All posts tagged: Conor Harrington

Behind the Scenes at Beyond The Streets London / Recap

Behind the Scenes at Beyond The Streets London / Recap

Behind the scenes at “Beyond the Streets London” is a hive of activity, with artists deeply focused on installing their work and seeking assistance with tools and equipment. Curators, organizers, and lighting professionals are bustling up and down the stairs, carrying props, or ladders, and communicating with vendors and artists via text message. Salespeople are diligently crafting wall texts to accompany the art pieces. It’s a few hours before showtime, yet everything is somehow accomplished just as the first guests arrive for the preview.

According to our sources, this subway installation included actual wires and security cameras were “nicked”. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Photographer Martha Cooper is electrified by the activity at Saatchi Gallery. The event preserves the rich history of graffiti, street art, and commerce while pushing forward with new trends and directions. Cooper, who has documented this scene since the 1970s, has attended and exhibited in “Beyond the Streets” exhibitions in New York and Los Angeles – and we anticipate the next stop could be Shanghai. This particular iteration showcases an evolving mix of archetypes and invention, drawing on diverse influences from the US, UK, and EU.

Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Cooper observed many surprising music references at the show. Rock icon Eric Clapton was at the opening admiring a photograph of text declaring him to be God while filmmaker, musician, and BBC radio host Don Letts had a personal collection of his memorabilia/ephemera on display. Ron West, designer of the “Duck Rock” boombox, also made a sudden appearance at the opening, allowing guests to pose with his creation. Among the standout pieces was a Bob Gruen photo of Malcolm McLaren holding that boombox in front of Keith Haring’s Houston Street wall, a masterpiece of intersectionality, if you will.

Overall, “Beyond the Streets London” offers a smorgasbord of colors, flavors, and influences that are difficult to encapsulate in one show. However, Gastman, the visionary, gives it a good try, with a respectful nod to the many artists who have shaped this worldwide people’s art movement. Enjoy these behind-the-scenes shots from Ms. Cooper.

AgnesB at Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Aiko doing the last minute touch-up. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Aiko. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
NYC’s CES, a leader in characters with a streamlined and aerodynamic ‘wildstyleʼ, Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Conor Harrington. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
SoCal Stecyk artist known for writing and photographs documenting surfing and skateboarding culture, CR StecyK. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
CR StecyK. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
OG Daze extends the space of this subway car. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Don Letts looking at an installation of items from his personal collection. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Don Letts and BTS mastermind Roger Gastman. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
DRAX. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Martha’s famous Dondi photograph shows up in the most surprising places. Martha Cooper. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Lawrence Watson with his iconic shot of Chuck D and Flavor Flav of Public Enemy. His other well known photos include Jam Master Jay, DMC, Rev Run, Chuck D, Flavor Flav and “Cool” James Todd Smith. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Clapton. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Clapton with Shepard Fairey. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Escif. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Espo. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Fab5 Freddy with his painting based on Martha Cooper’s photo of his soup can car. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Futura standing before his large stage backdrop created during the Radio Clash tour at the Lyceum Ballroom, London (1981). Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Futura with a mystery friend. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
HAZE in front of his new piece. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Henry Chalfant’s wall of train car sides was massive. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Husk Mit Navn. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Janette Beckman has helped you make selections with her red marker. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
John Ahearn in front of a poster for the seminal movie he directed. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Kenny Scharf points the way at Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Kenny Scharf. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Roger Gastman with old school graffiti writer “Pride”. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Ron West, creator of the original Duck Rock boombox. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
A guest posing with Ron West’s boom box. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Mode2 prepping his canvas. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Shepard Fairey wheat pasting his iconic Obey image of Andre the Giant. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Paul Insect. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Niels Shoe Meulman. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Installation of Toby Mott’s huge collection of punk ephemera (Mott not pictured). Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Vhils outside next to his sculpture for Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Vhils’ crew is pasting layers of posters on stairway in preparation for carving, which came later. Vhils. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
OG Zephyr in his clean wildstyle. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Shepard Fairey, Fab Five Freddy, Charlie Ahearn, Roger Gastman, and Janette Beckman. Beyond The Streets – London. Saatchi Gallery. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Beyond The Streets – London. Click HERE for more details, the schedule of events, tickets, and exhibition times.

