All posts tagged: Cekis

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.09.21

May 9, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Nomadland won the Oscar for the best movie this year, a fact that you may not know because A. The Oscars are nearly completely irrelevant, and B. Covid era-awards programs have been the equivalent of watching your dad unclogging the kitchen drain. An unvarnished story about a growing ecosystem of Americans living in cars, trucks, and RVs in parking lots across the country, Nomadland toes a line between blaming neo-liberal vulture capitalism/ de-industrialization of the last 40 years and dipping into the American myths of people who just want to live their life free and unencumbered.

Meanwhile, in New York more people are finding the rent to be too high and are moving into RVs, according to The Daily News this week. In the article they speak with Giovanni, a first responder whom we were probably clapping for last year when he was saving lives from Covid.

In the article Giovanni says, “I was an EMT… you want to talk struggling‚ that was really rough,” he explained. “I had to have somebody rent out my living room just to be able to cover the rent. That’s how hard it was. After doing that for three, four years, I was like, I’m done with this. I quit. I’m over it.”

“I went to college, I did pretty much everything that I was told I was supposed to do in order to have a good life. And it didn’t turn out that way,” he explained.

As the moneyed Real Estate kingpins are fighting against extending a rent moratorium in the city to August 31 and to end moratoriums across the country, you have to wonder where everyone will go once the stimulus checks have dried up, inflation kicks in, and landlords evict people.

Meanwhile, we’re following the street art in a number of neighborhoods in New York this week – and wondering where the topical or political works are. The current generation who are putting work on the streets may venture into politics, but only identity politics. BLM, trans rights, that sort of thing.

New York is headed toward 70% vaccinated soon and the city is actually talking about offering to vaccinate tourists! Soon you can go to the Met, see a Broadway show, eat dinner in Little Italy, get cursed out by a homeless guy, and get a stab in the arm from Pfizer! New York, New York! It’s a wonderful town!

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: 2 Much, Armyan, Cautious5, Cekis, City Kitty, Cramcept, Denton Burrows, GIZ, Healer, Homesick, Leviticus, LNE Crew, Lunge Box, MalincheArt, MeresOne, MrBbaby, No Sleep, Paul Richard, Ponzi, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, Smart, and Stikki Peaches.

Stikki Peaches. Welcome Back to the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis for the Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis for the Bushwick Collective. Unfortunately somebody got there before I did… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Citi Kitty with Lunge Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ramiro Davaro-Comas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smart and GIZ for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smart The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GIZ for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Denton Burrows with Cramcept (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Malinche. We are trying to figure out why would the artist associate a murderous, vicious cartel leader such as El Chapo with Lady Liberty iconography. The infamous drug dealer is currently held in a Federal prison in Brooklyn serving a long, long sentence. Is Malinche asking for his release? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sort of like our economy, this is Ponzi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

…and it has worked. Leviticus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Peony. Spring 2021. Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.10.19

November 10, 2019 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week, baked fresh daily for you from New York, infused naturally with a gritty melange of international flavors. In this city, global IS local.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Adam Fu, Aine, Cekis, Cole Ridge, HOACS, HOXXOH, Jeremy Novy, Lik Mi, Low Bros, Phetus88, Soten, Such, Tito Ferrars, and Trace.

Top banner Tito Ferrera (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tito Ferrara for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

HOXXOH for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. November 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.20.17

August 20, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adnate, Ben Angotti, Cekis, Cesism, Damien Mitchell, Danielle Mastrion, Dirt Cobain, Evan Paul English, Gongkan, Li-Hill, MeresOne, UFO 907, Vince Ballentine, and You Go Girl!

Top image: Li-Hill. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate and Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate at work. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate and Li-Hill collaboration for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adnate. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion with MeresOne for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MeresOne for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Cobain for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Angotti for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vince Ballentine for Stuyvesant Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UFO907 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Evan Paul English for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis and Cesism for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gongkan for Centrefuge Public Art Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. East Village, NYC. August 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.11.17

June 11, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

“Yes, I’m an infowarrior,” says the African American yelling about how CNN is promoting Sharia Law in downtown Manhattan for the #MarchAgainstSharia and a short distance away someone is wrapping the “Fearless Girl” statue with a black burka. The infowarrior is wearing a red “Make America Free” baseball hat and very much seems like he might be gay. And then your head explodes.

