Brooklyn Street Art | …loves you more every day.

2 Marches in the Streets 25 Years Apart: Yusef Hawkins and Eric Garner

August 23, 2014 Artists

As thousands march in the streets of New York City to protest the death of Eric Garner in Staten Island today we are reminded of a similar series of marches that happened in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn exactly 25 years ago. Then, as now, the city was hurting because of our collective inability to face our legacy of racism and many of the speeches given today were almost identical to the ones given then. Reverend Al Sharpton was in that march and here he is again, as well as many other leaders and people of good faith.

A few years ago we shared with you the particulars of 16 year old Yusef Hawkins who was chased and killed because of his race and the memorial that Street Artist Specter had placed on a wall to remember him (see Specter Memorializes Yusef Hawkins in Brooklyn).

Specter “Yusuf Hawkins” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Friday the local radio station WNYC revisited the neighborhood to see how much had changed and how much has stayed the same.

Fauxreel Immortalizes Local Tai Chi Practitioners in Toronto

August 23, 2014 Artists

“It’s nice to install photo-based portraits that have permanency,” Toronto based Street Artist Fauxreel, otherwise known as Dan Bergeron, tells us. In his new series of works in the public sphere you’ll agree that it isn’t strictly Street Art since it is an approved and organized installation, but even so it retains the markings of a D.I.Y. conceptualized series that follows the vision of one artist. The subjects here are residents from the area who come to Grange Park in the morning to do Tai Chi exercises and possibly to glance upward at the Ontario College of Art and Design’s Sharp Centre that hovers above like a black and white checkered Memphis-Milano tabletop on multi-colored stilts. These new series of works were commissioned as part of StreetART Toronto.

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Dan Begeron AKA Faux Reel. Grange Park. Toronto, Canada. August 2014. (photo © Dan Bergeron)

This isn’t Fauxreel’s first project with the residents of this area. BSA first covered him in 2008 when we first met him after seeing his work on New York streets (see Regent of the People for Real). Bergeron’s work with the community is given a more durable quality this time than his earlier large wheatpastes and wood cut silhouettes of people on the street, mounted as they are on tiles but similar to his earlier works, they focus on populations within the community.

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Dan Begeron AKA Faux Reel. Grange Park. Toronto, Canada. August 2014. (photo © Dan Bergeron)

The human forms and various poses are grounding from a human point of view. They also appear to hover above the ground in a spirit-like manner as if astute talismen and erudite taliswomen for the neighborhood. Ironically, the models are posed in front of facades that have been hit up with various aerosol tags, yet the neighborhood they are hung in is as clean as Disney World.

Dan Begeron AKA Faux Reel. Grange Park. Toronto, Canada. August 2014. (photo © Dan Bergeron)

While clearly this is public art, it retains some of the influences we have experienced with the sudden and immediate interaction one can have with photographic unilateral installations done by freethinkers and rebels on the Street Art scene. Let’s see how long these pieces run before being defaced or added to by those more traditional practitioners. Who knows? – maybe they will remain untouched.

Dan Begeron AKA Faux Reel. Grange Park. Toronto, Canada. August 2014. (photo © Dan Bergeron)

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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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BSA Film Friday: 08.22.14

August 22, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. VERMIBUS: PROCESS
2. Aeon in Sri Lanka
3. OS Gemeos “Opera of the Moon”

BSA Special Feature: VERMIBUS: PROCESS

We join Vermibus once again with this earlier video and a piano score by Rob Costlow to erase the faces of advertisements and reveal something about their aura, their mummy-like qualities. With gestural movements of the brush soaked in solvent Vermibus transforms the perfect models that evoke emotions and longing into a mutation of same with the brutality of Bacon. Francis Bacon that is.

Aeon in Sri Lanka

On spraycation, and his honeymoon, in Sri Lanka this summer, Mr. Aeon found this abandoned hotel in a gorgeous setting. Damaged ten years ago from the tsunami, the place needed a little paint, which he laid on while wifey was sitting poolside. So this is how it starts.

