and gently nudges you to fall into it. Or jump.

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Particularly effective to the experience are the grim and listless personnel who mind the grounds and offer no clear or meaningful help. Not quite menacing, they could just be impersonating sullen teens. Perhaps they are buckling under the weight of low wages and dim opportunities on the horizon or are simply humiliated by the balloons some are made to carry that say, “I’m an Imbecil”.

On a particularly gray and dreary day periodically warmed with the sun, the photographer named Butterfly made her pilgrimage to this nightmare fairy tale by the seaside for the big opening and below she shares with BSA readers her images and observations on the pop-up exhibition to help us all feel a bit of the dreadful experience first-hand.

Banksy. Escif. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

~ By Butterfly

Weston-Super-Mare is a British seaside town, 30 minutes from Bristol, where families spend the day out donkey riding, visiting the Seaquarium or trying arcades at the Pier while kids build sandcastles on a muddy beach in miserable weather.

Rumors had been circulating for weeks about big installations being built in the former Tropicana, a derelict lido closed since 2000 which once hosted the biggest outdoor swimming pool in Europe. The rumblings and the build up to the announcement to the show was phenomenal, along with the conjecture: Is it a film set? Is it a show? Is it a fair? Is it art?

Banksy. Cinderella sufferd a crash. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Finally we know: This is Banksy’s biggest show to date: Dismaland. It is, according to promotional materials “is a festival of art, amusements and entry-level anarchism.”

Moving towards Contemporary Art, the show is billed as a ‘Bemusement Park’. The global scale, diversity of installations, artworks and participating artists is unprecedented with 50 contemporary artists from 17 countries aiming to exhibit contemporary art and raise discussion about consumerism, political and environmental issues and to spur people to take action.

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

1000 lucky local people were invited to experience Dismaland before its’ opening to the general public. Concurrently the online ticket sales failed miserably, with the website crashing all day and earning it the award of ‘the most disappointing new website’.

We first enter the premises through a cardboard security control room built by Bill Barminksi where the security staff asks the most random questions. After the clearing security, doors open to a sinister derelict place with trash, paper on the floor and mud. It almost looks like a dump. The surrounding staff members are dressed in pink hi-vis (vests) and are looking bored, miserable and haggard. Some are holding David Shrigley’s ‘I’m an Imbecile’ balloons. When asking questions, they respond by whispering messages that are beyond understanding. Customer service is below standard and not responsive at best.

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Surrounded by murky water with a dumped riot van that has been transformed into an impromptu water fountain, a decrepit fairy-tale castle ‘shows how it feels to be a real princess’. A sinister scene of a Cinderella pumpkin crash sculpture is lit up by the swarm of paparazzi, with flashing cameras taking photo after photo of the tragic crash scene, echoing Princess Diana’s death. You may also pose with it and have your souvenir photo of the experience.

The amusements are purposely confusing – as they don’t let you win. An ESPO sign reads

‘WINNING IS STRICTLY PROHIBITED’. Arcade fans attempt miserably to score some of the bling necklaces by shooting spray cans, only to realize that they are screwed to the wall.

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Some local families were confused with Banksy’s Mediterranean Boat Ride, where the public can drive robotic boats of migrants amongst floating bodies. Kids tried to play on Paul Insect‘s overcrowded sandpit while others were desperately looking for disappearing golf balls on the impossible Mini Gulf course. Families enjoyed rides on the merry-go-round without noticing a butcher sitting next to a hanging horse draining blood with cardboard boxes marked Lasagnes (a nod to a horse food scandal in 2013).

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Alongside the rides, contemporary artworks are displayed throughout the site. There is also a large indoor space hosting 3 galleries with a selection of some of the best contemporary art. A circus tent features a freak show of strange animals from Polly Morgan and Dorcas Casey to a unicorn by Damien Hirst and a Banksy animatronic rabbit that makes the magician disappear.

The seaside and funfair themes have been given a certain twist as well: A statue of a woman being attacked by seagulls (Banksy), a giant ice cream cone (Ben Long), a wooden carved horse sculpture (Maskull Lasserre), a beach ball floating above razor sharp knives (Damien Hirst), a seaside painting showing a mother and child playing on the sand unaware of the tsunami of detritus coming toward them (Banksy).

