MOMO for FAME Festival (photo courtesy of the gallery)
Amber Dubois, Steven Riddle, MOMO.
October 7th – October 28th, 2011 Opening Reception: Friday, October 7th, 7 – 10 pm
Space 1026 is excited to present an exhibition of new works by Amber Dubois, Steven Riddle and MOMO. The work of these three painters eschews figure – instead exploring traditional issues of abstraction. Through their use of color, shape and form – each in their own distinct but related mediums of painting, collage and sculpture respectively – these three young American artists bring their unique vision to this storied tradition. Please join us for an opening reception with the artists Friday, October 7th from 7:00 – 10:00 pm at 1026 Arch St. in Philadelphia.
Amber Dubois creates paintings that explore the confusing and violent act of creation. Using varied ways of applying paint, she builds layer upon layer of cacophonous and conflicting information to build mass, and an almost ‘figural’ presence in the paintings. Born and raised in Philadelphia, Amber Dubois received an MFA in Painting from the New York Studio School in 2007. She is now based out of Brooklyn, NY and most recently has exhibited at Vox Populi and AxD Gallery, Philadelphia.
Steven Riddle, born in 1982, makes collages using handmade source materials, made with screen printing, monotypes marker, acrylic, airbrush, spray paint and bleach. Studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art, Currently an MFA candidate at Towson University, he lives and works in Baltimore. Steven has shown his work at the Andy Warhol Museum, Current Gallery, Together gallery and at Nudashank. He dreams of one day living in a house with a kidney shaped swimming pool
MOMO is known for thoughtful post-graffiti: experiments include tagging his name a tag the width of Manhattan, over-sized outdoor collage, tide powered sculpture, a computer script which makes his art for him, and prints, paintings, and videos that rely on chance and context for fun and substance. Born in San Francisco, he has traveled most of his life, discounting six years New York. He joined a graffiti crew in 1999 while living in Spain, found his use of color while employed in the Caribbean, and fell for outside art while living outside: in a cave for a year, in a truck for a year, and in a tent for a year.
SPACE 1026
1026 Arch St. 2nd Floor
Philadelphia, PA 19107
The Grey Scale Paintings
Walking along what seemed like an endless series of tracks my senses became accustomed to the dark labrythiniun tunnels that lay below. My eyes adjusted to the darkness and my ears acclimated to the endless series of subtle noises. Dripping water, the squeal of rats chasing each other, the release of train compressors, the clicking of the tracks as a train approached the next station, then, all at once, the roar of a passing train echoing through the tunnel, and then, silence.
This new series of works entitled “The Grey Scale” is an exploration into the context in which many of my subway works were created. Walls layered with years of tags and signatures, gravel floors covered in dust and debris, flickering lights, and the gleam of sharp steel tracks piercing the darkness are all portrayed in the context of subterranean tunnels that lead to nowhere. This is a world in which we are encouraged to stay away from the light at the end of the tunnel. These new works call to mind some of the layered complexity of Rauschenberg’s early black paintings or perhaps the subtlety of Cy Twombly’s blackboard paintings. Others yet clearly show references to the gritty urban landscapes of the New York ash can school: John Sloan, William Glackens, Robert Henri, and later most of all, Reginald Marsh. These artists chose, as I do, the streets as their primary source of inspiration. The paintings are a kind of hybrid that draws from the vocabulary of both the graffiti world and urban realism.
The staid cleanliness of a single-colored surface is a disturbing testament to society’s uniformity and the pressure society places on one to conform.
Such a surface, standing alone and dull, cries out for attention.
Answering its call ‹ and recognizing its potential ‹ HOWNOSM bless the surface with confidence, courage, action, vitality and just a touch of the world’s inevitable darkness and death, transforming it into a truer reflection of both the world around it and their own varied lives.
ACHTUNG! is a collection of pieces that resemble broken mirrors, each filled with messages that are, by turns, sharp-edged, blurred and fast-changing. They serve as a reminder of the need to, and the dangers of failing to, walk alertly through this life.
