New
Yorkers are a fearless, foolish, and Faustian lot, this much was in evidence
during opening nights at the art fairs this first week of March, a month of
promise.
Coronavirus
didn’t put a damper on the art-weirdo festivities and the artsy sorts all put
on their creatively festooned frocks and went out in droves to celebrate art,
the artists, and the spirit of creativity.
The
rite of going to the fairs can be exhausting, not just physically but also
mentally. What are all of these people thinking? How does it reflect on the
current socio-politico-psychological state of society, our lifestyles, our
outlook at each other and the world? Is art something to facilitate
understanding or to wear like a badge or signifier of status in your pool of
influence?
The
plethora of art New Yorkers was treated to this week (and weekend) becomes
overwhelming to the senses and after a while, everything seems to morph into
one giant abstract, endlessly self-referential canvas.
Images
Of The Week today will look a bit different. We’re inside the white walls. No
street art and graffiti. We thought we’d show you two shows at ends of the art
fair spectrum. The Armory Show is one, and Spring Break is the other.
There
is greatness in both, both serve their audience, and both and have their own
ethos and philosophy and indeed two very different business models. One is 107
years old and one is 11. Both say that they are international, innovative,
and dynamic. One calls
itself ‘premiere’. The other calls itself ‘visionary’.
As always we love getting lost in the maze of galleries, curators, artists, buyers, observers, performers, and attitudes – and being surprised by the art along the way.
Here is a selection of some things that caught our eye, a very different set of images for the week, this week featuring Amina Robinson, Andrew Ohanesian, Asif Hoque, Dorothea Lange, Dustin Lee, Gustavo Diaz, Jessica Lictenstein, Kate Kingbell, Kehinde Wiley, Lezley Saar, Liliana Porter, Pieter Hugo, and Susan MacWilliams.
“Dream Big” or go home, champ. We don’t need any half-solutions today. This alligator with a hidden nature revealed in its’ shadow appears quite prepared to bellow and bite in Gainesville, Florida.
Leon Keer. “Dream Big” Gainesville, Florida. February 2020. (photo and curation by Iryna Kanishcheva)
The Dutch pop surrealist and anamorphic muralist Leon Keer
imagined the scene here with a regional animal archetype and took it for a
spin. The innovative artist always has hidden magic in his works, even if you
don’t realize it the first time you look. So it was an original and slick
decision by the team who invited him and his assistant Massina to paint this
new 20’ x 7’ mural on a retail store.
Shout out to Iryna Kanishcheva, Deborah Butler and Mary
Reichardt for making this project happen.
Leon Keer. “Dream Big” Gainesville, Florida. February 2020. (photo and curation by Iryna Kanishcheva)Leon Keer. “Dream Big” Gainesville, Florida. February 2020. (photo and curation by Iryna Kanishcheva)Leon Keer. “Dream Big” Gainesville, Florida. February 2020. (photo and curation by Iryna Kanishcheva)Leon Keer. “Dream Big” Gainesville, Florida. February 2020. (photo and curation by Iryna Kanishcheva)Leon Keer. “Dream Big” Gainesville, Florida. February 2020. (photo and curation by Iryna Kanishcheva)
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. “Offset” by Nevercrew at Urvanity in Madrid 2. Icy & Sot: “Our house is on fire” By COlabs / Marco Figueroa 3. Said Dokins on Cultura Colectiva
BSA Special Feature: “Offset” by Nevercrew at Urvanity in Madrid
Welcome to BSA Film Friday with a new mural from the Urvanity commercial art fair in Madrid that culls together 30 or so galleries and mounts a public art campaign during the same week. “Offset” by the Swiss muralists called Nevercrew presents a massive pile of bears, one stacked upon the other.
The manner of arrangement of the bears presents creatures of the wild as no more than commodities, in the same way that corporations and countries think they can “purchase” offsets through a surreal trading market where one purchases the right to pollute and kill our atmosphere. In a positive light, the title “Offset” may refer to the practice of biodiversity offsetting, where previous wrongs are righted following a mitigation hierarchy to produce “no net loss” of biodiversity.
Also, bears are really cute.
“Offset” NEVERCREW in Madrid for Urvanity Art Fair 2020
Icy & Sot: “Our house is on fire” By COlabs / Marco Figueroa
The pacing is quick, the reversal of the timeline adds a sense of mystery and mastery to the brothers’ fox-witted ability to communicate horror in a rather elegant way.
The vast expansive character of
climate change is as elusive to visualize in the popular imagination as conceptual
art.
Conversely, conceptual art may prove to be an effective messenger of the immediacy and danger that we are presented with during this quickly maturing threat to life and quality of life called Climate Change.
With the release of new images and video record of “Our House is on Fire”, the Iranian artists Icy and Sot again drive us to the brutal heart of the matter without quite employing brutality. Their firey deconstruction performance leaves nothing, just a quickening of the blood, a sinking of feet into wet concrete. But is has staying power.
Here we are, contemplating the reassuring framework of normality; the structure of the home, sweet home. Now it falls to the ground, as are our previous frameworks for measuring danger.
The video: The pacing is quick, the reversal of the timeline that adds a sense of mystery and mastery to the brothers’ fox-witted ability to communicate horror in a rather elegant way. The static images are sad and unwavering, damnation, a burning bludgeon of warning that goes unheeded.
Set in the California desert, the
brothers say they took inspiration from climate activist Greta Thunberg as she
vilified those who have chased only plunder to bring the Earth to this point.
“I want you to panic. I want
you to act as if your house was on fire,” she says.
“Allowing for the untouched
surrounding nature to be seen between the blazing framework of the house,” says
writer Sasha Bogojev, “the artists suggest looking at the wider picture in
which the Earth is our only home.”
See the new video tomorrow on BSA
Film Friday. Meanwhile, enjoy these exclusive images only for BSA readers.
Puerto Rico, “La Perla del Mar” (The Pearl of the Sea) Or “La Isla Bonita” (The Beautiful Island”) had a huge earthquake on January 7 and many vital services and systems have not been restored, causing 8,000 people to be homeless and 40,000 to camp outside of their homes, according to rescue agencies. The power plant that supplies a quarter of their needs is still shut down.
Given those challenges to humans, you don’t usually think about the animals who live on the island.
But ROA does.
The urban naturalist has long championed the marginalized animals of any culture, and since the Belgian Street Artist has basically made Puerto Rico his second home, it is no surprise that he has painted a number of the island’s animals on run-down, neglected structures to remind neighbors who their neighbors really are.
Globe exploring photographer Martha Cooper was in Puerto Rico for other pursuits this January and managed to meet up with a number of ROA’s more recent friends on her journey.
We were lucky to speak to ROA to ask him about his new pieces and his affinity for the people and climate of Puerto Rico and here we share his responses along with Ms. Coopers’ photos with BSA readers.
BSA: There have been a few major natural disasters in Puerto Rico recently. First the hurricane and most recently the earthquake. What sort of negative impact do these natural disasters have on the fauna in Puerto Rico? Are the resources in Puerto Rico available to help the animal species that are in danger? ROA: Undeniably, the island was hit by the disaster, but to tell exactly how great the impact is on the fauna is difficult to estimate. For example; the local green Puerto Rican parrot that was listed as critically endangered for many years and whereof were only 200 left, most of these were reintroduced in El Yunque Rain Forest as result of a recovery plan, but the hurricane completely blew out the population and we are back to point zero, and almost no PR parrot has been seen in El Yunque since then. Recently I’ve read they released 30 parrots out of captive conservation programs into the El Yunque rainforest.
BSA: Speaking of the impact that natural disasters have on animals, would you say that the largest disaster that animals face is the humans and their disdain for the preservation and the protection of our natural resources?
ROA: Of course, the greatest threat on earth for nature and all animal species, is humanity. Though we are also animals. For example, Puerto Rico: from the moment people arrived on the island the number of animal species declined dramatically and when the Europeans arrived; the original ecosystem became completely destroyed: lost natural habitat and the introduction of cattle, etc.
