Ben Eine A to Z (and then some) in Philadelphia

August 5, 2015 Artists

We are texting every day and everywhere these days. Ben Eine appears to be doing it across the entirety of South Philadelphia.

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

The prolific London artist who is known for his distinctive lettering style sits right at the border of graffiti and Street Art with a nod to both. Now he is firmly also a muralist after knocking out nearly forty letters in his circus font on metallic pull-down shutters for neighbors and businesses here.

“Honestly, we started with me finding Ben about 7 shutters to paint,” says RJ Rushmore of the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, “and he just went from there and wound up getting permission for literally dozens more.” The program has a way of uniting artists with community in a holistic way.

There’s no place like it. Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

“It’s a great experience getting positive feedback from the people who live in the neighborhoods I paint,” says the former graffiti writer who might not have asked for permission when he began a couple of decades ago. “When I did graffiti no one enjoyed what I painted aside from a few writer friends. Now days it’s the total opposite. What I paint is pretty happy. It’s hard not to like it.”

The idea to ask Eine to come to the city began when Rushmore and local muralist Shira Walinsky were looking for good ways for the mural program to engage with the neighborhood of settlers from Bhutan, Burma, and Nepal. Many of these folks are refugees and meet at a community arts and resource center here named Southeast-by-Southeast.

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

While Street Art has been accused alternately of being a tool for vandalism and for gentrification, this mural program had a Street Artist in mind to bring the neighborhood something positive, slowly transforming the feelings of connectedness and even pride.

“We both love seeing shutters painted, and we thought that more painted shutters would be a positive contribution to South 7th Street. As for bringing Ben specifically, we both love his work, and we wanted to see some of it in Philly,” says Rushmore, “We also hoped that having an internationally recognized artist paint near Southeast-by-Southeast would bring wider attention to the community center and the neighborhood’s under-served refugee population.”

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

What the organizers and the artist may not have anticipated was the enthusiastic support that came from the community once they saw how Eine’s pleasantly poppish letters perked up the place – nor how many excited neighbors would begin requesting them.

“I think it was 39 shutters,” says a newly exhausted Eine with some satisfaction. “That’s the most I’ve painted over the course of four days. Random shutters scattered around a city are cool – but when you paint every shutter on a block you totally change the dynamic of that area.”

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

“Ben hadn’t planned to paint 39 shutters, but once he got to about 15, it became about painting an entire alphabet, and then he just kept going,” RJ tells us. “It was a marathon. Luckily, the interest from building owners just snowballed. People would come by while he was painting, love what they saw, and offer up their own shutters down the street or around the corner. Ben’s work sold itself.”

Did he find the uneven and rolling surface of the metal grating especially difficult to paint? “It really depends on what I’m painting. Big walls are great for big words. The shutters are perfect for one letter. They are super quick to paint. It almost feels like graffiti,” he says, perhaps thinking of his earlier years of “hitting” and running, can in hand.

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

They say the project gathered steam after the first people said yes to Ben’s work. Savannah and Julio are a husband and wife team who co-own and run a bodega right in the heart of the neighborhood and they requested that Ben paint their initials on their two shutters.

Rushmore points to their openness and generosity as contributing to the positive buzz. “Once Ben arrived, Julio and Savannah loaned us a stepladder.” Other neighbors got excited and RJ said their excitement fueled him as he kept knocking on more doors.

“There were even a few locations that had initially turned me down, but changed their minds once they met Ben and saw exactly what he was doing. I didn’t hear a single negative reaction from anyone living or working nearby.”

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

Eine says he feels good that he is leaving behind something that the neighborhood can relate to and feel proud of and he appreciates the restorative nature of programs like Philadelphia Mural Arts.

“It’s important to involve the community in these art projects,” he says, “These are the people who live there. I get on a plane, fly somewhere else, and most of the time I never see my painting again. I always consider who is going to walk past my painting everyday and how it’s going to change their day.”

Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

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Ben Eine. Mural Arts Program. Philadelphia. July 2015. (photo © Steve Weinik/Mural Arts Program)

To learn more about The City Of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program and to Volunteer click HERE

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Street Art Santiago : A Captivating Look and Insightful Read

August 4, 2015 Artists

Street Art Santiago is an in-depth and attractive look at the current dyanamic graffiti and street art scene in this Chilean city, minus the hype.

