How & Nosm | Brooklyn Street Art

Chris Stain and Billy Mode “For Martha”

March 14, 2011 Artists, Brooklyn, NYC, On the Street

This weekend for BSA was a little bit of street art and graffiti history alchemy, transmuted by the presence of the lady we were all doing it for, Martha Cooper. To celebrate her birthday and the soon to be unveiled “Martha Cooper: Remix” show at Carmichael Gallery in Culver City, CA, Street Artists Chris Stain and Billy Mode sprayed aerosol into gold using imagery from her photography as base inspiration.

Chris Stain and Billy Mode (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On this bitterly cold and windy Brooklyn night, the good humored boys were blowing through cans on tops of shaking ladders, continuously working against the elements for what Chris called “some xtreme painting”. While taking a break to warm up inside, everybody had some chocolate birthday cake and Martha flipped through Subway Art with Chris and Billy, answering questions and relating stories about what it was like for her to capture graffiti on trains in New York in the 1970s and what it’s like to see Street Artists like Chris Stain interpreting her photographs today.

Chris Stain and Billy Mode in the reflection of rainwater pooled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our first conversations in September ’09 with Martha for a posting on BSA that discussed art inspired by her work evolved into a 50-artist “remix” show featuring old-school graff writers and new guard street artists next month.

“I thought about what we had done, what you had done in that blog post. We talked about how artists had used my work and I thought, ‘Why don’t I do that?’ ,” Martha remarks on the formation of her show plan.

It has been a genuine honor to be a part of the process and to see the pieces coming in to Ms. Cooper’s studio for the show. It’s also been intoxicating to imagine the relationships and personal paths that have intersected in the pursuit of artistic expression. Each invited artist has a very personal take on the influence of her photographs from a 40 year span, and the directions they take the work are myriad. Watching Chris and Billy create this large scale wall tribute in Brooklyn reminds us of the interconnected worlds of Graffiti Art and Street Art and how Ms. Coopers’ photography has contributed to the history and artistry of both.

Here are a few shots by Jaime Rojo of the installation for a sneak peek of this great experience – with a full length feature interview with Martha and commentary about the nature of the image from Chris and many more images coming this week.

Chris Stain and Billy Mode (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Photo © Jaime Rojo

BSA…………..BSA…………..BSA……………

Martha Cooper : Remix
Featuring original photography from Martha Cooper and original remixes from Aeon, Anton van Dalen, Aiko, Barry McGee, Bio, Nicer, B-Gee, Blade, Blanco, BurningCandy Crew, Cey, Cekis, Chris Stain, Claw, Cosbe, Crash, Dabs & Myla, Daze, DEARRAINDROP, FAUST, Flying Fortress, Freedom, Fumakaka World Dominator, Futura, Gaia, How & Nosm, Jane Dickson, John Ahearn, Jose Parla, Kenny Scharf, LA II, Lady Pink, Lee Quinones, Anthony Lister, Logan Hicks, The London Police, Mark Bode, Nazzareno Stencil, Nunca, Mare, Quik, Evil Dr. Revolt, Shepard Fairey, Skewville, Subway Art History, Swoon, T-Kid, Terror161 and Victor Castillo.

Coming to Carmichael Gallery April 9.

Images Of The Week 02.27.11 – Art Fairs Bring New Street Art to Walls

February 27, 2011 Artists

Brooklyn and NYC are Getting Hit! – New stuff is being installed on walls this week from Nick Walker, How & Nosm, TesOne, Bask, Tristan Eaton, Gaia, Clown Soldier, Hellbent, Chris Stain, and more. It’s a hot week in late winter.

We interrupt our regular weekly program of new shots of the street with IN PROGRESS new shots on the street by Nick Walker and How and Nosm and Bask.

This week art fairs will draw huge crowds of collectors and fans, bringing a number of Street Artists with spray paint and brush and wheatpaste in hand to hit up walls with their new pieces. From Fountain to Scope to Volta to Verge to Independent , the city is poppin with new pieces and new installations by scheduled Street Artists, and most likely a fair amount that isn’t scheduled on the streets too.

Nick Walker “Anonymity” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As reported here Friday BSA was with Nick Walker this week as he installed “Anonymity” a brand new stencil in a couple bricked up windows in Brooklyn. While in New York he’s also hit up walls inside and outside the Cooper Square Hotel in Manhattan (see below).

Nick Walker “Anonymity” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As he worked he talked about the significance of this new piece:

Nick Walker: This piece is all about anonymity. When you are a graffiti artist some people play the anonymity card. But then there are those who play the anonymity card one minute and the next minute you see them on the Internet not playing the anonymity game. This piece reflects what I see around me and I see other artists doing. I think that if you are going to play the anonymity game you have to play it from the start and never slip up. For a lot of the artists that I see now is “on-off” thing.

Nick Walker “Anonymity” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Southern Street Art talents Bask and TesOne are braving the cold temps in Brooklyn right now to hit walls with How and Nosm and Tristan Eaton as part of Contra Projects, a newly formed alliance of Street Artists who will be traveling around the globe in 2011 lead by visionary Eaton and his equally dynamic brother Matthew.

Opening at Scope this week the roster includes the above with Mr. Jago, DFace, Thomas Thewes, Ron English, James Marshall and TrustoCorp. Before the big Scope opening some of these cats will be hitting walls in BK and here are here are the first progress shots of the wall by How and Nosm from yesterday. They don’t have a name for it yet – suggestions are welcome! Finally a shot of Bask as he traces out the new piece.

Tats Cru Declares “Death of an Era”: How, Nosm & Aryz in Brooklyn

August 4, 2010 Artists, Bronx, Brooklyn, Germany, NYC, On the Street, Spain

Bronx Tats Cru muralists How and Nosm Perre hit Brooklyn last week with their buddy Aryz to put up a new piece on the side of a deli while stray cats wandered out from the fence next door to take a look. While BSA watched, the guys climbed up and down ladders and showed solid technique like the pros they are.

The globe trotting twins, born in seaside San Sebastion in the Basque region of Spain, grew up in Dusseldorf and fell in love with the New York style of graffiti in their teens. When they joined the Tats Cru in New York in the late nineties they had already proved their skillz as graff artists and begun to explore Street Art and muralist technique.

With Aryz visiting from Barcelona it was a perfect time to hit the streets of Williamsburg and get a piece up before the skies darkened further. “Death of an Era” appears to pay tribute to some of hiphop and graffiti culture’s early icons and surround them with a rising tide of blood. A critique of the darker powers of commercialism, it may also be homage to a romantic vision of a dirty and dysfunctional city that increasingly looks Disneyfied. While homogeneity threatens the character of some of our neighborhoods, work like this ensures an expression of individuality that keeps the streets alive.

With one eye on an impending summer storm and another on their wall, the guys busily consulted sketches and wielded their cans in a race against time.

http://www.hownosm.org

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