BSA: Are these new paintings on walls part of a personal project and if so could you talk a bit about it? ROA: My love for Puerto Rico started when I was invited by Alexis Dias en Celso for Los Muros Hablan in 2012. I returned in 2015 for an art residency organized by JUST KIDS in San Juan and this resulted in a very long residency and during that period I painted my first walls on the island and that’s how I got stuck in Puerto Rico, and that’s super great! So, since the beginning, I started to paint around in different places on the island and in San Juan, and this project is naturally grown out of road tripping, painting and meeting Stefan from Elegel in 2018 by painting the Red-Tailed Hawk in Humacao (Grita Walls).
Stefan started helping me with getting around the island and to gather material in order to do this, somewhat a very natural project arose, that now just gets more site-specific over the island in a way that actually ties together all the different places in Puerto Rico where introduced, non-introduced and endangered animals are living, so that’s how we came across the people from “Recursos Naturales y Ambientales’, an organization that saves manatees and sea turtles… so it’s a naturally grown project started out loving being in Puerto Rico, and about being much into road trips!
BSA:For an artist and specifically for you and your work what are the advantages of living in a country with year-round sunshine and nice weather? ROA: I consider Puerto Rico one of the places I call home. I spend time during the year there to relax between certain intense projects and meanwhile, I can go snorkeling, go scuba diving, and paint around any moment of the year. So that’s the advantage of good weather, so it allows you to be and paint outside, so you don’t have to deal with a “winter”, not in a European way where you get obliged to spend much of your time inside, and I am just happier outside.
BSA:Have you found the people in Puerto Rico to be helpful with your work? ROA: Los Muros Hablan, Alexis Dias and Celso, Charlotte from JustKids who brought me here, and now with the help of Stefan Lang (Elegel) and the new art residency, I definitely have felt support in Puerto Rico. Puerto Ricans are very warm and jovial people and it has a unique ambiance.
ELFO. MORTE AL L’ ESTETICA!!! Florence, Italy. (photo Grabriele Masi)
Enough with these figurative studies, these needless sucklings of the romantic ego, these thick gilded frames, these meanderings of hue and saturation and volume and texture and drapery, these idyllic landscapes and soul-wrenching faces and kinetic geometries, these soaring flawed metaphors of grandiosity realized in succulent and fulsome lustful blood red, swollen and bruised purple, capacious blue, auspicious goldenrod.
In fact, death to aesthetics. In Florence, no less.
ELFO. MORTE AL L’ ESTETICA!!! Florence, Italy. (photo Grabriele Masi)
Elfo intends to scrawl upon the walls of the cityscape like a desperate inmate who has lost his will, peaking briefly upward to the wan grey, drained of all expression. His rant is gestural, harried and blunt.
All caps, it reads MORTE AL L’ ESTETICA!!!
The best translation is, I think, “F**k Aesthetics,” he tells us.
ELFO. MORTE AL L’ ESTETICA!!! Florence, Italy. (photo Grabriele Masi)
The Egyptians did it. The Greeks
did it. The Romans did it. Your favorite dive bar has it. The punk club CBGBs was
famous for it, so is Urban Spree in Berlin. It’s worldwide, ancient and
contemporary. Crude, rude, vulgar, vapid, poetic, gestural, artistic,
meandering, succinct.
We’re talking of course of the
practice of writing graffiti in the bathroom. Few know that the museum Urban
Nation actively encourages the furtive aesthetic expressions of visitors. Here
is a survey of the ephemeral graffiti actions caught in progress.
The New York State Plastic Bag Ban is in effect March 1! That’s today.
This is troublesome because New Yorkers have started to use their single use plastic grocery bags to wrap their feet, hands, and entire heads before going outside to protect them from the Coronavirus.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 1Up Crew, Blanca Romero, Captain Eyeliner, Flash, Frank Ape, M Quan, Makh21, Neon Savage, Neckface, Praxis, Pure Genius, RAW, Shiny, The Brujo, Theo, Yiannis Bellis.
Bear
with us, it’s a new installation by Bordallo II
Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)
“This
is the first time I’ve made a polar bear,” says Street Artist Bordallo II, “A
species that, unfortunately, perfectly illustrates the urgency of the
situation.”
