All posts tagged: jean michel basquiat

Jef Aerosol in NYC: New Basquiat Stencil The First Icon of His Visit

One week from his debut solo show in New York, internationally known Street Artist Jef Aerosol showed his love for NYC with a large stencil tribute to one of Street Art’s recognized inspirations, Jean-Michel Basquiat. From some of the newest kids on the scene to guys like Aerosol, who has about 30 years in the game, it’s remarkable how Basquiat’s artistic legacy has such magnetism and a clout across the field.

Jef Aerosol

Setting up the first piece of stencil with the Empire State Building in the background. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click on any image to see a larger version. All images copyrighted by Jaime Rojo.

Jef Aerosol

Little wind means little chance of stencil pieces blowing into the river. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For the first piece he’s done since arriving in the city this week, Aerosol picked an elevated roof spot a short walk from the location where the graffiti-influenced expressionist painter had his studio in Brooklyn. About 3 meters high and 4 wide, the three-layer stencil didn’t give him much trouble since there wasn’t much wind on the roof.

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Not a product endorsement, but yes that is Montana Gold. Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On a partially sunny day that was pretty mild for NYC in January, Aerosol seemed stunned by the experience at one point. “I’ve painted in many cities around the world, but there are only a couple that can move me in such a way as New York does. Even while I was creating this piece today, my mind was wandering and I was reflecting on how really luck I feel to be here, ” remarked Aerosol.

Maybe that is why he picked one of Basquiat’s quotes to write alongside the portrait, “I don’t think about art when I’m working. I try to think about life.”

Jef Aerosol

A ghost-like Jean-Michel emerges. Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

A little extra up top makes it drip in that way people are rocking right now. Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

The signature arrow being cut. Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Using his trademark colors and the red arrow, Aerosol seems to have updated his signature style with a fair amount of dripping paint this time out.

Jef Aerosol

Signed and dated, a new piece done. Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jef Aerosol

Jean-Michel Basqiat, by Jef Aerosol (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“All Shook Up”, Aerosol’s show at Ad Hoc Gallery will be next Friday. More details HERE.

Read more
NohJColey’s Plush Life: Intricate Wordplay and Carefully Rendered Humanity

NohJColey’s Plush Life: Intricate Wordplay and Carefully Rendered Humanity

A talented Street Artist Schools BSA about his work.

“Good readers make good writers”.

Truey trueness truthfully told by my true-friend Jodi. Which is why one summer I read a stack of Jimmy Peabody’s Mad magazines that he kept hidden under his bed, along with a few dog-eared copies of Penthouse and Playboy.  See what all that reading did for me?  I write on a blog for 17 readers and my mom.  Once somebody taps into the creative spirit, there are no limits to where it will take them.

Three of his biggest influences; Dali, Basquiat, and Time (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Three of his biggest influences hover over NohJColey while he works; Dali, Basquiat, and Time (photo Steven P. Harrington)

You can take that advice any way you want, but thinking about the path that NohJColey has taken, it’s ringing true.

NohJColey wants to be a great something. He just winces at every label you offer up, but don’t be put off by it.  We’ll be very bold and say “Artist”.  He’s been a graffiti artist, a street artist, and a fine artist. To become a great artist, he practices self-education and discipline. With an agile mind and inquisitive nature, he does a great deal of due-diligence; history, background, planning, experimentation and practicing of technique. Then he starts the piece, frequently a personal story or a social commentary of some kind.

jj

A recent Ebay shopping trip netted a selection of vintage artist technique books. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

In fact, so much goes on inside NohJ’s head in the preparation of his work that a viewer may never completely appreciate the final product. That’s okay, he may not intend it to be understood either.  He doesn’t lose too much sleep over it, either way.  He stays up all night working at a kitchen table with a picture of Salvador Dali and one of Jean-Michel Basquiat on the wall staring down on him, but be assured that he’s not worrying.  He’s just working.

Kutztown's Favorite by Nohj Coley (photo Nohj Coley)

“Kutztown’s Favorite” by Nohj Coley (photo Nohj Coley)

“Kutztown’s Favorite” was the first image BSA posted on the “Images of the Week” feature. Not that big a deal for you, I’m sure. If it was a big deal for you, I would worry. But when I consider  that image I think about why BSA loves street art; at it’s best it is a celebration of the creative spirit, wherever you can access it. It seems unlimited.

In this case it was a tribute to Keith Haring, an artist who was doing what could later be classified “Street Art” in NYC in the ’80s.  The creative spirit that Haring had tapped into 25 years earlier was like a radio frequency or satellite transmission from the creative gods – Haring tapped into it and ran with it, not consulting with experts, anointed, self-proclaimed or otherwise.  To see that somebody was doing a street tribute in a distinctly different style all these years later was very notable.