Welcome to the “Disinformation Age.”

But New York is waaaaaay too diverse to even countenance this weird new wave of anti-Islam sentiment and the counter-demonstrators with their signs dwarfed the haters– and being good liberals, they probably invited them to come over for dinner after all that yelling.

Otherwise the weather has been gorgeous and Street Artists have been getting up in New York, when they are not too busy fighting about the David Choe wall and calculating new ways to spray over it. We have brand new mural works from people like Dasic, Cekis, and Case Maclaim, and there is a lot more political content in the new free-range Street Art that we are seeing, with much of it focused on the corruption at the top of the national government, racism, environmental matters, the growing police state.

The Puerto Rican Day Parade is today down 5th Avenue, with people celebrating – and also fighting over the “freedom fighter”/ “Terrorist” Oscar López Rivera, who was going to be the Grand Marshall but whom will now simply be a marcher. And Lucy Sparrow tells us that “Vagisil” and champagne are the two big sellers at her temporary bodega under the Standard Hotel that is 9000 items made entirely of Felt. Our own story on that this week, so there’s something to look forward to, along with 90 degree weather and more brain-frying tweets from 45 in the White House while the Congress is emptying all the cupboards, privatizing everything that used to be the people’s and leaving the back door open for banks.

Other than that, everything is dope!

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, Beast, Blanco, Brandon Garrison, Cekis, Dasic, Dirty Bandits, El Sol 25, FKDL, Jetsonorama, Jerk Face, Joe Iurato, Logan Hicks, Mataruda, Mr. Toll, Myth NYC, Opiemme, S0th1s, and She Wolf.

At the top: Dasic and Cekis collab for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic in action. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

S0th1s (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato and Logan Hicks restored collab for The Bushwick Collective Block just in time for the block party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FKDL for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Roof top view of The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brandon Garrison (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trainwwg (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Fujita and Dirty Bandits. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Blanco has a new piece about prison and police reform, including advocating for the closure of New York’s Rikers Island. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mataruda (left) and Jetsonorama (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth and She Wolf collab. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerk Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Disney Dollars (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Opiemme in and abandoned USA base in Ligure, Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Beast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Bushwick, Brooklyn. June 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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!

Queens Hit “Top To Bottom” by New Mural Project in L.I.C.

January 20, 2016 Artists

The spirit of New Yorks’ 5 Pointz graffiti/Street Art holy place has popped up in the same Queens neighborhood where it was demolished in 2014, and since last summer more than 50 local and international aerosol artists have been hitting a new project “Top to Bottom”.

brooklyn-street-art-icy-sot-arts-org-LIC-jaime-rojo-01-16-web

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The choice of “Top to Bottom”, a graffiti term that recalls 1970s trains painted their entire height, is no mistake as creative director James P. Quinn reveres the classic style and histories of those original writers like internationally and institutionally celebrated artists Crash and Daze, who have collaborated on a mural here.

Additionally, in yet another sign that the celebration of art on the streets is ever more ecumenical, Quinn and his project lead Geoff Kuffner are bringing the newer Street Artists who are expanding and defining the current era for art in the streets like Case Ma’Claim and Rubin 415. Not surprisingly, both of these artists started in graffiti, as did nearly every name here.

Case MaClaim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I felt like a comfortable amount of space should be allocated to certain styles,” says Quinn as he describes the process of parceling out spots for the façade and roof of the 124,000-square-foot former warehouse. Truthfully, he tells us, not all the surfaces and shapes are attractive to graffiti artists, so a variety of styles is best.

“I tried to fit them in where I felt that graff writers could enjoy themselves and do something expansive. There are only a couple of spaces here that fit the epic, horizontally spaced forms of style writing. There are a lot of strange shapes to navigate as a painter here, rather than easy space to develop style as a writer.”

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quinn and Kuffner give a couple of visitors a tour around the entire block on a gray day where heavy fog hangs in the air obscuring the top half of Manhattan and they excitedly recall stories about the many installations in this first project of their newly formed Arts Org NYC. Using the word “garden” often, Quinn reiterates that this project for them is a “proof of concept” for bigger projects that will spread further through the city. “Ultimately I’m approaching it as a mural project,” says Quinn, who has organized mural programs a number of times since the 1990s. “It’s just a beginning.”

