Brooklyn Street Art | …loves you more every day.

Exploring Lisbon as a Street Art Tourist

July 23, 2014 Artists

“Street Art Tourism” Is Capturing More Attention

Eco-tourism is so popular for vacation travelers right now. You know, treading light and your carbon footprint and all that. Then there is Plastic Surgery Tourism for those whose nose is slightly twisted or who otherwise feel your personal epidermal brand could use a “refresh”. For half the price of back home why not travel to a fashionable cosmetic surgery destination and you won’t have to worry about someone seeing you buying brie at Balducci’s with a bandaged beak.

Liposucation anyone?

Erica Il Cane (photo © Stephen Kelley)

In the wake of the global growth of interest in art in the streets, one form of tourism that may soon be blowing up could be graffiti excursions, street art sightseeing, or even mural journeying. New York has been a magnet for years for aerosol artists calling us to help them hit up walls while they are on “spraycation”, but this is just the opposite.

You may wish to plan your trip abroad hunting the elusive wheat-pastes, stencils, fill-ins, hoping to capture an exotic local throwie. And why not take a few selfies with your favorite works by Street Artists that you only previously saw on Instagram?

Street Art photographer Stephen Kelley went on his own art safari last month in Lisbon, Portugal with his fiancé and he checked out a lot of the work that has been organized during the past couple of years by the internationally known local VHILS and some of his friends in a project entitled Underdogs.

Os Gemeos . Blu (photo © Stephen Kelley)

“Underdogs is an international working platform based in Lisbon, Portugal that aims at creating space within the contemporary art scene for artists connected with the new languages of urban visual culture,” say the organizers, and they have curated a program of some large-scale pieces around the city in an intelligently grand and contextual manner that makes them seem like the installations have been there for decades, not a handful of years. Urban or contemporary, it has serious fans.

Os Gemeos . Blu. Detail. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Today Mr. Kelley shares with BSA some of the shots he got during a relatively short trip to Lisbon, along with some of his experiences and observations.

“In preparing for the trip we used the Underdogs project as one of the references for the map,” he says. “I was able to convince my travelling partner and fiancé to rent an apartment in the Bairro Alto area. This was a good central point for the spots I wanted to hit. We were only in town for 3 days so I had to balance your standard tourist locations with my off-the-beaten-path art spots. She appreciates the work and is incredibly patient but I can only get away with dragging her into so many back alleys and train tracks.”

Os Gemeos . Blu (photo © Stephen Kelley)

“Immediately after leaving the airport the taxi unintentionally drove us by a block-long Os Gemeos, Blu, Sam3, Ericailane, and Lucy Mclauchlan mural. We told the taxi driver that I was in town to shoot art in the streets and in buildings. He mentioned I should check out this street where a group of artists painted a series of murals about the local government administration. I put that on the list,” says Kelley.

Lucy McLauchlan . M-Chat (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Sam3 (photo © Stephen Kelley)

“We decided to take a taxi to the area where I had located some C215 work. The taxi driver asked why we were going to that location/area,” says Kelley. “Once we arrived at the location I brought him with us to show him the art. He was incredibly impressed with the C215 mural I showed him and said he’d bring driving in town for 25 years and had never been on that street or never seen the artwork.”

C215 (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Skran01 . Tape (photo © Stephen Kelley)

“One evening in town we took a ferry over to Almada with a great view of the 25 de Abril Bridge (the same architect who designed the Golden Gate Bridge),” says Stephen. ” You can walk up the coast toward the bridge and there are two quaint eateries that make for a perfect sunset meal or drink. The waterfront is covered with graffiti and is a good representation of the art in the area.”

