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Gender, Caste, and Crochet : OLEK Transforms a Shelter in Delhi

March 25, 2015 Artists, Interview

The fluorescent pink and orange sari skims the svelte frame of Brooklyn’s Olek as she glides across the dirt lot in Delhi’s South Extension with bags of yarn, needles and fabric slung over arms and shoulders.

The massive new acid fluorescent epidermal transformation has taken a week to complete and the street artist is keeping her head while managing the many hands who are helping, but under the eclectic glamour is always raw labor – and a generous dollop of drama.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

“It felt like I gave a birth to an oversize baby without any pain killers. I had to pull the black magic to make it happen. Physically and emotionally drained. Was it worth it? Absolutely YES,” she types onto her Facebook page to let friends and fans know that she has finished the seven-day marathon of crocheting and directing a full team of volunteers and St+Art Delhi organizers. Triumphant, she stands atop the woman’s shelter, a one story structure of corrugated metal and concrete 40 ft long and 8 foot high, with a fist in the air, a symbol of celebration as well as a show of solidarity with the sisterhood of those who helped her make it and those will seek refuge here when other options have been exhausted.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

“Raine Basera”, a night shelter for homeless women lies just off Sarai Kale Khan here in New Delhi and it is not far from some industrial parks, surrounded by buses and noise from the traffic and temporary markets. A part of the festival called St+Art Delhi 2015 this particular project is conceived to raise awareness of the shelter and its very existence to those families who need it. Given the chaos of color and decorative motifs that have characterized many of Olek’s street works, this is one more that will be hard to miss. In this city of about 11 million, there are actually 184 night shelters in the city of Delhi, and 10 Indian artists will be working with the Urban Shelter Department to paint more.

Speaking with Olek you learn that this was a joyful, painful project – made possible with the help of a number of people, but mostly because of the steely determination of the Street Artist who is defining and re-defining what it means to be an artist in public space, as well as a woman in the art world. Her vigor and her vision is genuine and her struggles with issues regarding poverty, gender, and empowerment were brought to the fore on a daily basis during this project. As usual, we are of the opinion this is still the beginning of what Olek will accomplish in the Street Art world and in the lives of others – for her the goals are multitudinous.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

We spoke with Olek about the experience in her first trip to India in the interview below. Following that is a short interview with one of the organizers from the St+Art India Foundation and the curator of this project, Giulia Ambrogi. Both help us position the work of Olek into a greater context in Indian society during this relatively new festival effort, now in its second year.

OLEK

Brooklyn Street Art: Was there a motif that you added to your repertoire of hearts and butterflies that was specific to this project?
OLEK: You know how when you write for a newspaper or a blog you always have to keep your audience in mind so you use a specific language to describe your ideas and thoughts. So for this project I had to think about my specific audience. There were the people in the shelter and the neighbors around it. Many of them are are simple people without education and maybe even illiterate so I wanted to create a visual work that was accessible and meaningful for them.

So for this project I drew from the basic Indian Iconography such as the elephant, the butterfly and flowers. Of course I have crocheted these motifs before in my work but this time I kept an Indian aesthetic with the shapes and forms and they were more visible within the context of the overall piece. In the case of the butterfly I see it as having a special connection with women.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: Was it easy to bridge the gaps between cultures when working with the women who assisted in the project?
OLEK: Well the women I was working with found me to be fascinating. Here comes this woman with tools and yarns and crochet and I think they are used to seeing men doing most of these things – who come and boss them around and tell them what to do. In my case I was sitting with them crocheting together and we were part of a team and at some point I was also wearing Indian clothes and making things happen. They were happy to see me telling the men around us that I was in control and that things were getting done. So due to my experience working with so many different people around the world in small villages in Poland, China and Hong Kong this aspect of the project was the easy part.

The crochet was our language. Once you show them how it all works and explain the project to them you get the respect right away. They liked seeing me working so fast and were shocked that it was actually possible to do this so fast. So once you get their respect it is actually quite easy to work with them. The language of making and producing art is beautiful and universal and you get the connection right away. Some of the women were volunteers but most of them we hired to work on this project. Of course there were other elements in this project that were more difficult but I have never in my life had a problem working with women.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: In addition to its aesthetic nature, how do you think about your work when you consider that it is literally sheltering women tonight as they sleep?
OLEK: The most shocking thing for me in India was these massive amount of people who are born in poverty and under a lower class or caste and they are convinced that they will never ever see or experience anything different from what they are accustomed to and people with a higher status in their society see them as “untouchables” and inferior. They were born poor they should die poor – that is the mentality. So for the time where we were working on this project they felt that the spotlight was on them and for once they weren’t invisible as cameras and people and noise was all around them and I think they felt that there was something special about them.

Maybe when they come to the shelter at night to sleep and see it transformed they will feel different and maybe they will be inspired to do something else with their lives. My intention as an artist was to show them that there might be a chance to change what was supposed to be in their lives to what it can actually could be. That of course is too little of a contribution from my part.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: What did you learn about these shelters that you would like people to know?
OLEK: Right now there are more shelters opening around Delhi than before. It is important for people to know that if they are homeless they have the shelters at night to sleep with a roof over their heads. But the sad part to me is that the conditions in the shelters are not so great. I saw them wearing their same clothes every day and I realized that what they had on them is all they have in their lives. Yet I didn’t see sadness on their faces. They are used to living under these conditions and they see it as their life. So all this time I was thinking how actually the project should be about getting them out of the shelters and provide them with education. Access to education is important everywhere. It changes everything. The beautiful kids I think don’t even go to school. They spend all day on the streets.

