All posts tagged: Crash

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.02.17

April 2, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Good to be back in dirty old New York from dirty old Hong Kong this week. Actually on the dirty meter, we think New York still wins! Hooray!

Looking to the national stage, things couldn’t possibly be more dirty, as the rolling dumpster fire looks like it is setting records for failure to deliver on promises and a gathering cloud of accusations of straight up conspiracy, nepotism, corruption, even treason. And that’s on a good day. Art on the streets sometimes reflects directly and often indirectly on the facts on the ground. Now that spring is here, we expect to see a lot more voices again joining the fray.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Below Key, Chzz, Crash, Danny Boy Doid, El Sol 25, Laser 3.14, Obsrvrone,Pixel Pancho, Snik, Two One, Tony Matelli, Wrong Kong, Xeme, and Zura.

Top image: Crash in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dany Boy Doid . It’s A Living (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two One in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Laser 3.14 in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wrong Kong in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chzz in Ukraine. (photo © Chzz)

Zura (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pixel Pancho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We have previously published this Pixel Pancho piece shown in detail above and below. The artist had to restore the piece after additional text was added to it without permission from the artist. We liked how the piece plays with the architecture and the trees as experienced from the High Line Park, sort of like she is lounging and specifically peering through this opening.

Pixel Pancho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Xeme in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Snik in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A more common refrain these days as New York’s long-heralded creative community finds fewer neighborhoods to afford – this one on a Williamsburg musical instrument store that had an amazing collection of guitars. It started out as a small business in the basement of a storefront and grew two more times during the 2000s. A powerful engine of the economy in the city, when artists can’t afford to stay due to high rents the city stands to lose revenue – and soul. The stories keep piling up as artists now often are giving up and leaving for cheaper cities – so whoever put this up addressing the mayor knows of what they speak. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obsrvrone in Hong Kong. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Below Key (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tony Matelli at the High Line Park. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. A client waits while a her shoes are being repaired in Hong Kong last week. March 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.29.17

January 29, 2017 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Able, Alexis Diaz, Bruno Smoky, Case Ma’Claim, Crash, Dan Flavin, Ernest Zacharevic, Inti, Jose Mertz, Kryptick, Logan Hicks, Maya Hayuk, Miro, Pichi & Avo, Santiago Rubino, Shalakattak, and Sipros.

First image above: Alexis Diaz. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Able. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jose Mertz. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miro. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Santiago Rubino. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kryptik. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic in collaboration with Martha Cooper. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inti. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maya Hayuk. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks. Wynwood Walls, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bruno Smoky and Shalakattak. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Dan Flavin. Chelsea, NYC. January 2017 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.04.16

December 4, 2016 Artists

Of course it was not all about spectacle this week in Miami, but about tribes and community as well. Many conversations with artists on the street and at openings revolved around this chaotic/fearful time we are living in – and it seemed like if you weren’t discussing the incoming president and offering predictions about what fresh hell this time will bring, you were trying hard to avoid the topic altogether.

There were talks this week about activism or the lack of it on the street, relevance of the work of artists in the body politik, paint supplies, ladders, Tindr, licensing, how Pete Rock and CL Smooth blew everybody away late Friday night with the Bushwick Collective, how murals are not to be confused with Street Art and Street Art is not to be confused with graffiti and of course the evergreen “Is Street Art Dead?” – which has popped up as a topic about every 3 months since it was coined. Answer: no sight of it yet, but we’ll let you know if it stops mutating and shapshifting and re-defining itself. Promise

Without repeating some of the images from our previous postings this week, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 2Alas, Bordalo II, Caratoes, Cleon Peterson, CRASH, Dan Witz, D*Face, Don Rimx, Evoca, Fluke, Hoxxoh, Jules Muck, L’Atlas, Okuda, Pez, Shepard Fairey, Shida, Shok1, and Sipros.

Bordalo II for Uninhibited Mural Festival 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros for Mana Urban Arts Projects x The Bushwick Collective. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fluke. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cleon Petterson for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cleon Peterson for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Evoca1 for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shok1 for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shida for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PEZ for Uninhibited Mural Festival 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shephard Fairey for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

L’Atlas. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jules Muck. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hox Xoh for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2alas for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Caratoes for a previous edition of Art Basel Miami. Wynwood, Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paint, Protest, Party : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 5

December 2, 2016 Artists

Scope! The verb, not the art fair.

We will be hitting SCOPE shortly but in the interim we’ve been scoping for action or trouble; trolling around the streets of Wynwood and other selected odd locations to find Street Artists actively brush-painting, aerosol painting, markering, stenciling, wheat-pasting, even tying some wires and ribbons around fences. The walls and murals and the scene are all transforming in front of your eyes here, with photographers, videographers, and drones all flying around to capture the action as it progresses.