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“Beyond The Streets” On Paper Opens in Southampton

“Beyond The Streets” On Paper Opens in Southampton

This time of year, it is hard to find people in Manhattan on the weekends – they’re “weekending” in the Hamptons, darling.

Khari Turner, Hands

Not exactly the original setting you might associate with graffiti, street art, hip-hop, punk rock, zines, and underground art culture but where else can curators Evan Pricco and Kim Stephens sell these works on paper while sipping cool drinks poolside?

“Beyond the Streets” carries the mobile party to Southampton Arts Center this Saturday with a wide swath of styles – 500 works from over 100 artists in an art fair-sized venue. It may remind you of the Urban Air Fair tried in Manhattan in summer 2017, but this one has something that one didn’t: Roger Gastman.

Shepard Fairey, Elysium Lotus

If it’s here, it’s because it is quality work and has a connection to the roots of these subcultural scenes usually as well. Expanding now to the more nebulous category of Contemporary, you may be surprised to see more accessible interpretive variations on the themes. Let’s see that paper, people. 

Jane Dickson, Fourth of July 2

Artists include: Action Bronson, Addam Yekutieli, agnès b, AIKO, André Saraiva, Andrew Schoultz, Andrew Thiele, Andy Rementer, Aryz, Bert Krak, Brandon Breaux, Broken Fingaz, Bryant Giles, Camille Walala, CES, Cey Adams, Charlie Ahearn, Chloe Early, Chris FREEDOM Pape, Clark Fox, Cody Hudson, Conor Harrington, Craig Costello, CRASH, DABSMYLA, Daniel Rich, David “Mr StarCity” White, DAZE, DEFER, Emily Manwaring, Eric Haze, Ermsy, Escif, FAILE, Faith XLVII, Fucci, Greg SPONE Lamarche, Gustavo Zermeno, Hilda Palafox, House 33, HuskMitNavn, Ian Reid, Icy & Sot, Jaime Muñoz, Jamilla Okuba, Jane Dickson, JEC*, Jeremy Shockley, Jillian Evelyn, JK5, John Konstantine, Julian Pace, KATSU, KC Ortiz, Kelsey Brookes, Khari Turner, Kime Buzzelli, LeRoy Neiman, Linas Garsys, Liz Flores, Lucy McLauchlan, Lujan Perez, Maripol, Mark Mothersbaugh, Martha Cooper, Marshall LaCount, Matt McCormick, Maya Hayuk, Michael Vasquez, MIKE 171, Mister CARTOON, Neena Ellora, Nehemiah Cisneros, Nettie Wakefield, NUNCA, Otto183, Paije Fuller, Paul Insect, POSE, Rebecca Morgan, Reko Rennie, Rello, Richard Colman, RISK, Ron English, Ryan McGinness, Sage Vaughn, Saladeen Johnson, Scott Campbell, Sean from Texas, Senon Williams, Shantell Martin, Shepard Fairey, SJK 171, Sofía Enriquez, SNOEMAN, Spacebrat, STASH, Steve ESPO Powers, SWOON, TAKI 183, The Perez Bros., Timothy Curtis, Todd James, Troy Lamarr Chew II, Umar Rashid, Victor Reyes, Wasted Rita, Wulffvnky, Yarrow Slaps, Yusuke Hanai, ZESER, ZOER and 45RPM.

