Saw my first barefoot hippie walking down 7th Avenue on Friday and it was like spotting a Robin on the lawn in Union Square Park. SPRING! Spring time hit New York like a truckload of thick sweet kisses and homeboys started checking every cute move of all the shorties, who mysteriously also fluffed up all their magnolia pink feathers and almost imperceptibly put a bit more sa into their shay. Don’t ask us what any of that means, except that when the days get all comfy and warm like these, it’s all about the birds and the beeeeeeees, B.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, with some special shots by Jaime Rojo from a secret place in the Bronx as well as some contributions from Lima, Peru by Adolfo Bejar, and in Essen, Germany from Skount. Names this week include DCT, Elliot Tupac, Essam, How & Nosm, EKG, Keith Haring, Mariposa Mentirosa, Radical!, Seth, Skount, V, and Zam. First we start out with some spring flowers by an unknown artist.
On April 4, 2012, the gates of the Andrew Freedman Home will open to the public. The Home was once built to be a haven, a paradise, for the rich elderly who had lost their fortunes. Bequeathed by millionaire Andrew Freedman, the Home provided not only food and shelter but all the accoutrements of a rich and civilized life style – white glove dinner service, a grand ball room, a wood-paneled library, billiard room and a social committee who organized concerts, opera performances and the like.
Referencing this quixotic history, This Side of Paradise will reference the past and reconnect the vision of Andrew Freedman to today’s Bronx and its realities. The exhibition and its extensive public programming onsite and offsite will draw together the economic and social history of the Home with the present day realities of the Bronx and its residents.
The selected artists’ will work in a site-specific manner and will respond to such issues as memory, immigration, storytelling, aging and the creation of fantasy that the original concept of the Home “being poor in style” suggests. This Side of Paradise will celebrate human ingenuity, the strength of the human spirit and the resilience needed to fashion beauty, hope and rejoicing.
Opening Reception will be Wednesday, April 4 from 6 to 8pm followed by the Speakeasy After Party Fundraiser sponsored by St. Germain starting at 8:30pm. Support NLE and future exhibitions by purchasing tickets here.
Exhibition Hours: Thursday to Sunday, 1pm to 7pm (extended hours when events are hosted).
Curatorial team is Manon Slome, Keith Schweitzer, Charlotte Caldwell and Lucy Lydon. A tremendous thank you to all our volunteers and interns involved in the project. Thank you!
RAS Gallery Barcelona . Carrer Doctor Dou 10
Opening Friday April 13th from 7.30 till 10 pm
Exhibition runs from April 13th till May 12th
Curated by Maximiliano Ruiz
“In 2007 the Spanish building industry used 54.2 million tones of cement. This factoid did not escape the thoughtful attentions of one very interesting Galician digital nomad, namely Isaac Cordal. Cordal saw this frenzied ‘cementisation’ of the world around him as evidence of our deep alienation from an ongoing conflict with the natural environment. So, being an artist very much obsessed with the problem of the human body Cordal appropriated cement as the tool for his own intervention in the built environment. What this means in laymen’s terms is that he used cement to make his art and in this case his art was sculptures of little people.”
Gary Shove
“Blink and you’ll miss it. Turning the urban landscape in on itself with installations that are almost to subtle to be noticed while passing by in an individualistic frenzy, Isaac Cordal uses the grey functionality of cement to question the lack of colour and vibrancy in so much of our lives through his tiny figures.”
Street Art Utopia
“Creator of a tiny community of cement sculptures hidden and isolated around the city, Isaac Cordal invites us to reflect on the sad state of the world through his art. It holds a mirror up to society by recreating scenes of our everyday modern life reminding us of the numb passage of time, the overwhelming influence of consumerism and elimination of nature. Keep your eyes open!”