So I felt that the project was only half done and I didn’t have the time or resources to do the next step with them and spend more time with them. It was devastating to me to see the amount of pollution and garbage and dirt and in some cases I have this impression that some of them didn’t want to be helped because they believed that that was their lot in life by divine decree. I couldn’t understand that and the whole trip was confusing. So the experience left me half empty in way with a sense that the project was done – but only half done.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: When you were a teenager you read a biography of Jerzy Grotowski and his various travels, including his descriptions of India. How did that writing affect your experience visiting the country for the first time?
OLEK: I studied theater for a while in Poland when I was a teenager and I would go to theater festivals and that really influenced who I am right now. Grotowski had a brilliant mind and was an influential theorist and when I read that he went to India and that the trip totally changed him I was very impressed and I thought India must be a special land. I’ve been wanting to visit India for a long time but I was also waiting for the right time to visit – when there was a purpose for the trip and the right project.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

But the land that he saw with his eyes was during the 1970’s. I wish I had more time and I will have more time, to go back and travel and re-visit and really see the country more fully. But I think that what influenced me wasn’t necessarily about the religion, the colors, the textures, the beauty of the country. What influenced me the most was the poor India. I have never seen so much plastic and garbage in my life on the streets. I saw cows eating plastic on the street. The garbage and pollution is just growing and growing and it is insane. So this was my influence from this trip and I think I could never compare it to Grotowski’s trip during the 70s. But I can see how the trip to India changed him and influenced his life in theater.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: Tell us about your sari. We don’t remember seeing you making one of those for yourself before.
OLEK: I bought a sari because I was invited to attend a wedding while I was in India and I wanted to feel appropriate. I probably don’t fit in most places but when I’m invited I like to pay respect to the local customs. So together with my assistant we went to the store full of saris and took in the whole experience. You buy a sari then you have to hire someone to put it on you and I loved it. From the beginning I told people that I wanted to wear a sari while working instead of wearing western fashions. People noticed how comfortable I was wearing a sari for the first time and when they remarked about that I told them I’m around so much fabric all the time that I can easily wear a sari.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

It is interesting because to me a sari is a sexy dress. Your body is so exposed so it was confusing to me to see all the women wearing such a dress in such a conservative country. It is a very comfortable dress and nothing falls off of you. They pinned everything to keep it all in place. You go to get fitted and out of the same fabric a tailor makes the top and the underskirt and you can choose from many designs for the top. The tailor is not in the store where the sari is purchased. You have to leave and go someplace else for the fitting. But they can make it all in two hours. I loved seeing the women in India being very comfortable with their bodies. Women of all shapes and sizes wear the saris with the utmost comfort.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

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A brief interview with Giulia Ambrogi from the St+art India Foundation:

BSA: For her installation Olek was assisted by a number of diverse volunteers whom she first taught about the crochet needs of the project. What was the incentive that motivated all these people who helped her?
Giulia: Actually most of the women were already trained because they belong to the “Indian crochet community”, a reality that we were pretty surprised to discover. All of them knew Olek’s work and were extremely enthusiastic to have such an occasion to be together and to practice their passion for a wider cause. This big community doesn’t have many initiatives dedicated to crochet so this project, by being so ambitious, public and based on a social cause was per se the main incentive for all of them.

Many other volunteers instead have been with us since the day 1 of St+art Delhi 2015. They are mostly really young and they just love urban art and what all we are bringing in the city. Thus, they are keen to be part of the project, to be in a stimulating environment and to give their contribution. It was amazing to see how all these people from different backgrounds and different ages (from 18 to 60) collaborated together and how strong was the feeling to be a big family.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: Women in India are often at huge disadvantage financially and socially when compared to the status that men hold in society. What is the significance of bringing women artists to install their work on the streets of India?
Giulia: First of all realize artworks in the streets is already a sort of revolution. Public spaces, especially if peripheral, are most of the time neglected and are crowded mostly by lower social classes. The process of creating huge artworks for everybody’s eyes and the attitude of the artists and the team of involving everyone and gathering people under the signs of art-making and artworks – which is absolutely new in India, is an empowering breakthrough or a certain kind.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

By calling women artists we enhanced this prolific dynamic. It meant that we introduced a change, showing both to men and women that no matter the gender and the class, everyone has the same strength and rights of living, appropriating and positively acting in public spaces. Olek’s work brings back to the streets a tradition that is usually practiced by women in the private and closed environment of their homes. Also, this work highlighted the power of people, especially women, when they cooperate together. Aiko’s work celebrates the most dangerous and powerful woman in Indian history, Rani Lakshmi Bai, who became and still is the symbol of women empowerment.

Many things are changing in India and it is a transitional moment in which we try and hope to give our contributions by designing artistic interventions based on critical and current topics.

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

BSA: We have written before about Aiko’s participation in St+ART Delhi. We wrote that her contribution was a departure from her highly sexualized iconography. Would it have been impossible for her to paint her sexually charged women in India? Can you tell us about the character whom she chose to paint and why she selected that character within the context of the festival?
Giulia: By painting her characteristic women in very sexualized scenes, her work would have been meaningless within the Indian environment. Not just deeply disrespectful it would have been totally sterile because it would not have been in dialogue with the cultural context. Since the beginning of the project Lady Aiko asked about Indian culture with the intention of creating a powerful and empowering work in relation to the country.

After some brainstorming she fell in love with both the story and the iconography of Rani Lakshmi Bai. She was the most dangerous leader in Indian history, a symbol of resistance to the rule of the British Company. In her brief time she cast aside many conventions to unite peoples of all castes and religions in her cause.

She encouraged other women to do the same and trained them to fight and support the army. She cut across the social norms of the time, refusing to accept her fate ‘as a woman’. So in this case Aiko’s piece was mainly the symbol of women empowerment…and much sexier than pin ups in this sense!

Olek (photo © Pranav Mehta/St+ARTIndia)

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The organizers would like to thank fashion companies Tarun Tahiliani and Manish Arora for contributing materials and labor, Allkraftz & Usha Sewing Machines, The Polish Culture Institute, the Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board (DUSIB), and all the volunteers and participants who helped make this project happen.

We would like to thank the organizers of ST+ART Delhi; the curator Giulia Ambrogi and Pranav Mehta for the photos. And of course to Olek for taking the time to answer our questions.

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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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MOMO Paints Massive Work Across Lobby in Boston

March 24, 2015 Artists, Interview

Corporate Space, Happy Universal Shapes, and Additive Averaging

Two unusual aspects distinguish todays’ posting. One is that the featured project by the remarkable street artist MOMO is not actually on the street, rather it is in a corporate lobby – a quasi public/private place far removed from the origins and ethos of most Street Artists’ work. Secondly, the interview is conducted by our guest Kate Gilbert rather than us. An artist, curator, and creative strategist, Kate directs a Boston non-profit that curates and produces independent public art projects. We really enjoyed the conversation that she and MOMO had while he was in the midst of a two week installation – and we knew you would like it too.