Bob from The London Police working at their mural for the new Goldaman offices in Wynwood, Miami. Wynwood Walls 2016 /Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This neighborhood is an art fair, without the attitude. Well, maybe there is attitude occasionally on display as well.

Also, political speech was pushing through the carousing beer swilling, late-sipping, burrito chomping streets yesterday with a 50 person troop of protesters with home made signs addressing the massive oil pipeline that is routed through sacred land of Native Americans in North Dakota and a pipeline planned to go through Florida.

Oil pipelines protest in Wynwood. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

We followed them for a few blocks, listening to chants about water and hegemony and found that for many art/party fans it was a curiosity to see citizens demonstrating, and a few bystanders took the fluorescent green flyers offered and said thanks, while others took photos and naturally, selfies with the marchers.

Just one more element to add to your sense of cognitive dissonance.

Pichi & Avo. Work in progress. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Night time in the Wynwood District is a chaotic grimy glittery mix of high and low and middle in the neighborhood as well – where you are as likely to catch a whiff of a models’ perfume as she sashays past you in a backless silver mini dress with her 3 leggy friends flipping their long hair over their shoulders as you are to catch a whiff of sweet ganga smoke from the joint of an open-shirted, low-waisted Romeo in dreadlocks or one the acrid whiff of the rumpled grayish clothing worn by the guy who is sitting on a chair against a mural and is ready to spend another night laying on the sidewalk after you stumble back to your hotel.

Pichi & Avo. Detail. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An ongoing slothful and bloated and thumping network of car-minivan-limo-Escalade-motorcycle traffic is rolling into a mechanical Ambian lethargy, at times looking more like a parking lot or tailgating party, grid-locking and popping and actively cruising the options parading down the sidewalks, with windows open and music pumping.

With no police at intersections to ease the flow of this jamtastic scene, low-bubbling rage mixes with cologne and produces slick insults hurled at the guy whose car is blocking the traffic flow, or more importantly, your flow. The song of the night wafting through the air on one corner, perhaps because a bicycle would be a perfect solution here, is called Bicycleta.

Luckily for us, we are usually on foot and not afraid to walk to find the good stuff. That is the best way to experience the street and the various events and to catch artists at work. Enjoy a few scenes from the day and one from the evening in Wynwood in Miami.

Ron English touching up his mural from a previous edition of Wynwood Walls. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ken Hiratsuka. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Detail. Work in progress. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Work in progress for Mana Urban Arts Project. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insa and Drew Merritt. Work in progress. This will be an augmented reality wall which the public will be able to appreciate on Saturday with an app. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insa and Drew Merrit. Work in progress. This will be an augmented reality wall which the public will be able to appreciate on Saturday with an app. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Bros. Perfecting ones curtsy to the Queen comes in handy while painting on a wall. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obey, people! Or not, its up to you. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Talk at the new Goldman art gallery with Martha Cooper, Crash, Tristan Eaton, Faith47 and Pixel Pancho. Moderated by Steven P. Harrington of BSA. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo at the Hard Rock Stadium for Goldman Global Arts

This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

Wynwood Awakes: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 1

November 28, 2016 Artists

The gallerists and merchants have begun arriving in the South Beach area of Miami to uncrate the art they’ve shipped for the enormous Art Basel and the assorted satellite fairs of Art Basel Miami 2016. Across the Venetian Way heading inland and minutes to the north you see that artist have already been painting on walls in the Wynwood neighborhood.

Fluke from Canada at work on his mural in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

First adorned by an entirely organic graffiti and Street Art scene in the late 90s and early 2000s, the low-income neighborhood with a light-manufacturing base has been transformed by real estate and economic development. Now after a decade of inviting local and international artistic talent to come and paint, the Wynwood area of Miami is a beacon of mural art that showcases this moment in its evolution.

Fluke from Canada at work on his mural in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Nation (UN) returns this year as well, having worked with many of these artists who will be getting up throughout Wynwood, and BSA is on the streets here with you to see the action as it unfolds with exhibitions, shows, and possibly a party or two. While Wynwood events certainly popped up in the shadow of the annual Art Basel exhibition, art fair patrons and a modicum of celebrity have made the pilgrimage here in greater numbers every year for some urban decay realness, now sprinkled with glitter.

It is no surprise that many of these same artists are now featured in the art fairs as well, represented by new and established galleries and hired by lifestyle brands and moneyed corporations to carry their messages. It’s a heady mix of power, rebellion, politics, aesthetics, and aerosol; and sometimes it is a pure revelation to see the transformations, given the anti-establishment undercurrents that have run through graffiti and the more socio-political activist elements of Street Art throughout the last half-century.

