All posts tagged: El Sol 25

Tehran To NYC / NYC To Tehran, Curated by Icy & Sot

June 26, 2014 Artists, Interview

Iranian Brothers Generate Cultural Exchange Between Two Homes

Icy & Sot, the Iranian Street Artists who have been making their mark on the New York scene for just two years are again making news by curating a gallery show that introduces Iran and the US to one another through the visual vernacular of Street Art.

With two shows running concurrently in Tehran and Brooklyn, the stencil loving spray painters have successfully exposed fans of this genre to the artists in another country with actual examples of art in a gallery setting rather than simply through the Internet. During the South Williamsburg opening on June 13^th guests at the TBA temporary space were treated to works by 10 Iranian artists as well as a video projection on the wall of their counterparts viewing the US artists show at Seyhoun Art gallery, which was recorded only hours earlier.

Iran’s CK1 in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Without diplomatic relations between the two countries, it is a wonder that this exchange could be cultivated, let alone executed. Given the restrictions imposed upon music, film, literature, and art since the revolution of 35 years ago, it added a layer of incredulity for gallery goers to measure the implications while viewing the works by a youth culture that has as its DNA a certain strain of rebellion.

New York sent the work of 35 artists, an impressively sized roster of participants who were each given size restrictions to keep shipping simpler and costs lower. While the brothers were clearly elated to bring new work to both cities, one might have surmised that the more excited feelings were directed toward their recently departed home where about 55% of the population is estimated to be under 30 years old and a youthful cultural evolution is said to be happening in the artist underground.

Iran’s CK1 in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Work from the Iranians reveals an accurately studious affinity for the pop of Warhol and irony of Banksy alongside polished versions of wildstyle and more modern graffiti lettering and loose splattering. The larger cross section of New Yorkers sampled from that pot as well as the myriad influences on the streets today including illustration, photography, geometric patterning, cartoon, and collage.

BSA spoke with the brothers as they were installing the New York show:

Brooklyn Street Art: So would you say this is primarily about cultural exchange?
Sot: Yeah, I mean the fact that there hasn’t been any relationship between Iran and the US, but this is totally about the relationship between the artists.

Iran’s Ill in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What do you think that a viewer at the New York show is going to realize when seeing these works?
Icy: First of all they are going to get to know the artists because they are not familiar with their work and haven’t had a chance to know them before. Also they will realize the fact that there are people in Iran doing this kind of art. It is underground, it is just a small scene, but still.
Sot: It’s a good chance for these artists to show their work.

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you say that these artists are taking real risks by showing their work like this?
Icy: I mean, for the street artists there everything is risky, putting works in the street… like having the show is stressful but luckily the people there have gotten their permits and stuff.

Iran’s Cave 2 in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Who did they have to ask for permission and what did they need to see?
Sot: It’s hard to translate the name but it’s an official organization
Icy: They have to check out the work and see it and they have to approve it.
Sot: Yes they have to do that for everything – for music performance or for art exhibits or anything, they have to go through this – but for this show it is at one of the oldest galleries in Iran so.

The guys related some of the exigencies of putting a show like this together and Sot talks about one of the artists who is an old classmate of his who doesn’t use the tools of communication that so many of his peers in the west would. “He doesn’t have a website for his art and he’s not on Facebook,” says Sot, “so I was like Facebook messaging another friend to ask him to call this guy for me and ask him to be in the show, and then to ask him for the status of shipping of his piece or information about the piece.”

Iran’s Hoshvar in “Tehran to New York”(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: So with the Superman and the Warholian Marilyn, I like this idea where there is a mixing of the two cultures together quite literally.
Sot: Yeah, for these shows there wasn’t really a theme but some artists, because they knew where they were going to be displayed made specific choices to communicate something. Like Gilf! wanted to write something in farsi so she picked the words “I am You” in farsi.
Icy: And El Sol 25 did the words “Iran So Far Away”, which is inspired by the song. (by Flock of Seagulls)

Iran’s MAD in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What is one of your favorite pieces here, or rather, which one would you like to talk about?
Icy: I like them when they talk about social issues.
Sot: Like this one with CK1 – it has all these pictures from newspaper with the Shah

Brooklyn Street Art: They look like they may have been around ’81 or ’82…
Icy: Yeah, then the hijab came after the revolution and then the women had to wear the hijab.
Brooklyn Street Art: So before then they didn’t have to wear it?
Sot: No, before that they could choose.
Icy: Then they had no choice.
Sot: And this one with Superman and on his chest it says “love” in farsi and there is Tehran in the background and there is the freedom tower in the background?

