Brooklyn Street Art | …loves you more every day.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum and The Renwick Gallery Present: “40 Under 40” (Washington, DC)

July 11, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Museum, Opening, Washington DC

40 under 40

OLEK‘s entire studio apartment installation will be included in 40 under 40: Craft Futures, a group exhibition curated by Nicholas Bell at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC.

40 under 40: Craft Futures features forty artists born since 1972, the year the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s contemporary craft and decorative arts program was established at its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery. The exhibition investigates evolving notions of craft within traditional media such as ceramics and metalwork, as well as in fields as varied as sculpture, industrial design, installation art, fashion design, sustainable manufacturing, and mathematics. The range of disciplines represented illustrates new avenues for the handmade in contemporary culture.

All of the artworks selected for display in the exhibition were created since Sept. 11, 2001. This new work reflects the changed world that exists today, which poses new challenges and considerations for artists. These 40 artists are united by philosophies for living differently in modern society with an emphasis on sustainability, a return to valuing the hand-made and what it means to live in a state of persistent conflict and unease.

Nicholas R. Bell, The Fleur and Charles Bresler Curator of American Craft and Decorative Art at the Renwick Gallery, organized the exhibition. The museum hopes to acquire works by every artist featured in the exhibition to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of the Renwick Gallery. Click here to learn how you can help in this effort.

Select works from 40 under 40:Craft Futures provided inspiration to the designers of Washington Design Center’s 2012 DreamHome. Visit dcdesigncenter.com for more information.

1st floor, Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street N.W.)
July 20, 2012 – February 3, 2013

Joshua Liner Gallery Presents: David Ellis and Kris Kuksi “Go West” At Mark Moore Gallery (Culver City, CA)

July 11, 2012 Artists, California, Culver City, Events, Gallery, Opening

Go West

David Ellis Busted Plume 2012 (Image © courtesy of the gallery)

Opening Saturday, July 14th at Mark Moore Gallery, Go West will feature concurrent solo exhibits by David Ellis and Kris Kuksi. David Ellis will present a recent kinetic sound installation, Busted Plume (shown above), which was previously exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego. Ellis will also be exhibiting sculpture, paintings, and his “motion painting” video works. Kris Kuksi will debut new mixed media assemblage works, including The Arousal of De-evolution (shown below) as well as the Churchtank Type 9 bronze.

Following GO EAST – the first incarnation in a two-part “gallery swap” project with Joshua Liner Gallery (NY) – Mark Moore Gallery is pleased to announce GO WEST: David Ellis and Kris Kuksi, featuring two concurrent solo exhibitions curated by Joshua Liner. While the show makes for Ellis’ third solo exhibition in Los Angeles, it will be Kuksi’s first local solo presentation of new work.

Drawing upon a formative childhood in a musical household, David Ellis composes syncopated rhythms, playful scores, and intricate beats with the most homespun of resources. Trash bags, empty paint pans, and crumpled papers shudder, crunch, and rustle in a meticulously programmed arrangement that emulates Ellis’ fondness for the authenticity of hip hop and improvisation of jazz. Showcasing his belief in the musical “flow” present in all aspects of daily life, 2011’s “Busted Plume” (previously exhibited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego) stages an audible but unassuming performance born of painstakingly placed springs, wires, and solenoids within a standard municipal trash can. Similarly, Ellis’ large-scale paintings feature the reoccurring presence of uninhibited motion as black swaths of paint bob and weave their way through an amalgamation of quotidian images, objects, and colors; elegantly forging a cadence analogous to the artist’s aural compositions. Kris Kuksi, featured in the Project Room, is also heralded for his scrupulous craftsmanship. Rife with the chaos of man’s struggle for survival and power, Kuksi’s sculptural wall works portray apocalyptic dioramas. Elaborate scenes of industrial-meets-Old-World pandemonium present miniature soldiers, skeletons, animals, factories, and military structures wreaking havoc in otherworldly ruins. Ornate in his depiction of “the fallacies of Man,” Kuksi’s three-dimensional works are not simply replicas of fantasy, but rather shape a macabre likeness to our ultimately futile quest for accumulation.

For additional information on this exhibition please contact Mark Moore Gallery.

Mark Moore Gallery
5790 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232

Tel 310 453 3031
Fax 310 453 3831
info@markmooregallery.com

Color, Geometry and Pattern On The Streets

July 11, 2012 Kabul, On the Street

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.

An uncanny blending of the cans, both the graffiti tradition and the Street Art practice each find common ground to be a place where tagging and Pop irony all dissolve together into form and shape. On walls around cities where these two practices were once polarized, we’re seeing that everybody can drop their guard and just paint, bro.

