We are delighted to announce that we are showing the work of the much loved and respected Bristol artist, Guy Denning in his first London solo show for two years. It’s the final part of his trilogy of exhibitions interpreting Dante’s The Divine Comedy; PARADISO. Inferno and Purgatorio, which were shown in Bologna and New York, were a tremendous success and we think that the final part of the cycle will be equally so.
In PARADISO Denning has created a series of works that use highly individual visual imagery to depict the ecstatic route to a place of resolution and rest (for Dante the route to heaven). He is intrigued by how the moral ambiguities of the world we live in; with it’s emphasis on glorifying the here and now, finds resonances with the unshakeable medieval belief in the existence of life after death. Like Dante, Denning draws on contemporary political concerns to illustrate his vision.
Part of the exhibition is inspired by Beatrice, Dante’s long dead love, who is the central figure in the poem and who symbolises feminine purity and vulnerability. To represent this aspect of PARADISO Denning has painted a series of delicate portraits of famous women from the recent past, who died young and who have found immortality in their enduring youth.
Denning has been an artist all his adult life and in 2007, he moved from Bristol to rural Brittany to concentrate fulltime on his painting. The artistic freedom this move has given him has contributed greatly to the intense and consistently beautiful work that he has produced in this period; quite simply it has raised his art to a whole new level.
His belief in the importance of drawing skills is the foundation of all his work. He uses traditional painting methods of building up work from underlying sketches, mostly from life and often using his friends as models. Guy’s painting, mainly oil on canvas, is approached with an intellectual rigour, which is always directed towards a truthful interpretation of the world as he sees it. He is a unique artist in his technique, manner and choice of subject matter and this is at its best in his modern representation of Dante’s 14th century world.
The private view is on the 4th October and the show runs until the 27th October. Please let us know if you need any further information or images. Here is a link to a preview video that we think captures the very essence of PARADISO
Signal Gallery · 32 Paul Street · London, Eng EC2A 4LB
“Urban Exploring” is often thought of as some kind of elite super ninja activity; tinged with adventure, a sense of danger, and definitely some flying nunchucks. For city folk with a sense of wanderlust and a need for exercise, the act of checking out an abandoned old building can be just as satisfying and dangerous as going for a bracing hike or rock climbing in the mountains, but it’s much closer to a deli.
Like most large cities in the US, New York has always had its share of run-down decrepit buildings that virtually welcome your exploration. It’s a surprise to find that even with improved city parks on the rise in NYC, when you duck through a hole in the fence to explore an old house or factory you may find other people doing the same thing. In fact sometimes you’ll find people living in them, riding skateboards in them, having sex in them, doing drugs in them, and of course spraying aerosol in them.
You can’t see all this action from the street but sometimes there are awesome interiors in cavernous spaces that continually evolve and metamorphose – an urban art gallery that has a regularly updated exhibition. The perspective will depends on your personal tastes of course.
This particular spot made us think of high-end magazines with shots of socialites posing and air-kissing and banging their hats into each other at charity fundraisers. Something about its grandness feels like a ballroom, even though it looks like it was a power station for the MTA in the early 1900s and the neighborhood itself is probably a SuperFund site, thanks to decades of industrial dumping.
After this rotting and colorful corpse is cleaned up in a few decades, it will probably be razed for some deeeeeeluxe cookie-cutter condos selling for a million each. But for now, you can just squat and take pictures of the golden light streaming through the dirty cracked windows and gaping crevices. Here is your non-ticketed opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous mosaic of graffiti art that waits: rich with color, pattern and coded messages. It can be a brain tease to try to guess what this stuff says. Also, you can practice with your nunchucks.
The artists who bring the creative tree of life to a dead neighborhood are often victims of the people whose primary interest is to capitalize on it; the money handlers and opportunists effectively killing the very thing that attracted life in the first place. By way of metaphor, Various and Gould mounted their personal installation on a tree in Görlitzer Park, Berlin to raise the question and continue the conversation that cultural observers have about the role of subcultures in greater society. Is there a social contract that exists which supports the subculture and values it’s contribution – and if we value it, should we make any effort to sustain it?