Street Art has evolved into districts of murals in cities as a gentrification device in the last five years and despite the critique that it is often used for economic development, many urban art watchers would also agree that we’re in the middle of a renaissance of public/private art. Quinn says he wants to capture part of the public’s new interest and make it grow. “I’d like to leverage the current hype and acceptance of mural painting to open up doors to people – old women, young kids, everybody.”

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The neighborhood itself feels like it is in transition but it is not clear where it is heading. With Silvercup Studios and the number 7 subway line nearby and MoMA PS1 within a 10 minute walk, a quick survey reveals mixed light industry, sweatshops, corner delis, and the occasional strip club. Below the off-ramp of the Queensboro Bridge, which sweeps past the “Top to Bottom” exhibition, you will see first and second generation immigrants from the areas’ latin and African communities walking by, and Quinn reminds you that the Queensbridge Projects where Hip-Hop storyteller NAS grew up is just a short walk from here.

Conversation turns to plans for more focused programming on the walls in Phase II, possible fine art shows with local gallery spaces, and ultimately a city-wide mural project that offers art and art-making to greater audiences, including school kids.

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I do feel like murals get focused in certain locations but I feel like the entire city as a whole is still suffering. Huge demographics aren’t getting the painting,” he says, invoking the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. “I feel like my ‘I Have a Dream’ speech about this project is that I hope it gets to the point where 10 year-olds can have as much access to a neighborhood as developers.”

Does he think that projects like this are pawns for business interests to draw investments into the neighborhood and push poorer populations out? “You can debate whether or not we are opening the way for more shiny condos… but that shit is happening whether we do this or not. For me the importance is keeping us here; So we’re not totally pushed out 30-45 minutes away from here”

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Because of its proximity to the now destroyed 5 Pointz, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of urban artists painted a much larger block repeatedly for two decades, we ask Quinn if he’s concerned with comparisons.

“I’ve always managed other projects like this in my own style and my own way. There are comparable aspects and I have nothing but a huge sensitivity and respect for Meres and 5 Pointz,” he says, referring to the artist and de facto director of the hallowed spot. “It’s comparable only because it’s a building and it’s in Long Island City. But this is only a jump-off. I want to do way more projects like this across the city.”

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As the business partners walk past new pieces by DMote, Li-Hill, Icy & Sot, and Jick, the topic of the historically strained relationship between graffiti writers and Street Artists appears to be addressed head-on by the project by the inclusion of all manner of painter. The guys say that it is less of an issue than some people would have you think. As a long-time artist and muralist and curator of projects like this, Quinn says he’s over the supposed rivalry of the two camps, and sees mainly just one camp these days.

“I don’t know what the fans of graffiti or Street Art have any problem with. To me it’s all awesome.”

DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alexandre Keto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

EGS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEVER and Dirty Bandits (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zumi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PORK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Key Details (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Yes Two (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kans115 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze . Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erasmo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For more about ArtsOrg please go to www.artsorg.nyc.

#ArtsOrgNYC and @artsorg on Instagram

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Tour Paris 13 : Fluorescent & Towering Show Book

December 13, 2014 Artists

Another book to tell you about today! Remember when BSA took you to Paris that time and we skipped the line and went into all the floors of this soon to be demolished building?

“The numbers are astounding; 105 artists, 9 floors, 36 apartments, 30,000 visitors.

One hour.

That is how much time Street Art enthusiast Spencer Elzey had to himself inside the largest gallery of Street Artists and graffiti artists ever assembled specifically to transform a building for a public show. As he looked out a window to see the snaking lines of Parisians and tourists restlessly waiting to get in, he couldn’t believe his luck to be able to walk through the exhibit by himself and get off some clear shots before the throng hit.”

That is how we described it in November 2013 when Spencer took us on a whirlwind tour of TOUR 13.

Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Published last month this towering book with the page edges sprayed neon orange was released by Mehdi Ben Cheikh in French and English to commemorate the event, and seeing the installations this way is going to make you wish the place wasn’t destroyed. 500 new photos previously unpublished allows you to see the show as you travel from the cellar to the top floors.