Street Art London
Danish Street Artist Tejn does some paste-ups periodically but the thing he is most known for is his welding. Also his “Lock On”, a practice of chaining his welded sculptures to the street with a bicycle lock. In much the same way New York Street Artist REVS has been leaving his welded tags around Brooklyn during the last decade, these Lock On’s and welded fake signs are much less ephemeral than what you may typically associate the term “street art” with.
Photographer and BSA contributor Sandra Hoj reports today of her newest findings on the streets of Copenhagen, where Tejn has been installing new work.
Here Ms. Hoj describes the new works;
“The scrap iron sculpture Lock On’s by Danish street artist Tejn are scattered all over Copenhagen at the moment. Whenever I stop to take a picture of one, someone comes up to me to alert me to another piece. These welded sculptures are made from salvaged iron collected from places like our cultural battlefields Christiania and the empty lot of Jagtvej 69, former location of the Youth House. Tejn welds the iron together and returns it to the streets chained and locked with found bike-locks”
Highbrow, Lowbrow, Nobrow – MOUSSE! is een tentoonstelling over hedendaagse Mousse Art, samengesteld door MAMA in samenwerking met Harlan Levey, hoofdredacteur van Modart Europe.
Moussism verhoudt zich in gelijke mate tot proces en beweging. Het verkent creativiteit en sociaal welzijn door onderwerpen als smaak, erfgoed en de relatie tussen kunst en activisme aan de kaak te stellen.
Highbrow, Lowbrow, Nobrow – MOUSSE! Date: 7 April – 23 June 2012
Opening: Friday 6 April 2012, 19:00 – 23:00 Artists: Admir Jahic (CH, 1975), East Eric (FR, 1974), Isaac Cordal (ES, 1974), Mark Jenkins (USA, 1974), Nomad (DE, 1971), Stefan Gross (DE, 1965), Tobias Allanson (SE, 1974), Zoe Strauss (USA, 1970)
Highbrow, Lowbrow, Nobrow – MOUSSE! is an exhibition of contemporary Mousse Art pro- duced by MAMA in collaboration with Harlan Levey, Editor in Chief of Modart Europe.
Moussism refers to process as much as move- ment. It discusses taste, legacy and the line between art and activism to explore creativity and social wellbeing.
Het tijdschrift Modart werd in 1999 gelanceerd om de houding en acties van opkomende kunstenaars en hun verhouding tot de taal van rebellie te docu- menteren en presenteren. Rond de eeuwwisseling was burgerlijke ongehoorzaamheid in alle uithoeken van de culturele sector sterk in opkomst. Er was vaak sprake van vandalistische toepassingen van creativiteit en innovativiteit in technologie (hi en lo fi). Dit was ook zichtbaar in bijvoorbeeld de groei van open source platforms, p2p websites zoals Napster, de totstandkoming van protestgroepering- en in de zogenaamde ‘battle for Seattle’ of de ‘grassroots’ manier waarop een jonge generatie street artists de esthetiek van de publieke ruimte uitdaagde en de sociale architectuur opnieuw toeëi- gende.
Modart was niet geïnteresseerd in ‘professionele’ kunst maar eerder in kunst die werd ‘geleefd’. Mod- art maakte zich als tijdschrift consequent sterk voor de toename van artistiek amateurisme en participa- tie. MAMA en Modart zijn bijna vanzelfsprekende partners. Niet alleen zijn ze gelijktijdig uitgegroeid tot volwassen organisaties, er was ook een continue overlap van deelnemende kunstenaars, die later
de pijlers van een internationale ‘street art scene’ zouden vormen. Het zal niemand verbazen dat de eerste berichten over Mousse Art in reactie waren op de MAMA tentoonstelling The Adventures of the Great Abnerio. Time Out Amsterdam citeerde Abner Preis destijds met de vermelding dat Mousse Art
er misschien shit uitziet, maar dat het wel heerlijk smaakt. Zoals elke shit is ook Mousse een bewe- ging die zich uitspreekt over het gehele proces, inclusief gezondheid.
