Fun Friday 02.05.10 : Sydney Clamation, Brooklynite Staff Video Grind, Syncopated Dancing Alpacas

Fun-Friday

Claymation Graffiti from Sydney

Sydney is especially into traditional 80s graffiti. “The popularity of this type of spray-can graffiti can be traced back to a very specific time, place and person. His name is Taki183 and, in the very early 1970s, he was a foot courier in New York City.

This is a well-done animation (claymation) of three young urban hip-hop artists showcasing their art in the well known Sydney legal graffiti thoroughfare May Lane in St Peters, Sydney, Australia.

Because the city of Sydney, Australia actually sets aside a part of the city just for graffiti, artists there don’t have to look over their shoulder to get up. This is a brand new documentary called “From Vandalism to Art” about the current Street Art & Graffiti scene in this neighborhood of Sydney.

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Brooklynite’s Dancey Prep for Installation

DANCE ME A DANCE!

Meanwhile, back in Brooklyn – Musical Artist Riva Starr has just released a single and apparently this video is being used to inspire the staff of Brooklynite Gallery to bump and grind as they prepare their new installation.  I dare you not to laugh. Or Dance.

When you look at this video and stop snorting, you can look at a couple images from the show they are preparing for, “Stealth, Above the Radar”

It features super cool work like this one from Derek Shumate called “Alien”. The dude is from Houston, Texas.  Down there they pronounce that “hews-ton”.

Bold colors, upon layers and layers of torn bits of information, which often resemble a topographical map, are collected from various sources, including but not limited to, personal tragedies, today’s headlines and the artists’ imagination.

Derek Shumate -"Bold colors, upon layers and layers of torn bits of information, which often resemble a topographical map, are collected from various sources, including but not limited to, personal tragedies, today’s headlines and the artists’ imagination." - say Rae and Hope of Brooklynite

The other artist in the Brooklynite Show on February 13 is Collin Van Der Sluijs. Don’t ask me how to pronounce that. I’m still working on “Doppelganger”, which at first I thought had something to do with testicles, but it turns out it has nothing to do with the Tea-bag Party at all. But I digress.

Dutch "Pop-Fantasy Life" painter Collin Van Der Sluijs intermingles disproportionately sized animal/human hybrids, planet-like shapes, smoke-stacks and fresh socio-political views all from his subconscious ---directly onto the a painting surface.

"Dutch "Pop-Fantasy Life" painter Collin Van Der Sluijs intermingles disproportionately sized animal/human hybrids, planet-like shapes, smoke-stacks and fresh socio-political views all from his subconscious ---directly onto the painting surface."

Brooklynite Gallery is HERE

Collin’s site is http://www.collinvandersluijs.com

And Derek’s is http://www.derekshumate.com

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AND FOR THE “FUN FRIDAY” FINALE

Frantically Talented Dancing Alpacas

From your friends アルパカ×smooooch in Japan, a high-energy, low-fi, head-trippy dance attack that works better if you have put some medicinal mushrooms in your tea this morning. WARNING: Sped up Euro-Disco-Club-Anthem Ahead.

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“Art Cars” – Jeff Koons, Keith Haring, Lee Quinones

What would a Jeff Koons BMX Look Like?  We asked our engineers in the BSA lab to take a few laps in this.

What would a Jeff Koons BMW Look Like? We asked our engineers in the BSA lab to take a few laps in this puppy.

The news yesterday that Jeff Koons is going to paint a BMW reminded me of a couple of other urban artists who painted on cars in the past.

BMW Picks Jeff Koons for Next Art Car

February 3, 2010, 3:02 pm – New York Times Wheels Blog
By PHIL PATTON

At a sparkly art world party in Manhattan last night, BMW announced that artist Jeff Koons would create the next car in the company’s Art Car series.

Mr. Koons will be the 17th artist in the program, which began in 1975 and has employed leading artists, including Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Frank Stella and Jenny Holzer. Most of the artists have painted on BMW cars (both road cars and racecars). The last Art Car, Olafur Eliasson’s “Your Mobile Expectations: BMW H2R Project,” from 2007, was covered in ice (read more Here)

One of Koons out-of-door-almost-street-art pieces.

