Brooklyn Street Art | …loves you more every day.

Tony’s Gallery Presents: Bortusk Leer “Bortusk Took a Trip” (London, UK)

April 27, 2011 Artists, Events, Gallery, London, Opening, U.K.

BORTUSK LEER

“Bortusk took a trip”
6th May – 5th June
opening May 5th 6-9pm

Tony’s gallery is delighted to present ‘Bortusk took a trip’, the first solo show by UK artist Bortusk Leer. Since bursting onto the art scene in 2007, Bortusk’s naively spray-painted and marker penned monsters have become a common sight on the streets of London and New York . For the inaugural exhibition at Tony’s, Bortusk Leer will present a site-specific installation alongside a selection of recent paintings and sculptures.

‘Bortusk took a trip’ invites the viewer into the inner reaches of Mr. Leer’s psychedelic mind and takes you back to the fun and carefree days of our childhood. Transforming the gallery space into his private playground, we are invited to experience it as an opportunity to step out of the doom and gloom of our daily routines. An exhilarating mixture between a funfair, cartoon and rave party feel, the show’s only intention is to put a smile on your face and brighten up your day!

Bortusk has named his style ‘art comedy’ and dedicates himself along with a growing team of admirers and pasters to spreading the smiley faced, lolling tongued, and googly eyed LOVE around the world….Bortusk’s heavily satirical work and recognisable paste ups using newspaper as the support and method of spreading his own message, highlights an ongoing concern to challenge the idea of traditional mass media and mass produced objects. These acts of mischievous sabotage using obsolete objects and materials represent in fact another unconventional choice of his to use low-tech procedures to emphasis the often ephemeral nature and lifespan of these randomly applied paste-ups within our urban landscape.

These garishly coloured characters have travelled by sea and air to reach walls as far away as Auckland , Alaska , Jodphur and Barcelona and catching a glimpse of one of these little creatures in a dark corner or grim alleyway always brings a familiar friendly face to these far-away lands. These characters always seem to make themselves at home in their surroundings, be it taking a yellow cab in the Big Apple or tucking into a bratwurst in Berlin .

Over the past 3 years Bortusk Leer has exhibited in several London based group shows such as The Alternative Philosophy at Leonard Street Gallery and Mutate Britain at Cordy House with an array of big names in the street art scene. During the course of these shows his work has strayed into the realms of video, collage and sculpture, re-awakening an interest in 3D and installation art. Also in 2009 Bortusk’s monsters were made into ‘Street Monsters’, a series of 2 minute animations which were commissioned by the BBC.

Bortusk Leer shows no signs of slowing down, currently working on his first solo show in New York and cooking up some plans for further television take over. This top hatted avenger is only just warming up.

Tony’s
68 Sclater st | London |E1 6HR
0203 5565201
www.tonysgallery.com
info@tonysgallery.com

Bortusk Leer

London West Bank Gallery Presents: “Urban Invasion” A Group Show (London, UK)

April 27, 2011 Artists, Events, Gallery, London, Opening, U.K.

LWB
London West Bank (LWB) is a brand new gallery opening in London on
Thursday 28th.
www.londonwestbank.com. It’s a great space so please come down and
support the team involved in converting the old bank on the corner of
Westbourne Grove, Chepstow Road and Pembridge Villas, W11. To get an
invite RSVP to guestlist@londonwestbank.com

As an opening night teaser London based Street Artist K-GUY will be releasing a his ‘n’ hers special royal wedding commemorative mini print to celebrate the big occasion.
Limited to 40 prints at only 40 quid a pop available on the night….
and as a little incentive the first 10 people through the door get a
free one.

K-Guy “Hers”

K-GUY “His”

Holdup Art Gallery Presents: “Hi-Graff” (Los Angeles, CA)

April 27, 2011 Artists, California, Events, Gallery, L.A., Los Angeles, Opening

Hi-Graff

“Hi-Graff” is an installation-based street art exhibition that explores the concept of Graffiti as a contemporary art movement…

The exhibition, which opens on May 7th 7-11pm, showcases graffiti in its most original form –collaborative murals applied directly to walls. Though LA has seen hundreds of street art exhibitions in the past 5 years, there has always existed a growing disconnect between the artwork shown in the gallery shows and what these street artists produce on the streets. “Forcing a street artist to produce canvas or panel works as the only way of showcasing in a fine art gallery seriously compromises the quality of work, and direction these artists are taking. We wanted to open up our walls to these artists so the final product will closely mimic the actual art production of these artists on the streets, in an in-door environment” (Curator Lee). This allows the audience to truly understand and juxtapose where their talents and aesthetic differences lie. For “Hi-Graff”, Hold Up Art has brought together over 20 street artists to produce 10 separate collaborative murals highlighting unique trends and styles in Graffiti.

