Featuring The London Police and Galo Show Opens Thursday, December 10, 7-10pm
This December, Factory Fresh pulls out all the stops as we welcome The London Police and Galo as they return to New York to celebrate more than a decade in the game.
Known for their iconic characters collectively these artist work have respectively graced streets and galleries in 35 countries and have been feature in numerous publications throughout the globe. The artists will be showcasing new canvas, featured films of the artist and installation works created site specifically for Factory Fresh.
Show Runs till January 10, 2010.
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For more info on Factory Fresh and it’s upcoming shows go to www.factoryfresh.net or email info@factoryfresh.net
Interview with the artists; Talking about New York, dumpster diving for canvasses, hidden spots, and hounding obsessions.
Dark Clouds holds up the sky (photo Jaime Rojo)
“A Hounding Obsession” is a great name for this show because it aptly describes the ever present drive that these artists feel to make new art and to get it out in front of an audience. Usually it’s on the street, but this week it comes together at Factory Fresh in Bushwick.
In a way it’s a reunion show, like the Beatles! Okay, not the Beatles, but they are a fab four that used to work side by side; now have split to different parts of the world. Only DarkCloud and Deeker are still in the Grimey Apple so the other two have flown in just to install for this show and to hang out again with old friends.
A recent visit to the lush underground FF Studios with the artists yielded a number of raucous stories from the four about past wild excursions painting walls and ceilings in an abandoned recycling center, a burned out embassy (complete with chandeliers and 12 foot mirrors), dumpster diving for canvasses, and a discussion on how to draw females into the gallery Friday night.
What to expect at the show? Ask the artists –
Armer: I’m gonna try to go big. The back wall is kind of large.
Deeker: Yeah we’re just going to do a good hard smash-down of the whole thing. We don’t really have a plan on it. We’ll just get a whole bunch of paint and do it.
DarkCloud: I’ve got a couple of pieces on glass that I’m really liking. I’ve been working on glass a lot and I just like the way they look.
GoreB: My pieces for this show all start off with Audubon-style bird paintings and I started mixing fonts with them, and each takes off with stories in it’s own direction. There is one menacing bird that looks like it’s going to pluck your eyeball out so that’s pretty cool.
“I had this really cool book with thousands and thousands of birds and I love picture books like that, ” GoreB (photo Jaime Rojo)
These guys have all painted together at different times and Deeker and Goreb started talking about their escapades a couple of years ago in Brooklyn…
Deeker: For like two solid years Gore and I were painting outdoors, indoors, finding fuckin’ huge canvasses and putting them in our bags and bikIng them home. Then we’d just mess them up and go back and hang them up outside somewhere.
Goreb: There was one time we were painting with images based off of a – what was that photographer guys’ name that we did all those paintings and shit? We found all these old photographs that he had dumped out up on Bedford, like 4 x 8 foot big… Deeker: Yeah, gigantic Goreb: Yeah I don’t remember his name but those were actually some of the first collaborations we did – on those photographs. That’s really when I first met Celso and everybody. (To Deeker) I actually really first met you creeping around the recycling center lot. Deeker: That was the second time. Actually the first time was fucking drunk on the street.
But we digress. Each artist in “A Hounding Obsession” has a background in graffiti at some point and now continues to explore the street art thing. BSA wondered if NYC was still hot.
Brooklyn Street Art:Is New York still one of the best places to put up work?
Armer: In America, definitely.
GoreB: It’s a great spot; there’s so much neglect and cutty spots, so much discovery as far as strange places around the city. Like me and Deeker are always talking about the places you can creep to in Queens and Brooklyn. I think it’s even better to do your work there now because the street art scene is too popular. You do anything in Williamsburg or on Bedford or in Soho and people find it right away and it gets on the internet but it’s kind of not what it should be about.
Brooklyn Street Art:What should it be about?
GoreB: For me it’s about withdrawing my art as much as possible and finding little nooks and crannies.
Deeker: I feel like the one or two kids that find your stuff up in the most random of places – like their reaction is worth more than somebody who finds it right away and ten people go and photograph it and everyone talks about it.
Armer: It’s really about spots. I like spots in high traffic areas but I also like painting in strange places that only young kids might go see.
Brooklyn Street Art:And how did you get the name DarkCloud?
DarkCloud: The concept for DarkCloud came because I was hanging out with a good friend of mine who was always in a shitty mood at one point in his life. So we started joking about how he was like the cartoon with the cloud over him always following and over his head. He was more of a fine art painter and I was only into graffiti solely and I didn’t really want to do anything but graffiti.
He kind of painted his own version of a dark cloud and I was just like, “What is that”? He said, “That’s the dark cloud”. I was like, “No that’s not what it looks like!” So I painted my own version and I was so kind of hooked, obsessed with getting work out and I was really into the concept of doing bolt ups on signs. When I first started I only wanted to do them on signs. “
GoreB, Armer and DarkCloud pose while Deeker is looks for a saw (photo Jaime Rojo)
Thus the Hounding Obsession we have heard about, and the name of the show. Each one of these artists got hooked a long time ago on making street art, and while it may sound like an exaggeration to call it an obsession, it’s not a far stretch to call it that. Listen to Dark Cloud…
Dark Cloud: When I first moved to the city that’s how it was. I grew up in Vermont and when I was in Boston I was instantaneously overwhelmed by how people accomplish this stuff. I was so interested right away that it became like an obsession. Everything else I was into started to fade. It kind of took over. It was too much fun. And the mystery behind it was so much fun.
GoreB: Yeah that is probably a difference between what we do and most artists – we want to get our art out there and don’t want to have it anymore. I think that because of what we’ve done before we have this lack of a feeling of ownership that pervades all of our work. It’s very apparent in how we put it on the public. I think that feeling also comes from that ability to let go of it so easily. Anonymity is powerful too because it raises questions about why the piece is there. You round a corner and you have no idea who this person was or why it was created and it causes a lot more mystery that you wouldn’t get otherwise. It veils the work in mysterious ways.
Dark Clouds blue period diptych (photo Jaime Rojo)
Armer thinks that girls in particular are going to like this show and encourages them to come.
Armer: This is kind of my first show indoors, and it may be my last. So if there are any ladies that are interested in Armer, they should definitely roll through.
Brooklyn Street Art:So this is a one–time-only opportunity of a lifetime?
Armer: Yes, I’m retiring after this. Not from the streets though.
Armer meditates on a topic dear to the heart (photo Jaime Rojo)
And a few little hits from the Streets….
DarkClouds in situ. (photo Jaime Rojo)
A botanical Deeker from a few years ago (photo Jaime Rojo)
Featuring the Artwork of Dark Cloud, Goreb, Armer & Deekers
November 13th thru November 29
Show Opens Friday, November 13th from 7-10pm
This November, Factory Fresh brings together four elusive artists who each work seamlessly in between the worlds of graffiti and streetart. These two art forms look identical to the untrained eye but in actuality are more like brawling brothers to those who are part of the movement. Artists Armer, Darkcloud, Goreb and Deeker are a few exceptions. Each of their work ranges on the street one day a large scale mural, another day carefully placed signs or paintings, sometimes even a junk sculpture is installed onto a crowded street. As a result these artists cannot be dismissed by any group of urban artists and have been validated by their acceptance from multiple ranges of critcs.
The Darkcloud image has been a constant staple in the urban art scene since 2003 and can be seen all over the east and west coast. Darkcloud is attributed with having more hand painted stickers up than anyone on the scene today. The meaning being unclear for most, it stems from the concept that angst is always following us. A visual representation of the darkness in our lives we are unable to escape. Darkcloud will be showing a mix of paintings on glass, metal, wood, and more. Also, prints may be available for the first time in his artist career.
Deeker is a rogue, pessimistic bastard who comes out and paints when the weather is at it’s worst. This bottom feeder lurks around the other three, drops hints of doomsday, tells tales of perpetual unemployment and generally depresses everyone. His work will consist of ghastly character paintings and painstakingly fine cut wooden words and botanical elements. The likes of which you can find hidden all around the streets of New York, if you look carefully.
GoreB’s work was first noticed in Dumbo in the summer of 2004 and people discussed his work in tones you might use to talk about a griffin or a chimera, a former math prodigy who’d been corrupted in his teen years by something called hobo freight art, then spiraled into a life of nomadic polymath street-art savanthood and touched down, for a few years, in New York. Goreb currently resides on the West Coast in Santa Cruz and has created new oil paintingsfor the show featuring collages of birds, black and white photos, and fonts with hints of older paintings underneath.
With GoreB and Deeker as mentors and occasional sidekicks, young Armer paints large, uncomfortable faces on both coasts. His streetwork is powered by the painterly and gestural satisfaction he gets from working on a grand scale and from the belief in American graffiti as a way to respect the past while fighting the present. This show gives Armer his first crack at gallery walls. Pared down to a self-retrospective, mixed media work will echo his presence in the street (color combinations he loves; how he processes and releases information) but also will chronicle a day/night in the life.
Hellbent and Slept did some fun in the backyard at Factory Fresh for the “Grand Champions” Show tonight. We made it into our own special sign, it doesn’t really look like this exactly.
Friday is traditionally a day to look really busy first thing in the morning, up until, say, NOON, and then start to think about what the hell you are going to wear to go out tonight to see street/graff/public art in Brooklyn. Hookin up a LOOK for tonight ma!
You might like this one – fine artist and graff writer John Breiner presents the third installment of this group of grand champions since 2003, and it’s incredible to see how young artists mature in their work over time. Many in the show are known on the street as graff/street artists and naturally have continued to refine and explore their artistic abilities, now including what can roundly be described as fine art in a multitude of disciplines. The labels don’t really matter of course, the talent does. No doubt this happy reunion at Factory Fresh is going to be pumping with energy and excitement tonight.
Tonight at Factory Fresh, curated by John Breiner
Saturday Night Bushwick Open Late “This Beat is Sick” features 9 spaces
including the Opening of new gallery “Famous Accountants”
Bushwick is still wildly alive with people who create – and it hasn’t been blanded yet; still too dicey, too ethnic, and like, there isn’t even bottle service. Unless you bring it in a paper bag.
New spaceFamous Accountantsstraddles the edge of Bushwick in Ridgewood, as if poised to run for it. Saturday they open with “Twenty-Three”. A shared work/gallery space run by artists Ellen Letcher and Kevin Regan who were part of the now-closed Pocket Utopia on Flushing Ave, the new space is not looking for a hook to be cool, which is so cool.
They’re also planning TV Parties! – inspired by the lampooning of apathetic consumer culture expressed in the classic Black Flag song:
In conjunction with Norte Maar, a Bushwick cornerstone in-home gallery run by Jason Andrew that’s been pushing the envelope for a few years with in-window performance that you can see from the sidewalk, and art classes for local kids and BushwickImpact.org.
Armand Van Heldon’s new mix comes out October 26 – and this is a funkalicious throwback to a 70’s groove and suave men puttin on the smooove mooooves
and from the BSA DIY Corner…
If you have any cardboard laying around you can also begin making your own CARDBOARD ANIMATION
Student Graduation Animation by Sjors Vervoort. http://www.sjorsvervoort.nl Animation and design by Sjors Vervoort. Sound and SFX by Steven Aerts. The Netherlands 2009.
And guess what? That’s right homie-lera, they have street art.
But that should not be a huge revelation to you by now.
Like my barber Pedro Fantilipaz says, “Street Art eees all ovah tha wooorrrrrl!”
Mundano, a street artist from the other BK, makes monster-type faces, and elongated forms using fat caps and thin ones, a smooth hand, and a playful eye. They are extreeeeeme closeups with flaring nostrils, big frowny lips, and ever-searching eyes. Sometimes 4 eyes, sometimes more.
“Líquen Vermelho” / “Red lichen” by Mundano at Factory Fresh (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Mundano was here in July doing a show with two other Brazilians, Loro Vez and Apollo Torez, where they installed a show at Factory Fresh Gallery, called “Lichen”. Add these three dudes to the two Os Gemeos, and this summer it was like the Brasil World Cup of aerossolistas right here in Nova Lorque!
“You Are a Slave of Consumption” – a bit of wisdom for the birds.(Mundano) (photo by Mike Ion)
Back home he makes many creatures everywhere, and he writes slogans and messages that harshly question the policies of the government regarding social policy. It was no surprise to see him muster enough English to make an observation about our materialistic society on one of his pieces here.
Mundano’s recreation of a cart commonly used by recyclers on foot in Brooklin. (photo courtesy Factory Fresh)
Right in the middle of the gallery in Bushwick, Mundano had installed a cart that was a facsimile of a cart (or “carroceiro”) that is commonly used in his town for people to gather discarded items and materials for recycling, an appreciable business there. While they were trolling our streets in a van looking for stuff to stock their gallery carroceiro, Mundano and his buddies were pretty shocked to find that here people throw out perfectly good stuff!
Keep your eyes open – This one is on lockdown in Brooklyn (Mundano)
Yeah, I know that for sure, because that was my first apartment; one man’s broken Barcalounger is another man’s throne. Most college students and newly arrived immigrants in New York can easily furnish their entire apartments from discarded furniture and other stuff that people drag to the curb. Even so, Mundano’s wild-eyed surprise and shock at how wasteful we are was an eye-opener for me too.
(Mundano) (photo Mike Ion)
Now Mundano’s back in Brooklin and making new stuff there, where people have a different approach to his art on the street. He had a great time here and got to put up some entertaining pieces while staying in New York and he’s looking forward to his next visit, “I really liked New York, and I will be back for sure.”
Is Smoking Relaxing? Mundano made a Musico puffing on a cigarro next to this anti-smoking ad in Brooklyn. (Mundano) (photo Mike Ion)
Jon demonstrates that a donation to the Banker’s Bailout Fund will illuminate his calculating eyes (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Final preparations were being made yesterday for the “Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque” show tonight at Factory Fresh.
Billed as an “International Art Show” and curated by Artist Jim Avignon, it features artists from France, Japan, Switzerland, Germany and Brooklyn, and promises vibrant colors, playful items, and contemporary weirdness to help bail you out during the rigors of a crumbling economy.
Jim Avignon, cartoon poet, speed painter and performance genius (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Daniel Dueck’s imagination creatures are born from spontaneous spills and splatters of paint.(photo Steven P. Harrington)
Asuka Ohsawa makes these little banks when she is not baking cookies, making sock monkeys and thinking about garden gnomes (photo Steven P. Harrington)
An orgiastic splashtastic abstraction by Jon Burgerman (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Street Artist Ema says, “I have been painting walls since my early teens, and my style has changed quite a lot (photo Steven P. Harrington)
What are you looking at me for, I’m just a banker out of a job? Bail me out! (photo Steven P. Harrington)
“Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque” features Ema, Asuka Ohsawa, Roman de Milk & Wodka, Jim Avignon, Jon Burgerman, Christine Young, Daniel Dueck
The doodling Jon Burgerman begins his mural in earnest in front of the Front Room (photo Jaime Rojo)
After lollygagging around the Fuggedaboutit borough for the whole summer, the GLOBAL DOODLER decides to do something worthwhile on the streets of Brooklyn.
One hot and sunny and punishingly ozone-alerty day last week, Jon Burgerman has the misfortune of standing on the sidewalk in front of The Front Room, a gallery in Williamsburg, with posca markers and a couple of pints of paint.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)Because he’s our special Facebook friend, we saw him post this a couple of weeks ago :“Jon BurgermanWill draw on a NYC wall in return for a lunch. (I’ll prob do most things for a free lunch) July 14 at 1:40am”
Curiously, as you can see, his post was written late into the evening, so we presumed a certain dire need in the darkness of night overcame him such so that he felt compelled to run to his computer in his pajamas to furiously type out this clarion call. Gripped by the drama, and since we are always looking for an opportunity to connect said “Wall” with said “Artist” and because we knew Jon to be an agreeable sort, we felt compelled to contact him at once!
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
He accepted happily and plans were laid, after getting permission from all the right people. As our appointment was at 11 a.m., Mr. Burgerman arrived promptly at 12:30 with sweat on his brow, a bag of blue paint, and a British economist in tow. “Nottingham time” appears to be very flexible indeed.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
After going over the scope of the wall at hand and meeting our host, Daniel Aycock of the Front Room, Jon set about dabbling kidney-shaped blue blobs on the wall, while the economist entertained us with stories about graphical data, Trouffant, and Napoleon’s correlation between geography and troop death rates. Since we were so close to lunch time already, it wasn’t long before it was imperative to procure lunch for the assembled guests.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
After a lively repast on the gallery’s table on the sidewalk, it was back to work for Mr. Burgerman. As the day wore on, a quickly growing troupe of friends and photographers Jon had alerted regarding his whereabouts gathered and snapped and asked him questions. Having satisfied our part of the deal, namely providing lunch and a wall, we thought it was time for the GREAT BROOKLYN STREET ART INTERVIEW;
Brooklyn Street Art: So what did you have for lunch?
Jon Burgerman: I had a mozzarella and avocado sandwich. It was good. I don’t know where it was from. It just appeared. I’m very grateful.
Brooklyn Street Art: Did you finish it all?
Jon Burgerman: No, my younger brother (the economist) consumed half of it. He dropped some of it on the sidewalk, um, didn’t eat it off the sidewalk, which is a good thing. He had some crisps off the ground though.
Brooklyn Street Art: You didn’t have any crisps, though.
Jon Burgerman: I had a few crisps. I do like crisps but you can’t eat them all the time.
Brooklyn Street Art: So is this wall pretty smooth?
Jon Burgerman: It’s good, it’s a bit bubbly, it’s okay. It’s good for me…. The smoother the better. I like to draw on it.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: Usually markers right?
Jon Burgerman: Yeah, I mean it’s drawn out with a Posca pen. But yeah, it’s a thankless task trying to block it out with markers. Very expensive. So then there’s painting.
Brooklyn Street Art: Look at you, you’re painting!
Jon Burgerman: ..Which is what they taught you at art college.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well, at least THAT went to good use. Do you usually make sure to include one specific character in a piece?
Jon Burgerman: No. I mean the forms of the characters repeat sometimes. I mean that’s naturally going to happen. Um They’re not really specific characters.
Brooklyn Street Art: They don’t have names?
Jon Burgerman: Not these guys. I think sometimes more when I turn them into stickers and things.. then I might single out a shape a character and color and then it will start to develop a little name and a back story and that’s when it actually starts becoming a character more than just a symbol with a face. So I often think there is quite a big difference, because just because something has features doesn’t necessarily mean it has any specific character. A character for me has to have a reason to exist, a sort of functional goal or desire or something it does or a back story or a name. Then it starts to become a personality. Then you can imagine it could have it’s own little life beyond the drawing or painting that it exists within.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: So these are a bit more like “everyman” in the street characters, then, like they could get lost in the crowd.
Jon Burgerman: Yeah, or they are more like a logo or gestured shape. They’re like triangles, rectangles, circles. They are within an arsenal of imagery that I would use.
Brooklyn Street Art: You said “arsenal”. Do you ever think of this in terms of competitiveness?
Jon Burgerman: I didn’t mean to.
Brooklyn Street Art: But you said it.
Jon Burgerman: But I didn’t want to because that’s the name of my least-liked football club.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well I was just wondering if you would ever be in one of those competitive venues where you paint with someone else.
Jon Burgerman: I’ve done that. I’ve done the sort of “battle” thing where you’re painting at the same time with someone else. It’s kind of fun but I really don’t like the idea of it being a fight. It seems completely at odds with everything that painting and art stuff is meant to be about.
To be aggressively against some other guy is a little wrong. More often than not you’re paired up with someone who’s work is a bit like you and that you know. I can understand like a playful wrestle, I’m into that. But it’s never particularly a “battle”- yeah it’s not really serious is it? But it would be good if you had two artists who did hate each other. Then that might be interesting.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: They would dig deep.
Jon Burgerman: Yeah,you can’t really fake the emotion you might have in a proper fight. So they’re more like little Painting Dance-Offs I might say.Like a “Painting Slam” would be a horrible way to refer to it. Yeah,I’ve done those things. I don’t really like them too much to be honest. I always get a bit stressed out.But you know if you just throw a bunch of artists in a room and say “everyone have a paint” or just draw stuff that would be fine. But as soon as there is a competitive edge to it, I don’t really like it. Well, you know, the British aren’t really good at competitive events,in our events,our sporting ventures,tournaments and things, we don’t often fair very well.Are they popular over here, those sort of battles and things?
Brooklyn Street Art: Um they’ve become more popular – “Art Battles”, for example.
Jon Burgerman: Do you find them interesting?
Brooklyn Street Art: I like the idea of adding structure, and limitations that an artist has to push against.
Jon Burgerman: Yeah, I’m all for that.
Brooklyn Street Art: You know, a limited period of time, for example, or you are only aloud two colors to work with, or a theme that everyone has to address in some way.
Jon Burgerman: I like that, you kind of encourage thinking on your feet, all that kind of stuff. I can appreciate of that.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: But by the very nature of you calling this work “doodles” it pretty much infers that you are in a dream state when you are creating.
Jon Burgerman: Yeah, it’s something that you are kind of thinking about but you are not pre-planning, you’re not overly-thinking about it and you’re letting the pen or the brush kind of find it’s own sort of way. Improvising….much like an instrument; you might know some chords, might know some licks, and you are kind of spilling them together, making it up. “Oh that might work with that bit”, and “Oh yeah was interesting, maybe if I put this shape or draw this character now and move that over there, that would be nice.” So you have this little repetoire from which you can pull out – much like a jazz musician and then you can quickly adapt. Something else happens, someone says something, you get distracted, you think of something new. You can quickly add it in, change it. Things should be a little flexible. Like, following plans and stuff sometimes. You know a plan is very rigid. And something can happen find the paint spills in certain way, or the colors don’t come out as you had imagined. You know you are drawing on a paper the size of a postcard but the wall is the size of a house and then it doesn’t necessarily always transfer easily. Like scale and surface and light all make these differences to how you are working on things so I found for might work, and the way I think, and the way that I draw, that kind of rigidness doesn’t lend itself to successfully transferring my kind of style
Brooklyn Street Art: It seems like a very plastic, flexible, expandable approach. It can expand or contract according to various inputs.
Jon Burgerman: That’s kind of how it is, yeah, it’s just that you never know what’s going to happen.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Brooklyn Street Art: How often to you work outside like this? Like this scale working outside.
Jon Burgerman: Outside?I work on this scale quite often.You know people ask me to draw panels, boxes, and things, and gallery walls, and stuff.Actually on a wall on a street, very rarely. Where I live in Nottingham I’m not really out and about doing that kind of thing.There is a graffiti scene, but it’s not this kind of stuff, you know, it’s more traditional.But occasionally I do this, but it’s always in a kind of legit exhibition.I don’t really go out and about at night and do this kind of stuff. It’s a really pleasure to do, and it’s nice to be invited to do it but I don’t seek it out all the time. I rarely have the luxury in a day where I can say, “you know I’m going to spend just the day outside painting on a wall,you know, for the love of doing it. Which is a real shame.Obviously like if I do do it, it’s usually for an exhibition or event that’s been planned months in advance.
Brooklyn Street Art: Well, you are on vacation after all.
Jon Burgerman: Yeah, so it’s good to do a days work.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
After running for cover ‘neath the shade of the trees to drink refreshments and chat with fans, Jon continued to run out into the blazing sun, sometimes beaten to the ground by it.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Finally, when the pressure was off, it was time for a photoshoot! Jon dug into his bag of tricks and produced three little creatures, handmade by the Felt Mistress, based on characters he has drawn.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
The high-quality materials and expert workswomanship were stunning, and these little fellows looked perfectly placed next to the mural. You Go, Felt Mistress!!
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
After a hard afternoon of doodling, Jon relaxed with the only people who really understand him. As the sun began to set, we parted ways as he set off with his economist brother in search of a beer garden and cucumber sandwiches.
Jon Burgerman (photo Jaime Rojo)
If you’d like to meet Jon in person and see new work in a gallery setting, this weekend is your daily double! Jon will be part of a group show called “Brooklyn Bailout Burlesque” at Factory Fresh on Friday the 14th, and is having a solo Show called “My American Summer” at Giant Robot in the Lower East Side.
We feel very lucky to have been a small part of Jon’s American Summer, and invite him back to the BK when he’s looking for a free lunch again.
Friday, August 14th 7-10pm Show runs till August 30th, 2009
The art world, global companies, complex societies and every
small individual all have one problem in common: how to deal with
the crisis. When money goes wrong nothing goes right.
Many in
the high society of art dreamt the dream of instant
success and
big overnight money, but the awakening was rough and
most of
the ambitious collectors had gone with the wind.
So how can one
stay in a market that barely exists in
this time, where money
displays a rather strange behaviour.
Jim Avignon, Brooklyn-Berlin based artist, musician and
hopeless
bohemian curated a show with 7 young artists
from Brooklyn and
Europe,which might have some answers for
you. They throw their
skills together and create a
panorama, where strange and funny
characters inhabit a
peculiar zone somewhere between realist
figuration.
cartoons, messageboard-doodling and pure fantasy.
Expect everything from unsentimental portraits, vibrant
colors,
playful items
contemporary weirdness with a good old
anti-establishment
vibe.
Between high art and crumbling economy there is a common
ground for inexpensive works, keenly tailored for broad
appeal.
On July 10th, São Paulo will invade Factory Fresh, as LORO VERZ, MUNDANO and APOLO TORRES arrive with a varied collection of their freshest individual and collective works. During their setup for the gallery they will paint the walls of the Factory Fresh courtyard with their large scale mural work.
The three artists come from different backgrounds and aspects
of the life however all located in São Paulo, Brazil, conveying their interpretations to a strong organism of many environments, the Lichen. The Lichen is the result of the symbiotic association of fungus with a photosynthetic partner, such as algae or cyanobacterium, and they live as a single culture. Although it’s severely affected by pollution, it’s very resistant to the absence of water and nutrients, being able to survive even in deserts and places taken by a huge cemented, grey area, like São Paulo and other conurbations around the globe.
For a long time describing his paintings as an urban parasite, MUNDANO has paintings all over the city, even in the carts of many “Carroceiros”, people that work collecting cardboards, aluminum and other material from the trash to sell to recycling companies. The painted carts run through the city traffic disseminating his messages against the marginalization of this honest and necessary work. On the city’s walls, his messages directly question the corruption of the government, social issues, the pallor and the city traffic. In a way, his characters filled up with eyes are the voice of a silent people.
LORO VERZ decodes the hectic and busy city life style and transforms it into critical, satirical, subversive images. His work is a direct response to the urban and almost schizophrenic state of mind of people living in massive cities as Sao Paulo, where simultaneity and synchronicity are always present. The artist explores different painting surfaces and mediums from oil to spray cans. His style is a fusion of influences that goes from Hyeronimous Bosch to graffiti, from Robert Crumb to Michelangelo. Besides being an artist, Loro is also an illustrator and cartoonist for the Sao Paulo edition of the Metro Newspaper. For this present show, the Lichen’s shapes and colors are the structure for his work.
APOLO TORRES work is the most figurative one, but there is a strong relationship between the figure and the surface it’s painted on. There is a lot of work on the canvas surface, trying to capture the colors and textures found on the city’s walls, and also other living interventions such as Lichen, moss, and human painting. Working on the depth and perspective, but at the same time leaving the elements scattered in the environment, Apolo have been trying to find a way to indicate that all the roots, the ground on which
are built our morals and customs, values, beliefs, and even the possession of the space we share with other living beings can change or disappear at any time. Due to the constant transformation of things, the art of Apolo Torres is a visual record of what he has witnessed and felt.
APOLO TORRES, LORO.VERZ and MUNDANO have been highlighted together in the recent years, and their individual work is well known in São Paulo and was exhibited at cities like London, Milan, Paris and Tel-Aviv. This is their first time in New York, this show promises to be unique and focused on their hometown roots.
The North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition (NbPac) is proud to present:
RE/PAINT
RE/BUILD
A fundraiser to benefit the India Street Mural Project.
Taking place at:
Gallery 1889
Wednesday, June 24th, 2009
7PM to 11PM.
1066 Manhattan Avenue and Eagle Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn
The India Street Mural Project is the kickoff project for the North Brooklyn Public Art Coalition (NbPac),a new initiative whose goal is to work with local artists, community members, arts organizations and businesses in order to increase the presence of public art in North Brooklyn. By doing so, NbPac hopes to beautify, revitalize, and energize the Williamsburg, Greenpoint and Bushwick neighborhoods through public art. Visit our website (http://nbpac.wordpress.com) for more details.
The event will feature:
• RE/WARD – Silent auction featuring art from the mural project artists (8-10pm)
• RE/FUEL – Food by Chef Michael Sullivan from new Greenpoint restaurant Anella
• RE/CLAIM – Live found object portraits by artist Zito
• RE/DESIGN – Live screenprinting by the Brooklyn Printmaking Collective (bring your screenprintable goods!)
• RE/IMAGINE – Haircuts by designer/inventor/sculptor Dan Harper
DJ Painted will be mixing music all night, and we’ll have wine and beer on hand from
Tickets are only $20 and can be purchased through PayPal or by paying cash at the
door. All proceeds go to benefit the India Street Mural Project.
Gallery 1889 is a new gallery and event space located at 1066 Manhattan Avenue and
Eagle Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. The space has been transformed from a long-vacant storefront to a bustling site for art, design, architecture, and unique events. For a map and
Graff started on the street, I think. Street art started in the studio.
Main difference. That was easy, right?
Now graff keeps going into the studio, the gallery, the museum. And now we are watching as fine art, or some approximation of it, is continuallly leaving the home studio (kitchen table), gallery, collective, etc. and flooding the streets. The explosion of street art is having it’s effect and the opinions it produces are as varied as, um, people. The point is that the veil has been punctured, and the creative spirit is not willingly being confined today. Everything and everyone is becoming a hybrid.
Last weekend in a neighborhood in Brooklyn that’s home to a lot of variety at the moment – Bushwick – a three day Bushwick Open Studios event took place, featuring over 200 open studios, live music, parties, workshops, panels, student art shows, puppet shows, the whole enchilada. Don’t worry, it’s not all high-minded, or necessarily thought provoking. It’s just an indication of where we are moving. It’s impossible to see everything so you just have to pick and choose a few of your favorites and see which way the slimey wind leads you.
Started off at “2012” the new show at Factory Fresh featuring the work of graff/street art youth – the place was pretty young and sweaty and full of excitement, and parts of the inside looked like it could have been outside – plywood, tags, partial messages, and organized chaos. Sorry for the crappy pics from the phone, but you get the idea.
A wall of 9"x9" pieces by Faro, Bloke, and Avoid. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Faro, UFO, others that you may know at "2012" at Factory Fresh (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Bad Kids, Erotic Kids, Charles Barkley, Krink markers (photo Steven P. Harrington)
A is for Apple, Abbreviation, Aiko, Anarchist, Arriviste, Artist? In this case, probably it's for Avoid (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Then Kings County Bar also hosted a show that night for ELC and their new collaborations, which were kind of hard to see because it was, uh, a dark bar. Also there were other gyrating distractions that may have taken patron’s focus off their art show. Included in the show were Royce Bannon, Anera, Infinity, Celso, Abe Lincoln Jr., Ad Deville, Dark Clouds, and Matt Siren.
A quick way to cut through a crowded bar is to tiptoe across the top of it. (photo (cc) Hrag Vartanian)
Following a rainy Friday, the rest of weekend was nice. In fact, a new Bishop 203 appeared out of nowhere on this abandoned building, like an urban flower.
Bishop 203 with a black heart (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Pocket Utopia had it’s last show this weekend, featuring a 16 foot tall fiberglass monster that dispensed beer in the back yard, a performance by artist/musician/dynamo Andrew Hurst in the basement that was viewable through a hole drilled in the floor, and this large scary portrait by Kevin Regan. You might recognize the revolutionary jowls. It’s not street art, per se, but certainly we’ve seen this king of photographic mutation on the street in the work of MBW, Judith Supine, Dain, Bast, and others.
Kevin Regan at Pocket Utopia (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Speaking of Judith Supine, English Kills was showing a large piece by said street artist called “God of Mars” Chris Harding, visionary owner of the space, explained that this is the biggest canvas Supine has ever done, and that numerology figured into it’s actual dimensions to bring good luck to the piece.
Chris points out a detail on the Judith Supine piece (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Large new canvas by Judith Supine (courtesy English Kills)
Later, after too many beers, we stumbled into a salon of 20-something Illinois settlers (Illinois in the House!), a true sign of the everchanging makeup of the music and art scene. An appreciate audience of 50+ people were spread out over salvaged furniture (and one in a bathtub) to listen to old timey folk inspired singers and bands.
Rockin the autoharp, which is slightly older than wearing trucker caps (photo Steven P. Harrington)
While thumping house music from down the block and the occasional police siren wafted in the cracked 4th floor factory windows, singer-songwriters plucked on autoharp, glockenspiel, electric guitar, and a variety of hand held percussion instruments. The really remarkable part was the lack of manic cell-phone snapping, texting, or Twittering among such an assembled group of youthful beauty during the performances. They appeared to be paying attention. Is that even POSSIBLE? Maybe this was a movie set. Or maybe Illinois artist-peeps are just more respectful. I was going to try to get through this paragraph without mentioning Sufjan Stevens, but there, I’ve said it. Baahhhhhhhhhh!
The tunes were folky and relationship-centric, but she did say "f*ck" a few times in one song, so that's what gives it the edge. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
So there you have it, one shard of a giant shattered crystal mirror that is Bushwick. The torch is passed again to a new generation of weirdos and misfits to develop beauty. Since most of the real estate developers are trying to hatch their stalled projects in Billyburg and lure in more “consumers”, maybe the recession has bought some time and the multi-feathered flock of “creatives” will continue to fly here for a while. That way the nests will stay affordable, and the space aplenty.
The art on the street, naturally, has plenty to say on these and other matters…
Oh, it’s all good fun! Piles of tires on fire, people running in the streets, acts of desperation, pestilence, unending video surveillance; This is one vision of 2012 we hear these days.
Avoid, Bloke, and Faro have been holed up inside Factory Fresh building a destroyed urban scene in the front room for about three weeks to warn us of the impending cavalcade of calamity headed our way in only 3 short years.
And they haven’t been doing it alone. Ask the Factory Fresh interns, the woodworking engineer Garrett, or the curator and producer of the show Alex Emmert, “We are all working together on this. We are all learning from each other at all times.” In short, to create an end-of-times societal and environmental meltdown, you need everyone to collaborate.
Start placing your bets, neighbors, because you know it is definitely coming – the end of civilization as we know it. The end of civilization has been of course predicted for most of human civilization – Everyone from the Montanists to Nostradamus, Hippolytus to Pope Innocent III, to Jim and Tammy Baker, Jimmy Swaggart, and Jerry Falwell; they have all claimed to have the inside special knowledge revealed only to a select few.
The year 2012 is being gazed upon by prophets and prognosticators as the next possible sunset to civilization and/or spiritual awakening. At your fingertips on the WWW is a swirling bubbling caldron of relevant indicators and evidence of this ominous date where a few of the worlds major religious belief systems and the Mayan Calendar neatly dovetail.
It’s not really clear whether Avoid, Bloke and Faro really believe that there will be a calamity that marks the end of civilization in 2012, or if they are just reacting to the ever-increasing pressures of economic insecurity, loss of personal liberties, and the threats of war and strife that exist in the modern world. If you are in the right audience and living under the right conditions, you may be convinced that it is very near the end of the world, and who could blame you?
“On the Eve of Armageddon : an Account of the Scriptural Teaching Relating to the War Among the Nations Which Will Engulf Civilization, and Immediately Precede the Universal and Eternal Kingdom of Peace.”, Haynes, Carlyle Boynton. Washington: Review and Herald Pub. Association, 1946.
Yo, What’s Good?
I clearly remember sitting on a hardwood church pew while a tall bearded Charismatic Pentacostal dude stood in front of an audience of 300 and revealed to the hushed and horrified crowd that the seven year “Tribulation” would begin in 1981 (as per messages from God that had been revealed to him and other elders of the church). Across the congregation, people’s knees weakened and stomachs grew nauseous with fear and hands jolted into the air, and voices raised in exultation and praise. At that moment, you could have convinced that crowd to impale live babies with spears or eat at Olive Garden or even vote for a B-list Hollywood actor to dismantle the middle class, so strong was the power of prophecy and fear. Thankfully, those days are safely behind us and people don’t use fear to manipulate crowds anymore.
Oh sure, NOW you tell us!! New Hampshire Street Art! (Mark at Nozell.com)
But here we are and “2012” is nearly upon us. As you walk into the main gallery space you will be greeted by a burning city of plywood. Although it may be hard to be too frightened when the ominous clouds are in fact fluffy, and the licking fire that engulfs the cityscape reminds you of PeeWee Herman playtimes. Even the surveillance cameras are swervy and playful. “Yeah, we wanted it to be kind of ‘Adult Swim’, kind of absurd”, explains Faro.
Alex holds the clouds, that’s how powerful he is. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Signs are painted brightly with a loose hand, and are covered with mixed symbols from scientific, religious, and graff influence. Avoid springs avidly over to the corner booth where a video will be visible through a rectangular viewer, and describes that visitors will see scenes of, “chaos, car crashes, people jumping off bridges”. As they happily describe the scene of urban apocalypse you could get the idea that “evil” might actually sport a tail and some pointy horns.