OS Gemeos “Opera of the Moon”

A primer on Os Gemeos from The Wall Street Journal on the occasion of their exhibit “Opera of the Moon” at Sao Paulo’s Galpão Fortes Vilaça.

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“Banksy In New York” by Ray Mock

August 21, 2014 Artists

Ray Mock, the one man publisher who photographs, designs, and writes insightful observations of his daily Banksy revelations in his new book is no stranger to the New York graffiti and Street Art scene. “I had mostly been shooting graffiti in recent years, preferably grimy tagged up doors, man-size fill-ins, freight trains and illegal pieces in abandoned buildings or along railroad tracks,” he says in the introduction to Banksy in New York, one of the first books dedicated to the one month “residency” the superstar Street Artist mounted in October of 2013.

Banksy In New York by Ray Mock. (photo of book cover by Jaime Rojo)

Filled with photos of the various installations of his “Better Out Than In” show, as well as the scenes that popped up around them, Mock finds that the personal experience is a fitting voice for description when it comes to how you see art on the street. With humor and a bit of sarcasm not unlike the subject of the book, Mock leads the reader along the path of the near-daily occurrences of new aerosol stencils, paintings, sculptures, mobile performances, and even a bucolic diorama in the back of a box truck.

Only a street watcher like Mock is able to reveal through observations and posing questions just how much of the great Banksy caper may be staged, and how much is real. If the art doesn’t get your attention, the circus that surrounded it for a month in New York streets will.

Banksy In New York by Ray Mock. (re-photo by Jaime Rojo)

To purchase your copy of “Banksy In New York” By Ray Mock click HERE, published by Carnage.

In Istanbul the “Language Of The Wall”, Street Art, and Graffiti

August 20, 2014 Artists

“The Language Of The Wall. Graffiti / Street Art” Pera Museum. Istanbul, Turkey

No Street Artist is a prophet in his own land, to paraphrase the Latin “Nemo propheta in patria”.

To see a large show of new Street Art in a museum right now don’t think of New York. Surprisingly a vibrant and impactful art scene that has foundational roots in NYC streets and culture is once again celebrated more often by major museum exhibits elsewhere in the world.

In Istanbul they even invite you to paint on trains.

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With portraits by C215 of his daughter in the background, Evol moves his sculptures for his installation. Pera Museum. Istanbul, August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The nine year old Pera Museum is currently hosting 20 artists from America, Germany, France, and Japan, along with some more local talents and is featuring photographers whose New York work is considered seminal such as Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, and the California skate culture documenter Hugh Holland.

The detailed study of New York graffiti, train writing, hip-hop culture, and the evolution that pushed this current explosive growth of Street Art are all evident in the curation and choices by Roxane Ayral. Language of the Wall is cognizant of the weight of graff history while looking squarely in the eye of the present and considering the interdisciplinary nature of today’s scene, the show is at once expansive and tightly lyrical. The swath of new works inside the museum and out on the streets of Istanbul is a mix of respected older graff writers and some of the newer practitioners including Futura, Carlos Mare, Cope 2, Turbo, Wyne, JonOne, Tilt, Psyckoze, Craig Costello (aka KR), Herakut, Logan Hicks, C215, Suiko, Evol, Gaia, Tabone, Funk, and No More Lies.

Over the course of the installation, Martha Cooper traveled the city and captured the new works by the artists and she shares with us her shots and some of her observations.

Parisian Street Artist C215 working on his stenciled installation outside. His daughter and frequent muse, Nina, on the street is assisting him. Istanbul, August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Evol. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Evol working on an outdoor installation. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Carlos Mare (Mare 139) working on his installation. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Mare worked with a local foundry to produce 3 big welded sculptures and 2 little “B-Boy” ones,” says Ms. Cooper. “The foundry was able to produce pieces of metal with Islamic patterns, which I found impressive. This was the first time Mare was able to design the metal in this way.”

Tilt. An assistant helps hang the bus as canvas. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Tilt painted a garbage truck with his iconic throwup,” says Ms. Cooper, of the actual truck he painted on the street. “The garbage men gave him an official shirt to wear and he painted their names (and mine) on the truck. He also painted an entire bus that had been cut apart and hung on the wall of the museum.”