Brooklyn Street Art: Is that called “Freedom Tower”?
Sot: Yeah, or Liberty Tower, it’s like the symbol of Tehran. It’s like you have the Statue of Liberty here and that’s the freedom tower in Iran.

Iran’s CK1 in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Iran’s FRZ in “Tehran to New York” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A more traditional piece by sh’b varies from the Street Art theme and displays the artistic influence of distinctly Persian origins. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“NYC TO TEHRAN”

Tony De Pew, Sonni, Hellbent and Bishop203 (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

Gilf! on the wall with Joe Iurato on the pedestal. (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

A screened piece by Chris Stain based on a Martha Cooper photo. (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

Buttless Supreme and El Sol 25 on the bottom. (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

QRST, Cruz, Phetus (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

Enzo and Nio, Russell King and Gilf! (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

Cern and Contemporary Adult Music (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

The mood in Tehran (photo © Rana Ahmadi)

The Exhibition NYC to Tehran is currently on view at Seyhoun Art Gallery in Tehran, Iran. Click HERE for more details. The sister exhibition from Tehran to NYC is now closed.

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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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El Sol 25, an Original Mix Master and Street Collagist

April 16, 2014 Artists

Like spinning multiple vinyl platters at 78, 45, and 33 RPMs on old beige school library record players, this is a low-fi mixmaster whose visual style stands singularly, compelling and jarring. You have just bumped into a new El Sol 25 on the street.

Digging through the reference bin of your art history and popular culture signatures, you may want to decode where this compositional collision evolves from. Picking the pieces apart there appears to be little in common with the classical, the folk, the agrarian, the Egyptian tunics, the Greek marble, Sioux head dresses, sports trading cards, Depression Era glass, gilt frames and 50s TV depictions of svelte domesticity.

Perhaps it is the painted technique that lifts them to a common vernacular, creating an amber nostalgia for a time that never existed in the collaged paintings from Street Artist El Sol 25. Like crocuses and tulips they have recently appeared plastered around Brooklyn in a new spring campaign and while you never know when he’s coming, you sure know when he’s arrived.

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

After wading through stacks of books and magazines, cutting and pasting limbs and feathers and tobacco leaves and intersex torsos together, he then paints enlarged versions of them by hand on butcher paper. He’s said that they speak to him, and so do the walls and doorways where they are pasted, and we have no reason to doubt it.

While we draw up short of saying we are fans to maintain an air of professionalism, he did rather tip the scale this time when we discovered that he painted a tribute to BSA on a popular spot in BK, and we’re sort of embarrassed — but of course we’ve already taken multiple selfies in front of it so clearly not that embarrassed. So there’s that. Even so, if the work had not been so consistently risk-taking and experimental and authentic in a pool of copycats, El Sol 25’s work would not have caught our eye and kept it.

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

He once told us in an interview that his inspiration comes from a multitude of sources, “I get my inspiration from everything from walking to work or bad music or bad films or great films or good days or bad days. I get my inspiration from everything. I’m dependent on my work spiritually so I really like the idea of incorporating anything and everything into it. I take inspiration not just from what I’ve put on a pedestal – I enjoy everything.”

So for the gluttonous visual omnivores that are continuously pawing through images on your phone looking for a new sugar rush, this is your man. Because these are one-of-a-kind, labor intensive paintings on paper that decay in the wind and rain, catch them while you can. His pieces don’t usually get tagged over but the shelf life is probably a year at most.