PISD (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Artist Unknown (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Yesh (photo © Stephen Kelley)

As with any vacation, planning your means of transportation is key – and Kelley and his girl realized Lisbon is not quite as pedestrian friendly as other cities, mainly because of the topography. “One of the first spots we hit was the harbor area for the Pixel Pancho and Vhils collaborations. After that, with intentions to continue to explore, we had our first encounter with the hills of Portugal,” he says. “The taxi driver had reminded us that Portugal is the city of seven hills. He was not kidding, walking the streets of Lisbon is no joke and a workout and a half. We quickly realized public transit or taxi was the best way to see Lisbon.”

Vhils and Pixel Pancho masterful collaboration. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Vhils and Pixel Pancho (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Vhils and Pixel Pancho. Detail. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Vhils and Pixel Pancho (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Pixel Pancho (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Like most tourists on vacation, the events that make the most impact may be the unplanned surprises, like actually seeing work in progress. Stephen explains, “One day we started to head toward the Belem Tower and a How Nosm mural. On the way we ran into Vhil’s in progress working on a water tower outside the World Photo Press exhibition at the Museu da Electricidade. I tried to wait for more action shots but he was taking a break and I couldn’t wait.”

Vhils work in progress. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Vhils work in progress. Detail. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Vhils and Crono collaboration. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Vhils and Crono. Detail. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

How & Nosm (photo © Stephen Kelley)

How & Nosm. Detail. (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Gregos (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Copy Art © (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Artist Unknown (photo © Stephen Kelley)

Artist Uknown (photo © Stephen Kelley)

“I also recommend taking a trip up to the castles in Sintra. It’s a 30-minute train ride from the center of Lisbon. The castles are breathtaking and shouldn’t be missed. Sintra was one of the highlights of the entire stay. The train ride also gave me an opportunity to see all the trackside graffiti that is quite common in Europe. The highway and train graffiti are very common, which was much different than what I am accustomed to in the US,” says Kelley.

Dope (photo © Stephen Kelley)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Li-Hill: Thrust and Parry In BKLN

July 22, 2014 Artists

Reprising some of the same thrust and parry action recently on display in his site specific installation at the Portsmouth Museum of Art in New Hampshire, Street Artist Li-Hill brought the same asymmetric energy, minus the lumber, to this Brooklyn wall this week. Living in New York at the moment, the Toronto based artist has experimented with graffiti in his exploration of painting, design, graphic design, and illustration.

Li-Hill at work on his new mural for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The kinetic fencing tableau depicted here weaves and dodges and leans forward, echoing through duplication of layers like frames of an action, effectively a painted stop-action of planes and atmospheric waves. When describing himself Li-Hill says he is attempting to “decipher the complexities of the rapid development in our modern age.”

Using the full physical range of all his limbs in New York’s July sunshine, the artist directs his energy to the gestural and engages in a purposeful postmodern dance with paint and a wall — that may recall high-tech CGI scenes from The Matrix — in effect mastering the elements even while veils of separation dissolve before our eyes.

Li-Hill at work on his new mural for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Street Poet Opiemme Honors Nobel Laureate in Poland

July 21, 2014 Artists

Italian text worker Opiemme just finished this ode to letters, words, and poetry in Gdansk, Poland for the Monumental Art Festival. A lover of the language, the muralist and public artist hopes to garner attention for the written word.

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

“I hope to spread poetry and create curiosity, to push people towards reading,” he says as he describes this new 10 story wall that is partitioned into outer space, the sky and the earth. “Like the energy of the sun, the letters radiate, transmitting in different languages knowledge, legends, and customs. They give “color” to our communications like light gives color to things.”

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

The mural is intended to honor the Polish poet and Nobel Prize winner in literature Wislawa Szymborska, and it includes a passage from his work,“… Truth, do not pay me too much attention. Solemnity, be magnanimous toward me …” from Under a Certain Little Star.

The nearer the words fall to earth, the more he hopes he will capture the interest of young readers. He says the words are simply sliding down the streaming drips of colors made from pouring bottles of paints. Using the eye candy as a seductive player, he says, the piece “is designed to attract the attention of adults and children in order to bring them closer to poetry”.

Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Lukas Glowala)

Opiemme. Detail. Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Lukas Glowala)

Opiemme for Monumental Art. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opimemme)

Opiemme. Gdansk, Poland. July 2014. (photo © Opiemme)

Click HERE to learn more about Monumental Art.

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.20.14

July 20, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 907 Crew, Ainac, Aero, Afrodoti Galazios, Blanco, Bleeps, Cash4, Daek, Dasic, Elbow-Toe, Fecks, Icy & Sot, IDT Crew, Mike Makatron, Miss 17, Mr. Penfold, Overunder, Seth, Sheryo, Smells, Sonni, Sweet Toof, The Yok, Tripel, UFO 907, Wolftits, and You Go Girl!.

Top Image >> IDT Crew. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

IDT Crew. IDT is a Chinese Crew. It reads on the background “5ive” to celebrate their 5th anniversary piece. Miss 17 on top was a later addition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sweet Toof. Smells. Cash4. UFO907. Please help ID the rest of the tags. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron with an assistant at work on his recent mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe. The stencils below are by Ainac and Tripel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (we think) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bleeps new piece in Athens, Greece. (photo © Afroditi Galazios)

Blanco new piece in Saratoga Springs, NY. (photo © Blanco)

Blanco. Detail from the piece above. (photo © Blanco)

The Yok, Sheryo, Daek and Fecks for Zoetic Walls in Cleveland, Ohio. (photo © Pawn Works)

DAEK for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo with Sonni on the background for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni for Pawn Works/NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Penfold for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aero for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolftits is even more Art Brut than ever. 907 Crew. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rarf! Seth in Baton Rouge for The Museum Of Public Art. (photo © Overunder)

Untitled. Gowanus Canal. NYC. July 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michael Beerens: Stop Slavery

July 19, 2014 Artists

Modern slavery takes many forms, and is known by many names: slavery, forced labor or human trafficking.

A star of yesterday’s BSA Film Friday, here is French Street Artist Michael Beerens sharing pics of his latest mural somewhere in France. A student of character studies, especially zoological ones, Beerens makes one pretty powerful statement without pandering.

Michael Beerens. (photo © Michael Beerens)

Michael Beerens (photo © Michael Beerens)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

BSA Film Friday: 07.18.14

July 18, 2014 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. TILIKUM from Michael Beerens
2. Etam Cru “Friends Sale”
3. RE+Public: Austin + Perth + Bringing Murals Alive Digitally
4. Creasing the Onassis from iNO
5. Last Breath IV. in Melbourne
6. Poesia: “Deconstructions”
7. How to Write a Hit Pop Song, Pt. 1

BSA Special Feature: TILIKUM from Michael Beerens

Sometimes the simple stuff catches you off guard – like the sentiment expressed at the very end of this brand new video from mild mannered Frenchman Michael Beerens. The Street Artist and muralist often does a singular creature, better rendered than you’re expecting, and with presence.

Etam Cru “Friends Sale”

Poland’s Etam Cru knock another top rate illustration out for this mural at Memorie Urbane this year. Wish the frame lingered a little longer on the finished piece so you could really savor it before it fades. From The Bind Eye Factory.

RE+Public: Austin + Perth + Bringing Murals Alive Digitally

A digital activation of murals in both Austin, Texas and Perth, Australia reveals some of the ways that augmented reality are beginning to impact your experience of public space. You hope of course that developments in this technology will be limited primarily to artistic expression and will be free of advertising, but that dream only lasts two seconds as you look at the latest branded “Street Art” mural selling sneakers in your neighborhood. Here we go!

Creasing the Onassis from iNO

Here’s a very respectful mural painted on the Onassis Cultural Centre by Greek artist iNO on the occasion of “No Respect”, an exhibition focused on public contemporary forms of art in Athens. We like the full name of the exhibition ; “(Dis)respectful Creativity: Graffiti & Street Art on Contemporary Society & Urban Spaces”. Dang, wish we were there for that one!

