All posts tagged: Jeffrey Deitch

BSA in LA (Update) – Walls Underway in Prep for MOCA Show

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“Art In the Streets” has begun exactly where it started – outside on walls. The number of people in Los Angeles this week to mark Sunday’s opening of the show at the Museum of Contemporary Art grows by the hour and there are more walls in progress than a housing boom. Just in the last couple of days we’ve seen commissioned and non-commissioned new murals, pieces, tags, and installations freshly dripping by people like How & Nosm, Lee Quinones, Shepard Fairey, Blade, Cern1, JR, Augustine Kofie, Invader, Os Gemeos, Nomade, Saner, and many others.

brooklyn-street-art-lee-quinones-jaime-rojo-MOCA-LA-04-14-web-12Lee Quinones takes a break on “Birds of a Feather”, the wall collaboration he’s directing that features  Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1. The new installation is on the wall that was previously installed by Italian artist Blu but was buffed soon after by the museum a few months ago – a subject still on the minds and lips of people here. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Futura says it’s like Summer camp and others have likened it to a family reunion, which makes us think of lawn chairs, cheap beer, barbecue, and crazy old uncle Jed sitting on a picnic table rubbing egg salad into his hair and talking about the Republicans. But yeah, right now in this little part of LA there is a feeling of a camp that is headed maniacally toward total circus.

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Cern 1 workinfg on “Birds of a Feather” wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The show itself, which we’ve seen in it’s entirety, is an audacious and colorful endeavor to bring about 50 years of Graffiti and Street Art history and a number of it’s influencers and influences under one roof. Engaging and educational, visitors will have the opportunity to learn how certain tributaries lead to this river. No show on this worldwide phenomenon could ever hope to include everyone, and Curator Jeffrey Deitch, along with associate curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose have chosen touchstones and flashpoints that push their individual visions of how the story unfolded. While it doesn’t break much brand new ground, only the Bittersons (or Jealousinskis) will find sufficient cause to try to mug this solid, entertaining and participatory show full of surprises. But for a scene that never sought permission in the first place, it won’t matter.

Here are a collection of images on the museum grounds itself. Previews from the show tomorrow.

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“Birds of a Feather” (detail) wall collab with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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In this photo by Martha Cooper, Futura lends a hand to Cern1 to complete the collaborative mural on the side of Geffen Contemporary in time for the opening.  (photo © Martha Cooper)

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“Birds of a Feather” wall collab in progress with Lee Quinones, Futura, Risk, Able, Seno, Push, Loomit and Cern1  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Barry McGee (Twist) finished this wall before heading indoors to reprise an installation he did in 2000 with ESPO and REAS called Street Market.  Roger Gastman says of the new installation that was still being finished as of yesterday afternoon, “This is another version ten years later, basically on crack. They brought in a number of other great artists to help work with them on it. Now it includes Alexis Ross, Dan Murphy, Jeff Flynn and a few others.” (photos tomorrow)

(photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This Blade wall in progress is a direct reference to the famous Martha Cooper photo of one of his burners on an MTA train in the 70s.  It was begun after the museum washed off a fresh new Katsu fire extinguisher tag that appeared suddenly a few days earlier. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blade. Finish wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos cube in progress will contain something quite special that is being prepared in a garage nearby.  It actually looks like it could hold a dozen go-go dancers if that other thing isn’t finished in time for the opening. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos cube in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos cube in progress (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Os Gemeos with mini-train painted by Blade (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blade painting the Os Gemeos mini-train (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Os Gemeos mini-train opposite side (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sullivan takes off (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Invader’s “Blue Invasion” of the museum starts outside. Or is that BLU invasion? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Risk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fab 5 Freddy speaking on today’s press conference in front of bus by Risk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Not all brows are unfurrowed for the impending opening of “Art In the Streets”, as in these by French Street Artist JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fun Friday 03.18.11

Fun-Friday

BKLN -> LNDN , Skewville is one of the High Rollers Now

If you lucky enough to be in London today, are looking for a good time, and are not afraid of possibly losing a limb go to High Roller Society and experience the art magic of Brooklyn Street Artist SKEWVILLE.

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Click on the link for more details http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theblog/?p=19318
Also check out this delicious interview with Adam on Vandalog this week.