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Using his own sense of discovery and a reporters’ tenacity for uncovering the story, Lord K2 (David Sharabani) scopes the walls for riveting images and first person accounts, digging below the obvious to present economic and social data along with a historical context of murals and their role in political life up to today.

Street Art Santiago adeptly draws connections between the quality of life, a lack of social mobility, and the soulful persistence of artists on the street who interpret the Santiago scene as one with its own distinct voice.

“The graffiti in Chile is mutating. We don’t want to paint graffiti from the Bronx anymore. We want to paint what reflects our Latin roots,” says Wend.

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With many accessible interviews and photographs of the artists you can understand a communal connection despite natural competition; a mutual respect for other artists and of the graffiti tradition that now evolves into what is called Street Art. There also is a belief that this means of expression makes an impact that is potent and meaningful to a city.

“Persevere in you technique and style, apply color, strength, and identity to your work,” says an artist named Vision.” Deliver messages. Put up on a wall the things that you have seen and liked. Make the world vibrate.”

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Art Santiago by Lord K2. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2015

REKA Completes His Largest Mural in Paris 13

August 3, 2015 Artists

July always brings out massive public artworks in the northern hemisphere and this year you can add this one, his largest, by Australian street artist REKA in Paris which he completed last week. Tracing his surrealist abstract pop composition diagonally to the upper right corner of this multi-story building, the Melbourne-now-Berlin based aerosol artist labored for five days laying his flat shapes across this brick façade in the heart of the city.

REKA. Galerie Mathgoth. Paris, July 2015. (phot0 © courtesy Galerie Mathgoth)

The building is a few blocks from Le Seine and Université Paris Diderot in a district called Paris 13 that is now known for massive murals by street artists from around the world. The wall and opportunity was organized by Gautier Jourdain, director of the Galerie Mathgoth and this mural is being followed closely by an equally expansive piece by artist JACE.

REKA. Galerie Mathgoth. Paris, July 2015. (phot0 © courtesy Galerie Mathgoth)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.02.15

August 2, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Did you see the blue moon over New York Friday night? Looked to be more crimson actually. Welcome to August and the hot sticky band of dirty grit that comes with it. Escape from New York if you can, even if it is just on a lawn chair in a park. NYC parks have a lot of free movies this summer and a huge array of free concerts all through the remainder of dog days. Naturally there is great deal of artful expression on the streets available on your way to and from the venue, very dramatic in its own way.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring $howta, 52, Brolga, BustArt, Esteban Del Valle, Dain, Dasic, Don Rimx, Droid, JR, Julien de Casablanca, KFA, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Ron English, Rubin415, Sokar Uno, and Willow.

Top image above >>> London Kaye. This is perhaps the artist’s largest piece and, as is the artist’s practice, it was made entirely with crocheted yarn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KFA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English. Hot Pink Temper Tot. Zephyr. For LoMan Art Fest 2015/L.I.S.A. Project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain for LoMan Art Fest 2015/L.I.S.A. Project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415 . Dasic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Esteban Del Valle . Don Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bikismo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI. Portrait of Indian girl Dongria Kohnd. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI. Portrait of Iranian kid. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Willow. Portrait of Rwandan child with Emu turban. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JR. Migrants, Ibrahim, Mingora-Philadelphia. For Mural Arts Program “Open Source” Series. (photo Steve Weinik. Courtesy Mural Arts Program).

Sokar Uno (photo © Jaime Rojo)

52 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien De Casabianca (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BustArt and shades of Lichtenstein in Basel, Germany. July 2015. (photo © Bustart)

BustArt. Basel, Germany. July 2015. (photo © Bustart)

Brolga goes skinny dipping to beat the summer heat (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Felis traces flight patters with tape (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Felis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Droid (photo © Jaime Rojo)

$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Baphomet (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Flying over New York State. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barlo and Andrea Casciu and “The Dance” : Housing, Squatters, Art

August 1, 2015 Artists

Barlo and Andrea Casciu did a summertime mural project in Bologna last week as a metaphorical commentary on machinations and struggles happening during the current housing crisis in Italy. It is an awkward, tormented series of movements in concert with and against partners entitled “The Dance”.