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25. His tribute to BSA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Power Of Slow and the Ascent of the Storytellers

March 3, 2014 Artists

A big deal has been made about the so-called virtual experience of Street Art – made possible by ever more sophisticated phones and digital platforms and technology – producing a pulsating river of visually pleasing delicacies to view across every device at a rapid speed, and then forget.

Sit on the city bus or in a laundromat next to someone reviewing their Instagram/RSS/Facebook feed and you’ll witness a hurried and jerky scrolling with the index finger of images flying by with momentary pauses for absorbing, or perhaps “liking”. The greatest number of “likes” are always for the best eye candy, the most poppy, and the most commercially viable. It’s a sort of visual image consumption gluttony that can be as satisfying as a daily bag of orange colored cheese puffs.

This is probably not what art on the street is meant for. At least, not all of it.

Space Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As we have been observing here and in front of audiences for a few years now, the 2000s and 2010s have brought a New Guard and a new style and approach to work in the street that we refer to as the work of storytellers. These artists are doing it slowly, with great purpose, and without the same goals that once characterized graffiti and street art.

London Kaye’s tribute to Space Invader. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While there has been the dual development of a certain digital life during the last decade, these street works are eschewing the shallowness that our electronic behaviors are embracing. Even though the digitization of society has pushed boundaries of speed and eliminated geography almost entirely, it is creating an artificial intelligence of a different kind. In other words there really is still no substitute for being there to see this work, to being present in the moment while cars drive by and chattering pedestrians march up the sidewalk.

Setting aside the recent abundance of large commissioned/permissioned murals and the duplication/repetition practice of spreading identical images on wheatpasted posters and stickers that demark the 1990s and early 2000s in the Street Art continuum, today we wanted to briefly spotlight some of the one of a kind, hand crafted, hand painted, illegally placed art on the streets.

Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The materials, styles and placements are as varied as the artists themselves: Yarn characters attached to fences, tiles glued to walls, acrylic and oil hand painted wheat pastes on a myriad of surfaces, ink, lead and marker illustrations, carved linotype ink prints, clay sculptures, lego sculptures, intricate hand-cut paper, and hand rendered drawings have slowly appeared on bus shelters, walls, doorways, even tree branches.

They all have a few things in common: The artists didn’t ask for permission to place these labor-intensive pieces on the streets, they are usually one of a kind, and frequently they are linked to personal stories.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’ve been educating ourselves about these stories and will be sharing some of them with you at the Brooklyn Museum in April, so maybe that’s why we have been thinking about this so much. There is a quality to these works that reflect a sense of personal urgency and a revelation about their uniqueness at the same time.

If the placement of them is hurried the making of them it is not. The themes can be as varied as the materials but in many cases the artist informs the art by his or her autobiography or aspiration. And once again BSA is seeing a steady and genuine growth in storytelling and activism as two of the many themes that we see as we walk the streets of the city.

Jaye Moon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Keely and Deeker collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Square and bunny M collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BD White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bagman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images Of The Week: 02.23.14

February 23, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 1up, Bishop203, Bradley Theodore, Cash4, Deekers, El Sol 25, Hiss Keeley, Kevin Cyr, King Amsterdam, Ludo, Mosco Clandestino, Not Art, ROA, Royce Bannon, Smells, Sweet Toof, Trap Art, and Zimer.

Top Image >> Sweet Toof joins Deekers, 1UP, Roa and Keely on this little wall of horrors. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sweet Toof and Smells collab on a roof top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bradley Theodore gives Anna and Karl a face lift. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hiss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash4 . Smells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clearly this is Not Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trap Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Padlock Menagerie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ludo up close at the show “Fruit of the Doom”. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An unusual thing for Ludo – a sculptural reprise of his recurring image “Fruit of the Doom” from his solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ludo “Fruit of the Doom” solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25, Bishop 203 and Royce Bannon adorn the facade of 17 Frost Gallery for the “Outdoor Gallery NYC” show. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kevin Cyr “Right Place, Right Time” solo show at Jonathan LeVine Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

King Amsterdam (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zimer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mosco Clandestino (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Central Park, Manhattan. 2013 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Outdoor Gallery” Surveys Current Street Art Scene in NYC

February 20, 2014 Artists

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin

The outdoor gallery is the one we visit most and NYC is always front and center in our heart even as we branched out to about 100 other cities and towns last year. Outdoor Gallery – New York City is also the name of the brand new book by photographer and writer Yoav Litvin, who has spent the last couple of years shooting New York streets and meeting many of the artists who make the painting and wheat pasting that characterizes the class of 2014.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Chris Stain.