BEYOND THE STREETS on PAPER
July 17—August 28, 2021
Southampton Arts Center, Southampton, New York, 11968

For more details, schedules, etc. click HERE

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At the Vanguard: Bristol Opens Exhibition On Evolution of Global Movement of Street Art

At the Vanguard: Bristol Opens Exhibition On Evolution of Global Movement of Street Art

This Saturday marks the opening of an outstanding exhibition in Bristol, England documenting the pivotal role the city has played in the formation of street art from the 1980s to today. Entitled Vanguard Bristol Street Art: The Evolution and mounted at the Global Movement Bristol Museum’s M Shed, the show presents the view of this worldwide movement as seen through the birth and growth of Bristol’s scene from the perspective of artists singular voices rising together in a crescendo that shook the arena of public self-expression with maverick ideas and activist ideals.

Bristol B-Boys head spinning in front of 3D’s and Z Boys’ Wild Bunch Rocit, 1983, photographic print on paper, Broadmead, Bristol, 21 x 29.7cm (8.2 x 11.7in) (photo ©Beezers Photos)

Vanguard positions itself as an examination of artists creative response to Bristol’s “pioneering underground scene throughout the UK’s turbulent social and political history” with a focus on driving social change – one that influenced subsequent street artists everywhere.

Among the Bristolian and UK artists featured will be new works by Adam Neate, Andy Council, Antony Micallef, Bill Posters, China Mike, Conor Harrington, Dale VMN Collins (Dale Marshall), Dicy, Eko, Feek, Filthy Luker, Inkie, Lucas Price, Lucy McLauchlan, Matt Small, Mau Mau, Mr Jago, Paris, Rowdy, Sickboy, Swoon, Will Barras, and Xenz.

Conor Harrington (Irish, b.1980) The Blind Exit, 2020, oil and spray paint on linen, SIGNED, 250cm x 200cm (98.5in x 78.5in) (Image credit: Conor Harrington)

A trove of documentation presents times that provide context and insight into the wild, wooley, and ingenious artist works that shaped what was to come – including a five minute edit of the seminal film Wild Style by filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, and a new seven-minute film by Scottish filmmaker Doug Gillen. Additionally presented are unseen and classic images specific to the Bristol graffiti and street art scene by Henry Chalfant, Matthew Smith, Carrie Hitchcock, Yan Saunders, and Beezer, along with projections by Kineta Hill and Karen Dew.

Carrie Hitchcock-Barton-Hill-Youth-Club-1990. (photo © Carrie Hitchcock)

Running through October 31st this year, the original works and memorabilia are key to understanding the events and socio/political arnarchistic framework that sparked and fueled what became known as the Bristol scene, replete with an accompanying book featuring worldwide academics, film directors, writers, artists, creatives and specialists and an exclusive album of tracks forming the roots of the Bristol Sound.

We’re pleased to offer a sneak peek of the show here today and we encourage you to make the trip to see what will undoubtedly be sited as an important exhibition – as we all continue our education about the pathways of the global evolution of street art.

Will Barras (British, b.1973), Blue Surfer, 2021, signed in bottom right corner, acrylic on canvas, 800mm x 800mm (31.5 x 31.5in) (Image Credit – Johnny Green)
Through the fence, Barton Hill Youth Club, 1990 (photo ©Carrie Hitchcock)

Vanguard | Bristol Street Art: The Evolution of a Global Movement is kindly supported by Vans. Vanguard | Bristol Street Art: The Evolution of a Global Movement M Shed, Bristol, BS1 4RN
Saturday 26 June 2021 – Sunday 31 October 2021
Admission £8 adult* / £7 concession* (*Tickets include £1 voluntary donation to Bristol Museums Development Trust)

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BSA Film Friday: 11.06.20

BSA Film Friday: 11.06.20

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. SOFLES: Raw Brick
2. Conor Harrington: The Patriot. Video by Chop ’em Down Films
3. Sao Paulo Pinacoteca: Os Gemos Reopening

BSA Special Feature: SOFLES: Raw Brick

While much of the western world is waiting around to see who wins the presidential election and wonders where this much vaunted civil war is taking place (Rachel?), let’s have a mental vacation with SOFLES as he shows us a graffiti piece being painted on a raw brick wall. The rich green, the deep purplllleeee…… Ahhhhhh.