Fluke from Canada at work on his mural in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On a sunny Sunday afternoon in the 70s, minutes away from the sand and the ocean, this grit is just getting stirred up again, and the aerosol fumes are already wafting through the blocks that are now looking less run-down, and decidedly under development.

West Coast based mural magician and philosopher Chor Boogie, with his protective air mask perched like mini-horns atop his head, smiles and welcomes a visitor happily because this time is just before the flood, before the sidewalks are thick with ipad-photographers and selfie-takers and fans of all sorts.

With moving vans and ladders and boxes of cans being unpacked, this neighborhood is clearly gearing up for a party again, and many artists have already laid down line work to play alongside pieces that have survived previous years. As the events unfold we’ll keep you apprised of the ones we trip into.

It could just be us, but does this look like Al Pacino to you? Greece’s INO in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chor Boogie at work on his tribute mural for his mother. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face from a previous edition of Art Basel. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CERO from a previous edition of Art Basel. This mural was made with tiles and mosaics. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CERO from a previous edition of Art Basel. Detail. This mural was made with tiles and mosaics. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic Fernandez from last year edition of Mana Urban Arts Project X Bushwick Collective at Art Basel. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros from last year edition of Mana Urban Arts Project X Bushwick Collective at Art Basel. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mateo. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This Herakut mural was executed in 2o12 and it is still in a remarkable condition. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Herakut. Detail. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

MSK. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TCP. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

BSA /Urban Nation Berlin “Picks for Miami Art Basel 2016”

November 26, 2016 Artists

It’s the annual peregrination from Brooklyn to Miami after the Thanksgiving holiday to see the sand, the surf, the aerosol masterpieces. For readers who have witnessed the growing spectacle of the Street Art scene in this city and are worried about the full-scale absorption of Street Art and graffiti culture into the larger Urban Contemporary Art rubric, this place is a tidal wave of evidence that the sub-culture/counter-culture is simply loved and adored by too many people.

Of course, tastes vary and not everyone is into the same aesthetic, message, style, technique, and there are still plenty of ruffians trying to stir sh*t up, thank God. But it’s probably psychologically healthy for artists and fans from the origins of this scene on the street to take some pride in the fact that this grassroots arts movement is producing some of the most compelling shows, exhibitions, and events – many rivaling what is happening inside the ART BASEL fair that all these events are associated with.

All week starting this Monday we’ll be there on the ground hustling from the formal to the informal, sponsored to the D.I.Y. – to at least capture some of that energy and insight to bring to you. In partnership with UN – the Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, BSA will bring you action and excitement on the streets – here are some highlight to help you with your planning:

WYNWOOD WALLS MIAMI ART WEEK

An ongoing festival of murals begun in the late 2000s, Wynwood Walls’ theme for this year is “Fear Less” and the 12 new murals will for the double meaning of the expression. From the words of Jessica Goldman Srebnick, CEO of Goldman Properties, who are folks behind Wynwood Walls:

“Every year we choose a unifying theme and ask our artists to somehow address this in their work with the goal of pushing the narrative. This year, with everything going on in the world I felt it appropriate to advocate a message of courage, in the hopes that we can all embody courage in our everyday lives. Street artists by vocation are some of the most fearless people I’ve met — and here in Wynwood, we’ve grown from a marginal area that many feared to explore – into one of the most desirable art-filled locations in the world. My father (Tony Goldman) always said, ‘Don’t give in to fear,’ and this year we’re honoring that sentiment.”

Fear Less will showcase the work of a varied mix of outstanding artists – some household names in the street art world, others up and coming. In addition to Hiratsuka, artists include AVAF (Brazil), Beau Stanton (CA, USA), Case (Germany) Dasic Fernandez (Chile) David Choe (CA, USA), Faith47 (South Africa), Felipe Pantone (Spain), Findac (UK) , Okuda (Spain), Pixel Pancho (Italy,) Risk (CA, USA), Tatiana Suarez (FL, USA) . Artist Audrey Kawasak (USA) will be painting a mural at Goldman Properties’ The Hotel on South Beach. In addition to the murals artist Ken Hiratsuka will carve boulders in the style of his intricate carvings he did on the NYC streets during the 1980’s.

Artist Talk: Thursday December 1st. 6:30 PM at the Goldman Global Arts Gallery at Wynwood Walls. A panel discussion moderated by our own Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief Steven P. Harrington with participating artists: Martha Cooper, Faith 47, Crash, Tristan Eaton and Pixel Pancho. This event is free and open to the public.

Goldman Global Arts Gallery Exhibition:

Featuring original works by the artists of the Wynwood Walls. Open Thursday December 1^st, 2016 thru December 4^th 2016 from 10AM-10PM and then 11AM-8PM thru February 2017, when the exhibit ends.
Wynwood Walls, Open to the Public during Art Basel Miami Art Week, Wynwood Walls is free and open to the public daily from 10 AM to Midnight.