Als onderdeel van de tentoonstelling Highbrow, Lowbrow, Nobrow – MOUSSE!, presenteert MAMA twee gesprekken met Zoe Strauss en gastcurator Harlan Levey op 7 en 9 april. Op 7 april bij MU in Eindhoven en op 9 april in Concordia 21rozendaal in Enschede. Bezoek de MAMA website voor de details.
Modart was launched in 1999 to document the attitudes and showcase the actions, of emerg- ing artists and their relationship to a language of rebellion. As the last century came to a close, in every cultural sector, civil disobedience was on the rise. Often vandalistic applications of creativity and innovation were evident in the use of technology (hi and lo fi) that saw simultane- ous rises in open source platforms, file sharing programs like napster, mobilization of protest groups in the battle for Seattle or the grassroots way in which a new generation of street artists challenged the aesthetics of public space and re-appropriating social architecture.
Modart was not interested in ‘art’ in any profes- sional sense, but rather in art as something that was lived. As a magazine Modart consistently communicated a plea for increased artistic amateurism and participation. Maturing during the same years and with a consistent overlap of artists who would become staples in an interna- tional ‘street art scene’, Modart and Showroom MAMA are very natural partners. It was not sur- prising, that the first critical mention of Mousse Art came in response to the Showroom Mama exhibition, The Adventures of the Great Abnerio, when Time Out Amsterdam quoted Abner Preis to declare that Mousse Art might look like shit, but tastes sweet. Like any sort of shit, Moussism is a movement that speaks of an entire process and eventually of health.
As part of MAMA’s exhibition Highbrow, Low- brow, Nobrow – MOUSSE!, MAMA presents two talks with Zoe Strauss and guest curator Harlan Levey on 7 and 9 April. On 7 April we will be at MU in Eindhoven and on 9 April you can find us at Concordia 21rozendaal, Enschede. Be sure to check the MAMA website for details.
office:
Kromme Elleboog 35 3012VM Rotterdam – NL
post:
PO Box 23070
3001KB Rotterdam – NL
T +31 10 2332022 info@showroommama.nl www.showroommama.nl
MAMA is supported by: City of Rotterdam, Ministery of OC&W
Last two months I´ve been working in a project called ‘Waiting for Climate Change’. It will be exhibited on the beach of De Panne as well as in a local historic villa once occupied by Chalutier. This is part of the Beaufort04 edition. For this project I made some ephemeral installations in different locations of the coast. ‘ Waiting for climate change‘ presents a few stereotypes of persons that confronting climate change in different ways. Some of them climbed to the top of a pole from where they look the horizon.
From March 31st to September 30th, 2012
30 Locations spread across 9 coastal municipalities throughout the Flemish coast.
Welcome to Friday! You made it! It’s sunny and warm in New York this morning – time to hit the streets and parks and bookstores, before they’re all gone.
1. BOOKLYN in the House (VIDEO)
2. Adam Void “American Dream”
3. La Pandilla and Trek Matthews @ Living Walls Concepts
4. NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco)
5. Street Artist on the Street – Hugh Leeman (VIDEO)
6. Allan Dalla and Kero – Street Artists in Romania (VIDEO)
7. Slim Shady Mitt Romney (VIDEO)
BOOKLYN IN THE HOUSE
La Shea Delaney and Annabelle Quezada Go Hard on Books
Big Ups to these two serious readers. Read Books Ya’ll.
“(I) read so hard, libraries tryin’ to find me.”
“Animal Farm, Jane Eyre,
Barnes & Noble, FourSquare”
Adam Void Shares His American Dream (Baltimore)
Adam Void has a show called “An American Dream” at the MICA Decker Gallery in Baltimore, opening today. This is the artist’s MFA Thesis show. Congratulations Adam!
For further information regarding this show click here.
La Pandilla and Trek Matthews at Living Walls Concepts (Atlanta)
Saturday Living Walls Concepts in Atlanta will be at The Jane with a show featuring new works from Street Artists La Pandilla from Puerto Rico and Trek Matthews from Atlanta in conjunction with their participation in this year’s edition of Living Walls, The City Speaks.