SOFLES: Raw Brick


Conor Harrington: The Patriot. Video by Chop ’em Down Films

The Irish immigrants were once treated as badly as the Mexicans are now in America. Now one of them is lecturing on blind patriotism in the US in this new video by Chop ’em Down Films.


Sao Paulo Pinacoteca: Os Gemeos Reopening

In a genuine shifting of fortunes, Brazilian twin graffiti writers OS GEMEOS were once on the run from authorities for their artworks in Sao Paulo. Here to welcome their massive exhibition, is a video sponsored by Sao Paulo’s State Government.

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BSA Film Friday: 05.15.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 54

BSA Film Friday: 05.15.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 54

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. AKUT: “Isolated”

BSA Special Feature: AKUT (plus 37) “ISOLATED”

A thrilling and educational flight through the private studio spaces of artists at home in isolation – what’s not to like? Guess which of your favorite artists studios are included?

“I worked on this film the past three weeks together with 37 artists from all over the globe,” says Street Artist AKUT. The call for response during his own family’s isolation resulted in an astounding 37 artists answering from all over the world.

AKUT, otherwise known as the urban contemporary artist and photographer Falk Lehmann – and founder of the legendary German graffiti collective Ma’Claim and half of the artistic duo Herakut – was suffering from isolation. Usually he’s out with the rest of the big name Street Artists going to exhibitions, festivals, working on commission.

Suddenly in March, stop us if you’ve heard this story, it all went “THUD”.

A social animal, AKUT says he loves the time home with his wife and three kids, but he felt locked out and detached from the adventures of painting that he had become so energized by.

“Those nice little (business) trips to locations at the end of the world, not for money, but for the place you would otherwise never have the chance to travel to, sound really awesome, don’t they?” he asks. “Even if the lift turns out to be a soul catcher, if the material arrives three days later and there was no giant tree in front of the wall on the photos you received beforehand and planed your project with. You start to appreciate the freedom to travel, to go far away from your daily duties at home… You meet colleagues and role models, old and new friends, who you share unforgettable experiences with.”

ISOLATED (part I), an infinite loop to despair

Here’s the idea with the 37 artists who joined in – please take a time laps shot through your studio, that is not longer than 4 seconds – but still challenging, because they had to move really slow and avoid vivid movements. Some artists took recording after recording and it still wasn’t optimal. However, in the end and after some long hours of editing and learnings the finished short film came out as a proof for the principle of mentalism. Sliding through the contrasting and inspiring studios as lively spaces in constant use by the respective artists felt refreshing and very comforting. It symbolizes the connection of all individuals being part of an universal infinite, living mind, in which you don’t necessarily need to check in physically. It’s always out there.

WE ARE ONE INFINITE, LIVING MIND (ISOLATED part II)

Credits

WE ARE ONE INFINITE, LIVING MIND (ISOLATED part II)

short film by AKUT, 2020

Idea and Editing: 

AKUT https://instagram.com/akut_herakut

Camera (participating artists):

@Adnate Melbourne, Australia

@Akut_herakut Berlin, Germany

@AndreasEnglundArt Falun, Sweden

@apolotorres São Paulo, Brazil

@23base Berlin, Germany

@bezt_etam & @nataliarakart Turek, Poland

@cantwo Wuppertal, Germany

@cristianblanxer Barcelona, Spain

@conorsaysboom London, UK

@craola Torrance, California

@daniel_man_codeak Munich, Germany

@spurcus_am Erfurt, Germany

@douglas_greed Berlin, Germany

@drewmerritt Saint Vrain, New Mexico

@hueman_ Oakland, California

@james_bullough Berlin, Germany

@kameahadar Hawai
@kevinledo Montreal, Canada

@kkade_schwarzmaler Bern, Switzerland

@louismasai Margate, UK

@low_bros Hamburg, Germany

@mad_c1 Halle, Germany

@marc_jung_ Erfurt, Germany

@ztm_oruam San Antonio, Texas

@telmomiel Amsterdam & Rotterdam, Netherlands

@mikedargas Los Angeles, California

@natepaints Los Angeles, California

@nunoviegas.pt Quarteira, Portugal

@onurpainting Berlin, Germany

@paola_delfin & @mateusbailon Itajaí, Brazil

@heypatyeah Detroit, Michigan

@rickyleegordon Sri Lanka

@suiko1 Hiroshima, Japan

@wes21_schwarzmaler Bern, Switzerland

@waone_interesnikazki Kiev, Ukraine

@markus_wow123_genesius Bremen, Germany

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Conor Harrington Soars and Parries Above NYC Streets

