Style Wars! A new interpretation of it is blazoned across the Houston Wall thanks to Optimo NYC, who is rather owning it recently. This free-wheeling ever changing magnet for attention in a very gentrified Manhattan cheers the fans of true graffiti almost daily right now, buffeted by the roar of traffic and the occasional rock band playing in front of it.
The many flavors of New York street art and graffiti are everywhere – in community murals speaking about mental health, aerosol tags in doorways, in wheatpasted poems on subway columns, in soldiered sculptures on the sides of parking signs. New Yorkers love to be expressive, and in general, indulge one another’s imperfect ways of doing it. There is usually someone who is crowing about the golden age of New York, and who can deny one person’s perspective. Ever the optimists, we see the changes, the losses, the gains, and the free-wheeling spirit alive on the streets, and we think New York is having a golden age right now.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: EVOL, Cey Adams, Giani NYC, No Sleep, Mort Art, JDL, Optimo NYC, Chris RWK, SEIMR, RUTHE, Scott McDonald, Sawr, Tymon De Laat, Amill Onair, Sherwin Banfield, and David H. Wagner.
Yosh, the French street artist and muralist, has recently completed a colorful new mural in Paris with the Art Azoi organization. The artwork is painted on a long one-story wall and showcases Yosh’s signature style, which is characterized by vibrant and often surreal images in a cartoon-graffiti style, with a focus on animals and marine life.
Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)
Yosh’s history as a street artist and illustration techniques has evolved since beginning as a teen graffiti writer influenced by US hip-hop culture. In recent years he has participated in various street art festivals and events, exhibited his work in galleries and art spaces in Paris and has created murals and public art installations in various locations, including Paris, Amsterdam, and Barcelona. Additionally, Yosh has collaborated with various high profile sportswear and cosmetic brands and created custom artwork and designs for music and art festivals. Yosh’s creative inspiration comes from his passion for nature and animals and his travels and experiences, which he often draws upon to create on the street.
Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)Yosh in collaboration with Art Azoï. Karcher Square, Paris. (photo courtesy of Art Azoï)
Production of the artist YOSH @yoshlepoisson on the wall of Karcher Square, 163 Pyrenees Street. Paris, France. Produced by @art_azoi Curated by @cristo_liquide & @eliseherszkowicz In collaboration with @mairiedu20
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Kukeri/ A Bulgarian Dance Tradition at Everyday Icons
2. Merch Alien Graffiti Via Superchief Gallery
3. Indecency Is Turning Love Into Hate. Via Indecline
BSA Special Feature: Kukeri/ A Bulgarian Dance Tradition at Everyday Icons
And you thought it all came from Nick Cave, didn’t you? Here we are, confronted with the form. This piece reveals the sublimely surreal essence of humans and magicians and the spirit of creativity versus the evil spirits.
“Once a year, the Bulgarian tradition of Kukeri unites a small village as residents wear intricate masks and costumes and dance at night. Killian Lassablière chronicles the practice in his short documentary.”
Merch Alien Graffiti Via Superchief Gallery
Aliens don’t get enough props in the graff game. A little preview of a work in progress with MERCH and Coolinternetdude.
Indecency Is Turning Love Into Hate. Via Indecline
Here’s InDecline giving Nashville the business with a billboard takeover that stands up for something. It’s a pleasure to see street artists using their power of activism to draw attention to topics they care about and that impact people – rather than simply selling a product or their latest print or exhibition.
Since the 1960s, with the Nouveau Réalisme art group, people like Jacques Villeglé became one of the first street artists to rip and lacerate posters wheat-pasted atop one another in thick layers. Each rip was revelatory, literally, and his process of collage through destruction captured the imagination of everyone from the American street artist duo Faile to the Portuguese titan Vhils. We have even seen a collaged canvas by New York OG abstract graffiti king Futura made entirely of shredded remnants from the street artfully arranged as a collage.
But no one has achieved this effect in kiln-fired tiles, until today.
Another Portuguese artist well-known in the street art/mural world, ADD FUEL, is doing exactly that, laying his design and “resituated” iconography across his signature tile arrangements. There are endless iterations to explore, which may be why he retained the root of that word to give a title to his new show at Galerie Itinerrance in Paris.
“‘ITER’ is built on a collection of distinctive tile patterns inspired by various cultures, combined in the expected celebration of blue, but also an unexpectedly harmoniously integrated with several intrepid colors that aim to explore the journey through the unexplored rainbow path,” says the exhibition description. “Each of these color accents adds a layer of depth and vibrancy to the intricate patterns on display, accentuating the blue palette and taking viewers on a journey of discovery, whilst inviting them to explore the nuances and beauty of each tile design.”