Tilt in action. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Tilt painted a garbage truck. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

No More Lies. His assistant and girlfriend, an artist named Merve Berkman, is shown here painting an intricate stencil. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Suiko working on his installation. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Suiko is from Hiroshima, Japan. We were in the museum on the anniversary of the bombing on August 16th,” says Martha. “Hiroshima, synonymous with nuclear bombs, now sells spray paint for graffiti bombing. Crazy world!”

Suiko. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Herakut sits atop their outside installation. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Imagine you had to teach your kids never to laugh” is the translation of the text, which Martha says was Herakut’s response to a Deputy Minister’s outrageous statement that women shouldn’t laugh in public.

Herakut in action inside the Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

JonOne “came last and painted fast,” says Martha. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Gaia in front of his installation. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Street artist Gaia did very labor intensive pieces inside and outside the museum “commemorating those that have lost their lives in construction murders due to lack of safety, regulation and corruption,” he says. For more information on Workers’ Families In Pursuit of Justice please go to http://iscinayetleriniunutma.org/ .

Gaia. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Gaia at work on his outdoor installation of workers helmets and Forget-Me-Not flowers. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Turbo in action. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Shoot To Kill . Turbo. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Turbo has the reputation of being one of Turkey’s first writers. He’s an archivist with many graff related collections (cans, markers, books etc). His crew is S2K—Shoot to Kill,” says Ms. Cooper.

Logan Hicks in action. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Logan Hicks photo-realistic stenciling on display in this outdoor installation. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The New York legend Futura was one of the first graffiti writers to break new ground into abstraction, and more than 30 years after his first foray, is kicking it. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Mist in action. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Mist painted a bold abstract wall in the museum and numerous pieces outside,” remarks photographer Cooper. “I liked his ‘Mistanbul’ piece the best.”

The Mist rolldown gate, “Mistanbul”. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Psyckoze. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Psyckoze is famous for being the king of the Paris catacombs. He knows every nook and cranny,” reports Ms. Cooper. “I once spent the night there—scary and completely confusing if you don’t have a guide. Psyckoze made an installation replicating a room in the catacombs reproducing paintings that were actually there.”

KR. Pera Museum. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“KR did his extinguisher thing inside the museum and it turned out great—sort of a delicate blizzard of criss-crossing spray. I liked this shot of the cleaning lady in his room – Who’s to decide what needs cleaning?” asks Martha.

The action at the train yards. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

A highlight of the events was the opportunity for many of the artists to legally hit a number of train cars in the yards, and archetypal right of passage immortalized by a handful of New York photographers in the 1970s and 1980s like Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant, among others. Martha was at least as excited as the artists and felt like she was in a movie she had seen before, but with new enthusiastic actors and actresses – and without the fear of being arrested.

Psyckoze at the train yards. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Suiko at the train yards. Istanbul. August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

A new classic by Martha Cooper of the action at the train yards. Istanbul, Turkey August 2014. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Language Of The Wall Graffiti / Street Art” exhibition is currently on view at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, Turkey. The show closes on October 05, 2014. For more information click HERE

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X-O and Amanda Marie Go To Philadelphia

August 19, 2014 Artists

‘Beautiful Times – Philly Stop’

As we follow the “Beautiful Times” summer tour of X-O and Amanda Marie we find them in the city of brotherly love laying down layers of stencils and building out abandoned places with found object constructions. All tolled, the number of completed projects in this city made it the most prodigious of the tour so far.

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Amanda Marie at a Community Garden. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

First off they took a nice tour of Steve Powers ‘Love Letters’ murals that he did a couple of years ago with the Philadelphia Mural Project, and worked with that program to create their own project – something X-O refers to as an #emogarden called ‘High 5 Times’. Most likely that is about walking on stilts, we’re guessing.

As another project Amanda made some time to create a ‘camping’ scene in one of the many community gardens that dot the city of Philly, thanks to friends at HAHA x Paradigm, a magazine and gallery respectively. “Painting in the community garden was a good match for the ‘Beautiful Times’ vibe,” says X-O.