“Trees are symbols of vitality and growth. They supply oxygen and give shape to their surroundings. With our installation “DualiTree” we’d like to bring up the inseparable bond of life and death,” said Various as the two commented on the installation. The pretty simple public project uses sailcloth, flexible tent poles, cardboard, loops, rope, and acrylic paint to project the face of death onto a living tree. The installation is in reaction to the various hotspots for subculture in Berlin that are now closing as more commercial interests have driven the prices of rent up in areas of the city where the average person would not have walked at night before these scenes evolved.
Two days before their installation Berlin artist’s squat Tacheles was cleared after 22 years, which many say was THE symbol for the creative potential of Berlin (and a top tourist attraction. Similarly spaces like the community-garden project Prinzessinnengarten (German for princesses-garden) is at risk and started a petition, and the 300 square foot Neurotitan art space is on a very insecure rental ground – even though it has hosted up to 12 shows a year and given opportunities to Street Artists like the young Brooklyn Street Art collective Faile in 2003 and the Just Seeds collective in 2012. It is without question that vital spaces like these, which provide fertile soil for alternative culture – urban art, comic art, illustration, painting, performances, book presentations, small concerts, and collaborations, are crucial engines to the greater creative economy.
As they look at the new Duali tree today, still standing after two weeks, Gould re-iterates, “The alternative scene is an essential part of what makes Berlin so special and brings it’s veins to pulse.”
Noting the collaborative nature of this particular creative venture, V&G thanks the people who helped in their installation: Just, Frank, Lars, Robert, Julien, Stev, and Jonas.
UPDATE: BSA exclusive new footage courtesy of video artist Chris Jordan plus new images from Jaime Leo, Eszter Klajman and Chris Jordan.
New York’s skies got majorly tagged today. And Mitt Romney got called out in front of 8 million people as a #GOPFail
New Yorkers who looked up from stoop sales, soccer games, and strolls across the Brooklyn Bridge saw graffiti artist and fine artist Saber flying five planes in formation across sunny Sunday skies with messages castigating the presidential candidate for his plans to kill funding for cornerstone arts programs like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Public Radio (NPR), the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
As the planes spelled out #DefendTheArts over Manhattan, Saber explained to BSA in a phone interview, “Basically I’m calling out Mitt and any other politicians who are cutting arts funding because they are actually cutting jobs that are an engine to our economy. Not to mention the effect these programs have on creativity and inspiration.” One dot-matrix style message said “Protect NPR PBS NEA from cuts” while another offered the Twitter hashtag simply entitled “#MittRomneyHatesArt”.
As one of a handful of high profile graffiti/street artists in the US who have taken the national stage with their social and political commentary, Saber has “gone big” before, but never on this scale and never over New York City in an hour and a half display that he estimated could be seen over a 20 mile radius. “NYC is the art center of the world,” Saber says, “It is quite a good feeling to be able to spread this public message.”
BSA Exclusive Raw footage by Video Artist Chris Jordan shows artist Saber spraying the sky over Manhattan (VIDEO)
The extremely wealthy Republican candidate Romney told Fortune last month that in addition to scrapping the new national health program that is offering medical care to millions, he intends to cut funding to major arts programs if he is elected, saying of the arts programs, “I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to stand on their own.”
Rather than relying simply on the generosity of patronage, Saber thinks that the government and society at large benefit from investing in artists in an increasingly “creative economy” – many of whom he called out in the sky today, including artists, writers, poets, designers, actors.
Taking his campaign to social media with the #DefendTheArts hashtag this time, Saber very visibly entered the national fray during the healthcare reform debate of 2009, saying that the existing for-profit system cut out people like himself, uninsurable because of his epilepsy. Today grassroots activism that emanated from downtown NYC has expanded the conversation and he acknowledges those voices who have focused attention on Romney and the so-called 1%. “We’re making sure to fly directly over Zucotti Park with a big ‘Occupy Wall Street’ message, because that’s what New York is too.”