For further information regarding this show click here.
NSM “Justified Scriptures” (San Francisco)
941 Geary Gallery in San Francisco invites you to the opening reception of an NSM solo show entitled “Justified Scriptures” this Saturday.
(photo courtesy of the gallery)
For further information regarding this show click here.
Street Artist on the Street – Hugh Leeman (VIDEO)
French videographer Clemence Demerliac filmed the San Francisco based Street Artist Hugh Leeman to understand his original thinking and in inventive approach to helping other with his work.
Allan Dalla and Kero – Street Artists in Romania (VIDEO)
Allan Dalla and Kero teamed up with Ion Bardaleanu for their most recent project.
Slim Shady Mitt Romney (VIDEO)
An INGENIOUS compilation of clips to create this parody of Eminem’s “Slim Shady”
Belgium artist ROA is renowned for his unique portrayal of large scale urban wildlife, disquietly cohabiting city streets, hand painted in his distinctive black and white style. ROA has become famous
from painting animals on derelict buildings, shutters & walls literally all over the world. He has also exhibited to much acclaim all over the world and was also included in the MOCA exhibition ‘Art In The Streets’ in LA.
‘Hypnagogia’ will be a 2 space exhibition, featuring installation work & originals on found objects. As well as outdoor work across east London. To coincide with this show opening will also be the launch of ROA’s first artist book ‘Roa: An Introduction To Animal Representation’ by Mammal Press.
Etymolgically derived from the Greek words hypnos, “sleep” and agogos, “leading”, the title of the show refers to the transitional state between sleeping and awake. This grey area exists within every consciousness and is said to act as a bridge to other realities. ROA explores the ‘interstate’ with his portrayals of sleeping animals, whilst quietly around us the world awakens from a long winter, and the creatures he depicts experience a period of seasonal transition.
ROA is an artist deeply preoccupied with the significance of the creative process. Working conceptually on each project, he nurtures a dynamic energy which evolves during the restricted time-frame. His method is consistent. Arriving in a location he adapts to his habitat, allowing inspiration to flood from buildings and objects and literally ‘waking up’ to the realities surrounding him. Foraging for the recycled found-objects he seeks becomes a harder task in London, adding a new dimension and highlighting physical process and interaction in this completed body of work.
The animals themselves are represented in their purest forms, whether they be alone or in groups, sleeping or awake, half skeleton or part organ dissection. Using placement and the enlarging of subject, ROA implies the absurdity of the human attitude toward animals, as well as toward their own roots and origin. The architecture and discarded objects act as vessels for the huge creatures’ lifetimes, the realism of the images on the man-made material emphasising the tension between culture and nature. Observing the rodents occupying the cities he works in, ROA also comments on the acclimatisation of animals to the urbanised world.
ROA is both a voyeur and a commentator of the transitions he sees around him. ‘Hypnagogia’ is the exploration of a territory we often forget to enter, and both a literal and metaphorical statement of the disparity between human and animal behaviour.
Artist Book:
Roa: An Introduction To Animal Representation by Mammal Press
This, very much hand crafted, book chronicles ROA’s art around the world by 3 recurrent themes of his murals last year; through photographs, sketches, and reference material. the book offers an insight into the creative mind of the artist. Each book is a unique edition of 500, hand bound, including two fold out screen prints of ROA, a Bird dissection and lots more…
Please Note:
This exhibition will be held in 2 spaces, our usual permanent gallery (space 1) in the Truman Brewery and The Stone Masons, 17 Osborne Street London E1 6TD (space 2).
