“If the only prayer you say in your life is thank you, that would suffice.”
~Meister Eckhart
We wish you a very Happy Thanksgiving from your friends here at BSA! Enjoy the day.
Neon Saltwater has that star-washed, sun-kissed aura about her visage and throughout her public/digital space installations. You remember 1990, don’t you? Ex-CIA chief George Bush was president, Sinead O’Conner was singing Prince, Digital Underground was doing the Humpty Dance, and light artist Dan Flavin was releasing his untitled series of tinted fluorescent sculptures for Otto Freundlich.
Those glowing waves of light, relaxed and dispersed evenly across a room, appeared at least to be possibly on a continuum into space. The interior designer/metaverse designer from Seattle brings that backlit frosted ambiance to her spaces here in Las Vegas – the inside and outside are eclipsed by one another. A rendered architectural yet trippy fog emanates from the mind of Abby Dougherty, who we’re guessing was born in 1990, a year after Taylor Swift, and clearly in another world. A world and a persona she calls Neon Saltwater.
Here in the neon-washed city of sin, the artist is “physically manifesting Mystery Cruise 1990, an exclusive digital rendering space with dreamy colors, neon lights, and spooky ‘90s vibes,” says Justkids curator and director Charlotte Dutoit – who brought this project to fruition. She says the multi-dimensional real-world public show is more than digital or physical – an immersive piece that “is almost like a paranormal experience – and so satisfying.”
Created for the “Life is Beautiful Festival,” Saltwater returns to an imagined Las Vegas in 1990. It invokes a seedy, smokey, hip echo of a tourist attraction that was on the decline at that time: later to be Disneyfied, sanitized, and clogged with Crocks and bachelorette parties.
Looking at the installation you are now awash in an adopted nostalgia, awesome sunsets, and perhaps a couple of episodes of the Love Boat and Stranger Things. It is a decidedly new glowing energy that suddenly radiates from – and envelops – this Mystery Cruise.
Italian photographer/street artist Bifido writes to us from what appears to have become his second home – the Mostar Street Art Festival in Bosnia and Herzegovina. “Going to Mostar for me is like changing rooms.” Perhaps these are the rooms of Bluebeard’s castle.
For a street artist, he makes a fabulous opera singer – full of drama, dreams, and disillusionment. He tells us that this piece expresses the profound meanings he has discerned from sitting on the bank of the Neretva. We find promise in seeing the wings with which this new character may take flight yet above the Nertva.
Bifido. Mostar Street Art Festival. Mostar, Bosnia & Herzegovina. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Jonas Grinevičius must have been a very bored panda last week, so he entertained himself by assembling a collection of hi-jacked ads, signs, and objects in the public sphere. A time-honored practice dating back to grade school, private citizens are known to alter public signs for humorous effect – and we were happy to see a collection over there at the website Bored Panda.
There’s the disgruntled laid-off worker who selectively illuminated the company name on the side of a building, the community which created their bike lanes with chalk, and the military billboard corrected to show the actual motivating drive of today’s corporate war-makers. Each, in its own way, is an example of citizens re-claiming the right to public space and weighing in on the messages we encounter daily. Keep an eye out for Men Tworking!
See 50 Mild And Wholesome Cases Of Vandalism People Have Documented In The Streets
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!
Leading up to Thanksgiving this Thursday, we can say that we are thankful to you for your support and encouragement. Thanks to the artists for the inspiring ideas and the loosely woven ecosystem that keeps them going – gallerists, festival organizers, brands, museums, curators, and fans. We’re happy to bring you more fresh stuff this week too.
The first female speaker of the House announced her retirement from the role this week – and it looks like both the House and Senate may be lead by Brooklynites if Hakeem Jefferies gets his wish. A new meaning, in that case, to ‘Brooklyn is in the house!’
This week has been busy with graffiti and street art events and announcements – many not related to Banksy! A new photography collective of heavy hitters in early NY hip hop/graffiti documentation announced themselves at the International Center for Photography (ICP), Swoon and Jeffery Deitch played to an overflow crowd for their talk at Deitch’s gallery to launch her second book, and Al Diaz curated and opened the new City of Kings: A History of New York City Graffiti – along with additional curation from graffiti archivist and artist Eric ‘DEAL CIA’ Felisbret and art educator Mariah Fox. On the west coast, people are talking about the new Beastie Boys show that’s curated by Roger Gastman and Beyond the Streets and which runs in December and January.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Stikki Peaches, Homesick, Drecks, Rime MSK, Bust Art, Le Crue, Sinclair, Duel1, La Nueva Era, Hugus, and Aine.