~ by Kate Gilbert

In February the Brooklyn/New Orleans street artist MOMO arrived in Boston in the midst of Snowpocalypse ‘15, an unrelenting series of snowstorms and freezing temperatures that left Boston under 93” of snow. Undaunted by it all, MOMO completed a massive 250’ x 34’ mural over eighteen nights in the lobby of Boston’s iconic John Hancock Building bringing his signature combination of blending techniques, harmonious colors and universal forms to warm up the austere lobby and its wintery surrounds.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

The following is an excerpt from an interview I had with MOMO on his fourteenth night of painting, which followed a brief talk he gave with project curator Pedro Alonzo.

Kate Gilbert: So it’s 20 degrees in Boston tonight and the thermometer is stuck at 20 degrees. The snow isn’t melting, and there’s ice everywhere; it’s permanent. So first of all I want to thank you for bringing this to us. It’s great color and smart design.
MOMO: Cool, I’m glad you like it.

KG: One of the things I wanted to bring back from your conversation with Pedro is this idea of universal shapes and appealing colors. That’s something we don’t usually hear coming out of the mouth of an artist who originally started in the street.
MOMO: Pedro’s first question took me off guard because I hadn’t quite heard that from anyone. He said the murals made him feel good, and why was that. I didn’t quite have an answer ready then but I’ve thought a lot about it since and it reminds me that I have this great love for David Hockney’s swimming pools. A sunny landscape has a certain key of colors and mix of shadows and this variety of things that feels like it’s at the peak spectral combination of all these formal things like shade and value, and it lets us know it’s a sunny landscape.

Something about that really appeals to me. At different moments I’ve wished my art could be associated with swimming pools, cabanas, and beach towels – those things that are, for me, a godsend in terms of mood and inspiration.

I spent a lot of time in the south and I love a tropical climate and things like that feel really alive and vital. It’s no coincidence that I take so much inspiration from Jamaica. Not just the nature there but also their culture seems to respond to this vivid set of conditions. I want to put that in the paintings and I hope that is what’s coming through in what Pedro mentioned about being happy.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: I think so. It’s happy and, especially at this time of year in Boston, we’re all keyed in to anything that’s happy.
MOMO: Good. I realized quite late that I respond well to warm climates and it’s why I stay in the South primarily. And I do think a majority of these forms keep repeating. They’ve come up in different ways through the years.

KG: Are they forms that you’re testing on the street? When you say universal, are they universal in your artistic vocabulary, or do you think for they’re universal for all of us?
MOMO: They’re meant to be simple and universal so the audience might enjoy these as their own, being just colors and lines, spectrums and harmonies.

For instance I’m relying heavily on just the impact of red. Or the right orange-red which I feel is lit by sunlight. It’s not so much a narrative or a meaning implied on top, it’s the concrete materiality of the work that has to carry the oomph.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: Picking up on this idea of materiality, the space has this well, let me just say, it’s pretty unique. Have you ever worked in a space like this before?
MOMO: No, this is the best architectural chance I’ve ever had to do something, indoor or outdoor.

KG: What are you responding to in this space?
MOMO: The chrome columns are undeniably weird and fun and that’s led me to make the fat lines somewhat in scale with them, or in-and-out of scale with them. There’re a lot of vertical bands. Down there [pointing to the NE side] there’re a lot of noodly ones that are just going their own way. It struck me that having a conversation with those floor-to-ceiling forms was an obvious way to respond.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: There’s this sort of forest effect going on.
MOMO: Yeah, there’s a forest! They have a gesture. Everything in here is real straight lines and clean and feels like it’ll last for the ages. But the columns do have a gesture and it’s right in front of the painting.

Besides the columns, everything in the lobby is a super straight, flat surface. I’ve tried to play off of that with soft forms so the building can show off. I’m doing something complementary in a way.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: You’re creating a visual conversation with the architects. I’d love to see you in a room with I.M. Pei’s office. What would you say to them?
MOMO: I’d be interesting to see how this building has grown or developed on its own because it’s probably not the way the architect left it. They’ve designed security in a way that wasn’t part of the initial pedestrian flow.

KG: There’s this great performance going on here with people entering and leaving through the security desk, even now at 6 pm.
MOMO: And cleaning crews! It takes a huge staff to keep the building up to its standards.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: So did you consider this audience or who’d be coming and going when you were making the work?
MOMO: Yeah, of course. First thing, I tried to identify was where people would see the wall the most frequently, or where they’d spend the most time. Because the wall is framed by the columns, you get a grouping of available vignettes.

I took the ends to have special significance. At one end there are tables and chairs where you can relax in a communal café area. I thought those areas should be dressed up in a way so you could look at them for longer periods of time. Then the center, I kept things more serious and somber because it has this stately serious pretense with the check-in desk and security being there. I tried to look at the space anthropologically.

KG: So the painting in the center is more serious? Is that represented in the darker, gray pinstripes created through…what do you call it, additive averaging?
MOMO: Yes, the particular color theory we’re working with when we add these gray tones is called additive averaging. I guess they just happened in the center by chance. The center is where subtle mixes are happening and the darker colors are coming through. In general, I want the whole thing to feel light but it needed to be grounded somewhere, especially there, so it didn’t seem silly.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: I don’t think your work could ever be interpreted as silly.
MOMO: Oh that’s good because I want to take it right to the edge like a dance performance. Certainly dance can be seen as flippant or pure whimsy. But if it is balanced and well done, somehow it can go right to the edge and still be serious.

KG: Your work is serious and I get the sense everything is very thought-out and methodical. Were there any surprises when you got here?
MOMO: We changed everything! It’s been so much work! Struggling, redesigning, you know, minutes before we go. Part of that is because we weren’t able to use the sprayers. That was my mistake in understanding how much dust they were going to dump into their surroundings. We struggled a few days trying to make it work with a spray tent and it was not possible. So without the sprayers we couldn’t do the giant sweeping color gradations.

That meant things had to be redesigned so they’d still be exciting while staying unblended. I tried to break up the backgrounds that the stripes are going over, so there’d still be a number of colors changing. It wasn’t a solution just to switch fades for single colors, because I had to break things up in a way that’d keep them interesting.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: That sucks.
MOMO: No, it’s okay actually. Somehow the sprays that I do outdoors are a rough thing. I don’t even know if they were working that well in this refined space. It has a texture that would be a little out of step with the high-polish feeling here.