You may wish you had more background on the artists and the context and clearly not all of the artistry is of similar quality but you will be satiated by the images and thankful that they were recorded during their brief duration. Published by Editions Albin Michel, in partnership with the Itinerrance Gallery, this show will continue to soar long after the dust has settled.

Entes . Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inti . Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ethos .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Seth .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Moneyless .Tour Paris 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists included in the Tour Paris 13 project:

108, 2MIL FAMILIA, A1ONE, ADD FUEL, AGL, AGOSTINO IACURCI, AMINE, ALEXÖNE, ARRAIANO, AWER, AZOOZ, BOM.K, BTOY, C215, CEKIS, CELESTE JAVA, CLET, COPE2, CORLEONE, DABRO, DADO, DAN23, DAVID WALKER, DEYAA, EIME, eL SEED, ENTES, ETHOS, ETNIK, FENX, FLIP, GAËL, GILBERT, GUY DENNING, HERBERT BAGLIONE, HOGRE, HOPNN, INDIE, INTI ANSA, INTI CASTRO, JAZ, JB ROCK, JÉRÔME GULON, JIMMY C, JOYS, JULIEN COLOMBIER, KAN, KATRE, KEITH HARING, KRUELLA, LEGZ, LEK, LE CYKLOP, LILIWENN, LOIOLA, LUDO, MAIS MENOS, MAR, MÁRIO BELÉM, MARKO, MARYAM, MATÉO GARCIA, MAZ, MONEYLESS, MOSKO, MP5, MYRE, NANO, NEBAY, NEMI “UHU”, NILKO, ORTICANOODLES, PANTÓNIO, PEETA, PHILIPPE BAUDELOCQUE, RAPTO, REA ONE, RODOLPHE CINTORINO, ROTI, SAILE, SAMBRE, SAMINA, SEAN HART, SÉBASTIEN PRESCHOUX, SENSO, SETH, SHAKA, SHOOF, SHUCK 2, SOWAT, SPAZM, SPETO, STeW, STINKFISH, SWOON, TELLA’S, TINHO, TORE, UNO, URIGINAL, VEXTA, VHILS, and WISIGN

Click HERE to read BSA’s coverage of this project before the building was demolished.

Cern In the Garden and On the Wall

November 1, 2014 Artists

As New York is waving and weaving through two or three consecutive nights of Halloween costumery and roleplay, dipping into fantasy, fears, and frolicsome forays befitting otherworldly matters, we turn to artist Cern for a surrealist soft opera crowd-sourced from another magical kingdom.

Cern (or Cernesto, Cernism, or other variants). Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A rather sweetly hazy view through a broken looking glass, or in one case, a broken fence from Cekis, the aerosol induced hallucinations feature many of Cern’s recurring characters cavorting and lounging placidly in one another’s company in a lush garden of possibility. Rising from the street, and perhaps from our dreams, in their midst is the idealized female form; inviting, comforting, understanding our troubles and our troubled minds.

The styles and references are many here as Cern’s multitudinous explorations on walls through the last years are gradually merging together into his one unique perspective on the here and the now; with an open public framing that only pretends to barely contain it all.

Cernesto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cernesto collaboration with the frayed fencing of Cekis. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Welling Court” 2014, a Grassroots Mural Event Turns 5 in Queens

June 25, 2014 Artists

When the revered graffiti holy place named 5Pointz in Queens, New York was buffed and slated officially for demolition last fall the collective response of the graffiti / Street Art fan base and community was horror and lament. Nonetheless, community persists, and art in the streets is stronger than ever in many cities, including right here in Queens which has played host to an ever growing grassroots exhibition on the walls for five years called Welling Court.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imagined and produced by two advocates of creativity in the public sphere and run on a shoe-string budget, Welling Court is a series of 100+ walls throughout this largely working class neighborhood that feels like it perhaps has been overlooked by the rest of the city. With a mix of some of New York’s newest immigrants and families, the modest residential/light manufacturing neighborhood has had a eye-jolting injection of spirit and free art every summer since 2009.

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We look forward to this annual event for a number of reasons, among them: the unpretentious spirit of community creativity at work as tens of artist straddle ladders and stepstools side by side painting walls, the friendly inquisitive neighbors who hang out and discuss the art and prepare a variety of foods to share on folding tables in the middle of the street, and the unbridled enthusiasm of the kids who race through the neighborhood on foot, bicycle, scooter, even grocery cart.

