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

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

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.

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Rukkit (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Rukkit (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Rukkit (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Rukkit (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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.

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Okuda (photo © Akshat Nauriyal)

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Okuda (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Okuda (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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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Joao Samina (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Joao Samina (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Joao Samina (photo © Pranav Mehta)

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Joao Samina (photo © Pranav Mehta)

 

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

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

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.

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“A Door Within a Door” – Grace Villamil curated by Coming Soon and Katya Braxton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Spring/Break Art Show, now in its 4th 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.

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Bazaar Teens curated by Dustin Yellin. 10K of donated cash was shredded to make paintings. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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.

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Bazaar Teens curated by Dustin Yellin. 10K of donated cash was shredded to make paintings. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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)

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Rita Ikonen curated by Yulia Topchiy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Margaret Bowland curated by Tess Sol Schwab. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Christine Sciulli video projection on fog was curated by Ambre. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cate Giordano curated by Eve Sussman and Simon Lee. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anne Nowak curated by Cassandra M Johnson. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Grace Villamil curated by Coming Soon and Katya Braxton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Grace Villamil curated by Coming Soon and Katya Braxton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fall On Your Sword Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mark Samsonovich (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mark Samsonovich (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mark Samsonovich and friends in the wild on the streets of NYC. (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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Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Isaac Cordal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Miss Van (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nathan Vincent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swampy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Michael Mut. Click HERE to learn more about this artist and Still Counting Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stikki Peaches (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li-Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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XO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jaybo Monk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Vinz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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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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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.15.15 : Berlin Edition

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.15.15 : Berlin Edition

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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.

Top Image >> Case Ma’Claim (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Various & Gould (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rhino Berlin (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Miss Van (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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One Truth (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jones (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alias (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Craneo (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz . Poet . FLE (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alaniz . Vhils (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sobr (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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

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

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

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Swoon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon with Chris Stain on the backgorund. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NohJColey asses his progress. Swoon on the right. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Don Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Don Rimx (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter tries some yoga. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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El Sol 25 (“Here Today”) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy and Sot (Photo  © Jaime Rojo)

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

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BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to ICY & SOT and ask them why they chose their persons of interest, The People of Berlin.

The façade of the UN building is being painted right now by Street Artists Icy & Sot, who have lived in Brooklyn for not quite three years since arriving from Iran but have quickly made an impression on the street and in the discourse that follows it. The brothers’ work on the streets and on rooftops has been an ongoing exploration and discovery of their own style and voice. Their work on the streets has addressed homelessness, war, violence, peace, hope, despair, and human rights.

Influenced by Brooklyn’s D.I.Y. culture on the street and in studios, a new freedom of speech, and their deep admiration for stencil artists who came before them, their style and message continues to define and refine as they also have been gathering an international following.

Ask to choose a PERSON OF INTEREST to create as a portrait, Icy & Sot have selected the people of Berlin who celebrated the fall of the Berlin wall, as reflected in the face of a new generation. Twenty five years later, this symbol of celebration and liberty atop the Berlin Wall is a powerful one they bring to the present with a 2015 image of a young woman from Brooklyn.

“It’s a portrait of freedom, Berlin’s peoples freedom,” they say. “The image inside the portrait was a very important moment for Berlin when the wall came down and we wanted to celebrate it.”

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Icy & Sot in Brooklyn, New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot in Bushwick, Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Check out the Facebook page for PERSONS OF INTEREST

See Full Press Release HERE

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NohJColey and Katharina Oguntoye – “Persons of Interest”

NohJColey and Katharina Oguntoye – “Persons of Interest”

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BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to NohJColey and ask him why he chose his person of interest, Katharina Oguntoye.

For his portrait at Urban Nation the Brooklyn native NohJColey chose Katharina Oguntoye, the Afro-German feminist writer, historian, activist, and poet raised in Nigeria and Heidelberg, Germany. Her study of German culture and her status within it led to her co-editing of the 1986 book  Showing Our Colors: Afro-German Women Speak Out (Farbe Bekennen) and to the founding of Joliba, a nonprofit intercultural association in 1997. The organization provides support to a varied intercultural community and hosts educational and cultural events like dinners, seminars, kids events, reading groups, and public art events.