The 6th edition of the Full Colors graffiti and street art festival in Rubi took off at the end of October with 30 artists from all over Spain. 30 minutes from Barcelona, its billed as a community event in the Plaça Josep Tarradellas, neighbors from the area come and watch the artists as they are painting and get a taste for the skill and ingenuity needed to create works on walls.
The three-day event is sponsored by the civic/political Catalunya organization called Rubí Jove, which has a youth center nearby and offers a program of connecting artists with free walls in the city to paint throughout the year. In addition to the graffiti/street art jam, the weekend’s events included DJs and a lot of skateboarders getting gnarly and landing tricks all over the place.
Included in the list of this year’s edition are: Stain, Absurda Sociedad, Caneda, Idok, Ares, Teck, Mugraf, Rubicon, Chea, Atena, Kanet, Maria Die, Zoen, Obhen, Urihktr , Aker, Urih, Cayn Sanchez, Baie, Axia, Kets, Ceser, Saker, Rosa, Megui, Valiente, Jose Luis, Esme, Ruth and Maga. Photographer Lluis Olivas Bulbena stopped by Rubi and shows BSA readers some shots that he caught.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening:
1. BANKSY in Borodyanka, Ukraine
2. The Wanderers – Dabs & Myla. A Film by Selina Miles
3. The Wanderers – Elliott Routledge. A Film by Selina Miles
Banky installations by this point can feel quite staged, right down to the manner of their unveiling. Here in the Ukraine where his recent works have been presented, the unstaged and personal qualities of this short video brings a devastating rawness to the art/activism event. Without pontificating, the near-tears Ukranian, the self-grooming cat, the quietness of people snapping photos – all tell us so much about this moment.
BANKSY in Borodyanka, Ukraine
The Wanderers – DabsMyla. A film by Selina Miles
The Australian-originated Los Angeles-based duo, DabsMyla, returns down under to paint a mural in the heart of Surry Hills, Sydney. In this episode of Selina Miles’ The Wanderers, we see the duo paint a 20-meter-tall mural as an homage to one of their earliest artistic inspirations, Brett Whiteley.”
Elliott Routledge, The Wanderers
“Abstract Artist, Elliott Routledge, journeys to a remote Aboriginal community in the Tiwi Islands. We follow Elliott as he paints a series of artworks, and learns about the artistic history, cultural practices, and techniques of local indigenous artists.” The Wanderers
New York has seen its share of people jumping into and out of the Street Art scene over the last couple of decades, and only a few have had the staying power of the non-profit org L.I.S.A. Project. Run by two guys who live on Manhattan’s Lower East Side, Wayne Rada and Rey Rosa, L.I.S.A. has brought several international street artists to private walls in Little Italy, Chinatown, and their environs.
Big fans and collectors of street art themselves, the guys have hustled to get walls, lifts, and paint for artists they are fans of and some of the newcomers on the scene. Call it a private/public initiative that has steadily given artists opportunities and the locals one more reason to chuckle at the selfie-taking tourists who make this town tick.
Tonight to make the 10th anniversary and their new print program, L.I.S.A. Project joins with urban art clearinghouse West Chelsea Contemporary to host a panel featuring artists Crash, Daze, curator and graffiti expert Sean Corcoran, moderated by culture critic and curator Carlo McCormick. The doors are open at 6, and the talk begins promptly at 6:30.
Participating artists within the first series include Ron English, Indie184, John “CRASH” Matos x Chris “DAZE” Ellis, and Shepard Fairey.
The silkscreen editions are printed by Gary Lichtenstein Editions and published by W.C.C. Editions.
West Chelsea Contemporary 231 10th Avenue New York, NY 10011
New Yorkers are looking forward to this week’s event at the International Center of Photography Museum downtown on Essex Street called In Conversation—Hip Hop Photography. A somewhat innocuous title, more likely it’s the thrust of the theme that will engage: how three of the biggest names in the early documentation of Hip Hop have formed a collective to protect their rights as photographers, which have been slowly eroding since the advent of the Internet and social media.
“Hip Hop Photography is a collective led by photographers Janette Beckman, Joe Conzo, and Martha Cooper founded to protect the photographs, artistry, subjects, and the hip-hop experience by standardizing fair terms of their image use,” says the trio.