Unsponsored by brands and run by community elbow grease, Welling Court brings lots of Street Art / graffiti / public art enthusiasts and almost no police presence or crime for that matter. Breaking their own record this June at 127 painted walls, organizers Garrison and Alison Buxton help hook up the opportunity and artists are happy to take advantage of it. Here is just a relatively small selection of images taken by photographer Jaime Rojo at Welling Court 2014.

Fresh from graduation and walking in front of a RHAK gate. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato and Rubin collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

R.Robots (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sub (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaffeine at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kaffeine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toofly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MRC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Ahearn temporary installation with a Dennis McNett wheat paste from last year as a background. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Ahearn working on the details of the live casting he did of Roger Smith. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Ahearn. More to be done with this Roger Smith piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Greeg Lamarche, Wane and Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Not Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake and Ryan Seslow collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bishop203 with an old Flying Fortress in the middle gate. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ellis G, Joseph Meloy and Abe Lincoln collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Mizrachi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gregg Lamarche (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Christopher Cardinale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fun! Fun! Fun! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

Box Trucks as Rolling Graffiti Marquees

January 22, 2014 Artists

A ubiquitous sight throughout large cities like New York, the graffiti covered box truck has inherited the all-city art mantle from the subway train cars of thirty years ago with eye-popping collaborations and solo pieces rolling on rubber wheels and circulating through every neighborhood.

UFO 907 Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Box trucks are like the freight trains of New York Streets,” says Bishop 203, a Street Artist and graffiti writer who has successfully managed to parse the visual languages of both into his work – which of course includes a box truck when he can get one. “It’s the best of all worlds. If I do a wall in Bushwick, that’s cool because people in Brooklyn can see it. But if I do a truck in Bushwick, it’s going to go through Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx, Manhattan – who knows?”

Rugged, dirty, grimey, half-rusted – these trucks are rather similar to freights now that you think about it. They do the grueling thankless work of moving everything through the streets, often barreling by at high speeds and careening around corners to meet deadlines. They are carrying everything – produce, baked goods, heavy appliances, iron, steel, glass, equipment for many industries, racks full of garments, crates full of flowers, even art… and if you are passing through most business districts in the middle of the day, you will see them backing into loading docks or double parked in the street with blinking lights, the back door rolled up, and guys and gals shuttling with dollies across the sidewalk to and from restaurants and bodegas.

GenII, Oze 907 Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While painting a box truck is not exactly the same as “going all city”, if your art is literally rolling throughout the entire metropolis in the same way that tracks once carried aerosol art for 1970s/80s writers who crushed train lines, you experience a feeling that is pretty golden. “It’s like a mobile billboard for hooligans,” says Bishop, only half joking.

Wherever photographer Jaime Rojo travels throughout the city looking for new shots, he is almost guaranteed to see a box truck. What began as a casual collecting of these rolling canvasses eventually is swelling into a full-fledged gallery. He’s not sure what he’ll do with all of them, but here’s a taste of some of the trucks to whet your appetite.

DEK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SeeOne, ND’A (photo © Jaime Rojo)

VLOK Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stem, Gano, VGL (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cope, Cano, JAOne (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Staino (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Staino, Rambo, Sevs (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Staino, Fade AAMob (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ski, Optimo, Mok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jelly Fish (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ski, 2Ease, KA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ski, 2Ease, Kepts, KA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jedi, Sae, Aven, Baal (in front of a mural by Faile) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ski, 2Ease, Velo, Fuk, Dred (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Deter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sevor, Ideal (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fame (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reader, Abra, Mas, Boans (in front of a wall piece by Overunder) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ski, 2Ease (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lefty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sincere thanks to Bishop203 and Bato for their assistance with identifying some of these artists.

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Towering Gallery Full of Art to Be Demolished : “La Tour Paris 13”

November 20, 2013 Artists

The numbers are astounding; 105 artists, 9 floors, 36 apartments, 30,000 visitors.

One hour.