Herakut, Phelgm, Tellas, Escif, Hyuro, David Choe and The Mysterious DVS1
The Tou Scene is an important art center housed in a former brewery in Stavanger that dates back to the 1850s. The complex is now a setting for a number of site-specific installations by Street Artists involved in this years Nuart festival, where vignettes and full-blown scenes are conjured and lit to take visitors elsewhere for a moment. Indoor venues like this are great for many of these artists to have the luxury of time for exploration and the further development of their concepts. With a sense of intent, the support system in place at this festival is enabling a dimension of work that cannot be realized during the turbulence and urgency that is the nature of most Street Art. Here are some new spatial tableaus at the Tou Scene by Herakut, Phelgm, Tellas, Escif, Hyuro, David Choe and The Mysterious DVS1.
Thank you to photographer John Rodger who captured these beautiful images exclusively for BSA readers.
The work of twin artist duo and collective, Skewville from Queens, NY will be appearing at Black Book Gallery during the month of October. Skewville is at once a place and a term to denote a specific style of street art, originating from the pair and their early beginnings occupying a building given the same name.
Anti-Social Networking will be a commentary on social networking and how street art and art in general is not about who you know or who knows you, but who knows your work. The exhibit will be arranged so the artwork is connected to represent social networking. Part of the exhibit will also feature a very large and gritty piece from BAST.
Skewville in attendance
Free and open to the public
“In Flagstaff, Az there is an effort on the part of the Navajo and Hopi tribes against using reclaimed waste water to make snow on a local ski resort, The Snowbowl. Thirteen surrounding tribes hold the San Francisco peaks, where the fake snow is to be made, a sacred mountain. the tribes believe that deities within their respective cosmologies reside there. To use reclaimed waste water is considered a desecration in a place where indigenous people go regularly to pray, collect herbs and to be in the presence of the holy ones” Jetsonorama
To see more images and to continue reading go here
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Elbow Toe, David Byrne, Hellbent, Jaye Moon, Colum Cunningham, Dain, David L, Left Handed Wave, Swoon, Samuel Mark, Know Hope, and Hanksy.
As the official media partner with “Living Walls : Albany” founder Samson Contompasis for this inaugural city-wide Street Art event held in New York State’s capital in September 2011, Brooklyn Street Art invited artists to participate, gave the keynote lecture at the New York State Museum, and provided the following coverage of artists and installations, including an overview on The Huffington Post.
Street Art events which pair local and international talent with bare walls continue to multiply in unexpected locations around the world as young Street Artists and their fans push forward this D.I.Y. scene that had early roots in graffiti. From festivals and week-long events in Toronto to Melbourne to London to Paris to Stavanger (Norway) and Grottaglie (Italy), the first worldwide people’s art movement continues to enliven previously moribund areas of cities and engage local conversations about culture and public space.
There were so many moving parts in this large and easy going cultural festival this weekend, and we were really happy to meet so many people in the street, at the Marketplace encampment, in St. Joseph’s Church, at the tile factory, and during our keynote lecture at the New York State Museum Saturday. Thanks to Samson Contompasis for asking BSA to partner with him for LWAlbany and a quick shout out to other local partners James Shultis at Grand Street Community Arts, Sivan Shimoni, the staff at NYS Museum, and local blogger KC Orcutt at KeepAlbanyBoring.com
Street Artist Overunder just completed his astounding tiled installation this weekend in Albany on the wall of L’esperance Tile Works, a local tile maker with a special 1920s “dust press” that the artist also worked into the piece. For an artist with such a fluid and freewheeling figurative style with a spray can, it is surprising to see it interpreted with such permanence and cogitative consideration.
As Street Artists have been installing their new works on walls around Albany these past 10 days or so, the common story one witnesses is the level of engagement of adults and kids stopping on the sidewalk, in their cars, watching the process, photographing and discussing the art, and exploring the creative process.