KG: As a result, have you invented any new techniques while working here?
MOMO: Oh, that’s a good question! I’m doing this thing between all of my helpers where I’m taking screenshots off of the computer where I’m designing, sending them in emails, and then we’re all following the sketches on our phones. I feel like there’s a big potential there to synch everyone up in a detailed way. I used to print everything out and keep it in a laminated pocket which is good so you don’t drop your phone in a bucket of paint, but this is kinda better.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: So maybe there’s a MOMO app in your future?
MOMO: Or maybe I need a phablet – a phone tablet where I can do all my Photoshopping and it hangs off my neck.

KG: All right, let’s get you a sponsor! I did want to get back to that audience question. When you’re working outside doing your posters between 3 and 6 am I assume you don’t want to interact with anyone. When you’re here, are you interacting with people? Or are you just trying to get your work done?
MOMO: We’re interacting and keeping our ears open. It’s fun to just feel what the response is like. We hear a lot from the security guys because they’re here all night. It’s been really positive from those people and other people who’ve come by and have an interest in art.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

KG: It is really hard to take in the mural all at once. Even from the outside because of these crazy columns, multiple doors and reflections. The most similar project you’ve done might be the Living Walls project because you could only see it all from within a car. Is there a way to see this mural? A narrative?
MOMO: I think it’s a sequential piece of artwork. Because you see pieces at a time and sorta have a chance to forget the first one that you saw by the time you get to the end. There’s not a way to see the whole composition all at once. That doesn’t exist. It’s like changing panels on any other media.

The thing in Atlanta has this opportunity for foreshortening. I tried to make it interesting if you were to stand in front of it, but also it collapsed all 1,000 feet into an instant image. Here you can’t really see everything collapsed.

It’s been fun to see how much it’s reflecting on the glass inside at night. I hadn’t seen that other times I’d checked out the spot. The chrome columns cast and catch all kinds of parts in new weird ways.

KG: Yeah, it’s going to be a really fun challenge for someone to photograph! Is there anything else you’d want Boston and beyond to know about this work?
MOMO: I feel really privileged to be working here in such a great, high-level type community and given such an amazing piece of architecture to explore. I’m just extremely grateful to everyone that made this possible and extended the necessary faith. The support has been great and Pedro’s been amazing.

MOMO (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

Our special thanks to photographer Geoff Hargadon for sharing his shots of this hard-to-shoot mural for BSA readers.

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MOMO’s mural is the first in a three-part series of temporary public projects commissioned by Boston Properties and curated by Pedro Alonzo. It is on view at the John Hancock Tower (200 Clarendon Street, Boston MA 02116) now through May 31, 2015.

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Kate Gilbert is an artist, public art curator, and the director of Now and There, a new start up dedicated to creating impactful temporary public art projects in Greater Boston. When she’s not buried in snow she’s Tweeting as @kgilbertstudio and @now_and_there.

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BSA 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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NeverCrew, Andreas Englund, Onur Dinc, KKade, and Dot Dot Dot at Urban Nation

March 23, 2015 Artists

Street Art is this enormous moveable and on-the-move feast for the eyes and mind and heart. The players and places change, the songs and the dancing revolves, the color and texture everchanging. Exploring Street Art in Berlin is like wandering onstage at the Metropolitan Opera during Wagner’s Ring and discovering that there is a superstar DJ with lasers, a death metal band, and a poetry jam on live horses as well. Die Fledermaus meets DeadMaus meets Mickey Mouse.

Mounting a show with Urban Nation (UN) in windows and the gallery was already a feast for senses, but in addition Yasha Young invited guest performers to join in the festivities, making every movement new and many of them revelatory.

So while 12 artists from Brooklyn were mounting Project M/7 we also had the opportunity to see and meet new folks we had not seen before – The NeverCrew (Switzerland) , Andreas Englund (Sweden), Onur Dinc (Switzerland), KKade (Switzerland), and Dot Dot Dot (Norway). Actually DDD was a Nuart last year but evidently was very shy.

Today we wanted to share with you these additional dishes that were on the table at the UN feast, these talented folk deserve their own posting and we are pleased to share them with you.

Onur Dinc (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Onur Dinc (photo © courtesy of @urbannationberlin)

Andreas Englund (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NeverCrew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KKade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A KKade observer one second before she began cursing at us and waving us away. Oops! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KKade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DotDotDot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Nation Walls took place in conjunction with Project M7 “Persons Of Interest”. The walls are currently on view 24/7 at:

URBAN NATION
Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

http://www.urban-nation.net/

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.22.15

March 22, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Can we please not talk about snow? Spring, you temptress.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Angelina Christina, Bifido, BiP, Bortusk Leer, C215, Chris Stain, Crummy Gummy, Dan Witz, Dave the Chimp, Ease One, El Bocho, Icy & Sot, Little Lucy, London Kaye, Never, Otto “Osch” Shade, Peter Phobia, Punk Paul, Tuco, and Zid Leon.

Top Image >> C215 in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye. So, if you are made of crochet, do you get cold? Also see the Smells tag floating above this little lady. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Angelina Christina, Ease One and Never painted this wall in the Summer of 2014. I really never took a good photo of it due to cars always parked in front. The harsh winter conditions of the New York Winter 2015 made possible for me to take this photo. On a great day like this, as we endure our 154th snowstorm of the season, many of us have low hopes for the spring. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tuco. Manimal Chimp in Switzerland from his “Manimal” series. This image also looks rather like it was shot on the set of a TV show. More on this artist to come shortly. (photo © Tuco Wallach)

El Bocho in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Bocho . Little Lucy in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Little Lucy in Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido in Caserta, Italy. (photo © Bifido)

Chris Stain in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spotted this ceramic sculpture perched on a beam on the platform of the Berlin metro. This is the only one we saw so we are thinking it wasn’t sanctioned art. Who is the artist? That gold crown looks familiar. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BiP in San Francisco, California. (photo © BiP)

Otto “Osch” Schade in Shoreditch, London. (photo © Kate O’Callaghan)

Would you like a ride in my golf cart? Peter Phobia in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bortusk Leer in Madrid, Spain. (photo © Bortusk Leer)

Crummy Gummy in Las Vegas, Nevada. (photo © Crummy Gummy)

Oof! My head! Must have been those last few shots. Dave The Chimp in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zid Leon in Berlin in line for the porta-potty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Punk Life, No Limit in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Um, personal comment: beauty queens should not smoke. It sends the wrong message to impressionable kids. That is all. Nick Flatt and Punk Paul in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy and Sot in Berlin for Urban Nation One Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Layers in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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See the Gallery Show! The BSA-UN PM/7 Pop-Up Exhibition

March 21, 2015 Artists

Behind the Scenes for the Brooklyn-Berlin Pop-Up

Last Saturday the 14th the public was invited to an open reception to meet the artists who had flown to Berlin to create new portraits for Urban Nation (UN), curated by BSA.