Puppy

CC License photo credit: Lorkan

See more Lorkan here

Keith Haring 1982 Video Painting a Car

Yo! Graffiti Peeps: Don’t Forget Lee Quinones’ Car Last Year

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Barnstormers Coming to Joshua Liner in March

BarnStormers! Yee Hawwwww!

Famed Barnstormers!

Famed Barnstormers!

I first saw an iteration of this collective at their 2001 installation at SmackMellon in Dumbo, Brooklyn in an old spice factory – think David Ellis was doing a residency there...  Anyway, the roster and locations and breadth of projects that the Barnstormers were involved in has evolved over the last decade, but the wild-eyed no-holds-barred inventive quality stays solid. This is a show I’m not missing.

The new group exhibition at Joshua Liner Gallery will feature works in a variety of mediums: painting, photography, video, mixed media works and installation.  Here’s a half hour presentation, or rather, performance piece from 2005.   An actual barn is involved.

Artists exhibiting at Joshua Liner will include:
Alex Lebedev, Alice Mazorra, Bluster One, Che Jen, Chris Mendoza, Chuck Webster, David Ellis, Dennis McNett, Doze Green, GION, Guillermo Carrion, James Lynch, Joey Garfield, Jose Parla, Kenji Hirata, Kiku Yamaguchi, KR, MADSAKI, Manny Pangilinan (WELLO), Martin Mazorra, Maya Hayuk, Mikal Hameed, Mike Houston, Mike Ming, Miyuki Pai Hirai, Naomi Kazama, Pema Brush, Romon Kimin Yang (Rostarr), Shie Moreno, SWOON, West One, Yuri Shimojo and more.
Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W 28th St. 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10001
212-244-7415
joshualinergallery.com


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SpY from Madrid

SpY is a street artist from Madrid whose started in the 1980’s doing graffiti.   Since then he’s been exploring other forms of artistic communication in the street. His work involves appropriating urban elements through transformation or replication, commentary on urban reality, and the interference of its’ communicative codes.

To us, this one looks like a giant tag, rather than street art, per se (whatever that means).  But the video is pretty cool.

He calls this “An intervention” by urban artist “SpY”
Filmed, edited by SpY
Music, AKHA 100

Most of his work comes from observing the city and an appreciating its components, not as inert elements but as a palette of materials overflowing with possibilities. Balancing irony and positive humor, he wants his work to cause a smile, incite reflection, and to perhaps even raise consciousness.

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Pufferella and Josh McCutchen at Factory Fresh

For a limited engagement of one week only, come see the magical land of Pufferella. With all new work, she turns the front room of Factory Fresh into a circus specially made to host her latest fabric creations.

With Rides and Amusement provided by her friends Skewville and Plaztik mag, this is one show not to be missed.

Pufferella has been making Fabric creations since 2002 and has been involved with the Skewville missions even longer. Her work deals mainly with sexual relations and the afterthoughts. She is the woman behind the creation of Orchard Street Art Gallery in NYC and Factory Fresh Art Gallery in Brooklyn. Her work has been shown in both solo and group exhibitions throughout NYC, California, Dublin and London. www.pufferella.com

brooklyn-street-art-Feb8-2010-Pufferella

Sweet dreams of summer and banana splits

Polymetrochromanticism
The Artwork of Josh Mccutchen

Josh McCutchen lives and works in Bushwick, Brooklyn. This is his debut show at Factory
Fresh. His narrative works are about mythology, science & technology, social commentary
and body image. He also works with polymorphic shapes, and abstract urban landscapes.

Josh is also a television personality. He hosted “Does This Look Infected” on MTVU network
from 2005-2007. When he’s not painting modern masterpieces, Josh is the host, writer,
producer, and editor of the Josh McCutchen Show. You can see him in action at
http://www.youtube.com/joshmccutchen

Josh McCutchen

Josh McCutchen

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Art or prank? Banksy Film Reviews…

Gravely voiced distortion adds to the Grim Reaper effect, whereupon he slashes you with a one-liner.

Gravely voiced distortion adds to the Grim Reaper effect, whereupon he slashes you with a one-liner.

The Banksy movie buzz deafens and I feel like it will be at the local art theatre at any moment – Which would be fantastic because the very thought of flying to Utah last week scared me.  I’d rather hitch hike on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway in a Village People costume.

AS A SMALL PUBLIC SERVICE  we provide the insatiable street art fans… here are some recent reviews from reputable rags, I mean sources.   If anything seems savory, click on the link to read the rest.