Published by Ginko Press, the large 235 page hardcover features nearly 50 street artists / graffiti artists whose work you see here regularly (with the exception of two or three) along with comments and observations from the artists about their practice, their experiences, and the current Street Art scene primarily in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

When Yoav told us of his hope to publish a book last year we offered whatever advice we could – but primarily we advised him to stick to his vision and not to let anyone discourage him. A true fan of the scene, he has worked tirelessly to do just that and now he can share with you a personal survey and record of many of the artists who are getting up today in New York.

Outdoor Gallery. New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Joe Iurato.

“Outdoor Gallery – New York City grew organically to embody my process of exploration and discovery on the streets of New York City. It is a creation that was born out of love for New York City streets and their people, and focuses on artists as leaders with a unique and necessary role in a society that aspires for freedom and change,” says Litvin in his introduction, and throughout the book you can sense the respect he has for the art and the dedication he has put into this project.

Careful to let the artists speak for themselves, he presents their work without commentary and with ample space given for expression. Using primarily his own photos, it is carefully edited and presented as an uncluttered and measured overview of each artists work.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Jilly Ballistic.

For us it is a proud moment to see someone’s dream realized after so much effort and dogged determination – especially in a scene whose challenges we are well familiar with. No one knows how hard it is to make something happen unless they do it themselves. So congratulations to Yoav for sticking to his vision and having the fortitude to finish this and thanks to him on the behalf of the artists whom he is helping to receive recognition for their work as well.

To that end, you are invited to the big launch party this Saturday at 17 Frost in Williamsburg. We’ll be there and we hope you can make it out for a great New York Street Art family reunion. You can’t miss the entrance, it’s been newly smashed by El Sol 25, Bishop 203, Royce and some other people we can’t remember right now but who will remind us as soon as this goes up ; ) .

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Gilf!

You can find out more about it on the Facebook Event Page, but we understand there will be a newly debuted video from Dega Films, a special tribute to Army of One, and a full show of new works from many of the artists in the book, including;

Adam Dare, Alice Mizrachi, Army of One / JC2, Astrodub, ASVP, Billy Mode, Bisho203, Bunny M, Cern, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Cope2, Dain, Dirty Bandits, El Sol 25, Elle Deadsex, Enzo and Nio, Free5, Fumero, Gaia, Gilf!, Hellbent, Icy and Sot, Indie 184, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, Kram, Lillian Lorraine, LNY (Lunar New Year), Miyok, ND’A, OCMC, OverUnder, Phetus88, QRST, Russell King, Shin Shin, Shiro, Sofia Maldonaldo, The Yok, Toofly, and Veng RWK.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Icy & Sot.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Hellbent.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by QRST.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Front and back cover art by Bishop203, LNY, Alice Mizrachi, QRST, Gilf!, Cern and Icy & Sot.

Below is a look at behind-the-scenes of the making of the mural for the cover of the book.

Bishop 203. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Icy & Sot balancing a stencil. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Taking a step back to assess the progress. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

The final piece. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Outdoor Gallery – New York City will be launched in conjunction with an art exhibition this Saturday, February 22nd at 17 Frost Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Click HERE for more details.

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Images Of The Week: 02.02.14

February 2, 2014 Artists

Welcome to New York! Apparently there is some sort of sporting event happening today here. Or is in New Jersey? So hard to tell. Something to do with tobogganing or something. Winter Olympics maybe?