Last Breath IV. in Melbourne

Living in any gentrifying neighborhood in Brooklyn, you eventually fall in love with destruction. The wordsmiths at Last Breath have been doing enough of these exhibitions inside soon-to-be-demolished spaces to have coined it deliciously: “This an attempt to make the most of the final days of a spacious warehouse, now void of any life, before its meaning and beauty are forgotten. We occupied the space and invited artists to celebrate the last days of this soon-forgotten construction. Now, the building and its final beautification will fully perish and on its grounds, yet another materiality will rise.” Have a bite!

Poesia: “Deconstructions”

And for dessert, an opus from Poesia; a backwards-masked undripping of color blocks and shards of spray. The titular head of Graffuturism lets us into his space and it is open for exploration and deconstructing.

How to Write a Hit Pop Song, Pt. 1

Dude just cracked the code on that Jason Derullo hype. I knew there was a formula!

Paint a Mural on My House : Overunder With Baton Rouge Youth

July 17, 2014 Artists

“I try to create these open-ended situations with a loose play of abstract iconography to allow various interpretations. My interpretations alone change overtime, which I enjoy, so it makes sense to me to not be too didactic in my public work,” says OverUnder about his work and we can swear by it!

brooklyn-street-art-overunder-the-king-baton-rouge-07-14-web

For this piece entitled “The King”, Overunder did a portait based on an anonymous African slave. (photo © Overunder)

The Street Artist and otherwise artist just spent some time in South Baton Rouge, not too far from the Mississippi in Louisiana making a handful of murals with some local youth there. Sponsored by the The Museum of Public Art, OverUnder worked on walls as part of the Love Our Community Summer Youth Employment Program along with some other artists like Seth (Paris), Static (Chicago), Aniekan (Nigeria), Pose2 (CA), Hunto (Italy), and Daze (NY). Overunder reports that the neighborhood where they were creating a majority of work was isolated and abandoned – even though it was just within earshot of downtown and prominent neighborhoods like the Garden District.

Check out this varied collection along with some details of the pieces themselves.

Overunder “Natural Fence” (photo © Overunder)

Overunder “Ben’s House” (photo © Overunder)

This was a class project on the side of one of the students home.”The mural refers to ten of the most historically significant African American quilt templates,” says Overunder of the patterning beneath the huge riveting orbs, as he explains that there were just ten basic building blocks for the multitude of quilt designs that came from the quilt-making tradition in the US.

Overunder. Ben’s Mom painting. (photo © Overunder)

“Of course there are many deviations and permutations but the basic building block of the majority of quilts can be traced back to these ten. While most people (especially the slave masters) viewed these quilts as decorative blankets, the underlying agenda of the quilt patterns and stitching provided an ingenious method of Underground Railroad communication,” he says. “Within these quilts slaves remixed African symbols to convey information pertaining to escaping the bonds of slavery. The quilts in this mural partially obstruct the face as a symbol of protest. The piercing, yet kind expression of the eyes reinforces the notion of communication without words.”

Overunder. Ben’s House reflection. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder. Ben’s House group shot (that’s Benjamin in the center). (photo © Overunder)

Overunder. Sundial. Detail. (photo © Overunder)

For a piece called “Sundial” Overunder made a time capsule for freedom on the 4th of July. “It uses the natural shadows from the building’s architectural features to keep time starting at sunrise, ” he says. “Gradients of color and the letter “I” from the nearby I-beam are transcribed every 15 minutes starting at 7 am. Behind that is a vertical “Red Stick” (Baton Rouge) with radiating detached branches forming the majority of the mural. In the lower right corner is a hovering shutter door graffiti’d with the outline of the state of Louisiana. A highway encompassed my metallic seeds flows out from the shutter door.”