At the root of his practice is his inexhaustible fascination with the tile craft as well as his determined effort to explore within such a medium – one that will give permanence to his work in a way that many street artists wouldn’t dare wish. When you preview this show, you understand why the press release says it is a “stunning exhibition that showcases his remarkable skill and creativity while also drawing attention to the cultural significance of tile design.”
ITER Latin Noun · a journey · a course · a path.
SHOW INFORMATION Opening reception with the artist on May 12 from 6pm to 10pm On view from May 12 to June 17 Free admission
Galerie Itinerrance 24b Bd du Général d’Armée Jean Simon 75013 Paris, France
Chase Contemporary is announcing an upcoming solo exhibition for renowned graffiti artist Angel Ortiz, also known as LA II/ LA2. Titled “ODE 2 NYC,” the show will feature 30 new canvas works in Ortiz’s vibrant and playful geometric style, which evokes the atmosphere of early 1980s New York.
Silver on Blue (H&T), 2022 Acrylic & Silver marker on canvas 60 x 72 in
Ortiz, a New York City-based, self-taught artist of Puerto Rican descent, is known for his early citywide graffiti projects with his crew TNS (The Non-Stoppers) and for his collaborations with Keith Haring, which took them around the world to participate in numerous gallery installations, fashion shows, and museum exhibitions. Ortiz’s signature style combines contemporary geometric, abstract symbols with influences attributed to hieroglyphics and calligraphy.
Teflon Don, 2023 Acrylic and marker on canvas 36h x 36w in
His signature motif is his street tag LAII/LA2, completed in a dense, nearly overlapping pattern he refers to as “High & Tight”. He weaves it with geometric patterns and animated characters that he created, such as the TV and Spray Can characters.
Ortiz’s contributions to the art world are said to have been overlooked for a long time after Haring’s death, and there has been an effort from some of those closest to him to rewrite his contributions back into the history books. The new exhibition will give him a new platform – a solo exhibition in New York. Word has it that a full-length documentary may be in the works for release next year.
Purrfect, 2023 Acrylic and marker on canvas 24h x 24w inHudson, 2023 Acrylic and marker on canvas 24h x 24w in
“Substratum” is the latest exhibition by Spanish artist Gonzalo Borondo on the occasion of the Fotografia Europea Festival. Borondo, a renowned street artist, is set to unveil his latest project, taking a measured look at the complex themes of cultural heritage and its conservation. Through analog and digital photography, Borondo challenges viewers to think about the past and its relationship with the present, using semitransparent materials to create a diorama-like effect that gives the artwork a spatial and temporal diffusion.
Borondo’s latest installation departs and adheres to the spirits enlivened in his previous street artwork; he focuses on a personal and collective archive to create a small imaginative Pantheon that highlights humankind’s ancestral need to believe in something. The exhibition, gently aflame in the gallery space, is a thoughtful and provocative exploration of cultural heritage, which Borondo navigates with awareness and authenticity.
As a European artist trained more on the street than in academies, Borondo brings a unique perspective to the conversation involving cultural heritage, inclusion and exclusion, ownership, and relevance. Through his work and his proposals of new ways of looking at the past and examining our relationship with the present, Gonzalo may well be encouraging visitors to consider how we can construct a multicultural and multiethnic society open to all of our stories.
Cato knows that immigrants (documented and undocumented) greatly benefit the country economically because they base their exhaustive study on data collected by the US Government, which also annually makes meticulous studies of the benefits of having immigrant labor to keep an economy alive and growing. But it is not only think tanks and governments who keep this meticulously detailed data proving the net financial benefits of keeping workers employed who are not granted equal pay, rights, or protections; so do all the banks and corporations across the globe.
Shepard Fairey Workers’ Rights Canvas : Mixed Media Painting Mixed Media 44 inches by 60 inches 2016
Imagine how you would benefit if you could hire workers in your business who live in fear of getting arrested or being separated from family members. You could pay them lower wages and offer no sick days, vacation days, pensions, insurance, medical care, or even safe working conditions. These business owners know that these lowered costs and repressed wages make them more significant profit. It has always been true and, for many, a temptation too great to resist.
So why don’t we see this on the news or hear it from the political class? We rarely, if ever, do.
Today on International Workers Day, celebrated in much of the world, we’ll be regaled instead by stories of frightful “illegals” at the border and the Biden administration’s plans to lift Title 42 restrictions, and how we’ll soon be flooded by arriving Mexicans, Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. If the past is prologue, and it usually is, the US and its captains of industry will continue to profit from the labor of new arrivals as it has for centuries, despite any heated rhetoric from your TV news host of choice.
Shepard Fairey. Immigration Reform Now! Offset Print 24 x 35 inches Edition of Open
Street artist and fine artist Shepard Fairey has kept our collective eye on socio-political matters through his posters, advocacy, and donations of work and time to causes of the worker over the last three decades or so, and today we feature some of his work to celebrate May 1st. He also offers a few words to BSA readers as we think about the contributions of immigrants to the economic and cultural wealth of the US and how all workers deserve fundamental basic rights no matter who they are.