“I have chosen to create a piece that focuses on Katharina Oguntoye because of her contribution to the woman’s equality movement in Germany, “ says NohJ. “She has overcome countless obstacles in her lifetime and has changed so many lives for the better because of her relentless efforts.”

Street Artist NohJColey tells stories with his figures in the public sphere, examining their interrelationships and their place within an urban environment that is often hostile, fraught with anxiety and hypocrisy, yet tempered with humanity. Using various art making disciplines he constructs the stage; hand-carved linotypes, paper cuts, mobile sculpture, painting. A shrewd observer and communicator, his sometimes surreal narratives can be complex, often involving critique of classism, consumerism, racism, addiction, and a broken justice system each from the perspective of characters who are affected by or perpetuating them.

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NohJColey in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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 NohJColey in Albany, New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Check out the Facebook page for PERSONS OF INTEREST

See Full Press Release HERE

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Update: Berlin, Icy & Sot “Freedom” Mural Underway

Update: Berlin, Icy & Sot “Freedom” Mural Underway

Here’s a quick shot of the action at the new enormous mural, the largest stencil ever done by brothers Icy & Sot, now underway in Berlin for our “Persons of Interest” show for Urban Nation project M/7.  After two and a half days, you can begin to get a good glimpse of the future piece. The guys think it should be completed by Friday.

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Icy & Sot in progress at “Persons of Interest” for UN Project M/7 (photo © Jaime Rojo)Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-Icy-sot-Berlin-B-copyright-Jaime-Rojo
Icy & Sot in progress at “Persons of Interest” for UN Project M/7 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Specter and Sally Montana – “Persons of Interest”

Specter and Sally Montana – “Persons of Interest”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Persons-Of-Interest-740-Specter-and-Sallly-Montana

BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to Specter and ask him why he chose his person of interest, Sally Montana.

Specter is multi-disciplinary on the street, including sculptural installations, photography, and hand-painted large-scale one-off wheat pastes. It was the latter practice that first drew us into his personal stories and portraits on the streets in the 2000s, enlarged versions of people you might meet in the neighborhood. There was the guy with a grocery cart full of recyclable bottles, the food delivery dude on a bicycle, the burly homeless gent wrapped in a red blanket.

These are everyday people on the streets of Brooklyn, and Specter elevates them for passersby to stop and consider.

For his PERSON OF INTEREST Specter is painting another Brooklyn artist as a way of honoring the thousands who have made a thriving and buoyant scene in the 1990s-2010s in neighborhoods like Bushwick, Gowanus, BedStuy, Williamsburg, and Greenpoint – similar in many ways to Berlin’s neighborhoods of Kreuzberg, Friedrichshain, Prenzlauer Berg, Schöneberg and Mitte.

To find his portrait subject, Specter just looked next door to his studio. “Sally Montana is my neighbor. She is from Germany but lives in Brooklyn and is a professional photographer and one of the nicest people anyone could ever meet. The reason I choose her is because I feel she embodies this project. The connection between NY and Berlin art communities being the two of the largest in the world and the back-and-forth sharing of people and influences from each others cultures.”

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Specter in Brooklyn  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter in Brooklyn  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Check out the Facebook page for PERSONS OF INTEREST

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

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

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BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to Esteban Del Valle and ask him why he chose his person of interest, George Grosz.

An interdisciplinary artist living in Brooklyn, Del Valle has been rendering figures and scenarios on walls here and in his native Chicago, San Antonio, Kansas City, Spartanburg – even at 5 Pointz, the graffiti holy place in Queens that was recently buffed and destroyed. A performance artist in the public sphere as well as painter, his complex stories run deep with his contemplations on an imbalanced world. His is an activist approach to tearing apart and rebuilding to reveal influences, emotions, and motivations. In these ways and others he is not unlike his selected subject, George Grosz, a pivotal figure in Berlin’s Dada movement.