Here are a couple in-progress scenes with German twins How & Nosm on a lift beginning their new mural Friday afternoon after arriving from Miami, where they completed new work for Wynwood Walls. Also we were excited to have spent some time seeing OverUnder working with a local tile maker and two new assistants from the neighborhood mixing up mortar
Street Artist Joe Iurato went to church yesterday at St. Joseph’s in Albany, where a number of street artists have been putting together some great work this week. These pieces are floated in front of the walls, rather than painted directly on them out of respect for the original building, an the effect immediately makes the hallowed spaces of organized religion feel more relevant than seeing the Pope on a skateboard.
Overunder is a firecracker. From my initial participation in witnessing the Living Walls unfold in Albany, he has been nothing but a friendly and tireless ball of creative energy (in the best way possible) showing me parts of the city I grew up in that I didn’t even know existed on Google maps of places he’s been exploring.
Within moments of ROA’s arrival on site to his designated building for “Living Walls : Albany,” he spotted a recently departed squirrel, took it as a sign and it became quite clear what he was going to do next.
The squirrel population in Albany is (somewhat) jokingly of a “different” breed
With Marketplace Gallery transformed into what is best classified as a sleep away art camp — complete with scattered sleeping arrangements, wheat pastes hung up on the gallery walls ready to greet the outside world, in progress portraits of some of the participating artists by White Cocoa and a healthy buzz of street art-fueled…
In Street Arts’ latest chapter, the storytellers are hitting up walls with all manner of influences and methods. More than ever before, formally trained and self taught fine artists are skipping the gallery route and taking their work directly to the public, creating cultural mash-ups and highly personal stories of their own, altering the character of this scene once again.
Is this a metaphor for the rich feasting on the US economy? Or just the Macy’s One Day Sale? Here’s a quick cell phone snap of the new piece by Broken Crow at Living Walls : Albany, complete with blood slopping across the field of yellow flowers. More to come soon.
Street Artist Cake brought her hand painted people to Albany yesterday, with these portraits of a “wondrous traveler”named Saige. A fine artist who makes one of a kind wheate-pasted one off pieces as a means of therapy and tribute,
Mr. Iurato spent a couple of days in beautiful late summer sun drenched bliss and managed to knock out two pieces – one on Central ave in Albany, the other on a highway buttress across the river in neighboring Rensellaer. Hewing to some of his favorite themes, you will see references to faith, redemption and the spiritual journey here in some exclusive pics just for BSA readers.
OVERUNDER Makes More Brain Candy for Living Walls : Albany
Overunder is a fast-moving free-associating surrealist whose Street Art pieces catch your eye as you skip past a run down neglected piece of property. Always balancing on the edge of your reality and his boundless imagination, the painted plumcake pieces will strum the brainwaves and may make you all skittish like a cat at a rocking chair convention.
with photos from Andrew Franciosa, Frank Whitney, and Ken Jacobie
Working in the monumental landmark of St. Joseph’s church, the focal point marking Albany’s Ten Broeck Historical District, everything echoed. The shake of the spray paint can, Chris Stain’s soft but direct voice, friends casually eating out of take-out containers and the sliding of a huge ladder against the wooden floor echoed …
“Living Walls: Albany” Begins! Gaia, Nanook and a Rockefeller
Words by KC Orcutt, Images by Andrew Franciosa
A new livelihood is radiating around the colossal work of Gaia and Nanook, which debuted the Living Walls: Albany last week. Their vibrant piece adorns the side of a vacant, unroofed building currently aging on N. Pearl and Livingston.
Tonight opens the 2nd Annual New York “Nuit Blanche” in Brooklyn’s Greenpoint neighborhood. As we did during it’s inauguration last year (when we were also participants) BSA proudly supports this public show of light by some of today’s more talented conceptual and technical artists in the street. With more than 60 separate installations and performances all over the place, it is an event open to the public and it claims public space as our space for creativity, interactivity, and community. Despite threats of spotty rain, we expect the crowd to pour in and have a blast tonight.