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Nathan Rabin @ Sundance ’10

by Nathan Rabin , The AV Club, January 27, 2010

Exit Through The Gift Shop: It’s hard to write about Exit Through The Gift Shop, or do it justice without revealing many of its twists and turns. That’s a damned shame, because so much of what makes legendarily secretive street artist Banksy’s directorial debut such a hoot is its unpredictability. The trippy art world satire begins with a loopy post-modern premise. In Gift Shop, an eccentric, street art loving Frenchman named Thierry Guetta set out to make a documentary about a new breed of artists who scrawl their masterpieces on walls and overpasses and nabbed the Holy Grail of street art fans when he hooked up with Banksy, (for more go to AV Club)

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Eyes on the prize

By Ty Burr, The Boston Globe  / January 30, 2010

But, yes, the Banksy film is that good, even if everyone here calls it “the Banksy film’’ because the actual title, “Exit Through the Gift Shop,’’ seems weirdly hard to remember. It’s a conceptual Chinese box that works: A doc about a filmmaker that’s directed by the subject that filmmaker was too hapless to actually make a movie about. Still with me? (for more go to the fifth paragraph)

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Banksy and Chris Morris prove hits at the Sundance Film Festival

By Damon Wise, The Times Online  / January 30, 2010

THE MAVERICK SURPRISE:

The first film from the street-art prankster Banksy was unexpectedly popular with the Sundance crowd, whose only experience of the artist’s guerrilla tactics was the mysterious appearance of five of his works around town.

Screened in the publicity-shy director’s absence, Exit Through the Gift Shop left some viewers wondering if Banksy really was sitting next to them, as the Sundance staffer introducing the film had hinted, although many more were left wondering how much of this funny and provocative documentary was actually true.

Starting with an exhilarating montage of graffiti artists (for more go to the TimesOnline)

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Banksy’s “Gift” challenges conventional concepts

Justin Lowe, Reuters, Tue January 26, 2010

Nonfiction cinema or provocation? Art or prank? Questions of authorship, authenticity and credibility cleave through “Exit Through the Gift Shop,” a nearly unclassifiable hybrid documentary film by international “street artist” phenom Banksy.

Originally identified as “Spotlight Surprise” in the film listings, Sundance programmers revealed the title only a few days before its January 24 world premiere.

Touching on contemporary cultural trends, the popular/high art divide and celebrity obsession while showcasing world-renowned artists, “Exit” offers broad audience appeal, particularly for urban and international viewers captivated by underground art, as well as film fans fascinated by unconventional narrative techniques.

(for more go to Reuters News Service)

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THIS JUST IN

The Berlin International Film Festival has added the documentary “Exit Through the Gift Shop” from British street artist Banksy to its official 60th anniversary program, completing its 2010 lineup.

“Exit Through the Gift Shop,” will have an out of competition screening in Berlin – so if you are going to be there on the 14th, get your tickets HERE.

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Images of the Week 01.31.10

Brooklyn-Street-Art-IMAGES-OF-THE-WEEK_1009
Brooklyn Street Art – Our Weekly Interview With the Streets

Street Foot Wear
Street foot wear – is this the work of a street artist, or a sneaker company? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol Pet Birds
Jef Aerosol bird talk. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Areosol
Jef Areosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol
Jef Aerosol’s Geisha (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Areosol (detail)
Jef Areosol (detail) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol
Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The artist at work with his muses
Jef Aerosol at work with his muses (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A peak at the show Jef Aerosol

A wall of icons by Jef Aerosol, and a few hanging on a wire. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pics from Jef Aerosol Opening

From photographer Vincent Cornelli comes this fun collection of images from last nights opening of “All Shook Up”, Jef Aerosol’s opening at Ad Hoc/Eastern District in Bushwick, Brooklyn, curated by Brooklyn Street Art.  A steady crowd carried through the evening to check out the new pieces and to meet the artist in person.