A German artist known especially for his drawings of people as caricature during the roaring days and nights of Berlin’s 1920s, Grosz was acerbic, crude and corrosive in his depiction of corruption and abuse of power. Eventually moving to New York and settling down in Bayside, Queens, the artist continued his work as a painter and cultural critic. For his portrait of Grosz, Del Valle inserts the artist into Grosz’ own 1926 painting, Eclipse of the Sun, along with ex Chicago mayor Richard J. Daley and some headless businessmen. Too much to describe here, Grosz can speak for himself:

My drawings expressed my despair, hate and disillusionment, I drew drunkards; puking men; men with clenched fists cursing at the moon. … I drew a man, face filled with fright, washing blood from his hands … I drew lonely little men fleeing madly through empty streets. I drew a cross-section of tenement house: through one window could be seen a man attacking his wife; through another, two people making love; from a third hung a suicide with body covered by swarming flies. I drew soldiers without noses; war cripples with crustacean-like steel arms; two medical soldiers putting a violent infantryman into a strait-jacket made of a horse blanket … I drew a skeleton dressed as a recruit being examined for military duty. I also wrote poetry. —Grosz  Friedrich, Otto (1986). [note] Before the Deluge. USA: Fromm International Publishing Corporation. pp. 37. [/note]

“I believe art is inherently powerful,” says Del Valle, “and that power can be used to reflect and reshape reality. Much like I aspire to do, George Grosz used satirical imagery to call attention to social inequalities while blurring the line between illustration and painting. His poignant content and aesthetic seems just as relevant today as it did in post 1920’s Berlin.”

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Esteban Del Valle in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Esteban Del Valle in New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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GAIA and Fereshta Ludin – “Persons of Interest”

GAIA and Fereshta Ludin – “Persons of Interest”

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BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to GAIA and ask him why he chose his person of interest, Fereshta Ludin.

It has been nearly 12 years since Afghanistan-born German Muslim school teacher Fereshta Ludin won the right to wear her headscarf in the public school system and the topic remains very hot around the country. For one thing, eight German states forbid the practice and as the website DW reported “the verdict’s results continue to spur controversy and leave some asking what is more oppressive: wearing a headscarf or excluding those who do?” . If this teacher and Afghanistan advisor/minister had tried to get a job as a sales clerk at Abercrombie and Fitch in the United States, Ms. Ludin might have been part of a headscarf case before the US Supreme Court this spring.

Street Artist Gaia typically studies the society and culture in which he paints murals and depicts figures who reflect the history and forces of change and stasis that characterize that neighborhood, town, or city. A leader in what we’ve been calling the New Muralism, Gaia has produced these amalgams of symbols, history, and persons – these glocalized paintings – around the world in cities from Seoul to Perth to Honolulu to Baltimore to Miami and Johannesburg, among others in the the last five years.

Since his earliest days as a Street Artist in Williamsburg and Bushwick, Brooklyn, Gaia has engaged the personal, social and political with his artistic ability; first as linotype prints, later as full-blown aerosol murals. So it is no surprise that he chooses as his subject for this show a figure who has held a pivotal role in the evolution of a necessary conversation in classrooms, boardrooms, courts and the court of public opinion. It is here in the public sphere that Gaia has always drawn inspiration and energy and returned it back with an impetus to spark examination, discussion and debate.

“The proposal for ‘Persons of Interest’ features a portrait of Fereshta Ludin superimposed over a sky and images of peace,” Gaia says.  “I chose to focus on Fereshta Ludin because of her advocation for multicultural understanding and cooperation in the face of intense national debate regarding the sphere of religious expression in German politics.”

 

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A Gaia lino print piece based on a photograph by Martha Cooper in Baltimore, 2011 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia in New Jersey 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon and Turkish Immigrants – “Persons of Interest”

Swoon and Turkish Immigrants – “Persons of Interest”

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BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to Swoon and ask her why she chose her persons of interest, Turkish Immigrants.