“We want things to be visually arresting, some things that people stay and linger at, while other people look for a moment and move on,” declares Ethan Vogt, as he lead a bunch of us around some of the sites last night to preview.
“We wanted to save his life….The helicopter lands and the flight medic jumps out, and we’re like ‘throw this guy on the bird’ ” – “Veterans Flame Greenpoint” by Krzysztof Wodiczko.
Roland and Andrea, of “The Company” will be running their indoor space installation of lights that will react to frequencies emmitted by live performance and recorded industry. Says Andrea, “We developed a custom software that triggers the lights as they are being affected by the sound. We are going to have a lot of performers as well as found industrial sounds – each light lantern is connected to one specific frequency.
BSA will bring you images of the event but if you are in the neighborhood, take your own and send them to us! It’s always great to see what you are up to.
New York’s Fountain is spraying westward this weekend in LA and photographer Birdman gives us an inside look at some of the preparations of the Street Art contingent for this show. Somehow Fountain manages to keep a loosely organized chaos on point wherever it goes, a perfect bit of ground between the cracks of the concrete where things of beauty are likely to pop up.
Hello October ! It’s the first official day and Nuart 2011 is in progress. The streets of Stavanger have been sunny, with people out checking out the action by Street Artists from Europe and the US on walls all over the city in summer-like conditions. There is an indoor contingent happening too, as well as the debut of “Vigilante Vigilante” (trailer at end) and a panel discussion with downtown New York’s own Carlo McCormick and Street Artists Herbert Baglioni and Escif.
Here are a few exclusive pics from Mooki to give you a peek at the scene.
Check out the trailer for “Vigilante Vigilante”, which had it’s European premiere at Nuart last night and which is showing tonight and tomorrow at 16oo hrs. It’s a supercharged wending path and story profiling personalities, behaviors, and agendas of intersecting players on the street. In the process it exposes grey areas and overlapping interests, all of which can be simultaneously uncomfortable and riveting.
1. Fountain LA This Weekend
2. NUART 2011 – Stavanger, Norway
3. “Bring to Light” in Greenpoint Brooklyn for the 2nd Year – Saturday Night!
3. “Rituals” on 14th Street, Art in Odd Places
4. Pantheon Projects at THE NEW YORK ART BOOK FAIR AT MoMA PS1
5. Art Platform Los Angeles
6. RETNA at Art Platform (LA)
7. Brian Adam Douglas at Art Platform (LA)
Fountain LA This Weekend
New York’s own specially warped outsiders are in LA this weekend, and BSA is happy to sport support for whatever madness they can stir up, including the Murder Lounge, which Dave Ill says will be in full effect. (Murder- .slang. To defeat decisively). When you are milling around the big LA shows this weekend make sure you stop by Fountain and say hello to Señor Kesting and check out the Street Art contingent doing their thing on the Left Coast ya’ll.
NUART 2011 has arrived and the streets and buildings of Stavanger are a heating up with all the artists getting up and doing what they know what to do best: Paint. Brooklyn’s own Dan Witz already hit the streets with his “King Baby” street installations on faux city street signage. Tonight (Friday) their is a panel debate with artists, Carlo McCormick and Juxtapoz Magazine that we wouldn’t miss.
Artists include DAN WITZ (US), DAVID CHOE & DVS1 (US), VHILS (PO), HERBERT BAGLIONE (BR), DOLK (NO), LUCY McCLAUCHLAN (UK), HERAKUT (DE), TELLAS (IT), ESCIF (ES), HYURO (ES), PHLEGM (UK)
For a complete listing of events and schedules please visit the NUART site:
“Bring to Light” in Greenpoint Brooklyn for the 2nd Year – Saturday Night!