Meet Cooper, Beckman, and Conzo as they talk about their collective with photography archivist and curator Julie Grahame about the founding of their photo collective and each of their recent publications and projects: Martha Cooper’s Spray Nation, Janette Beckman’s Rebels: From Punk to Dior, and Joe Conzo’s Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop.
6-9 PM
Dj Misbehaviour and DJ Operator EMZ
6:30 PM
In Conversation—Hip-Hop Photography
7:15 PM
REWIND Creative Karaoke
8:00 PM
Book Signings—Martha Cooper, Spray Nation, Janette Beckman, Rebels: From Punk to Dior, Joe Conzo, Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop.
ICP
Address: 79 Essex St, New York, NY 10002
Hours: Open ⋅ Closes 7PM
Phone: (212) 857-0000
Down by the riverside. This is where the walls are nearly reserved for these artists about 30 kilometers north of Barcelona on the Congost River (Riu Congost).
Photographer Lluis Olive-Bulbena likes to get out on his graff-street art exploratory safaris early in the morning. This river bank is one of his regular spots to check. Lo and behold! He says these pieces are fresh – painted in the last ten days by this group of seven artists.
Ripped tiles. Wait, you can’t do that. Not traditional Portuguese Azulejo ceramic tiles…
Summoning the subversive intentions of rebellious youth, the Portuguese muralist Diogo Machado, aka ADD FUEL, does precisely that.
The ripping is not literal, of course, but the recurring idea of tearing back layers of tradition to reveal something less expected underneath has been his theme on streets for years. Whether it is a blend of pop and sarcasm or simply an escape into the adventures of childhood, ADD Fuel has mastered the art of hiding truths in plain sight with precision and allegory.
Also, he does make tiles; we’ve inspected the kiln personally just outside his native Lisbon. The colors, patterns, and homey motifs are easy to glaze over in such a city, which is perhaps why he beckons you to come and see the real story. You may imagine the specific dysfunction in this household, but Diogo’ll tell you the truth about what has been happening if you look a little closer. Nothing is what it appears to be.
“In my work, I always suggest an adventure, a journey through focused attention in the composition,” he says of his new show YOUTH ETERNAL, which opened Saturday night at Shepard Fairey’s Subliminal Gallery in Echo Park, CA. He intones that you’ll need to take a moment to experience “the discovery of nuance through layers, patterns, allegories, and the unstoppable constructive dynamism of the story I present in each piece.”
He doesn’t limit the works to studio pieces exclusively: his large-scale wall works across many cities have the effect of transforming, disarming: creating homey energy, sometimes in the oddest of places. His newest mural here in Los Angeles is just outside a place described as “Subliminal Projects’ favorite local watering-hole,” with the name Little Joy Cocktails. The new work has also spawned a new collaborative screen-print with Add Fuel and Fairey in a limited edition.
As with all expressions and output by the artist, the wall invites you. “It guides the viewer to discover intricate details, and a story over time,” he says.
Add Fuel. “Youth Eternal” is now on view at Subliminal Projects. Click HERE for more information about this exhibition.
“YOUTH ETERNAL”
EXHIBITION DATES
NOV 12 – DEC 10
1331 W. Sunset Blvd • Los Angeles, CA 90026
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!
One of the hardest weeks of our lives. But we’re still here to give you another posting of new shots of street art and graffiti on the streets. Thank you for your support, and thank God for the creative spirit that keeps us inspired, our cities alive, informed, and in-touch with the common person.
The so-called ‘Red Wave’ (red tsunami, red hurricane, etc.) didn’t materialize in the mid-term elections Tuesday despite the drumbeat on corporate media. On the other hand, the Democratic party can’t be too proud of their “squeaker” win – or their incremental moves to the corporate right for four decades. Nothing to sing and dance about.
Meanwhile, a large swath of previously middle-class people continues to slip into poverty every day – working 2, 3 jobs at a time and still not able to make ends meet. It is more obvious than ever in this modern age, there is no party run by the people.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis, SRKSHNK, Lexi Bella, Homesick, Chupa, Ivanorama, Kimyon333, Sinclair the Vandal, Cramcept, SORE, Qzar, Lasak, Uwont, Aidz, Delae, SGVT, and NYC Kush Co. and Sean9Lugo.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY