BSA Holiday Giveaway : Banksy, C215, Street Art New York, Beautiful Losers

December 14, 2010 ,

Brooklyn-Street-Art-BSA-Giveaway-Dec2010

Dear BSA Readers: We’ve invited six artists to participate in this year’s “Eleven Wishes for 2011”. That leaves 5 empty spots.  Now we would like to invite five BSA family like you to be a part of it — and win extravagant prizes for your efforts:

All you need to do is send ONE wish and ONE picture or image file to Giveaway@brooklynstreetart.com no later than December 17 and we’ll pick the 5 winners.

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PRIZES

THE DEEEELUXE PLATINUM BUCKET: This prize will go to the first TWO submissions we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA “Eleven wishes for 2011” these two lucky readers will also get:

A copy of Banksy’s “Exit through the gift shop” DVD.
A copy of “Beautiful Losers” DVD.
A copy of C215 new book “Community Service” (release date 01/28/11, but you get yours now!)
A signed copy of our new book “Street Art New York”.

THE GOLD PLATED BUCKET: This prize will go to the next THREE submissions we pick. In addition to being featured on BSA “Eleven Wishes for 2011” these three lucky readers will also get:

A copy of Banksy’s “Exit through the gift shop” DVD.
A copy of “Beautiful Losers” DVD
A signed copy of our new book “Street Art New York”.

RULES: You must write a wish for 2011 that you wish for yourself or others; extra points for personal and respectful. Image can be anything BUT you must hold the copyrights to publish the image. Image must be at least 740 wide, and can be in .jpg, .tif, .png, or similar format.  Submissions must be received no later than December 17, 2010. Please include your postal address to receive the prizes. Final selections are made by the editors and buckets are not included. We can’t wait to hear from you!!!

5 Examples from last year; Martha Cooper, Broken Crow, Jef Aerosol, Hellbent, Cake

SHOUT OUTs: To Beastie Boy Adam Yauch and Joshua Fu at Oscilloscope Laboratories for donating the DVDs. Go to this link to see their full selection of titles.  Also to our editor Jeremy Echard at Critères éditions for the c215 books before they are even published, and to Ali Gitlow at Prestel Publishing for Street Art New York. Thank you all!

PRIZE Descriptions

Exit Through the Gift Shop, Director: Banksy
A chaotic trip through low-level criminality, comradeship, and incompetence. By turns shocking, hilarious and absurd, this is an enthralling modern-day fairytale… with bolt cutters.
Exit Through the Gift Shop DVD

Beautiful Losers, Director: Aaron Rose
In the early 1990’s a loose-knit group of like-minded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip-hop, and graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Featuring, Shepard Fairey, Ed Templeton, Mike Mills, Harmony Korine, Barry McGee, Chris Johanson, Geoff McFetridge, Jo Jackson, Margaret Kilgallen, Stephen Powers, and Thomas Campbell.
Beautiful Losers DVD

Street Art New York, Authors: Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo
with forward by Carolina A Miranda, published by Prestel
Written by the founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com, Street Art New York the authors take you on a fast sprint through the streets, along the waterways, on the rooftops, and up the walls of todays ever-morphing Street Art scene, as only New York can tell it. Featured in this unplugged and dynamic collection of images are works by 100+ artists, some wildly exciting newcomers as well as some of the “old masters”, each one telling their New York story.

C215 Community Service, Author: C215
with introduction and interview by Steven P. Harrington, and preface by Marc & Sara Schiller from Wooster Collective and Thierry Froger, published Jan 2011 by Critères éditions.
World famous globe-trotting French stencil artist C215 as seen through the eyes of 12 of today’s renowned street art photographers, covering ground in New York, London, Tel Aviv, Dakar, Moscow, Vitry, Casablanca, and New Delhi among others. In a style recognizable by Street Art fans everywhere, C215 raises the game to poetry while keeping it very human. Photographers include Vitostreet (FR), Chrixcel (FR), RomanyWG (GBR), Luna Park(US), Jaime Rojo (US), Lois Stavsky (US), Jessica Stewart (IT), Vinny Cornelli (US), Elodie Wilhem (CHE), Lionel Belluteau (FR), Unusualimage (GBR), and Gregory J. Smith(BR).

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H.Veng Smith Solo At Pandemic: Studio Visit And Interview

December 13, 2010 , , , , , , , , ,

Aerosol, Arsenic and Squared-Jawed Vikings

Forging Identity in “Identifiable Reality”

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-1“Visual Thought”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A traditional A-frame wooden easel smacked up with street art stickers sits in a tiny pitched roof attic studio. The focused artist sits, poised brush in hand, staring intently at his palette of carefully selected and mixed pigments with linseed oil, deciding how to recreate a spray painted tag by Street Artist Dark Cloud onto the stone walled bridge in his canvas.

“With these pieces I’m more interested in trying to have fun with them. I want to give you a reality, but at the same time an alternate reality,” so explains Veng of Robots Will Kill, now H. Veng Smith.  The name itself indicates his desire to consolidate two extremes in his career so far – “Veng” from his days as a graff/street artist and member of the New York collective Robots Will Kill – and the formal name “H. Smith” under which he first showed his finely rendered oils on canvas.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-2Detail from “Visual Thought”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As Veng painted canvasses over 3 months for his first solo show as a “Street Artist” on display indoors at Pandemic Gallery this Friday, he found himself again reconciling his two distinct interests – graff culture and the Dutch Masters. Looking at the oil painting of a survey of the expanse of a river alongside a non-descript European town from perhaps a few centuries ago, you see he has included tags from Street Artists circa 2010 like ECB, Chris from RWK, and Dark Cloud on walls in the village.

Brooklyn Street Art: I like the way that you pay homage to street artists and graffiti artists in these formal, painterly, old-world settings

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-19Veng: That to me is the ideal world. I really enjoy that piece because it mixes the things that I like all in one. It’s got the street art, which I like, it’s got the graffiti, which I like, it’s got some modern conveniences like trucks moving because obviously you need to drive. I don’t want to be sitting around with a horse and buggy or something. Airplanes…. I like my laptop.  At the same time I like the simple quiet old times, and the ideas of them, the old buildings.  You know if you look at the city today I don’t think it looks as nice as it did a hundred years ago or in the 1800’s.  If you go to some of the old Brooklyn or Manhattan buildings, you see that they’re beautiful. And the Manhattan skyline is beautiful too – it’s world-famous obviously. But I’m for classy, rustic, old world aesthetics. And I hope that’s what you get when you look at these pieces.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-4“Jerome”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Identifiable Reality”, his first solo show as a Street Artist will showcase his own version of reality, which is to say, fictional.

Brooklyn Street Art: What does the title of the show refer to?
Veng: Just to all the pieces in the show that are realistic – you know what you are looking at, nothing is abstract in the design. But at the same time the ideas are a little abstract. You don’t usually see somebody with a hat made of books on their head with candles.  Even though the candles on the hat is a realistic idea, because in olden days they would put candles on their hats for visibility to paint at night.  Michelangelo and Goya both wore hats with candles when they were painting. A lot of people assume that this is all fantasy but it is not completely fantasy.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Goya- Self-Portrait in the Workshop, 1795Goya’s ” Self-Portrait in the Workshop”, 1795, shows the artist with candles in his hat. (Courtesy Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Madrid)

Out the open hinged window comes the sound of two Black-capped Chickadees calling each other in the branches of the blazing fall yellow trees. The conversation turns to the poker-faced man who appears throughout his giant street pieces and in these smaller canvasses. Veng calls the reappearing ever morphing costume-changing dude his “character”, and his blunt center stage presence is always beguiling with a hint of the comic.  Truthfully, these “characters” are all probably versions of Veng, exhibiting different qualities of his own character, if  only slyly.

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Detail of “Jerome”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: In a lot of your work there is a healthy dose of humor, however subtle.
Veng: Yeah – I wouldn’t consider it too serious. It’s kind of playful.

Brooklyn Street Art: Your character for example; It’s got this expression in this piece. What is that expression? Is he tasting a sour lemon?
Veng: He’s an unhappy Viking. You know, he’s plundering and he’s just not in the best of times I guess.

Brooklyn Street Art: I’ve noticed the shape of the face of the character has now become completely square, even with corners now.
Veng: I started off doing a more circular shape and I like it because it is recognizable and I always want to stick to more simple shapes, and I like them to be unrealistic. So no matter how realistically you paint an eye or a nose, no matter what you ever do to it, it is never going to look real because the shape alone is going to kill that for you totally.  I would never use, say, a triangle or something.  I like the idea of having that clean edge circular or square shape to break up the reality that you might otherwise get.  I think it separates it from other things that are going on.  I could sit here and do all of these with more realistic facial proportions but I feel like, for me, it would take out some of the fun of the character.