Conor Harrington Soars and Parries Above NYC Streets

UK based Irish painter and muralist Conor Harrington was in New York City for the last month with stirring new works inside the gallery space and outside on the street. His signature forms and flying garments were there: indistinctly heroic, Bacon-blurred men in an epic struggle, each wearing richly hued militaristic finery. His dramatic heroes and saboteurs race now across two canvasses on display at the massive Beyond The Streets exhibition in Brooklyn as well as across one daunting five-story walkup on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.

The bigger one was probably harder.

Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Set aside the mercurial, blasting sun and drenching rains and otherwise sticky conditions in Gotham’s gritty summer, Harrington may not have realized that the wall was so huge. Done in concert with the L.I.S.A. Project NYC and the BTS exhibition, Conor crushed it with so much color and dramatic action across the surface (his first mural in NYC in a decade or so) that observers will be stultified by its scale and the mysterious storyline that animates it for a long time to come. The subject of the painting might be of an officer with the British army during the American Revolutionary War. If one were to imagine the piece of art differently by changing the garments and closing our eyes the figure as it is in action could very well be of a matador in a bullring confronting and taunting the bull with his cape. With a background in graffiti and a truly painterly command of the cans, you can imagine the feeling of revelation observers felt as Conor daily revealed this gripping piece in this city of immigrants, of struggle, of dreams.

Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Conor Harrington in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC & Beyond The Streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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“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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“Beyond The Streets” Comes To Brooklyn in June

“Beyond The Streets” Comes To Brooklyn in June

Gastman’s Massive Graffiti and Street Art Show Arrives at Epicenter.

“I’m really excited to bring this show to New York,” says curator, graffiti historian and urban anthropologist Roger Gastman, “because the city plays such a pivotal role in the origin and evolution of the culture. The iconic images of covered subway cars made graffiti famous worldwide.”

Style Wars Car by NOC 167 with Door Open, Man Reading Newspaper, 96th Street Station, New York, NY, 1981. (photo © Martha Cooper)

He’s talking of course about “Beyond The Streets” the hybrid exhibition that he mounted in LA last year featuring the work of 150 who have proved to be pivotal to the evolution of a fifty year global people’s art movement that includes graffiti, street art, and urban contemporary art. Filling over 100,000 square feet of new space in Brooklyn, this two-floor cross-section survey will feature artworks by many of the same vandals, graffiti writers, Street Artists, and art activists who hit NYC streets, created dialogue with passersby, and were sometimes chased by the authorities. To see them showcased here is to recognize that there is not just one route to take – in fact there are many.

Guerrilla Girls at Abrons Art Center, New York, 2015. (photo © Andrew Hindrake)

“We have an incredible roster of artists for New York,” Gastman tells us, “and a brand new space in Williamsburg that has a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline as our backdrop.” Notably the lineup includes artists whose work BSA has documented on the streets in this very same neighborhood over the past two decades, including Shepard Fairey, Faile, Swoon, Bast, Invader, Aiko, and others. Ironically the appearance of free-range Street Art in the neighborhood has been seriously diminished since that time.

The exhibition is one more verification that a significant portion of the scene is being widely recognized for its cultural contribution and value in the contemporary art canon – a significantly fluid scene fueled by discontent and a desire to short-circuit the established routes to audience appreciation. Like large survey shows elsewhere, the takeaway is the significant impact street culture and its tangential subcultures continues to have on the culture at large.

