All posts tagged: Art In The Streets

“Beyond The Streets” Opens in New York : Beyond Labels, With Roots

“Beyond The Streets” Opens in New York : Beyond Labels, With Roots

Look Who’s Back in the Neighborhood

They used to run from the Vandal Squad in this neighborhood. Now people pay to see their art here.

Through the expansive glass wall on the 6th floor you can look down Kent Avenue to see the spot where a monster pickup truck with a heavy chain tied around a FAILE prayer wheel almost jackknifed on the sidewalk, gave up and sped away. Not that many Brooklynites saw that event in the 2000s – nobody walked here and few people drove through Williamsburg then except truckers looking for street walking ladies wearing high heels and spandex. Oh, and a serial killer.

Faile. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now visitors buy tickets to see a circular colonnade of FAILE prayer wheels here at 25 Kent – including the real estate developers and Wall Street professionals who displaced the community of artists whose work made the neighborhood attractive and “edgy”.

Along with Street Artists in this exhibition like Shepard Fairey, Bast, Swoon, Invader, Aiko, Dan Witz, Katsu, 1UP, and Lister, the FAILE duo put completely illegal artworks on walls under cover of night and threat of arrest in this same neighborhood then – transforming it with many others who are not in this show into an open gallery of the streets, placing Williamsburg on the map as New Yorks’ epicenter of the newly emerging Street Art scene. 

Swoon. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Nature of Graffiti and Street Art

As graffiti and Street Art are migratory and necessarily elusive by nature, this story is only one chapter in a volume of history that serious academics are now reconstructing and analyzing. With each passing year and published white paper, the practices of 20th century public mark-making are being examined in greater detail for archiving and for posterity. Not surprisingly, institutions, patrons, collectors, and brands are increasingly interested in this story as well.

When it comes to the anarchic subculture of illegal street art practice and its influence on society, there are non-stop ironies sprayed en route from verboten to Vuitton, and street culture has supercharged the imagination of the mainstream and high culture throughout history – that’s where the best ideas come from sometimes. Many seminal artworks from “the scene”, as it were, represent much more than what you are seeing at first glance. As art and cultural critic Carlo McCormick has described the iconic Shepard Fairey ‘Hope’ image in Art in America, many graffiti and Street Art works saved are “not a fleeting pop-culture sensation but simply the latest crossover hit in a long line of underground classics.”

The wide-ranging survey that is Beyond the Streets makes sure that you know where the roots are, and who many of the pioneers were. It is impossible to tell a complete story that includes scenes as diverse as west coast Chicano muralism, hobo graffiti, hip-hop commercial design, NY downtown artivism, Japanese low/hi contemporary, skateboard, tattoo, early train writing and a current romance with muralism, but BTS at least gives a serious consideration to each and offers you the opportunity to look further into them.

Martha Cooper with BGirl Ana “Rokafella” Garcia. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With the help of photography documentation from people like Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, Jim Prigoff, Lisa Kahane, Joe Conzo, John Fekner, Bill Daniel, Maripol, and Dash Snow, the crucial importance of this work provides needed interstitial and contextual information that enables myriad stories to be elucidated.

Joe Conzo. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Scale, The History

Exhaustive, no. Exhausting, possibly. Pace yourself.

 “I spent my life surrounded by graffiti and Street Art,” says the shows’ director Roger Gastman “and you could say that I have been obsessed with understanding the culture, its origins, and its evolution. It’s incredible to me how far it has come.”

With 150 artists whose practices span five decades and various (mainly) American subcultures displayed in a maze of new walls in this 100,000 sf, two-floor exhibition, the Beyond the Streets senior curatorial team includes Gastman, filmmaker/ graffiti historian Sacha Jenkins SHR, Juxtapoz Editor in Chief Evan Pricco, and author/ graffiti historian / graffiti writer David CHINO Villorente. Each curator brings core competencies and knowledge of the graffiti scene (Gastman, Jenkins, Villorente) as it has evolved to include the Street Art practice and an eventual move toward contemporary art (Pricco).

“It’s absolutely phenomenal,” says Villorente, who says his history as a graffiti writer compounds the impact for him. “I was glad that the show was coming to New York because I was born and raised in Brooklyn. I couldn’t have imagined it – especially when I think back on when I was writing on the trains and doing illegal graffiti. To have of show of this magnitude is really special.”

Mike 171. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

“We started writing in ’68 and here we are, fifty-one years later,” says Mike 171 as he gestures toward himself and crew writer SJK 171 when talking about how they began and continued writing their tags on the street in New York City. “This is the history right here,” he says, and you know you are about to be schooled about the plain realities of early graffiti writing. At the opening, you witness each guy tagging in a large dusty window here and realize the love for writing never actually stops.

“We were expressing something that was inside of us,” says SJK 171. “The streets were like ours,” he tells you against a backdrop of their work, Cornbread’s work, and of images full of one color, single line monikers that set the stage for the more colorful, character-driven pieces and burners a decade later, transforming trains into a rolling aesthetic symphony by the mid 1970s.

Cornbread. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo). Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One of the actual “whole car” writers of that period, Lee “LEE” Quinones, here recreates a “Soul Train” car side on a canvas that looks like it could easily wrap an actual MTA #2-line car that he used to slaughter with cans in the middle of the night at the train yard. When describing the new work he said he was intentionally keeping it simple – perhaps owing the style to his earlier practice.

Lee Quinones. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think this is one of Lee’s most amazing pieces,” says Charlie Ahearn, the director of the seminal 1982 “Wild Style” film that Quinones stars in. Ahearn self-produced that film which became an important distillation of the merging of graffiti with hip-hop culture during a pivotal moment in the history of both. Now also a professor of Hip-Hop, art, design, and documentary film making at Pace University, Ahearn is familiar with many of the artists work here, many relationships reaching back decades. “I told Lee that I liked that it was a one-off, that he painted all the color straight off without the embellishment, texturing, and all that stuff.”

John and Charlie Ahearn. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Charlie’s twin brother John Ahearn is represented here popping out from walls as well, his sculptures serving as authentic portraits of people you may easily have seen on New York streets over the last four decades. Casted directly on top of the people themselves in a technique he has perfected, the placement of the sculptures gives life to the space.

Star Writers, Immersive Environments, Foundations

Dabsmyla. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The individual clusters of work and canvasses by 1970s-80s train painters like Futura, Crash, Lady Pink, Freedom, Carlos Mare, Blade, Haze, and Daze and next gen graphic painters like Doze Green and Rime are complemented by a number of so-called “immersive” spaces here like the Mission Schools’ Barry McGee storefront with smashed window, and the Australian Pop duo Dabs & Myla’s eye candy floral walls with thousands of artificial fauna created in collaboration with Amelia Posada.

Myla. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shepard Fairey. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The high-profile graphic activist Shepard Fairey’s 30 year career overview takes a large area and encompasses all elements of his street and studio practice, and Bill Barminski’s cardboard home is open for you to explore with a wry smile, remembering the security room installation he did at Banksy’s Dismaland a couple years earlier.

Bill Barminski. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You’re also treated to a full rolling wall of Craig Stecyk posters that brings you the sun and surf of California skate culture, sculptures by Mr. Cartoon and Risk, a kid-friendly illustrated room with crafting supplies for young fans on tables from HuskMitNavn, and an astute freight train culture educational display by writer/painter/sculptor Tim Conlon (complete with a mid-sized Southern Pacific freight on train tracks he and friends built), prints/photos by historian Bill Daniel, and original drawings by the man some call the King of Hobo Art, buZ blurr.

John Fekner. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“These are a self portrait as predicated on a first Bozo Texino person and I kind of changed the image around,” says Mr. blurr, a legendary figure in denim overalls, as he patiently describes his classic tag image of a railway cowboy.

“It is a writer motif – the pipe smoke is going up and then it is trailing back to signify movement as the train goes down the track,” he says. “I worked in the train yards and my job was as a brakeman. I had a little free time so I started making drawings. I made my first one on November 11, 1971,” he says as he recalls the state of mind that he was in at the time as he began to tag freights with the image and text that came to him clearly – and may have perplexed other travellers.

buZ blurr. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“They came from a confused state. I was questioning everything. I was putting kind of cryptic messages under my drawings. It was anybody’s guess as to its literal interpretation. I addressed some of them up to specific people but whether they saw them or responded to them, I wouldn’t have any idea.”  

Tim Conlon. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When it’s shipped in the crate its 550 pounds,” says Conlon as he stands by the 3-foot high freight car re-creation on tracks and ties that is hit with a couple of wild and colorful graffiti burners. “Here I’m going to show you something,” he says as he pulls back the roof to reveal the narrow coffin interior in rusted red. “So I’m going to hide some beer in here during the opening party. This is like the fifth one of these I’ve made,” and he proudly confides that one lives in the house of Robert Downey Jr.

Digging Deep to Take Risks

Not content to rest on laurels and previous formulas of success, the show keeps a freshness by presenting known entities pushing themselves further and taking creative risks; a reflection of that spirit of experimentation we have always prized on the street.

Graffiti writer Earsnot from Irak crew, now known professionally as Kunle Martin, said he had been making work for the gallery containing elements of graffiti, but felt they were too “safe”.

Kunle Martin AKA Earsnot. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Then my friend Dan said ‘you should go back to doing drawings,’” he says as he stands before figurative canvasses in black and white on cardboard. “I said ‘I can’t! It’s too hard! But eventually I began working in my studio five days a week, and I made enough for a show.”

Reflective of the attitude of Gastman toward artists in the community, he told Martin that if he made enough of them, he could place them in this show. “I think he was happy to hear that I was in my studio working. He’s been very supportive of it.”

Kunle Martin. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A fluorescent color-drenched graphic/photographic collage style is featured with plenty of space in large frames from Chicago’s Pose, who says he is letting photography and geometry lead him away from his previous pop collage style that may have reminded many of Lichtenstein. His inspiration here comes from his research into early photos of graffiti writers running from police “I was obsessed with John Naars photos and I have usually Norman Mailer as in inspiration. Some of these photo references are from the Philadelphia Inquirer,” he says.

Pose. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pose. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

New York’s Eric Haze also dares himself to take a new direction with three canvasses featuring a refracted piecing-together of imagery and memories of this city in monochrome. Based on black and white scenes of the city by photographer and NYC taxi driver Matt Weber, the scenes capture aspects that are culled from imagination and impression. The centerpiece canvas captures an iconic piece of the Williamsburg waterfront that has been removed in the last few years by developers; the signage of the old Domino Sugar factory by the Williamsburg Bridge.

Haze. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Haze said he meant it as a gift and tribute to his wife, actress and longtime resident of the neighborhood, Rosie Perez who used to see it along Kent Avenue as a kid.  “He’s not afraid to take risks. He’s not afraid to go in the studio and express what’s inside of him. When he brought me to the studio, he says, ‘I have a surprise for you’,” she remembers. “I saw the beginnings of the Domino painting and I was stunned into silence and I got teary-eyed.”

Rosie Perez. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Beyond Labels

An expanded version of the show that first mounted in Los Angeles last year, the collection is focused a great deal on the American history of graffiti with a balance of East/West coast graffiti history – in a way that may remind you of 2011’s “Art in the Streets” at LA MoCA. That makes sense, considering Gastman co-curated that show as well.

“It’s both a historical and current look at where the culture went and where it started and how widespread it is,” says co-curator Evan Pricco, who perhaps provides a lynchpin view toward the big name Street Artists who continued to push expectations in the 2000’s on streets and in commercial galleries around the world. “With the space spread over two floors it has a way better curatorial sense. I also think it does compete with museums because it shows that this kind of work is on the same level. You kind of have to present it in a way that feels very institutional and archival.”

So is Beyond the Streets a graffiti show or a Street Art show or a contemporary art show? For artist Kenny Scharf, who first gained attention during the heyday of Downtown Manhattan’s art scene that benefitted from an interlude where rents were dirt cheap and Wall Street was on a cocaine high, there is no need to categorize what kind of art this is.

Kenny Scharf. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“You know I never liked labels or titles anyway so even back in the early 80s I was pegged like ‘oh you’re a graffiti artist,’” he says. “People feel the need to title and label so I’ll let them to continue to do that but I don’t fit into any of them and I don’t want to. I want to fit into all of them and none of them.”

Beyond the Streets opened June 21 and continues through the summer.

MADSAKI. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Blade and Doze Green. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Katsu. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gajin Fujita. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faith XLVII. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
John Ahearn. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jane Dickson. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dan Witz. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew…it’s always a good thing to have your friends near by when you need them the most… Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)ork. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cleon Peterson. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Felipe Pantone. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Beastie Boys. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nekst . Risk. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bast . Paul Insect. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Invader. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ron English. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Patrick Martinez. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dust tagger. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Martha Cooper with Freedom. Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
What’s left and soon to be gone of the old Williamsburg’s waterfront right across from Beyond The Streets New York. June 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martha Cooper’s work as exhibited at Beyond The Streets New York

Beyond The Streets NYC is now open in Williamsburg, Brooklyn to the general public and will run until August 2019. Click HERE for schedules, tickets and details.

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Fun Friday 12.14.12

Hey bro and sis! Here are some of our favorite picks for the weekend around the global way as we head into the final holiday and New Year beauty that we hope everyone is surrounded by. Happy 7th night of Hanukkah to the Jews, and Happy ongoing holidayz to the Christmas and Kwanzaa and Solstice people.

1. 215 “Orgullecida” (Barcelona)
2. “Kids Eat For Free” at Tender Trap (BKLN)
3. Fresh Low-cost Original Silkscreens at “First Worldwar in Silkscreen” Group Show (BKLN)
4. “Graffuturism” at Soze Gallery (LA)
5. “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”, Photography by Imminent Disaster (BKLN)
6. “Snap Back…” Rime and Toper at Klughaus (Manhattan)
7. New2 at White Walls (San Francisco)
8. Dave Kinsey “Everything at Once” at Joshua Liner (Manhattan)
9. Brett Amory at 5 Pieces (Switzerland)
10. RISK: The Skid Row Mural Project by Todd Mazer (VIDEO)
11. Swoon’s Konbit Shelter in Haiti (VIDEO)

215 “Orgullecida” (Barcelona)

French Street Artist C215 has a new solo show titled “Orgullecida” at the Montana Gallery in Barcelona, Spain. The artist has been for awhile using a lot of color with his multilayered stencil work – expanding his established vocabulary bravely in a way that most artists are too afraid to do. His portraits are placed well, are individually hand-cut, and sprayed with a sense of the humanity he’s always giving center stage.  This show is now open to the general public.

A one color stencil from an earlier period by C215 on the streets of Brooklyn, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A detail from a more recent C215 (© and courtesy the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Kids Eat For Free” at Tender Trap (BKLN)

A phrase lifted from restaurant franchises that serve food like you are livestock at a trough, “Kids Eat For Free” is a mini survey of train riders who know the back sides of the country well. Under the moniker of The Superior Bugout, curator Andrew H Shirley continues to explore fresh talent from the emerging margin, and this group exhibition features work by North Carolina’s NGC Crew. Now open, and don’t forget the kids!

For further details regarding this show click here.

Fresh Low-cost original Silkscreens at “First Worldwar in Silkscreen” Group Show (BKLN)

The best way to support your local artist is to give their stuff as a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Soltice present. No kidding. Everybody wins. Tonight a show of original silkscreens at totally reasonable prices is at Low Brow Artique in Bushwick. For tonight’s opening of their silk screen print show where you’d be able to purchase prints for $20…yes you read it right $20 bucks buys you art from 25 artists – many of them with work on the street – from Sao Paulo, Brooklyn, Buenos Aires and Berlin. Participating artists include: Selo, Markos Azufre, Hellbent, El Hase, ND’A, XOXU, Daniel Ete, Salles, Baila, Anderson Resende, DOC, SHN, XILIP, Serifire, Vero Pujol, Marquitos Sanabria, Diego Garay, Desastre, and Head Honcho.

Head Honcho. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Salles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Graffuturism” at Soze Gallery (LA)

This is like an exclamation point for the end of the year. No kidding.

POESIA, founder of Graffuturism, the term and website, continues to explore the depths of “Progressive Graffiti” or, as it was previously known, “Abstract Graffiti”. With great intelligence, passion and an acute eye for detail, POESIA brings to the forefront the importance and beauty of this emergent new direction that is impacting the Street Art and graffiti scene (with ramifications for others).

“Graffuturism” opening tonight at Soze Gallery in Los Angeles and promises a smart-headed visual feast of shapes, patterns and color from a mini-galaxy of talent from all over the world. Perhaps more significantly, it’s a bit of a decentralized movement that has been centralized for you. The artists list includes: 2501, Aaron De La Cruz, Augustine Kofie, Boris “Delta” Tellegen, Carl Raushenbach, Carlos Mare, Clemens Behr, Derek Bruno, Doze Green, Duncan Jago, DVS 1, El Mac, Eric Haze, Erosie, Franco “Jaz” Fasoli, Futura, Gilbert 1, Greg “Sp One” Lamarche, Graphic Surgery, Hense, Hendrik “ECB” Beikirch, Jaybo Monk, Joker, Jurne, Kema, Kenor, Lek, Marco “Pho” Grassi, Matt W. Moore, Moneyless, O.Two, Part2ism, Poesia, Rae Martini, Remi Rough, Samuel Rodriguez, Sat One, Sever, Shok-1, Sowat, Steve More, West and Will BarrasSoze Gallery in Los Angeles .

Also New York chronicler and enthusiastic lover of the graff/street art scene  Daniel Feral will be there with a  special edition of the Feral Diagram in glicee prints, and a couple other formats (salivate). An ambitious exhibition like this is rare and not easy to come by so if you are in Los Angeles you must go.

El Mac on the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show and to read a great essay for the show written by Daniel Feral click here.

“Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”, Photography by Imminent Disaster (BKLN)

Self-appointed moral custodians (mostly white men) have traditionally hampered the exploration of sexuality in formal art history and the academic canon of what gets celebrated and revered continues to evolve more quickly now. The sea change that modern social liberation that was once revolutionary is now a given, but the debate of the appropriate role of sex and sexuality in the arts is far from over. We may have just quashed one Trojan horse of social conservatism in the White House, but the radical right wing has pulled the center pretty far in the last decade and some have even said there was a war on women launched legislatively throughout 2012. So we are pleased to tell you about fine artist and Street Artist Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster, who has a new show in collaboration with Alex Pergament entitled “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”. Furthering her exploration of photography Ms. Hasty has semi-retired her now well known hand cut paper pieces and lino prints on the street and traded the cutting knife for the camera. With this show of photographs, sculptures and performance art she’s aiming to tear apart the inhibitions associated with the  sexual act. “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets” opens tomorrow at Weldon Arts Gallery in Brooklyn.

Imminent Disaster and Alex Pergament (exclusive photo for BSA © courtesy of the artist)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Snap Back…” Rime and Toper at Klughaus (Manhattan)

Freshly snapping back to New York from their successful truck trip to Miami, Klughaus Gallery brings Brooklyn natives RIME and TOPER for their new exhibition titled “Snap Back – Dangerous Drawings About New York”. The storytelling show features illustration and painting inspired by personal stories. Says RIME. “This show aims to tap into our life experience coming up in New York.” Show opens Saturday.

Rime and Toper shown here with Dceve in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

New2 at White Walls (San Francisco)

The White Walls Gallery in San Francisco are fortunate to host Australian artist New2 with his solo show titled “In One Hand a Ghost, The Other an Atom”. New2’s work on the streets is complex and dynamic with aerosol, but his handcut collage work for the gallery is moreso somehow – maybe because of a painstaking process of arranging thousands of hand cut pieces of paper. This show opens on Saturday.

New2. Detail of one of his hand cut paper pieces. (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

New2 on the streets of San Francisco. (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

Dave Kinsey with “Everything at Once” at the Joshua Liner Gallery in Manhattan. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details.

Brett Amory at the 5 Pieces Gallery in Berne, Switzerland opens on Sunday with his solo show “Lil’ Homies”. Click here for more details.

RISK: The Skid Row Mural Project by Todd Mazer (VIDEO)

Art in the Streets from MoCAtv

 

Swoon’s Konbit Shelter in Haiti (VIDEO)

Street Artist Swoon is looking to return to Haiti to build more shelters for people in the rural part of the country. This video gives a great look at the families and community who are helped. You also can participate by donating to the Kickstarter campaign to help Swoon make it happen.

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Fun Friday 12.07.12

Happy Friday! Wipe that stain off your shirt from last nights office holiday party and brush your teeth and get to work so you can be a zombie all day. For our part –  it’s time for a little Street Art roundup of some things that you might like.

1. Miami in The House All Weekend
2. “Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)
3. “Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)
4. Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)
5. Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)
6. “Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)
7. Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)
8. Zombie Nation – Ezra Eismont
9. Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)
10. SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)

Miami in The House All Weekend

This weekend the fun is for Street Art in Miami and check out some of our recommendations (Best Miami Street Art: BSA Picks Awesomest for Basel ’12) for hoofing it around that we posted Wednesday. Tonight of course there are a number of grand opening parties/after parties (including Fountain), but really just being on the street is equally fun if not funner! Thanks for that adverb from 7 year old Darnell Wilsen of Brooklyn.

Dcypher, CBS and Supher wall. Wynwood Arts Disctrict 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Entes, Pesimo and Jade wall. Detail. Wynwood Arts District 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For a full listing of Art Fairs, Events and Street Murals click here and here.

But not all the fun is in Miami here are a few picks of what’s happening elsewhere in the world:

“Deck the Walls” at Stolen Space (London)

Greeting cards are a nice way to say Merry Christmas to Grandma, and for suburban white middle class families to distribute photos proving that their kids are not on drugs. This is Stolen Space Christmas Show celebrates greetings cards and holiday cheer with D*Face, Word to Mother, Will Barras and David Bray among others putting their own imprimatur on Christmas. Come on, Uncle Bert and Aunt Dolittle will be there, so comb your hair, put some shoes on and get out of the house!

D*Face on the Streets of Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Rinse & Repeat” Group Show at Ambush (Sydney, Australia)

With a collection of Australian Graffiti and Street Art Artists, “Rinse & Repeat” finds its inspiration by taking a look at the Old Masters and re-interpreting them with their own styles and techniques. An interesting proposition albeit fraught with risks – there are a few good ones here though that will delight your academic/street sensibilities. Included in the line up are: Adnate (AWOL Crew), Bridge Stehli, Cam Wall, Carl Steffan, Deams (AWOL Crew), Fintan Magee, Guido van Helten, Phibs, Shannon Crees,  Slicer (AWOL Crew) , Team and Teazer.

For further information regarding this exhibition click here.

Skewville in France, Quel Surprise! (Lille, France)

Hope they realize what they have gotten themselves into, but Vertikal Gallery is hosting Brooklyn Street Art collective Skewville for a solo show entitled “Be Inside”. Considering we have had one or two Lillians in Brooklyn putting work up on the streets over the last few years, this sounds like a cultural exchange program of some kind, right?

Skewville being territorial in Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this exhibition click here.

Jaye Moon at Paik Hae Young (Seoul)

New York Street Artist Jaye Moon is in Seoul, Korea on an Art Residency Invitation and tonight his her solo exhibition with her “Lego Tree House” opening tonight at the Paik Hae Young Gallery.

Jaye Moon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this exhibition click here.

“Sowing The Seeds of Love” – Just Seeds Group Show Friday (Manhattan)

The Art Collective Just Seeds new group exhibition titled “Sowing The Seeds of Love” opens tonight at the Munch Gallery in Manhattan. The artists in Just Seeds aim to put forth their world views on a variety of issues – looking to inform and bolster you through the power of art. Participating in this show are: Jesus Barraza, Kevin Caplicki, Melanie Cervantes, Santiago Doesntsitstill, Alec Dunn, Molly J Fair, Thea Gahr, Nicolas Lampert, Josh MacPhee, Fernando Marti, Colin Matthes, Dylan Miner, Roger Peet, Jesse Purcell, Pete Railand, Favianna Rodriguez, Shaun Slifer, Chris Stain, Meredith Stern, Mary Tremonte and Bec Young.

Chris Stain and Billy Mode in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this exhibition click here.

Icy & Sot at Nu Hotel (Brooklyn)

Iranian expats and brothers Icy & Sot invite you to celebrate with them their first foray in the hospitality business. The brothers designed a room at the Nu Hotel in Brooklyn and you are invited to come over tonight for some refreshments.

Icy & Sot in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this event click here.

Zombie Nation – Ezra Eismont

Artist Ezra Eismont has a Kickstarter fundraiser to help publish his Zombie Nation book, which features his zombified portraits of icons and celebrities. Seems like a heartwarming holiday thing to do, doesn’t it? Please support your local artists and small family businesses.

 

Herakut The Giant Story Book Project (VIDEO)

 

SWOON’s Konbit Shelter – Art in the Streets – MOCAtv (VIDEO)

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Fun Friday 11.30.12

 

It’s Friday yo! Tomorrow starts December but the tree is already up at Rockefeller Center and the city is flushed with wide-eyed tourists bumping into each other and we are busy touring graffiti covered abandoned buildings smashed with paint balls. It’s all good.  Here’s some ideas for dope stuff to check out this weekend.

1. “Out of Chaos” Paul Insect (NYC)
2. “Organized Chaos” CYRCLE (LA)
3. The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum (NYC)
4. VINZ “Batalla” (Chelsea)
5. DALeast “Powder of Light”
6. ROA by Makhulu (VIDEO)
7. “Dominant Species” by ROA (VIDEO)
8. IBUg Festival of Urban Art and Culture (VIDEO)
9. “Eyez Open” with Peat Wollaeger (VIDEO)

Paul Insect “Out of Chaos” (NYC)

London based Paul Insect has his “Out of Chaos” solo show at Opera Gallery in Manhattan.

Paul Insect. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

While Paul Insect is advancing the idea of  a world out of chaos …

CYRCLE is all about “Organized Chaos” (LA)

Street art collective CYRCLE opens their solo show tonight in Los Angeles, CA.

“Order and Chaos is a huge cornerstone concept we work with, and it’s one of our favorite examples of duality in life. It’s also a huge part of the way we work together.”

CYRCLE (photo © theonepointeight)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read our piece on a CYRCLE studio visit click here.

The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum (NYC)

The Childrens Museum of the Arts is a good place to go to see the innerworkings of the visionary graffiti writer who turned his imagination into a galaxy. This kind of art-making gives inspiration to adults and  kids because he fashioned toys and warships and costumes from everyday objects that were not expensive, and his output of mythic Gothic Futurism gods, heros, villains and storylines over three decades lays bare your excuse for not being creative.

It’s about the same price as a movie but the comprehensive collection of the artists work and the self-esteem mission of the museum is priceless. The Rammellzee Galaxseum is a great place to visit for an afternoon with the kids in your tribe and explore free expression – inside where it’s warm and your imagination can fly.

VINZ “Batalla” (Chelsea)

The VINZ solo show “Batalla” opens Saturday night at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan. This Spanish Street Artist plays with the realities of humans, using his own photographs of nude models and animals to construct hybrids by playfully merging their bodies with striking results.

VINZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

DALeast “Powder of Light”

Chinese Street Artist DALeast is also at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery tomorrow with his own solo show titled “Powder of Light”.

DALeast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

ROA by Makhulu (VIDEO)

“Dominant Species” by ROA (VIDEO)

From Art in The Streets – MOCAtv

IBUg Festival of Urban Art and Culture (VIDEO)

From 2012 in Glauchau, Germany.

“Eyez Open” with Peat Wollaeger (VIDEO)

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Street Artist XAM : Architecture for the City Bird

Architect to the urban aviary set, Street Artist XAM is one rare bird. Averaging one per week over the last year, the California born former graffiti writer has designed, constructed and installed homes and feeders for New York City birds on street signs above your head.

While studying architecture and object design at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, he followed an open interdisciplinary structure that allowed him to develop his vision, and made him prove the soundness of his work. “I had very intense conceptual-based architectural studio courses in school that didn’t allow time to slack off, to say the least.”

He points to his years as a student as pivotal in his development as a thinker and artist today. That’s probably why his design, materials, and technical discipline can stand up to academic rigor, but it won’t completely explain why these bird “dwelling units” have a satellite dish for television reception, a solar panel on the roof powering a night light, nor the certain minimalist elegance overlaying it all. Clearly XAM is a Street Artist for more than just the bird watchers and one worth keeping your eye on.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With military influenced abbreviation and terminology and a three decimal point precise measurement for components, XAM creates his installations with specific intentions for their use. That said, despite a rigid “rule set” the work has a lot of humor, and even social commentary. There are the Dwelling Units; intended for all the comforts of a modern fine-feathered home, the Feeding Units; a sort of fast food option in your busy bird day, and the brand new Non-Dwelling units; a conceptual project that disallows entry into a “Foreclosed” unit – inspired by our bank-induced housing crises.

For ease of conversation, there is a real need to categorize stuff that happens in the public sphere – and we default to the term “Street Art” or “Art in the Streets” most of the time. But sometimes we find a new category and we lack a sufficient way to describe it. XAM is part architect, engineer, designer, environmentalist, social activist, urban ornithologist, Street Artist, graff writer, and humorist. His output is all within the self-induced confines of a rational process that is defined and re-defined based on results, and whim. The installations actually feed birds and provide shelter to them. They are not commissioned, not permissioned, and not vandalism. They are labor intensive thoughtful one-offs ⎯ a handmade functional sculpture that takes XAM eight to ten hours to complete, and yet you can easily lift it off a sign and take it home.

A very green dwelling unit by Street Artist XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As frequently occurs on the graffiti and Street Art scene, the artist has adopted his nom de guerre, an alternate persona that he inhabits and views the world through when working. It could be an idealized version of himself, or a refracted image of his id. As you might surmise, often the fictional is autobiographical. In this case, XAM says his character is a purple robot.

From his tiny shared Brooklyn apartment, XAM showed us his complete process in detail – converting surfaces and home-made ventilation structures into an economical production facility before our eyes. In the following extensive interview with BSA, XAM’s very first, the artist explains his process, intention, inspiration, and what educational television programming he envisions for the city birds who stop by.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you describe the steps or phases that are necessary to build one dwelling unit?
XAM:
With my original dwelling units (CSD series) I did a ton of research on common birds that make use of birdhouses. I read through books, blogs and articles to make sure I fulfilled all requirements in making a proper birdhouse. I then added what I obtained from my contemporary design education to make the units as efficient and self sustainable as possible.

The more I built, the more I took notice of birds in the urban environment and how they were much more adaptable than the research I had been provided by “backyard” birders. I could not find information regarding building birdhouses for use in a city so I learned by observation. From there I started my Sculptural series, which allowed me to create a form that uses less material, identifies the units as more of a contemporary object and removes itself further from the archetype of a bird house.

My steps include;

  1. Coming up with a design by drawing in Illustrator or on scraps of paper,
  2. Designing my cutsheets in Illustrator,
  3. Sending my file off to get cut by my laser cutter,
  4. Painting my designs and masking for each color,
  5. Clear coating,
  6. Soldering the wiring,
  7. Assembly,
  8. Clear coating again,
  9. Hanging my work on a sign near you.

XAM rests on a sign by Street Artist Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How does a dwelling unit vary from a feeding unit?
XAM:
My dwelling units, unlike my feeding units incorporate passive ventilation, solar panels, LED porch lights (to attract insects), green roofs (for insulation), a food storage area that I fill before hanging and a dwelling space. My feeding units are gravity fed and the feeding trough is refilled from a large food storage cavity.

Brooklyn Street Art: You’ve been a graff writer, street artist, and architect. Somehow this project ties it all together.
XAM:
For sure. The form of my original unit was inspired by the letter “I”. The façade is similar to the results you would get from framing sections of a graffiti piece. The exterior also brings me back to when I used to create stencils and the overall form plays with volumes and functions the same way architecture does.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How do you think your training as an architect impacted your process?
XAM:
It has made me a very harsh critic of my own work. I continue to reexamine everything I produce to make sure every detail has intention and serves a purpose. I also find myself trying to make my process more efficient by sourcing cheaper and locally found materials, improving storage (I just designed my own modular storage units), cutting costs, and attempting to lower my carbon footprint.

Brooklyn Street Art: You talk about doing your work and your projects with a sense of “intention”. Can you describe that?
XAM:
My units are intended to share my education, interests and to create curiosity. In my eyes, progress comes from education and being curious… I am also aware of street art being ephemeral and so I create my work so that it can easily be removed if seen as a blight to the surrounding community.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: With an almost regimented methodical approach to planning, constructing, and installing, do you ever find that the rule set under which you operate needs to evolve?
XAM:
I do see my process as always evolving. By reexamining my creations, I understand more about my results, but interestingly, I have never done the same thing twice. I am always pushing forward and working on the understanding of all my interests regarding my project.

Brooklyn Street Art: From a stylistic perspective, one can see influences of Modernism and Bauhaus in your work. Where and who do you draw your inspiration from?
XAM:
Modernism and Bauhaus are two major design/art movements that I do deeply admire. I like the idea of using new materials and technologies to expand the definition of art and design. In a way my units are similar to the Case Study Houses of the late 40’s, 50’s and 60’s.Through research, I try to make the most efficient birdhouses and feeders possible that can be reproduced on a large scale, but retain individuality. I am inspired by artist/designers that push boundaries like Louis Sullivan, Frank Lloyd Wright, Le Corbusier, Victor Horta, Gustav Klimt, Santiago Calatrava, Charles & Ray Eammes, Daniel Libeskind, Eero Saarinen, William McDonough, Mies van der Rohe and so on. At the same time I am also very interested and inspired by biomimicry, movement through space, and removing oneself from the “mundane”.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Are you encouraging birds to become slovenly dropouts from society by installing Dish network on the dwelling units? Might this contribute to a larger percentage of overweight birds who cannot touch their claws?
XAM:
In all honestly I hope the Dish network only encourages the birds to tune into educational programs like Design e², Art 21 and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The TV package accounts for a large portion of my per unit cost, and I do hope that it is used in productive manner.

Brooklyn Street Art: The patterning on the sides of the units is evocative of camouflage. Were you intending to help the units blend into the environment?
XAM:
The interesting thing is, I did not mean for this to happen, but when I look at my intention and manner of execution I realize that the result is camouflage. I simply wanted to play with the juxtaposition between variants of value and size of shapes to create the illusion of foreground and background.  I later realized that I was recreating Razzel Dazzel – a camouflage effect used on British naval ships during WWI and also a short lived art movement.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: When you talk about XAM, he is a third person – a robot with a specific personality and set of behaviors or attitudinal characteristics.
XAM:
I found it interesting that in graffiti, street art and logo design, an identity is associated to your name. The companies, street art and graffiti that I found myself remembering and interested in have a strong identity that remains consistent… I spell XAM in all sans serif caps because I like the strong architectural structures that the letters create. XAM is a larger than life rogue-bot with a destructive interest in contemporary architecture. He destroys the architecture that he loves so much to investigate its functions, but he can’t help it due to the way he was programmed. Remorse is deeply felt by him, so to give back he creates contemporary birdhouses for communities around the world. As a kid I use to love to destroy electronics to understand their functions. In a way XAM is The Hulk and I’m Dr. Bruce Banner.

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you have any other personalities, or is it pretty much you and XAM?
XAM:
XAM is my only personality, but as I progress in creating work around XAM, I realize he has more interests needing to be expressed, therefore expect to see a lot of new work as time progresses.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Your method of installation; using a custom designed utilitarian “Swiss Amy knife” all-in-one tool, leaves the unit resting upon a sign. Why not make the installation more permanent?
XAM:
I like the community to decide the longevity of my work. I guess I like playing with ‘Grey Areas’. Are we supposed to accept and/or appreciate the units because they are in a way trying to reverse our destructive effects on nature? Or should we remove them because they are illegally placed? I like to provoke thought and challenge our belief system as well as expand definitions.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You include a small QR code on the bottom of each unit. Where does that take someone if they scan it?
XAM:
The QR code is located on the unexposed back of each unit and is intended to be discovered by the person who decides to remove my units. When scanned you are taken to a list of facts that explains how we benefit from birds in the urban environment. You’re asked a question of morality, then you are given my email address to bring up any comments or concerns.

Brooklyn Street Art: Sometimes the placement on a sign blocks the letters of the sign. Does that endanger anyone?
XAM:
Many signs are printed on both sides. What appears to be the cover up of an important message is just a waste of paint due to the direction of traffic never facing the back of the signs. A piece that I put up last March in NY is still hanging on a one way sign and I believe it is for this reason. I am making use of a common useless space.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How long does a typical unit remain on the street where you place it? Have you ever seen one being taken?
XAM:
It all depends on where it has been placed. When hanging in Willamsburg, Brooklyn the units last about as long as a scoop of ice cream in the Sahara Desert. When mounted in industrial parts of LA, I see units remaining up from multiple visits prior. It all depends on location. I tend to avoid Willamsburg these days due to the lack of longevity.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about how sustainability enters into the planning of each unit?
XAM:
I make sure that my units have no unnecessary functional attributes.  I use a structural material that is the byproduct of another process.  I take advantage of resources that are renewable (the sun, gravity, plant life, and weather). Environmental ethics are deeply seeded into all my work.

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you considered creating your custom materials?
XAM:
I am very interested in getting involved in as many aspects of the project as possible. I would love to eventually make my own paint, structural materials, solar panels, energy storage units and bounding agents. As time progresses, I know I will only get deeper into my process and have my hand involved in more aspects.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: The spraying process alone is so impressive with the pragmatic selection of materials and venting, and economical use of space…
XAM:
Originally I had a studio near my apartment. (After that) I was painting my units on the streets in cardboard boxes. I tried to find a place to rent a spray booth by the hour, but eventually I drew up plans and made my own. I now paint in my house using a retrofitted storage bin that has a bathroom fan for ventilation, a heater filter to catch paint and other partials – plus a dryer tube to guide the exhaust out my window.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Initially the color palette was purple, lavender? Why? Why did it change?
XAM:
The exterior of all the units is actually composed of fragments of XAM. I scale and crop sections of XAM’s body to create compositions on the façade, then I paint them in multiple values. Originally I used a monochromatic color scheme of purples because XAM is purple and his body is what wraps the surface. Slowly I phased out that rule by using at least one purple. Now it no longer matters to me because I have always been interested in the use of color.

Brooklyn Street Art: If Dish TV approached you to do a collaborative project, would you dress as a purple robot for the commercial?
XAM:
I wouldn’t want to sellout by being XAM in a Dish TV commercial. I would rather be an extra in the background dressed up as Sweetums, the big scary, hairy monster from the Muppets who is nothing more than a gentle giant. Wait, that sounds kind of like XAM…

The original prototype for the Dwelling Unit. XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Not only do you utilize nearly the entirety of a sheet of tempered hardwood, you use your relatively small living space as your workspace also.  Would you prefer a separate studio, or do you like to challenge yourself to maximize resources?
XAM:
I always make sure I minimize my waste and make all parts of my process as efficient as possible. I have been offered a free studio that is probably 10+ times the size of my entire apartment, but I don’t feel I need that much space. I like the intimacy and the efficiency I experience by having to work in a small space. My work is modular and packs flat so it is all about using space and material efficiently. I feel working in a small space reinforces my design philosophy.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about your new collection of foreclosed units and the intersection with social or political advocacy?
XAM:
I feel my work has always had a social and political voice, but one that may not have been realized on a large scale, perhaps understood more by contemporary designers. With the introduction of my NON-DWELLING series I feel I have created a voice that hits home and that a larger audience can understand. By creating what I view as the same spectrum, I hope to open up an opportunity to understand my CSD work. In a way, I am giving a thought provoking solution or option (CSD series) to a problem we face (NON-DWELLING series).

Brooklyn Street Art: You have a vision of how the “Foreclosed” units will change over time, right? It kind of makes me think of squatters and homeless people taking over abandoned real estate.
XAM:
With my NON-DWELLING units I have glued the structure with waterproof wood glue and the mounted signage with water resistant wood glue. I look at America as a country that is constantly reinventing itself over time. With time we will discover a solution to our housing crisis and with time (and weather) the “Price Reduced”, “Foreclosure” and “Bank Owned” signs will fall from the units and allow birds to live in the once vacant houses… To be honest, I would love it if homeless birds were to expedite the process and remove the signs themselves.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you see your work going forward containing more message-driven content?
XAM:
I feel like my work has a message behind it, but I am beginning to realize that it may not be so obvious or people don’t care enough to realize it. I will continue to figure out ways to deliver the same message with different work.

Brooklyn Street Art: What motivates you to do this project?  In the last 12 months you must have spent 1,000 hours of your life doing this.
XAM:
In my eyes the design process only ends when you decide to step away from it or deadlines require you to do so. There is always room for more research, investigation and understanding. My project has no final deadline to meet and endless amount of opportunities to reinvestigate, therefore I continue to work at it. I am an artist/designer that is very interest in the process.  Once the work is done and examined, I move on to the next area of investigation. On top of that I love to explore. Crossing my design interests with street art fulfills all my needs.

XAM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This article was also published on The Huffington Post,

 

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Brooklyn Museum Cancels “Art in the Streets” Show for Spring 2012; Currently at LA MOCA

Director Sights Financial Difficulties

When we visited the LA MOCA “Art In the Streets” exhibit days before it opened in April, the feeling of camaraderie and expectation hung thick in the air as artists and curators and museum directors put the final touches on what they knew was the first major show of it’s kind; an historical taking stock of the route graffiti and Street Art travelled over the last half century to become an undeniably positive influence on art, music, fashion, … the culture.  That week when talking with Sharon Matt Atkins, The Brooklyn Museum’s Managing Curator of Exhibitions, about the plans for bringing the show to our beloved city in Spring 2012, we were nearly apoplectic about the prospect of somehow being involved in the welcoming.

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Banksy “Art in the Streets” MOCA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sadly this afternoon we hear from the museum and friends that the show has been withdrawn.  Sally Williams from the Museum’s Public Information Department confirmed the news to BSA over the phone. “This is a very important show for anybody to have but it is also a huge and very costly exhibition and we just couldn’t get funding for it”.

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Os Gemeos. Detail. “Art in the Streets” MOCA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Meanwhile the last hour in the Twitterverse has raised a bit of a buzz  about the statement by Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman’s that the decision is “due to the current financial climate”.  The current home for “Art in the Streets” has found the show receiving great critical and popular acclaim and the much sought after younger demographic forming lines, making their own videos of the show, and yes, hitting up the giftshop. It really looks like it is proving to be a blockbuster for the museum and business in the community. That’s why its even more sad and a little confusing to find that Brooklyn can’t host what would surely be a boon to the organizers, the museum, and the city.

We thought that the cultural history of our city would have been greatly enhanced by the Brooklyn Museum’s decision to be the next stop of this exhibition. Despite it’s association with the negative aspects of vandalism and all that go with it, graffiti and Street Art have transformed global arts culture in many positive ways and New York is known worldwide as one of the birthplaces, an epicenter of this rich cultural history and what it has evolved from it.

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Swoon. Detail. “Art in the Streets” MOCA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

From the museum’s press release:

Brooklyn Museum Withdraws from Art in the Streets Exhibition

Brooklyn, New York–June 21, 2011. The Brooklyn Museum has canceled the spring 2012 presentation of Art in the Streets, the first major United States museum exhibition of the history of graffiti and street art. Organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, where it is currently on view at The Geffen Contemporary through August 8, 2011, the exhibition had been scheduled at the Brooklyn Museum from March 30 through July 8, 2012.

“This is an exhibition about which we were tremendously enthusiastic, and which would follow appropriately in the path of our Basquiat and graffiti exhibitions in 2005 and 2006, respectively. It is with regret, therefore, that the cancellation became necessary due to the current financial climate. As with most arts organizations throughout the country, we have had to make several difficult choices since the beginning of the economic downturn three years ago,” states Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman.

brooklyn-street-art-Jaime-jaime-rojo-fab-five-freddy-LA-MOCA-arts-in-the-streets

Fab Five Freddy speaking at the press conference of “Art in the Streets” LA at MOCA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-Jaime-jaime-rojo-fav-five-freddy-LA-MOCA-arts-in-the-streets

Fab Five Freddy in front of his piece. “Art in the Streets” LA at MOCA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fun Friday 04.22.11

Fun-Friday

Happy Good Friday!

It’s Good Friday today, which of course means I got a seat on the subway this morning. Apparently it’s a holiday of some sort. Anyway, we have some Street Art news, and some completely unrelated frivolity because it’s good to take a break, for Christ’s sake.

3 Kings by Remi/Rough and System

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Copyright-RemiRough

Remi/Rough & System have just completed their super cool homage to three of graffiti and street art’s most influential artists – Dondi White, Jean Michel Basquiat & RammellZee.

