All posts tagged: HItnes

Hitnes Finds Poetry in the Evolution of Fishes

March 5, 2024 Artists

Curated by Mirko Pierri of the a.DNA project association

When Evolution Splashes onto School Walls: The E.C.O. Mural Unfolds

Let’s dive into a story where fish climb out of the sea and onto the school walls. Picture this: The Toscanelli Institute in Ostia, Italy, is no longer just a backdrop for mundane school routines. Thanks to the visionary Mirko Pierri of the a.DNA project, this school has turned into an extraordinary canvas that narrates the fascinating tale of evolution, courtesy of the street artist known as Hitnes. This isn’t your everyday science class; this is art making school cool again.

Hitnes. *“The poetry of the fishes evolution”* Ostia-Rome. (photo © Paolo Giannotti)

“The Poetry of the Fishes’ Evolution” is a journey from the ocean’s abyss to the land’s expanse, with Hitnes as our guide. His artwork wraps around the school’s walls like storybook pages, where fish transform into mammals right before our eyes. But there’s a twist – this story is a nudge towards thinking about our environmental impact.

Mirko Pierri puts it brilliantly: “These two architectural facades have… intrigued the students’ gaze who experience them. Now they are a source of curiosity… changing the perspective of those who cross this large courtyard.” Perhaps the new work can spark new conversations and encourage young minds to ponder, all while passing to the next class.

The E.C.O. project has turned the school into a buzzing hub that goes beyond textbooks. Hitnes’ work, with its echoes of ancient seas and critiques of human intervention, isn’t just for show. It invites the young (and the young at heart) to reflect, question, and discuss.

Director Paola Toto and the surrounding educational community have welcomed this vibrant addition, turning the Toscanelli Institute into a beacon of learning and environmental awareness. Imagine the usual school bell ringing, but instead of a rush to escape, there’s a buzz of students discussing evolution, art, and the environment. Here, you can trace your fingers over the evolution of life on these walls and think about our place in the world – all before the bell rings for your next class.

Hitnes. *“The poetry of the fishes evolution”*. Detail. Ostia-Rome. (photo © Mirko Pierri)

Hitnes. *“The poetry of the fishes evolution”*. Ostia-Rome. (photo © Mirko Pierri)

The Audubon Birds Of Broadway

January 14, 2017 Artists

Birds flyin’ high, you know how I feel
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel
Breeze driftin’ on by, you know how I feel
It’s a new dawn, it’s a new day, it’s a new life for me.

~ Nina Simone

ATM. Williamson’s Sapsucker for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

192 species of birds are seen in Central Park regularly, says the NYC Audubon Society, thanks to “New York City’s position along the Atlantic ‘flyway,’ a major avian migration route, and its variety of habitat types, the metropolitan area is rich in bird diversity,” says the Museum of Natural History.

ATM. Red-face Warbler for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Since 2014 the streets of New York have also become home to many painted birds as well. In the Upper West Side neighborhood in Manhattan where founder and artist John James Audubon lived in the 1840s after publishing his major work, a color-plate book entitled The Birds of America (1827–1839), there is a growing series of paintings on roll down gates by Street Artists, graffiti artists, studio artists, and muralists depicting bird species that are in danger thanks climate change and to us humans.

ATM. Townsend’s Warbler for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Audubon Mural Project combines the efforts of art gallerist Avi Gitler of Gitler &_____ Gallery and The Audubon Society and 50+ artists over the last 2 years or so and gradually this area is becoming a bird sanctuary. The birds are painted mostly along Broadway but many more painted birds can be found from 135th Street to 165th Street on the Upper West Side. Many of the birds are painted on gates so when the shops are open, the gates are up and bird sighting is off…so go early in the morning or when the shops close.

Mary Lacy. Pinyon Jay for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hitnes. Fish Crow for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY. Swallow-tailed Kite (and others) for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

James Alicea. American Redstart for The Audubon Mural Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

To learn more about The Audubon Mural Project click HERE

Here is a recent story from PBS about the project. Unfortunately, many artists names are not mentioned in the story, a typical unfortunate oversight by the press for artists whose work is on the streets and not inside galleries or museums. Nonetheless, the story gives valuable information and context.

The artist ATM in profile for his new installations just completed this autumn.

Top 15 Videos on BSA Film Friday From 2015

BSA Film Friday: 01.23.15

Narcelio Grud Mixes Cement and Sprays It

“Narcelio Grud and “Chaupixo” brings us back into the inventive mind of this experimenter – now hand pumping a slurry of colored concrete over a stencil pattern. The results are solid!”

BSA Film Friday 04.10.15

The Reinvention of Normal: Dominic Wilcox

“By doing the ridiculous, something else might come of it,” says Dominic Wilcox, and we couldn’t agree more.

“Just off the wall. And that is what I’ve always encouraged in him.” says Dominic’s dad.

“I had this idea to come up with something creative every day for 30 days,” says the artist.

And this is how we all move forward.

BSA Film Friday: 04.17.15

Gladys Hulot, AKA Hyrtis Animates David Bowie “Life in Mars”

“BSA readers will dig this animation of David Bowie’s “Life on Mars,” Gladys Hulot, also known as Hyrtis, brings Bowie to slink through the cracks and around the concrete underground, dripping with piercing drama, and plenty of distinctive style. The voice here is stunningly replaced with a musical saw, giving the chameleon just one more layer to his multiple identities. Not precisely street art, but Bowie’s ties to the street are undisputed.”

BSA Film Friday: 05.08.15

Shepard Fairey: OBEY This Film

“This is almost a year old but it is also sort of timeless when you see how Shepard Fairey’s continous re-evolving of his philosophies about art and its place in our lives has come to such cogent arguments. It’s a short film, a genuine distillation of the larger themes that we have seen at work in the life and the career and public person.

Shot by a guy whose primary focus up until this point was nearly exclusively about skaters and skate culture, Brett Novak says he was pleasantly surprised to learn that Fairey was likeable and had a lot of good information to impart. “I was not aware at how incredibly inspiring Shepard would turn out to be.”

BSA Film Friday: 05.15.15

Kinetoscope: Angelina Christina x Ease One

“Slab City is sometimes billed as an isolated desolated off-the-grid sort of place in California so it was an adventure for Christina Angelina and Ease One discovered the remains of this abandoned water tank and transformed it into a circular mural. They call it The Kinetoscope.”

BSA Film Friday: 06.05.15

1010 Creates a Crater in Paris

“And you thought New York had potholes? Be careful in Paris!”

BSA Film Friday: 06.12.15

Born and Bred: The Rise of Street Art in Bushwick

“It’s all about Joe! While you were looking for a brunch spot or a beard wax or simply at your navel, Joe took an opportunity to connect artists with walls and did more for the “scene” in Bushwick than an L Train full of pilgrims ever could. He cleared the way for a slew of local and international artists and writers looking for an opportunity to exercise their creative speech and courted the press with his local native personal story so often that you can imagine a Netflix series will be next.”

BSA Film Friday 07.17.15

Roma Street Art Tribes as Captured by Dioniso Punk

“Disorderly, discordant, and richly chaotic, these two videos are centered around the Italian street art paintings and artists whom you will recognize from our earlier postings on community/gallery organized urban art programming – but within the context of historical art publicly displayed, peoples movements, patronage, fascism, the classics.

Dioniso Punk allows everyone to talk – neighbors, artists, organizers, curators, public philosophers, elected officials, psychologists, sociologists, entrepreneurs, posers, professors, historians, students, an opera singer, the petite bourgeoisie, international visitors and hapless puzzled opinionated locals.”

Part I

Part II

BSA Film Friday: 08.21.15

(RE) Prisma by Narcelio Grud

“The ship Mara Hope, stranded for 30 years on Iracema Beach alongside the Brazilian city of Fortaleza, received a benediction of more color in July thanks to Street Art interventionist and experimenter Narcelio Grud. A mistake in 1985, the ship has become a monument over time, a symbol of the history of the fishing industry, and after so many years a symbol of personal history for people who have grown up with it.”

BSA Film Friday 09.11.15

Hitnes. The Image Hunter / Voodoo Duck

“At the Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary in Corolla, NC, The Image Hunter discovers the importance of duck decoys in Currituck County.”

BSA Film Friday: 10.16.15

Welcome To America Owen Dippie by Erin Dippie

“A nice homemade video this week by New Zealand painter Owen Dippie’s talented wife Erin, who documented his trip to New York and LA. Without the hype this gives you an idea what it is like to be a tourist here, and it is good to see the experience through the eyes of a loving partner.”

BSA Film Friday: 10.23.15

FAILE: “Wishing On You” Times Square 2015 NYC

“We debuted this video by Priest Fontaine live for the Brooklyn Museum audience with Faile and actual chills went up people’s spines. No lie. Now you can see it too here online Capturing the current Times Square as county fair with mountains of screens flashing images around the Selfie Stick Forest, all corporate creepy and still sleezey – Fontaine evokes the magic that Faile is, as well as the pure industry that it takes to make their art work. Also good to remember that it was a hot and humid overnight installation that started at 8pm and ended around 10 the following morning.”

What Happened with BSA + FAILE at the Brooklyn Museum?

BSA Film Friday: 11.06.15

Your Tour Through Dismaland with Butterfly and Lars Pederson

“The views are sadly hilarious, pure sarcasm and commentary on issues and behaviors. If Street Art is meant sometimes to hold a mirror to us as we pass by, this is a genuine funhouse of mirrors at every turn. Of course, this isn’t Street Art – its site-specific contemporary art – and many of the artists are street artists, but not all. Butterfly and Pederson discuss the installations as they encounter them and the viewer feels at though they have gotten a true sense of the wonderful world of Dismal.”

BSA Film Friday: 11.13.15

Ugangprosjektet 2015 in Drammen, Norway. A Film by Selina Miles

“UGANG2015 in Drammen, Norway had two weeks of murals from Street Artists and graffiti writers in late August. A relatively new event curated by local graffiti artist Eric Ness Christiansen (Eazy), the program is already slamming. A small town of 70,000 about 40 minutes from Oslo, they know how to take care of details, including inviting the inimitable Selina Miles to come and shoot it. Any questions?”

BSA Film Friday: 12.04.15

Brandalism Takes Over Bus Stops to Counter Cop21 Misinformation

“Here is a brief intro video about Brandalism’s answer to UN COP21 – and the first of what will surely be more videos about this massive effort by 82 Artists from 19 different countries to take back public space and the public dialogue about climate change from those who are skillfully employing misinformation and bending laws to enable them to continue making money at all costs.”

BSA Film Friday 09.11.15

September 11, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. “Rise and Fall” for Clorofilla with Andreco
2. Hitnes. The Image Hunter / Voodoo Duck
3. Hitnes. Sketches From The South

BSA Special Feature: “Rise and Fall” for Clorofilla with Andreco

“Nature as Art” is the organizing principle that Andreco creates around, and the Clorofilla Project in Belluno in Veneto, Italy happily invited him to participate this July with other artists to create art specific to the location. “Rise and Fall reflects the shape and construction of the most commonly seen rock in the area called dolomite. A geologist, author, and artist, Andreco participated in this event organized by another Street Artist Ericailcane, asked artists to weave a personal dialogue with the art that responds directly to the lives of the people here and the environment they live in.

Pillole di Clorofilla 2015

Hitnes. The Image Hunter / Voodoo Duck

At the Pine Island Audubon Sanctuary in Corolla, NC, The Image Hunter discovers the importance of duck decoys in Currituck County.

Hitnes. The Image Hunter / Sketches From The South

A look at how the nature Hitnes has discovered in Maryland, North Carolina, and South Carolina have influenced his sketches and eventual murals at each stop.

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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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BSA Film Friday: NUART2015 Live From Stavanger, Norway

September 4, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. NUART 2015 Special: FUTURA In Action in the Tunnels of Tou Scene

BSA Special Feature: FUTURA in the The Tunnels at Tou Scene by Jaime Rojo

Straight from Nuart 2015 to you, this rare opportunity to be one-on-one with New York/world graffiti and fine artist Futura, a cat who defined a new space for many who came after him on the graffiti and Street Art scene. By embracing the spirit of play, exploration, and experimentation this guy helped transform our expectations about what a graffiti artist can do and he made space for many others to do some exploring and experimenting on their own.

Even 35 years after first making a break from NYC trains for the studio practice and gallery scene, Futura continues to try new ideas and techniques of expression. Somehow no matter how high he flies Futura also keeps it down to earth – so much so that he allowed photographer Jaime Rojo to try some experimenting of his own – Here is Jaime trying his hand at video-making on the scene in Stavanger this week.

Enjoy seeing the man in action as he prepares his brand new piece for the big opening this weekend at Nuart 2015.

FUTURA: NUART 2015. The Tunnels at Tou Scene. By Jaime Rojo/BrooklynStreetArt.com

Futura. Nuart 2015. Tou Scene. Nuart Art Festival. Stavanger, Norway. September 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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If you are in Stavanger please join us tonight for BSA FILM FRIDAY LIVE at the cinema downtown where we will be talking about “Play in the Street”.

BSA Film Friday 08.14.15

August 14, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. Germen Colectivo Brings Color to a Mexican Town
2. NEVERCREW at Wall\Therapy 2015
3. JR’s Ballerina Welcomes New Film and New Condos
4. Hitnes: The Image Hunter. On The Trail Of John James Audubon

BSA Special Feature: Germen Colectivo Brings Color to a Mexican Town

It’s raw video, with no narration, slipping audio, and uncredited interviews, but it doesn’t matter because this community project in a Mexican town called Pachuca is brightly hued after 14 months of painting the hillside neighborhood by the Germ Collective.

According to Ricardo Lopez of the Associated Press

“It’s an homage to the wind: the city of Pachuca is nicknamed “la bella airosa,” a Spanish phrase that loosely translates as “the beautiful breezy city.”

Project director Enrique Gomez said the goal is to promote community integration and change the negative image of the neighborhood.

“I never thought we would have such a big impact,” said Gomez, a tattooed and goateed former gang member who turned his life around when he rededicated himself to graffiti art and muralism.

Before, he said, Las Palmitas was a sketchy area where people avoided going out after dark or interacting with each other. But as the project nears its final stages, you see people talking to each other more, children hanging out on the steep stairways that cut through the neighborhood.

“Honestly, what surprises me the most is that people are really changing,” Gomez said. “They are growing, there is more community spirit. People are taking the security of their neighborhood into their own hands.”

NEVERCREW at Wall\Therapy 2015

“Swiss-based duo NEVERCREW adorned a wall with a magnificent addition to their ongoing series of murals celebrating whales. With reflections of the Rochester skyline in the external whale, this mural is part of their current body of work, bringing attention to the preservation of these massive denizens of the deep.”

JR’s Ballerina Welcomes New Film and New Luxury Condos

This well heeled flying ballerina by JR graces the site where an eight story luxury condo is slated to land in Manhattan. A great stop action video here shows the French artist beginning the project in the bucket with DDG real estate CEO Joe McMillan and then speeding away fashionably on two wheels through busy Manhatttan traffic.

Discussing the 75 foot tall dancer in mid air, DDG, the developer who owns the site explains on their website that “JR’s interest in ballet inspired his art film Les Bosquets, which premiered at the Tribeca Film Festival this spring. His new street artwork bears a striking similarity to the image promoting the film on the Tribeca Film Festival’s website.” DDG tells The Real Deal website, “the installation will ‘remain indefinitely,’ or, at least until the condos start rising.”

Hitnes: The Image Hunter. On The Trail Of John James Audubon

Muralist and Street Artist Hitness has begun following the Audubon Trail, and is painting all along the way.

He began in Philadelphia and made his way to Mill Grove, which was Audubon’s first home in the US, and then moves southward to Pickering Creek Audubon Sanctuary in Easton, MD.

Keep track of him on theimagehunter.org

Direction: Giacomo Agnetti

BSA Film Friday 04.10.15

April 10, 2015 Artists

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

Now screening :

1. The Reinvention of Normal: Dominic Wilcox
2. Rallitox: Chicken Murder on Williamsburg Street Corner
3. Abdel Maged Amara: LIES – The Street Walkers
4. Sbagliato in London Creates a False Hallway
5. Hitnes in Rome: Blind Eye Factory

The Reinvention of Normal: Dominic Wilcox

“By doing the ridiculous, something else might come of it,” says Dominic Wilcox, and we couldn’t agree more.

“Just off the wall. And that is what I’ve always encouraged in him.” says Dominic’s dad.

“I had this idea to come up with something creative every day for 30 days,” says the artist.

And this is how we all move forward.

Rallitox: Chicken Murder on Williamsburg Street Corner

Insert joke about hipsters here. Actually, this is Williamsburg – hipsters left a few years ago and only return to reminisce. Nonetheless this installation and the blasé reactions of the passive consumer class to Rallitox’s installation are illuminating. Please take your photo and move on.

Also interesting to note, Rallitox reports that a dead animal is cheaper than aerosol paint or markers for making art.

Abdel Maged Amara: LIES – The Street Walkers

Take a look at how to make a 3D Graffiti sculpture and then suspend it in what appears to be its natural environment.

Sbagliato in London Creates a False Hallway

Optical illusion is featured in this tease for upcoming Sbagliato project. Walk this way.

Hitnes in Rome: Blind Eye Factory

Hitnes Hits Piazza San Basilio for SANBA in Italy

March 28, 2015 Artists

Sanba is a program engaging the built public environment of suburban Rome with the aesthetics of the modern Street Art and muralism movement. For the last two years under the curation of Simone Pallotta, Sanba has found new locations for painting in the public sphere and engage in the cultural and civic building senses as well, with a goal toward engaging community. The large facades painted by international artists are not just a “Street Art event”, hopefully, says Pallota. “The murals are a light bulb, a figurative outpost to a daily commitment made of culture and participation,” he says.

brooklyn-street-art-hitnes-blind-eye-factory-san-basilio-rome-03-15-web-2

Hitnes (photo © Blind Eye Factory)

Here are five huge walls facing a public square that long ago began its decline. The artist Hitnes created works that would engage the neighbors, including young and old, to stand together and discuss the works – in effect bringing the outside space alive rather than simply one you pass through.

“The animals and the plants of his work live with the colors of the buildings, pink shades of an old red that is there from the 1950s. Animals, both terrestrial and marine, are hovering and flying all around the trees with thin trunk, the marine pines that cover the neighborhood and that Hitnes uses to contextualize his work,” says Pallotta.

Hitnes (photo © Blind Eye Factory)

To learn more about SANBA Walls please click HERE

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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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The 2014 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

December 17, 2014 Artists

Here it is! Our 2014 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: Ask Jaime Rojo, our illustrious editor of photography at BrooklynStreetArt.com , who takes thousands of photographs each year, to respond to a simple question: What was your favorite photo of the year?

For 2014 he has swift response: “The Kara Walker.” Not the art, but the artist posed before her art.

It was an impromptu portrait that he took with his iPhone when the artist unveiled her enormous sculpture at a small gathering of neighborhood locals and former workers of the Domino Sugar Factory, informal enough that Rojo didn’t even have his professional camera with him. Aside from aesthetics for him it was the fact that the artist herself was so approachable and agreed to pose for him briefly, even allowing him to direct her just a bit to get the shot, that made an imprint on his mind and heart.

Of course the sculpture is gone and so is the building that was housing it for that matter – the large-scale public project presented by Creative Time was occupying this space as the last act before its destruction. The artist herself has probably moved on to her next kick-ass project after thousands of people stood in long lines along Kent Avenue in Brooklyn to see her astounding indictment-tribute-bereavement-celebration in a hulking warehouse through May and June.

But the photo remains.

And Rojo feels very lucky to have been able to seize that quintessential New York moment: the artist in silhouette before her own image, her own work, her own outward expression of an inner world.

Jaime’s personal favorite of 2014; The site specific Kara Walker in front of her site specific installation at the Domino Sugar Factory in May of this year in Brooklyn. Artist Kara Walker. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

And our holiday gift to you for five years running, here is the brand new video of favorite images of graffiti and Street Art by Brooklyn Street Art’s editor of photography, Jaime Rojo.

Of a few thousand these 129 shots fly smoothly by as a visual survey; a cross section of graffiti, street art, and the resurgence of mural art that continues to take hold. As usual, all manner of art-making is on display as you wander your city’s streets. Also as usual, we prefer the autonomous free-range unsolicited, unsanctioned type of Street Art because that’s what got us hooked as artists, and ultimately, it is the only truly uncensored stuff that has a free spirit and can hold a mirror up to us. But you have to hand it to the muralists – whether “permissioned” or outright commissioned, some people are challenging themselves creatively and still taking risks.

Once again these artists 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. We hope you dig it too.

Brooklyn Street Art 2014 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

2Face, Aakash Nihalani, Adam Fujita, Adnate, Amanda Marie, Andreco, Anthony Lister, Arnaud Montagard, Art is Trash, Ben Eine, Bikismo, Blek Le Rat, Bly, Cake, Caratoes, Case Maclaim, Chris Stain, Cleon Peterson, Clet, Clint Mario, Col Wallnuts, Conor Harrington, Cost, Crummy Gummy, Dain, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Damon, Dan Witz, Dasic, Don’t Fret, Dot Dot Dot, Eelco Virus, EKG, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Etam Cru, Ewok, Faring Purth, Gilf!, Hama Woods, Hellbent, Hiss, Hitnes, HOTTEA, Icy & Sot, Jana & JS, Jason Coatney, Jef Aerosol, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, JR, Judith Supine, Kaff Eine, Kashink, Krakenkhan, Kuma, Li Hill, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Mais Menos, Mark Samsonovich, Martha Cooper, Maya Hayuk, Miss Me, Mover, Mr. Prvrt, Mr. Toll, Myth, Nenao, Nick Walker, Olek, Paper Skaters, Patty Smith, Pixel Pancho, Poster Boy, Pyramid Oracle, QRST, Rubin 415, Sampsa, Sean 9 Lugo, Sebs, Sego, Seher One, Sexer, Skewville, SmitheOne, Sober, Sonni, Specter, SpY, Square, Stay Fly, Stik, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swil, Swoon, Texas, Tilt, Tracy168, Trashbird, Vexta, Vinz, Willow, Wolfe Works, Wolftits, X-O, Zed1.

Read more about Kara Walker in our posting “Kara Walker And Her Sugar Sphinx At The Old Domino Factory”.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.06.14

July 6, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Now we’re in the thick of it – summer murals and independent interventions all. Regardless of technique, experience or background, artists of all stripes are bringing new works on walls across the city, including our top image this week which is by someone new to the street, Turkish fine artist, painter, designer Anil Duran in Bushwick. Labels (Street Art, graffiti, urban art, murals) can be helpful to categorize, but let’s drop them this week and call it art, and see if it applies.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Anil Duran, Anthony Lister, BD White, Chuck Berrett, Damon, Daniel Anguilu, EC13, El Niño de las Pinturas, GG Artwork, Hitnes, Joseph Meloy, Kremen, London Kaye, MKGO, Nepo, Nicole Salgar, Ramiro Davarro-Comas, TLC, Vandal Expressionism, and X-Men.

Top Image >> Anil Duran (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anil Duran. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daniel Anguilu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kremen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

TLC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BD White threw in a couple of hashtags here to help push forward the idea. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NEPO completed his piece of comic characters from Latin America. We see Mafalda and Memin Pinguin in there. Who else? This was done for The Juicy Art Fest. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.22.14

June 22, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

It’s not all going to the dogs, peeps – it just looks like it sometimes. We start this week with a ferocious one from Zimer, and follow it by a chihuahua that it could probably eat for lunch. Dog eat dog, yo.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring ACNE, City Kitty, Crummy Gummy, EC13, Ema, FAS, Hitnes, Insurgency Inc., Irony and Boe, Kid Acne, Lajaxx, Myth, Not Art, Ozmo, Peter Kirill, Specter, and Zimer.

Commentary from Gary Hunter, who sent this big dog from London:

“The chihuahua is partly a comment on changing demographic due to development overspilling from the spreading consumerism of nearby financial district Canary Wharf. Located just north of the Isle of ‘Dogs’ in East London the piece is facing ‘Barking’ a town in Essex, just by the A13 a main road in and out of London.

There also used to be a very big Spratt’s (a manufacturer originally from Cincinnati, Ohio) dog biscuit factory nearby, now warehouse apartment conversions. I photographed the ‘model’ (coincidentally called Hunter and owned by London artist Cate Halpin) in great detail in my studio on a very high end Hasselblad digital camera, to bring out every aspect. Irony and Boe then transposed it brick by brick for their painted artwork.

This work is part of ‘Changing Spaces’ a a community cohesion project in east London’s Tower Hamlet’s district, one of the city’s most deprived, yet diverse boroughs – facilitating understanding of the immediate environment, important history, trade and migration.” – GH

Crummy Gummy. In Los Angeles, CA. “I’m a big fan of H.R. Giger and this piece actually made me a little sad. But I thought it was a cool way to reference his passing” Lisa V (photo © Lisa V)

Hitnes wanted to create the perfect shade of color to highlight the eye of the bunny for the piece he did on a roof top in East Williasmburg this week. Here is how it all began…this plus a little water. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kid Acne and Ema are from England and they are visiting NYC and wasting no time on the streets. At the same time they have been showing a very poor judgment with the placing of their pieces by going over many writer’s tags. We like them both but are surprised by their selection of places to wheat paste their art since they are not new to the streets of New York, indeed we might say that they are even veterans of the streets of NYC given this we think they should know better.

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“From Street To Art” (Italy to New York) & Hitnes on a BKLN Roof

June 20, 2014 Artists, Interview

New Gallery Show Opens at Italian Cultural Institute of New York

Ever the melting pot, New Yorkers take it almost for granted that we are going to hear 10 different accents just in the course of our day walking through streets, getting a cab, shopping in a store, going to the theater, attending an art opening. We’re always in a midst of a cultural exchange. We often may not realize that the art on our street walls, legal and otherwise, may be the work of a cultural emissary as well, created by artists who hail from almost every country in the world. Such is the magnetic power of this international cultural center that even our graffiti tour guides sometimes need to be interpreters.

One of the countries where BSA has a large and loyal following is Italy and we’re excited to be a part of a cultural exchange that opens this evening with Italian graffiti and Street Artists exhibiting for the first time together in a formal gallery show. “From Street to Art”, opening today at the Italian Cultural Institute of New York, is a survey of this moment in the twenty-teens from the streets of Italy that adds to the voices of cultural exchange in this city that sparked so much of the worldwide graffiti and street art movements over the last fifty years or so.

Using flat color and simplistic stereotypes demarked by clothing styles and associated characteristics of social types, the work of BR1 can evoke emotions and strong opinions on the street and in the gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Organized by Public and Urban Art curator Simone Pallotta, “From Street to Art” continues the thread of sanctioned/unsanctioned artwork and continues his personal and professional route of drawing connections between contemporary art and the dozens of interventions he has overseen in his native country.

“From Street to Art” presents a good caliber of this “contemporary” scene, a collection of artists that reflects the variety one will experience on the street as well. Agostino Iacurci, Aris, BR1, Cyop&Kaf, Dem, Eron, Hitnes, Sten&Lex, Ufo5, and 2501 have each established a voice of their own during this first wave of the new global Street Art explosion.

BSA is honored to partner with the organizers and curator to get the word out about the nascent Italian street scene not only for its energy and talent today, but for the historical roots of a painting tradition from the middle ages to the Renaissance to contemporary times; revered for stunning and expansive installations of art upon walls inside and al fresco, private and per il pubblico.

One of the original organizers of the Festival “Memorie Urbane” in Gaeta, curator Pallotta has worked with names you are familiar with from his home country: Blu, Sten & Lex, Escif, Aryz, Agostino Iucurci. While a few of those names are represented in this show, Pallotta hopes to go a step beyond the sizzling “Street Art” zeitgeist of this moment to re-consider the urban context of public work as interpreted by a new generation of artists whose practice is likely to develop into the future, authoring the evolving definition of public art.

By choosing a selection of conceptualists, muralists, illustrators, even social commentators, he presents a good cross section of experimentation and execution in a quiet gallery setting that may indicate where this art form is headed.

As you would expect, the gallery show (shown being unpacked here) is complimented by work out of doors as well and we had the opportunity to see HITNES on a roof in Brooklyn this week.

We also spoke with curator Simone Pallotta, artist BR1, and artist HITNES while he knocked out a wall on a roof in Bushwick .

BSA speaks with curator of “From Street To Art”, Simone Pallotta:

Brooklyn Street Art: What initially drew your attention to Street Art?
Simone Pallotta: In the 90s I was a graffiti artist and later on I went to university for 8 years to study Art History. I began to pay more attention to what was going on the streets and one day in 2004 I discovered the art of Italian Street Artist BLU. It made such an impression on me that at that moment I made the decision to focus my time and energies in supporting Street Artists and helping them get more exposure.