Jef strikes a pose in front of his giant canvas, a reprise of his mural of Jean-Michel Basquiat that he did on a rooftop in Brooklyn last week. Etched into Basquiat's eyebrow is the word "Brooklyn". (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

Jef strikes a pose in front of his giant canvas, a reprise of his mural of Jean-Michel Basquiat that he did on a rooftop in Brooklyn last week. Etched into Basquiat's eyebrow is the word "Brooklyn". (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

Classic muses of Jef's 30 year love affair with stencils were joined by Brooklyn-based icons like Jay-Z, a brand new one of M.I.A., graffiti legend Dondi White, and street art photographer Luna Park (who was in attendance). (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

Classic muses of Jef's 30 year love affair with stencils were infused with new blood by Brooklyn-based icons like Jay-Z and M.I.A., graffiti legend Dondi White, and street art photographer Luna Park (who was in attendance). A new piece on wood (the smiling boy) was a benefit for Haiti. (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

A man of the people, Aerosol made sure to include smaller affordable pieces for fans (in foreground) just in front of this New York Warhol Factory/ Punk scene grouping - including Iggy Pop, John Cage, Sid Vicious, Lou Reed, and the Ramones (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

A man of the people, Aerosol made sure to include smaller affordable pieces for fans (John Lee Hooker and Jimi Hendrix in foreground) just in front of this New York Warhol Factory/ Punk scene grouping - including Iggy Pop, John Cage, Sid Vicious, Lou Reed, and the Ramones. He also did a small 10 piece Basquiat edition for the show (think there are a few left). (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

A visitor with Joe Strummer of the Clash looking over his head (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

A visitor with Joe Strummer of the Clash looking over his head (photo © Vincent Cornelli)

Brigitte Bardot and Magpie at the end of the wall (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Brigitte Bardot and Magpie at the end of the wall (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Beauty was in attendance (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Beauty was in attendance (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Jef and fellow stencil artist Chris Stain (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Jef and fellow stencil artist Chris Stain (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Rocker and experimental music artist Andrew Hurst kept the garage inspired classic and obscure music coming, with a break for Louis, who played electric guitar with his amp in the middle of gallery for five songs. (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Rocker and experimental music artist/producer Andrew Hurst kept the garage inspired classic and obscure music coming, with a break for Louis, who played and sang rock-n-roots inspired pieces accompanied by his electric guitar and amp in the middle of gallery for five songs. (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Stéphane and Magli and Jean-Michel (photo © Vinny Cornelli)
Stéphane and Magli and Jean-Michel (photo © Vinny Cornelli)
(photo © Vinny Cornelli)

(photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Detail of Jef Aerosol canvas (photo © Vinny Cornelli)

Detail of Jef Aerosol canvas (photo © Vinny Cornelli)


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Logan Hicks New 4 Panel Piece- Stenciling in his New Direction

Stencil master and Street Artist Logan Hicks began this direction at the NuArt Festival in Norway this past  September.

jh
The Multi-Layered Work: Precise, cool, revealing.

“It’s part of a new direction that I have begun. I suspect that much of my new work will be following this same direction,” he says.

The new works which (once at least) have also included the artist himself, look like a still from a CGI effect – but the direction the movie is going is unclear. Is the line drawing, rendered with CAD-like precision, being brought to full bodied life?

sf
“The panels were actually a re-spray of a piece I did down at The Art Center in Miami during Basel. It was part of the show called Blueprint for Space,” says Logan

Or is this a peeling back of the skin of architecture and streetscape textures to reveal the superstructures and engineering underneath, the bones? To further enhance the stripped-down feeling is a devotion to a monochrome palette, minus the ox blood and acrid red punches he has favored in the recent past.

Logan Hicks standing in front of his new four panelled stencil piece to be hung in somebody's home.
Logan Hicks standing in front of his new four paneled stencil piece to be hung in somebody’s home.

Thanks Logan for showing your new stuff to BSA readers.

For more on the NuArt Festival, go HERE

See Jaime Rojo’s pics from BluePrint for Space/Primary Flight:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=7256

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=7394

Primary Flight Blog

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Carlito Brigante and the “Rubadub Session” Videos & Pics

Carlito Brigante and the “Rubadub Session” Videos & Pics

Blending passions for Street Art, Urban Photography, and Jamaican Culture in a way that honors all three.

Street Art photographer Carlito Brigante shows us his project “The Rubadub Session” in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn.

Rub-a-dub session by Carlito Brigante & Los Invisibles was filmed by M-Lo and edited by Carlito Brigante

 

 Bed Stuy boy shakin' his head in front of a wheat-pasted soundsystem (photo © Carlito Brigante)

 

New York Street Art has so much variety due to it’s incredibly varied populations and neighborhoods, among other factors.