Barlo . Andrea Casciu. Bologna, Italy. July 2015. (photo © Barlo)

Not enough places are available for people to live so squatters have been taking over abandoned or unoccupied ones. The government has been passing legislation to widen options of affordable housing but restricting illegal takeovers. Add to this certain elements of anti-immigrants, racism and ongoing corrosive attacks on the social safety net, and you understand how tensions run high.

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Barlo . Andrea Casciu. Bologna, Italy. July 2015. (photo © Barlo)

The figures in conflict here in the new mural symbolize the forces at odds – and a contested 9,000 square foot settlement from the political collective Làbas in the former Caserma Masini symbolizes all of it. The collaborative illustration itself is located in “Làbas centro sociale” (Labas Community Center) in “an occupied structure very active in community activities related to the housing emergency in Italy – in the city center of Bologna,” says Barlo.

No angry slogans, no marches, no eggs were thrown; It is good to see art being used to depict powerful struggles underway in the heart of a disputed space.

Barlo . Andrea Casciu. Bologna, Italy. July 2015. (photo © Barlo)

BSA Film Friday: 07.31.15

July 31, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. eL Seed in London
2. Amo-Te Lisboa: An Ignominious Street ~~Art~~ Movie (Trailer) 2015
3. Wall Therapy 2015: A Teaser
4. Face Time: Various & Gould in Berlin
5. Lurky Wolfpack: The Lurkers

BSA Special Feature: eL Seed in London

In town for the Shubbak Festival, London’s largest biennial festival of contemporary Arab culture, Parisian/Tunisian artist eL Seed creates a wall using his distinctive blending of Arabic and graffiti lettering.

Here an added dimension to his practice is revealed as you listen to a political blogger and patron describe the context of a rise in graffiti in the Middle East in the last few years. Similarly you can gain a quick appreciation for the art and the history of the Arabic calligraphic script and how eL Seed adapts it to convey a deliberate textural message as a highly ornamental mandela on a busy London street.

The site is the Village Underground and the video’s producer Mr. Cedar Lewisohn.

Amo-Te Lisboa: An Ignominious Street Art Movie (Trailer) 2015

“This Street Art thing is a mountain of soft-boiled shit,” says Txakurra, the wizard-like dragon seer who admonishes the boys from Cane Morto for wasting their painting talents on mere mural making. To make amends he sends them on a mission to Lisboa where they promise to do illegal works of art and possibly, to regain their endangered souls. Let’s see a show of hands for people who can’t wait to see this movie!

Wall Therapy 2015: A Teaser

Wall Therapy is wrapped for this session, but the videos will keep coming all through August, so keep your eyes on this space. You can also see more of the images in our piece this week for BSA and The Huffington Post

Face Time: Various & Gould in Berlin

You read our posting when it first went up (“Face Time” with Various & Gould in Berlin) – now you can see the video!

Lurky Wolfpack: The Lurkers

The troublemaking Lurkers are back with their street meat interludes, rhyming sessions at the home made studio, and drop dead gorgeous lady friends looking at you as if they wished you would drop dead.

“Sarajevo based Grime collective Lurky Wolfpack bring to you their hotly anticipated street banger ‘Eastern Block Anthem’.”

“Djerbahood” Book About Tunisian Open-Air Museum Of Street Art

July 30, 2015 Artists

It seems like we’ve talked to you about this great project before and undoubtedly you have heard of it, but we weren’t prepared to see the high-quality, visually succulent and densely compiled tome that arrived in the mail this spring commemorating Djerbahood.

Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art. Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Editons Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Another top rate production from the Galerie Itinerrance in Paris, the book allows you to see most of the 150 or so artists who painted in this largest island of North Africa in Tunisia. Not surprisingly, most of these artists are represented by the gallery and organizer/author Mehdi Ben Cheikh so it is by default a catalog of talents whose studio work is for sale. But this is no mere sales catalog, Fatimah.

With more than 500 photographs and text in French and English that details the history of the project and village over 288 pages, this hard cover introduces you to artists you have never heard of from across the spectrum of graffiti, decorative arts, illustration, street art, and muralism. We found that a Saturday morning with this book and a cup of coffee will absorb your mind and imagination, giving you a sense of the place and the people who live there as well.