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Chor Boogie, Chromo, Dain, Deived, El Sol 25, Jesse James, Katsu, Luut, Mr. Toll, Reve, Sen2, The Orion, UNO.

Top Image >> El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A special message made of corporate logos from fine eating establishments on a new sticker that has been spotted around town. Can you identify them all? Artist Unknown with a Chromo tag. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Division of painting labor helpfully illustrated by Luut and Sen2 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Deived. Tijuana, Mexico. January 2014 (photo © Deived)

Katsu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UNO walking a pig in Bologna, Italy. 2014 (photo © UNO)

UNO. Bologna, Italy. January 2014 (photo © UNO)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chor Boogie. Detail of his Michael Jackson tribute in progress in Times Square. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chor Boogie getting ready to paint Madonna next to Michael Jackson. Yes, he does look like Hellboy for some reason. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

The Orion in Romania pays tribute to Soviet Union era cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin (photo © The Orion)

REVE in Italy (photo © REVE)

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Toll spilling his BK control advice. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jesse James in Miami. (photo © Jesse James)

Untitled. Times Square, NYC. January 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Images Of The Week: 01.26.14

January 26, 2014 Artists

BSA Images of the Week this week starts with a series of non Street Art photos because they are inside a hallowed hall of NYC high culture, namely the Phillip Johnson designed modernist building that houses the New York City Ballet at Lincoln Center. International Street Artist, photographer and populist JR made a splash this week here with his project that puts ballet at the center of our eye.

For the second year the ballet has featured a Street Artist to lead their new artist series (last year was the duo Faile) and we’re nominating some names for next year already. This week however, JR’s large scale photographs of the ballet company ruled on opening night as a wide variety of guests walked on them all and marvelled up close and personally with the dancers images that lay artfully throughout the room.

Some guests climbed stairs to look down upon the giant ocular piece from balconies above, and in a true spirit of interactivity some fans went the full-immersion route by laying upon the image itself, striking a pose while friends took shots and tweeted and Instagrammed them. By the time the performers hit the stage we were all primed for the sprightly Gen Y talent to dance, and if this program by @balletnyc is successful, a new generation will also be filling the seats to see them this spring.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ainac, Bask, El Sol 25, Elbow-Toe, JR, Pyramid Oracle, and Swoon.

Top Image >> A new piece by Elbow Toe takes flight on the street in Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The JR installation for his collaboration with The NYC Ballet Artists Series at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The JR installation for his collaboration with The NYC Ballet Artists Series at Lincoln Center in Manhattan. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BASK new wall in Saint Petersburg, Florida. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AiNAC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Girl Power. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. January 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

January 15, 2014 Artists

It’s a House Party Y’all!

With studio apartments in Manhattan now hitting nearly 3K a month the closest thing most Milennials will ever get to a house party in Gotham will be snagging a VCR tape of the Kid ‘n Play danceoff movie at their parents stoop sale. Last week during the “polar vortex” cold freeze some lucky invitees did get access to a secret house party in a dilapidated building on the Lower East Side for 2 hours however. There wasn’t much heat, no DJ, and your flask of Jack Daniels substituted as the bar, but if you made it in you scored a free condensed Street Artist show that is as rare as a New Jack Swing hit these days.

A subtle beam of light from Heaven (or Kevin) above Hanksy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A little more than 40 (mostly) Street Artists brought the four floor former tenement building to life one last time before it will be destroyed – and they did it almost entirely in secret over the course of a week. Just how secret this event was is debatable considering the multitude of blog posts and photos of it that appeared in the days following but in the Internet age, news about stuff like this goes viral no matter what.

All tolled, the varied collection of participants was a cross-section; a blurry screenshot of Street Artists on the New York scene along with a few graff writers, taggers, sticker slappers, painters, illustrators, aerosol experts, installationists, art school students, and visitors to the big city who happened to be around at the right time. Also, a couple of pyros.

A collaborative wall for “Surplus Candy” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While this sort of artist takeover of an abandoned house or building is increasingly occurring in bankrupt cities and neighborhoods in America and Europe where no one wants to live except the creative types, you don’t find this unruly and freewheeling expression much in the increasingly scrubbed and mall-like playground for the rich in Manhattan.