Overunder. Sundial. Detail. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder. Sundial. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder. Iris. (photo © Overunder)

Iris, who owns this house, requested that the collaborative piece include her favorite things, namely, her namesake iris flowers. “She looooved her flowers!” says Overunder, who created a chain link outline for the students to paint their individual floral sections within. He says the Interstate highway and its placement looks like it has a lot to do with the neighborhood’s isolation from affluent neighborhoods and the racial segregation that is evident, and he wanted to reflect that and the history of the neighborhood, if obliquely.

Overunder. Iris. Detail. (photo © Overunder)

“This mural shows an inverted landscape with an abstract interstate dividing the plane. Three large Iris’ grow through the fence, shuffling between the links referencing the history of immigration (both forced and voluntary) as well as the common Louisiana flower and it’s stylized transformation into the iconic fleur de lis. On the front of the house, the fence transforms into 2 criss-crossing wild roses alluding to the concept of fences being a man-made construct based on nature,” says Overunder

Overunder. Iris. Detail. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder (photo © Overunder)

Overunder. Old Trap House. (photo © Overunder)

This was a preliminary workshop with Overunder’s students transforming an ex-trap house. “Within each of my signature paper birds the students painted positive messages they wished upon the neighborhood,” he says.

Overunder. Malachi in front of the old trap house. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder. Malachi painting on the old trap house. (photo © Overunder)

Thanks to Dr. Kevin Harris of the The Museum of Public Art.

Bien Urbain 2014 in Besançon, France

July 16, 2014 Artists

Artistic Routes Through and with Public Spaces

The month long 4th Edition of Bien Urbain just wrapped in Besançon, France and the results are predictably rather awesome due to the quality of the work, the site selections, and the integrated nature of the entire presentation. “It is not about designing an open-air art gallery or about decorating the town,” say the organizers, and maybe that is why each artist seems to consider the whole before devising his or her addition to it.

MOMO. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © MOMO)

BSA has been tracking Bien Urbain since its introduction and each time the collection of artists is thoughtfully selected, with each helping to define and refine the measure of public art without the trite pleasantries of commercially sponsored festivals nor stultifyingly bland results of design by municipal committee.

Whether purely modernist (MOMO), cerebral (Brad Downey) or poetic (Pastel), the contributions to Bien Urbain are more edifying than edifice and enable one to experience “artistic routes through and with public spaces,” as the festivals’ motto intones.

MOMO. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

MOMO. Detail. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © L’Saint Hiller)

MOMO. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © MOMO)

Argentinian muralist Jaz chose the old citadel of Besançon (below) to pay tribute to his hosts and perhaps because his mind was on the World Cup, he also created a sepia-toned version of the Boca football club stadium in Buenos Aires. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

Jaz. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Elena Murcia Artengo)

Jaz. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

Jaz also brought a pair of wrestlers to end cap this building. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

Ever (or EverSiempre) was a surprise guest this year and immediately took over a space with his allegorical forms and flowing fabrics. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © David Demougeot)

Elian. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Elena Murcia Artengo)

Brad Downey. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

The American artist Brad Downey made a couple of interventions with existing materials in the Battant neighborhood. Brad Downey. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Brad Downey)

Zosen & Mina Hamada. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

Zosen & Mina Hamada. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Naara Bahler)

“It’s based on a poem for Victor Hugo ‘Les feuilles d`automne’ 1831,” says artist Pastel. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Elena Murcia Artengo)

Pastel. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Quentin Coussirat)

OX. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © OX)

Graphic Surgery. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Graphic Surgery)

Graphic Surgery. Detail. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Chloe Cura)

The Paris based collective Les Freres Ripoulain created this variation on the typical children’s rocking toy . Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Mathieu Tremblin)

Les Freres Ripoulain. Bien Urbain 4th Edition. Besançon, France. 2014. (photo © Mathieu Tremblin)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Faile “Fuel, Fantasy, Freedom”, or Hot Rods, Unicorns & Coloring Books

