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.
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.
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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
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!
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
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!
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.
For further information regarding this show click here.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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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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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Feliks Mashkov and Vadim Gerasimenko are the Russian collective known as Concrete Jungle. The duo call Vladivostok their home and are visiting NYC with five other artists as part of CEC ArtsLink’s Global Art Lab program. Designed to support an international exchange of ideas and perspectives, the program involves communities and individuals in Central Asia and Russia. Susan Katz, the St. Petersburg based program director, invited BSA to meet with the visiting artists for an informal chat about Street Art in the US and the current New York scene.
Concrete Jungle employs methods and techniques seen in Street Art, public art, and commercial art and the two have collected a number of interior and exterior walls over the last few years with the same can-do D.I.Y. attitude that we see on the street today – with a detailed clean graphic finish. Feliks attended art school for five years and recently received his Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture. A 2007 graduate of the Vladivostok Art School with a specialization in teaching painting, Vadim is currently a student at the Far East Federal University in the Department of Graphic Design.
Feliks and Vadim, with the help of Brooklyn based Street Artist Specter, secured a wall in Bushwick as part of the Bushwick Five Points murals. BSA caught up with the artists as they were still at work on their wall. Here are some process shots of the 77% completed project as the two guys employ an acutely understated palette, crisply illustrated lines and natural curvilinear forms.
Visit Concrete Jungle site here: http://www.cjungle.com/main/
To learn more about CEC ArtsLink’s Global Art Lab program click here: http://www.cecartslink.org/
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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 summer sol is back in the Brooklyn sky and El Sol 25 is back in the streets of Brooklyn after an absence of how long, a year or so? Can’t remember exactly, but anyway there is a new crop of hand-painted collaged figurative characters up using his unmistakable style of mixing and matching sources, genders, races, cultures, and symbols. As a group the collection includes more carefully dimensioned rendering of limbs and textures, more relaxed flexibility in the forms, and more wings with which to fly. Here are four new pieces we found around the neighborhood for you to see.
MEGGS
VINZ
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Chris RWK, David Ellis, Edgar Reyes, El Sol 25, Flying Fortress, Gilf!, Lambros, Miyok, Most…Ress… Never, Sheryo, The Cretin, The Weird, The Yok, UNDO Visual Thinking, Veng RWK, and Zam.
You knew it would eventually get here, right?
Ahhhhhhhhhhhh, Summer. How do I love thee? Let me count the ways… green grass, rolling sideways down a hill in Prospect Park and feeling dizzy at the bottom, park benches and a book, 55 city swimming pools, rooftop parties and films, flip flops, rose bushes, beer from the Turkey’s Nest in a big styrofoam cup, softball games, free out door concerts (hip-hop, merengue, rock, and the philharmonic), bike riding, the Cyclone roller coaster on Coney Island, a nap under a tree, stoop sales, 5 packs of tube socks on sale at street festivals, free Shakespeare in Central Park, Dominican card games on folding tables on the sidewalk, a whole day of aerosol spraying on a huge wall, every body-type on Brighton Beach, grilled notdogs, frisbees, the smell of coconut oil, the sound of birds, kids, and the icecream truck jingle.
LA based Street Artists Cycle have done tributes to winter and spring already here. Now photographer and BSA guest contributor Carlos Gonzalez brings you Summer from the Cyrcle crew at their spot in the Arts District of Downtown Los Angeles. It’s part of the LA Freewalls Project, naturally, and we thank Carlos for sharing with BSA readers these images of the new installment.
To see the photo essay on Cyrcle Spring Interlude click here.
To see the photo essay on Cyrcle Winter Interlude click here.
Thank you to Carlos for his beautiful photography. Check him out on Facebook.
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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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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY