Our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bast, Christian Paine, Jim Avignon, Jon Burgerman, LMNOP, Enzo and Nio, Stikman, Toofly, and WAS.
1. RADICAL! at Munch Gallery Tonight
2. Ryan Ford at Factory Fresh Tonight
3. Get Your Smashing Pumpkins on At Crest Arts Saturday
4. Rob Andrews at English Kills Saturday
5. Skullphone Curates “Pure Logo” at New Image Art Saturday (LA)
6. Homo Riot at Hold Up Gallery (LA) (NSFW)
7. Loving You Was Crazy Shit (VIDEO) by Swedish Street Artist Nils Petter Löfstedt
8. SEGO in Mexico City (VIDEO)
RADICAL! at Munch Gallery Tonight
Albany based Street Artist Radical! has his first solo show, “Upside Down Frowns” opening today at the Munch Gallery in Manhattan.
Keith Schweitzer of MANY filmed and edited this time lapse of Radical! getting up in Coney Island:
Ryan Ford at Factory Fresh Tonight
Ryan Ford’s solo show “Don’t Try To Play Me Like An Indoor Sport” opens today at Factory Fresh in Bushwick, Brooklyn. We are very happy to see this esteemed gallery back after a long Summer hiatus.
From the gallery’s press release: “An artist known for comic symbolic abstraction, Ford delves a bit deeper into his psyche while titillating the mind with streaks of quiet violence and provocative tranquility”
For more information regarding this show click on the link below:
Get Your Smashing Pumpkins on At Crest Arts Saturday
This Saturday is for carving pumpkins and the right place to do this venerable Autumn tradition is in the garden patio at Crest Hardware in Williamsburg. Franklin the Pig will be hosting and probably eating pumpkin guts that spill out of your jack-o-lantern. There’s a carving contest too and you’ll have some pre-Halloween fun before going out to get smashed.
Says Joe the Impresario: “Come on by, have a glass of cider (with rum, if you want) check out the creativity and enjoy what fall should be all about”
For more information regarding this event click on the link below:
Performance and Visual Artist Rob Andrews’ solo show “Door Work” opens on Saturday at English Kills in Bushwick, Brooklyn. Promptly at 8:00 PM Mr. Andrews will begin his performance of Ant-Bird 2.
From the gallery’s press release: “Ant–Bird 2, is a ritual designed to open a spiritual and metaphysical door using the power of blood, sweat, spit, and the vocal power of a human chorus”
For more information regarding this show please click on the link below:
Skullphone Curates “Pure Logo” at New Image Art Saturday (LA)
In Los Angeles, New Image Art Gallery group show “Pure Logo” opens on Saturday. This show is curated by Skullphone.
From the gallery’s press release: “PURE LOGO explores the omnipresence, necessity, form and functionality of logos as they metamorphose to communicate within increasingly brief discourses”
For more information regarding this show please click on the link below:
From the the gallery press release: “Homo Riot’s message started out as a “fuck you” to the supporters of Prop 8, but has morphed into something larger and more profound; seen now as an emblem of pride and strength to the gay community”
Photographer and BSA collaborator Carlos Gonzales visited the artist’s studio while he was prepping for his show and he shares these behind the scenes images with BSA readers: Possibly NSFW.
Don’t Try To Play Me Like An Indoor Sport A Solo Exhibition Featuring Ryan Ford
Opening reception, Friday, October 21st from 7pm-10pm
Bushwick resident & known hyper surreal oil painter Ryan Ford will have his first solo showing in New York City at Factory Fresh. New lavish painted environments from other dimensions will greet the viewers and unfold throughout the space. An artist known for comic symbolic abstraction, Ford delves a bit deeper into his psyche while titillating the mind with streaks of quiet violence and provocative tranquility.
Currently residing in NYC since 2006, Ryan after graduating from The Savannah College of Art and Design had no interest in city life. He instead chose to move to the quiet mountain town of Asheville, North Carolina, home of The Black Mountain college. There he spent the next four years living in an old feed factory with a crew of like minded artists where they collectively curated art shows and performances. Then in 2006 he opened the door to two photographers from the New York Times asking him if they could shoot photos of him in his studio where upon he said, “hell yes,” and ended up in a two page spread in the New York Times Style Magazine. At this years 2011 TED X Conference Ryan Ford’s recent commission was presented.
Ryan’s original inspirations derive from 15th-17th century Sienese paintings to Philip Guston, Francis Bacon, to pop culture video games. At first glance many describe Ryan Ford’s most recent paintings and sculptures as colorful and playful, however with closer inspection will reveal ideas based on the collective fear of a collapsing economy, the continual insensitivity and abuse to the delicate nature of our ecosystem, further proving we are the only species on this planet that take more than what they need. These serious topics and themes never without a mix of humor, pure absurdity and ridiculousness.