You don’t have to totally understand NohJ’s work to appreciate it, and that’s a good thing because it may take some studying at Noh J High School to get it.  Some times you have to go slow for certain students, so BSA recently took some summer remedial classes with Professor Coley in the studio.  August was dragging on outside the window and other kids were playing on the jungle gym, but in school, between the endless chain of cigarettes and the loud air conditioner and the louder Thelonius Munk and Charlie Parker, we think it was completely Edutaining.

NohJColey in his home studio.

NohJColey in his home studio. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Buddies called him “Stiffy” when he was out doing teen rollerblader tricks because NohJ didn’t do diamondz. For that matter he wasn’t even smooth.  But he defends his skills as an aggressive rollerblader, “I was a pretty good skater, though. Learning how to fall, that’s the key to skating. But I didn’t have the moves. It’s hard to worry about style when you don’t want to die!  I would get hurt sometimes badly.  Those days are over”.  Lesson learned.

He used to be a graff writer too, hanging out with the 333 Crew, and his tag was Motive for a while. In the mid-1990s he raced from high school in the afternoon to hang out at the Phun Factory, an aerosol Mecca in Queens for graffiti writers run by a guy named Pat DiLillo, who had worked out a deal with the landlord to let graffiti artists go wild on the walls and practice and teach without fear of breaking the law. Pat had been a professional graffiti buffer until he fell in love with talented work and became a huge proponent, clearing the way for what eventually became 5 Pointz, directed by Meres.

Pat even got NohJ into a show at P.S.1 in 1999 with people whose skills he admired – “It was Iz the Wiz, I’m pretty sure it was Elite, Slam4, Spec, and me. The real piecers were of course IZ, Bisc, and Elite.  I was Motive 333 – I didn’t actually go to the show. We were sitting across the street ”

"Egalitarian Quench", Oil pastel, stencil, painters tape and acrylic paint on paper pasted on discarded lumber. by NohJColey (photo Steven P. Harrington)

“Egalitarian Quench”, Oil pastel, stencil, painters tape and acrylic paint on paper pasted on discarded lumber, by NohJColey (photo Steven P. Harrington)

He’s not thinking that he has the graff thing licked, but he’s moving on to other things these days.  Some people are calling it street art.  His linotype prints are usually portraits of people he has known or studied about and his text stickers have puzzling word combinations and phrases.

Brooklyn Street Art: So what’s important to you?
NohJColey: Accomplishing stuff. Not being swayed by others’ opinions. Being original. Being true to myself. Family is important, learning is important. Everything is kind of important. Fashion isn’t important

Brooklyn Street Art: Politics?
NohJColey: Of course, that has to be important.

Brooklyn Street Art: Music?
NohJColey: Yeah of course, that is really important.

Brooklyn Street Art: Basquiat?
NohJColey: Yeah he was important to me at some time but not really anymore.

Brooklyn Street Art: Why was he important before?
NohJColey: Probably just because of his lifestyle.  He kind of lived precariously. The way he spoke to people.

Basquiat at 19 years (a still from the movie “Downtown 81”)

The choices of words for NohJ’s stickers are directly influenced by another artist of the late ‘70s and early ‘80s who transferred his graff writing directly into his fine arts canvasses, Jean-Michel Basquiat.  Writing on the street as SAMO, Basquiat created stuff that looked like pointed non-sequitors, or abbreviated observations that confused and attracted fans.

“I think he always will be important to me just because of the things he wrote like ‘Plush Safe He Think’, or ‘Jimmy Best on his back to the suckerpunch of the world’ (some sources report it was actually Jimmy Best/ On his back/ To the suckerpunch/ Of his childhood files) – stuff like that is the reason I do stickers because it’s a way of basically saying your piece and not having to listen to what anyone else’s input is on the subject. You can basically tell everyone without actually having to tell people individually.  Like stopping people and saying ‘You’re a closet racist’.”

photographs-jean-michael-basquiat-lee-jaffe-1

NohJ’s sticker text is strongly influenced by the writing style of Brooklyn-born Basquiat. This is a recently released image of Jean-Michel Basquiat by photographer Lee Jaffe.

What? Okay, now I think I get it. These cryptic stickers are a sublimation of true feelings and opinions that NohJ understands, but the reader may not.

Brooklyn Street Art: So it’s a direct-indirect way of addressing issues?
NohJColey: Yep.  Even though it’s bad because it isn’t as personal as I would like it to be, but…

The image came from a sketch of his nephew (photo Jaime Rojo)

The image came from a sketch of his nephew (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: So, about that text that you put on stickers, can you describe a little bit about how you arrive at the choices?
NohJColey: Like I did a sticker that said, “Adolescent Racists Present Parental Perspectives” – Basically it refers to young kids that I see around who are racist because of their parents. It’s not something natural. It has nothing to do with the kid’s choice but if you go into their household he’s going to hear certain terms and attitudes. People just get labels.  Like somebody talking about Mexicans, and a Mexican woman who has seven children, and then they talk about whether the health care system should support them; and it’s like, you don’t even know this person, you know?  This person actually owns a restaurant and they came here with nothing in their pockets. And her husband actually went to a prestigious college and had a high GPA.  And people are judging a book by its cover.

On the wall, one of NohJ's earlier fine art pieces, "Children of the Wrong" (photo Steven P. Harrington)

On the wall, one of NohJ’s earlier fine art pieces, “Children of the Wrong”  (photo Steven P. Harrington)

NohJ talks about another sticker, “ ‘Observe Hands’ is different – it’s about reading someone’s mind. Like looking at someone’s hands in conversation. And noticing their reactions like picking their nail could be an indication that someone is nervous. Or like someone rubbing their leg, could mean they are bored, or not interested in what they are doing right now.”

The individual pieces that NohJColey creates on large linoleum blocks are surrealist applications of recognizable components into realist line-drawn portraiture.  The components can be literal or metaphorical, and always autobiographical. The piece is usually has a murky title that perplexes in the same way as the sticker text. When the linoleum piece isn’t enough, NohJ combines painstaking lace-like geometric cutouts arranged on top of or beside them.

The original plate of Sace (photo Steven P. Harrington)

The original plate of Sace (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Brooklyn Street Art: So can you talk about the series that you’ve begun, that started with an image of Dash Snow?
NohJColey: Yeah it’s the “Sprayed in Stone” series. I’m basically just trying to solidify these graffiti writers names a bit more.  After someone passes everyone mourns because this person’s gone, and everyone forgets about it. Like maybe a few times a year someone might look at their photograph but it’s not the same as actually seeing this person like proportionally. Like you can walk up to this piece, the Dash Snow piece, and it’s pretty much the same size (as he was). I never met him but I’m guess that he was that size.  It’s kind of a little larger because I wanted him to be more prominent. That’s kind of what it’s about. You never really know what a graffiti artist looks like so that is another reason why I wanted to do a portrait of him.  A person passes away and you are not given another chance to see them at the same size that they were.

NohJ Coley Detail

A detail of NohJ Coley  shows limbs made of a paint roller, markers, ladders, cans, etc. (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: And yet you render the figure with non-human limbs and other elements, so you are not really bringing back a true replica of the person.  Where did those come from?
NohJColey: The spray can of course was a tool he would use, and the markers as well.  The fire-extinguisher shirt – you know like a like a lot of graffiti writers use fire extinguishers to do enormous tags on sides of buildings.  I guess they are just things he would use as a graffiti artist. Like the spray can coming from his neck.

Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah it’s surrealistic. And this is the first of the series of three?
NohJColey: It’ll be three. The problem with this series is that I’m not able to take photographs of the artist, which to me really hinders the work – because it would be a way better piece.  I don’t even like to work from someone else’s eye but they passed on so I’ve gotta use what there is.

Brooklyn Street Art: Right, you didn’t actually have a picture of Dash Snow?
NohJColey: No I didn’t. I used someone’s picture.

NohJ created an amalgam of images first before drawing the Tie One image on the linoleum block. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

NohJ created an amalgam of images first before drawing the Tie One image on the linoleum block. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Brooklyn Street Art: And who’s next in line in the series?
NohJColey: It’s Jonathan See Lim AKA Tie One

NohJ Coley Detail

NohJ Coley Detail

Brooklyn Street Art: So tell me about Tie One.
NohJColey: Yeah he was from San Francisco. He was shot in the Tenderloin by William Porter. And he was basically climbing up on the roof. He went there to do a graffiti spot on St. Patrick’s Day. It’s kind of also like – I don’t really want to shed too much light on a graffiti artist faults in life. Whether he was vandalizing, even though that’s what graffiti is…I know that. It’s more about the strides in this persons’ life that he took. Like Tie was 18 when he passed away. And Iz The Wiz, who is the third person in the series, he was like the king of the trains, you know.

The ink is still wet on this just finished 3rd installment in the "Sprayed In Stone" series, Iz the Wiz, by NohJColey

The ink is still wet on this just finished 3rd installment in the “Sprayed In Stone” series, Iz the Wiz, by NohJColey

Brooklyn Street Art: Did you ever hang out with Iz the Wiz?
NohJColey: No I never got a chance to meet him but I remember Pat DeLilo telling me a bunch of stories about him.  Iz was always sick even in those days when I was hanging out there. Wow, ten years.  That’s why I’m glad I did that show with him when I was young.