Brooklyn Street Art: And in fact, the character is fun.
Veng: Yeah, you look at first and it almost looks “identifiable” but then you realize it’s completely square. You take away the eyes and nose …..

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-11(image © Jaime Rojo)

For a minute you forget you are talking to a well known aerosol wielding Brooklyn Street Artist in this cozy Staten Island hideaway. It’s stillness is free of clutter and there are neatly stacked glass jars of pigment, oils, a mortar and pestle. Reconciling these two worlds must be work in itself.

Brooklyn Street Art: Recently there was a show at 17 Frost Gallery with Erik Burke & Cahil Muraghu where they married graffiti techniques and vocabulary with the Hudson School of painting.  When I saw some of their pieces I was impressed and I was also thinking of the way that you are marrying two styles are a few centuries apart from one another.
Veng: You know if you look at the books I have on my shelf, people usually get a kick out of it because there will be a Chuck Close book next to a book on Jan van Eyck, or some Dutch guy. I personally find great interest in all of them and I reference them and I think when you can combine them using creativity it is a great luxury. Technique-wise, we have a lot to learn from the past.

Brooklyn Street Art: I’ve heard you talk before about having within your style these polar opposites and you’ve withstood some criticism from people like your peers for example. When you were doing graff on the street and you started to do Street Art based stuff – let alone Dutch Masters influenced pieces- what were some of the responses you were getting?
Veng: It’s definitely been tougher from the graffiti crowd than the Street Art crowd. But the graffiti crowd, especially here in New York, has loosened up on it’s ideas basically due to a lot of Europeans coming over doing graffiti too.  The graffiti scene was always sort of A-B-C-D.

Brooklyn Street Art: In what way?
Veng: You spray paint, you use your caps, that’s it. You do it illegally, you never get too artsy. Whereas with Street Art, you can kind of get almost as artsy as you want.

Brooklyn Street Art: So you are saying that those people who might have given you a hard time before might not be doing it now.
Veng: Now they don’t do it at all. But at the same time, a lot of people won’t consider it graffiti. They’ll say, “Oh, he uses spray paint to do it but it’s not graffiti”. So I think a lot of the borders have all been cut down.

Brooklyn Street Art: So would you say a certain level of respect exists across all of it?
Veng: Yeah. I mean I’ve always been pretty peaceful and I’m pretty easy going. I’ve never really had any personal problems.  I mean some people give their opinions, which is fine obviously, because not everybody likes everything the same and thank God.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-12(image © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: So you pick all of your paints.
Veng: Yeah, a lot of the paints, about 85% of them, I mix myself from the pigments.  There are certain pigments I don’t use.

Brooklyn Street Art: What do you mix the pigments with
Veng: Oil – linseed oil or possibly walnut oil. – Which you can kind of smell in here. And then I add to them different stuff like resin, which will speed up the drying and give it a glossy hardened feel.

Brooklyn Street Art: Where do you get your pigments and supplies?
Veng: A lot of the supplies I get from a local colorman in Brooklyn, Robert Doak in Dumbo.  His business has been around longer than I’ve been living.  A lot of the pigments and materials I use come from him. It’s really specific, not just to oil paintings but to traditional materials.  Also I get a lot of stuff from a company out in California called Natural Pigments, which specializes in all the hard-to-find pigments. Also I use the more dangerous stuff like lead-based paints and paints that contain arsenic.

Brooklyn Street Art: Really? Arsenic?
Veng: Yes, it’s a color called Opiate. It’s a really gorgeous yellow, but it contains arsenic.

Brooklyn Street Art: So do you have to wear a mask using some of these pigments?
Veng: When I mix the pigments I have little dust mask on for the super dangerous ones.  – Not that I feel like I really need one because I’m dealing with it in very small doses. Obviously I don’t have the window open in front of me or the fan going. But just to be on the safe side I do wear a dust mask. Some are more dangerous if absorbed through the skin.  Like Vermillion – (takes the glass bottle to show) – it’s a really really nice red.  But if you absorb it through your skin it’s dangerous.

Brooklyn Street Art: This is a pestle.
Veng: It’s a grinder for the paints. You put it on here with the oil.  Here are different oils, here is the walnut you can smell if you want.

Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah I think I can smell the linseed. That is really understated.  I think people use linseed oil for furniture.
Veng: Yup, linseed oil – if you would ask people, probably 80% of them use linseed oil for their paints.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-13A partial lineup of pieces by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How does it feel doing a solo show?
Veng: It feels great. I’m nervous. I hope everyone enjoys the work and likes it and shows up. It’s been good to get a body of work together in this genre because I’ve never really had a full collection of these pieces before that is more influenced by my Street Art. I’ve done a single piece for a commission or a group show here or there. So I’m really excited putting them together and coming up with similar ideas, breaking them down into groups, and having them all come together.

Finally it’s like a family of these street art pieces.  To be honest I’ve never seen so many of these character paintings together in the studio.

Excerpt: Painting Birds

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Veng photo © Jaime Rojo

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-9A Nuthatch by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think they are the neatest things to paint. They give you all sorts of texture, they give you colors. I just think that technically they are great to paint, they give you the details, you can keep them super rendered. I’ve always been a big fan of birds in general – watching them, taking pictures of them. When I lived in Pennsylvania I did a lot of bird watching.  So I just like them in general, and to paint them it’s a lot of fun and so far people have shown a lot of interest in my birds.”

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“Alone in Thought” by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Excerpt: Swedish/Norwegian Architecture

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“Gotland” by H. Veng Smith ( photo © Jaime Rojo)

We had relatives from Sweden here and they gave me this tile, which has a Stave church in it, which I thought was really great. So I looked up these churches and they all have these really good architectural features, so I did my character like them. It’s a church. Instead of saying church building, you would say “stave”

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Norwegian Stave Church (photo © Sue Renault)

“I thought the buildings looked amazing so I automatically thought of  putting it in.  I just like the old wooden buildings like that.  They are fun to paint and not a lot of people reference stuff like this.  It’s not secret, everything I have at home is kind of European, or fantasy based.  But at the same time, this church is an actual architectural design that exists.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-8Detail of “Gotland” by H. Veng Smith ( photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-15Portrait of the Artist by Jaime Rojo ( © Jaime Rojo)

BSA…………………….BSA…………………….BSA…………………….BSA…………………….BSA…………………….BSA…………………….

“Identifiable Reality” at Pandemic Gallery with H. Veng Smith

Friday December 17, 2010, 7-9 pm

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Images of the Week 12.12.10

Images of the Week 12.12.10

December 12, 2010 , , , , , , ,

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Our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Burning Candy, Deeker, DsCreet, Earl Greyhound, Goya, Jimmy Snatch, KARMA, Kill, Nineta, Paul Richard,Plasma Slug, Shin Shin, Skewville, Tek33, and UFO

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Burning Candy Tek 33 and Dscreet at Factory Fresh Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Burning Candy Tek 33 and Dscreet at Factory Fresh Gallery (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A cluster of original pencil drawn faces by an anonymous artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Whatever you say, Paul! Paul Richard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A B&W photograph of a boy by an anonymous artist. And by the way, Brooklyn trio Earl Greyhound Rocks! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Deeks offers this withering assessment: “Good For Nothing”. And there’s a little pink Plasma Slug too. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville sayz: “You are not in Kansas anymore” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Goya and UFO (photo © Jaime  Rojo)

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A Death Panel of some sort. Kill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nineta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dashing through the snooooww.  ShinShin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KARMA “Be Kind To One Another Because Most Of Us Are Fighting A Hard Battle” Dublin, Ireland (photo © Jimmy Snatch)

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Huichol Art: Transforming A Vintage Beetle in Mexico

December 11, 2010 , , ,

Pimping Your Ride Via Indigenous Traditions

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Applying beads to the “Vochol” (Vocho + Huichol) Image from the Facebook page of Museo de Arte Popular.

Mexico’s Indigenous people have been making art from millenia. When the Spanish invaded and conquered what’s now modern Mexico in 1492 they found complex metropolis, their buildings decorated with intricately carved sculptures and brightly colored painting. The painful conquest didn’t annihilate their passion for art making and in modern times their new works of elaborate pieces of art are often displayed in museums’ collections.

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For the opening, some of the artists appeared in traditional garb of The Huichol, an indigenous ethnic group of western central Mexico

For this piece eight members of two Huichol families took the task to create a piece of art, seven months in the making, by using more than two million glass beads and a vintage Volkswagen as a canvas. Inspired by the designs of Francisco Bautista, a patriarch of one of the families, they incorporated their traditional indigenous theologies and cultural symbols with modern vernacular.

The serpents on the the front design represent “rain”, while the the roof is decorated with the sun and four eagles. Birds were thought to be the intermediaries between gods and mortals. The rear part and sides are tributes or “ofrendas” of fruits of the earth to their gods.

The piece will be shown at Museo de Arte Popular for a period of time and then the four wheeled piece will be go on tour in Europe and the in the rest of the Americas. Finally the piece will be sold at auction with the proceeds of the sale to benefit the programs of the museum.

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Fun Friday 12.10.10

December 10, 2010 , , , , , , ,

Fun-Friday

It’s beginning to look a lot like Kwanzannukah

Roman Klonek & Jim Avignon at Factory Fresh

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An unusual breed of pop art with two oddities that are well jump-suited for each other. Expect the unexpected, including a special appearance by His Doodleness Jon Burgerman.

Speedy Wonderland

Factory Fresh Gallery Presents: Roman Klonek & Jim Avignon “Speedy Wonderland” (Brooklyn, NY)Opening Reception FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 7-10pm

ART to be Sold Off the Walls at “12×12”

Hopefully no one will be trampled for the holidays just getting in the door tonight, but you are bound to see something dope here, including a number of street artists you are familiar with at this group show.  Wonder how big the pieces are?

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Opening Reception, Friday, December 10th, 6pm – 9pm!Mighty Tanaka presents:
12×12 -A Group Show for the Holidays

FEATURED ARTISTS
Abe Lincoln Jr., Adam Miller, Alexandra Pacula, Alexis Trice, Anthony Sneed, AVOID, Briar Elyse, Bruno Perillo, Bryan Raughton, Buxtonia, CAM, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Dark Clouds, Destroy and Rebuild, DOIT, Don Pablo Pedro, DROID, Ed Shawn Herrera, Ellen Stagg, Ellis G, Eric DeFrancesco, Fedele Spadafora, Gary Carlson, Gigi Chen, Gigi Spratley, Hannah Rose Fierman, Hellbent, Hiroshi Kumagai, Infinity, Jac Atkinson, Japa, Jason Grunwald, JMR, John Breiner, John McGarity, John Sunderland, Julia Colavita, Julian Duran, Justin Rymer, Katie Decker, Keely, KOSBE, Lauren Asta, Lee Trice, Lionel Guzman, Mari Keeler, Matt Siren, Max Greis, Melissa Carroll, Mike Schrieber, Nathan Pickett, Nathan Vincent, Nick Chatfield-Taylor, QRST, Quel Beast, Reginald Pean, Rick Midler, Robbie Busch, Royce Bannon, SADU, Skewville, Soosan Joon Silanee, Steven Schreiber, Thomas Cecchi, Tony Bones, Tony DePew, Toofly, UFO, URnewyork, Veng RWK

New Video from Sten & Lex

Street Artist Cake: A Collection of Drawings

Brewer’s Mansion is happy to present A Collection of Drawings, a show by Brooklyn street artist Cake, opening Saturday the 12th at this little known place where artists hang out.

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From the artist, “I use anatomy to describe the intricate relationship structures humans have with themselves and others. I frequently take from the pool of human suffering for subject matter and inspiration. When people disconnect from themselves in any way, it will somehow show up in their faces, bodies and gestures. I prefer to make drawings describing those results.”

Brewer’s Mansion

Cake Opening December 11, 6-9

55 Waterbury between Scholes and Meserole in Bushwick, Brooklyn

Kid Zoom Pop-Up Saturday

“Kid Zoom, Rembrandt with a Spray Can, represents the future of this movement.” – RON ENGLISH

With a Street Art celebrity endorsement like that, you know he’s going to wear a clean shirt to the show, right?  But wait, this is Lo-Brow so maybe just a freshly stained t-shirt.  See our studio visit Here.