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Environmental issues and relationships between human and nature are also highlighted with artworks from Paco Pomet and Josh Keyes. A Banksy killer whale sculpture is jumping out of a toilet peace. Other topics addressed are on war, geopolitics, and the Arab Spring. Artists from Palestine and Israel are displayed side by side. Within the Guerilla Island, the dome presents of series of activist banners from all over the world, including drawings from Iranian cartoonist Mana Neyestani.

A bus turned into a touring Museum of Cruel Objects curated by Dr. Gavin Grindon educates the public on surveying the role of design for social control, including CCTV. And you can sign up to one of the union stalls for action. Finally there is the mind-blowing model village installation by James Cauty called The Aftermath Dislocation Principle.

The evening turned into a big party with live music while a massive show of fireworks sealed the official opening. I found the experience to be overwhelming with so much artwork to discover and actions to be taken.

Banksy. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Espo. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Paul Insect . Bast. Dismaland. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Paco Pomet. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Maskull Lassarre. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Kate MacDowell. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Jessica Harrison. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Dietrich Wegner. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Damien Hirst. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Andreas Hykade. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Amir Schiby. Dismaland Art Gallery. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Dorkas Casey. Dismaland Circus. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

Banksy. Dismaland. Thank you for visiting folks. Weston-super-Mare, UK. (photo © Butterfly)

What’s The Word, Bird? Fine Feathered Friends Soar On The Street

August 25, 2015 Artists

It’s a convivial if embarrassing juxtaposition when you witness a bird in flight in this brutish man-made city environment, so unrefined are all of our efforts next to his. He rewards us with a song or a soaring performance in air, and despite our heavy slow selves anchored to this pavement, we shield the sun with our hand and follow him with our eyes, paying some respect for his gift and his splendor.

Mata Ruda. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Another crosses his path mid-air. Her wings are so tempered and fine, allowing her to glide with grace, cutting across the chorus of perpendicular and parallel lines, shapes, and epochs that rise and fall and crash clumsily into one another in this hard-edged city.

How do they do it, these birds – especially when it seems like we do very little to help them? Why do they persist in this city that seems often to be unconscious of nature? Is it just our nature to be so unconscious? They should have abandoned us long ago. Yet they persist, and Street Artists here pay them tribute for all that they give us.

Unknown artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Fly on, sea-birds! fly sideways, or wheel in large circles high in the air,” says Walt Whitman as he crosses on the Brooklyn Ferry.

Miss Van. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Emily Dickenson writes,
“A Bird came down the Walk —
He did not know I saw —
He bit an Angleworm in halves
And ate the fellow, raw,”

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And William Blake paints a couple as love birds here:

“He. O thou summer’s harmony,
I have liv’d and mourn’d for thee;
Each day I mourn along the wood,
And night hath heard my sorrows loud.

She. Dost thou truly long for me?
And am I thus sweet to thee?
Sorrow now is at an end,
O my Lover and my Friend!

He. Come, on wings of joy we’ll fly
To where my bower hangs on high;
Come, and make thy calm retreat
Among green leaves and blossoms sweet.”

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Goslings taking in the graffiti. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DalEast in Rochester, NY for Wall Therapy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill for the Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A passenger pigeon waiting for the J train. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These pigeons appeared on the streets of NYC at the onset of Summer. Was it an ad campaign? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for Wall Therapy in Rochester, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for The L.I.S.A. Project in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Robin on a fence in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

Blanca . Blanca (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skirl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eder Muniz in Rochester, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two sets of Cardinals in Central Park in January 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Willow and Swil : Hunting, Capturing and Exploring in Brooklyn

August 24, 2015 Artists

Street art brothers Willow and Swil have just populated the streets with their wheat-pastes toward the end of summer here in Brooklyn. Urban Naturalists, that’s what we call them – studies and sketches and paintings of fauna and reptiles, bears and busts of figures and friends and music heroes.

Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

These are sketchbooks that come alive on the streets, their meditative compulsive renderings willing to meet you where you are, eager for your feedback and opinion. The two have overlapping themes and styles, perhaps their rural roots and regard for the hunting, trapping, and agricultural influences of back home, now seen clearer when viewed from the distance of the urban BK streets. There is an increasing level of detail, a steady respect and love for the beauty of the natural.

Willow “Smoke Signals” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

But there are differences as well, with Willow outdoors and exploring many species and metaphors of nature and Swil taking various internal trips to explore examples of our own human variations and archetypes. As their unique voices evolve and emerge with time before our eyes, it is a generous momentary gift that these mottled and pocked walls can hold for you to discover in your travels on the street – at least until the rain and winds and the blistering sun erode them all away.

Willow. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow and Swil collaboration. “Looming Overhead” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow. “Head-On” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Check out the ears on the fox from North Africa. Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.23.15

August 23, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Such a pleasure and honor to give a tour to Brooklyn Museum members yesterday – mainly because of the mixture of people who traipsed through Brooklyn streets with us: older, younger, academic, street smart, curiosity seeking, students, teachers. The questions and observations helped push our perspectives wider.

Good to be schooled by someone who knew a lot about REVS & Cost, and to learn that LMNOP may have chosen her name with QRST’s in mind. Who knew? It was also great to describe the linotype process as it pertains to Swoons’ practice – and only a block later to discover an original carved plywood version of a linotype drilled to a wall by TipToe!

It was especially refreshing was talking with the woman who had not heard of Banksy or Faile or JR but thought she had heard of Swoon – and to see her write these names in a small book for further research. Sometimes we think all this Street Art stuff is such a big deal, then that “perspective” thing kicks in.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Dain, DeeDee, Don Rimx, Elbow Toe, Faile, Gilf!, Klone, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Myth, Os Gemeos, QRST, Rae, Royce Bannon, She Wolf, and TipToe.

Top image above >>> QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown with Bast on top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tip Toe didn’t just put a printed poster up. He put the actual printing device with which you make the posters. This could indicate that he wants you to bring your own paper and ink! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth had his text crossed out -originally it said “Bovine lives matter! Go Vegan”. The cartoon image stayed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth quotes Lenin here: “Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth has the Venom character quoting the feminist Lucy Parsons, “Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klone (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx “La Rumba” in Little Havana, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rae is back on the street sculpture tip, a little bit pop this time (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like Elbow Toe gave Royce Bannon some flowers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile does a piece from their series about native peoples coming to reclaim lands. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! going for a conceptual timepiece that recalls names of Americans shot by police, with reference to how often it occurs. This is one of two recent time pieces. The other contains high profile nationally known names that have sparked protests – this one has names that are more recent but we didn’t recognize them or understand their significance till we started Googling. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI depicts Indira, a child who works in a marble quarry with her parents near Katmandu. The same image was also featured in her Welling Court mural this year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A child soldier forced into conscription in Myanmar by LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Times Square, Manhattan. August, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scott Albrecht Mural Painting in Denver : A Family Affair

August 22, 2015 Artists

Brooklyn artist and designer Scott Albrecht usually works with collage or wood for his fine art of geometric patterning that hearken an arts and craft modernism of the 1970s. Now he has just completed a mural in Denver reprising his smaller works at a much larger scale – with a little help from the family.

brooklyn-street-art-hyland_mather-scott_albrecht_denver_08-15-web-4

Scott Albrecht. Denver, Colorado. August 2015. (photo © Hyland Mather)

“My favorite part of the whole project,” says Hyland Mather, director of Andenken Gallery, “he had quite a bit of help from his extended family in the area. His uncle Dicky and his cousin Kimmy came out and painted with us for a whole day, so rad.”

If you look at the middle band of Albrecht’s new mural you may be able to see the word “Here”. The mural is part of a run-up to a graffiti and Street Art event in Denver this September called Colorado Crush.

brooklyn-street-art-hyland_mather-scott_albrecht_denver_08-15-web-2

Coney Art Walls Presents: BSA “On The Radar: New And Emerging Street Art Talent”

August 21, 2015 Artists

Imagine taking a trip with BrooklynStreetArt.com (BSA) founders Steve and Jaime and never leaving your seat as they show you some of the exciting and inventive ideas that are running in the street right now.

On The Radar: New and Emerging Street Art Talent From Brooklyn and Beyond
A multimedia presentation with Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo Founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com

Come see the BSA guys and check out the 30 or so new murals at Coney Art Walls, the live DJs, the sand, the surf, the cigarette butts, the pretty girls and handsome boys, the hot dogs, the cellulite, the snake lady, the brightly colored soda, the barfing children on the rollercoaster…. Oh yeah, and our show – just for you!!

Admission is FREE but seating is limited so arrive early if you can!

Hope you can come!