Wynwood Walls is located at 2520 NW 2^nd Avenue between 25^th and 26^th Streets.

MANA URBAN ART PROJECTS X JUXTAPOZ MAGAZINE

This is an epic intersection that you’ve been waiting for – hi brow/low brow, East Coast raw with West Coast surreally pop, old skool graff with hyperreal, graphic, optic and pop-gold muralistas .

All of these people in bed together is going to make a lot of sweet love people – and babies, and possibly some communicable diseases. Can you imagine the mass of the swarming of creative bodies from Juxtapoz, Thinkspace, 1XRun, Mana Contemporary, Bushwick Collective, Jonathan Levine, and many unannounced guests? It’s a first date for many of these awkward actors but we are not missing this gorgeous clusterduck!

Details are still being ironed out in many cases – check Juxtapoz for Updates:

Juxtapoz Clubhouse: 2400 NW 5th Entrance

Juxtapoz bookstore 1xRun

Installations by:

David Ellis / Swoon/ Fintan Magee / Zio Ziegler / OLEK / Laurence Vallieres / Cey Adams / Velia De Iuliis / Ever Seipre / Franco Fasoli / Waeone Interesni Kazki / Chris Lux

MILK presents Scott Campbell: WHOLE GLORY.

Juxtapoz Clubhouse: 537 NW 24th Street Entrance

Along with Milk Studios , Juxtapoz is teaming up for this special two-day tattoo exhibition/interactive art installation/tattoo emporium. “Lucky recipients will be selected via a lottery on an hourly basis”

Juxtapoz Cafe/Cody Hudson

Dennis McNett installation

Jonathan LeVine Gallery “A Conversation Between Friends”

Jamie Adams / Brett Amory / James Bullough / Tristan Eaton / Dylan Egon / AJ Fosik / Ian Francis / Jeremy Geddes / Alex Gross / Handiedan / Haroshi / Andrew Hem / Hush / Erik Jones / Kehoe / Ludo / Eloy Morales / Tara McPherson / Dennis McNett / Joel Real / Shag / Ben Tolman / Adam Wallacavage / Martin Wittfooth Rostarr.

Juxtapoz Clubhouse Alley: 537 NW 24th Street Entrance

BASE 12 COLLECTIVE

BUSHWICK COLLECTIVE BLOCKPARTY

MANA X JUXTAPOZ NW 2nd and NW 22nd, Lane Mana Convention Center

Andrew Schoultz INFINITY PLAZA

Juxtapoz X 1XRUN NW 2nd and NW 22nd Lane Mana Convention Center

1xRun Mobile Print Shop

Installation mural by Shepard Fairey and OBEY

SCOPE MIAMI 2016 801 Ocean Drive Miami Beach

Just to help you navigate, here are some of the exhibitors who will be showcasing Urban Artists and whom we intend to check out:

Castle Fitzjohns Gallery – NYC
FIFTY24MX / Art Gallery – Mexico City
Graffik Gallery – London
Inner State Gallery – Detroit
NextStreet Gallery – Paris
Samuel Owens Gallery – Greenwich, CT.
Struck Contemporary – Toronto, CA
Think Space Gallery – Los Angeles
Macaya Gallery

X CONTEMPORARY ART FAIR Nobu Hotel, Miami Beach.

JONAS SUN 7 / Catherine Ahnell Gallery

SWOON – HELIOTROPE PRINTS MIAMI 2016

Swoon and The Heliotrope Foundation are pleased to present a launch reception for the Miami 2016 Heliotrope Prints release, featuring Aidan Koch, Rashaad Newsome, Ebony G. Patterson, Emilio Perez, Kenny Scharf, and Anne Spalter.

Thursday, December 1, Downtown Miami

6 – 9 p.m. at The Dog (1306 North Miami Avenue)Heliotrope Prints are $50 limited-edition fine art prints with 100% of proceeds benefitting the Heliotrope Foundation, a 501(c)(3) founded by Swoon in order to streamline her three art-based community building initiatives in Haiti, New Orleans, and the Rust Belt town of Braddock, Pennsylvania.Learn more: www.heliotropefoundation.org

Buy prints: www.heliotropeprints.org

RSVP to reception: www.molly.nyc/miami2016

ABOUT THE HOST VENUE:
Curated by Christopher “Jillionaire” Leacock of Major Lazer, The Dog is a weeklong popup in Downtown Miami that will bring together a group of friends—comprised of acclaimed musicians and artists—to form a hub for inspired expression across the creative disciplines. The Dog is bar, dancehall, and art gallery rolled into one; a site-specific and immersive experience that bridges the gap between contemporary art, culture, and music. www.molly.nyc/thedog

MORE SWOON NEWS:

Swoon’s Pearly’s Beauty Shop with Chandran Gallery, Saturday, December 3, 2016. 7pm-late

Art Creates Water (Dec 1-4)

Millerntor Gallery goes ART BASEL – MIAMI BEACH

Art with a social-environmental mission: ALL FOR WATER – WATER FOR ALL!

Artist Collective of LOW BROS, RAMBA ZAMBA, BOBBIE SERRANO und SEBASTIAN BIENIEK.

Mobile gallery shows works by BARBARA., BJÖRN HOLZWEG, BOBBIE SERRANO, FABIAN WOLF, FLYING FÖRTRESS, FROST, GUAPO SAPO, HEIKO MÜLLER, IT’S THE VIBE, JIM AVIGNON, JOBRAY WRITER, KLEBEBANDE, LOW BROS, MAXIMILIAN MAGNUS, NICO SAWATZKI, NILS KASISKE, PAPA SHABANI, PUSH, QUINTESSENZ, RAMBA ZAMBA, REBELZER, ROCKET & WINK, SADHUX, SASAN, SUTOSUTO, TASEK, TESE, ULI PFORR, WE ARE BÜRO BÜRO.

Millerntor Gallery goes Art Basel Miami Beach is supported by Hamburg Marketing GmbH.

ABOUT US

The Millerntor Gallery is a social business by and for Viva con Agua de Sankt Pauli. Our mantra is ”art creates water” – we use art as a universal language to inspire people and involve them in collective creative engagement. Revenues from art sales and donations are being transformed into clean water. The Millerntor Gallery came to life in 2011 as an art festival inside the stadium of the legendary football club FC Sankt Pauli. Growing rapidly it has already become a global cultural movement that blends individual creative energies into one collective force to change the world for the better. More than 1000 artists have contributed their talents, crafts and works for countless Millerntor Gallery art projects in many different countries.

vivaconagua.org facebook.com/vivaconagua

Welling Court 2016 Part II and AD HOC’s 10th Anniversary this Weekend

October 17, 2016 Artists

Long before Bushwick Open Studios and the Bushwick Collective there was Ad Hoc Gallery in a part of Brooklyn better known for bullet proof plexi-glass at the corner deli than being any kind of artists haven. Kool kids were actually filtering in to find cheap rents and space in the early 2000s and Garrison and Alison Buxton and a few other closely knit creatives, teachers, entrepreneurs, and activists created a gallery/community center that welcomed Street Artists and graffiti peeps.

Rubin 415 and Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Their gallery featured solo and group shows that included Shepard Fairey, Swoon, C215, Chris Stain, Know Hope, and many others over a five year period and Ad Hoc provided an entrance to the contemporary art world. Somehow they did it in a way that honored the roots of the culture, not simply cashing in on it. Smart and worldly, they also had open hearts to other people’s projects. We even had our inaugural BSA show and book launch there in 2008, donating all the money to Free Arts NYC and selling work from an impressive number of talented artists whose name you might recognize.

I am Eelco (photo © Jaime Rojo)

10 years later the actual gallery is long closed and they moved to Vermont to get more space to raise their daughter Halcyon, but the Buxtons still sell art, curate the occasional show, and have stayed seriously in the New York mix by hosting an annual street mural jam called Welling Court for the last half decade. True to their community roots, they keep the roster very wide and inclusive. This year the mural painting continued long after the actual event, so we recently went back to Queens to catch the ones we didn’t during this summers jam.

Coming up this weekend there is a big 10^th Anniversary party for Ad Hoc here in Brooklyn again, we thought we’d show you the murals we missed for the first collection of 2016 murals HERE. Hope to see you at this weekends Ad Hoc 10^th Anniversary event at 17 Frost.

Free Humanity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SeeOne and Hellbent (photo © Jaime Rojo)

SONI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze . Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Werc and Zèh Palito (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lady Pink . J Morello (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Epic Uno . M7Ser (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. June (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sinned (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Katie Yamasaki . Caleb Neelon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Depoe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ramiro Davaros-Coma (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ad Hoc Art. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Halcyon from Ad Hoc Art Crew… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ad Hoc Art 10th Year Anniversary and Luna Park’s book launch Art Show will take place this Saturday, October 22nd at 17 Frost Gallery in Brooklyn. Click HERE for further details.

Artists Bring 22 New Murals to “Coney Art Walls 2016”

June 15, 2016 Artists

Just in time for this weekend’s Mermaid Parade, London’s D*Face is finishing up “Live Fast Die Young,” his beauty-and-the-zombie comic couple sipping an ice cream float at the soda counter. Austrian surrealist slicer Nychos has completed his dissection of a Ronald McDonald-ish character without a sketch; running, jumping, nearly flying through the air with aerosol in hand, flinging the spent cans over his shoulder blindly to skitter across the pavement. Baltimore-based freeform anthropologist Gaia is cavorting with passersby who want to take cellphone selfies in front of his painted wall that depicts exactly that; selfies taken in Coney Island.