The original study for

The original study for “Nothing=Obtained” by NohJColey

Brooklyn Street Art: What about the final work of “Nothing=Obtained” – how did you get that? Can you talk about your process? How did you get that multi-armed creature?
NohJColey: Basically I just had my ex-girlfriend pose. This one I just saw before I did it. I already knew what I was going to do.  It was just basically figuring a way in which to place each arm so it sort of made sense.

NohJColey

NohJColey (photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Does the placement of the arms indicate something about her personality?
NohJColey: Well when she walks in a room you pretty much feel her presence.  She’s kind of like pulling her head back like she’s stressed out. The mouth is like she’s in awe, her eyes are open because she’s just noticing a bunch of opportunities and then like her grabbing herself because of stress. And this one is her bracing herself.

Brooklyn Street Art: And the words “Nothing = Obtained”?
NohJColey: She never accomplishes the goal, you know? She never gets to the end result. Everything is always left open. There is no conclusion. Like nothing is ever obtained. Like she says she’s trying to change that but it’s not really evident to me.  But whatever.

(Nohj Coley) (photo Jaime Rojo)

(photo Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You did another piece last year that was about a cousin of yours?
NohJColey: “Uncondition(al) Solace”?
Brooklyn Street Art: Huh?
NohJColey: Like I try to separate letters sometimes, so you can use the letters different ways.

Brooklyn Street Art: Okay so tell me the story behind that one. You told me about her going into a hospital room to see your aunt.
NohJColey: That piece is about a cousin of mine – I went to see her mother, my aunt, because she had a stroke. And like the right side of her body is paralyzed. To see a person go from walking through a doorway to rolling through a doorway on a stretcher is bad. She doesn’t really react to anything except to her daughter, my cousin. And the piece is her holding up a banner that says “Solace” because I feel like once she walked into the room, my aunt lit up. My cousin is the only one that puts a smile on her face. So that is why I made the piece so that my aunt can look at her daughter whenever she’s awake.

Brooklyn Street Art: You are making your stuff on paper and wheat paste, which means it disappears in about five rainstorms. Then it’s gone, but you put a lot of work into it.
NohJColey: Yeah it’s ephemeral. That’s a good thing about it. It has a life of it’s own and you can’t control it. That’s another reason I like it. You can’t control it. You put it out there and it’s free, you don’t have a leash on it, like a pet.

Read more
The 25 Year War: WK Interact in New York, Part 1

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

A quarter of a century since falling in love with New York, WK looks at his route.

WK Interact was 8 years old, spending hours drawing on old floor plans. On the job with his father, even then he buried himself in his work while Dad rushed around giving orders at his interior design worksites in the south of France.  A few years later, his drawings came alive with movement as he hung out all day in dance schools watching young bodies fly across the floor.  Once more his style catapulted forward the day he discovered how to stretch and animate a figure just by dragging it across the glass of a photocopier.  Action. Captured.

Without question, his love of the street, of art, and wild motion fully materialized and went on steroids when WK first laid eyes on monstrous, convulsing New York City. He was 16. He was blown away, frightened, and excited. Two years later, he gave into the magnetic pull of New York’s raw power.

“I remember I went downstairs and I said to my parents, ‘You know what, I am going to New York’, and my parents said ‘But why, what for? Are you going to be able to get a good job? Why do you have to go to a place where you don’t even speak English?’,” he remembers. A great struggle took place but he left for the United States anyway, alone for the first time. That’s when WK’s war began, almost a quarter of a century ago, on these streets.  And he won.

c

(image WK Interact)

If his work on the street is an indication, it has been a constant state of war. Look at these images and themes that reappear in WK’s work since he first came to New York; Ever-present fear, violence, anxiety, overheated sex-play, fishnets & firearms, contorted figures racing, martial arts kicks to the head, hand-to-hand combat, boxers swinging, prisoners tied and bound, hooded figures snapping heads of bound businessmen, terrifying escapes in progress, maniacal twined and twisted forms and faces, propaganda, undercover spies, official seals, gun assembly diagrams, digitized labels, ID fingerprints, cameras, surveillance, camouflage, radioactive symbols, streaming codes and bureaucratic text passages, black military choppers hovering overhead, contorted soldiers screaming “bring me back”, a permanent state of survivalism… All of these hellacious visions collide and collapse and expand in continuous motion and interaction almost exclusively in black and white in wheat pastes, paintings, screen prints, photographs, sculpture, and performance installations on the street.

(image WK Interact)

(image WK Interact)

You may think that some of this work is vaguely autobiographical, but for WK, all of this work is simply a reflection of the city he chose and the atmosphere here. “New York is extremely demanding and challenging”, he says, “If you do something sexy in the street in New York you are in trouble. If you do something violent, people will give you the thumbs up!”