 (photo © Carlito Brigante)

(photo © Carlito Brigante)

You are never going to get bored walking through New York’s boroughs because the sheer number of languages, cuisines, fashions, and music you will experience will continually surprise you and expose you to great new people.

Street art fan and photographer Carlito Brigante (aka Charles Le Brigande) has been hanging in Bed Stuy Brooklyn for a few years, and has fallen in love with the music and history of the Jamaican soundsystem. A recent piece he did in the street recalls the big mountains of music speakers that pump loudly in the street  with ska, reggae, and rocksteady music spun by a handful of disc jockeys engineers and MCs.

 

 (photo © Carlito Brigante)

 

In addition to two of videos of that corner deli installation, Carlito engaged neighbors and shot pictures of them dancing in front of the paste-up. With a special affinity for the culture and the people, he loves street scenes that capture the flavor of this neighborhood.

 

 (photo © Carlito Brigante)

(photo © Carlito Brigante)

Brooklyn Street Art: What is a “soundsystem” and where did they begin?
Carlito Brigante: A soundsystem can be described as a means to bring the music to the people. In Jamaican popular culture, sound systems first appeared in the ghettos of Kingston in the late 40’s, way before the birth of ska, rocksteady and reggae music. Poor people could not afford the high prices of jazz and rhythm & blues (R&B) concerts organized for the wealthy elite and tourists, so sound systems sprung up. DJ’s would assemble large heavy speakers, power amplifiers and generators and blast music all night in the streets.

 

 (photo © Carlito Brigante)

(photo © Carlito Brigante)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about the genesis of the “rubadub session” video and the wheatpaste? What was the aim?
Carlito Brigante: The rubadub session project is a tribute to the Jamaican sound system culture. It was my way of bringing an unfamiliar art form (wheat-pasting) and combining it with a familiar cultural symbol (the soundsystem) as a gift to the neighborhood in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn. One day I was walking-by a laundry in Bed-Stuy, and the shape of the wall reminded me of a huge speaker. I immediately thought of doing a piece representing a sound system there.

 (photo © Carlito Brigante)

(photo © Carlito Brigante)

Brooklyn Street Art: It’s great how you feature people interacting with the art and with each other. What inspires you most about the project?
Carlito Brigante: The idea was to recreate the mood of a Jamaican soundsystem and capture people’s reaction. This corner is always very busy, people are hanging around there all the time, so by pasting-up on this spot, I knew that people would relate to the piece and would interact with it. I wanted to make them dance with no music!

Trevor (photo © Carlito Brigante)

This image he took of Trevor during a huge block party inspired Carlito to learn more about the soundsystem culture. (photo © Carlito Brigante)

Brooklyn Street Art: The neighborhood of Brooklyn called Bed-Stuy certainly has roots in the Jamaican soundsystem. Can you talk about your experience of living here?
Carlito Brigante: This piece was directly inspired by a personal “Bed-Stuy/Jamaican” experience. Two years ago during a block party, I took a photograph of a natty dread skanking in front of a massive wall of speakers. I mean, every time I go out to take pictures here, I find amazing material. Bed-Stuy is full of surprises. It is an ongoing source of inspiration for me, from a visual standpoint but also from a human perspective. I have met so many incredible people in this neighborhood and taken a good amount of images.

 

 (photo © Carlito Brigante)

(photo © Carlito Brigante)

Brooklyn Street Art: How is this project related to your passion for street art and urban photography?

Carlito Brigante: With the rubadub session, I wanted to blend my passion for street art, urban photography and Jamaican culture. That’s the reason why I have created this “background”.  I knew that the spot was pertinent, that the piece would generate genuine reactions and that I would be able to take great photographs.

It was great to see people dancing and jamming throughout the whole process.

 

The "rubadub session" on a rainy day in Bed Stuy (photo © Carlito Brigante)

The “rubadub session” on a rainy day in Bed Stuy (photo © Carlito Brigante)

Rub-a-dub session by Carlito Brigante & Los Invisibles (version II.) was filmed by Ron Brodie and edited by Jay Morales

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See more of Carlito’s work on his Blog and on his Flickr pics

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