All posts tagged: Jaime Rojo

WK Interact Honors NYC Firefighters with Block Long Mural

September 21, 2011 Artists

Veteran New York Street Artist WK Interact has been depicting the rush and clamor and violence of the streets of New York since the 80s. With stark black and white imagery that captures and distorts the action layered with precise mechanical renderings and computerized symbology, WK creates a portrait of the kinetic chaos of the life on the street and delivers it back.

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

His new project installed in Brooklyn on 9/9/11 commemorates the events marked citywide 2 days later, when WK watched our streets convulse. With 10 years distance, the memory is just as close as ever for some, including firefighters who plunged themselves into the disaster instead of running from it. While WK is highly gifted verbally, he is most powerful when he uses his Street Art to talk about the impact of that day and pays tribute here to those firefighters while looking at the disaster. “Project Brave” is not his work in solitary – WK did this in partnership with the Yonkers Fire Department and the support of the Fire Commissioner Anthony Pagano and his Deputy Chief William Fitzpatrick and other firefighters in the city.

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The huge installation expanse alludes to the overwhelming nature of the events and gives viewers the opportunity to contemplate the loss of firefighters and the people they left. Without musty museum stilted pomp, this modern depiction casts the events in a contemporary context fitting for the times; one more example of the contribution that Street Art can make to the culture and life of the city.

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

(all photos copyright Jaime Rojo)

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See our 2 part interview from September 2009 with WK Interact;

The 25 Year War: WK Interact in New York, Part 1 : Brooklyn Street Art

The 25 Year War: WK Interact in New York, Part 2 : Brooklyn Street Art

DADT is History. Street Artist TesOne Marks The Occasion

September 20, 2011 Artists

Hypocrisy of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” Finally Laid to Rest

Street Artist TesOne just completed a brand new painting titled “Honesty is the Best Policy” to celebrate the repeal of the highly unjust Clinton-era policy toward gays and lesbians serving the US military, discriminating against it’s own citizens for 17 years. Released on this historic day, TesOne’s new piece is pretty funny and heartwarming, to tell the truth.

Explains the artist, “Honesty is the Best Policy” is a painting I just completed honoring the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. While there is still a lot of work to do on that front, I think any step towards equality is worth celebrating.”

It’s also worth noting that the sentiment of “Just Married” shown here, while appropriate, draws attention to the fact that the military and all federal agencies DO NOT recognize gay marriage, thanks to another Clinton-era invention, The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). No matter which state has legalized gay marriage, the federal government does not extend the same rights to married gays and lesbians, including the spouses of armed service members.

TesOne “Honesty is the Best Policy” (Image © courtesy of the artist)

Learn more at TESONE.net

M.City in M. City : Polish Stencillist in Mexico

September 20, 2011 Artists, Mexico, Museum

MAMUTT Arte and the Antique Toy Museum of Mexico (MUJAM) are continuing in their quest to invite the emerging slate of Street Art talents of today to bomb big time in their beloved Mexico City (D.F.). Last month Polish Street Artist M-City did 6 pieces to accompany the existing pieces by ROA, Liqen, Broken Crow, Koko, and Dronz among others.

Invited by Gonzalo Alvarez of MAMUUT, here are exclusive images of the creation of M-City working on his piece in Mexico City, where the large scale stencillist shared sketches of his work in progress with some local fans of his work.

Read our interview with M-City when he was in frozen New York in January 2010 here.

M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

The orange scaffolding is a great contrast to the graphic new piece going up by M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

M-City has a stylized stencil tag. (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

A broken skate deck becomes a perfect canvas for M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

Afloat in the wheels and cogs of industry. M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

Evidently, the feeling is mutual. M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

New M-City pieces proudly displayed. (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

The finished collaged stencil piece by M-City (photo © Gonzalo Alvarez)

Living Walls : Albany Roundup

September 19, 2011 Albany, Artists, new york, On the Street

RECAP – BSA and Living Walls : Albany

This weekend in Albany very important Street Art presentations were made at the New York State Museum during “Living Walls: Albany”, including one from Street Art duo Broken Crow, pictured here in custom made aluminum foil head gear that reflected light rays all around the Clark Auditorium.

Mike has the remote for the Powerpoint show in his right antenna. Broken Crow at the New York State Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There were so many moving parts in this large and easy going cultural festival this weekend, and we were really happy to meet so many people in the street, at the Marketplace encampment, in St. Joseph’s Church, at the tile factory, and during our keynote lecture at the New York State Museum Saturday. Thanks to Samson Contompasis for asking BSA to partner with him for LWAlbany and a quick shout out to other local partners James Shultis at Grand Street Community Arts, Sivan Shimoni, the staff at NYS Museum, and local blogger KC Orcutt at KeepAlbanyBoring.com along with photographers Andrew Franciosa, Bob Anderson, MC3, Frank Whitney, and Ken Jacobie. Also big ups to Monica Compana, who c0-spearheaded Living Walls Atlanta, which we covered a lot when it began last year. For all the locals mentioned, they are just the tip of the iceberg of a large committed creative and professional community in the Upstate New York region who helped to pull this thing off with almost zero dollars and tons of planning and hustling. For the first year, it is/was a major achievement.