Coney Island Museum
1208 Surf Ave, Brooklyn, NY
Sunday July 23rd, 5:00 pm

A quick and entertaining multimedia survey where you get to see a showcase of young and emerging artists using the street today in new and inspiring ways.

https://www.facebook.com/events/407221606133815/

http://coneyartwalls.com/events

BSA Film Friday: 08.21.15

August 21, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. (RE) Prisma by Narcelio Grud
2. Cranio in France
3. Wall Therapy 2015: Li-Hill

BSA Special Feature: Narcelio Grud and Mara Hope

The ship Mara Hope, stranded for 30 years on Iracema Beach alongside the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, received a benediction of more color in July thanks to Street Art interventionist and experimenter Narcelio Grud. A mistake in 1985, the ship has become a monument over time, a symbol of the history of the fishing industry, and after so many years a symbol of personal history for people who have grown up with it.

Grud says that he was bringing local color out to the sea, a way to reach out to this large hulking object that has been abandoned and forgotten. The video gives a better idea of the scale of the piece and keeps in perspective the relative impact that an artist can have.

Cranio in France

The Brazilian artist Cranio; Ever wonder what is in his cranium? Here it spills out across this great wall in the southern suburbs of Paris. As the painting is gradually unveiled you can see the increased interest of passersby and how the public space is converted into a gathering area for discussion and community.

Wall Therapy 2015: Li-Hill

NEMO’s, a Censored Penis, and Slicing The Human Condition in Brooklyn

August 20, 2015 Artists, Interview

Italian Street Artist NEMO’s made his first trip to New York last week and immediately gave one of his desperate men to the cityscape in Williamsburg.

We should mention that the subject was obviously a man until some neighbors complained and one particular detail had to be buffed to satisfy their tastes. The artistic metaphor of a person being fed into a meat slicer to produce dollars was not offensive by the way. NEMO’s made the change perhaps reluctantly and as an act of a polite guest, but not without some serious consideration and conversations.

A social and political commentator, this illustrator of the comedic and the grotesque is not afraid to portray some dirty hypocrisies and conundrums of modern existence. Since we have featured Nemo’s a number of times, we were eager to find out first hand who are his influences and what motivates him to depict these fleshy ghoulish men who simultaneously perpetrate and are exposed to dangers of the world.

The tenor of his answers didn’t surprise us, it only confirmed what we had thought – Nemo’s is an adept observer of our dualities with an fondness for gallows humor, in possession of a sense of wonder at our potential as humans that is tempered by disgust at our weakness and folly.

Brooklyn Street Art: Is this your first time in NYC?
NEMO’S: Yes, this is my first time out of Europe as an adult. I was born in Bolivia, La Paz but my parents are Italian and they took me to Italy when I was 4 years old. My father is a doctor and he was in Bolivia working with the miners. My mother is a homemaker.

Brooklyn Street Art: What’s your impression of NYC so far?
NEMO’S: I love New York very much. Las year I was in London but I prefer NYC to London – I don’t know why. New York is really big but I like the New Yorkers. People were very friendly with me the second day I was here. I like the fact that New York has tons of different cultures and immigrants from all parts of the world. In Italy the politicians don’t like diversity even though we Italians are immigrants as well.

For example in the early 1900s many Italians emigrated from Italy to America and South America –there is a Little Italy neighborhood here in NY for example. Al Capone was the first gangster in America and he was Italian. We Italians are good people but when we talk about immigration and other people we are the worst – especially the politicians.

Brooklyn Street Art: So your first time painting on the streets in NYC is in this noisy neighborhood under a bridge. How do you like painting here?
NEMO’S: Yes this is my first time painting in NYC but it isn’t my first time painting in a heavily trafficked area. In Italy, especially in Rome and in Milan, the traffic is worse. Actually for me here under the bridge the condition is good – this bridge is not as heavily trafficked as they are in Italy. When I came to NYC I couldn’t believe the environment because in Italy is much worse. NYC is probably four times bigger than Milan but the noise is much less.

Brooklyn Street Art: How do you consider yourself as an artist: A muralist? An illustrator? A Fine Artist?
NEMO’S: I usually I don’t like to call myself an artist. In our society artists are considered super-heroes and I’m not a hero. I’m a normal guy and I paint what I think. I’m happy if people like my drawings but really I’m happiest when I paint in the streets. I began as a writer with a can when I was 16 years old. I did graffiti only for a year because I really didn’t really have a good can control. I almost always would much rather paint my characters with a brush.