This is a modern version of the multi-mirror funhouse in mural form, and Coney Art Walls is bringing it again.

Nychos. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

22 new murals on standing slabs of concrete join a dozen or so that were retained from last summer to present an eclectic and savory selection from the old-school and the new. When it comes to art in the streets, a salty luncheonette of city-style treats is on a large public platter these days, with names like graffiti, street art, urban art, installation art, public art, fine art, even contemporary art. For some of those hapless gatekeepers of any of these respective categories, this show in this location presents degrees of discomfort and anger as many subcultural roots are now brought into the light in tandem with one another in a public display – funded by a real estate firm. For the artists and majority of fans, however, the trend is more toward delight and gratitude.

Nychos. The London Police photo bomb. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While you are unpacking that, consider that lead curator Jeffrey Deitch has often proved very adept at plumbing the aesthetic margins of our culture while rearranging and intermingling the parties, helping the viewer to appreciate their differences. This outdoor exhibit co-curated with Joseph Sitt provides a venue for a wide audience to contemplate the range of expression that New York streets have had over the last few decades, including a few artists who are trying this manner of expression for the first time.

As the Thunderbolt, Steeplechase, Cyclone and Wonder Wheel spin and swerve nearby and overhead, sending screams and personal projectiles into the ocean breeze, you have this paved lot full of paintings to peruse, lemonade in one hand and the cotton-candy-sticky hand of a sunscreen-slathered child in the other. Here you’ll see a large two-walled corner smashed with Coney Island themes by Bronx graffiti masters Tats Cru (Bio, BG183, and Nicer), a selection of hand-drawn wheat pasted portraits of Coney Island youth by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and 4 full-form sculptures by John Ahearn creating a modernist view of divers on the beach .

Nychos. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tooling elsewhere through the loose labyrinth you come upon a monochromatic cryptically patterned tribute to Brooklyn-born Beastie Boys vocalist Adam “MCA” Yauch by Brooklyn tagger/train writer/artist Haze and a seemingly lighthearted abstractly collaged wall of mermaids by fine artist Nina Chanel Abney, whose work is currently on the cover of Juxtapoz. There is also a spectacular underwater-themed symmetrical fantasy topped by pylons bearing the likenesses of characters from “The Warriors” film by artist duo The London Police, and a stenciled “Last Supper” featuring heads of world currency playing the disciples and George Washington as Jesus sprayed across the face of a huge dollar bill by Iranian brothers Icy & Sot.

Pose. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We often travel streets and neglected spaces in cities looking for signs of freewill artistic expression and often the creative spirit surprises us as it can be expressed in so many ways with emotion, agenda, and idiosyncratic point of view. It may be the plurality of voices one experiences surfing the Internet or the multi-cultural nature of living in New York with a continuous river of fresh arrivals mixing in with established and old-timers every day, but one comes to expect this variety of viewpoints and rather naturally creates accommodation for inclusion that celebrates without negating – and in many ways Coney Art Walls does that as well.

Oppositional viewpoints are present if you look: There are coded messages and obvious ones, critiques of corporate hegemony, issues of race, commentary on police relations, sexuality, religion, capitalism, community, the languages of advertising, movies, music, entertainment, local history, and examination of roles and power structures.

John Ahearn. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When tooling around this collection, you may wonder what, then, are the commonalities of this survey. Certainly there are the recurring references to Coney Island lore and aspects of performance and flimflam, oddity, fantasy, even the erotic. Naturally, there are elements of natural wonder as well, perhaps expected with the proximity to the beach and the ocean and the history of this place as a vacation getaway.

Aside from this, the connective tissue is what we frequently identify as what is distinctly New York – the plurality of voices. Arguing, making fun, praising, preening, bragging, lambasting, mocking, singing. Despite the continuous attempts by others to divide us, we’re strangely (very strangely), beautifully united.

Jeffery Deitch with John Ahearn. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Ahearn. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“11 Instagram Posts”, by Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Haze. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marie Roberts has multi-generational roots here and her work makes you stop and study it. She has painted many visions and views around the neighborhood, and is considered the artist-in-residence. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marie Roberts. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The London Police. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AIKO. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AIKO. Side A. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally from Japan, Brooklyn’s AIKO has a double sided stencil sonnet to the romance of the sea. With “Tale of the Dragon King and Mermaids in Water Castle” Aiko tells a new version of Urashima Tarō, an old Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin. Says Aiko, “This piece speaks to my and all women’s fantasies; chilling hard super sexy in the beautiful ocean with friendly dragon who is super powerful and a smart guy – they are about going to water castle having good time.”