Amid the political messages skywritten by Saber are shout outs to friends and graffiti artists who have passed; a nod to the roll-call community memorial walls that graffiti and street artists have done in cities for decades. This new way of “getting up” also has Saber waxing poetic as he sees the effect his fresh tags have at 34,000 feet as they melt into the blue canvas over most of NYC. “It’s almost like I’m painting in the sky – it has a really beautiful effect when a fresh one lays over the one that is fading away.”
As the planes made long oval trips over Manhattan, the East River, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and back, the normally tough stuff graff guy couldn’t really mask his enthusiasm, “I’m really excited about it!”
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets (and sometimes inside), this week featuring new shots of Barry McGee, Buttless Supreme, Dain, Elle, Etnik, Ive One, Jose Parla, Kashink, Klepto, Matt Siren, ND”A, Overunder, Pork, Swil, This Is Awkward and Zor.
Here are shots of the new GEOMETRICKS show as installed and opening this evening in Red Hook, Brooklyn at Gallery Brooklyn. These images look so austere and crisp, unlike the wildness on the canvasses, and nothing like the visual cacophony of the streets, where so much of this new abstractionist movement is happening. Guess that’s why they call this the “fine art” portion of the story, right?
Congratulations and thanks to all the artists, the gallery, the interns, and our Vandal/Visionary curator for this show, Hellbent. GEOMETRICKS runs for 6 weeks so if you would like to see it in person you are more than welcome.
The show’s up and the bubbly is waiting for the iceman to cometh and of course we hope you’ll be rolling through as Hellbent curates our first “Vandals or Visionaries” show, entitled GEOMETRICKS.
Tricks are for kids, and for Olek, who has reserved one of her raunchy text messages for you to discover crocheted into her sculpture, and for Overunder, who is hanging his free wheeling story-telling metaphors with pattern overlays on large sheets of draftsman paper. It’s also tricky to make your eyes focus through multiple abstractions, line plays, blinding colors, and rippling patterns that jump off at you as you walk through the gallery space.
All of these artists have been bringing it to the streets, and all come at it from different perspectives. See One developed his through the NYC graffiti scene, Augustine Kofie evolved his draftsman approach out of his days as a writer in LA during the 90s, and Jaye Moon is a fine artist from Korea who’s had a gallery career before she started taking Legos to the streets. But when you see it all together, you realize there is one new language in formation in the Street Art AND Graffiti scene.
“Art from the streets has been heralding a new eye-popping geometric disorder that can now fairly be called a movement.
With roots in recent art history and the rhythms of the street, artists are giving themselves over to pungent color, pattern, grid inspired line, and a sharp edged abstraction. No one can say what has moved the conversation toward this aesthetic — it all mimics the repetitive patterns that are found in nature as well as the cool symmetries programmed by human industry. These modern alchemists from across the globe are somehow pumping the Street Art scene with an oxygen-rich supply of lifeblood and a variety of possible directions to explore.” ~ from Color, Geometry and Pattern on the Streets, our recent piece on the Huffington Post.
Yo Yo what’s up all the Brooklyn peepuls and the New Yorkers and the LA’ers and the Chicago’ers and the Stavanger Norway buddies and shout out to Martha as she hangs in Johannesburg today and to everybody who’s brave enough to tap into the creative spirit. Today in Brooklyn it’s sunny and bright and there’s a bird singing on the chain link fence outside my house. As usual the place to be is where you’re at. Also, we’d be really happy to meet you tomorrow at our show in Red Hook if you can fly by.