Amanda Marie at a Community Garden. Detail. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

On their next investigation the two went on the hunt for more destitute architectural decay and hit the jackpot when X-O “found a beautiful demolition / construction site that had a super good sunken window temporarily covered in plywood,” he says excitedly. Did anyone mind that he created a new piece with various pieces of wood in the framed ventana? “The owners were happy to get a ‘lost object’ piece for the space,” he says, “and the neighbors are happy to have something more interesting than blank plywood to look at.”

X-O at a Community Garden for Mural Arts. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

Moving along, the two found “Tattooed Mom,” and they thought they were in a celestial graff palace. “If the paint store equals the candy store, then ‘Tattooed Mom’ equals the playground,” he exclaims the legendary graff writer / Street Artist hangout on South Street. “The whole upstairs is completely smashed with tags and pieces and a constantly shifting smorgasbord of aerosol madness,” says X-O.

Here Amanda Marie made some more urban ‘camping’ vignettes while X-O gave a Hanksy piece of his namesake actor some gender-reassignment surgery. “I dropped in a field of flowers behind him and updated his substantial forehead with the slogan ‘I Like Your Girlfriend’.”

Amanda Marie at work on the street. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

“The last thing that got done before we split town was a big beautiful total street move from Amanda where she painted a few of her ‘Pretty Baby’ images on 5th street just a half block off of South Street … a really nice match of image with the hodge podge coloring of the empty building behind it,” X-O says.

“For both Amanda and me, one of the most impressive things about Philly were all of the walls that have been left exposed when adjacent buildings are torn down,” he says. It looks like the great experience with the mural program and these more organic adventures have gotten their wheels turning on even larger ideas for Philadelphia in the future.

Amanda Marie. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

X-O. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

X-O. Detail. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

Amanda Marie at Tattooed Mom. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

Amanda Marie at Tattooed Mom. Detail. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

X-O at work at Tattooed Mom. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

X-O at Tattooed Mom. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

X-O gives Hanksy a make over at Tattooed Mom. Beautiful Times. Philadelphia. August 2014 (photo © courtesy Amanda Maire and X-O)

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Project M/5 Curated by Roland Henry & VNA in Berlin

August 18, 2014 Artists

The Berlin adventure entitled Urban Nation is readying for substantial renovation over the next year and meanwhile has embarked on rotating external exhibition of artists from many disciplines called ProjectM. Today we bring you images of the most recent in the series called M/5, curated by Roland Henry in conjunction with VNA Magazine and give an idea of the range of contemporary works and artists influencing the street art scene today through his eyes.

Will Barras and Steff Plaetz collab piece in progress. (photo © Henrik Haven)

The works are completed inside the future museum and displayed on the street along with a huge façade painting by Ben Eine. Here are images from the new headquarters as the artists prepared their works for Project M/5 and the list of artists includes Mark Lyken, Pam Glew, Will Barras, Eine, Steff Plaetz, Nick Walker, O.Two, Sickboy, Zenx and Ben Frost.

Will Barras at work on his piece. (photo © Henrik Haven)

James “SheOne” Choules at work on his piece. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nick Walker at work on his piece. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Mark Lyken at work on his piece. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Ben Frost at work on his piece. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Will Barras (photo © Henrik Haven)

Will Barras (window A). Will Barras and Steff Plaetz (window B). (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nick Walker (photo © Henrik Haven)

Nick Walker. Detail. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Sickboy (photo © Henrik Haven)

Ben Frost (photo © Henrik Haven)

Pam Glew, Mark Lyken, James “SheOne” Choules, O.Two (photo © Henrik Haven)

Xenz, O.Two, James “SheOne” Choules, Mark Lyken, Pam Glew (photo © Henrik Haven)

James “SheOne” Choules, O.Two (photo © Henrik Haven)

Xenz at work indoors at the Urban Nation HQ. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Will Barras at work indoors at the Urban Nation HQ. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Xenz, TwoOne, Strok, RekaOne, 45rpm, Yoh Nagao at work indoors at the Urban Nation HQ. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Klone Yourself at work outdoors for Urban Nation. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Don John at work outdoors for Urban Nation. (photo © Henrik Haven)