HIGH ROLLER SOCIETY 
10 Palmers Road 
LONDON E2 0SY

Fresh Stuff from Skewville, Catching Up With Skewville, An Introduction to Skewville, Skewville Shows Us How It’s Done

Vanna, I would like to Buy a Vowel for Ben Eine

Brooklyn-Street-Art-WEB-EINE-SF-ScreenStill-March2011Or maybe just a hyphen. Check out this new mini-vid following the progress of Mr. Eine by a certain Spencer Keeton Cunningham.

LA MOCA “Art In the Streets” Coming

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JR “The Wrinkles in the City 2011″  Photo Courtesy © MOCA

Apparently there is some kind of art show coming up on the west coast in April. Don’t know if you will be doing laundry or shopping for potted plants in the area at the time, but thought we’d let you know just in case you’re interested in this sort of thing.

ARTINTHESTREETS

MCGEE

Barry McGee, Houston Street and the Bowery, New York, 2010, photo by Farzad Owrang courtesy MOCA.

Art in the Streets will showcase installations by 50 of the most dynamic artists from the graffiti and street art community, including Fab 5 Freddy (New York), Lee Quinones (New York), Futura (New York), Margaret Kilgallen (San Francisco), Swoon (New York), Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles), Os Gemeos (Sao Paulo), and JR (Paris). MOCA’s exhibition will emphasize Los Angeles’s role in the evolution of graffiti and street art, with special sections dedicated to cholo graffiti and Dogtown skateboard culture. The exhibition will feature projects by influential local artists such as Craig R. Stecyk III, Chaz Bojorquez, Mister Cartoon, RETNA, SABER, REVOK, and RISK.

More HERE

A special emphasis will be placed on photographers and filmmakers who documented graffiti and street art culture including Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, James Prigoff, Steve Grody, Gusmano Cesaretti, Estevan Oriol, Ed Templeton, Larry Clark, Terry Richardson, and Spike Jonze. A comprehensive timeline illustrated with artwork, photography, video, and ephemera will provide further historical context for the exhibition.

Os Gemeos With a Sharp Eye and Steady Hand and Dreamlike Imagination

Monica Canilao; You Light Up My Life

Have you ever found that perfect dinette set thrown away on the sidewalk, except that the veneer has been chipped off because the table was used as a vegetable cutting board, and two of the chairs are missing legs? Ever have a grandiose Aunt who sees the end coming and thinks that you would be the perfect recipient of her mid-century shlock loveseat or crusted poly lampshade? Ever explored a haunted house that is about to fall on you and crush you to death?

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A look at this chandalier by artist Monica Canilao just makes you happy. She has some ideas about what you might be able to do with those things you involuntarily have to drag home from the street. She and some friends made a cool chandelier that has an audio component when it is rotated.

Check out more of Monica’s work here.

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New Puppy Gallery Presents: “Sniffin’ Glue” A Group Show (Los Angeles, CA)

Sniffin’ Glue
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Who better than Nomadé, Eddie Colla, ABCNT, and Cryptik to poke the MOCA institutional bear smack in the nose on April 16th with their new explosive show “Sniffin’ Glue.”

Armed with intense imagery and a collective history of street credibility, this fierce

foursome dare to not only provoke but stand in front of MOCA’s

institutional tank, refusing to allow Jeffery Deitch be the only street

art voice heard on this night.

“Sniffin’ Glue” is a collective display of power from four of the most

provocative west coast street artists – ABCNT, Nomadé, Cryptik and Eddie Colla.

It is a manifestation of a street art revolution that cannot be ignored.

The themes of their work span from power, peace, individualism to protest.

Fueled by revolution, ABCNT’s work pierces into the heart of our deepest political establishments. Cryptik’s art comes from a place of spirituality and his zen visual mastery.

Nomadé are the warriors of creation, not powered by weapons but by intensity and a powerful visceral style. The world of Eddie Colla captures the consciousness of the individual and the relationship to the ever-growing environmental challenges to conformity.

“Sniffin’ Glue”

New Puppy Gallery

2808 Elm Street Unit #1

Los Angeles, CA 90065

323.439.3355

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MOCA Presents: “Art In The Streets” (Los Angeles, CA)

JR

brooklyn-street-art-jr-moca-arts-in-the-streetsJR “The Wrinkles in the City 2011”  Photo Courtesy © MOCA

Street artist JR has installed a new piece on the Alameda street side of our Geffen Contemporary building in Little Tokyo. The work is part of a 20 artwork project called The Wrinkles of The City that is currently being unveiled at locations around Los Angeles. It’s also part of MOCA’s upcoming exhibition Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum survey of graffiti and street art.