1. Kit Kat Flex Dancer in Brooklyn (VIDEO)
2. GEOMETRICKS Opens Saturday (BKLYN)
3. Shai Dahan “Broken Window” (Sweden)
4. Fall Group Exhibition at C.A.V.E (LA)
5. Sydney curates a show on the Street (Australia)
6. “Luchadores” by El Hase is now open to the public at One Art Space in Manhattan.7. Ricky Powell is “Back in BK” and you can catch him tonight at Mishka in Brooklyn
7. PUBLIC WORKS PART I By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
8. PUBLIC WORKS PART II By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
9. Narcelio Grud: “Spiral” Invention and Graffiti (VIDEO)
10. TEJN Has a lock on Street Art (VIDEO)
11. Don John in Copenhagen by Alexander Lee (VIDEO)
Let’s start Friday by getting inspired by KitKat – a Brooklyn flex dancer who knows her stuff. (VIDEO)
GEOMETRICKS Opens Saturday (BKLYN)
Of course we had to put this one first because we have 11 cool artists showing work that collectively illustrates one of the major new directions that Street Art and Graffiti are going in right now.
The Red Hook neighborhood is where the fun will be this Saturday as the opening of “GEOMETRICKS”, curated by Hellbent, takes place at Gallery Brooklyn. With a FREE shuttle from the G/F Trains on Carroll St to the Gallery courtesy of local Brooklyn Crab restaurant, a Young Collectors Wall with dope pieces by the artists in the show all priced at $200 each (you must have valid student ID for these pieces), and music provided by Sleptember, you are going to see a slice of community we’ve all grown to love.
Support the inaugural show of “Vandal or Visionaries” Series by BSA and enjoy the beautiful art works by: Augustine Kofie, Chor Boogie, Drew Tyndell, Feral Child, Hellbent, Jaye Moon, Maya Hayuk, MOMO, OLEK, OverUnder, See One. Then join us at Brooklyn Crab to hang after the show – and the restaurant will be offering a FREE shuttle back to the G/F Trains. So what’s there not to like? And we thank our local Red Hook based sponsor, SixPoint Brewery.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Sydney curates a show on the Street (Australia)
It looks like the Australians’ love affair for Street Art continues strong. Ambush Gallery has teamed up with Darling Quartet, Sydney’s new precinct and public arts space to mount an outdoor exhibition opening to the public today. The works of art on view are by a handful of well known and respected Street Artists working today including: Anthony Lister (Bris/NY), Beastman (Syd), Shannon Crees (Syd) and Hiroyasu Tsuri/TWOONE (Melb). The exhibition is FREE, open 24/7 and it will be illuminated at night.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Also happening this weekend:
“Luchadores” by El Hase is now open to the public at One Art Space in Manhattan. Click here for more details on this show.
Ricky Powell is “Back in BK” and you can catch him tonight at Mishka in Brooklyn. Click here for more details on this show.
PUBLIC WORKS PART I By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
PUBLIC WORKS PART II By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
To learn more about LALA Arts Public Works Project with the participation of Ron English and Shepard Fairey, as well as How & Nosm, Insa, Push, Revok, Risk, Seen, Trustocorp, WCA Crew, Uglar and Zes click here.
Narcelio Grud: “Spiral” Invention and Graffiti (VIDEO)
TEJN Has a lock on Street Art (VIDEO)
Sculptor TEJN from Copenhagen broadens our conception of what street art and public art and sculpture are with his installations that he chains and locks and leaves. Basically, he’s just giving you his art, and if you really want it probably you will need a blow torch.
In an initiative that transcends the white walls of the conventional gallery space and redefines Sydney’s relationship with art, OPEN is Darling Quarter’s newest public art space, set to launch in association with Art & About 2012 on Friday 21st September.
Presented by Darling Quarter and curated and produced by aMBUSH Gallery, OPEN will surprise and enchant the passersby of Darling Quarter’s Civic Connector with large-scale and vibrant public art exhibitions.
The precinct’s debut exhibition, launching on Friday 21st September and continuing until the 26th October, is OPEN STREET ART, which features internationally renowned Australian artists Anthony Lister (Bris/NY), Beastman (Syd), Shannon Crees (Syd) and Hiroyasu Tsuri/
TWOONE (Melb). Illuminated at night, OPEN STREET ART will be visible 24 hours a day.
Singular in style and leaders in their field, the artists have created a site-specific and culturally reflective body of four works each, sixteen in total, which will hang throughout the exhibition’s duration on purpose built cubes down the length of the Civic Connector.
