CYRCLE in LA ; A Winter Interlude

January 21, 2012

This section of Los Angeles is like so many – teaming anonymous streams of cars and trucks rumbling by, oblivious, almost menacing to you on the sidewalk with their rapacious roar as you ascend the ladder, can in hand, a glint of mischief in your eye. Headphones buffer the cacophony, the conversations with mates giving warmth in this garish flashing peopled no-mans’ land.

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

With a sense of satisfaction the Street Artist collaborative Cyrcle complete their first installment of a year-long series for  the LA Freewalls project on Mateo Street next to Aiko, Saber, and Kofie. Exclusively for you, photographer Carlos Gonzalez captures these artists in the Spring of life as they create in the bluish hues of Winter.

 

Cyrcle by Carlos Gonzalez (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Aiko next to Cyrcle’s new piece “Winter” (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

Cyrcle  (© Carlos Gonzalez)

 

 

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Fun Friday 01.20.12

Fun Friday 01.20.12

January 20, 2012 , , , , , , , , ,

Our top Stories for you on this Fun Friday:

  1. “These Boots Are Made for Walking” Nancy Sinatra (VIDEO)
  2. Pure Evil Goes Pop! Saturday at Corey Helford (LA)
  3. Ludo in Rome Saturday
  4. Ryan Seslow and Borbay
  5. Cheap Art at the Affordable Art Fair This Weekend in LA
  6. FAILE ON FILM: From Ride5 Films (VIDEO)
  7. RETNA with Primary Flight in Miami (VIDEO)
  8. Herakut for NUART 2011 (VIDEO)
  9. En Masse at “Art San Diego” 2011 by Fred Caron (VIDEO)

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First we’d like to ask that all the Ladies get up from the desk and do some strutting around the office in high heel boots. That should liven up an otherwise grey winter day right? Come on boots, start walkin’ !

 

Pure Evil Goes Pop! Saturday at Corey Helford (LA)

Inspired by the relative ease of reproducing masterworks by so-called “copy villages” in China, as well as the reductivist assessment the market does to an artist’s body of work, Street Artist Pure Evil is knocking out versions of Jackie and Liz with black eyes dripping to the floor, just for fun.

Says the artist, “Edward Albee’s film ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ starring Taylor and Burton brilliantly illustrates a nightmare couple who use alcohol to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other. I was amazed at the film and so I did a painting of ‘Richard Burtons Nightmare’ / Liz Taylor’ and a print in 2 POP colourways and 2 months later, Liz died…”

Pure Evil Goes Pop! Opening on Saturday at Corey Helford Gallery in Culver City, Los Angeles.

http://www.coreyhelfordgallery.com
8522 Washington Boulevard Culver City, CA 90232

For further information regarding this show click here

Ludo in Rome Saturday

Parisian Street Artist LUDO travels to Rome for his solo show “Natures Revenge” opening on Saturday at the Wunderkammern Gallery.

The local paper tells about Ludo’s impending opening (© the artist)

Ludo in Los Angeles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

Ryan Seslow and Borbay

Local Brooklyn artist and Street Art enthusiast Ryan Seslow is having a show “Street Legal – Gratiffyti: Seslow & Borbay on Canvas” opening this Sunday at Iona College Arts Center in New Rochelle, NY.

For further information regarding this show click here

Cheap Art at the Affordable Art Fair This Weekend in LA

 

 

Almost 300 emerging and established artist show work this weekend in LA at the Affordable Art Fair. With prices from $100 to up to $10K. Be on the look out for C.A.V.E. Gallery at booth C-8 and for Thinkspace Gallery on booth B-9.

For further information, complete list of exhibitors, schedules and directions go to the Affordable Art Fair site here

FAILE ON FILM: From Ride5 Films (VIDEO)

Dang!  Did you see this video interview with the Faile twins yesterday on BSA? Brand New Faile Video – The 1986 Challenger Crash and It’s Impact

RETNA with Primary Flight in Miami (VIDEO)

Primary Flight teams up with RETNA in Miami to paint on Brimstone by Colin M Day.

Herakut for NUART 2011 (VIDEO)

A fine film of the adorable duo in action at Nuart this year as they stretch their imaginations for an installation that is nothing short of, and more than, set design.

En Masse at “Art San Diego” 2011 by Fred Caron (VIDEO)

 

 

 

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Iona College Arts Center Presents: “Street Legal-Gratiffyti: Seslow & Borbay on Canvas” (New Rochelle, NY)

January 20, 2012 , , , ,

Seslow-Borbay

 

GALLERY EXHIBITION “Street Legal – Gratiffyti: Seslow & Borbay on Canvas”
A notion verses the actuality of street art – two varying concepts, yet one in the same. By way of color, collage, composition and explosive impressionism; artists Borbay and Ryan Seslow delve into the pulse of “Gotham”, on canvas, on board, off the tax payers ledger. This exhibition biopsies the street art experience, with no mention of the inside, or outside, of a box.

When: January 22 – February 23

Where: The Brother Kenneth Chapman Gallery Iona College Arts Center

Admission:free admission

Opening Reception: Sunday, January 22, 1:00- 3:00 pm Meet the artist Gallery Tour: Thursday, February 16, 6:30 pm

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Brand New Faile Video – The 1986 Challenger Crash and It’s Impact

January 19, 2012

“Street Art: It’s a Living Breathing Thing on the Street,” says Patrick Miller

A few months ago, the independent doc filmmakers from Ride5 Films interviewed FAILE and did a beautiful, striking job of it.

The five-minute short film explores the motivation and the message behind their art – why they make it, how they make it and how they hope people will interact with it.

Of particular interest is the ruminating that both Patricks did about an historic event that affected them strongly as kids, and they explain in some detail the relevance of at least one of the recurring images in the Faile library – as well as the date 1986 (or number 86) that is often spotted in their work.

“…that night we were talking about the 1986 space shuttle Challenger disaster and we had very specific memories about where we were and what was going on that that time,” explains Patrick O’Neil.

With Special thanks to Ryan, Chris and Liz from Ride5 FIlms for sharing this with Brooklyn Street Art.

 


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Corey Helford Gallery Presents: Pure Evil. Pure Evil Goes Pop! (Culver City, CA)

January 19, 2012 , , , , , , ,

Pure Evil

Corey Helford Gallery
Los Angeles, CA
presents new works by
PURE EVIL – Pure Evil Goes Pop!

Opening Reception Saturday, January 21, 2012 from 7-10pm On View January 21 – February 8, 2012

On Saturday, January 21, 2012, Corey Helford Gallery will present PURE EVIL GOES POP! PURE EVIL’s first solo exhibition at the gallery.

“The show is inspired by Warhol and Rosenquist and by the 60’s and is a departure from a lot of the street art based work I have been doing.. I was inspired by Warhol’s diaries and his manic obsession to paint beautiful famous people. At a certain point he realised that he had kind of lost the plot, and he was kind of losing ground to new school graffiti artists like Basquiat and Haring and they gave him the boot up the arse he needed.

I was inspired by an email I got from a copy village in China, they sent me a list of all the paintings from the world of art that they could reproduce for me and I was struck by the fact that they had distilled Warhol’s entire career down to 3 works, an electric chair, a Jackie Kennedy and a Liz Taylor.. All available for cheap ! A whole life that had been turned into 3 tiny thumbnails available to buy NOW. Warhol would have loved the joke. I decided to run with the idea and turn myself into a copy village .

Edward Albee’s film ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’ starring Taylor and Burton brilliantly illustrates a nightmare couple who use alcohol to fuel anguish and emotional pain towards each other. I was amazed at the film and so I did a painting of ‘Richard Burton’s Nightmare’ / Liz Taylor’ and a print in 2 POP colourways and 2 months later, Liz died… Sales started to grow as the obituaries and TV specials morbidly repeated the same details of her life and her loves over and over again. “

The upstairs gallery will feature new works by UK artist Pure Evil. Inspired by Warhol, Rosenquist and the 60s, the collection entitled -Pure Evil Goes Pop!- is a departure from the artist$)A&Ps street art work and cel- ebrates Warhol&Ps obsession with capturing beautiful, famous people. Icon Elizabeth Taylor is immortalized in the painting -Richard Burton&Ps Nightmare,- created from a palette of strange hues with subliminal meanings.

-I have kept this whole collection of paintings very simple,- Pure Evil explains. $)A!]The features of the women are simplified down to the most basic lines possible, cut into three stencil layers with a sharp blade, and labori- ously sprayed to build up the faces. The eyes drip painted tears, the product of broken dreams of love.!\
The opening reception for -Pure Evil Goes Pop!- and -It$)A&Ps a Jungle Out There- by Eric Joyner is on Saturday January 21 at Corey Helford Gallery. The reception is open to the public, and the exhibition will be on view through February 8, 2012.

8522 Washington Boulevard Culver City, CA 90232 T: 310-287-2340

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JMR Stars Again This Week In Dallas (not JR, he got shot, remember?)

January 19, 2012 , , ,

YEEE HAAAAWWWW!  Brooklyn Street Artist JMR has been exploring the dusty detritus of Dallas for a spell and has found that some of the BIG D’s outlying areas remind him of the wildness of abandoned spots in Brooklyn that provided succor and inspiration to artists and performers and poets and wise guys at the turn of the century. But he has no illusions about the future for a lively hipster art scene here. For one thing, there are no redheads from Portland with 36 stringed home-made musical instruments connected to a projector here yet. Naturally while exploring, JMR brought some paint with him. Here’s what he’s been seeing…

JMR (photo © Jim Rizzi)

“The wall was offered to me in collaboration with a Dallas graff legend named Ozone. The building is a live-work space for two local guys starting a longboard company/music studio. They also repair motorcycles while watching documentaries in their make-shift living room; it’s a very early 90s Williamsburg ‘Frontier Land’ vibe, sans the imminent real estate surge. That’s never coming here and it’s refreshing. In the midst of this industrial lower class neighborhood at night you can light a fire and sit around it and talk about politics or whatever, while drinking beer and smoking.

There’s a bunch of hardcore graff writers out here as well, who I met through this painting.  Although the city is oddly devoid of any tags, throw-ups, or fill-ins, there is a major freight yard where trains lay up for days and people are getting busy. The trains are bombed well and it’s inspiring to watch them pass, and frustrating to try and snag flix with my iPhone, fumbling to keep up with the motion.”

JMR (photo © Jim Rizzi)

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Opera Gallery Presents: “Making Faces” A Group Show (Manhattan, NY)

January 18, 2012 , , , , ,

MPaking Faces

Paul Insect (image © courtesy of the gallery)

Eric Allouche and the Opera Gallery team are pleased to present Making Faces, a group survey show bringing together a global collection of artists from a variety of time periods and styles to interpret the theme of portraiture. A once and still great exploratory genre, portraiture is the tool in which the artist can tell a thousand stories about their subject, whether real or imaginary, with one brushstroke or one drop of ink. Through these artists, Making Faces demonstrates how the aesthetics of portraiture is one of the best vehicles for artistic creativity and expression, technical mastery and the evocation of emotional strength.

Each artist participating in Making Faces has the ability to widely manipulate and interpret their portrait through their own specific and unique artistic abilities encompassing a wide variety of mediums including oil on canvas, matchsticks and photography. Artists such as Yasmina Alaoui and Marco Guerra have the ability to evoke serene emotions through their photographs while contemporary Chinese artist Yan Pei Ming invites the viewer into his dark portrait through his use of rough charcoal strokes. Realistic master portraitists like Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Bernard Buffet share wall space with abstract and fantastical contemporary artists such as BÄST and B.

Additional Making Faces artists include Gerard Rancinan, Karel Appel, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Marc Chagall, Jean Dubuffet, Bengt Lindstrom, Henri Matisse, Joan Miro, Pablo Picasso, Simon Birch, Lita Cabellut, Sas Christian, Paul Insect, Dinorah Delfin, Lori Earley, John John Jesse, Kid Zoom, Ron English, Philippe Pasqua, Rostarr, Judith Supine, Xiao Gang Zhang, Tianbing Li, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, Maura Corda and David Mach.

Making Faces
January 27- February 19
Free admission: 11:00 – 7:00 daily
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Chris Stain Describes His New Pieces for Cave

January 18, 2012

New York Street Artist Chris Stain is making some new pieces for his upcoming show at CAVE Gallery in LA with Street Artist Veng and Taka Sudo on February 11. The signature portraits, mounted on wood, of the everyday people Stain is known for depicting, are joined here by a new one one of the noted and celebrated American poet who passed in 2011, Gil Scott Heron.

Often you catch a piece by someone on the street or in a gallery, and you wish you knew the story behind it. Sometimes there isn’t much of a story – it’s more of an aesthetic exercise.  In the case of Chris Stain, the work is frequently drawn directly from his ongoing study and observations of socio-economic conditions in American society. With his portraits he examines how people are deeply impacted by a system that they feel affected by but frequently unable to affect in a meaningful way. Other times they are simply meditations on being alive.

Each piece is made from a hand-cut rubylith film that he burned onto a screen and then printed on wood and colored in by hand. Here are some detail photos, along with Chris’s words to describe them.

Gil Scott Heron by Chris Stain

Gil Scott Heron

For many years now I have gained inspiration from the music and writing of Gil Scott Heron. After his passing I thought it seemed fitting to create a piece in homage to the man and his achievements. If you know of Gil’s work and life you know that he struggled at times from addiction and the curve-balls that life threw at him. What I appreciate about him most is his ability to express his experiences in such a heartfelt way through music and writing.

“Skin Head Girl” by Chris Stain

Skinhead Girl

When I was younger, in the mid 80’s, I was an avid disciple of hip hop culture. When I hit adolescents I was turned onto punk rock and skinhead culture. Obviously not the white power skins here people. There’s a good little video here explaining the history of Skinhead and where it came from.This piece is a throw back to those days and how it meant something to be a part of an alternative lifestyle.