July 15, 2014 Artists, Interview

Hormonal murmurings, childhood dreaming, race cars, hot rods, porky pig. All are on display at Fuel, Fantasy, Freedom, the new show by Faile running roughshod all summer at Galerie Hilger NEXT in Vienna. The collection of works on wood, paper, and fabric is a petrol injected force of beasts and beauty as the Brooklyn-based Street Artists / fine artists continue to challenge themselves to rummaging through childhood and teen lust and recombining images in an almost subliminal space juiced with fantasies from various perspectives, almost colored with punk-rock bleary hues. Or maybe it is more appropriate to say “parent-hood bleary” these days.

brooklyn-street-art-faile-jaime-rojo-07-14-web-12

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While early 2000s Faile also experimented with stopping the presses before the final screen, allowing the guts of their prints to be unfinished and imperfect in all their glory, recent projects like the one with the New York City Ballet have required a tighter control over the finished product. “I mean for a lot of these – like if you look back at 2002 with the “Space Shuttle” a lot of this is like going back to those things,” says Patrick McNeil as he shows us around the large collection of pieces in their Brooklyn studio before they made the trip to Austria last month – while Miller is at the computer finishing the cover design for a new 360 page Faile tome to be released this fall.

For the two Patricks Fuel, Fantasy, Freedom is an opportunity to re-engage with their art and to take a look back to the lesser finished, more ruff-cut approach of their early days. “A lot of the shows that we’ve done recently, like the one with the (New York City) ballet – things that require the woodblock prints, they are heavily dependent on assistants to like pump everything out to make the material and get ready for the show. So we are trying to get back – to get the “hand” back into it and step away from that process for a bit and go back to really being fully engaged with the work.”

“….These are diptychs, double page spreads of 1960s hotrod magazines . We took out all the content, redid the spread, redid all the cars, we did all of the text, dressed up a little bit of the content,” says Patrick McNeil. Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Much of this is like de-constructed Faile.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah I mean a lot of them have like the skeletal work of Faile. It’s basically how a Faile image gets built up, but we just kind of stopped earlier on it.

Brooklyn Street Art: So the color is blocked in on one layer and then you stopped. No detail.
Patrick McNeil: Yep, just kept them really loose and gestural

In addition to the “holding back” of the final over-printing, you’ll notice two other themes here. You may have seen sketches from the early 2000s of Faile’s ’57 Chevy screen printed in black on white that is rather scribbled upon by crayons? That image alone could provide sufficient foreshadowing for the other two directions for “Fuel, Fantasy, Freedom”. The artists actually experimented with their kids to have quality coloring-book time for this show, and McNeil consulted his own memories of his father as a race car driver while leaning on his Uncle Jim for his expertise of hot rods from the 60s and 70s.

“And it’s kind of a personal thing with working on it with the kids,” says McNeil, “The other half of the show is about cars… and a lot of these things are what our kids like; Fantasy, fast cars, music, princesses, unicorns, animals, and all those kinds of things. The cars also go back to my childhood and with my dad.”

We turn to a collection of coloring book pages on the work table in the spacious worksop and talk about how kids fill shapes and areas with crayons or markers, and what color choices are involved. McNeil talk about how he spent time observing both his kids and Millers and taking the time to get inside their process. Eventually many of the new pieces reflect what he refers to as “collaboration”.

“We were going through coloring books – We have all these amazing things from the 60s that were colored in. And the way kids would color them was they would block shit out and lock out shapes and I was like, ‘these look rad, we should do like a series of paintings.’ We’ve always talked about the trapping, the painting that goes in before the final print goes on,” he says.

“So we started to take these home and have the kids work on them or we would work on them together – so I painted this one and my son painted this one at home but when I was painting with the kids I got really in tune with just watching them – and the color and thinking about the shapes,” he says as he describes the very similarly rendered pieces he and his kindergarden-aged son would sometimes come up with. “My son sends me this one and he did the legs and the body kind of like how I did and I took what he did and I reinterpreted it like that and you kind of get this kind of thing happening.”