In other words, he’s playing to the audience in this particular city and unfortunately it may give an inaccurate impression of WK, the person, “I’ll just say this; My work, the people always see one thing – fear, attack, violence.  They have absolutely no clue of the other side.  I don’t think they are ignorant.  My work is very black, it’s very bold, it’s very graphic, it’s very strong.  There is nothing really friendly like a little bird flying around or a pink piglet… it’s totally not that.  But I live in New York City and I am responding to that kind of contrast.  The weather is very strong, very hot and very cold. All the traffic is heavy, the structure of this city is almost like a double bladed knife. I wanted to adapt myself as a New Yorker and adapt my mind as an artist. I’m always fascinated by this fear, and the people who want to ignore it.”

It was the mid-1980’s and there was not such a thing as “Street Art” yet, but “Low-brow” was in full effect, with graffiti as a new darling in the booming art market. The City had just pulled out of a deep recession, Wall Street wall was flush, newly minted “Yuppies” were ordering sushi and flashing their Swatches, Run DMC was rocking a tricky rhyme, and graffiti had been nearly scrubbed from all the subway cars.  Kenny Scharf took his cartoons into the Tunnel, Richard Hambleton was doing shadows on the street walls in the Village, Keith Haring was doing his thing in the subways, and Warhol was fixating on Basquiat.

richardhambleton.jpg

Image of Richard Hambleton shadow work by photographer Allan Molho

WK Interact knew very little about all of this activity, but he gradually learned.  18 year old WK looked for work as a graphic artist but because he spoke little English and had few connections, doors slammed in his face quickly one after another. Eventually he got work as a carpenter and painter, living in a tiny room on Houston in Alphabet City.

The Lower East Side was his first real school; “I was like a student.  I was not that good in school, and all of that work, work, work to get a diploma!  That diploma was absolutely no help to me. My own diploma was my own dream, it was my own need. It was not proving anything to anybody, just me.”  What followed was the “School of Hard Knocks”; occasional opportunities, a lot of drawing and time alone observing city life and street life, experimenting with his work on the street, and missteps that included a period actually living on the street in a box.  Socially, he wasn’t able to connect with other artists and couldn’t really understand how to navigate the city and street culture world he had thrust himself into.  He spent a lot of time feeling a deep sense of alienation.

(image WK Interact)

A younger WK on the Williamsburg Bridge (image WK Interact)

“When I started to do my stuff I was so ‘not there’. I was so different and without an understanding of the art, the graffiti, the branding.  Nobody really understood me; I was a bit early to be put in this category so I created myself just to be “this guy”.  There were groups there, but I was on my own.  And it was very, very difficult to believe in myself.   It was so difficult not to be a part of a group.  It was so difficult not to be able to speak English.  I used go seek artists because I liked their work, and they never replied, or never wrote back.”

While WK still values those hard years because his inner strength and knowledge of humanity and inhumanity was greatly broadened, not to mention his development as an artist, he wouldn’t recommend them to you as a friend, as those years haunt him today.  Coupled with feelings of rejection from his parents, this sense of alienation made him a lone wolf in a hostile town.

d

Prince and Lafette (image WK Interact)

A turning point for WK may have been the literal turning point of the corner of Prince and Lafayette streets in Soho, a garage and mechanics business.  WK liked the multiple surfaces and angles of the lot, as well as their industrial rawness and he inquired about who owned it.  After cajoling the owner of the garage to allow him do a piece on the wall, he eventually went on to “run” that whole corner that was a mechanic’s garage for a number of years.  He likes to say no one noticed the racing, leaping, landing, crashing, chasing, panicked people in black and white on that block for many years, but in fact many New Yorkers around at that time still remember the sudden surprise of those images on the buildings and began to look forward to checking them out in when they passed through Soho.

Alek and WK (image WK Interact)

Alek and WK (image WK Interact)

A piece on it’s larger overhead walls one time featured model Alek Well – a bicephalous blur portrait of gut-busting joy and ebullience as one head is tossed back to the left and one slightly forward to the right, anchored by solid shoulders. The scenes and players changed but usually the entire space was a spooked by hair-raising scenarios which you may or may not want to understand more clearly.

Similarly many people remember as “classic” the view of WK’s iconic 2-story speeding rollerblader racing along a building on the southwest side of Houston street to jump across Broadway. To hit one of his spots in it’s context is to experience a sudden pick-up in pulse, or skip in the beat, and a little bit of confusion  that sharply torques the wild energy of the urban environment.  No one else endeavors to shake you like this.  It’s safe to say that you admire the mind of the artist who brought you this jolt.

(image WK Interact)

(image WK Interact)

He lived frugally in a tiny studio and brought home left-over paint from his day jobs. It was pretty early in his career that he decided black and white paint was the best way to portray New York and it’s brutal contrasts. “If I go back to my country I will begin to paint blue and pink,” he explains.