Read about the wall and see more photos here http://remirough.com/blog

Vote for Your Favorite Slide at HuffPost Arts Today

Hitting Up LA: The Streets Outside the Show (SLIDESHOW)

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Huffpost-Arts-Screensave-MOCA-LA-Streets

BP Ready To Resume Oil Spilling (Via The Onion)

BP-Logo-my-way-winnerApril 20, 2011 | The Onion

LONDON—A year after the tragic explosion and oil spill that caused petroleum giant BP to cease operations in the Gulf of Mexico, the company announced Wednesday that it was once again ready to begin oil spilling.

http://www.theonion.com/articles/bp-ready-to-resume-oil-spilling,20089/

Image here is the winner of LogoMyWay’s contest to redesign the BP Logo — Stuart Croft, an English Graphics Designer working and studying in Bangkok, Thailand.

Jean Faucher – Early Street Art Pioneer Show Tomorrow in LA

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Jean-Faucheur-at-maximillian-la

Considered by cultural institutions and by artists as a key figure in the graffiti and urban arts, Jean Faucheur explores new prospective areas of expression that influence and drive hundreds and hundreds of emerging talents.

Jean Faucheur

OPENING RECEPTION:

SATURDAY APRIL 23, 2011 – 6PM – 9PM

Exhibition: April 23 – May 26, 2011

Every Day, 1PM – 8PM, and by appointment (Closed Mondays)

“Brother,” Spray Paint On Canvas, 36″ x 25 3/4″

www.maximilliangallery.com

“Your attitude is your altitude.”

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Lynn Dell image © Ari Cohen

New York’s grand dame fashionista Lynn Dell shows how to rock a big hat like this for your Sunday stroll on Fifth Avenue or Flatbush Avenue for Easter.  Showing you can be hot at any age, this 78 year old Gotham gal has a whole slideshow here, including this pic from Ari Cohen.

2000 Images of MOCA “Art in the Streets”

Produced by Roger L. Griffith

“A frame by frame animation of the 2011 MOCA show Art In The Streets. This is not meant to be a complete census of all the art at the MOCA, but an introduction and basic virtual tour of the exhibit. Enjoy”

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The Problem With MOCA : Street Art Talks Back

Responding to a museum show that brings Street Art inside and charges admission to see it, a local Street Artist tweaks the nose of MOCA’s “Art in the Streets” with some actual Street Art in situ. Ironically, it also drew a crowd of curious admirers to the sidewalk.

Eddie Colla says his billboard takeover is a response to a Huffington Post article last week where a finger wagging tone was on display toward current street artists, “MOCA director Jeffrey Deitch pegs it on the ‘young’ and ‘anarchic,’ and is quoted giving this message to illegal taggers: ‘If you harness your talent you can be in a museum some day, make a contribution and a living from it.’ ”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-Problem-With-MOCA-Eddie-Colla

A testament to the current fascination among teens, 20 and 30-somethings with the entire topic of Street Art, observers report that the installation of Colla’s piece drew a small crowd of tourists, who took turns snapping photos and posing in front of it – some of which we show here. Even more incredibly, after the poster company covered it and left yesterday, witnesses say a bystander apparently began removing the advertising posters.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-Crowd-Problem-With-MOCA-Eddie-Colla

Reached for comment, the artist told us the message of the piece is pretty self evident and he hung around after putting it up to listen to people stopping to take pictures.

Brooklyn Street Art: What kind of reaction did the installation get on the street?
Eddie Colla:
It ranged from “Is that Bansky?”, “Are you Banksy?”, “I think that’s f*ckin Banksy”, and “Holy sh*t! It’s Banksy”. Of course there’s the one nob who always mispronounces Banksy and says “Yo It’s BAN-SKY”. So there was that and a couple “hey cools” and “what do you make your stencils out of?” and “you’re eddie right?”.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-POSING-Problem-With-MOCA-Eddie-Colla

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you think that people would actually pose in front of it for a group photo?
Eddie Colla:
Sure why not, It’s a nice sort of background. Much better than the movie posters that were there when I started.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-Detail-Woman-Problem-With-MOCA-Eddie-Colla

Brooklyn Street Art: When do you think this Street Art madness, I mean fascination, end?
Eddie Colla:
When they release “Exit through the gift shop 2 – Electric Boogaloo”. I think that will be the beginning of the end.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-PIC-Problem-With-MOCA-Eddie-Colla

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BSA in LA (Update) – Walls Underway in Prep for MOCA Show

Brooklyn-Street-Art-BSA-LA-Logo

“Art In the Streets” has begun exactly where it started – outside on walls. The number of people in Los Angeles this week to mark Sunday’s opening of the show at the Museum of Contemporary Art grows by the hour and there are more walls in progress than a housing boom. Just in the last couple of days we’ve seen commissioned and non-commissioned new murals, pieces, tags, and installations freshly dripping by people like How & Nosm, Lee Quinones, Shepard Fairey, Blade, Cern1, JR, Augustine Kofie, Invader, Os Gemeos, Nomade, Saner, and many others.

brooklyn-street-art-lee-quinones-jaime-rojo-MOCA-LA-04-14-web-12Lee Quinones takes a break on “Birds of a Feather”, the wall collaboration he’s directing that features  Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1. The new installation is on the wall that was previously installed by Italian artist Blu but was buffed soon after by the museum a few months ago – a subject still on the minds and lips of people here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Futura says it’s like Summer camp and others have likened it to a family reunion, which makes us think of lawn chairs, cheap beer, barbecue, and crazy old uncle Jed sitting on a picnic table rubbing egg salad into his hair and talking about the Republicans. But yeah, right now in this little part of LA there is a feeling of a camp that is headed maniacally toward total circus.

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Cern 1 workinfg on “Birds of a Feather” wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The show itself, which we’ve seen in it’s entirety, is an audacious and colorful endeavor to bring about 50 years of Graffiti and Street Art history and a number of it’s influencers and influences under one roof. Engaging and educational, visitors will have the opportunity to learn how certain tributaries lead to this river. No show on this worldwide phenomenon could ever hope to include everyone, and Curator Jeffrey Deitch, along with associate curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose have chosen touchstones and flashpoints that push their individual visions of how the story unfolded. While it doesn’t break much brand new ground, only the Bittersons (or Jealousinskis) will find sufficient cause to try to mug this solid, entertaining and participatory show full of surprises. But for a scene that never sought permission in the first place, it won’t matter.

Here are a collection of images on the museum grounds itself. Previews from the show tomorrow.

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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In this photo by Martha Cooper, Futura lends a hand to Cern1 to complete the collaborative mural on the side of Geffen Contemporary in time for the opening.  (photo © Martha Cooper)

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“Birds of a Feather” wall collab in progress with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Barry McGee (Twist) finished this wall before heading indoors to reprise an installation he did in 2000 with ESPO and REAS called Street Market.  Roger Gastman says of the new installation that was still being finished as of yesterday afternoon, “This is another version ten years later, basically on crack. They brought in a number of other great artists to help work with them on it. Now it includes Alexis Ross, Dan Murphy, Jeff Flynn and a few others.” (photos tomorrow)

(photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This Blade wall in progress is a direct reference to the famous Martha Cooper photo of one of his burners on an MTA train in the 70s.  It was begun after the museum washed off a fresh new Katsu fire extinguisher tag that appeared suddenly a few days earlier. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blade. Finish wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos cube in progress will contain something quite special that is being prepared in a garage nearby.  It actually looks like it could hold a dozen go-go dancers if that other thing isn’t finished in time for the opening. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos cube in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos cube in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos with mini-train painted by Blade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blade painting the Os Gemeos mini-train (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Os Gemeos mini-train opposite side (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sullivan takes off (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Invader’s “Blue Invasion” of the museum starts outside. Or is that BLU invasion? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Risk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fab 5 Freddy speaking on today’s press conference in front of bus by Risk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Not all brows are unfurrowed for the impending opening of “Art In the Streets”, as in these by French Street Artist JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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New Puppy Gallery Presents: “Sniffin’ Glue” A Group Show (Los Angeles, CA)

Sniffin’ Glue
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Who better than Nomadé, Eddie Colla, ABCNT, and Cryptik to poke the MOCA institutional bear smack in the nose on April 16th with their new explosive show “Sniffin’ Glue.”