Don Rimx checks his original illustration on his phone while creating much larger color version on the wall at the UN Gallery Pop-Up show (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The companion show for “Persons of Interest” at the UN Gallery is a pop-up show by the same Brooklyn artists whose portrait works were in the windows of the future museum but there were two important differences from those installations:

1. The artist had no limitations or guidelines regarding the subject or style of their chosen piece
2. The installation was to be mounted directly on the wall and not for sale.

Don Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

After asking each artist to research and select their “person of interest” for the main windows and façade of the UN, it only seemed fair that we put no restrictions on the content or inspiration for their other piece for the opening to allow more free expression.

While we like gallery shows that sell art it felt much more natural to see the artists hit the walls directly as they would on the street – from floor to ceiling and side by side, they created a sort of continuum that lead out of the gallery doors out to the walls of this much-decorated city.

Don Rimx “Ache”, a bendicion in the spirit of his birthplace of Puerto Rico.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Because these new artworks will have a limited run that ends in their destruction, the experience for the gallery goer of viewing them is an acknowledgement that the roots of this art-making practice embraces its ephemeral quality.

Something about that fact makes the work more immediate, more consequential, knowing that the work you are viewing on the street may not be there tomorrow. Each one of these artists knows this on the street, something another kind of artist may find difficult to accept or incorporate into their thinking.

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In the first couple of days everyone was recovering from serious NY-Berlin jet lag, and a handful of the artists were wearing the same clothes they arrived in while waiting for their luggage that was stuck in Düsseldorf because of a strike by bag handlers. One artist missed his plane, others got a little lost on the metro, and there were two lost phones – but these are small problems once you are confronted with a blank wall next to 11 peers on which to create something amazing.

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It is a prospect full of opportunities and maybe a little bit of anxiety, but each artist brought their A-game and knew they were in a supportive environment. They also created it – reaching out to help with a brush or a ladder or can of paint, a word of advice and some problem solving too. Ultimately they were total professionals with skillz to lay down. By adapting and excelling at their work, the collective effect that this eclectic harmony produced clearly energized the crowd that overflowed onto the sidewalks Saturday night.

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The result on the gallery walls is an acid rainbow pop of personality, metaphor, text, pattern, socio/political commentary, activism, and a tribute to ancestors. Each artist brought their individual style and approach to gallery walls in much the same way that appears on the street. For a few it was the first time meeting while others were long-time friends and clearly some were fans of each others work.

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One coincidence that sort of blew us away was that Don Rimx and Specter both told us that their pieces were meant to be a “blessing” to their hosts; Rimx featuring a re-worked traditional image of a Puerto Rican grandmother and overflowing bucket of water – “the source of life” he said, and Specters post-modern repetition of leaves from a plant that he said you would bring someone as a gift. Neither had consulted with the other or us, and yet both mounted these pieces side-by-side.

Any day you get to work with artists is a good day – especially driven dynamic talented ones who are always challenging themselves, digging deeper to pull out something that speaks, that means something. These few precious days in Berlin with these few artists were very good days indeed for us and we hope for them too.

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon’s undulating biomorphic and ornate paper cuts were at center stage of the gallery, wrapped around the columns in the middle of the room.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olivia from Swoon’ Studio working on the installation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter took off his shoes to create but remained in his long-johns while waiting for his luggage to arrive a day and a half after him. This plant was understated and yet commanded attention – this guy is one of the most intellectually adventurous in his street practice, easily sliding between mediums and concepts. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain prepped his wall by tagging the surface multiple times in multiple colors and mucking it up with a roller – effectively bringing the street into the gallery so he could paste his new longer form enigmatic collage portrait on it and within the sea of colors and texture. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain likes to work alone so he took his body parts and pieces into the adjacent store room to assemble and reassemble, spray, color, cut out, selectively damage or damask – a process that allows for experimentation and discovery while the artist relies on some intuitive guidance to get to the final piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain and Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Some place in there you’ll find Chris Stain at work on his piece – an artist whose work always reflects the people you see on the street and in your neighborhood. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain brings a bit of Brooklyn to Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia’s gallery piece was directly related to his portrait of Fereshta Ludin that he completed for the “Persons of Interest” window installation. An artist who makes a fulsome study of his subject matter and the historical/social/political/anthropological factors that surround it – Gaia here incorporated the marching mass of right wing anti-Islamic Pegida demonstrators as a backdrop to a disembodied draped head scarf, a symbol of religious expression by Muslim women. Posted on the front, with dropped shadow to pop it forward, is a published interview with Ms. Ludin -who attended the opening reception last Saturday, meeting the artist and us in person for the first time. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia, Ms. Farestha Ludin and Steven P. Harrington (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia and Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 and the German translation of “Here today, gone tomorrow”, his reference to the ephemerality of the graffiti/street art game, and perhaps larger existential considerations. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For some, these are two essential products to survive while painting in a foreign country (or at home) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot used this opportunity to create something more abstract than the work that they are known for, which can be quickly understood. According to a few people at the opening, they liked it more than the brother’s typical work for that reason, so it was successful in that respect. Icy explained that it is a crouching figure with a mashup of a destroyed city within it. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nice Keds dude… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake . Swoon . Dain . Gaia . Chris Stain CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . El Sol 25 . Esteban Del Valle . NohJColey . Gaia CLICK ON IMAGE TO ENLARGE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx . Specter . Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Project M/7 “Persons Of Interest” Street level exhibition and the Pop-Up show are currently on view and free to the general public at:

URBAN NATION
Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany

Opening Hours
Monday-Friday 10.00 -18.00

http://www.urban-nation.net/

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BSA Film Friday 03.20.15

March 20, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Lucy McLauchlan: Coexist
2.Boa Mistura: Live To Learn/Vive Para Aprender
3.FINDAC “Magnificent 7”
4. The art of Andrzej Urbanski by Rowan Pybus
5. SOLO fifteen hours in London: The Magpie Project

Lucy McLauchlan: Coexist

Do you get high? Listen to this soundtrack and go full screen and contemplate Lucy as she dialates your eyeballs with a black and white mural titled “Coexist”. Just released, the scene is from the Bien Urbain festival from two years ago in Besançon, but thanks to these scratching popping beats by Photay it actually takes place in a lost afternoon. Dude, don’t fall out of the cherry picker bucket!

Boa Mistura: Live To Learn/Vive Para Aprender

A meditative look at a monochromatic mural by Boa Mistura in India. The narrator breaks it down for you.

“LIVE TO LEARN”

Shiva’s three eyes (the Present, the Past and the Future) with the Lotus flower, symbol of purity on top.
“Live as if you are going to die tomorrow. Learn as if you are going to live forever”, a quote by Mahatma Gandhi tattooed on the four arms of Sarasvati, Goddess of the fine arts.

Ganesh, God of intelligence and wisdom, the plumage of the peacock, God of War, a Baobab, tree of life…

With all this imaginary, present in all India, we created the image of the Tiger, victory over any force, and we tattoed it on this old corner of Delhi

FINDAC “Magnificent 7”

“A film of 7 portraits created by urban aesthetic artist FIN DAC in Dublin, Ireland.”

A top quality view of the artist and the work. The word “magnificent” is perfectly appropriate here.

The art of Andrzej Urbanski by Rowan Pybus

A short film introducing the art of Andrzej Urbanski, you get to see and hear what makes him tick. An excellent description of his goals, motivations, frustrations, and inspiration.

SOLO fifteen hours in London: The Magpie Project

A nice home made timelapse video of SOL painting in Brick Lane. Obviously the guy is inspired by comic books and superheroes. Fun!

Ben Eine and a Sheikh in Abu Dhabi: Beauty Is In The Eye Of The Beholder

March 19, 2015 Artists

Banksy may be sought after by the Prime Minister of Israel but one of his old mates Ben Eine is shaking cans and hitting up an embassy with a Sheikh in the UAE.

Ben Eine. Presenting a gift to His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan. Abu Dhabi. British Embassy. March 2015. (photo © courtesy of JB.PR)

Five years after Mr. Obama and Mrs. Obama received a Ben Eine piece for their art collection, the list of important office holders who want a piece of the letterman’s glow has grown longer than your arm and sword. Not bad for a former insurance salesman and graffiti artist who reportedly was convicted of criminal damage a few times for spraying around town. Things are rather looking up!

Ben Eine. Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan “tagging” the wall. Abu Dhabi. British Embassy. March 2015. (photo © courtesy of JB.PR)

Now Mr. Eine is using his aerosol skillz to teach willing student Sheikhs how to improve their hand style in broad daylight before a cluster of snapping cameras for the debut of his new solo show Hand in Hand just opened at the Dubai gallery ARTSPACE in anticipation of the international art fair Art Dubai 2015 which begins Saturday. For an art form whose beginnings are associated in many minds with youth of modest means vandalizing private property, this is a remarkable development.

Ben Eine. Abu Dhabi. British Embassy. March 2015. (photo © courtesy of JB.PR)

So it has come to pass that the UAE and the UK are bonding over graffiti – or rather, murals. Since this sort of public expression of creativity is rather new in Abu Dhabi it was worthy of a ceremony that is captured here for you. Featured in addition to the artist are His Excellency Sheikh Nahyan bin Mubarak Al Nahyan and Her Majesty’s Ambassador Philip Parham – each tagging (err, inaugurating) a wall while the British Council Country Director, Marc Jessel admires the work with an appreciative crowd. Well Done!

The joyous art affair was all completed in the name of cross-cultural awareness and exchange, and the 40-meter mural on side of the embassy reads “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” How true that is, wouldn’t you agree?

Ben Eine. Abu Dhabi. British Embassy. March 2015. (photo © courtesy of JB.PR)

Ben Eine. Her Majesty’s Ambassador Philip Parham tagging the wall. Abu Dhabi. British Embassy. March 2015. (photo © courtesy of JB.PR)

Ben Eine. Abu Dhabi. British Embassy. March 2015. (photo © courtesy of JB.PR)

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Complete “Persons of Interest”: Brooklyn in Berlin

March 18, 2015 Artists

All the Works Completed for Project M/7 at Urban Nation with BSA

Our trip to Berlin with 12 of Brooklyn’s finest street artists was a quintessential cultural exchange; bringing together artists, curators, social activists, ministers of art, museum board CEOS, collectors, gallerists, fans, and the director of a future museum called Urban Nation. The seventh Project M, a program to draw artists and attention to the enormous UN haus while it is under construction, was called “Persons of Interest”. All week we got to meet interesting people – not a surprise in this raw cultural hot spot that bubbles with an effervescent underground and creative laboratory that is full of youthful vigor and serendipity.

Icy & Sot. “Persons of Interest” Portrait of an unknown girl from Brooklyn to the people of Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How fitting then that our first youthful arrivals were Icy & Sot, who set the tone with their 4 story portrait of an anonymous Brooklyn woman with “Freedom” scrawled across her face, an iconic scene of the celebrants at Berlin’s fallen wall inside her. With one of the brothers turning 24 that week, it was even more touching to see them marking an important event that predated him by one year – a new generation of artists helping us identify what events of the modern age are truly touchstones.

The 176 piece stencil had taken about 10 days for them to cut back in Brooklyn and the brothers methodically sprayed their missive to Berlin’s people over the course of 5 more days. This, their largest mural ever, was enormous and peaceful and an incredible act of discipline, determination, and dedication to teamwork.

Icy & Sot. “Persons of Interest” Portrait of an unknown girl from Brooklyn to the people of Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. A passer by spans a photo of the completed mural with her iPad. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Persons of Interest” was meant to celebrate the connections between the lively artists communities in these sister cities over the last few decades, and being in Berlin felt like home to most of the artists in many ways. The curatorial vision was also meant to counter the criticism of many of the new Street Art mural festivals that have taken hold in cities around the world that they are not considering their hosts and to help focus on the neighborhoods where the new works appear.

Icy & Sot. “Persons of Interest” Portrait of an unknown girl from Brooklyn to the people of Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake at work on her portrait of Käthe Kollwitz. “Persons of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Undeniably the Internet has supercharged this worldwide peoples’ art movement and has allowed us to learn about and connect with artists and their street work as we never would have encountered previously. It also has created a strata of international artists whose names appear again and again on these festival lists and while it is sort of exciting, it also is producing a sort of cultural imperialism that leaves a sour taste in the mouths of locals who don’t feel a connection to the artists or the art works that remain in their neighborhoods long after the festival has ended.

Our aim with “Persons of Interest” was to suggest a new model that may also be considered, one that is based on impactful work and meaningful exchange.

From this experiment that took us roughly six months to conceive, organize, and execute, we discovered two things:

1. Artists actually like to do research and create art that is meaningful and relevant to their personal stories, and
2. Many street passersby and art audiences are elated to find work that they can relate to – that reflects their lives, history, and culture.

Cake at work on her portrait of Käthe Kollwitz. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake her portrait of Käthe Kollwitz. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Each of the artists had really challenged themselves to learn about the city they were making work for, and each had a story that also spoke of their own. Every day we were learning from them and they were learning from each other and without hesitation our hosts were schooling us as well.

Of course it helps when you are working with a dynamic urban contemporary art expert like Yasha Young, who has a deep well of ideas about community and more connections than the WiFi router at a One Direction concert. All week we were treated to a rotating list of visiting photographers, videographers, art directors, reporters, radio hosts, writers, culture mavens — and to many artists who were in town to put up new walls, show us their black books and iPhoto libraries, or just to meet their New York friends who were painting in the gallery.

Dain on the left with Gaia on the right at work on their portraits for “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shout out to Onur Dinc, Andreas Englund, Herakut, The Never Crew, KKade, Various & Gould, Strok, David Walker, FKDL, James Bullough, Vermibus, Roland Henry, Nika Kramer, Butterfly, Mark Rigney and other very cool well-wishers. While we’re at it, we all send a gold-plated shout out to the three women who kept us all cared for in so many ways in the gallery and on-site at the UN – Alejandra, Elisabetta, and Ana were indispensable.

Dain at work on his portrait of Marlene Dietrich. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain. Portrait of Marlene Dietrich. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Speaking of meeting interesting people, a huge highlight of the program for us was when two of the artists got to meet their “Person of Interest” face to face. We had arranged a surprise visit of one of them; NohJColey had no idea that Katharina Oguntoye would walk on the sidewalk in front of the UN and peer in the window where he was preparing his portrait of her.

To witness the enthusiasm with which they greeted one another and to hear them excitedly asking and answering each others questions regarding his work as an artist in Brooklyn and hers as an Afro German feminist in Berlin was the epitome of art as a catalyst for cultural exchange. We didn’t know life could be so rich.

Gaia at work on his portrait of Fereshta Ludin. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia’s person of interest, Fereshta Ludin also attended the opening in person on Saturday night, the first time that the two had met in person. Only two days before a Berlin law had been overturned allowing Muslim school teachers to wear headscarves – and Ms. Ludin has been a social activist advocating for the right for the last decade and a half.

The politics around this of course are highly charged and there have been xenophobic right-wing marches against Muslims and others in their defense in the streets in Berlin in recent months. Meeting Ms. Ludin in person and seeing her reaction to Gaia’s portrait of her gave such a powerful additional dimension to the entire experience of “Persons of Interest” that we never could have predicted when we first conceived of it. Gaia said it was a “life affirming moment”.

Gaia’s portrait of Fereshta Ludin in progress. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Probably what is most gratifying is when you see someone’s eyes light up with recognition at seeing one of their icons brought to life. One woman told us that she couldn’t believe that El Sol 25 knew Hannah Höch so well. Was it that she couldn’t imagine a former graff writer honoring the central female figure of Berlin’s Dada movement? We were shocked when a UN board director told us Marlene Dietrich had grown up in the same neighborhood where this new DAIN portrait of her was going up – we even met someone who went to her funeral here in ’92!

In the final analysis once again we witnessed the creative spirit alive and well in the street and in the gallery. Unlike early graffiti writers, these artists come from different backgrounds and disciplines – yet all intersected with art in the public sphere in New York; graffiti writers, muralists, painters, wheat-pasters, paper cutters… In Berlin you would have thought that they all had been working together for years, the collaborative spirit was so high – and luckily for us, Berlin welcomed them all.

Gaia. Portrait of Fereshta Ludin. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Olivia from Swoon’s Studio at work on “Cairo”. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon and her tribute to Turkish immigrants for “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohjColey at work on his portrait of Katharina Oguntoye. “Persons Of Interest” UN PM/7 Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The photo above captures the moment when NohJColey learns that Ms. Oguntoye is outside on the sidewalk looking at him through the window working on his portrait of her.

In the photo you see Ms. Oguntoye meeting NohJColey for the first time.

Urban Nation Project M/7 “Persons of Interest” is currently on view on the streets of Berlin until June 22nd at Bülowstraße 97
10738 Berlin-Schöneberg, Germany.

For more details on each artist’s Person of Interest click on the links below:

CAKE and Käthe Kollwitz, “Persons of Interest”

Chris Stain and Charles Bukowski – “Persons of Interest”

DAIN and Marlene Dietrich – “Persons of Interest”

Don Rimx and John A. Roebling – “Persons of Interest”

Esteban Del Valle and George Grosz – “Persons of Interest”

El Sol 25 and Hannah Höch – “Persons of Interest”

GAIA and Fereshta Ludin – “Persons of Interest”

ICY & Sot and Berlin’s People – “Persons of Interest”

NohJColey and Katharina Oguntoye – “Persons of Interest”

Specter and Sally Montana – “Persons of Interest”

Swoon and Turkish Immigrants – “Persons of Interest”

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From Katherine Brooks at the Huffington Post, an interview with us and more images to recap.