I’m an immigrant rights activist because I believe in the promise of opportunity this country was founded on. The U.S. is a country built on immigration by people leaving their homes to build a better life. That concept should not be something only open to white Europeans from decades and centuries past, but for all those seeking work and asylum. Only a short while ago whites were the immigrants to this land seeking a better life, so let’s not allow short memory and racism to diminish our compassion for those who want to work hard for a good life in the U.S. now!”
Where is the mafia news? Have you noticed how there is no news anymore about the mafia in the US? No sting operations, uncovered networks, perp walks, or wagging tongues? The New York tabloids used to go for days about Don this and Don that, accompanied by blurry surveillance photos in black and white. Did the mafia disappear? All our companies and industries and institutions are relatively free of corruption now, right?
Now our gripping concerns across the country are wokeism, racism, transphobia, ableism, ageism, pronouns, immigrants on the border, the government itself, abortion, and gun control. There are two teams, two sides; One is patently evil, and the other clearly is virtuous. Patriot vs Terrorist. Your solemn, weighty decision is to pick which team you are on and to join in the great debate as we head into election season, evidence of our thriving democracy! Go Team Good!
This week we wander through the seemingly emptier streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, The Village, and Soho to discover what street artists are bringing to their audience with earnest amor de primavera. The results are bracing, racing, effete, mysterious, hip hop, heady, graphic, and subversive: even as the flowering trees and ground vegetation is abloom, and the April rains have been prodigious.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis, CRKSHNK, VOZ, Lexi Bella, Pear, Zexor, CP Won, Ollin, Phetus88, Eternal Possessions, Humble, Font147, and Whatifier.
URBAN NATION has launched an exhibition to address mental health concerns and issues in today’s society. The exhibit was prompted by feedback from museum visitors, who were asked to suggest topics that needed to be discussed. UN reports that the majority of responses focused on mental health, and the exhibit is a response to this concern.
The featured artworks explore emotions and modern life’s stress on mental health. One of the main issues addressed in the exhibit is loneliness. The COVID-19 pandemic only worsened feelings of isolation and disconnectedness; with more people, particularly young people, reporting that they were experiencing anxiety, depression, and self-harm, often compounded by social media.
The exhibition Loneliness and Other False Friends is part of the M series that began a decade ago, now in its 19th edition, or Project M/19. Associated with the main museum’s current exhibition Talking… & Other Banana Skins aims to raise awareness of mental health issues and spark conversations about this critical topic. By showcasing these artworks, visitors are encouraged to reflect on their own experiences and the experiences of others, perhaps spurring meaningful discussions of a deeper quality.
As is often the case with the community-centered vision and voice of UN lead curator Michele Houston, the exhibit is an excellent opportunity to learn about mental health and how it affects individuals and society. Through transference and reflection, the exhibition may catalyze analysis of topics that are often elusive to describe or quantify, in this case providing visitors tools to countenance the emotional toll that modern life can take on people, raising awareness of the importance of mental health.
PROJECT M/19 LONELINESS AND OTHER FALSE FRIENDS URBAN NATION Project Space BÜLOWSTR. 97, 10783 BERLIN EXHIBITION DURATION: 28 APRIL 2023 – 18 AUGUST 2023
ACCOMPANYING THE EXHIBITION On the occasion of the ceremonial opening of LONELINESS AND OTHER FALSE FRIENDS and in conjunction with Gallery Weekend, URBAN NATION presents a programme beyond the exhibition. 5 Berlin-based artists will create new murals, to join what is collectively called the C-Walls (Community Walls). Each will reflect the exhibition theme on and around Bülowstraße. PARTICIPATING ARTISTS: CARO PEPE, DEVITA, HONEY BEEBS, LAKE AND MATE.
The exhibition serves as a space for public discourse, conversations, and workshops. Event highlights include a mural design with artist Honey Beebs in collaboration with the Anna Freud School. In addition, there is the art workshop “Talk about it” with artist Fehmi Baumbach and photographer Darius Ramazani in partnership with Freunde fürs Leben e.V. for children in grades 11 to 13.
Inside the exhibition, there is a large seating area where visitors are encouraged to engage with the works and receive further reading material on mental health topics.
Bülowstrasse 7 10783 Berlin Germany info@urban-nation.com
Click HERE for more details, hours of operation, tickets, etc.