Suffice to say, it’s been a long, arduous climb and not one he likes to speak about for a long time, understandably, but eventually WK Interact found his way in New York, and London, and Paris, and Italy, and Sydney, and Japan….  With labor, persistence and luck one opportunity turned another.  He doesn’t appear unduly proud that his work today is in demand. He is thankful that he shows in respected galleries, is featured in articles, videos, and he is continuously on the move.

(image WK Interact)

(image WK Interact)

When looking at the rough times, he says, “Those limitations created what I did.  That made me want to reverse it, to upgrade it – so I made myself do more. You can see the force in my work, that constant motion, the face.  It is on the move, you can see the actual thing vibrating, and this has been my position, and it has been like this for the last 23 years. As far as what happened to me coming to the States, I don’t wish this for anybody. I think this was painful, and it will always be painful.”

WK INTERACT

WK Interact (photo Jaime Rojo)

Part 2 of this inteview continues here

1980’s New York Street Life (the MTV version) with Run DMC in “It’s Tricky”

WK Interact Site

Read more
Year in Images 2008

Year in Images 2008

Paradigm Shifting and Cave Writings

Looking back at the powerful changes in ’08,

it’s not hard to see their reflection on the Brooklyn streets, which may serve as tea leaves revealing the messages swirling around us and in us. Each individual act of creating is of significance, yet it is the cumulative effect of the groundswell of new participants that seems so powerful, so hopeful in it’s desire.

Naturally, at the beginning of this selection of images from 2008, we are featuring the most visible street art piece of the year by Shepard Fairey, which appeared here on the streets of Brooklyn and transcended mediums to reach millions of people. Shepard’s graphic design style and his images of the man who would be president helped many to quickly glimpse the character and message of Barack Obama.

A Winning Campaign (Shepard Fairey) (photo Jaime Rojo)

A Winning Campaign (Shepard Fairey) (photo Jaime Rojo)

The image was replicated, adopted, adapted, transformed, re-formed, lampooned even. It became an icon that belonged to everyone who cared to own it, and a symbol of the change the man on the street was looking for. Like street art, Obama’s message was taken directly to the people, and they responded powerfully in a way that brought a historic shift; one that continues to unfold.

Elsewhere on the street we saw themes from topical to fantastical; crazy disjointed cultural mash-ups, celebrity worship or destruction, Big Brother, icons, symbols, death, war, economic stress, protest, dancing, robots and monsters and clowns and angels, and an incredible pathos for humanity and it’s sorry state… with many reminders of those marginalized and disaffected. We never forget the incredible power of the artist to speak to our deepest needs and fears.

The movement of young and middle-aged artists off the isle of pricey mall-ish Manhattan and into Brooklyn is not quite an exodus, but boy, sometimes it feels that way. The air sometimes is thick with it; the creative spirit. The visual dialogue on the street tells you that there is vibrant life behind doors – studios, galleries, practice rooms, loft parties, rooftops.

Even as a debate about street art’s appropriate placement on public/private walls continues, it continues. From pop art to fine art, painterly to projected, one-offs to mass repetition, Brooklyn street art continues to grow beyond our expectations, and our daily lives are largely enriched by it.

This collection is not an exhaustive survey – the archival approach isn’t particularly stimulating and we’re not academics, Madge. The street museum is always by chance, and is always about your two eyes. Here’s a smattering, a highly personal trip through favorites that were caught during the year.

[svgallery name=”Images of Year 2008″]

Read more

Quick Shot – The Anonymous “Piece Process”

Durn, it was awfully crowded over there on the isle of Manhattan last night,

but it was totally worth it if you took the time to peel people off the wall and take a gander at the art (pardon me Martha, mind the elbows, Elbow-toe). The show has the goal of drawing connections between the processes and techniques employed by well known names from the 70’s/80’s and the emerging crop of wild-eyed beasts today. Shockingly, the similarities were readily apparent, and that was somehow reassuring in a crazy mixed up world like ours. …Not to mention that this show brings you into the backroom, the studio, the cramped apartment, to see the doodlings, the lists, sketches, and planning that artists employ when they first conceive of their pieces. This is an educational show, and a kindly revelation.

There seemed like a hundred pieces or more – we show only a smattering here; all courtesy Anonymous Gallery.

[svgallery name=”Piece_Process_Anonymous”]

Anonymous Gallery

Read more

Piece Process at Anonymous Gallery

The Piece Process

Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Richard Hambleton, Robert Indiana, Dennis Oppenheim, Ray Johnson, Todd James, Eric Haze, Bast, Elbow Toe, AIKO, Kenji Hirata, Greg Lamarche, Aakash Nihalani, Erik Foss, Deven Marriner, Michael De Feo, Logan Hicks, Judith Supine, Dan Witz, Maya Hayuk, Daniel Joseph, Ripo, Skewville, Brandon Friend, Dark Cloud, MOMO, Dan Funderburgh, Ellis Gallagher, Matt Siren, The Clayton Brothers, and MORE!