Klone Yourself (photo © Henrik Haven)

Don John (photo © Henrik Haven)

To learn more about Urban Nation and ProjectM click HERE

We wish to thank photographer Henrik Haven for sharing his work with BSA readers.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.17.14

August 17, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This weeks “21st Precinct” show of graffiti and street art style mural / installation work did blow some minds for sure, as did last nights official opening – mostly because of the great display of work on four floors. But additionally all sorts of paranoia was afoot when people began writing on social media and to us that they really thought this was a sting operation of some sort.

Aside from the fact that we clearly said in our postings on BSA and Huffpost that the building had long since been decommissioned as a precinct and we were simply focusing on the irony of the facts, minds and nerves were blown nonetheless. Truth is, this is a good show with some thoughtful pieces and installations and not surprisingly, many thematically addressed the contentious relationship some have with the police traditionally. But there is lots of other stuff too and it is worth your time. Just don’t get arrested. Kidding!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring APC Crew, Art is Trash, Bishop203, Castellaneta, Chekos, Cruz, Foxx Face, Franksy, Gaia, Hek Tad, JJ Veronis, Lorenzo Maza, Mark Samsonovich AKA Love is Telepathic, Melty Cats, Mr. PRVT, Mr. Toll, Nekst, Opiemme, Pixote, Shantell Martin, Skrew, UR New York and Wolfe Metal Work, Tommy Wolfe.

Top Image >> Mark Samsonovich says open your mind, although it looks like someone blew this guys. See the video of the Delfonics at end of posting if that song is running through your brain now. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JJ Veronis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolfe Metal Work (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skrew, Nekst taken from a fast moving train:-) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HEK TAD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Art Is Trash with some friends in the background. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Foxx Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Deconstructed Beauty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. We won’t open it until 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Franksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Melty Cats (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opiemme and Chekos for Street Like Rainbow Festival in Castellaneta, Italy. (photo © courtesy of the artists)

“Who is he? Who is that other one?”

“These are the questions that people asked most often while Chekos and I were painting in Castellaneta.
Ernest Hemingway, Sean Connery, Sigmund Freud, Steve Jobs, Padre Pio, Van Gogh, Giuseppe Verdi, George Clooney, Lenin, Cavour, Garibaldi…are some of the guesses.

The work came from Chekos’s idea, a reflection on the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud. We tried to bring the spectator to have an experience close to a personality test, with an iconographic work that recalls the Rorschach test. The words “Stereotype” in the center of the composition refer to the process that brings people to recognize different famous people.” ~ Opiemme

Mr. Toll at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop203 x Lorenzo Maza x APC Crew at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

URNewYork at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phil at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cruz x URNewYork at “The 21st Precinct” for Outlaw Arts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. August 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Didn’t I Blow Your Mind? The Delfonics

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OLEK Drops A Bomb In The Bottom Of The Ocean in Mexico

August 16, 2014 Artists

As a rejoinder to our Film Friday post yesterday, today we take you into deep waters where OLEK has just crocheted a bomb or two.

If you think our land is being stripped of entire mountains and trees and our soil and drinking water is being poisoned by factory farming and fracking, consider that it is estimated that 100 million sharks are killed each year to create shark fin soup. They have been at the tops of the oceanic food chain for about 450 million years but we are on track to knock them out in the next 20.

Does that sound like an ecological ticking time bomb to you?

OLEK says she wants to “bring awareness to the state of the world’s oceans and promote the preservation of marine life.” With this new project she is definitely making waves.

Olek for Pangeaseed. Isla Mujeres, Mexico. August 2014 (photo © Pangeaseed)

In a new project with PangeaSeed and sculpture Jason DeCaires Taylor, the Brooklyn based street artist dove to the ocean floor off the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico to create these astounding, poetic, and inspiring underwater images. As she has done in other projects on land OLEK created costumery for friends and others to model, and these crocheted mermaids are the bomb. The yarn bomb.