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Da Corte looks at Everyday Icons
2. Vhils – Jose Saramago
3. FUTURA on How To Think About Identity + Brand, and The Power of Collaboration. Via Idea Generation
BSA Special Feature: Alex Da Corte looks at Everyday Icons
“In a darkened gallery, artist Alex Da Corte appears projected on the wall in Slow Graffiti (2017) as Boris Karloff, performing as both the actor himself and his 1931 role as Frankenstein’s monster, blurring the lines between actor and character. In his work, the artist never appears as himself, but rather, embodies the larger-than-life characters who influence or intrigue him: Mr. Rogers, the Wicked Witch of the West, Marcel Duchamp, and the Pink Panther are but a handful. Studying these characters who exist in worlds of fantasy and cartoon and integrating them into his own expansive artistic vision, Da Corte hopes to gain a deeper understanding of them and learn new ways of thinking. Alex Da Corte was born in Camden, New Jersey, in 1980 and lives and works in Philadelphia.
Da Corte creates vibrant and immersive large-scale installations, including wall-based works, sculptures, and videos. Colorful and surreal, his work combines personal narrative, art-historical references, pop-culture characters, and the glossy aesthetics of commercial advertising to reveal the humor, absurdity, and psychological complexity of the images and stories that permeate our culture.”
Alex Da Corte / “Everyday Icons” – Season 11 – “Art in the Twenty-First Century”. Via Art21
Vhils – Jose Saramago
“That is the virtue of maps, they show what can be done with limited space, they foresee that everything can happen therein.” José Saramago, The Stone Raft
FUTURA on How To Think About Identity + Brand, and The Power of Collaboration. Via Idea Generation
“What’s a good idea, what’s a bad idea…you gotta give both a shot”
“Street Art pioneer FUTURA started painting his name on walls as a coping mechanism to deal with his struggle with identity. But as he turned a signature into a brand, he quickly realized that it could also be a business. And that’s where things got interesting. From Lower East Side galleries to t-shirts and toys to collaborations with nearly every blue chip brand you can name, over the last 40 years, FUTURA has redefined what it means to be a pop artist.”
Contemporary artist and muralist Sebas Velasco was born in 1988 in Burgos, a city in northern Spain. His disciplined romance with painting continues to produce nighttime scenes of the urban every day, mysterious, gloomy, but not necessarily forlorn. Large-scale scenes incorporate elements of the surrounding architecture and marginal cityscape, his canvasses are painterly, blurred, and focused on the emotional, and psychological trajectory of a life lived alongside the wreckage of a city, often solitary figures seeking adventure in gritty, industrial scenes.
Velasco often uses a combination of spray paint and acrylic paint to create his murals and canvas paintings, sometimes incorporating stenciling and other forms of street art into his work, a unique blend of traditional and contemporary techniques.
Today we pass along the news that Sebas is offering two of his nighttime reveries as prints for a short time and at more affordable prices than his other work demands today. Named after favorite songs by bands in Yugoslavia and Poland, the two prints capture this moment in his career, this time of unsettling transitions, insecure daily existence where it seems that anything is possible, and chaos is probable.
“Titles for the work often draw from song titles, Kao da je Bilo Nekad (As it was once before) was named after a song from EKV; a Serbian and former Yugoslav rock band from Belgrade and Kalejdoskop Moich Dróg (Kaleidoscope of my ways) is from a Polish Reggae band called Daab. This fusion in the margins almost feels like spring, stolen moments that can be shared – in lingering romantic brush strokes. If you are interested, we included a link below to learn more.
From the press release, “Compositions are collaged from his own photography to create impossible yet familiar vistas, his brutal constructions become stoic remnants of a memory lost to time.”
Timed Edition Print Release Artist Sebas Velasco Kalejdoskop Moich Dróg (Kaleidoscope of my ways) (left) Kao da je Bilo Nekad (As it Was Once Before) (right) Fine Art Print Giclee on Hahnemühle 310gsm Hand Pulled Varnish Finish 45cm x 45cm
Launch Wednesday 26th April 16:00 CET / 15:00 GMT / 07:00 PST Ending Friday 28th April 16:00 CET / 15:00 GMT / 07:00 PST Prints purchased within the first 12 hours will have free shipping anywhere in the world and will receive the special rate per print
Barcelona-based muralist, fine artist, and experimenter Sixe Paredes is associated with his vibrant extractions with a geometric lightness. His stylized murals may have elements of nature, mythology, and indigenous echoes; delivered in a whimsical, surreal, and engaging way that keeps even his most static work moving. At work for the last two decades, building a name and a personal brand, Paredes has been commissioned to create murals and installations for a variety of public and private spaces around the world, including museums, galleries, and corporate headquarters.
A couple of weeks we wrote about Aryz, the Catalan artist being the first artist invited to paint at BesArt The River Museum. Today we have a new mural by Sixe Paredes as well. A project under the umbrella of the municipality of Santa Coloma de Gramenet, the Mediterranean Association of Street Art, and the Royal Artistic Circle of Barcelona, their goal is to invite a constellation of local, national, and international artists to execute works of art on the river’s walls. An excellent addition, he creates a new colorful abstraction along the river banks for summer.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