Broken Crow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of course our main focus is always the Street Artists and the creative spirit that is alive and well on the streets so it was a total honor to see the artists and see brand new stuff going up, like the last one before catching a train last night – Broken Crow’s ram under a bridge. There are still some pieces being finished by NohJColey, Clown Soldier, Doodles, and one we missed from Michael DeFeo. Also coming up should be Hellbent and possibly some other artists this fall, so we’ll get back to you on that. Not all these pics are from Living Walls : Albany by the way — when you are combing the streets you find all kinds of stuff you didn’t expect.

Check out all BSA coverage on the archive page here.

Broken Crow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

White Cocoa (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Doodles at work on his wall. He explained to BSA that it will eventually contain 5 frames of a figure gradually being crushed under a backpack, which he will shake himself from and run into the wild. It’s meant to symbolize the fears and problems that can accumulate in life and our need to shake the “baggage” if possible. — and some more esoteric descriptors that we can tell you about if you want to know. Stay tuned for the finished piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Doodles at work on his wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Doodles wall in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey at work on his wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake, Infinity (photo © Jaime Rojo)

(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder next to an old Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clown Soldier (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Michael DeFeo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Radical (photo © Jaime Rojo)

N’DA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Take your own tour this fall with the Living Walls : Albany MAP

Images of the Week 09.18.11, during Living Walls : Albany

September 18, 2011 Albany, Artists, Events, new york, On the Street

For the last 10 months this initiative to bring Street Art and public art to the forefront of the conversation in New York’s capital has been a boon to discourse, unusual during a period of retrenchment and an ongoing financial crises that is rocking every segment of society in the US. After years of incremental cuts to arts programming in public schools and cultural institutions at every level, it is a perfect opportunity for artists to re-assert their voices as this Street Art movement continues to evolve and develop in an organic way. Ironically this scene with roots in graffiti has shape-shifted and its emergence looks like a democratic movement, messily yet constructively filling a creative void for this new generation while the budgetary axes continue to fall around them.

As Street Artists have been installing their new works on walls around Albany these past 10 days or so, the common story one witnesses is the level of engagement of adults and kids stopping on the sidewalk, in their cars, watching the process, photographing and discussing the art, and exploring the creative process. Some folks have even become assistants to the artists, creating a sense of ownership, and yes, community. There is obviously more to this evolving story, and we’ll continue to track it.

Below are photos from photographer Jaime Rojo to give you an idea of the wealth of creativity that is alive in Albany at the moment. And we commence with our weekly interview with the street this week featuring Broken Crow, Chris Stain, Gaia, How and Nosm, Joe Iurato, LNY, Nanook, ND’A, NohJColey, OverUnder, Radical! ROA, Shin Shin, and Wing. First, we go to church with Joe Iurato.

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gaia and Nanook (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey made one of his most expansive and eclectic sculptural installations yet inside St. Joseph’s church. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NohJColey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Broken Crow called a quorum of penquins to hold a discussion on weighty topics of the day . (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Broken Crow worked overnight and completed this elk downtown on Mikes birthday this week. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Broken Crow is literally stopping traffic on Second Avenue with this powerful stencilled piece. People are jumping out to take pictures of this and question what it might symbolize. The puncturing of the foreground plain with the spilling of “blood” from the carcass is a temporary and powerful effect that will last only until winter. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Broken Crow (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A bird in the hand from GAIA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Birds of a different feather from Street Artist Radical (photo © Jaime Rojo)

N’DA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

How and Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shin Shin and Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Radical (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This new large scale mural created by Street Artist Chris Stain is at the entrance of the New York State Museum, where many presentations and symposia have been taking place since Friday under the “Living Walls : Albany” auspices. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Work in Progress :How and Nosm and Overunder at “Living Walls: Albany”

September 17, 2011 Artists

Industry! The city of Albany is percolating with painters and wheat-pasters on walls all over the place as “Living Walls : Albany” is in full effect, causing people in neighborhoods to stop and talk and discuss the works that are happening before their eyes. Here are a couple in-progress scenes with German twins How & Nosm on a lift beginning their new mural Friday afternoon after arriving from Miami, where they completed new work for Wynwood Walls. Also we were excited to have spent some time seeing OverUnder working with a local tile maker and two new assistants from the neighborhood mixing up mortar and slapping those newly cut tiles to the wall. So much industry, so much excitement, and so many one way streets – including the one which earned us an interview with the police and a fancy new traffic ticket! It’s never a dull moment with the Street Art scene, but you can always be assured of a good show.