Olek for Pangeaseed. Isla Mujeres, Mexico. August 2014 (photo © Pangeaseed)

To learn more about Pangeaseed click HERE

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BSA Film Friday 08.15.14

August 15, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

Sea Walls – Murals For Oceans. Isla Mujers, Mexic
HERR BÜTTNER for Whale Rights in Penang, Malaysia
“90 Percent” from Save Our Seas Foundation

BSA Special Feature: Sea Walls – Murals For Oceans

Isla Mujers in Mexico provides a gorgeous venue for these street artists to come and paint. If you didn’t get to go on vacation this year, now is your chance, if only vicariously, to be on spraycation with this talented crew.

“Sea Walls: Murals for Oceans is a ground-breaking street art project created by PangeaSeed to bring the beauty and the plight of the world’s oceans into streets around the globe. By collaborating with internationally renowned artists, we create large-scale murals that focus attention on pressing environmental issues the oceans are facing.”

Street Artist HERR BÜTTNER in Penang, Malaysia

It doesn’t get more D.I.Y. than this home made video showing the process of making and wheat-pasting various oceanic life onto the streets in Penang. Roberto Blanco posts this video on Vimeo of HERR BUETTNER, who calls himself an “offshore warrior for fish and whale rights all over the world.”

As a side note, the drawings upon which he makes his sea creatures are notices of death from a Chinese newspaper, drawing a direct connection to the death of sealife.

“90 Percent” from Save Our Seas Foundation

Life began in the ocean. Now 90 percent of the big fish, including sharks and rays, are gone. Find out more about the threats facing our oceans and what you can do to help at saveourseas.com

Directed by Stefan Kubicki (stefankubicki.com)

Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

August 14, 2014 Artists, Interview

This weekend the NYPD police precinct is hosting a graffiti and street art show, and the public is welcome to see every floor completely swimming in aerosol and plastered in wheat-paste.

Admit it, it is not often you receive an invite like that.

Pesu (center), Pixote (left) and Bill Claps Morse code writing the history of the building on the walls. (right) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When this precinct was built it was a very bad, very poor neighborhood. When the cops came in there was a lot of brutality and there was a lot of corruption,” says curator Robert Aloia of this building architected for the NYPD in 1863 and closed down fifty years later. A quick search on the web shows a history of thuggery born of Dickens. Records at the time of closure indicated there were 9,500 arrests annually and this tiny slice of Manhattan alone had 37 brothels.

So why not have a graffiti show here before tearing it down, right?.

Brooklyn Street Art: So you literally could hit every wall here and it wouldn’t matter because it is coming down at the end of the month?
Robert Aloia: Yeah the inside walls. The outside walls they don’t want us to touch.

In a twist of events pulled from a satire, one of the artists on display this weekend was arrested this month in Brooklyn and spent the night in jail before seeing a judge. The following day he came to this precinct and hit up some walls with impunity.

“It’s just amazing that these artists can put their time, their money, and their talent into something that is just coming down,” says Aloia while touring us through rooms and stairways during one of the four visits we made for these exclusive first images, “ and it is only going to be seen for a certain amount of time.”

Hellbent has his own room. So does Rambo. Cash4 and Matt Siren are sharing one together, as are Sheryo and the Yok. Elle spent an entire night in hers watching her black wax sculpture melting away with the candles she planted in it. An unconfirmed story says it is a sculpture cast of the elusive Judith Supine.

“She painted it black, melted it and filmed it,” says Aloia.

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you thought of the irony behind the fact that this is a former police precinct and many of the artists would have been running away from this place instead of trying to get into it?
Robert Aloia: That is true, I didn’t think of that aspect of it really, but the gallery area was the actual holding cell.

Brooklyn Street Art: So how did you draw these people together?
Robert Aloia: Every show I’ve done I start with my friends, and then it’s friends of friends, and that’s it. It’s just about one degree of separation.

In the last three years the New York native has curated a number of shows heavily weighted with graffiti artists and Street Artists, primarily on Manhattan’s Lower East Side at bars, event spaces, and venues with downtown history like Fuse, White Box, and La Mama.

A bartender and DJ who has mixed with a lot of New York nightlife and street life without becoming hardened, Aloia and co-curators like Erik Foss and Ricky Powell have been doing sometimes star-studded yet unassuming one-off shows the past few years with Street Art names like Bast, Supine, and Aiko and some of the newer kids like N’DA and Icy & Sot.

“I am from New York and I always knew a lot of graffiti artists, that’s how I ended up getting into it. I was just lucky enough to have access to some venues to do stuff.”

Brooklyn born, Aloia’s been on the LES since the 80s, which explains his devotion to the memory of “outlaw parties” where people would set up an illegal bar and a pumping sound system in improvised celebrations at unsanctioned locations. Outlaw parties and pop-up speakeasies still exist of course, but more often they are in Brooklyn now as Manhattan is shoving artists out by the truckload.

For “21st Precinct” he’s called in nearly 50 artists from as far away as Japan, Australia, California, and nearby New Jersey. The mix of artists is eclectic and sometimes quite powerful like the tribute to SAMO (Basquiat) in the gallery by his co-conspirator Al Diaz, and the dark room built by Swedish photographer Jesper Haynes which features images from the downtown New York in the Reagan era.

“I definitely always have a mix with fine art, photography, installation, but you know I always have old-school graffiti artists and street artists,” he says as he looks over the four floors of thickly gritty splendor by renowned and unknown.

For those lucky enough to see the show in this venue this weekend or next, “21st Precinct” is a quintessential New York minute, a steamy grimy melting pot of authentic attitude that begs to differ and perhaps stick a finger in your chest just before the wrecking ball hits. Thank Aloia while you’re there. Not surprisingly, the new building that replaces this one will be for…..wait for it…. luxury residences.

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OUTLAW ARTS Presents: “The 21st Precinct”
Curated by Robert Aloia & VNA Mag

The show will be in the old 21st Precinct located on 327 East 22nd Street. More information HERE.

Contributing Artists:

Adam Dare, Al Diaz, Amanda Marie, ASVP, Bad Pedestrian, Ben Angotti , Bill Claps, Bishop203, Bunny M., Cash4, Chris RWK, Chris Soria, Coby Kennedy, Curtis Kulig, D. Gaja, Danielle Mastrion, Dasic, Dizmology, Duel, ELLE, Erasmo, Esteban del Valle, Faust, Ghost, GIZ, Hellbent, Hue, Icy & Sot, Iena Cruz, Jesper Haynes, Justin Carty, Ket, Lexi Bella, Li-Hall, Lorenzo Masnah, Matt Siren, Mr. Toll, N. Carlos Jay, Nepo, Nick Tengri, Pesu, Phil, Pixote, RAE, Rambo, Ricardo Cabret, SAE, Savior Elmundo, Shery-o & The Yok, Shiro, Tone Tank, URNY, Vexta, X-O.

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Stikman: An Enigma Marching On

August 13, 2014 Artists

His rigid wooden stick constitution keeps him from faltering even when bending and his ubiquity on the streets and in small secret hiding places keeps you from forgetting him, the ever-present Stikman. Expressed in wood, fabric, vinyl, paper, steel, plastic; embedded into pavement and stuck upon every surface, Stikman is timely and timeless.

When you see one of these unemotional little fellas you cannot be sure if it is new or more than 20 years old, since he began appearing that long ago. Not showy nor preening, he certainly is versatile and colorful, appearing on record covers, playing cards, riding airplanes… and in a number of prints and pieces in a handful of small street art/graffiti centric galleries the last few years. He can appear as a sole figure on the street and can be remixed into vintage photos or illustrations, shape-shifting and implicating himself into other time periods and other worlds.

His maker says he is inspired by the public arena and by decay and the energy of the streets – and by his ongoing fascination with flea markets, which explains the variety of materials and situations his character appears in. In some way Stikman is an avatar in the real world having adventure and conversation and interaction with thousands, maybe millions of people by now. Today we share a selection of the many images that Stikman stars in by photographer Jaime Rojo.

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