54% of Brooklyn residents age 5 and older speak English at home as a primary language, followed by Spanish, Chinese, Russian and many others. The immigrant story has always been part of the Brooklyn story actually, including a flood of new German immigrants in the mid 1800’s to New York and Chicago which changed and formed the country. [note] Historic Overview: Germans in Chicago, Goethe Institute [/note]  Today Berliners talk about the largest ethnic minority in Germany, Turkish immigrants, who account for about 4% of Germany’s total population, according to the census 2011 [note] File Migrationsberichtdes Bundesamtes für Migration und Flüchtlinge im Auftrag der Bundesregierung, Migrationsbericht 2012)[/note]

The topic of immigration is relevant to both sister cities and their artists communities, as they grapple with age-old questions about absorption and assimilation into the culture and whether traditions and behaviors can accommodate one another. Naturally, emotions can run high and rhetoric can be very strong at times and as usual art on the streets reflects society back to itself in an ongoing dialogue. If New York’s reputation as a melting pot is any indication, eventually people do find a way to coexist despite our sometimes marked differences.

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Swoon “Cairo” in Brooklyn. September 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When Brooklyn Street Artist Swoon first learned about PERSONS OF INTEREST, she first thought of the many times she has been to Berlin and the artist community with which she has worked and played over the last few years. Known for her intricate paper cuts and linotypes that depict an inner world of a person, often you can read the interior of her forms as a diary. To join the two cultures and her experience of it Swoon also thought of the rich Turkish community she became familiar with in Berlin and she decided to dedicate her portrait to them.

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Swoon “Cairo” in Brooklyn. Detail. September 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This portrait is a celebration of the cultural diversity of the city of Berlin, and specifically of it’s large and vibrant Turkish community,” she says. A hand painted linoleum block print with cut paper elements, Swoon says she thinks of this installation as “a long distance love letter to the city that informed so much of my early work, and which inspired and embraced the creative evolution of art on the streets like few other places in the world.”

Olivia Katz, an artist who has worked closely with Swoon in studio, agrees with her sentiment about this piece and expands on it. “This piece celebrates urban diversity,” says Katz. “It is meant to reflect on cities as densely pluralist environments that are built upon countless different people and communities living and working together. It is essential to recognize each other as neighbors, each living our lives soulfully and with meaning, and to nourish relationships that cross even the widest cultural chasms.”

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Swoon “Cairo” in Brooklyn. Detail. September 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon “Cairo” in Brooklyn. Detail. September 2009. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon “Cairo” at her studio in Brooklyn working on another version of “Cairo”. January 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon in Los Angeles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

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

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BSA is in Berlin this month to present a new show of 12 important Brooklyn Street Artists at the Urban Nation haus as part of Project M/7. PERSONS OF INTEREST brings to our sister city a diverse collection of artists who use many mediums and styles in the street art scene of Brooklyn. By way of tribute to the special relationship that artist communities in both cities have shared for decades, each artist has chosen to create a portrait of a Germany-based cultural influencer from the past or present, highlighting someone who has played a role in inspiring the artist in a meaningful way.
 
Today we talk to El Sol 25 and ask him why he chose his person of interest, Hannah Höch.

A collage artist who often creates paintings of his original cut compositions and wheat-pastes them onto walls, El Sol 25 has been entertaining and perplexing passersby on the street with his theater of the absurd for the last half decade in New York.  Considered part of the new breed of Street Artists who are breaking conventions, for this show El Sol 25 looks back to a Berlin rebel and one of the most important collage artists of the 20th Century, Hannah Höch, for inspiration and as tribute.

Indeed there are many similarities in the works of both; a true fragmentation of elements that reflects a chaotic aspect of current society, an embracing of diversity and abstraction, the questioning of gender constructions, even the inclusion of elements that may have shown in Höch’s fictional “ethnographic museum”.  Where Höch was a singular woman in a Dada movement dominated by men, the former graff writer El Sol 25 has steadily constructed his unusual oeuvre in a sometimes sea of Street Art sameness.

El Sol 25 is creating a portrait of Höch for PERSONS OF INTEREST because she proved to be a leader and because he admires her different standards of composition and beauty. “She’s one of my all time favorites and also a native German so I really wanted to pay my respect by painting her portrait,” he says. “She was a key innovator in the original Dada movement and her collages are the strongest I’ve ever seen.”

Then he adds, “She is my hero for many reasons.”

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A piece by El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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El Sol 25 in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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