Lil’ Crazy Legs during shoot for Wild Style, Riverside Park, NY, 1983. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Gastman says the New York version of “Beyond The Streets” will take an additional interest at the role of music and art activism on the street, along with immersive installations, a tattoo parlor, a special Beastie Boys installation with artifacts and ephemera, a new 30th Anniversary Shepard Fairey project “Facing The Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent,” and large scale works by Gorilla Girls, Futura, Cleon Peterson, and Takashi Murakami. 

More news coming on programming and events, but the important opening date to know right now is June 21st.

“All in all, it will make for a really special show this Summer,” says Gastman.


BEYOND THE STREETS TEAM

Curator: Roger Gastman

Co-Curators: Sacha Jenkins SHR, Evan Pricco, David CHINO Villorente

Producer: Ian Mazie & Pressure Point Creative


Tickets and hours of operation can be found at: BEYONDTHESTREETS.COM


FEATURED ARTISTS INCLUDE:

A-ONE, AIKO, Al Diaz, Alexis Ross, Alicia McCarthy, André ​Saraiva, Barry McGee, BAST, Beastie Boys, Bert Krak, Bill Barminski, Bill Daniel, BLADE, Broken Fingaz, Buddy Esquire, buZ blurr, Carlos Mare, Carl Weston, Cey Adams, C.R. Stecyk III, Charlie Ahearn, Chaz Bojórquez, Claudia Gold, Cleon Peterson, COCO 144, Conor Harrington, Corita Kent, Craig Costello, CRASH, DABSMYLA, Dan Witz, Dash Snow, DAZE, DEFER, Dennis Hopper, Dondi White, Doze Green, EARSNOT, Estevan Oriol, Fab 5 Freddy, FAILE, Faith XLVII, Felipe Pantone, FREEDOM, FUTURA 2000, Gajin Fujita, Glen E. Friedman, Gordon Matta-Clark, Guerrilla Girls, HAZE, Henry Chalfant, Herb Migdoll, Husk Mit Navn, INVADER, Jane Dickson, Jason REVOK, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, Jim Prigoff, John Ahearn, John Fekner, John Tsombikos, Joe Conzo, José Parlá, KATS, KC Ortiz, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Kilroy Was Here, LADY PINK, LAZAR, LEE Quiñones, Lisa Kahane, MADSAKI, Maripol, Mark Gonzales, Mark Mothersbaugh, Martha Cooper, Matt Weber, Maya Hayuk, Michael Lawrence, MIKE 171, MISS 17, Mister CARTOON, Nina Chanel Abney, NOC 167, Pat Riot, Patrick Martinez, Paul Insect, POSE, PRAY, Rammellzee, Randall Harrington, RETNA, Richard Colman, Richard Hambleton, RIME, RISK, Ron English, Ruby Neri, SABER, Sam Friedman, SANESMITH, Sayre Gomez, Shepard Fairey, SJK 171, SLICK, SNAKE 1, SNIPE1, STAY HIGH 149, Stephen Powers, SWOON, Takashi Murakami, TAKI 183, TATS CRU, TENGAone, Tim Conlon, Timothy Curtis, Todd James, Trash Records, UGA, VHILS, and ZESER

The show is developed in partnership with Adidas and Perrier. Additional support provided by Modernica, Montana Colors, NPR, NTWRK, Twenty Five Kent and WNYC.

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BSA Film Friday 04.26.19

BSA Film Friday 04.26.19

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. “A Message From the Future” Narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Illustrated by Molly Crabapple
2. Good Guy Boris – Viral Vandals Music Video
3. TITANES: Six Silos. Eight international artists in La Mancha, Spain.
4. The Story of Us and Them – Conor Harrington

BSA Special Feature: “A Message From the Future” Narrated by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Illustrated by Molly Crabapple

What if we actually pulled off a Green New Deal? – Of course the corporate Democrats like Pelosi and Schumer are as likely to let that happen as Medicare for All – But its fun to imagine with the help of this seven-minute film narrated by congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. Not to mention that the whole video is illustrated by public/street/studio artist Molly Crabapple – who really takes the stage here.