Similarly, producers of large Street Art/Urban Art events in global cities can deliver murals that make you salivate and on a scale that dwarfs this “event” thanks to corporate underwriters and shills for sneakers/sodas/urban-themed tampons these days, but few can truthfully rival the unpolished impromptu spirit of a semi-secret House Party jam session. For one week during installations and on opening night it was like the ghost of New York’s downtown 1970s-80s Bohemia was coming back to the island in all it’s imperfectness to remind everyone of Manhattan’s former greatness as a petri dish for experimentation and discovery.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Considering the huge increase in sanctioned walls over the last two years in New York, this work looks surprisingly alive, and is just the sort of balm needed for the raw nerves of anarchists everywhere who have bemoaned the polished soul-deadening mural painting of late. Even if some of this looks sort of slap-dash and ragged in spots, and it does, it also gives off an air of being authentic and in-the-moment.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Notably, the ratio of penis, breast, and defacation-related themes was higher than your average art show but as you know, there is an audience for every artist, even the ones gravitating to bathroom humor as creative wellspring. Judging by the few hundred images floating around on Flickr and elsewhere, this pop-up was a hit for the people.

Given the growing number of artists communities that have blossomed outside of Manhattan, this could have been one of its last jams for Street Art. Yo! That’s my jam!

And now please step aside as we build another luxury condo.

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Alice Mizrachi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASVP (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tony DePew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tone Tank (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon at work on his installation. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Royce Bannon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELLE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Foxx Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rusell King (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CB23 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Col Wallnuts (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cosbe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This show, “Surplus Candy” was organized by Hanksy, and is now closed.

A near complete artist list includes:

Alice Mizrachi/AM, ASVP, BD White, Bishop203, CB23, Cernesto, Col Wallnuts, Cosbe, Dee Dee, Dick Mama, Drippings, Edapt, EKG, El Sol 25, Elizabeth Glaessner, Elle, Enzo and Nio, Foxxface, GILF!, Hanksy, Icy and Sot, Left Handed Wave, Lunar New Year, Magda Love, Martha Cooper, Mata Ruda, Moustache Man, Mr. Toll, Mr. Two Three, Mrs. Big Stuff, NDA, Never, Nicolas Holiber, Royce Bannon, Russell King, Sonni, Tako, Tone Tank, Tony Depew, Trap, UR New York, Vulpes Vulpes, Wizard Skull, and Wretched Beast.

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El Sol 25 – New Figurative and “Ransom Note” Style Wheatpastes

January 6, 2014 Artists

El Sol 25 has appeared again suddenly with a handful of the collage style paintings in two distinct styles that have distinguished his work from many others on the New York scene for the last handful of years.

We are now getting accustomed to the ransom letter style phrases that he began over the last year or so – bringing to mind other font fans on the street like D*Face, Eine, and Greg Lamarche. The difference here is the technique where El Sol 25 hand paints each collaged message on paper in studio and then wheatpastes the one-of-kind piece on the street.

The figurative works that you are more familiar with are also back, a product of mixing and matching limbs, torsos, and heads from myriad sources that result in unusual, nearly incongruous compositions stretching your area of acceptance and narrative comprehension ever further to consider what is harmony, and what is chaos. Again you may see similarities to others on the street – most notably the sort of slash and slice and recollecting collage work currently on the street by practitioners like Judith Supine, Dain, and more recently, Dee Dee. Not surprisingly, El Sol 25 takes it in a more painterly direction again by hand painting with brushes the entire collaged figure on butcher paper (or similar) and pasting the one-off composition on a wall.

It is perhaps because of this highly labor intensive one-off process that you do not see the former graffiti bomber on the street very often. If he had made multiples and repeatedly placed them all over the city like taggers in the graffiti tradition, the name would be possibly be more ubiquitous. But as it turns out, these one-of-a-kind pieces appear quietly and loudly and singularly and standing in a doorway or on a wall for a few months, then fading and decaying and disappearing without a lot of fanfare.