AIKO. Side B. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nina Chanel Abney. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mister Cartoon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jessica Diamond. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tatiana Fazlalizadeh. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tatiana Fazlalizadeh photographing her subjects. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tatiana Fazlalizadeh. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crash. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BIO – Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NICER – Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BG183 – Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sam Vernon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Timothy Curtis. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martha Cooper. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coney Art Walls
2016 New Artists: Nina Chanel Abney, John Ahearn, Timothy Curtis, D*Face, Jessica Diamond, Tristan Eaton, Gaia, Eric Haze, Icy & Sot, London Police, Nychos, Pose, Stephen Powers, Tats Cru, and Sam Vernon. Returning artists who created new works: Lady Aiko, Mister Cartoon, Crash, Daze, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Marie Roberts. 2015 Murals on display: by Buff Monster, Eine, Ron English, How & Nosm, IRAK, Kashink, Lady Pink, Miss Van, RETNA, eL Seed and Sheryo & Yok. There are also three community walls.

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

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.05.16

June 5, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

It’s Bushwick Collective Weekend Yo! The assembled faces and artists is local, national, international – a melange of what Brooklyn has become in recent years and the streets are alive with involved citizenry in search of entertainment, art and community. The Street Art scene is alive and well, just mutating weirdly as it always does; charges of commercialism and the whitening power of gentrification notwithstanding. A little further out in BedStuy was the #PrincePartyBK yesterday with Spike Lee celebrating the Purple One’s birthday, along with a lot of Biggie love, and Muhammad Ali love, and you, Love.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 1Penemy, BG183, Bio, City Kitty, Coro, Crash, GIZ, JMR, KLOPS, Loco Art, Marie Roberts, Nepo, Nicer, Samantha Vernon, Sheryo, Tats Crew, The Yok, Thomas Allen, Tristan Eaton, UNO, XSM, and You Go Girl!

Our top image: Marie Roberts for Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist’s portrait of Muhammad Ali who passed away this Friday. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BG183 TATS Crew for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CRASH TATS Crew for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nicer TATS Crew for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BIO TATS Crew for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Oh my God, I am totally getting a selfie with this. No one back in Nazareth will believe this. Suurreeusly.” KLOPS for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JMR for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEPO . CORO for The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

GIZ. Joe Ficalora The Bushwick Collective founder with his BFF Pope Francis. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Protestors at the entrance of the Brooklyn Navy Yard have been drawing attention to their opinion that the Duke Riley “Fly By Night” art project with Creative Time is cruel to the pigeons in some way and that the animals are being exploited for profit. Riley has reportedly consulted pigeon clubs, an avian veterinarian, experts from animal welfare groups and been given a good review from the Audubon society so the opinion does not seem unanimous. Regarding the charge of making a profit, we’re pretty sure all the tickets are free, right? Our favorite one is the sign that also insults the artistic quality of the project as “mediocre.” Oh, gurl, you did not manage to throw some shade while protecting those birds did you? Snap! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

XSM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty. A mash up of two giants of rock whom we lost withing months of each other this winter/spring – with that intuitive third eye. “You will be missed” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn Navy Yard. Duke Riley’s Fly By Night performance with pigeons in collaboration with Creative Time. Brooklyn, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.15.16

May 15, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Coney Art Walls is back for 2016 and the artists have already begun painting, Duke Riley is on week two of performance with pigeons in The Brooklyn Navy Yard , the #notacrimecampaign is happening in Harlem to support a free press in Iran, Newark has started a huge public mural program called “Gateways to Newark: Portraits”, Urban Nation in Berlin promises a huge announcement this week, and Vladimir Putin is in a lip-lock with Donald Trump on the street in Lithuania. There is also a lot of new free-range, unsanctioned art on the streets.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring bunny M, Cdre, Crash, Dain, Dee Dee, Etnik, finDAC, Futura, Icy & Sot, Mister Cartoon, Myth, Pegasus, and Rone.

Our top image: CRASH and the first wall completed for the 2016 edition of Coney Art Walls, courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch and his amazing crew, especially Ethel Seno. BSA will bring you all the details, works in progress and behind-the-scenes juiciness for the entire duration of the project until all the walls are completed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We are hoping that one of you dear readers will help us ID this artist, whose signature we can’t figure out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Art Silos” Rise in the Harbor of Catania, Sicily

May 4, 2016 Artists

They’ve been here since the 1950s, these silos for wheat and corn on the harbor of Catania on the east coast of the island of Sicily at the foot of Mount Etna. 28 meters tall and facing the Ionian Sea, they are now some of the largest canvasses in Italy by a small group of international and local Street Artists.

brooklyn-street-art-interesni-kazki-vlady-catania-italy-2015-web-1

The “Art Silos” project includes works completed during an eight month installation begun in June 2015 as part of Festival “I-ART” organized by “Emergence”, thanks to Angelo Bacchelli, curated by Giuseppe Stagnitta. The artists taking part in the project were Okuda (Spain), ROSH333 (Spain), Microbo (Italy), BO130 (Italy), VladyArt (Italy), Danilo Bucchi (Italy) and the duo Interesni Kaxki (Ukraine), mostly all from the graffiti/Street Art world. A separately organized but related project on the harbor-facing row of eight silos was completed by one artist alone, the Lisbon-based Vhils.