In these images collected by photographer Jaime Rojo over the last couple of years, you can see elements of mid 20th century modernism, sci-fi fantasy, retro-futurism, imperfect folk patterning, and the distinct echoes of Wild Style. The common thread in this new discovery of graphic geometry is not just what it is, but as it pertains to art on the street, also what it’s not.

Augustine Kofie and Chor Boogie in Miami for Primary Flight. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aaron De La Cruz, Poesia, Sueme, Ensoe and Augustine Kofie in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barry McGee in Miami for Primary Flight. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Ellis in Brooklyn. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaias Cron in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4B Cru, OS Cru in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zeh Palito and Dasic in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Push in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Push painting on the LA MoCA wall for the Art in the Streets show. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An Unknown Street Artist in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kenton Parker in Miami for Primary Flight. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Sneed in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Claire Rojas in Miami for Wynwood Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RRobots in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MOMO in Baltimore for Open Walls Baltimore. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aakash Nihalani in Brooklyn for the Crest Art Show. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ërell in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Assume Vivid Astro Focus in Miami for Wynwood Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis in Queens, NY for Welling Court. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile tiles in Brooklyn. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jason Woodside in Manhattan for The New Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maya Hayuk in Baltimore for Open Walls Baltimore. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent in Queens, NY for Welling Court. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Josh Van Horne in Baltimore for Open Walls Baltimore. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder in Albany, NY for Albany Open Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

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The Painted Desert, Part II

July 10, 2012 Arizona, Artists

The sheltering sky is huge in Navajo country, and city slicker Street Artists have room to expand their minds and their imaginations when they get out to see the landscape dotted by occasional man-made structures. Jetsonorama and Yote invited a handful of them to come out and meet some local artists and the folks who live here.

By meeting the business owners and community members who invited them to create work on their buildings, the artists learned a little about local customs, their histories, and relationships. According to Jetsonorama, the guys appreciated that this project wasn’t about big walls with lots of exposure and were interested in connecting with people and the land to inspire their work. The resulting collection has a character and context very specific to the culture and the qualities of life here.

Overunder. White and yellow corn are symbols that play into the creation story for many native people. Overunder incorporated those symbols with the power lines that punctuate the sky here. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Overunder. White Corn, Yellow Corn. Detail. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Overunder added a rainbow to encourage rain. Shortly after he finished it, the sky obliged. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Overunder (photo © Jetsonorama)

Gaia at Labrona’s Wall (photo © Jetsonorama)

Labrona. Detail. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Labrona (photo © Jetsonorama)

Labrona and Gaia collaboration. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Gaia. The Bluebird Diner. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Gaia (photo © Jetsonorama)

Doodles (photo © Jetsonorama)

Doodles and Labrona collaboration. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Doodles takes in the universe at White Mesa Arch. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Ben Water is Life. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. King of the Store. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama and Breeze Collaboration. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Breeze (photo © Jetsonorama)

Tom Greyeyes (photo © Jetsonorama)

Doing pullups on a fence. (photo © Jetsonorama)

Click HERE to see Part I of The Painted Desert Project

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Shepard Fairey in Paris (VIDEO)

July 9, 2012 Artists, Paris

“The way this mural came about is that I met C215 and he asked me if I would be coming to Paris and if so would I like to do a big wall,” says Shepard Fairey as he stands on a ledge overlooking Paris in this new video interview with Butterfly. As the Street Art world continues to evolve and transform into a number of directions, it’s good to check in with one of the first major names to rise from the modern movement.

Still from video interview with Shepard Fairey

Here in Paris he is more concentrated on the grand scale mural that garners thousands of eyes rather than the hand slapped sticker or quickly wheat-pasted poster. But as ever, he is enthusiastic about the basic tenets of Street art that first led him to get outside. “What I think is exciting is that there is a new wave of art affecting people. It’s not just the traditional (art) in the galleries.”

Still from video interview with Shepard Fairey

Shepard Fairey Obey – Rise Above Rebel – Paris, juin 2012 – 93 av Jeanne d’Arc 13e
Réal : Mahmoud Belakhel
Image : Mahmoud Belakhel – Matthieu Soudet – Romain Paget – Julien Hogert – Jonathan Ricquebourg – Rebecca Topakian
Photographie : Matthieu Soudet – Romain Paget
Son : Pierre Bézard
Montage – Etalonnage : Ingrid Zeller
Interview : Butterfly
Traduction : Laura Fernandes – Butterfly
Musique : Moby : “Aerial”, “All is perfect”, “Gimme some”, “Flying foxes”
Remerciement : Maïa et Marouène – Valentine Poutignat – Julien Soudet – Felipe Quintelas – Fabio Caldironi
Galerie Itinérrance
Mairie du 13eme arrondissement
Butterfly

Images of the Week 07.08.12

July 8, 2012 Artists

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Armo Movsessian, 2Esae, ChrisRWK, Demo, Dior, Flying Fortress, Hot Tea, Kid Crap, Lejonkakan, Olek, Rambo, ShinShin, Ski, Swoon, The Yok, URNewYork, Veng RWK, Warz, WAS, Xavior, and You Go Girl!