ROA. Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art. Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Editons Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bom.K . Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art. Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Editons Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexis Diaz. Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art. Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Editons Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phlegm. Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art. Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Editons Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art. Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Editons Albin Michel. Paris 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Djerbahood/Open-Air Museum Of Street Art by Mehdi Ben Cheikh. Published by Editions Albin Michel. Paris, 2015.

$WALL\THERAPY 2015 : Surrealism and The Fantastic$

WALL\THERAPY 2015 : Surrealism and The Fantastic

July 29, 2015 Artists

Surreal is the way the world is portrayed across all of our devices today.

It may be the shrinking staff and budgets of newsrooms who are veering ever closer to the sensational or simply the yellow journalism and the PR-planted hyperbole that is rushing to fill the vacuum, but the presentation of our own world is becoming outlandish.

Orwell could have seen this time when war is described as a peace effort, oligarchy is called democracy, and Reality TV is anything but. Combined with rapid technological developments that produce outcomes previously only imagined, we may feel like our grip on the genuine is definitely loosening somewhat.

So fitting it is that a mid-sized US city hosts a mural festival celebrating the surreal and the fantastic in 2015.

Brittany Williams. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We don’t know for sure if it was our current funhouse mirror atmosphere that drove the Wall\Therapy festival in Rochester, NY to choose this years’ themes. It may simply be a way of organizing artists whose work reflects these notions back to us and to illuminate one specific growing trend in street culture and murals.

Surely Magritte, Dali, and Ernst would be very pleased by the uptick of modern surrealists and practitioners of the bizarre, fantastical, and dream-like in galleries, in the public sphere, and throughout popular culture in recent years.

Brittany Williams. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In partnership and as a cultural exchange with Berlin’s Urban Nation (UN) this year, Wall\Therapy 2015 curated this selection of international and local street artists who bring doorways and mirrors for you to step through.

We were glad to be there in person this year and relieved to see that this largely homespun venture continues to be strong and community-minded despite the very hard work that it requires to pull it off. In the face of a rapidly commercializing Street Art festival scene, not only is the grassroots rather refreshing, it is a bit surreal.

Without doubt it is fantastic.

Brittany Williams. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jeff Soto . Maxx242. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Classic graffiti style from NYC’s Daze has always contained elements of surreality. In his three walls he sampled even more styles.”So I used a lot of influences – photo-realistic, almost cubist, there is some lettering, window panes as metaphor. I was also thinking about fabric and the way it folds, and it turned into water,” he says. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vexta. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vexta: I’ve been doing a lot of collage as my source material – birds, abstract plant shapes, and the galaxy painted over.
BSA: She’s like an earth mother, or universal mother
Vexta: She is every woman.

Vexta. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andreas Englund’s mural features his superhero vexed by a stone in his boot. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andreas Englund. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeverCrew’s Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Togni created a whale inside an ice whale. “We usually work with themes about the balance between humans and nature,” says Togni, “In this situation we wanted to do a piece about the balance between the elements.” Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeverCrew. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Handiedan. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“She is sort of a goddess of East meets West,” says Amsterdam’s Handiedan. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nate Hodge. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Onur . Wes21. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A highly detailed original sketch that is culled from photographs and their own staging of a model in boots, Onur and Wes21 spent many long hours into a few nights to complete their wall.
Onur: It is more of a scene than a classical mural. The wall is perfect for something like this.
BSA: So it is nature taking a bite out of its aggressor
Onur: Yes, kind of. That’s not bad. We have a sign that says beware of beaver crossing. The animals are a metaphor for something else and we are always looking for stuff like this when we are on the streets.

Onur . Wes21. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jason Wilder Courtesy of WallTherapy)

Li-Hill. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Matt Roberts . Joe Guy. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We knew we had a week and we thought ‘what can we accomplish?’” says Rochester local Matt Roberts on a break from his wall with Joe Guy Allard. “I do monsters all the time and Joe does those robots. It’s a big old fight scene. I mean, who doesn’t want destruction, some mahem? I grew up on Godzilla movies and Ultraman, stuff like that. Just a lot of B-horror. I’m really into it. The new Godzilla movie is like my Crème Brulee.”