The artists that were selected for “Hi-Graff” embody a range of styles and techniques, showcasing the varying stylistic directions taken by contemporary graffiti artists. As with any art movement, Graffiti has evolved much since it had truly taken a hold in Los Angeles back in the 80’s. According to Curator Brian Lee, “We are now entering into a high point, the embellishment period, in the artistic movement of Graffiti. Not only are we witnessing the rise of a third generation of graffiti writers, a generation that actively looks forwards as much as it does backwards, but the public perception and reception of graffiti has grown increasingly warmer. With the release and world wide success of the movie “Exit through the Gift Shop,” Museum retrospectives on Street art as a culture like at the MOCA, and the ever present force of street art designers like Shepard Fairey–designing for everyone and everything from album covers to billboards for the Grammys–street art has permeated into every facet of American youth culture” (Curator Lee).

“Hi-Graff” Details
Opening May 7th, 7-11pm
On Display May 7th-June 2nd, 2011

Street Artist Purth Takes “The Deleras” Cross Country

April 27, 2011 Artists, Boston, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

The fine artist and Street Artist named Purth has been completing an urban installation of her family this winter in Austin, Boston, Brooklyn, Cincinnati, and New Orleans . Not literally her blood relatives, the oversize portraits of females are mirrors of her emotional journey and echoes of relationships she may have experienced coupled with ones she is creating for her future. Coupled with bits of prose that ground them somewhat, these women are strong and searching.

This kind of internal migration is not unusual for a painter in scanning the horizon for something however the actual physical distance run, with it’s long spaces of time and travel in between, is. It’s also something that Street Artists around the globe are setting a new standard for by completing installations in towns and cities around the globe much like a campaign. In her dog-eared travelogue, Purth carries ruddy hued people from her fluid imagination and raises them amidst abandoned rubble; high enough to be seen from a distance.

Purth “The Deleras” group in an abandoned train yard east of Boston. (Photo © Heather McGrath)

Having completed roughly the first half of the installations for “The Deleras Project”, she shares these images before Purth hits the road again to complete it with installations in Oakland, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, Chicago, Detroit and Cincinnati.

With the completion of “six months on the road, (with) snow storm & tornadoes endured, a car accident survived, and life affirming environments broken into,” the artist took a moment to chat with Brooklyn Street Art about her project:

Photographer Heather McGrath and a friend assisting Purth after installing The Deleras. East Boston (Photo © Purth)

Brooklyn Street Art: Who are the individuals depicted on your paintings?
Purth: Each piece was created from different sources of inspiration: references of old photographs I’ve been collecting for years, reflections … perhaps of someone’s lover, someone’s child. There will be ten once the work is completed, all of women, young & old, scattered across the country, & each installed with a single stream of thought. The writing is sourced in a very similar way … some pulled from found material, some from the words I was lucky enough to hear uttered; fragments to create a whole. I guess in my mind, they have become the women they are now. Completely independent of the remnants that built them up or who they are to me personally. I hope that for them … the right to stand on their own.

Purth. Detail of Delera. Abandoned brewery directly across from the Roxbury projects in Boston. (Photo © Heather McGrath)

Purth in Cincinnati. A slightly damaged Delera (due to bad climate conditions). She is included “as she is beautiful” (Photo © Zach Fein)

Brooklyn Street Art: Why are you traveling around the country putting them up on abandoned walls and buildings?
Purth: Abandoned spaces have a pronounced hum to them. They are shed, in a sense, but are still heavy with profound undercurrents that I believe can be tapped into … & reinvented. It seems completely fitting for me to search out these spaces as possible locations for the work even if they ultimately make home above, along side, or in areas close by. In regards to the distance covered … we have gaps that need to be bridged. I see them as shepherds and black sheep. It’s my responsibility to find them home.

Purth. “Opal” “I swear there are diamonds …. hundreds of them …
everywhere” East Austin, on the corner of E6th & Chicon. (Photo © Andrew Ashmore)

Purth. “Patricia the Beater” “I will grow …fiercely, love”, New Orleans. (Photo © Zack Smith)

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the genesis of this project?
Purth: The first, Delera, was created at an intense, pivotal moment in my life. I became very weak around the end of 2009 and I began painting her like a child screaming at an overbearing parent. In the simplest sense, I was depicting the strength I needed to rediscover in myself. Once she was suspended and I saw her upright for the first time, she literally took my breath away. Something so intimate, so tender, and so sincere towering over me … it was like gold leafing vulnerability and then lighting the shit on fire.