Brooklyn Street Art: Who are your inspirations?
NEMO’S: I take a lot of inspiration and a lot of direction from the filmmaker David Cronneberg. I like his work and very much his interpretation of the relationship between men and insects in his movie “Naked Lunch”. I like surrealism and some Italian and French illustrators. One favorite is Francis Bacon and I also like the Italian painter Antonio Ligabue. He was like Van Gogh but much sadder. He was interested in animals as subjects as well as men.

Brooklyn Street Art: How about music influencers?
NEMO’S: I like Trip-Hop music. I like Radiohead, Interpol. I also like Rap music but not the new contemporary rap music – only the black rap music. I like the Fugees and Lauryn Hill, rap from the 80s and also blues-rap.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about your work? Why are your characters so sad?
NEMO’S: I usually try to portray our society and the current situation of our humanity with my work. I try to draw my characters and build them around what I observe happening in the world. So my men are sad creepy and wrinkled. My characters have the burden of humanity on their shoulders. I personally suffer a lot from what I see every day.

Daily existence is difficult for me because I see a lot of bad things happening in the world. I try to put aspects of my own condition and the bad condition of humanity into my characters. I draw the men without clothes because that’s how I see the current condition of humanity. I see our society being constantly humiliated so I depict what’s happening in and to our society in my characters.

Brooklyn Street Art: During the first couple of days the character on the wall had a small penis. The final piece shows the character without it. What happened?
NEMO’S: Because the owner of the wall is a religious man and because the district where I painted is full of religious men I had to erase penis.

Usually I paint my character naked to portray human vulnerability. The penis or others sexual/sensual organs are important to convey the feeling of my drawings. They are important because they are not accepted by society. The penis is a little symbol of what society doesn’t want to see.

Brooklyn Street Art: Permitted walls usually come with strings attached from the landlords. They sometimes insist on certain themes not to be portrayed on their walls. Most people would consider this censorship. How do you feel about this?
NEMO’S: The word “legal” in this context is a paradox. Drawing a penis is “legal” and censuring it is “illegal”. Someone can say that the penis is an obscene thing, but I’m from Italy and some of the best pieces in world art history have a penis; David by Michelangelo in Firenze, the Nettuno in Bologna, even the Bull near Wall Street in Manhattan. In Roma, in the Cappella Sistina (Sistine Chapel) Pope Pio IV censured and “dressed” God and other Saints painted by Michelangelo.

So when someone says art is somehow “illegal” the situation is really about what people think and are afraid to see. In my opinion real “Street Art” fights against these things! Real “Street Art” is illegal and totally free! I try always to paint what I think not to compromise.

OS Gemeos Pop Through Walls Downtown NYC, Screens in Times Square

August 19, 2015 Artists

Os Gemeos want to meet you in Times Square 3 minutes to midnight. Bring your video camera. Later they’ll meet you in the Village, where you can take a still shot.

The flashing Times Square spectacle on display all during August across a patchwork of multiple screens by the Brazilian Street Art twins is an animated curiosity, a dreamlike adventure featuring their yellow skinned characters who push their way through the screen and get closer to you.

It’s only for 3 minutes but A Parallel Connection plays across 45 screens long enough to shake you out of the advertising haze for the Midnight Moment Series.

Meanwhile downtown their new huge mural will last much longer. Like their street people, the slightly comical mischief of brothers Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo is rooted in graffiti culture and the desire to disobey limitations. With time and worldwide travel their rebellious fantasies have become part of the mainstream and the art of the contemporary.

In addition to some smaller pieces climbing on fire escape and running along a sidewalk with artists Andre and JR, Os Gemeos brought a huge sartorially dope B-boy to NYC. Crane your head upward and you see him breaking out of the wall toward you, cap turned back, hood pulled tight.

The brothers are in a cherry picker bucket, bobbing up and down on the multi-storied wall, sometimes above you, sometimes below, sometimes alongside. Look close and you’ll see that their new guy has another smaller character by guest collaborator Doze Green in his jacket pin, his hat brim a tagged subway train car.

You notice the two speakers are actually mouths as well, perhaps twin MCs. Part hip hop, part Brazilian folk, this boombox-carrying B-boy character who pierces the fourth wall of an East Village building also reminds you of the animated sequences in the screened chaos 40 blocks north. But he is still for your shot, and you can appreciate him a bit more, easily an instant New York classic.

This posting was also published on The Huffington Post

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