All posts tagged: Book Reviews

“Daze World”, the Artist and Book from City to Canvas and Back

“Daze World”, the Artist and Book from City to Canvas and Back

May 2, 2016

“This is not an autobiography in the practical sense. I didn’t cover the day-to-day minutia of my childhood or formative teenage years all the way to the present. Rather, I have chosen to take the reader on a journey that covers some of the seminal moments in my life. Those moments shaped my art and allowed me to continue to evolve as an artist,” says graffiti/street/studio artist DAZE of the brand new collection of images and essays that make up “Daze World,” the new hardcover from Schiffer.

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

The trains of the 1970s are formative and foundational to the NYC story and Daze is happy to talk to you about his love affair with the cars, tracks, tunnels, yards. Also important to him is his gradual transition in the early and mid-1980s to canvas and galleries.  It is a transition that may be insurmountable, or at least treacherous, for a graffiti writer.

A contributor to the book Jay J. SON Edlin, the noted graffiti historian and author, focuses the reader on this subject of transitions as he lays out the various phases of discovery that the young Chris Ellis went through, including when he left Brooklyn to attend the High School of Art and Design in Manhattan in 1976 with “a who’s who of graffiti’s illuminati.”

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

Here are the photos you love of his trains and early gallery shows, many of which are taken by photographer Martha Cooper, as well those of a wide array of celebrities, night life personalities, and close painting peers over the years – perhaps chief among them his frequent painting partner Crash. There are many collaborative trains and walls that capture the action and interaction as well, such as a 2003 explosion of style and storytelling in Sao Paulo, Brazil with Binho, Ciro, Does, and Fuk – as well as a 1992 wall for the Graffiti Hall of Fame painted with Dez, and Skeme in a photo by Ms. Cooper.

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

The insightful chapter “From City as Canvas to Canvas as City” clearly identifies the transom that Daze has been traveling back and forth on in his 4 decade painting career and writer Claire Schwartz helps us understand the visual vocabulary at work and how Daze developed it over time along with his painting craft. This continuous application of lessons learned on the street and in the studio over the years has landed his work in well regarded private collections and institutions and taken him to cities and opportunities around the world.

As far as Daze’s World is concerned, the artist will tell you “the saga continues…”

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

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DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis. Schiffer Publishing. Atglen, PA. 2016

 

All photos taken by and © Jaime Rojo

 

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis available through Schiffer Publishing.

Chris DAZE Ellis: The City Is My Muse currently on view at the Museum Of The City Of New York through May 31st 2016. Click HERE for further information.

 

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Alan KET Brings You “Urban Art Legends”

Alan KET Brings You “Urban Art Legends”

January 19, 2016

A new hard cover book by Alan Ket aka KET One will be released next month that spotlights a select group of artists from both the graffiti and Street Art scenes, people whom KET calls “Urban Art Legends”.

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This book is about the artists who have pioneered, promoted and transformed this ‘other’ art world,” says the author, himself a graffiti writer, artist, curator, activist, advisor and entrepreneur. What is fresh about his approach is the egalitarian respect that is given to artists regardless of their genre or associated scene, something we have always tried to balance as well amid a sometimes turbulent volley of antagonism that can sometimes distinguish graffiti/street art discourse.

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here “Urban Art Legends” focuses on a short list of widely agreed upon influencers of art in the streets throughout the last half century – since the early gang and tagging days of the late 60s in NY/Philly/LA through its various evolutions of the figurative, cartoon-inspired, Wild Style, symbolist, and abstract iterations to its intersections with fine art and DIY movements and pop, politics, illustration, duplication, and multiples. He’s right, this is the ‘other’ art world – and we daily see signs that it is seriously altering the more conventional contemporary art world, sometimes remaking it in its image.