“All manner of projectors blasted on the walls with myriad images, forms, and shapes, some breathtakingly beautiful. Other artists created sculptures and installations that worked as light vessels and amorphous creatures while collaborative dancers entertained groupings of appreciative observers.” from BSA’s review on Huffington Post
OCTOBER 1ST, 2011, Greenpoint, Brooklyn New York. 6:00 pm to Midnight.
Bring to Light is a free nighttime public festival of art in New York City that takes place simultaneously with “nuit blanche” events in cities around the world. Inviting emerging and established artists to make site-specific installations of light, sound, performance and projection art, the event creates an immersive spectacle for thousands of visitors to re-imagine public space and civic life. Bring to Light will transform streets, parks and the industrial waterfront of Greenpoint, Brooklyn set against dramatic views of the Manhattan skyline.
Nuit Blanche (French for “white night” or “all-nighter”) is a global network of locally-organized nighttime contemporary art events. Originating in Paris in 2001, the nuit blanche concept now involves millions of people in cities around the world.
One performance we will NOT miss will be Chris Jordan and Josh Goldberg, who have serious chops in public projection work, presenting CHRONO GIANTS.
Art in Odd Places 2011: RITUAL features a wide variety of actions, participatory performances, theatrical presentations, public installations, and small and large-scale interventions all of which revolve around the concept of ritual.
Art in Odd Places (AiOP) presents visual and performance art in public spaces with an annual festival each October along 14th Street in Manhattan, NYC from Avenue C to the Hudson River.
Opening Reception for Art In Odd Places Festival 2011
Friday, September 30, 6-9pm
Theaterlab
137 West 14th Street between Sixth and Seventh Avenues
New York, NY
For a complete listing of artists and a full schedule of events and locations visit Art In Odd Places site:
This art book fair always rewards you – just walking around the floorplan of MoMA PS1 is a trip and the books are tripped out. This year we are in a new one – The Pantheon Catalog from Joyce Manalo and Daniel Feral;
“The street has always been the thumping beat that pumps the pulsing lifeblood through creative New York. Yes, there is a lot of action behind the walls in the offices and galleries and studios and stages and clubs and boardrooms, but everyone knows it is the kinetic electricity of life on the street that inspires New Yorkers to dig deeper and dream bigger and play hard.”
~ from the essay Street Art New York, The 2000s, Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of Brooklyn Street Art.
If that is not enough to make you absolutely plow down crowds to get there, consider the real talents who are going to be there to SIGN YOUR COPY:
***Catalog Signing on Sunday, October 2nd, 3-3:45 PM featuring***
Join Pantheon Projects at The NY Art Book Fair
September 30-October 2, 2011, 11AM-7PM, at PS1/MoMA, Free Admission
Hours: Friday–Sunday, 11AM-7PM
THE NY ART BOOK FAIR
September 30–October 2, 2011
MoMA PS1
MoMA PS1
22-25 Jackson Avenue at 46th Avenue
Long Island City, NY (map)
Art Platform Los Angeles
From their press release; Art Platform – Los Angeles will demonstrate the rich and vibrant cultural landscape of Southern California and underscore Los Angeles’ influential position within the contemporary art world. MMPI is one of the largest show producers in the world, including a growing portfolio of premium art shows. We have assured the continued development and enhancement of the Art Show division by bringing together some of the top minds in art fairs under one partnership”
For more information, location and a complete list of exhibitors please visit Art Platform at:
If you can’t wait to see the Retna spread as shot by David LaChapelle in October’s Vanity Fair you can check out these new pieces at Art Platform and see BSA’s photos from his New York show this spring.
New Image Art Gallery will be exhibiting at Art Platfrom Los Angeles Featuring new large-scale paintings on canvas and paper by RETNA Visit them at booth #108
Brian Adam Douglas at Art Platform (LA)
Andrew Edlin Gallery will exhibit Brooklyn Fine and Street Artist Brian Adam Douglas along with Henry Darger, Thornton Dial and Jeremy Everett. Visit them at booth 814.