Armed with intense imagery and a collective history of street credibility, this fierce

foursome dare to not only provoke but stand in front of MOCA’s

institutional tank, refusing to allow Jeffery Deitch be the only street

art voice heard on this night.

“Sniffin’ Glue” is a collective display of power from four of the most

provocative west coast street artists – ABCNT, Nomadé, Cryptik and Eddie Colla.

It is a manifestation of a street art revolution that cannot be ignored.

The themes of their work span from power, peace, individualism to protest.

Fueled by revolution, ABCNT’s work pierces into the heart of our deepest political establishments. Cryptik’s art comes from a place of spirituality and his zen visual mastery.

Nomadé are the warriors of creation, not powered by weapons but by intensity and a powerful visceral style. The world of Eddie Colla captures the consciousness of the individual and the relationship to the ever-growing environmental challenges to conformity.

“Sniffin’ Glue”

New Puppy Gallery

2808 Elm Street Unit #1

Los Angeles, CA 90065

323.439.3355

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MOCA Presents: “Art In The Streets” (Los Angeles, CA)

JR

brooklyn-street-art-jr-moca-arts-in-the-streetsJR “The Wrinkles in the City 2011”  Photo Courtesy © MOCA

Street artist JR has installed a new piece on the Alameda street side of our Geffen Contemporary building in Little Tokyo. The work is part of a 20 artwork project called The Wrinkles of The City that is currently being unveiled at locations around Los Angeles. It’s also part of MOCA’s upcoming exhibition Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art.

MOCA Press Release:

APRIL 17–AUGUST 8, 2011 / THE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY AT MOCA

The Museum of Contemporary Art presents Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum exhibition of the history of graffiti and street art. The exhibition will trace the development of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to the global movement it has become today, concentrating on key cities where a unique visual language or attitude has evolved. Following MOCA’s presentation, the exhibition will travel to the Brooklyn Museum, where it will be on view March 30–July 8, 2012.

Art in the Streets will showcase installations by 50 of the most dynamic artists from the graffiti and street art community, including Fab 5 Freddy (New York), Lee Quiñones (New York), Futura (New York), Margaret Kilgallen (San Francisco), Swoon (New York), Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles), Os Gemeos (São Paulo), and JR (Paris). MOCA’s exhibition will emphasize Los Angeles’s role in the evolution of graffiti and street art, with special sections dedicated to cholo graffiti and Dogtown skateboard culture. The exhibition will feature projects by influential local artists such as Craig R. Stecyk III, Chaz Bojórquez, Mister Cartoon, RETNA, SABER, REVOK, and RISK.

A special emphasis will be placed on photographers and filmmakers who documented graffiti and street art culture including Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, James Prigoff, Steve Grody, Gusmano Cesaretti, Estevan Oriol, Ed Templeton, Larry Clark, Terry Richardson, and Spike Jonze. A comprehensive timeline illustrated with artwork, photography, video, and ephemera will provide further historical context for the exhibition.

Art in the Streets will feature several shows within the show. There will be a special section dedicated to the Fun Gallery, which connected New York graffiti artists with the downtown art community in the early 1980s. Co-curated by gallery founder Patti Astor, the Fun Gallery installation will feature the work of Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the graffiti artists who shaped the gallery’s history. A section dedicated to the seminal film Wild Style (1983), co-curated by the film’s director Charlie Ahearn, will document its influence on the global dissemination of graffiti and hip-hop culture. The exhibition will also feature a memorial presentation of Battle Station, a rarely seen work by legendary artist and theorist RAMMELLZEE, and a display of graffiti black books and other historic works from the Martin Wong Collection presented in collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York. A highlight of the exhibition will be a Los Angeles version of Street Market, a re-creation of an urban street complete with overturned trucks by Todd James, Barry McGee, and Steve Powers.

The exhibition will open with a skate ramp designed by pro-skater Lance Mountain and artist Geoff McFetridge. Skate demonstrations by the Nike SB skate team will be held onsite for the duration of the exhibition.

“Art in the Streets will be the first exhibition to position the work of the most influential artists to emerge from street culture in the context of contemporary art history,” said MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch.

“This quintessentially urban and dynamic partnership between the Brooklyn Museum and MOCA began with the 2005 Brooklyn-organized exhibition of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the consummate American street artist of his generation; continued with the MOCA-organized ©MURAKAMI in 2007, defining critical elements of worldwide street art; and now culminates with a groundbreaking exhibition devoted entirely to street art and graffiti,” said Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman. “The partnership has, in itself, provided a major record of public art over the past half century.”

Art in the Streets is organized by Jeffrey Deitch and associate curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose. Gastman is the author of The History of American Graffiti, which will be released in April 2011, and was a consulting producer on the film Exit Through The Gift Shop. Rose curated the exhibition Beautiful Losers and directed the related documentary film. Ethel Seno, editor of Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art, is the curatorial coordinator of the exhibition. The Brooklyn Museum’s presentation will be organized by Managing Curator of Exhibitions Sharon Matt Atkins.

ART IN THE STREETS CATALOGUE
A comprehensive catalogue on the history of graffiti and street art published by Skira Rizzoli and edited by Nikki Columbus, former associate editor of Artforum, will accompany the exhibition. The book traces the birth and dissemination of styles through the stories of graffiti writers and street artists all over the world. It features a foreword by Deitch and essays by Carlo McCormick, Greg Tate, and Diedrich Diederichsen. It also features interviews and discussions with influential street artists about wild style, cholo graffiti, and the art that emerged from skate and punk subcultures. Additional contributors include Fab 5 Freddy, KET, Caleb Neelon, Lydia Yee, Kathy Grayson, Cheech Marin, Bill Daniel, and Hiroshi Fujiwara. The book was designed by Conny Purtill, whose previous projects include Barry McGee: The Buddy System and Beautiful Losers.

RELATED EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
An extensive program of educational and community workshops will complement the exhibition. As part of its exhibition sponsorship and ongoing community collaboration initiative, Levi’s® will host the Levi’s® Film Workshop at MOCA, offering a diverse schedule of programming that celebrates the craft of filmmaking and explores the exhibition’s subject matter. Access to the Levi’s® Film Workshop’s resources is open to all and free of charge.

Special versions of Associate Curator Aaron Rose’s Make Something!! educational project will also be presented at Culver City High School and at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in conjunction with Nike SB. Art in the Streets will include a graffiti and street art film festival presented in collaboration with the Cinefamily, and music and dance programs featuring some of the originators of hip-hop and break dancing.

Art in the Streets is made possible by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Sydney Irmas Exhibition Endowment.

Major support is provided by Levi’s®. Additional support is provided by Mandy and Cliff Einstein, Nike SB, MOCA Contemporaries, MOCA Partners, and Montana Colors.

In-kind media support is provided by Ovation, Los Angeles magazine, and KCRW 89.9 FM.

Saturday in the Streets is presented by Ovation.

MEMBERS’ OPENING
Saturday, April 16, 7–10pm
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Join us for another legendary opening party at MOCA as we premier Art in the Streets, featuring performances by the stars of the classic hip-hop film, Wild Style—Busy Bee, Cold Crush Brothers with Grandmaster Caz—and the award-winning B-Boy crew from Los Angeles, Killafornia. Cash bar.
INFO 213/621-1794 or membership1@moca.org
FREE for MOCA members, $25 for additional guests

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