The pileup manner that the pieces are placed on walls that are sometimes already heavily bombed has also brought attention to the artist from writers and other Street Artists because it sometimes is interpreted as being too close to other works or placed directly over works that may not be considered to have had their full run or to have fallen far enough into disrepair. That is probably why you see new tags or works appearing quickly over El Sol’s sometimes. Other times the painted paste ups lay amidst the visual chaos untouched as if the new composition/collaboration/conversation has been deemed amenable to all parties.

To the majority of passersby who are not tuned into the conversation among artists or even the concept of it, El Sol 25 is an unusual and puzzling and usually gratifying discovery. Like so much Street Art and graffiti, you are welcomed to make your own storyline to accompany it.

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The 2013 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 18, 2013 Artists

Here it is! Our 2013 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year, snapped one second before he was singled out of a New York crowd, handcuffed, and stuffed into a police car – sort of like the Banksy balloons he was capturing.

“Among all the thousands of photos I took this year there’s one that encapsulates the importance of Street Art in the art world and some of the hysteria that can build up around it,” he says of his final shot on the final day of the one month Better Out Than In artist ‘residency’ in NYC this October. It was a cool day to be a Street Art photographer – but sadly Rojo was camera-less in a case of mistaken identity, if only for a short time.

Released two hours later after the actual car-jumping trespasser was charged, Rojo was happy to hear the Chief Lieutenant tell his officer “you’ve got the wrong man”, to get his shoelaces back, and to discover this photo was still on his camera. He also gets to tell people at parties that he spent some time in the holding cell with the two guys whom New York watched tugging down the B-A-N-K-S-Y.

What’s everybody looking at? Jaime Rojo’s favorite image of the year at the very end of the Banksy brouhaha. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

When it came to choosing the 112 images for the video that capture the spirit of the Street Art scene in ’13, we were as usual sort of overwhelmed to comb through about ten thousand images and to debate just how many ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ pieces made it into the mix. Should we include only images that went up under the cover of the night, unsanctioned, uncensored, uncompromised, unsolicited and uncommissioned? Isn’t that what Street Art is?

Right now there are a growing number of legal pieces going up in cities thanks to a growing fascination with Street Art and artists and it is causing us to reevaluate what the nature of the Street Art scene is, and what it may augur for the future. You can even say that from a content and speech perspective, a sizeable amount of the new stuff is playing it safe – which detracts from the badass rebel quality once associated with the practice.

These works are typically called by their more traditional description – murals. With all the Street Art / graffiti festivals now happening worldwide and the growing willingness of landlords to actually invite ‘vandals’ to paint their buildings to add cache to a neighborhood and not surprisingly benefit from the concomitant increase in real estate values, many fans and watchers have been feeling conflicted in 2013 about the mainstreaming that appears to be taking place before our eyes. But for the purposes of this roundup we decided to skip the debate and let everybody mix and mingle freely.

This is just a year-end rollicking Street Art round-up; A document of the moment that we hope you like.

Ultimately for BSA it has always been about what is fresh and what is celebrating the creative spirit – and what is coming next. “We felt that the pieces in this collection expressed the current vitality of the movement – at least on the streets of New York City,” says photographer and BSA co-founder Rojo. It’s a fusillade of the moment, complete with examples of large murals, small wheat pastes, intricate stencils, simple words made with recycled materials or sprayed on to walls, clay installations, three dimensional sculptures, hand painted canvases, crocheted installations, yarn installations etc… they somehow captured our imaginations, inspired us, made us smile, made us think, gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it.

Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

A Dying Breed, Aakash Nihalini, Agostino Iacursi, Amanda Marie, Apolo Torres, Axel Void, Bagman, Bamn, Pixote, Banksy, B.D. White, Betsy, Bishop203, NDA, Blek le Rat, br1, Case Maclaim, Cash For Your Warhol, Cholo, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, Christian Nagel, Cost, ENX, Invader, Crush, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Dase, Dasic, Keely, Deeker, Don’t Fret, The Droid, ECB, el Seed, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Faile, Faith 47, Five Pointz, Free Humanity, Greg LaMarche, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Inti, Jilly Ballistic, John Hall, JR, Jose Parla, Judith Supine, Kremen, Kuma, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Love Me, Martha Cooper, Matt Siren, Elle, Mika, Miss Me, Missy, MOMO, Mr. Toll, Nychos, Okuda, Alice Mizrachi, OLEK, Owen Dippie, Paolo Cirio, Paul Insect, Phetus, Phlegm, Revok, Pose, QRST, Rambo, Ramiro Davaro, Reka, Rene Gagnon, ROA, RONES, Rubin, bunny M, Square, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swoon, Tristan Eaton, The Lisa Project 2013, UFO 907, Willow, Swill, Zed1, and Zimer.

Read more about Banksy’s last day in New York here and our overview of his residency in the essay “Banksy’s Final Trick” on The Huffington Post.

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Aerosol Texting: The Power Of Words on City Walls

November 13, 2013 Artists

Brief Analog Messages on Walls Ape Our Digit-driven Discourse

Whether satire, slogan, or soliloquy, the anonymous street scribe shapes our experience while we walk through the city.

Boffo or blustery, a piece of poetry can sling or sting your unsuspecting heart as you round the corner or look above your head and a rallying cry will bring color to your cheeks or dread into your head. A well-crafted counterpoint can clearly confound and a cleverly flipped script will turn up your lips, but no-one can crack some cryptic confessionals or meandering non sequitors that pop and squirm under your quizzical gaze.

Whether cute or contentious, the hand-rendered words that we daily see on walls throughout the city are all speaking to us in a cooly comforting lo-fi handwritten way across the bricks and mortar, but somehow they often obey a 140 character limit too. Mercifully brief, as if targeted to our hurried pace and tightly tailored for the twitter-brained among us, these textual communications are looking for a more general audience, but an audience nonetheless.

And here we are.

Today we look at a kaleidoscopic collection caught by photographer Jaime Rojo, cobbled together here for you.

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BSA Images of The Week: 10.20.13

October 20, 2013 Artists

The leaves in Central Park are aflame and so are the passions of Street Art fans (and artists) this week in New York where the general public is now conditioned to be on alert for a near-daily announcement of a new Banksy installation nearly anywhere in the city. It can be a stencil, a sculpture, a performance, a rolling truck gallery, or a canvas suspended from the Highline – but don’t worry about finding it – it will be announced on the website first…

We’ve tried to keep it all in perspective and not slavishly cancel life to run out and capture the latest installation, but the buzz is unavoidable and we get sucked in. It is now taking on some air of a circus, complete with barkers and clowns and otters flapping their flippers (and lips). As a branding “re-fresh”, it’s been a very successful campaign so far with news reportage, Instagramming and re-tweets, crowds assembling at a moments notice to snap images of and/or with the work, and we even found vigilante fans tackling vandals who are vandalizing the vandalism. You can’t engineer that sort of irony. Now an elected leader or two are talking about trying to capture the president of Banksy Inc. LLC – which would send a clear message to all Street Artists that this really is the best way to market your work.

Meanwhile there are many other Street Artists and fine artists in general who are still at work on the streets of New York, and you may even give their content, quality and placement more praise than some from this Banksy campaign. We’ve always celebrated the creative spirit however it is expressed and invariably find some of the greatest work is done by people we’ve never heard of, or barely know much about. At a time where large media is consolidating and the individual voice is being marginalized and commodified, we find this to still be an amazingly democratic practice of joining the conversation, if imperfect and confusing. And New York doesn’t stop just because one new guy is getting a lot of attention – Hell, we barely notice when Obama or the Pope or even the Queen of England visits – she’s just one queen after all and we have the entire neighborhood of Chelsea.

So here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Banksy, Bifido, Cali Killa, Dede, Don Rimx, El Kamino, El Sol 25, JC, London Kaye, Meres, Nepo, Pastey Whyte, Shin Shin, and Shiro.

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