Gallery Exhibition:
December 17 – January 24

opening reception:
December 17th, 7 – 10PM
Exhibition Description

Anonymous Gallery is proud to combine three generations of prolific artists whose work has been influenced by, or has directly influenced popular culture, design, and the urban environment. The Piece Process will unite relevant artists with their contemporary counterparts through artwork that serves as a reference or an impetus to something larger or more complete. Anonymous Gallery will exhibit unique pieces of art in the form of sketchbook drawings and original works on paper or found objects from over 30 established and emerging artists exhibiting in New York. The exhibition intends to create discourse in regard to artists who have not only influenced one another, but society through their use of iconography, collage, pen, paint, and print.

In conjunction with the exhibition, Anonymous Gallery, will also be hosting weekly workshops for children. Artists Todd James, Leon Reid, Michael De Feo, Maya Hayuk, Ellis Gallagher, among others, will teach the workshops.

In the spirit of giving, portions of the proceeds raised will go to benefit Public Art for Public Schools http://schools.nyc.gov/Offices/SCA/Programs/PAPS/default.htm. For additional information, workshop schedules, or to make a reservation, please contact – events[at]anonymousgallery[dot]com

Read more
Power and Currency: Factory Fresh

Power and Currency: Factory Fresh

“Power and Currency” a new show curated in Bushwick’s Factory Fresh Gallery by Natalie Kates, strikes at the nexus of two words that shake out in the events of most days in New York.  On Brooklyn’s Flushing Avenue, just past Bushwick Ave, the road is rumbling with trucks and potholes, vibrating with the expectations and hopes of a lot of new people these days – artists seeking studio space and escaping high rents, small businesses strong-armed by condo-building piglords, musicians looking for a practice studio, artisans, woodworkers, furniture makers, ……it’s a growing list. You don’t have to look far to see the mounting pressures on the aspiring creative class, and one’s thoughts turn to power and currency more than ever.

Factory Fresh, celebrating three months on Flushing Avenue, is the lovechild of Ali Ha and Adam DeVille, who once fostered a vibrant, audacious, tiny and welcoming gallery of mostly street artists called Orchard Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in the early ‘00s. Over five short years and 20 shows, it was a wellspring of new street art that crunched genres and gave foot to a number of underground street artists, and opportunity to many more.

Flyer for the Closing of Orchard Street Gallery

Flyer for the Closing of Orchard Street Gallery

But powerful “Luxury Condo Fever” had been coursing through the valley of lower Manhattan, and when the slimy, blinding affliction caught their landlord, Ali and Ad fought in court to save Orchard Street Gallery, their community and their dream. The fight lasted for 8 months, before they rallied in April “06 and gave their “Grand Closing” show to say goodbye to the soon destroyed building, featuring work by artists they had heralded, some for their first solo shows, including Jet and Rubble, Abe Lincoln Jr, Solar, Rep1, GoreB, as well as shows by Magmo and MCA, Skewville, Pufferella, Overspray Magazine and Azstar.

With more guts and gusto, they eventually set up shop in a former bodega storefront in industrial Brooklyn, where a nascent street art scene was quickly ramping up. “The surrounding Bushwick galleries have been wonderfully supportive, there is a great neighborhood vibe and I really like and respect them,” says Ali.  A quick hike in almost any any direction from the gallery finds current street art installations from Swoon, Frank Duval, Judith Supine, Gaia, and Chris Stain.

Smart alecs and artists Welcomed

Smart alecs and artists Welcomed

The Factory Fresh coronation featured Orchard alumni Skewville during the Bushwick Open Studios weekend in June – an instant success that was swamped with fans old and new; It quickly sprayed a large stenciled red star on the Bushwick map, alongside other newcomers like English Kills, which is a sneaker-throws’ distance down Flushing. But don’t expect the haughty chilled white box here; Factory Fresh is just as committed to the community of artists as ever;  over the summer they hosted a show that paid tribute to the hardworking artists and interns who helped make the gallery launch successful with a showcase of their work.

With Fall roaring in, “Power and Currency” opens with 22 artists in tow.  A huge fan of Orchard Street, “style curator” Natalie Kates was asked to put together her inaugural show. “She came to our 8th show at Orchard Street which was Elik in January 2005… I always appreciated the way she handled herself”

“We are trying to expand our horizons, she knows things I have no clue about but blends them with things I know and love. Natalie surprises me every minute, it’s exciting,” says Ali.