The project’s completion at the turn of the year culminated in one of the largest Street Art/Graffiti artists’ collective shows in Italy held in the city’s main public gallery Palazzo Platamone, entitled “Codici Sorgenti” (Source Code), which was curated by Stefano S. Antonelli and Francesca Mezzano from Rome’s 999 Contemporary Gallery.

There is talk about the possibility that this exhibition of about 60 artists work will tour throughout Europe with its message of the historic roots of modern graffiti and Street Art along with many of its most impactful practitioners pushing into the contemporary art world.

According to Arianna Ascione in Artsblog.it, the gallery exhibition was “divided into three sections that tell the birth, interactive development and consecration of the (graffiti/street art) phenomenon” Indeed, the list contains works by 108, A One, Augustine Iacurci, Alexis Diaz, Alexone, Bo 130, Boris Tellegen (aka Delta), Brad Downey, C215, Clemens Behr, Conor Harrington, Crash, Delta 2, Dondi White, Doze Green, El Seed, Ericailcane, Eron, Escif, Evol, Faile, Feitakis, Gaia, Herbert Baglione, Horfee, Interesni Kazki, Invader, Jaz, Jeff Aerosol, Mark Jenkins, Jonone, JR, Judith Supine, Kool Poor, The Atlas, Lek & Sowat, Lucy McLauchlan, Matt Small, Maya Hayuk, Mensanger, Miss Van, Momo, Moneyless, Peeta, Rammellzee, Retna, Roa, Seth, Philippe Baudelocque, Sharp, Shepard Fairey, StenLex, Swoon, The London Police, Todd James,Toxic, and the aforementioned Vhils.

Ironically the genre-melting inclination of so-called “urban art” has eroded the silo mentality of many who follow these art forms as they become known, followed, collected, and exhibited; As a metaphor “Art Silos” may more accurately refer to the past and the dogmatic separation of genres such as graffiti, tattoo, illustration, ad jamming, and Street Art for example.

Although not strictly what you might call public art either, the scale of “Art Silos”, with its major artworks that typically may take years to be approved in large cities elsewhere, is an occurrence routinely happening in cities around the world.

For us this is one more example of the “New Muralism” that is enabling Street Artists to do major works in public spaces via non-traditional routes. On par with a public art works of other committee-approved sorts, this silo project was a private/public collaboration that made selections, secured funding and permissions from the harbor authorities, city figures, politicians and the manager of the silos themselves, according to VladyArt, who along with Microbo is one of the artists and a resident of Catania.

He says the size of the project and the power of the imagery combined with the process of watching them go up has drawn a lot of attention to the area lately. “The people here were amazed by our speed and the large scale operation. Catania had no large murals like this… this was the very first time for Sicily. They can be seen from far away and even from taking off from and landing at the airport – or coming by cruise line on the sea. It seems that nobody really paid that much attention to this spot before, and everyone is talking about it now.”

To understand why a project of this nature can happen so quickly these days, look no further than the location. As we have recounted numerous times, often these efforts are deliberately programmed to draw attention to economically challenged areas as a way of encouraging tourism and investment.

In fact VladyArt says that this historic region and city that dates back many centuries before Christ is having a very challenging time economically and socially and could use positive attention from a crowd that appreciates art. “Catania is somehow the most dynamic city of Sicily, because of its industrial and commercial features,” he says.

“Having said that, please be aware that the south of Italy is no way wealthy or an easy place, despite its beauty and lucky location in the sun. Almost the whole city is rough, I can name a many neighborhoods where this is the case.”

So it is all the more remarkable that a multi-artist iconic installation can happen here in Catania and people are exposed to a grassroots-fueled art scene that is currently galloping across the globe.

“Regular people around here don’t know much about the whole thing, street art and stuff,” says Vlady Art. “So, quite frankly they wouldn’t care much about Okuda, Vhils or Interesni. They never heard of them before and probably people will find hard to spell their names. They cannot catch the meaning or the purpose of this. They simply like what they see – they like this energy. They do get the ‘message’, the power of art.”

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This article is also published in The Huffington Post.

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

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.

“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.”

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.”

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.

“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”

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.”

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.”

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

#ArtsOrgNYC and @artsorg on Instagram

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>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!<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Johannes Mundinger: “La Bella Confusione”
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