Matt Roberts . Joe Guy. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eder Muniz. Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eder Muniz. (CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE) Wall Therapy 2015. Rochester, NY (photo © @MarkDeffPhoto Courtesy of Wall Therapy)

Our deep gratitude to the Wall\Therapy Family; Ian Wilson and Erich Lehman for their invitation to participate at this edition, and to Yasha Young, director of Urban Nation and this year’s co-curator. To the artists for sharing their talent with us in such a public and generous way. To all of the volunteers including Jason Barber and Maureen Malone for their sincere dedication and attention to detail and to the production team for making certain we all had what we needed and for making our job far easier. To the photographers for sharing their work with us throughout the process. To Jonathan Binstock, Director of the Memorial Art Gallery at The University of Rochester for hosting our BSA Film Friday Live event and to Meg Colombo and Mike Besaw at MAG for helping us with everything we asked for and then more. To the city of Rochester.

Click HERE to learn more about WALL THERAPY

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Skount “To Be Or Not To Be”, Sarah Bernhardt & James Lafayette

July 28, 2015 Artists

Skount is debating whether to be or not in this adaptation of a hundred plus year old photo of Sarah Bernhardt, who holds the court jester Yorick’s skull in hand. A grave contemplation of suicide that leads the Hamlet character to contemplate the great leveling force of death on all stations and classes, this particular depicting of Shakespeare has had a profound effect on Skount.

Skount. Würzburg, Germany. July 2015. (photo © Skount)

“This photo has always been poetic for me since I first saw it,” he says, “I see in the photo a woman with a really special life that is intense, hard, full of difficulties and now finally a satisfactory life,” he says of the James Lafayette photograph that was possibly taken at the turn of the 20th century.

“To be or not to be,” is perhaps the most noted excerpt from the play and is

also the title of Skounts’ mural for Street Meet at Mainfranken Theater in Würzburg, Germany. See below the original photograph and the artists’ initial sketch for the wall.

Portrait of Sarah Bernhardt as Hamlet. (public domain, James Lafayette)

Skount. Würzburg, Germany. July 2015. (photo © Skount)

HAMLET: To be, or not to be–that is the question:

Whether ’tis nobler in the mind to suffer

The slings and arrows of outrageous fortune

Or to take arms against a sea of troubles

And by opposing end them.

To die, to sleep–No more–and by a sleep to say we end

The heartache, and the thousand natural shocks

That flesh is heir to. ‘Tis a consummation Devoutly to be wished.

To die, to sleep–To sleep–perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,

~Shakespeare

Skount. Würzburg, Germany. July 2015. (photo © Skount)

Skount’s original sketch for the mural (© Skount)

Skount. Würzburg, Germany. July 2015. (photo © Skount)

London Kaye’s New York Skyline Crocheted on a Wall

July 27, 2015 Artists

Street Artist London Kaye has been yarn-bombing around New York Streets for a couple of years creating a variety of figures and forms on fences, walls, and even subway handrails. This week here attention turns to the city itself in this sidewalk-level diarama of crocheted city buildings, bridges, subway trains, and people flying through the air on bicycles.

The scale is miniature, it’s style quite childlike, this is a city you can manage to see in one day – as thousands of NYC tourists are doing at this exact moment right now. Placed on a wall that is already slammed with tags, its interesting that the artist didn’t remove the wheatpasted dogs head, which floats in the city skyline like a big moon.

New York, New York, a helluva town.
The Bronx is up, but the Battery’s down.
The people ride in a hole in the ground.
New York, New York, it’s a helluva town!

New York, New York, a visitor’s place,
Where no one lives on account of the pace,
But seven millions are screaming for space.
New York, New York, it’s a visitor’s place!

from On The Town

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.26.15 Rochester Special

July 26, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

It’s not all about the murals! A sacrilegious thing to say perhaps, especially on a Sunday, especially when we are in town to see fresh new murals at the Wall\Therapy festival in Rochester. But none of the artists will take us to task because everyone knows that the roots of Street Art and graffiti are in the un-permissioned work that happens underground in hidden spots that become revered; magnets for aerosol mark-making, veritable spray can galleries. These crumbling houses of the holy are foundational to the modern Street Art scene. After all, if the good Lord didn’t want teens to get high, have sex, and catch tags he wouldn’t have created urban decay.