Rukkit . OKUDA . João Samina at St+ART Delhi 2015

March 17, 2015 Artists

Here are new exclusive shots of three artists at work for the Indian street art festival called St+Art Delhi.

Bangkok based Rukkit digs the multicolored graphic approach that Okuda works with but says he favors animals over abstract and we’ll say possibly folkloric over modern. Well versed in sculpture, Rukkit is a graphic designer/art director who digs stencil more than anything else on the street.

His second year at St.Art Delhi, Okuda began his outdoor work in the factories and rail lines of his home town of Santander, Spain in the late 90s. His body of work has matured into galleries and private collections but the energy of his street work is still present after traveling to many street/urban festivals around the world in the last five years – including Brooklyn, Miami, Lisbon, Johannesburg, and Hamburg.

João Samina is a self-taught artist from Lisbon who started slapping stickers in the late 90s as a teenager and worked his way into larger pieces over the next decade until he discovered stencils in 2010. He says he is working on his own language with his stencil technique and you can see influences from early Street Art master stencillists like Jef Aerosol and current ones like C215, combined with the abstract forms of Graffuturists like Remi Rough and Augustine Kofie, as well as from his interests in graphic design, painting, and architecture.

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A Brief Look at NY Art Fairs : Spring/Break & Scope

March 16, 2015 Artists

Did you have a chance to hit some of the shows during New York’s Amory Week? Part blessing and curse, New York has this pre-Spring ritual of organized galleries tucked into little booths in far-flung neo-convention center architectural spaces that offer an onslaught of fascinating new ideas and artists who inspire you and give you a glimpse of the future. Alternately the works on display can sadden you with much derivative mediocrity scattered around and small chartreuse plumes of resentful dealers who clearly are not “people” people alternately ignoring or staring at you.

Before we headed to Berlin for a show we had time to made a mad dash through Scope and The Spring Break Art Show. Here are a few things that caught our eye.

The Spring/Break Art Show, now in its 4^th year, is perhaps a current favorite because it creates space for exploring and considering. A 40 curator-driven art fair that featured 150+ artists on display in the re-purposed Moynihan Station (the enormous and grand old main post office), the panoply of concepts tweaked and piqued electrodes in the brain with plays on perception – one of the best outcomes you can hope for with contemporary art. Perhaps because the space is free for the curator, the ideas are similarly liberated.

And everyone is welcomed – collectors, artists, galleries, critics, scene junkies. TRANSACTION was the theme in the Skylight wing that looked like it hadn’t been used for about 20 years. There was a faint fear of Asbestos swirling around our heads while we appreciated the institutional decay of the interiors, laying a background for the fairs multiple installations. Somehow the possibilities for the curators to transform the space were endless, and one wasn’t completely sure when the decay of the interior was intentional or residual…but that was part of the fun.

What separates this fair from the rest of the pack is that the art here is not presented as an unattainable commodity, rather for the most part it is an installation/performance art show where you roam through custom fashioned rooms on both sides of long hallways of deadened fluorescent lights and ceiling leaks. Maybe its because we see a lot of urban art in detritus and abandoned buildings, but this was fun. And yes some of the art was amazing. Good to see artists are still experimenting and taking risks and can make site-specific installations that are alive and provocative.

Bazaar Teens curated by Dustin Yellin. 10K of donated cash was shredded to make paintings. Shredded money taken from the donations box. Some prankster put some of the brochures in there for color we suppose… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Over at Scope the story was much different. In their press release and on their site they were heralding a “progressive format” in a new location. The latter was true. It was a new location. The former didn’t materialize and we were hard pressed to find what was progressive or new about it. There were still the temporary partitions and rented booths and while some of the spaces did run into each other it wasn’t with any particular goal for a collaborative spirit or some such idealist notion. If anything, Scope was chaotic with visitors and exhibitors remarking about not having enough time to set up when the doors open at 2:00 pm for the VIP and press, giving a frustrated aura of discord that may have influenced our perception.

Many galleries were still hanging works and adding price and information tags on the walls when we were there. But we know how it is when your dinner party guest arrives at 7 on the dot and you haven’t gotten dressed- you may want them to go out for a cocktail and then return.

Additionally, and unfortunately, Scope more than any of the other show seems to incorporate more derivative and secondary market works than their competitors. Street Art/Urban Art is increasingly hot so it appeared at many more galleries this year but without much curatorial consideration. The fair also including works we have already seen elsewhere, so it was hard to get too excited about that. But there were definitely some gems in there as well. Here are some shots of things we saw:

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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.15.15 : Berlin Edition

March 15, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Berlin is slaughtered with Street Art, graffiti, stickers. It appears in so many areas and neighborhoods that you feel like you are being spoken to by artists everywhere you go, not just advertisers – although there are plenty of illegal advertisements all around as well. This week of course we have been surrounded by Brooklyn artists as well for the show with Urban Nation (UN) “Persons of Interest” but luckily some kind and witty Berliners showed us some of the hot spots when we had a spare hour or two gaze upon the wild urban forest. Here are a few shots we got as the briefest of introductions.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alaniz, Alias, Case Ma’Claim, Craneo, FLE, Jones, Miss Van, One Truth, Poet, Rhino Berlin, Sebr, Various & Gould, and Vhils.

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Dispatch from Germany: Pop-Up Show at UN Gallery with BSA

March 14, 2015 Artists

A great many things underway here in Berlin for the debut of “Persons of Interest”, a show of 12 artists who have worked on the streets of Brooklyn bringing their A Game to Berlin. This group of talented people have transformed the Urban Nation Pop-Up gallery with an astounding array of styles, skillz, techniques, and a lot of imagination. We couldn’t be happier with the results. The camaraderie is strong and the creative display directly on the gallery walls is iron-clad.

If you are in Berlin anytime Saturday come see the windows being installed in the UN Haus and at 7 pm come to the reception. Both events are curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo co-founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com and we will be very happy to meet you.

Here is a preview of the Pop-Up Exhibition…more to come

Click HERE for the FaceBook event and more details about UN Project M/7 Persons of Interest and Pop-Up Exhibition.

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