“A Small Something”  by Chris Stain

A Small Something

This piece looks back on the feeling of first riding off on a bike on your own. The first time you leave your neighborhood and explore; freedom, in a sense. As you get older it’s not such a big deal to adventure out alone. With this piece I further explore the use of handwritten text in the layout to see how it interacts with the image. However with any of the above pieces people will read into them whatever they want which is okay with me.

“What Holds Today” by Chris Stain

What Holds Today

The title is a play on words for what today holds. It’s about trying to make it through the day no matter what’s in store. Some days are easier than others and some days you just feel like giving up on everything. So What Holds Today means whats going to keep this day together when the shit hits the fan.

“Willem” by Chris Stain

Willem

Willem was a student I had in one of my printmaking classes last year. I photograph the kids as part of our self portrait project. When Willem stepped up in front of the camera with this pose I thought that there was no way I wasn’t using this picture for a piece of my own! I have painted this outside twice in NYC and once in Miami but this is the first time I made it as a finished piece for a gallery.

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Find out more about CAVE Gallery Here:

 

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The Power of Pun : Steve “ESPO” Powers’ Signs in Brooklyn

January 17, 2012 , , ,

Philadephia born New York Street Artist Stephen Powers AKA ESPO has been covering walls in Brooklyn since last summer with puns, phrases, and messages that hide in plain sight. Borrowing from a visual vocabulary of mid 20th century commercial signage and injecting his low-brow sarcasm and a knack for wordplay, the former graffiti writer perfected this kind of lettering more than a decade ago doing non-commissioned street art work in broad daylight on storefront grates in dilapidated New York neighborhoods.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Like his barking carney signage for famous Coney Island, the work has all the subtlety of a cannonball. But you may be bamboozled. The sharply sweet uptown fonts and punchy retro palette could look like he’s giving you the straight dope, but a second glance reveals the winking eye of a court jester.  With an advertisers  sensibility, his recent expansive public art installations  – “Love Letters” to Philadelphia, Syracuse, and now Brooklyn – have a tough-as-nails enamel gloss while the soft center swirls a sentiment more gooey, even maudlin.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Using phrases snatched directly from Brooklyn folks conversations on the street as well as his penchant for the parlance of snake oil salesmen, Powers yells boldly these non-sequitur and illusory missives across a parking garage, regularly looking back to see if “yah heard?”.  It’s what emotional signage this size demands and gets, if only for a second.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anonymous Gallery Presents: “Casa de Empeño” A Group Show (Mexico City, MX)

January 16, 2012 , , , , ,

Casa de Empeño

Casa de Empeño

February 2 – March 31

Opening reception: February 9, 8 – 10 pm

———— Casa de Empeño is a group exhibition based conceptually on the function a pawnshop and serves to re-examine current systems of economy, currency and exchange.

This April 9 in Mexico City Anonymous Gallery is opening a group exhibition based conceptually on the function of a pawnshop and serves to examine current systems of economy, currency and exchange. The entire 3,000 sqft of Anonymous Gallery (D.F.) will be re-designed to replicate a pawnshop environment. Based on the value of the artwork, the gallery will provide unique opportunities for collectors to own distinctive works of art through sale, loan or even trade.

At any given time, pawnshops might have an inventory that includes jewelry, gold, coins, computers, digital cameras, radios, tools, musical instruments, DVD movies, cell phones, dj equipment, bikes, books, paintings, prints, weapons, clothes, furniture, and more. Casa de empeño will feature a compelling and diverse array of artists from all over the world who create relatable objects through painting, film, photography, sculpture, drawing, print, editions and merchandise:

Paintings by artists such as Kadar Brock and Matt Jones, sculpture that includes plush gold jewelry by Megan Whitmash and luxury accessories like Birkin Bags by Shelter Serra, jewelry by Orly Genger designed by Jacklyn Mayer jaclynmayer.com. Electronics and monitors showing films from Kasper Sonne and David Ellis. Editions from Clayton Brothers, Todd James, Evan Gruzis, photographs from Tim Barber and Richard Kern, and furniture design from Chic by Accident. The exhibition will also feature a library of artist developed books, zines, magazines, posters, and museum catalogues for sale from institutions including MUAC and Carillo Hill.

In a typical pawnshop customers pledge property as collateral, and in return, pawnbrokers lend them money. When customers pay back the loan, their merchandise is returned to them. Anonymous Gallery however, will be providing several opportunities for its customers:

1) Purchase
a. customers can purchase available inventory at the available retail price.

2) Trade
a. Customers can offer a provided service of equal or greater value in exchange for selected artwork.
b. Customers can offer another item of equal or greater value in exchange for valuable artwork.

3) Loan
a. Throughout the duration of the exhibition customers can loan and consign works of art to the gallery for sale at an agreed retail price.
b. Customers can borrow or rent artworks for a specified duration of time based on a fee established by the gallery and selected artist.

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