How and Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder with his assistants Roberto and Messiah (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato Transending at “Living Walls : Albany”

September 16, 2011 Artists

Street Artist Joe Iurato went to church yesterday at St. Joseph’s in Albany, where a number of street artists have been putting together some great work this week. These pieces are floated in front of the walls, rather than painted directly on them out of respect for the original building, an the effect immediately makes the hallowed spaces of organized religion feel more relevant than seeing the Pope on a skateboard.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-copyright-Joe-Iurato-Church-1

Explains Joe, “Man, wait til you guys see this place. The architecture is magnificent and in a perfect state of decay. I’m not a very religious person, but I take a great interest in faith and trying to understand where it comes from. Every now and then there’s a moment where I truly get it – and I swear I catch a glimpse of something I’d otherwise tell you isn’t really there. That’s what this felt like to me, and I felt completely privileged to put these pieces up. “

Brooklyn-Street-Art-copyright-Joe-Iurato-Church-2

images © Joe Iurato

Overunder and Broken Crow at “Living Walls : Albany”

September 16, 2011 Artists

Words by KC Orcutt

Images by Andrew Franciosa and MC3

Overunder is a firecracker. From my initial participation in witnessing the Living Walls unfold in Albany, he has been nothing but a friendly and tireless ball of creative energy (in the best way possible) showing me parts of the city I grew up in that I didn’t even know existed on Google maps of places he’s been exploring. As a first time visitor adapting to the town, we joked about him about being able to give directions better than I, myself, could as a local.

Overunder (photo © Andrew Franciosa)

Overunder has work installed currently at the Marketplace Gallery and his pieces have been sprinkled throughout Albany, such as one gem tucked away in the South End sharing a building with Broken Crow. His portraits are as engaging as the quirky characteristics of each building or wall themselves, picking up on elements of the city (such as painting people that he’s met during his stay here) and his attention to detail in his work brings out new characteristic aspects of walls that otherwise would have continued to blend in unnoticed with the city’s surroundings.

Overunder’s pieces are as conversational as the artist himself and his work has breathed fresh air into these community spaces. Just judging off of our several conversations over the past week, I’d say it’s a safe bet to make that he has more tricks up his sleeve and more work will surface as the weekend draws closer.

Overunder (photo © Andrew Franciosa)

Overunder (photo © MC3)

Broken Crow (photo © Andrew Franciosa)

Broken Crow (photo © Bob Anderson)

Street Artist ROA and a Dead Squirrel for Living Walls : Albany

September 16, 2011 Albany, Artists, Events, new york, On the Street

Words by KC Orcutt

Photos by MC3 and Andrew Franciosa

Within moments of ROA’s arrival on site to his designated building for “Living Walls : Albany,” he spotted a recently departed squirrel, took it as a sign and it became quite clear what he was going to do next.

The squirrel population in Albany is (somewhat) jokingly of a “different” breed – they are as tough as they are territorial, while still somehow managing a natural presence and a non-intrusive interactivity with passer-bys. Squirrels are everywhere in Albany, making it a more-than-fitting subject for ROA’s large-scale contribution to the Living Walls project.

ROA (photo © MC3)

Cosmically or maybe even comically enough, as ROA was working up in the lift adding detail to the animal laying on its back, a man associated with the building’s owner shared an anecdote of how a couple years back a pesky squirrel’s nest almost resulted in the same building burning down, with firefighters called to the scene and all.

During ROA’s time creating the piece, people stopped by to inquire more about the wall and what was going on, with many lingering on the “why a squirrel” question.

“People are bored with simple messages,” said ROA “they want something deeper.”

With the inspiration of the piece still laying off to the side, ROA entertained the public’s curiosities with a grin saying, “Its for you to figure out if it’s dead or alive and the meaning behind it. It’s a very simple message – just a squirrel on it’s back,” as another onlooker proudly repeated his take on ROA’s work in succession, “that symbolizes something!”

Fun Friday 09.16.11

September 16, 2011 Artists

FIRST, THE WEATHER FOR TODAY

Wooooo Hoooooooo! It’s Friday in Brooklyn! Great news in the mailbox from the postman this morning about a big Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum this April “Keith Haring: 1978-1982”. Guess it was meant to coincide with the big “Art in the Streets” exhibit that was moving from LA MOCA to Brooklyn in 2012 but was cancelled recently. That’s okay, we still get Keith, a patron saint of Street Art. And we are completely convinced that “Art in the Streets” will be coming to New York, so don’t be surprised.

Living Walls : Albany This Friday Saturday Sunday in New York’s Capital City

BSA has been partnering with Living Walls : Albany to bring you the new Street Art and other stuff and today is the official kick off day, coinciding with a big Fall festival Albany has every year. Props go to Samson Contompasis for his unwavering commitment to artists and the creative spirit.