A project from The Intercept and Naomi Kleinit imagines that somehow the oligarchy is going to let go of its addiction to fossil fuels and the aspirations of the citizens will prevail. Enjoy!


A Message From the Future

Good Guy Boris – Viral Vandals Music Video

Good Guy (bad guy?) Boris is back with his own version of Gypsy trap to entice and thrill you to do a big ass tag. A graffiti renaissance man who continues to plow his own path forward, the hijinx are hilarious and the song isn’t so bad either. Maybe it is a little better than those graffiti vandal road trip movies he was doing, but maybe we just have a short attention span these days.

TITANES: Six Silos. Eight international artists in La Mancha, Spain.

“People who normally lived in a very specific way and nobody had bothered to see whether they had talent or not,” explains Alfonso Gutierrez about the genesis of this project encouraging 450 students from around Spain to participate in a public mural campaign.

An inspirational message, and a welcome sign in this march of humans.

The Story of Us and Them – Conor Harrington

A short film that looks at the creative process on by the sincerely absorbed Irish Street Artist/fine artist Conor Harrington as he talks about his work and promotes his new show ‘The Story of Us and Them’ at Heni Gallery in London.

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BSA Film Friday: 03.22.19

BSA Film Friday: 03.22.19

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. PHLEGM – Mausoleum of Giants – A Behind the Scenes View
2. Hamburger Eyes; A documentary by Aaron Rose
3. Conor Harrington / American Flag
4. Fujito Nakaya. Fog Sculpture #08025 (F.O.G.) 1998. Guggenheim Museum. Bilbao.

BSA Special Feature: PHLEGM – Mausoleum of Giants – A Behind the Scenes View

Delicious Clam Records, Bal Fashions Speakeasy, Plot 22...

How long has this been going on?

According to Doug at Fifth Wall TV Sheffield has been in the thick of it as a cultural hotbed of music and art for quite some time – with artist collectives and installations like this new one in an old ironworks building by Street Artist Phlegm.

“All of that combined means there is a really vibrant underground scene and we have a lot of D.I.Y. stuff happening” says Steve of @CADS Sheff – the grassroots formed team that activates spaces like this.

Don’t be a mardy bum then, let’s go and take a look at Phlegm shall we?

Hamburger Eyes

Street photography, when done well, can summon euphoria and nausea. Rather like a chain restaurant hamburger. Perhaps that is the inspiration for the name “Hamburger Eyes” for this eclectic collection of photographers from the San Francisco Bay Area, who capture the American fun and folly that you may have missed.

Just screened this month in New York at Metrograph with a Q&A with Ray Potes and Clark Allen, its a documentary by Aaron Rose (Beautiful Losers) that helps remind us why some people are drawn to cities, while others avoid it like limburger. With interviews, stills, and video the film brings to action the magazine by the same name that has just celebrated its 18th birthday, yo. Watch out! Legal age!


You can also watch the full film HERE

Conor Harrington / American Flag

The Irish Street Artist and muralist and painter has a go at the nationalism that blinds and could lead you to walk into traffic or off a cliff. We think.

Fujito Nakaya. Fog Sculpture #08025 (F.O.G.) 1998. Guggenheim Museum. Bilbao.

A foggy memory from standing outside the Guggenheim in Bilbao a few weeks ago. This fog sculpture is activated periodically, and if visiting school students are nearby, the excitement is multiplied! Video by Jaime Rojo.

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BSA Film Friday: 10.19.18

BSA Film Friday: 10.19.18

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Shredding the Girl and Balloon – The Director’s Cut
2. JKS Crew in Italy & France
3. Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle For Expression / Trailer
4. The Hut – A Partial X / Felipe Pantone

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: Shredding the Girl and Balloon – The Director’s Cut

By the way, this is not the first Street Artist to shred art in public with a home-made apparatus. Check out BSA Film Friday in April of 2014 for a stunning example of slicing public advertisements with Bandes de Pub.