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With names as varied as Crash, Cost, Blade, ROA, Lee, Banksy, Sane Smith, Faith47, Daze, Nick Walker, and Kase2 – “Urban Art Legends” reaches its arms wide to encompass style masters and stencil masters, each with a brief bio, overview and rationale for their “Legendary Status”. Consider it a primer that adds further rich detail to the canon. KET freely concedes “This is not the definitive book on urban street art. The world of street art is so dynamic and fast-paced that the story is still being lived out,” and elsewhere he says, “there are many more who deserve recognition.”

With that in mind, KET has beautifully captured many important artists and their stories in “Urban Art Legends”

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

New Yorkers will have an opportunity to meet the author and two of those legends on February 9th at the Museum of the City of New York. DAZE and Nick Walker will join KET to discuss KET’s new book and visitors can also see the new show Chris “Daze” Ellis: The City is My Muse.

March 2nd it will be BSA and Daze in conversation at the museum so you can put that in your calendar as well.

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

“Urban Art Legends” by KET published by Lom Art. London 2015
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The Adventures Of Anthony Lister

The Adventures Of Anthony Lister

May 18, 2015

Superhero and Street Artist/painter/contemporary artist Anthony Lister still crushes walls thank you very much. He never left the street actually – he just opened the door to the studio as well. And he lit things on fire in both.

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Formally trained, he is one of the few of those much maligned art school kids painting on the street whom some graff heads allow themselves to admire, mostly because he doesn’t seem to give a good f**k. Don’t be mislead – he is a superhero as well as a villain, aesthete as much as vandal, respectful of convention even while shredding it. Anyone watching him work over the last decade will tell you that he cares very much and he is willing to do the heavy intellectual/emotional/physical labor to bring it to another level.

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Not-quite “mid-career” this collection none-the-less sets him up for it and a smart museum would be reading these pages carefully, pouring over the tags, Lister family tour stickers, inflateables, masks, installations, performances, – as well as the more formal canvasses and supercharged murals – and considering where this child/adult paradox fits into the record of art history.

It’s the poetic movement of Degas ballerinas as much as the busty cellulite-free duct taped anti-heroines that captivate and denigrate. His slouching insouciance belies a rabid unglued ferocity that will mock mass consumer culture and then smother you in pink frosting and rainbows, stubbing his cigarette in the mountain of sugar and Crisco like it is the final candied cherry.

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adventure Painter, the mid-sized Lister tome released last year on Gingko, lets you see the rage and the release all at once. He’s furious because he’s paying attention – well thank God somebody is.

With figures that are alive, gestural, stylish and taunting, these beauties will save, lay, or kill you – perhaps all three. The  portraits are full of quixotic personality, angst and revulsion. We imagine Listers’ people lustily self-mocking and fantastic while jumping off dangerous cliffs and sleekly folding into a roll out of it without suffering the crash. From their perch below they look up to you standing on the ledge and beckon, “Okay, your turn!”

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” is published by Gingko Press and available at book stores worldwide.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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Dreaming While Inter-Viewing: Stormie Mills book “DWI YMA”

Dreaming While Inter-Viewing: Stormie Mills book “DWI YMA”

October 4, 2014

It is a stormy day outside the window today in Brooklyn – rain is coming down in sheets and the sky is a silvery grey and the leaves are holding on to the trees for dear life, not ready to fall. Feels like a good day to hang out with a book with Stormie.

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

A native of Perth in western Australia the street artist and illustrator Stormie Mills  has been painting for three decades and his monochromatic palette has taken him to the streets and galleries of cities like London, New York, Tokyo, and Miami along with Sydney and Melbourne. He calls his work an exploration of the human condition but you won’t find humans here, strictly.

The black/white/grey/silver characters are confronting the exigencies of life singularly, exhibiting feelings of ennui and consternation as each situation arises, often with a bit of costumery to help with perspective. The mood can be dark and without escape but their shape, proportion, and turn of the wrist lighten the room – a humorous stance that keeps the dramas in proportion. Mills work keeps you in a dreamlike state just below consciousness and while you flip through this book you may stay there quite a while.

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

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Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. (photo of layout by Jaime Rojo)

 

Stormie Mills DWI YMA Magenta Group Pty Ltd. Australia 2013

 

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!
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