That situation of course is that species like the polar bear would be a hell of a lot better off if we weren’t here allowing industry, war, and our own mindless behaviors to kill off their natural habitat.
Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)
More
fitting perhaps for this new installation is that the Portuguese sculptor has created
his new piece on the wall of a school in Nancy, France. Growing there are the minds that will
help us stop, reverse, and restore the natural balance. The kids will
undoubtedly love to see this polar bear and little cubs – a natural scene that
is made of recycled man-made waste.
The
project is spearheaded by the Parisian Mathgoth Gallery, which provided
artistic support for the production. It is part of an ongoing program called
“ADN” (Art Dans Nancy) and joins a series of murals around town by artists like
Jef Aerosol, Kogaone, David Walker, Momo and Vhils.
Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)Bordalo II. Nancy, France. February 2020. (photo courtesy of Mathgoth Gallery)
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening : 1. Bernie Sand Art on NYC Street 2. Welcome to My Colorful World x Okuda San Miguel 3. “When Does Tribute Become Exploitation?” Kobe Murals and Fifth Wall 4. Michael Bloomberg Buys Media, DNC, Presidency. Enjoy! 5. Sorceror Robot Buttigieg Channels Obama Delightfully
BSA Special Feature: Bernie Sand Art on NYC Street
Sand Art is a barometer of populism on the street, so it seemed significant to find that this piece by Joe Mangrum of the Democratic frontrunner Bernie Sanders appeared in NYC in the spring of 2016. Now that Bernie is again polling the highest again against Trump, this little video keeps popping up in our feed for the 2020 race.
Joe Mangrum Creating sand art of Bernie Sanders in NYC’s Washington Square Park.
Welcome to My Colorful World x Okuda San Miguel
The Spanish Street Artist takes another public victory lap for his accomplishments in this new one from Okuda San Miguel.
“When Does Tribute Become Exploitation?” Kobe Murals and Fifth Wall
“Your grief, your pain, your anguish is completely side-stepped because this is a great opportunity,” says Doug Gillem as he imagines the wife and mother who has just lost two of her dearest family in an accident. These are relevant arguments made well by him in the Street Art observer’s newest video “When Does Tribute Become Exploitation.”
As long as we’re looking at politics this week, here are two stunning video pieces on two of the Democratic contenders. Well, actually only the billionaire is a contender anymore. The programmed robotic one, no chance this time.
Michael Bloomberg Buys Media, DNC, Presidency. Enjoy!
But oh the travails of a wandering art prankster. Prior to his trip to Japan, Mr. Lister was wondering if he would learn some rude words in Japanese while in Tokyo…we are certain that his stint in jail gave him opportunity to expand his Japanese vocabulary into something a bit more colorful.
The swashbuckling Lister shares with BSA readers some of his artistic interventions on the streets of Tokyo…quite possibly the cause of his 12 day hoosegow “residency”.
The body as an object. The body as a sexual object. The body objectified.
Combine these notions with soft sculpture in a public space and you will begin to experience Junja Jankovic’s new work in Madrid as we lead up to Urvanity 2020, the newest campaign of contemporary urban art that focuses on galleries and artists working in the public sphere.
The Croatian fine artist studied in Zagreb and New York and lives “on her home island of Lošinj where she runs a screenprint studio and a gallery in an abandoned sardine factory,” she says in her bio. These soft sculptures mimic the digital reality now interacting with city reality – inviting you to be a part of them.
Joining her are Samuel Salcedo’s hyperrealistic and emotional heads, seemingly rolling around Plaza Juan Goytisolo in a possibly disturbing way. The Barcelona born sculpture commands the space, then holds your attention with subtle ironies and humor. You’ve seen these faces before, but not like this.
A third participant in Urvanity’s public show this year is graffiti writer Abel Iglesias and his scattered abstractions applied to the intense weight of a steel cube. Running between Valencia and Barcelona the young experimenter is unhindered by formalism, offering a trip to 90’s Memphis and inflatable pastel motifs of whimsy and geometry. This perplexing form in dark solitude brings a new gravity to an often floating oeuvre of Iglesias.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