That is how much time Street Art enthusiast Spencer Elzey had to himself inside the largest gallery of Street Artists and graffiti artists ever assembled specifically to transform a building for a public show. As he looked out a window to see the snaking lines of Parisians and tourists restlessly waiting to get in, he couldn’t believe his luck to be able to walk through the exhibit by himself and get off some clear shots before the throng hit.

“The La Tour Paris 13 experience was something that I’ll never forget,” Elzey recounts as he thinks of himself nearly running from apartment to apartment with camera in hand, each room a new discovery, many of them inspiring awe.

“I was on an adrenaline rush while I was inside since I only had an hour by myself before it opened to the public. It wasn’t until later in the morning when I looked back at all of my pictures that I was able to fully understand exactly how much art I just witnessed,” he says.

Mehdi Ben Cheikh from Galerie Itinerrance, who curated the project La Tour Paris 13 gave permission to Elzey to get these shots for BSA before the crowds arrived and now he was snapping as many as possible.

Over the course of the year artists have devised specific paintings, sculptures, and installations inside the housing tower knowing that it would be exhibited for a month before being demolished. “The number of artists and the amount of space dedicated to this one exhibit is something that I don’t think will ever again be replicated,” he says.

While touring former living rooms, bathrooms, and kitchens Elzey quickly discovered that aerosol and markers were not the only materials used by this global pool of street/graffiti/urban artists who came from far places like Brazil, Iran, US, Tunisia, and even Saudi Arabia in addition to many European countries.

Some artists had staged new perspectives and environments by combining sculptural elements that married into their wall pieces, others like C215 cut into the floorboards to create a relief, still others worked in and around the decaying, partially destroyed infrastructure to create venues that slid into the fantasies of subconscious. “It was a free-for-all in a sense that once inside the apartment the artist had free reign to transform it however they wanted,” he says.

“What isn’t apparent in the pictures is how dark a lot of the rooms were. There were at least three rooms that were essentially dark with the exception of a little black light, while others were dimly lit by a solo lamp or fluorescent bulb. Sometimes you had to walk through holes in the walls to access further rooms.”

In his images here you can see the variety of styles and influences that the artists brought to the game, each accepting that it was a one-time-only installation. Maybe this group wasn’t so hard to convince, since the very nature of art on the streets is ephemeral.

“Street Art on the street has an expiration date, but the exact amount of time in which it will stay up isn’t known,” says Elzey, “It can either be covered up by graffiti or another wheat-paste, it can be removed by the building owner, or it can just wither away from being exposed to the elements.”

La Tour Paris 13 brings to mind the multitude of urban explorers who regularly trek into abandoned and neglected places all over the world and leave their mark, activating previously moribund spaces with art, but no one has ever launched a show like this with such genuine quality or with this scope.

“The closest thing that I can compare it to is 5 Pointz,” Elzey says of the grouping of buildings in New Yorks’ Long Island City that provided what was perhaps the original group show venue for urban art from the 1990s until yesterday. In an ironic mirroring of events, 5 Pointz and its multitude of external paintings underwent “the buff” the night before last after running an every-changing show for about three decades.

The 5 Pointz factory buildings themselves are also slated for demolition and will make way for new condos. “We all knew that its days were extremely numbered,” he says sadly of what had become a New York cultural heritage icon to some and a holy place for graffiti writers and Street Artists and fans from around the world.

The true impact from the La Tour Paris 13 project and 5 Pointz may happen in the mind and heart of the artist and the art fan; perhaps the beauty of this exercise, however short lived, is that the public is being encouraged to re-imagine old buildings for new uses, to consider what else we can do with private and public space.

When that conversation takes place we often realize how the limits of creativity are determined in no small part by imagination.

While we keep tracking the routes and machinations of this first global people’s art movement that has evolved into Street Art, we fully expect that we will continue to be surprised and inspired by the creative spirit and by artists.

For Spencer, this Tour was a lot more personal. “Having experienced something like this on such an immense scale and with a definitive end date made me feel like I was part of something special.”

Visit La Tour Paris 13 site for a full set of photographs, details and a full experience of the project.