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OPENING PARTY – SAT 11th DECEMBER – 7PM till Late – MEATPACKING – NYC

72 Gansevoort St
NEW YORK, NY, 10014
Meatpacking District
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The Proposition Gallery Presents: RICHARD HAMBLETON MARK A. REIGELMAN II “Figures In The Dark: Redux” (Manhattan, NY)

December 9, 2010 , , , , , ,

The Proposition

Richard Hambleton. Untitled. Image Courtesy of the Gallery

Richard Hambleton. Untitled. Image Courtesy of the Gallery

FIGURES IN THE DARK: REDUX


RICHARD HAMBLETON
MARK A. REIGELMAN II

DEC 10, 2010 – JAN 16, 2011

OPENING RECEPTION

FRI. DEC. 10 / 6-8 PM

2 Extra Place, New York, NY 10003 (E 1st Street, off Bowery)

http://www.theproposition.com/wp | 212.242.0035 | info@theproposition.com

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Barbara Krakow Gallery Presents: The Annual Aids Benefit Exhibition 2010 (Boston, MA)

December 9, 2010 , , , , ,

Barbara Krakow Gallery

The Annual AIDS Benefit Exhibition 2010
December 11, 2010 – December 17, 2010

Anything But Paper Prayers
All works available for a $350 donation to the Boston Pediatric Aids Initiative or The African Aids Initiative

The Annual AIDS Benefit Exhibition 2010
Barbara Krakow Gallery
10 Newbury Street, Boston
Saturday, December 11, 10am
There is a new letterpress version of Cash For Your Warhol included in this group show. All works available for a $350 donation to the Boston Pediatric Aids Initiative or The African Aids Initiative (you pick). Kicks off at 10am and the good stuff goes super quick!
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The New Kid Zoom on the Block: A Steady Hand, Taxidermy and His Solo Show in NYC

December 9, 2010 , , , , , , ,

A frigid Brooklyn late night studio visit with Australian street artist Kid Zoom includes an impressive roaring taxidermied brown bear on his hind legs, a cache of finished canvasses spread all around, and a tiger-striped kitten named Trouble rambunctiously attacking anything that moves, including your foot. In this large industrial hideout infused with spray fumes, Kid Zoom is madly joyfully preparing for his first solo show in New York City.

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A big bear hug from Kid Zoom.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kid Zoom’s only tools are aerosol cans, a free hand and his imagination. For the Opera Gallery pop up in the Meat Packing District this Saturday he’s completed 25 pieces since summer. Looking at the varied lot of canvasses, painted swords, and the bear, he feels well prepared.

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Kid Zoom photo © Jaime Rojo

A relatively new kid on this block, Kid Zoom began as a graffiti artist back home seven years ago, eventually mastering a vocabulary of realism with amazing speed and branching out into a mock horror genre of beasts and phantasma in street art that took over walls and even sides of suburban houses. The young buck brings a love of dark film to the game; the human body parts, hands, eyes, skulls and even some of his portraits resemble stills from movies. His Hitchcockian black and white paintings are detailed and precise – with a sudden shard of crimson slicing through them. Dredging the fearful underground sewers of the subconscious, his subject matter often appeals to our current fascination with vampires and zombies.

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Kid Zoom photo © Jaime Rojo

This new show will also reveal his natural talent for rendering portraits of the living with a realism hard to get from the aerosol can – which is probably why his street art has brought him into the gallery. For his colorful portraits he “sketches” his subjects in black and white paint until the full portrait emerges. Afterward he builds the portrait with color until the black and white paint is not visible anymore. Two canvasses of giant gesturing hands are intimidating and boldly lyrical.

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Kid Zoom photo (© Jaime Rojo)

At BSA we always say that everyone drinks from the same river of ideas and creativity that passes by – it’s a river full of possibilities. What differentiates one artist’s work from the others is their personal imprint, and the level of their craftsmanship. Kid Zoom’s development of both qualities in a relatively short period is remarkable and we’re looking forward to seeing the currents of his own distinctive style fully merging into a body of work that is sure to come. We also encourage him to wear a mask when spraying!

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The spoils. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kid Zoom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kid Zoom (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kid Zoom portrait (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To learn more details about his show click here

To see more of Kid Zoom’s work click here

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The Simple Street Art Stencil: Cut To the Truth

December 8, 2010 , , , , ,

“All I want is the truth. Just give me some truth” – John Lennon

John Lennon, a guy who lived in the eye of a hurricane of hype for a major portion of his adult life once screamed at the top of his lungs for something called truth. At a time when we are condescendingly shouted at to give up our previous conceptions of personal privacy for security and cookies, naked air travelers and torture victims and spillcams and spreadsheets and state secrets are now streaming live via the world wide buffet and everybody is seeing more truth than they were ready for.

Amidst the data storm, something about the simple, uncluttered straight-forward real deal is straight-up appealing. Maybe that is why the one layer stencil, however ornate it can be sometimes, is an enduring favorite of street art fans and artists. Effective visual communication doesn’t have to be fussy, filigreed, or high-falutin’, and some would argue that it takes real courage to let one stencil do the simple truth-telling.

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C215 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Care (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nothing To See Here Sir Carry On (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bishop 203 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

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American Family With Red Son (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Ghost of tax cuts past. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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GILF does Betty White? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Joe Franquinha Peace and Sport (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Silver Ghost (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Um, nice socks.  Olympia (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Look who’s on the TeeVee. Sunset Boulevard (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Poison Rabbit (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Walt Whiskers Alley Cats (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Reading under the learning T. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On the 30th anniversary of Lennon’s death in NYC… We love you John and Yoko.

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Factory Fresh Gallery Presents: Roman Klonek & Jim Avignon “Speedy Wonderland” (Brooklyn, NY)

December 7, 2010 , , , , , ,

Factory Fresh Gallery
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ROMAN KLONEK & JIM AVIGNON

Speedy Wonderland

Opening Reception FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 7-10pm

Join Factory Fresh on December 10th as we welcome artists Roman Klonek and Jim Avignon and their unusual breed of pop art for their show Speedy Wonderland.

Roman Klonek is a Polish artist who creates figures from woodprints, composed of vibrant colors and seeming to be in constant motion. Influenced by old cartoons from Eastern Europe, Klonek’s figures have a vintage, wide-eyed feel to them, but his predilection for juxtaposing his happy characters against awkward situations (including but not limited to: injuries, arrests, infiltration by monsters) reminds you that his work lives far from the pages of the Sunday morning comics.

Jim Avignon, a German pop artist, designer and musician who creates similarly disarming work with a cartoon feel. Avignon currently calls both Williamsburg and Germany home, and began his career as an artist painting the walls of clubs in places like Munich and Berlin. As a result of this heritage, his work is inherently urban- his figures are crowded and sometimes exhausted, but always lively and surprising, lurking in and wandering around the canvas. If Avignon’s work were a show on the Cartoon Network, it wouldn’t be the one you wanted your children to see but the one you yourself were enthralled by, following the tired eyes and furrowed expressions of animations that stray far from realism yet furrow their brow in an uncannily familiar manner. His work is a garish caricature of the self that’s hard to keep your eyes off of- it’s no wonder his designs have appeared everywhere from Swatches and sweatshirts to the tails of airplanes.

Klonek and Avignon will be collaborating on some pieces but working mostly separately.

The show opens December 10th at 7 pm, and runs until January 16th. Don’t miss it.

Factory Fresh is located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop

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The Opera Gallery Presents: Kid Zoom First Solo Show In NYC “This City Will Eat Me Alive” (Manhattan, NY)

December 6, 2010 , , , , ,

Kid Zoom

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OPENING PARTY – SAT 11th DECEMBER – 7PM till Late – MEATPACKING – NYC

Kid Zoom, Rembrandt with a Spray Can, represents the future of this movement.” – RON ENGLISH

After relocating from his homeland of Australia to New York. Ian “KID ZOOM” Strange is presenting his first ever solo show in the USA – ‘THIS CITY WILL EAT ME ALIVE”, in New York’s Meat Packing district…

The 3000′ sq show will feature 25 new works and installations completed entirely freehand with spray-paint. This promises to bea breakthrough exhibition for the young Australian artist. If you’re going to be in New York this December, head over to theMeatpacking District – December 11 – 30.

OPENING PARTY – SAT December 11th – 7PM

IAN “KID ZOOM” STRANGE
THIS CITY WILL EAT ME ALIVE
11 – 30 December 2010
72 Gansevoort St
NEW YORK, NY, 10014
Meatpacking District

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