The Old Truman Brewery 91 Brick Lane London. E1 6QL
T:020 7247 2684 E:info@stolenspace.com Open Tuesday to Sunday 11.00am – 7.00pm
Mexico City culture can be as varied and diverse as it is homogeneous, with a respect for tradition and, when it comes to artistic expression, a catalyst for exploration. André Breton is reported to have described Mexico as “the most surrealist country in the world,” where painters like Leonora Carrington and Frida Kahlo unhinged their imaginations from the limitations of the material world. As these new images on the streets of Mexico City taken by Brooklyn architectural street artist XAM show, the love for a psychic automatism continues into the public sphere.
Of course the Mexicans are not strangers to art on the streets; “great Latin American muralists” is a phrase almost synonymous with Mexico and names like Rivera, Orozco and Siqueiros coming to mind. Political advocacy and populist criticism of social policy on the walls here is similarly a tradition respected by the culture. Now a century after the revolution and birth of the modern Mexico, the experience of Los Capitalinos, as the residents of Mexico City are called, is affected daily by surrealism, pop culture and global capitalism swimming alongside folk and historical symbology, and a bit of anarchy. It’s all part of one fabric, a rich and varied textile that we export to you here.
Says XAM of his experience, “Barcelona, NYC, Amsterdam, and Paris are all similar in a way when it comes to street art – you can walk around and come across work on the streets fairly easily, but traversing the barrios of Mexico city is much different. I guess in some way you can compare it to San Francisco, Chicago or Los Angeles – there is quality work to be found. The city differs from all mentioned in that it appears to be young when it comes to street art by having a small group of participants.”
“I was hosted by both MUMUTT Arte and Museo del Juguete Antiguo Mexico, who are both responsible for providing concrete canvases in Mexico City for artist such as ROA, M-City, Pixel Pancho, and fresh stuff from the locals like Saner, Sego and the MOZ crew. Mexico City DF has the most museums in the world and MUMUTT and Museo del Juguete are largely responsible for adding street art to the vast archive of amazing work. They escorted me around to locations they provided for the above artists – It is evident that everyone brought their A-game. The weathered concrete walls made wonderful surfaces for imagery such as Dronz & Koko’s character, offering hallucinatory candy at the toy museum to Ben Eine’s work that speaks about class issues on a worksite for a future mall.”
Abuse of a child is against the law worldwide. Unless international laws are enforced, it makes no difference.
Brooklyn based Street Artist Swoon is lending her name and her talent to a legal organization which seeks justice for women and girls who have been raped and otherwise abused.
The fine artist whose work has appeared in the street, galleries, and museums over the last decade recently visited eastern Kenya with Mike Snelle, Director of London’s Black Rat Projects, to participate in planning discussions for a project they will be doing this year in partnership with Equality Effect. The international organization of lawyers works to protect children and women around the world in conjunction with rescue centers, as well as to ensure that their rights are respected.
While in Kenya, Swoon lead a series of art workshops at a rescue center for girls between ages 4 and 16 years. These girls are part of project called “160 Girls” and its purpose is to take the Kenyan government to court and cause it to enforce existing international laws to hold perpetrators of violence accountable for their actions. Seeking justice and empowerment for girls and women, the campaign and association rely on contributions to assure that these girls see their day in court. Swoon intends to lend her name and efforts to raise funds and awareness throughout this year with plans for an auction and a special piece she is creating about the girls.
Aside from laying plans for the program Swoon participated and taught a workshop on making colorful masks and head dresses with some of the girls in the center. The power of creativity in healing cannot be doubted, and participants reported how much fun it was to create their art project. Hopefully this workshop and others like it will continue to help the girls feel empowered and to gain self-confidence through having an outlet of creative expression.
Below are some photos of the workshops and the outstanding results of the students creativity. Please note: BSA has blurred some of the girls’ faces to protect their identities.
We talked with Mike Snelle to learn more about the organization and his involvement with Swoon.
Brooklyn Street Art:How did you first learn of Equality Effect and why is their work important?
Mike Snelle: Fiona Sampson, who runs Equality Effect came into the gallery one day and she sent me an email afterwards. Her email address is @theequalityeffect, which seemed to be an interesting address so I looked up what they did. Reading their website I knew what they were doing was really important so I reached out to see if there was any way we could help.