OPEN STREET ART explores the changing relationship between street artists, their work and their audiences, as the art form continues to grow as the most significant art movement of the last ten years.
Darling Quarter’s Abigail Campion says, “OPEN STREET ART gives visitors a chance to explore the fastest growing and most dynamic art movement in the world and the Australian artists who are leading it. We have some of the most brilliant artists here in Australia and
initiatives like OPEN are a chance to celebrate and support this. Through initiatives like Luminous, Lend Lease Darling Quarter Theatre,
the Night Owls Film Festival and now OPEN, Darling Quarter is gearing up to become a premier cultural hub in the city, supporting the arts,
partnering with cultural organisations such as aMBUSH Gallery and engaging with the community.”
Bill Dimas and John Wiltshire of aMBUSH Gallery attest to the broader significance of OPEN, saying, “OPEN demonstrates how successful
partnerships between business and the arts can benefit the whole community and the city’s cultural landscape, by providing an open,
direct and inclusive arts communication.”
While each of the artists’ work is a reaction to the space, their approaches are as diverse as their styles. One of the world’s Top
50 Most Collectable Artists, Anthony Lister says of his method, “I approached this painting like I was being attacked by an angry bull.
It’s best to deal with an angry bull head-on and with conviction. It’s worst to run and be hit and have to deal with the horns then.”
Beastman, 2010 Sydney Music, Arts & Culture (SMACS) best artist winner, whose iconic creatures grace walls around the globe, explains
that his OPEN STREET ART work “is a representation of the four material elements of nature: wind, water, fire and earth.”
The only Australian artist to show in Banksy’s Cans Festival 2 2008, Shannon Crees’ work is both bold and feminine, and she seeks to
engage her OPEN STREET ART audience by designing her work “as a seamless, unending plane… every surface an extension of the last and
a precursor to the next.”
Hailing from Japan and based now in Melbourne, Hiroyasu Tsuri, who also works under the name TWOONE, has created a series that is
“an exploration of the concept of a psychological portrait.” His work depicts people not as they look, but as they feel and act, by employing
animals as metaphors for the human condition.
In conjunction with the launch of OPEN STREET ART, Darling Quarter’s biggest tenant, the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, is
hosting a fundraising barbecue in support of prostate cancer research on Friday 21st September. The barbecue is open to the public, and
will be a great opportunity for Sydney to collectively welcome and celebrate OPEN as Darling Quarter’s newest cultural initiative.
The future of OPEN holds an exciting and diverse program of exhibitions. The pop-up shows will explore a dynamic range of
disciplines, from drawing and painting to photography, embellishing Sydney with beauty and reminding the city of the talent Australia
boasts from its own shores.
The OPEN STREET ART exhibition is presented by the recently developed 5 Green Star rated Darling Quarter precinct, and is produced and curated by award winning Sydney gallery aMBUSH. It is an Associated Event of Art & About Sydney 2012, produced by City
of Sydney.
Overunder continues to expand, explore, rework, reveal – a surrealist stretching the figurative and coupling it with the symbolic and architectural, and finishing it with overlays of patterning of tattooing or circuitry. In a rising tide of sameness, Street Artists like Overunder are weaving storyline and imagination, innovation, experimentation. His characters are mid-thought and on the move, rooted in history and with a sense of self, these paeans to people and to place. Also it’s interesting to see this new symbol pop up suddenly, this distortion of the smile icon – we’ll have to find out about that and get back to you…
Seth and Nick of Pawn Works continue to curate this, their summer project “Art in Public Places” in the Pilsen Neighborhood of Chicago, and to be on the look out for spots that are choice. Many of the pieces have dealt thematically with the populations and the history of Pilsen, giving a distinctive voice to the neighborhood. With these recent contributions from Overunder and fellow traveler/ painter Labrona just capping off the humid summer season, the character of this project is going wide, and deep.
Chicago contributor and talented photographer Brock Brake captured Overunder and Labrona at work and shares the view through his lens here with BSA readers.
Street art welcomes all manner of materials and methods, typically deployed without permission and without apology. This hand-formed wire piece …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