Don’t Try To Play Me Like An Indoor Sport, on view October 21-November 20th
Factory Fresh is located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker,
off the L train Morgan Stop
1a. John Burgerman crosses Wburg Bridge with Bananas on head
1. BOS 2011 – Bushwick Open Studios This Weekend
2. 3rdEye(Sol)ation
3. “Surrealism” and “Bushwick Art Park”
4. “Stay Gold” at Curbs & Stoops Active Space
5. “Fine-Ass Art” at Kings County Bar
6. GILF! Pop Up
7. New Ludo “Green Beery” (VIDEO)
We really are so damn lucky to be here in NYC. The cultural offerings are always varied, plentiful, inspiring and in many cases FREE. Of course the rent is too high and your bedroom can accomodate a bed or a dresser but not both, but when you hit the streets the cultural stimulation never stops.
For example, newly arrived Noo Yawker Jon Burgerman practiced his good posture and accentuated his down jacket this spring by traipsing through the streets and across the Williamsburg Bridge balancing bananas on his head.
From Jon’s most recent and exhausting email, “Sometimes the things you see (on the street) are rather lovely, like the blossom on the trees and people outside drinking coffee and graffiti so fresh the paint is still wet.”
BOS 2011 – Bushwick Open Studios This Weekend
Hats off to the BOS crew who have laid the foundations for the new artists and curators to grow upon.
BOS ’11 – Bushwick Open Studios is in it’s fifth year and many newly minted blogs and curators are discovering this once desolate industrial pit. It’s still a pit, but at least it’s not so desolate — it also helps that high rents elsewhere have created this steady river of people flowing out of the L train Morgan stop.
Speaking of which;
IMPORTANT TRAVEL ADVISORY: The L train will NOT be running between Manhattan and Brooklyn for the entire weekend. Take the JMZ trains instead and you’ll still get dropped right in the middle of it.
Below are our picks, and while our focus is primarily on Street Art artists and events, please hit the BOS site to take a look at the complete list of events and shows:
Jason Mamarella’s curated a group show featuring Billi Kid, Peru Ana Ana Peru, ASVP, Mike Die, Jos-L, dint wooer krsna, Quel Beast, Septerhed, Choice Royce, Kosbe, QRST, Trixtr Rabbit, Bankrupt Slut, CCB, Wisher 914, ZamArt opens this Friday at 3rd Eye(sol)ation 7-10 pm.
For more information, location and hours about this show click on the link below:
SURREALISM:
twenty artists from the neighborhood wrestle their unconscious.
An exhibition at Factory Fresh for Bushwick Open Studios curated by Jason Andrew and Ali Ha.
Jim Avignon, Kevin Curran, Ryan Michael Ford, Paul D’Agostino, Ben Godward, Tamara Gonzales, Andrew Hurst, Rebecca Litt, Francesco Longnecker, Norman Jabaut, J.P. Marin, Brooke Moyse, Garry Nichols, Patricia Satterlee, Pufferella, Skewville, John Sunderland, Sweet Toof, Marjorie Van Cura & Veng
BUSHWICK ART PARK
A one day community event June 4th, 1-7pm
Located at the proposed Bushwick Art Park on Vandervoort Place
Factory Fresh is sponsoring a street event with art and murals to showcase their entry on this year’s Festival of Ideas that the New Museum produced and staged at the Bowery early in May.
Kings County has hosted a number of street artists for shows at this dark haunt for about four years and tonight a few more get their shine on. You may also coax a a go-go girl or boy onto the bar to add to the visual candy on the walls. Man, that’s some fine-ass art.
Gilf! Pop Up Gallery
107 Forrest Ave btw Flushing Ave and Central Ave (across from
English Kills Gallery)
Friday 7-9
Sat 12-9, opening reception from 7-9
Sun 12-7
New Ludo “Green Beery” (VIDEO)
The latest video from Parisian Street Artist Ludo:
Specter at The Festival of Ideas for the Bushwick Art Park 2011
BUSHWICK ART PARK
A one day community event June 4th, 1-7pm
Located at the proposed Bushwick Art Park on Vandervoort Place
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony with Council Member Diana Reyna at 2:30pm
The Bushwick Art Park hosted by Trust Art, Norte Maar and Factory Fresh, featuring works previously showcased at
the Festival of Ideas in May 2011, expands into a Sculpture Garden at the proposed Bushwick Art Park site on
Vandevoort Place. We invite guests to enjoy the fresh air and local views surrounded by outdoor sculptures.
Sculptures by Bast, Leon Reid IV, Specter, Skewville,
Ben Godward, Infinity, Garry Nichols and El Celso.
Political Podium by Seth Aylmer.
New Bushwick Art Park mural by Veng.
RYAN MICHAEL FORD “Me VS Myself,” 2011 (image courtesy of the gallery)
SURREALISM:
twenty artists from the neighborhood wrestle their unconscious.
An exhibition at Factory Fresh for Bushwick Open Studios curated by Jason Andrew and Ali Ha.
Jim Avignon, Kevin Curran, Ryan Michael Ford, Paul D’Agostino, Ben Godward, Tamara Gonzales, Andrew Hurst,
Rebecca Litt, Francesco Longnecker, Norman Jabaut, J.P. Marin, Brooke Moyse, Garry Nichols, Patricia Satterlee,
Pufferella, Skewville, John Sunderland, Sweet Toof, Marjorie Van Cura & Veng
Show runs from June 4-26.
Factory Freshis located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop
Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Enzo and Nio, El Mac, Hargo, L.E.T., Paul Richard, Poster Boy, QRST, Retna, Skewville, Nice-One and Sweet Toof.
With photography by Carlos Gonzalez, Geoff Hargadon, and Jaime Rojo.
Street Artist Bambi did this portrait in North London for today’s wedding – more art inspired by Will and Kate here at Artlyst.com
Royal His and Hers Prints from K-Guy
London based Street Artist K-GUY plays with Wills and Kate with these newly released prints to celebrate their union and to poke a little fun at the same time.
Sweet Toof solo show “Dark Horse” will merrily gallop at Factory Fresh tonight.
“Sweet Toof has developed a recurring motif that perambulates through periods and platforms – aerosol mural, oil painting, or theatrical prop – with a certain frank guile and handmade disarming charm.” from Ready for His Closeup: Sweet Toof Sparkles at Factory Fresh (PHOTOS)
A lot of fun tonight at Opera with 15 artists signing the new book and prints to celebrate the release of the new book by Tristan Eaton – including some of your favorites …
Andrew Bell, Stephen Bliss, Kevin Bourgeois, Ron English, Mat Eaton, Tristan Eaton, Filth, Haze, Travis Louie, Tara McPherson, Kenzo Minami, Mint, Serf, Dr. Revolt & Tom Thewes
3D Art Exhibition + Book Signing for:
The 3D Art Book
by Tristan Eaton
Friday, April 29th, 6-9pm
Opera Gallery New York
115 Spring Street New York, NY 10012 (212) 966-6675
The 3D Art Book & Exhibition features 100 artists including:
Glenn Barr, Craola, D*Face, Dalek, Eboy, Shepard Fairey, James Jean, Chris Mars, Mark Ryden, Jeff Soto, Rostarr, Todd Schorr, Stash, Gary Taxali, Toki Doki, Trustocorp, Junko Mizuno, Eric White and many more.
The rabid pursuit of President Obama’s birth certificate has puzzled many thinking people while the topic is repeatedly brought up during street marches and demonstrations – finally pushing the President himself to hold a press conference about it this week. The astro-turf fingered crowds in the streets during last years Health Care debates in the US pretty much revealed their base disagreement with all things Obama with their hand held signs that couldn’t be described as anything but racist – “off message” for the insurance companies but “on message” for the yahoos who took their buses. We know this “birther” movement won’t disappear because of the poisonous legacy of racism in our history, but we are thankful for the strong clear thinking of people like Goldie Taylor (video below) who helps us place current events in context.
The London Street Artist Sweet Toof’s new show, “Dark Horse” at Factory Fresh opens wide to a mouthful of gleaming new pieces as the artist debuts his first New York show solo, having previously been a part of the Burning Candy Crew with Cyclops and Tek33. A little frisky in the Brooklyn streets, we find that Sweet Toof is exploring more than the usual territory and challenging himself artistically, always with a healthy glob of humor. Yes, the pink gums and pearly whites continue to have prominence in each piece, but their permutations progress at a dizzying pace.
Sweet Toof has developed a recurring motif that perambulates through periods and platforms – aerosol mural, oil painting, or theatrical prop – with a certain frank guile and handmade disarming charm. Some of the new tableaus of madly grinning top-hatted drivers atop skeletal stallions are pure Dickensian wonder with animated allusions to extreme social conditions and the play of comically repulsive characters. Others touch on graffiti vocabulary and pop/advertising culture with cheerfully mocking glee, the winking enthusiasm and poppy color trumping your worries that it isn’t making any sense. All tolled, it’s a bit of a romp and a promise of tasty treats to come – and if you arrive early you’ll receive your own set of gold sweet teef atop a popsickle stick.
On the day we visited the gallery the place was a divine chaos of paint and construction materials, with works-in-progress laying on the floor waiting to be completed or hung. The partially lit space proved a helpful foil for the spooky pimped-out characters on the canvasses – the sort you wouldn’t trust with a bottle of milk.
The Factory Fresh shopkeeper Mr. DeVille, looking very trim and sunny, murmured something about the current artist-in-residence being on a roof somewhere and after further inquiry, Mr. Toof appeared promptly with a warm and genial demeanor. After a brief tour we took to the street to watch him work. He told us a bit about his work and the upcoming show, after starting with the topic of weather of course.
Brooklyn Street Art:How has your experience been so far in Brooklyn? Sweet Toof: I have really enjoyed it. The rain some days and then sun. But I can’t complain. I have just been eyeing out all these spots but yeah it has been really good. The weather has been very unpredictable but today is a beautiful day and I love Brooklyn.
Brooklyn Street Art: Is there a difference between working in Brooklyn and working in London? Sweet Toof: There is a little difference. I mean it’s quiet interesting. This is Bushwick and in London, in East London there is an area called Hackney Wick. That’s an area where a lot of people have been painting but they are cleaning it up now because of the Olympic buff – It is almost like a sister of Bushwick because of all the lofts spaces in warehouses and factories where people now live. So it is a similar type of vibe but I like the character here and the architecture.
Brooklyn Street Art:And the people? Sweet Toof: Yeah I forgot the people…my experience with the people so far is that everyone is really friendly and it is almost like everyone seems to be willing to help and in London none really says hello but here people would say hello…you’re engaged. Brooklyn is more engaging even when you go to the shop and you have been there for a couple of times people recognize you and they start talking and so it feels quite like a community.
Brooklyn Street Art:Tell us about the use of gold dust in your work. Have you always used it? Sweet Toof: Yeah I have used it before on paintings. I’ve used gold pigment, I’ve been using quite a bit of glitter and gold dust just to give it a little bit of extra “bling”. I like that whole sparkly thing, the way the light hits it and it gives it just like another layer in a way. But I just like to mix things up. Even pearlescent paint and I like all sort of paint; oil paint, bucket paint, spray paint – I love it all. But the pearlescent glitter is just like another element within that. You know I think teeth are like jewelry anyway but just with that extra bling, you know when you see people’s teeth and are like pearls.
Brooklyn Street Art:Have you been to the south of Mexico and seen the Day of the Dead festival? Sweet Toof: No but I’m intending to go to Mexico quite soon. I’m fascinated with the Day of the Dead and all of that stuff. It is almost like it has been with me since art school. Since I came across the old woodcuts and the imagery of Guadalupe Posada. The thing I like in Mexico, unlike in England, is that they celebrate death and in early age you are given these candy sweets and they eat it. It’s almost like you enjoy your days and you sleep when you are dead in a way. But death is not just doom and gloom.
Brooklyn Street Art:Tell us about your sense of color. Where do you get your inspiration for bright colors? Sweet Toof: England is very gray. I mean you do see color but I just sort of respond to the environment that I’m in but I love color anyway. When painting out on the streets I used to like the spontaneous part of it about not seeing your colors when you are painting in the dark. You’ve got a rough idea about what the colors are or you have written the colors on the can or you can see the tones in the dark, but then when you are in the studio and you are mixing your colors it’s almost like you have that whole understanding of color – and it’s the same in print making. You might look at the sky and you think “how I’m going to get that intensity?” It is about looking at the contrast with all the different hues and understanding color, which I think, comes from oil painting a lot but also from mixing colors for the stuff on the streets as well so you understand how the colors work.
Brooklyn Street Art: Would you like to talk a bit about you not being part of Burning Candy or is that a sore subject? Sweet Toof: No, not really. I left last September on my own decision but I really wouldn’t want to go into the politics of it. I just got to the time where I had to get on with my own stuff. I wish them all the best and I wouldn’t want to bitch. I want to keep it simple and getting my head down.
Brooklyn Street Art: What would you like to happen on Friday at the gallery for your show? Sweet Toof: I’d like for everyone to have a good time and enjoy. Bring people together and just let people mind their own minds about it. It’s one of those things where you never know how people would react to stuff but I want people to enjoy.