Brooklyn Street Art: So you feel like you were tuning into a more childlike approach?
Patrick McNeil: Not only that I’m like collaborating with my son and he’s five and I would do them and then show him and he was like, “Daddy, why are you copying my work?” And I would say, “Well this isn’t copying, we’re collaborating and you’re helping me and I’m re-interpreting what you are doing.”

When it came to the hot-rods – the two page magazine spreads and the hero worship massive solo prints – more senior members of the family were brought into the process.

Patrick McNeil: So getting back to the cars – my dad used to race cars
Brooklyn Street Art: Did he have that roll bar inside the car?

Patrick McNeil: Yeah he raced cars and my Uncle Jim used to race cars in the 60s. – so here’s one he used to race. So we did a series of race cars, wait I’ll show you…

Brooklyn Street Art: Wow, yeah,
Patrick McNeil: So we did six of these different cars – we kind of went in and we tricked everything out. I worked with my Uncle Jim to get all the accurate information for these particular cars, the speeds that they ran, the engines that were running in them, the horsepower, transmission, the tracks that they raced at. And then we took the real content and made fictional cars with fictional names.

Brooklyn Street Art: So they are grounded in fact…
Patrick McNeil: It’s grounded in fact but made entirely of fiction. So of the cars we did six different cars.

Brooklyn Street Art: My god, these are superstars.
Patrick McNeil: And of the six cars we did three of each again. You can kind of see the variations.

It’s not that Faile has been impersonal in the past, he says, it’s just that they are looking a little more inward a little at the moment. One influential artist that he points to is Mike Kelly, whose recent retrospective at PS1 drew on so many parts of his daily life and existence for inspiration in his work. “After seeing the Mike Kelley show and hearing how his life informed his work – we’re kind of embracing that. I mean the work always has some personal twist – like “Urban Assault” is about moving out to the suburbs while “Bunny Girl” was more about creating an image. There are things of course that connect more to personal experience,” he says.

Fuel, Fantasy, Freedom clearly contains a lot of each, and for Faile it the freedom they have experienced in the making of these new pieces is as evident on their faces as it is in the vibrancy and risk-taking of the new work. From their earliest mono-prints and stencils to now, the duo has returned to the raw punk-rock well for inspiration and each time have found themselves re-aligned.

Brooklyn Street Art: This show really spreads wide. How many pieces are there?

Patrick McNeil: So there’s the magazine spreads, there’s five diptychs, six cars… Ten of the smaller, six of the larger verticals, three horizontal and three wood pieces. Then the t-shirts, the wood carvings…

Brooklyn Street Art: And you have used a lot of free hand rendering and a free range of materials.
Patrick McNeil: Yeah it’s a mixture of spray paint, acrylic house paint, and oil pastels, a little bit of pencil or pencil crayon. But this show has been a lot of fun to work on – It’s been good to be in touch with the work.

Faile “Fuel, Fantasy, Freedom” exhibition is currently on view at the Galerie Ernst Hilger NEXT in Vienna. Click HERE for more details.

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Göla Finding Direction with a Deer God for Viavai Project in Italy

July 14, 2014 Artists

By way of re-balancing our chakras today, we check in with Göla and his new mural of the Deer God for the Viavai Project in Salento, Italy.

Along with Street Artists like Pastel, Ozmo, Eversiempre, CT, Basic, and Tellas, the festival takes the position that art in public spaces can shift the center of gravity away from the typical hype of a “scene” and focus instead upon the experiential aspects of art as a living thing and even an emotional one.

Göla tells us that his new piece is centered on an amiable antlered diety as a “symbol of the rebirth of nature and the cycle of the seasons studied since Paleolithic cultures, described here through vegetal elements and reflected as an oracle and a mouthpiece of behaviors.”

The name of the new piece is “Direzione” (direction) which he says, “speaks about coexistence of man and other species and creating a sustainable path forward.” Conceived as a sacred apparition, it uses symmetrical and metaphorical symbols in a way that echoes more established conventions of religious art.