Yo, check the archive to see all the BSA coverage http://mim.io/5e3391 . Also follow the Twitter Feed at @LivingWallsALB . The list of participating Street Artists includes How & Nosm , Chris Stain ,Gaia, Cake ,Michael DeFeo, Broken Crow, Over/Under, Nanook, Jon Burgerman ,Veng, Depoe, Radical!, White Cocoa ,Evereman Scott, Michael Ackerman, Uneek, Clown Soldier, Marcus Anderson, Joe Iurato ,Papertwins, Jacqueline Brickman ,VRNO , Hellbent, ROA ,Gregory Maxwell, Dunn II, YARK, Army of One, Deacon Czar

Saturday, September 17th
Located in the Clark Auditorium of the New York State Museum

3:30-4:45PM
KEYNOTE LECTURE
“Street Art Stories: A New Direction on the Street”
Presented by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of Brooklyn Street Art

In Street Arts’ latest chapter, the storytellers are hitting up walls with all manner of influences and methods. More than ever before, formally trained and self taught fine artists are skipping the gallery route and taking their work directly to the public, creating cultural mash-ups and highly personal stories of their own, altering the character of this scene once again. Eclectic, individual, and as D.I.Y. as you can imagine, these Street Artists may have knowledge of who came before them or not, but they are determined to be a part of one art scene that is perceived as authentic, relevant, and alive.

Join Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, authors (“Brooklyn Street Art”, and “Street Art New York”, published by Prestel/Random House) and founders of Brooklyn Street Art (BrooklynStreetArt.com) and contributing Street Art writers for The Huffington Post ARTS, as they show and compare examples of work from New York’s streets today. Then join a lively discussion in a Q&A session to help explore this storytelling practice and discuss how it may be evolving what we have been calling “Street Art” for the last decade.

Hosted by “Living Walls : Albany”, Samson Contompasis, Director, and Grand Street Community Arts, James Shultis, Executive Director.

Mexican Street Artist KRAKEN at Hold Up Gallery (LA)

KRAKEN’s solo show “Fantasmas” this on Saturday:

For more information regarding this show please click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=24457

NECKFACE at New Image Art (LA)

Isn’t that nice? Neckface and his fine feathered friend “Fuck Life” have a dainty little show at New Image Art this weekend in West Hollywood. Bring your Barbies!

For more information regarding this show click on the link below:

http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=23978

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Thanks to JUXTAPOZ for showing us the Tom Hanks Weather report GIF. See more of their GIF collection HERE.

Clown Soldier, Wing, Shin Shin, NohJColey, N’DA at “Living Walls : Albany”

September 15, 2011 Albany, Artists, Events, Features, new york, On the Street

A Special Report

Words by KC Orcutt

Photos by Bob Anderson

With Marketplace Gallery transformed into what is best classified as a sleep away art camp — complete with scattered sleeping arrangements, wheat pastes hung up on the gallery walls ready to greet the outside world, in progress portraits of some of the participating artists by White Cocoa and a healthy buzz of street art-fueled conversations late into the night — the past couple of days and nights have blurred together leading up to the debut of the Living Walls project in Albany, officially launching this weekend.

Away from the hustle and creation taking place both in the street, at the gallery and St. Joseph’s church, a conductor of sorts sits under a bridge in Rensselaer at the Art Park, overlooking Albany. The piece, as created by Clown Soldier, puts a figure in command of the happenings of the city from a detached control station. One can’t help but picture the happenings in Albany in relation to the Living Walls as beneath the futuristic bubble Clown Soldier created. The tag line that organically manifested surrounding the Living Walls in Albany — “This Is Happening In Your City” — is setting in.

Kitty corner to the Clown Soldier piece is another Living Wall where Shin Shin and Wing collaborated under the massive support of the bridge in Rensselaer. The pair got to work using a bright palate environmentally fitting for the open industrial space, creating a natural and whimsical balance on the surface of the bridge’s support.

NohJColey, Depoe and N’DA also got down in Rensselaer, working over the course of several days on large-scale pieces, bordering existing (and aging) public murals, while also bouncing in between St. Joe’s church, where Living Walls installations are coming into form from a multitude of artists, local and beyond.

N’DA and NohJColey lend a hand to Shin Shin with the installation of one of her Golden Trees at St. Joe’s Church (photo © Bob Anderson)

Cell Phone Snap : Broken Crow + Wolves Feasting on a Carcass

September 14, 2011 Artists

Is this a metaphor for the rich feasting on the US economy? Or just the Macy’s One Day Sale? Here’s a quick cell phone snap of the new piece by Broken Crow at Living Walls : Albany, complete with blood slopping across the field of yellow flowers. More to come soon.

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