Opening April 29th, 7-10pm
On view till May 22nd, Gallery is open Wednesday – Sunday from 1-7pm
Having chewed up the streets of London’s east end, British artist Sweet Toof takes a bite out of the Big Apple with his first New York solo exhibition, Dark Horse. Revealing a new series of original works, Sweet Toof’s Trojan Horse greets the city that never sleeps ‘til Brooklyn at the freshest factory in town.
Like the Dark Horse himself, Sweet Toof has risen up the ranks as a graffiti artist throughout 80s and 90s England, where his letterforms and street styles have evolved alongside a rigorous academic practice as a realist painter and sculptor. Heavily influenced by the Vanitas paintings of sixteenth century Europe, Mexican Day of the Dead, Subway Art, and the underground comics of Vaughn Bodé, his characteristic gummy chompers are a true mash-up of street and studio.
Now, the anonymous face that launched a thousand teeth unleashes the beast and charges forward once again—with a fleet of new works and an army of horsemen braced to paint New York by storm. It’s a call to arms in the battle for free expression: join forces, or else just grin and bear it.
Our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Burning Candy, Deeker, DsCreet, Earl Greyhound, Goya, Jimmy Snatch, KARMA, Kill, Nineta, Paul Richard,Plasma Slug, Shin Shin, Skewville, Tek33, and UFO
An unusual breed of pop art with two oddities that are well jump-suited for each other. Expect the unexpected, including a special appearance by His Doodleness Jon Burgerman.
Speedy Wonderland
Factory Fresh Gallery Presents: Roman Klonek & Jim Avignon “Speedy Wonderland” (Brooklyn, NY)Opening Reception FRIDAY, DECEMBER 10, 7-10pm
ART to be Sold Off the Walls at “12×12”
Hopefully no one will be trampled for the holidays just getting in the door tonight, but you are bound to see something dope here, including a number of street artists you are familiar with at this group show. Wonder how big the pieces are?
Opening Reception, Friday, December 10th, 6pm – 9pm!Mighty Tanaka presents: 12×12 -A Group Show for the Holidays
FEATURED ARTISTS
Abe Lincoln Jr., Adam Miller, Alexandra Pacula, Alexis Trice, Anthony Sneed, AVOID, Briar Elyse, Bruno Perillo, Bryan Raughton, Buxtonia, CAM, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Dark Clouds, Destroy and Rebuild, DOIT, Don Pablo Pedro, DROID, Ed Shawn Herrera, Ellen Stagg, Ellis G, Eric DeFrancesco, Fedele Spadafora, Gary Carlson, Gigi Chen, Gigi Spratley, Hannah Rose Fierman, Hellbent, Hiroshi Kumagai, Infinity, Jac Atkinson, Japa, Jason Grunwald, JMR, John Breiner, John McGarity, John Sunderland, Julia Colavita, Julian Duran, Justin Rymer, Katie Decker, Keely, KOSBE, Lauren Asta, Lee Trice, Lionel Guzman, Mari Keeler, Matt Siren, Max Greis, Melissa Carroll, Mike Schrieber, Nathan Pickett, Nathan Vincent, Nick Chatfield-Taylor, QRST, Quel Beast, Reginald Pean, Rick Midler, Robbie Busch, Royce Bannon, SADU, Skewville, Soosan Joon Silanee, Steven Schreiber, Thomas Cecchi, Tony Bones, Tony DePew, Toofly, UFO, URnewyork, Veng RWK
New Video from Sten & Lex
Street Artist Cake: A Collection of Drawings
Brewer’s Mansion is happy to present A Collection of Drawings, a show by Brooklyn street artist Cake, opening Saturday the 12th at this little known place where artists hang out.
From the artist, “I use anatomy to describe the intricate relationship structures humans have with themselves and others. I frequently take from the pool of human suffering for subject matter and inspiration. When people disconnect from themselves in any way, it will somehow show up in their faces, bodies and gestures. I prefer to make drawings describing those results.”
Brewer’s Mansion
Cake Opening December 11, 6-9
55 Waterbury between Scholes and Meserole in Bushwick, Brooklyn
Kid Zoom Pop-Up Saturday
“Kid Zoom, Rembrandt with a Spray Can, represents the future of this movement.” – RON ENGLISH
With a Street Art celebrity endorsement like that, you know he’s going to wear a clean shirt to the show, right? But wait, this is Lo-Brow so maybe just a freshly stained t-shirt. See our studio visit Here.
OPENING PARTY – SAT 11th DECEMBER – 7PM till Late – MEATPACKING – NYC
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Jim Avignon took the entire block with this rather astounding outpouring of his whimsical style. The artist swore that this was the last time he’d do a mural of this scale. Well done Mr. Avignon! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