We start our weekly selection with the followup release that takes hold of the narrative of the moments leading up to this month’s Banksy auction and self-destruction at Sotheby’s.

In it you hear the auctioneer chit-chatting beforehand saying things like “It’s a fun auction, you know. Everyone’s got a chance.” And by ‘everyone’ he means…everyone here in this room and on the 30 phones who are also bidding.

In other revelations this week, the Financial Times is reporting that the original artwork contained a “dedication reading ‘Thanks Jo’, which art market experts said could be a reference to Banksy’s long-time publicist, Jo Brooks.” Not so fast there Mr. Brillianteen. Perhaps Banksy is just a Jimi Hendrix fan (Hey Joe) or it was a gift to rapper Fat Joe (I’m Not a Player I Just Crush Alot) (RIP). Joe the Lion? Smokin’ Joe?

JKS Crew in Italy & France

Okay class, who wants to tell us what they did on their summer vacation?

Looks like JKS Crew were on spraycation this summer in Italy and France. The jazz bassy groove that accompanies the scenes in this video make us pine for those dreamy days of July and August already, and its only mid-October.

Vigilante Vigilante: The Battle For Expression / Trailer

Who owns public space? The oligarchs, yes, but after them?

You do!

Who should paint it?

When graffiti writers and Street Artists take it over with acts of transgressive painting one may expect that the next step is probably the buff, unless you living are in an aesthetic lawlessness like Berlin, or Athens, or 2000s Detroit.  It is infrequent that one may countenance the self-appointed citizen buffer, but they exist in many a neighborhood. A combination of ornery rebel and a justice-minded citizen; This is the vehement, street cleaning vigilante.

If you were writing a bespectacled urban guidebook about characters found on city streets you may advise, “Think twice before crossing this curiously civic interbreed, broken windows can be sharp.”

 

The Hut – A Partial X / Felipe Pantone

A Liberian surfer camp that just happens to capture the artworks of some of the biggest names in Street Art? Organizers say that its to reduce the stigma that surrounds the country that was hurt so badly by ebola a few years ago. Perhaps that what has drawn artists like Faile, Conor Harrington, 1010, Martin Whatson, Marke Jenkins, Herakut, Ted Pim, Sandra Chevrier, Ben Eine, and Seth Globepainter here to create new works here.  Today we see works by Felipe Pantone, JR, and Slinkachu.

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Copenhagen Diary: A Street Survey of the Moment

Copenhagen Diary: A Street Survey of the Moment

A current survey today from the streets in Copenhagen thanks to a couple of BSA fans and friends who share with readers their recent finds in one of the world’s happiest places, according to the 2018 World Happiness Report. Apparently it is also a good place for gay birds to come out of the closet.

DalEast is the author of the bird. Spyo tells the world who he really is… (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

With a storied history of graffiti bombing of the red trains that goes back many years, possibly generations, Copenhagen has long been a treasured destination for graffiti writers.

Now you will also find murals and installations illegally and legally by local and international Street artists – and the iconic full sides of buildings here are subtly transforming the public face of the city.

Edward von Lõngus (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Interestingly, a number of these pieces are rather monochromatic, shunning the exuberant colors that are associated today with the hyper realists and fantastical forays that are common throughout Street Art/mural festivals around the world.

Joining artists like the Danish Street Artists like HuskMitNavn, the sculptor Tejn, and well-known bomber Soten are now international names like Ireland’s Conor Harrington, Spain’s Isaac Cordal, and Estonian stencil artist Edward von Lõngus have added their voices.

Our very special thanks to Borghild Marie Kvale and Tor Staale Moen for their support and for sharing here with BSA readers.

Edward von Lõngus (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

ROA (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Conor Harrington (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Borondo (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Don John (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Don John (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

1UP Crew (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Old, old Banksy from 1993…the last survivor in Copenhagen. (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

ABYS (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Bill Savarese from 1995. (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Swet71 (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

Enlighten people know… (photo © Tor Staale Moen)

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