She was the first, the idea for the others quickly followed.

Purth. “Lu” “Take my breath away”. Brooklyn, NY. (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

Purth took this shot a few weeks into her trip hoping this would be her home for the next five months. (photo © Purth)

Liqen Converts a Crashed Plane into a Fish Tail on Oaxacan Beach

April 26, 2011 Artists, Mexico, Oaxaca, On the Street

“Lou: It’s the American Dream in a goddamn gym bag!
Hank: You work for the American Dream. You don’t steal it.
Lou : Then this is even better. “

In the book “A Simple Plan”, by Scott Smith, a trio of friends discovers a small crashed plane with $4.4 million stuffed in a gym bag in this moral tale of greed and opportunity. Without knowing how the plane dropped from the sky, the people on the ground are left to their own devices.

Street Artist Liqen discovered this aviatory carcass on Ventanilla Beach in Oaxaca Mexico and wondered what treasure it once carried and why it stood alone on the otherwise pristine white sands of the riviera. As an artists’ imagination will do, he made a story and converted the carcass of the plane with his paint brush into a fish tail.

Liqen. Ventanilla, Oaxaca (photo © Liqen)

“I did this “fish tail” in the ecstasy of the transformation, a comprehensive intervention of the stupid and amazing reality that happens at the hands of art, nature or magic. At the end of my story this fish-plane was eventually caught and died in ‘Ventanilla’, ” says Liqen.

The tail of of the fish plane now has the figure of what could be a indigenous fisherman with spear in hand, ready to haul the oversized catch. But the story does not end there.

Liqen. Ventanilla, Oaxaca (photo © Liqen)

According to website Vagabond Journey, the plane once carried a cargo of marijuana and was shot down six years ago. According to local reports, narcos came with a truck to retrieve the payload immediately after it hit the sands and some locals filled their backpacks with whatever was left, which was a lot. “Whoever got over there got enough to smoke for two years,” a hotel owner is quoted as saying.

In the case of our friend Liqen there wasn’t a rich bounty that we know of. What we know however is that he couldn’t resist the urge to give the remnants of the plane a lil’ pimpin’ and he shares the following images with you here.

Liqen. Ventanilla, Oaxaca (photo © Liqen)

The left wing remains, while the engine appears to have been removed. Liqen. Ventanilla, Oaxaca (photo © Liqen)

In this video on Youtube, a commenter offers an alternate story on the circumstances of the plane’s crash. “It was a Colombian drug shipment that was intercepted by the Mexican army. the drugs were pushed out over the Pacific, they ditched in the ocean and crashed on the beach and got away before the Mexican army, navy or air force could get there. The only part above the sand as of April 2009 is the left engine and wing – the fuselage is completely buried.”

The Chicago Urban Art Society Presents: The Chicago Street Art Show (Chicago, Ill.)

April 25, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Chicago, Opening

Presenting “Chicago Street Art” By Joseph J. Depre in Conjuction with the Chicago Street Art Show At The Chicago Urban Art Society (Chicago, Ill.)

April 25, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Chicago, Events, Gallery, Opening

Chicago Street Art

Prestel Publishing and Thunderdog Studios Present: Tristan Eaton’s “3D ArtBook” Exhibition and Book Signing at Opera Gallery (Manhattan, NY)

April 25, 2011 Artists, Events, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, Opening

Tristan Eaton

3D Art Exhibition + Book Signing for:

The 3D Art Book

by Tristan Eaton

Friday, April 29th, 6-9pm

Opera Gallery New York

115 Spring Street New York, NY 10012 (212) 966-6675

15 Artists will be signing 3D Art Books & Prints:

Andrew Bell, Stephen Bliss, Kevin Bourgeois, Ron English, Mat Eaton, Tristan Eaton, Filth, Haze, Travis Louie, Tara McPherson, Kenzo Minami, Mint, Serf, Dr. Revolt & Tom Thewes

The 3D Art Book & Exhibition features 100 artists including:

Glenn Barr, Craola, D*Face, Dalek, Eboy, Shepard Fairey, James Jean, Chris Mars, Mark Ryden, Jeff Soto, Rostarr, Todd Schorr, Stash, Gary Taxali, Toki Doki, Trustocorp, Junko Mizuno, Eric White and many more.

Sponsored by: Prestel Publishing & Thunderdog Studios

Skewville and Ali Ha Present The Bushwick Art Park A Prototype (Manhattan, NY)

April 25, 2011 Art Fair, Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Manhattan, Museum, NYC, On the Street, Opening

Skewville

“Bench” Image courtesy of Factory Fresh Gallery

BUSHWICK ART PARK
IN MANHATTAN!

The Festival of Ideas for the New City:
May 4 – 8

A major new collaborative initiative led by the New Museum to harness the power of the creative community in imagining the future city will feature an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery, where fresh new ideas for the city will be prototyped and on display.

Be sure to follow the Festival of Ideas blog, featuring guest posts by Trust Art.
Manhattan, New York – The Bushwick Art Park, a Trust Art project led by the artist collective and brotherhood known as Skewville, will be just outside the New Museum of Contemporary Art as part of StreetFest on Saturday, May 7. You can come ‘kick it’ at this street-inspired sculpture garden and philosophize on how to transform an under-used street in Bushwick into a community art park.
Don’t forget the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1pm, featuring representation from the office of Council Member Diana Reyna.
The prototype art park will be curated by Factory Fresh gallery director Ali Ha, and feature pieces by Skewville, Leon Reid IV, Specter, and Olek.

Be Sure to join us at the Bushwick Art Part,
located in front of the
New Museum
Saturday, May 7th, from 1-7pm

MEET THE BUSHWICK ART PARK TEAM
Bushwick, NY – An whole team has emerged intent on making the Bushwick Art Park a reality. From three “Pratt Bratt” graduate students who are helping with policy research, community surveys, and proposal-writing; to Ali Ha, gallery directory at Factory Fresh; amazing infographic experts; and the hundreds of people who have already signed our petition, the Bushwick Art Park has a lot of friends. Live in Bushwick? Take our quick survey.

Click on the link below to learn more details of Street Fest

http://www.festivalofideasnyc.com/

Factory Fresh Presents: Sweet Toof “Dark Horse” (Brooklyn, NY)

April 25, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery, NYC, Opening

Sweet Toof

Sweet Toof
Dark Horse

Opening April 29th, 7-10pm
On view till May 22nd, Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from 1-7pm

Having chewed up the streets of London’s east end, British artist Sweet Toof takes a bite out of the Big Apple with his first New York solo exhibition, Dark Horse. Revealing a new series of original works, Sweet Toof’s Trojan Horse greets the city that never sleeps ‘til Brooklyn at the freshest factory in town.

Like the Dark Horse himself, Sweet Toof has risen up the ranks as a graffiti artist throughout 80s and 90s England, where his letterforms and street styles have evolved alongside a rigorous academic practice as a realist painter and sculptor. Heavily influenced by the Vanitas paintings of sixteenth century Europe, Mexican Day of the Dead, Subway Art, and the underground comics of Vaughn Bodé, his characteristic gummy chompers are a true mash-up of street and studio.

Now, the anonymous face that launched a thousand teeth unleashes the beast and charges forward once again—with a fleet of new works and an army of horsemen braced to paint New York by storm. It’s a call to arms in the battle for free expression: join forces, or else just grin and bear it.

XAM : “Your Ad Here” Tiny Billboards

April 25, 2011 Artists

A funny thing happened on the way to Public Space.

Street Artist XAM has started a new series of miniature billboards that poke their little fingers in the eye of advertising and in the process call into question what kind of messages are legal or illegal. After the Public Ad Campaign last year successfully drew attention to the thousands of outdoor spaces in New York City that were illegally being used for advertising and poster glut was cut, the public became a little more aware of the street fight for their eyeballs.

Not sure what XAM means to say here, but they’re clever installations that can cause a cringe and a chuckle at the same time. These petite Out Of Home (OOH) message platters first seen in LA last week mounted on the back of street signs appear to be faithful reproductions of their gigantic cousins, and ironically the same size as that glowing rectangle you have in your purse or pocket right now.

See more XAM stuff on the Flickr page here.

Images of the Week 04.24.11 MOCA LA Part II

April 24, 2011 Artists

Here’s Part II of our tour of the museum at the “Art in the Streets” show that opened a week ago at MOCA LA. The breadth and depth of the show must have blown away many of the potential critics, because the grousing never really materialized. For our part, the review on the Huffington Post of the show itself (Red Hot and Street: “Art in the Streets” Brings Fire to MOCA) and the images of stuff on the street in 4 0r 5 neighborhoods in LA (Hitting Up LA: The Streets Outside the Show) have been fodder for some conversation (and voting!) and it’s a blast to see how this graffiti/street art movement sparks such intense opinion and feelings.

MOCA Part II Images of the Week, this week featuring Banksy, Barry McGee, ESPO,Steve Powers, Craig Stecyk III, Ed Templeton, Freedom, Invader, Martha Cooper, John Fekner, John Ahearn, Kenny Scharf, Lee Quinones, Margaret Kilgallen, Nunca, Os Gemeos, ROA, and Swoon.

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