While the street artist and performer describes his new work you may wonder how the allegories contained within it about resources, sharing, giving, receiving and communion with nature could ever be achieved. He admits that these are long time aspirational goals that people have had for centuries and he obviously believes that they are still worthwhile to contemplate. He speaks of the rising path in the image that is “guided by the light purple color of meditation and spirituality to a new conception of the planet that is in reality nothing more than a new-found understanding of the ancient tribal societies – married by advances current technology.”

Click HERE for more on the Viavai Project

Click HERE for more on Gola Hundun’s work.

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.13.14

July 13, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Apparently there is another spectacular sporting event that’s got everyone captivated today and for a couple hours it will be easy to get a cronut or a seat on the subway because people will be worshipping flat screens inside a dark sports bar on the Lord’s Day. We recommend you jog right over to the High Line because it’s free and will likely be a little more commodious than usual. You can lounge while listening to a sleek waterfall, stroll arm in arm with your beloved, gaze upon the urban-wild landscaping and even catch a new billboard high-jacking that might make you crack a smile.

The billboard space is great if reserved for Art On The High Line, but has been recently replaced by straight up garishly banal advertising, sort of marring the beauty of this big public works project whose spirit is better served when it steers clear of commercial messaging. This week sometime a few buckets of yellow paint were used to selectively buff the message to create a new one. A bit of genius goes a long way sometimes, doesn’t it? Although, for all we know, it’s a clever way to draw attention to the original ad, since you can still read it.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alice Pasquini, bunny M, Bust Art, Cera, Damon, Gazoo, Gum Shoe, Kid Monkey, Knarf, Labrona, LMNOPI, Low Bros, Miriam Castillo, Mr. Prvrt, Pyramid Oracle, Sweet Toof, Trentino, UD, Urban Spree, Vexta, Wing, and Zaria.

Top Image >> Unknown artist billboard takeover. Please help us ID the artist. Is it Posterboy perhaps? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unknown artist’s sculpture of a face with tree branch below and existing and previously published WING glass hummingbird. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

July 12, 2014 Artists

Most viewers want to know, “How did he do that?” when looking at the medieval script arching and swerving through a splattering of stars or surrounding a black hole. Niels “Shoe” Meulman continues to take Calligraffiti into new realms that are more abstract and mystical, disconnecting the elements from their tissues and reconfiguring them.

Adele Renault was on hand with Mr. Meulman while he was creating new works in his studio in Amsterdam for “Unearthly Paintings”, which opens today at White Walls Gallery. Here you can see the physical aspect of rearranging atoms, as well as contemplate how Meulman authors actions that produce another series of reactions in the universe.

From the artist: “Art, science and religion have a common origin; the unknown. My latest pieces touch on subjects like ‘antiknowledge’ and ‘the great doubt.’ This exhibition is an exploration to find mysticism in science. Particle accelerators are modern cathedrals for people who believe in quantum mechanics. With every discovery, more questions arise. Scientific findings of the last decades are more fantastic than all of the fables in religious books put together.”

Thank you to photographer and BSA contributor Brock Brake for sharing these images today with BSA readers.

Niels “Shoe” Meulman solo exhibition “The Unearthly Paintings” opens today at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco. Click HERE for more information.
<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Happy New Year 2026 From BSA
January 1, 2026
Okay let's do this! The future is unwritten. Get out your marker.Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 4
December 31, 2025
We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 5
December 30, 2025
We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 6
December 29, 2025
It's not all doom and gloom, but sometimes you may get that impression. In New York—like everywhere else—economic stress, global …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 7
December 28, 2025
Somewhere along the King’s Road, punk hardened into a classic ‘look’ - or dictionary of ‘looks’. Stripped of its insurgent …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 8
December 27, 2025
“When I watch people holding their smartphones, I often ask myself: are they holding their phones because they want to, …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 9
December 26, 2025
This was the year that rappelling from high places tipped the balance in New York graffiti. No matter the style …Read More »