In the university I had learned about institutional Contemporary Art – and my experience seeing Street Art in situ helped me understand that the real Contemporary Art was happening before my eyes on the streets. This was a Contemporary Art that was not being taught in the classroom at the university.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is the attitude of the City of Rome towards Street Art?
Simone Pallotta:If by the City of Rome we mean the city as an institution, dealing with it in all matters of Street Art has become very hard to work with. Because the government changes so often there isn’t a state policy in place regarding Street Art so then we are left to work with single individuals in governmental departments that are receptive to Street Art. During the 90s many graffiti artists from all over the world came to Rome to write due to the lack of law enforcement.

From the late 90s to the early 2000s Rome didn’t have much Street Art so the laws remained as they were and weren’t enforced. In Rome it is relatively easy for Street Artists to put illegal work up but ironically, due to the intense bureaucracy, it is very hard to convince the people in power to authorize legal walls for Street Artists to put art on. Recently however the government has been more open to working with independent cultural organizations and foundations to promote art on legal walls.

Brooklyn Street Art: What would you like to communicate to viewers with this exhibition?
Simone Pallotta:I have been involved with Street Art for ten years now and when the opportunity to curate this exhibition was presented to me I wanted to select 10 artists with a strong urban background and attitude. With this exhibition I want to re-direct the focus solely on the merits of the art; the content, the style and the techniques employed to create it, without focusing too much on the street provenance.

BSA speaks with Street Artist BR1:

Brooklyn Street Art: You address a number of religious themes on your work. Can you talk about the importance of your perspective on religion in your pieces?
BR1: I’m drawn to religious themes mainly by the people who practice religion. It always interest me the lifestyle of people as a direct link with religious dogma. Institutional religions impose many demands on people – from the way they should dress to how they should behave in private and in public. The more that people associate themselves with a specific religion and become a part of that community, they may have little desire to explore life outside their religious bubble.

First I observe the people to be able to understand what are the things in their culture and life that have become religious symbols. In this case the burka is a dress but it is also a symbol. If the practice of an artist is purely social, more than political, it is important to show ideas in one’s work. With my work I would like to question the viewer. I don’t want to create problems but I’d want to further the discussion to see if people are able to go outside their drawn lines and to engage positively and constructively with the other side.

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you call yourself a feminist?
BR1: Yes. In fact I have been invited by some feminists groups to come and talk about my work.

Brooklyn Street Art: Why is it important to you to create work with issues that affect women in our society?
BR1: It is a hard question because when I began drawing I often drew women. In Italy and in many other countries women are not treated equally as men. They are discriminated against in the workplace and in society at large and I want to draw attention to this with my work. Also my work is about helping people understand that they have choices in life.

Brooklyn Street Art: Why are you attracted to put your work on the streets without permission?
BR1: The experience of Street Art is free and that’s what I liked about it. When I began doing Street Art I wanted to preserve the free spirit of it. When I first visited NYC I saw a lot of wheat pastes and some stencil work on the streets that were not legally installed. Now the trend is to go big on legal walls. For me placement is very important; art on the streets has to be in context with the surroundings.

During a hot day this week, BSA also got to speak with participating Street Artist HITNES as he completed a wall on a roof in Brooklyn in conjunction with the show “From Street to Art”:

Brooklyn Street Art: How do animals inspire your work?
HITNES: Animals are known forms of nature and like the alphabet you can work with them in any which way you want. I come from a family of biologists (and artists) and since an early age I was inspired by the books that were around me when I was growing up.

Brooklyn Street Art: You started as a graffiti artist. Why did you switch to Street Art?
HITNES: I switched from letters to animals because it was quicker for me to do them.

Brooklyn Street Art: You obviously love color – where does your palette derive from?
HITNES: I was exposed to color with comics and cartoons and I liked them. For me the use of color is very important, it is as important as the form. But at the same time you need to be prepared to work with what you have and to be flexible.

This wall was made possible with the assistance of NYstGallery

“From Street To Art” is a group exhibition of contemporary Italian Street Artists including Agostino Iacursi, Aris, BR1, Cyop & Kaf, Dem, Eron, Hitnes, Sten & Lex, UFO5 and 2501. Curated by Simone Pallotta opening today at the Italian Cultural Institute. Click HERE for further details.

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Keep track of him on theimagehunter.org

Direction: Giacomo Agnetti