I also thought that Swoon might be interested too. The Equality Effect are basically a human rights charity who are looking to use the law to protect and enforce people’s human rights. International human rights laws already exist to protect the vulnerable but are often not enforced. What the Equality Effect do is take on governments on the behalf of the people whose human rights are being violated. I think this is part of what is necessary to affect deep lasting change.
Brooklyn Street Art:What role do you find galleries and artists can play in helping an organization like this to reach its goals?
Mike Snelle: I feel like this is a conversation I have been having with artists like Swoon and Matt Small for several years; How to be an artist, or for that matter a gallery, and to contribute to the wider world and not stay within the limited confines of the art world. The art world is a funny isolated place and it feels important to reach outside of its boundaries to connect with people who are affecting change in the real world. For me it’s about how to represent artists, do shows and sell works but not wake up with that empty sensation that you could be doing more with your life. It’s about using the skills and contacts you have from the art world and then diverting those resources in a different direction.
It’s particularly rewarding to work with artists because they can offer an on-the-ground experience, as well as help in raising awareness. This is an uplifting, creative, joyful experience for the kids. Following this there is a fundraising element. In this case an auction with the first work being a portrait of one of the girls made by Swoon.
Brooklyn Street Art: What was your experience like during your time with the workshops at the rescue centre?
Mike Snelle: I am still processing it a bit. It was simultaneously hard and joyful. You are working with twenty-five children between five and sixteen, all of whom are engaging, fun, creative human beings doing something fun and joyful. At the same time each of them has a difficult and traumatic story. It’s an intense experience.
There were some really amazing people there and I guess that most of all I feel like I learned about a kind of compassion that some people have which is enduring and powerful and that somehow doesn’t exhaust the person who has it. And something about how the most effective change is possible by listening to people on the ground who understand the community they are from in a way that’s impossible to do from the outside where you can only impose a preconceived idea of what is needed in a way that is inevitably inaccurate. I think this is what the Equality effect do really well – partner with people on the ground and listen to what they need.
It was also important for me watching Swoon and Dana and Paulie-Anne and seeing that the more “present” you can be and more open you are, the easier you can create genuine human connections. And you know, kids have an amazing resilience, and the joy they get from making things is the same joy that I recognise from my own children. It was a lot, this trip. I think I’m still learning from it. We saw a hospital there that had been built but didn’t have any equipment in yet. They had raised the money for the building but not for anything else. Asking about it we were told that if you believe in something, and just start it, then other people believe too and it will come to be. This seems like a thing. I’m rambling. It was a little overwhelming.
This Saturday, Living Walls Concepts’ artists La Pandilla (Puerto Rico) and Trek Matthews (Atlanta) will premiere their gallery show at the Jane. This one night gallery opening will present 12 original works, a limited edition of artist prints and shirts by Kemeza, and the screening of the mural process video by Albert Lebron.
La Pandilla are internationally recognized street artists from Puerto Rico whose stunning detail remain intact from large-scale murals to works on paper. This art duo, comprised of Alexis Diaz and Juan Fernandez, invent surreal depictions of animals with human elements throughout their work.
Trek Matthews is an emerging, self-taught, Atlanta based artist. A unique mixture of sacred geometry, Native American designs, Aztec patterns, and Egyptian myth & culture inspires his pen and ink drawings.
Drinks and DJ will be provided along with an after-party featuring a performance by Mirror Mode. After the opening, the show at the Jane will hold special gallery hours Sunday 3/25 from 1:00-5:00pm. All profits from art sales will go to the artists. As always, this event is free and open to the public.
The Jane (behind Octane in Grant Park)
437 Memorial Dr
Atlanta, GA 30312
Gallery Opening, Saturday, March 24th 7:00-11:00pm
Extended Gallery Hours, Saturday, March 25th 1:00-5:00pm
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