This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Artists participating include: 108 ( Italy) – 2mil (Brazil) – Add Fuel ( Portugal) – AGL ( France ) – Lacurci Agostino (Italy) – Alexone ( France ) – A1one (Iran) – Amin ( France ) – Aous (Saudi Arabia) – awer (Italy) – Azooz (Saudi Arabia) – Belem (Portugal) – BOM.K ( France ) – Btoy (Spain) – C215 ( France ) – Celeste Java ( France ) – Cope2 (USA) – Corleone (Portugal ) – Dabro (Tunisia) – Dado (Italy) – Dan23 ( France ) – David Walker (UK) – Eime (Portugal) – eL Seed ( Tunisia) – Ethos (Brazil) – Etnik (Italy) – Fenx ( France ) – Flip (Brazil) – Gael ( France ) – Gilbert ( France ) – Guy Denning (UK) – Herbert Baglione (Brazil) – Hogre (Italy) – Hopnn (Italy) – Indie 184 (USA) – Inti Ansa ( France ) – Inti Castro (Chile) – Jaz (Argentina) – JB Rock ( Italy) – Jimmy C ( Australia) – Samina Joao (Portugal) – Jonone (USA) – Joys (Italy) – Julien Colombier ( France ) – Kan ( France ) – Katre ( France ) – Kruella (Portugal) – Legz ( France ) – Lek ( France ) – Liliwenn ( France ) – Loyola (Brazil) – Ludo ( France ) – Mrs. Sanbor ( France ) – March (Portugal) – Marko93 ( France ) , Mario Belem (Portugal) – Maryam (Saudi Arabia) – Mateo Garcia Leon ( France ) – Maz (Saudi Arabia) – moneyless (Italy) – Mosko ( France ) – Mp5 (Italy) – Myra ( France ) – Nano (Chile) – Nebay ( France ) – Nemi Uhu ( France ) – Nilko ( France ) – Orticanoodles (Italy) – PANTONIO (Portugal) – Paulo Arraiano (Portugal) – Peeta (Italy) – Philippe Baudelocque ( France ) – Rapto (Brazil) – Rea 1 ( France ) – Rodolphe Cintorino ( France ) – Roti ( France ) – Sambre ( France ) – Sean Hart ( France ) – Sebastien Preschoux ( France ) – Senso (Italy) – Seth ( France ) – Shaka ( France ) – Shoof (Tunisia) – Shuck2 ( France ) – Sowat ( France ) – Spazm ( France ) – Speto (Brazil) – Stew ( France ) – Stinkfish (Mexico) – Sumo (Luxembourg) – Tellas (Italy) – Tinho (Brazil) – Tore ( France ) -Uno ( France ) – Uriginal (Spain) – Vexta (Australia) – Vhils (Portugal) – / Maismenos (Portugal).

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Images of the Week 11.18.12

November 18, 2012 Artists

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, featuring Avoid, Bast, Cekis, Enzo & Nio, JM, Ludo, Numb Nuts, Paul Insect, Rone, Spanky, and Swampy.

Parisian Street and Fine Artist LUDO shared these exclusive images of his new installations outside Paris. Says the artist, he decided to see how his stuff would look outside the typical urban settings. Also, he just wanted to get out of the city, “just the need for fresh air,” he says.

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Color, Geometry and Pattern On The Streets

July 11, 2012 Kabul, On the Street

Art from the streets has been heralding a new eye-popping geometric disorder that can now fairly be called a movement. With roots in recent art history and the rhythms of the street, artists are giving themselves over to pungent color, pattern, grid inspired line, and a sharp edged abstraction. No one can say what has moved the conversation toward this aesthetic – it all mimics the repetitive patterns that are found in nature as well as the cool symmetries programmed by human industry. These modern alchemists from across the globe are somehow pumping the Street Art scene with an oxygen-rich supply of lifeblood and a variety of possible directions to explore.

An uncanny blending of the cans, both the graffiti tradition and the Street Art practice each find common ground to be a place where tagging and Pop irony all dissolve together into form and shape. On walls around cities where these two practices were once polarized, we’re seeing that everybody can drop their guard and just paint, bro.

In these images collected by photographer Jaime Rojo over the last couple of years, you can see elements of mid 20th century modernism, sci-fi fantasy, retro-futurism, imperfect folk patterning, and the distinct echoes of Wild Style. The common thread in this new discovery of graphic geometry is not just what it is, but as it pertains to art on the street, also what it’s not.

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