For her part, Ms. Kates, a street art collector, was thrilled to get a chance to create a show, “Ali and Adam were the first art gallery in Manhattan to show Street art at the Orchard Street Gallery space.  My first purchases were three ELIK panel’s that I still to this day adore. When Factory Fresh approached me to curate a show I jumped on the opportunity.”

On the horizon, the auburn Ms. Ha exhibits her customary patience with the process, “We are taking it one day at a time, mostly. I have a few tricks up my sleeve but I also don’t like to plan things too much, you never know what the next day might bring. I like surprising myself, I like surprising my patrons.”

“I think working with lots of people is what will keep Factory Fresh current.  It takes a village, right?”

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ********

INTERVIEW with style curator Natalie Kates about “Power and Currency”

Brooklyn Street Art: What first drew your interest to street art (or urban art)?

Natalie Kates:
I have always had a heightened visual sense and have been aware of urban art since the 80’s style old skool bubble letter tags and throw ups.  Some of my favorites were Lee, Seen, Martine, Futura 2000 and of course Keith Haring and Basquiat.  Having deep roots in the fashion industry I first started to notice a visual shift in the urban landscape with Kaws hijacking Fashion Ad Campaigns in the late ‘90’s.

Almost over night there seem to be a change of guard.  The new wave of urban artist had a new voice in the medium of stencils, wheat pasted cut-outs, stickers and glass tiles.  I wanted to know everything about this movement.

Funny Money by DFace (photo Natalie Kates)

Funny Money by DFace (photo Natalie Kates)

Brooklyn Street Art: It is not unusual to hear of an individual curating a show at a gallery, museum, or even nightclub.  What is a “style curator” in the context of a gallery?

Natalie Kates:”Style Curator” is a title/term/concept I came up with to best describe myself and what I am trying to manifest in the world. To me a style curator is a person who is able to think and curate on multiple levels. For example not only am I responsible for curating the artist but also responsible for curating music, guest lists, invites and the overall stylistic look and feel of event. A “Style Curator” is a person who curates style. Style can come in many forms such as fashion, art, music and esthetics.  It is a way of thinking and life.

Nicoz (photo Natalie Kates)

Nicoz (photo Natalie Kates)

Brooklyn Street Art: When street art enters the gallery, how does its’ energy change?
Natalie Kates: I am not sure if the energy changes, but I think the perception changes when in the context of a gallery.  A gallery can give street art it’s credibility the genre deserves.

Brooklyn Street Art: One artist collective, Peripheral Media Projects, recently has been creating large canvasses of storm-trooper looking police in Warholian “Silver Elvis” arrangements.  Do you think this show is influenced by fears of state power?_
Natalie Kates: PMP or Peripheral Media Projects is in the “Power & Currency” show.  They have come up with an amazing installation of “Riot Cops” on Plexiglas.  I don’t know if the images are influenced by fears of state power._
What I take from the images and the installation is a fear to conform, to be apart of a hive like mindset, the fear to not celebrate our differences and flaunt out human imperfections.

Peripheral Media Projects "Riot Cop" (detail)

Peripheral Media Projects “Riot Cop”   (photo Natalie Kates)

Brooklyn Street Art: Aiko and Bast have been introducing more graphic elements of sexualized or sexual imagery into their work.  How does sex enter the power equation?  Currency?_
Natalie Kates: Sex is power and does hold a currency.  Look back in history, Cleopatra, Helen of Troy, Evita Peron, all these women had this power and wielded its’ currency.

Brooklyn Street Art: Are there any examples in the show of the intersection of both power and currency?_
Natalie Kates: There are many amazing works of art in this show.  If I had to single out one piece it would be from artist Tom Fruin.  His piece is entitled “Bud Klan Church”.

Bud Klan Church by Tom Fruin (photo Natalie Kates)

Bud Klan Church by Tom Fruin (photo Natalie Kates)

Made from cut out Budweiser cans with (Klu Klux) Klan’s men illustrations in the silhouette of a southern church on fire. This is a solid piece that speaks of power and currency on many levels such as religion, fear, entitlement and alienation to name a few.

Brooklyn Street Art: From a curator’s point of view, what does the whole show look like when it all comes together in one location?
Natalie Kates: This show is a marriage of two art schools.  My attempt is a symbiotic relationship between the contemporary and street artist.  I feel the street artists can give a cool factor to the contemporary art while the contemporary artists can in a sense legitimize the street artist and give them their much needed nod in the global art world.

<<Brooklyn Street Art>>

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * ********

Factory Fresh

is located at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop

“Power and Currency”

Opening Reception September 5, 2008 from 6-10pm
Show runs September 5 – October 3, 2008
Curated by: Natalie Kates

NatalieKates.com

Factory Fresh Website

Read more