Letter and Symbols for the future (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Alex Emmert explains the concept of the room, “My background is in exhibition design, I have a Masters degree in Museum Studies and I focus on exhibition design. So I’ve been wanting to have the freedom to put together an art show that uses some of the things I’ve learned as well as the ideas of the artists so that we can all kind of work together. It’s better than just having me be the curator.”
Avoid agrees that Alex is a real teammate, “You can do some things a lot better than we can. Otherwise, this show would just be some cardboard!”
“I think if Alex wasn’t willing to do this then none of this would have turned out,” says Faro
The scene in the gallery last weekend. A lot of building yet to do. (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Beyond the opening stage-setting scene room is a gallery where the three artists, variously from graffiti and street art backgrounds, display a series of smallish (9” square) wooden canvasses that spell out their tentative entry into the hallowed halls of fine art.
Hovercrafting into the future (Bloke) (photo by Steven P. Harrington)
Bloke presents a series of variations on his submarine-dirigibles in whimsical line-drawn variations. Each one is afloat, and looks like it could crash were it not for powerful propulsion mechanisms at work.
Avoid being recorded in front of his wall (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Stopping mid-circle to show his stuff, Avoid quickly shuffles through hand-painted Superman 3-D text-based gold leaf slogans; ringing ironic bells of recognition or standing quizzically on your tongue. Faro, with an illustrator’s hand, renders symbols and patterns with precision and lyric.
Each artist takes a crack at a larger scale canvas (40”x 60”), and that’s when their differences break out and the personal voice gets stronger. The backyard cinder block walls make their individual focuses even clearer. Collectively, it’s a multi-headed monster with many messages and developing storylines.
A pile of tentacles waiting to be installed (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: Has Alex been directing you guys?
Faro: Yeah, I mean, he just got it.
Alex: Then we also brought in this guy named Garrett Wohnrade who is one of my business partner Caleb’s old friends, who is a wood worker and he just has been knocking sh*t out. Garrett has really embraced this project and it has given him the opportunity to show what he’s up to.
Avoid: His knowledge structurally of how things work is great … I mean this is a large structure we are building.
Faro: Yeah, actually I learned that some people can do certain things like sawing wood, that I cannot do. I’ve learned to stick to what I do, do what I do good. I paint and I draw.
Studio inspiration; Hawthorn & Black Angels on vinyl, Egyptian Art History for symbols and history of Alexandria for architecture (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Alex: This show gives us a chance to provide something that is real, something that is authentic. It’s not “street art”. It’s not grafitti. It’s fine art from artists otherwise known as a grafitti artist or street artist. That’s what makes it so special, you know, it’s like this is the fine art aspect of that rebellious side.
Brooklyn Street Art: So you are presenting both graff and street art in the show as part of a continuum…
Avoid: In some ways we are presenting neither as well, because it’s not on the street, it’s not grafitti. It’s the fine arts presentation of artists that also do graffiti and if you want to call it street art you can. “Street Art” is a label, I think, that was made to sell a product. And that is fine, if you want to do that.
Brooklyn Street Art: It’s probably worthwhile to try to differentiate between one type of expression so that people can understand what you are speaking about in a conversation. If you say “graff” then something specific pops into your mind. You say “street art” and you think “that could be a number of different things”.
Faro: That’s true.
Alex: I don’t know, I just feel like New York City has been in some ways years behind the rest of the world in terms of “Street Art” and graffiti. Because it seems like everybody else has just been meshing the two cultures. – You’ve got that in Barcelona, Tokyo, in Brazil. But New York City has this traditional graffiti culture and we can pay respect where respect is due, and that’s awesome. But something needs to happen to bring NYC on par with the whole resurgence and renaissance that is going on in the rest of the world. And that is what this show represents, it’s the culmination of street art and graffiti, regardless of what they mean externally to many people. We want to expand together.
Vision of Avoid (detail) (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Avoid: You approach each letter separately and you also approach the way that they relate to the next letter, and the balance of the overall piece, like in traditional graffiti. But also, each day I wake up and I feel different so I come up and take a different approach.
Brooklyn Street Art: Faro, do you feel different every day when you wake up to make stuff?
Detail of Faro’s big piece (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Faro: It’s phases for me. The way I look at my stuff is that it should somehow all make sense. And that’s how I draw and how I do everything. Somehow it has to all make sense, for me at least.
I do not care what you think of my artwork. You can call it graffiti, street art, call it whatever the hell you want. I’m just doing for myself and I just love it, I enjoy it, I like it, it’s just like my hobby, it’s what I do. What else am I going to do? Go steal something? Rob people, be a gangsta? No. I don’t want to be a gangster. I’d rather just sit and draw and stuff. And ride my bike. And I also meet a lot of people through it.
Wizardry with Symbols, shy Faro (photo Steven P. Harrington)
Brooklyn Street Art: What about the collaborative process you’ve experienced with these guys?
Faro: Beautiful. It opens my eyes to a lot more things, you know what I mean? I wasn’t really into abstract until I started seeing Avoid’s artwork, more and more. And I just understood it now for the first time.
Thanks to the “2012” team for taking a minute out of the preparations for this show, an undertaking they are taking quite seriously. These may be the “end days” and that is one of the themes expressed in this show. But from the excitement and industry, the volley of ideas and the spirit of collaboration surrounding this beehive at Factory Fresh, you may also see that these are the beginning days, days of promise and discovery when you can witness these artists finding new ways to express the creative spirit, even as they build a scene of destruction.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
at Factory Fresh on Friday the 14th, and is having a solo Show called 