WAS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rambo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rambo . Alaska . Xavior (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin for Welling Court 2012 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek in Sao Paulo, Brazil (photo © OLEK)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

URNew York. Ski and 2ESAE at Welling Court, Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Yok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lejonkakan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dior (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WAS prays the rosary (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WAS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris, Veng, RWK, Flying Fortress, Demo, KId Crap, Warz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Armo Movsessian in Los Angeles. (photo © Armo Movsessian)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tractors and Silos and Art on The Prairie with Jetsonorama

July 7, 2012 Arizona, Artists

And now, straight from the bread basket in this land of plenty, Jetsonorama brings an update on what he’s been doing on the prairie.

Jetsonorama. Dad and Aunt. (Photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Gunslinger. (Photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Grandpa on Tractor. (Photo © Jetsonorama)

Jetsonorama. Red Tire. (Photo © Jetsonorama)

The Outsiders Gallery Presents: Morley “I Don’t Make Sense Without You” (Newcastle, UK)

July 6, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Newcastle Upon Tyne, Opening, U.K.

Artists: Morley
Location: The Outsiders – Newcastle
Dates: Friday 13th of July 2012 to Saturday 18th of August 2012

This July The Outsiders Newcastle will host the first ever solo exhibition by distinctive Los Angeles street artist Morley, ‘I Don’t Make Sense Without You’.

Morley’s touching, inspirational and sometimes romantic slogan art has cheered up LA’s notoriously jaded population for almost two years now. His first major gallery exhibition will feature canvases, mixed media and sculptural works inspired by his most popular slogans, three-dimensional pieces in the form of elaborate ‘keepsake boxes’ made from found materials, and affordable, low-edition prints.

A “dreamer” originally from the quiet US state of Iowa, Morley began vandalising while at college in New York. “It wasn’t until I moved to New York that I got my first taste of street art,” he says. “While I was familiar with traditional graffiti, deep down I think I felt like a middle class white kid from the Iowa wouldn’t be able to muster the street cred needed to appreciate it. Street art seemed a bit more inclusive, had fewer established rules and aimed its messages at a more mainstream audience. Finding myself surrounded daily by a sea of anonymous strangers, each seeming to carry their own unique burden, left me with a desire to communicate some sort of message of hope. I started silk screening what I would later identify as ‘slogans’ onto Contact paper and sticking them around subway stations.

“Moving to Los Angeles made my mission a little more personal. Like most college graduates, I found myself confronted by the harsh reality that perhaps the future I had planned for myself wouldn’t stick to the blueprints.

“Los Angeles has an interesting populace. Dreamers, waiting patiently for their big break mingle with struggling immigrants, directionless children of privilege, and those too burnt out to remember why they moved out here in the first place. For me, the difference between LA and New York was that now I was truly one of them, not just observing from behind the protective shield of higher education.

“I also began including drawings of me because I wanted my audience to know who it was that was writing to them. Rather than a disembodied voice, I wanted them to see the words as coming from a kindred spirit and a comrade in arms. It took a while for me to convince myself that my words might have value as street art. Later I discovered that it was precisely what I was insecure about that set me apart from other artists. At first, black and white words on a page seemed too simple to be of any real value to anyone. What I had forgotten was that from a car driving 30 miles-an-hour down a city street, it’s difficult to retain much else.”

Post-postmodernism for the people, Morley’s work is touching, empowering and very refreshing. ‘I Don’t Make Sense Without You’ is the feel good show of the Summer.

The event takes place from 6 ’til 9pm in the gallery at 77 Quayside, Newcastle upon Tyne, and the artist will be in attendance.

Low Brow Artique Presents: “Welcome to the Neighborhood” A Group Exhibition (Brooklyn, NY)

July 6, 2012 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

Low Brow Artique

For the inaugural exhibition, Low Brow Artique presents Welcome to the Neighborhood, which emphasizes the diversity in Brooklyn-based artists. The exhibition will be open to the public July 14th to August 5, with an opening reception on July 14 to 7 to 10pm. Featuring a wide range of thematic elements, the gallery presents the work of Cern, Clown Soldier, Elle, ENX, See One, Sheryo, Willow and Yok. While some of these artists have overlapping thematic elements, each representation distinguishes the artwork produced in this borough.

The work of artists Willow and Cern can be seen as an eloquent contrast in the representation of natural imagery in this urban environment. Both artists use striking color palettes in their depictions of different species; the end result of this work, however, is strikingly different. Mixing Latin American surrealism with characters based in his graffiti background, Cern brings creatures to flight that exist outside of a specific time and space and, instead, in a reality of your dreams. In contrast, Willow painstakingly builds up an array of colors in his brushstrokes to recreate a Genus of his choosing. Whether or not these species were present in his rural upbringing does not matter; he still paints each one with the care as if he has known them forever.

In contrast to the emerging themes in the area, such as wildlife, artists such as See One are working in a style independent of any other. In a recent break with his character- based graffiti background, the artist has started creating abstract pieces, which he calls “shards.” These jagged shapes, which are often accompanied by equally-as-pointed titles, encompass a style that is unique to the artist.

By bringing together this array of public artists, Welcome to the Neighborhood represents the visual diversity currently alive within Brooklyn. Ranging from collage to illustration, from the abstract to the tangible, those who find themselves currently creating work in Brooklyn form a contrast in artistic expressions. It is, however, this diversity that makes so many of us, including Low Brow Artique, proud to call the area “home.”

Fun Friday 07.06.12

July 6, 2012 Artists

FUN FRIDAY!

1. Hot Chip Live “Night and Day” (VIDEO)
2. “Letters From America” (London)
3. LUSH “You Become What You Hate” (U.K.)
4. Jim Avignon at Museo Urbano Di Roma (Rome)
5. “Mischief Over” a show by CASE (Toronto)
6. Tinsel & Twinkle in London

But before we begin, let’s boogie! It’s Friday!

It’s gonna be hot enough to fry some Jerk Chicken on the sidewalk today. Here’s a taste of nerdily chilly and funkaliciously electronic Hot Chip doing a song called “Night and Day”.

Let’s Sweat!

“Letters From America” (London)

A handful of Americans were in London this 4th of July for the opening of a new show at Black Rat Projects Gallery in conjunction with LA’s Corey Helford Gallery. “Letters From America” includes new works from RISK, Ron English, SABER, and TrustoCorpand is now open to the public.

Risk (photo by Butterfly courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

LUSH “You Become What You Hate” (U.K.)

Also some people have called to tell us of some sightings in London of the bad boy Australian Street Artist LUSH. The axiom that entitles the show, so be careful, haters. The LUSH location is a warehouse someplace near the Hackneywick Station. Good lush!

For further information regarding this show click here.

Jim Avignon at Museo Urbano Di Roma

In Italy the illustrator/cartoon/doodle stylings of Jim Avignon are teamed up with the Museo Urbano Di Roma. Jim will be performing and painting live this Sunday at Grandma Bistrot.

For further information regarding this event click here.

Also happening this weekend:

The Twist Gallery in Toronto, Canada invites you to “Mischief Over” a show by CASE. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details.

At the A – Side B – Side Gallery in London, Tinsel & Twinkle will show you how to kidnap a banker at their “Mini Retrospective”. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details.

Klub7 from Berlin to Brooklyn (VIDEO)

July 5, 2012 Artists

The best way to enjoy New York is to plunge in! Holding back is for amateurs. Just try to see and taste and hear and touch as much of the ever-churning smorgasbord as you can. This spring members of the Berlin Street Art collective KLUB7 helped themselves to the New York buffet and exhausted themselves with artmaking as the rode their bikes through most of Brooklyn’s neighborhoods and a few in Manhattan too, delving directly into the street life and meeting its people. The centerpiece was a lively and entertaining show at Brooklyn’s Pandemic gallery and while they prepared for it they also managed to squeeze in as much adventure outside as possible.

This BSA debut video is a an excellent road trip through the city as it continues to create it’s own new beats and continues to stay dirty old New York.

Art In Odd Places: The Crest Hardware Art Show

July 4, 2012 Artists

Your local hardware store could also be the next “It” neighborhood gallery if they take Joe Franquinha’s lead.

The second generation owner of Crest Hardware in Brooklyn’s north side has been launching an art show for the last few years in this former working class neighborhood that began swimming with artists a decade ago. While the hardware based theme is sometimes stretched beyond plausible connection and Joe’s curatorial method stretches to every artistic ability, the elitists who once mistakenly sniffed at the idea of an art show in a hardware store now find themselves needing to stop by if only out of curiosity, or a pack of light bulbs.

And what will they see? Among the mop handles and caulking guns they’ll find work that surprises, disarms, causes a chuckle, and sometimes even looks amazing. Regardless of your expectations, you will not be bored by this collection of about 300 pieces and you’ll find work by some pretty well-known names also. You might also meet Joe and Liza’s pig, a local celebrity named Franklin.

Here are some images from The Crest Hardware Art Show just opened this week.

Max Zorn creates portraits made from packing tape, here displayed on a light box in the front window. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The “Super PAC” are characters of the 2012 presidential election portrayed as characters in the Batman mythology. Obama as Batman, Romney as Bane, Gingrich as Penguin, etc… Presidential elections and summer blockbuster movies have become the same thing. There is an epic battle of good vs evil and the fate of the world is up for grabs,” says the artist.

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