So it was good to get to the dirty stuff with some help from an affable Roc native named Jason who showed us around some of the darker caverns in the city this week where you can get a sense of the conversations that bubble just below the surface. These places of decay feature some old school tags, rollers, characters, bubble letters, rants, political critique – the gamut. Also, homeless people, restless hoodies on BMX bikes, and funny smelling cigarette smoke wafting past you periodically.

We were really honored to speak at the museum Friday and to be introduced by the director Jonathan Binstock and Wall\Therapy founder Dr. Ian Wilson for our talk and show of a series of short films about the evolving Street Art scene globally. Memorial Art Gallery (MAG) is part of the University of Rochester and houses a huge encyclopedic collection of 12,000 works of art representing cultures from around the world and across millennia so to have the opportunity to share contemporary works from across this global grassroots art movement is especially gratifying and many in the audience came up afterward to talk about how inspiring this moment in art history is to them personally.

Typically academia and institutional support has been a few steps removed from this means of expression but the last decade and a half continues to see a shifting of perspectives by some who traditionally resisted the work in the streets. We’re just glad that we can continue to provide a platform for voices high and low, trained and self-taught, polished and in development – and the feedback we continue to get from you is that the work strikes a strong chord and we are grateful. Just to keep it real, here’s a tiny collection of work from Rochester’s organic urban art scene.

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring AX, Cash4, Eder Muniz, Freedom, FUA Krew, Icy and Sot, Jeff Soto, Mr PRVRT, ND’A, OverUnder, ROA, Smear, and Thievin Stephen.

FUA Krew commenting on the bulldozing of a homeless tent city in Rochester days before Christmas in December. Mayor Lovely Warren took a great amount of criticism for her decision in the press, and here in the tunnels. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

$Wall\Therapy 2015 Day 6$

Wall\Therapy 2015 Day 6

July 25, 2015 Artists

These have been a stunning few days here in Rochester with a dedicated crew of volunteers and artists is coming to it’s culmination as murals are finished or in their final stages. Again last night Onur and Wes21 were heading back to their wall right after the big celebratory dinner at The Yards – or as people call it, “The Nest”.

“This structure was designed to create a space for rest, relaxation, and rejuvenation. It was designed to rest tired minds flying back at the end of the day in the hot sun, on a lift and far from home,” said Yards member Sylvan Hemingway in a speech he gave to the group of 40 or so folks gathered at long tables in the collaborative art space. “The energy in this room is real and I am truly grateful that everyone in this wild family reunion is helping to create a dream-like production.”

This small city in Northwestern New York State is warm and very green and lush in this part of the summer, and neighbors assemble on lawnchairs in the shade of leafy trees to watch the artists going up and down in their cherry pickers or ladders – keeping a respectful distance so they don’t interrupt progress, but sometimes its too irresistible not to ask a question or two or take a picture.

As murals are completed the volunteers help to keep the paint and water supplies replenished and to keep an eye on the situation as many of the painters are here in the States for the first time or are simply not familiar with the environment. Aside from the occasional raving opinionator shaking a finger or asking curiously incomprehensible questions, the average observer is amenable.

Today it is raining and the sky is overcast so there is some sleeping-in late in the morning, but of course if you are still painting, it can be a rather unwelcome occurrence. Let’s see those last horses coming round the final corner to cross the finish line (which officially is Sunday).

Tomorrow we’ll give you a mini-wrap of the week –including our trip into some sketchy underground explorations off the beaten path infused with the sound of water gushing out of pipes and the smell of teen spirit wafting through the dimly tunnels that serve as magnets for restless youth with cans in hand. Have a look at these more sunny scenes from Thursday and Friday in the mean-time.

Eder Muniz hit the ground running in style on Thursday, quickly tracing out the natural/fantastic forms and figures that he later would be adding dimension and character to across a saturated cyan sea wall. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“People of Rochesterrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!” Sung to the tune of “Don’t Cry For Me Argentina” by Joe Guy Allard. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vexta acknowledges the people who stop by below with a sign of peace. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Local talent Nate Hodge in the zone as he becomes ever-more abstract and gestural working across his wall. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andreas Englund’s superheroic figure putting on his boots, or maybe he is shaking a stone out. Process shot. Wall Therapy 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For wall locations, schedule of events and further details about Wall Therapy 2015 Rochester click HERE

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