MOCA Press Release:

APRIL 17–AUGUST 8, 2011 / THE GEFFEN CONTEMPORARY AT MOCA

The Museum of Contemporary Art presents Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum exhibition of the history of graffiti and street art. The exhibition will trace the development of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to the global movement it has become today, concentrating on key cities where a unique visual language or attitude has evolved. Following MOCA’s presentation, the exhibition will travel to the Brooklyn Museum, where it will be on view March 30–July 8, 2012.

Art in the Streets will showcase installations by 50 of the most dynamic artists from the graffiti and street art community, including Fab 5 Freddy (New York), Lee Quiñones (New York), Futura (New York), Margaret Kilgallen (San Francisco), Swoon (New York), Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles), Os Gemeos (São Paulo), and JR (Paris). MOCA’s exhibition will emphasize Los Angeles’s role in the evolution of graffiti and street art, with special sections dedicated to cholo graffiti and Dogtown skateboard culture. The exhibition will feature projects by influential local artists such as Craig R. Stecyk III, Chaz Bojórquez, Mister Cartoon, RETNA, SABER, REVOK, and RISK.

A special emphasis will be placed on photographers and filmmakers who documented graffiti and street art culture including Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, James Prigoff, Steve Grody, Gusmano Cesaretti, Estevan Oriol, Ed Templeton, Larry Clark, Terry Richardson, and Spike Jonze. A comprehensive timeline illustrated with artwork, photography, video, and ephemera will provide further historical context for the exhibition.

Art in the Streets will feature several shows within the show. There will be a special section dedicated to the Fun Gallery, which connected New York graffiti artists with the downtown art community in the early 1980s. Co-curated by gallery founder Patti Astor, the Fun Gallery installation will feature the work of Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the graffiti artists who shaped the gallery’s history. A section dedicated to the seminal film Wild Style (1983), co-curated by the film’s director Charlie Ahearn, will document its influence on the global dissemination of graffiti and hip-hop culture. The exhibition will also feature a memorial presentation of Battle Station, a rarely seen work by legendary artist and theorist RAMMELLZEE, and a display of graffiti black books and other historic works from the Martin Wong Collection presented in collaboration with the Museum of the City of New York. A highlight of the exhibition will be a Los Angeles version of Street Market, a re-creation of an urban street complete with overturned trucks by Todd James, Barry McGee, and Steve Powers.

The exhibition will open with a skate ramp designed by pro-skater Lance Mountain and artist Geoff McFetridge. Skate demonstrations by the Nike SB skate team will be held onsite for the duration of the exhibition.

“Art in the Streets will be the first exhibition to position the work of the most influential artists to emerge from street culture in the context of contemporary art history,” said MOCA Director Jeffrey Deitch.

“This quintessentially urban and dynamic partnership between the Brooklyn Museum and MOCA began with the 2005 Brooklyn-organized exhibition of the work of Jean-Michel Basquiat, the consummate American street artist of his generation; continued with the MOCA-organized ©MURAKAMI in 2007, defining critical elements of worldwide street art; and now culminates with a groundbreaking exhibition devoted entirely to street art and graffiti,” said Brooklyn Museum Director Arnold L. Lehman. “The partnership has, in itself, provided a major record of public art over the past half century.”

Art in the Streets is organized by Jeffrey Deitch and associate curators Roger Gastman and Aaron Rose. Gastman is the author of The History of American Graffiti, which will be released in April 2011, and was a consulting producer on the film Exit Through The Gift Shop. Rose curated the exhibition Beautiful Losers and directed the related documentary film. Ethel Seno, editor of Trespass: A History of Uncommissioned Urban Art, is the curatorial coordinator of the exhibition. The Brooklyn Museum’s presentation will be organized by Managing Curator of Exhibitions Sharon Matt Atkins.

ART IN THE STREETS CATALOGUE
A comprehensive catalogue on the history of graffiti and street art published by Skira Rizzoli and edited by Nikki Columbus, former associate editor of Artforum, will accompany the exhibition. The book traces the birth and dissemination of styles through the stories of graffiti writers and street artists all over the world. It features a foreword by Deitch and essays by Carlo McCormick, Greg Tate, and Diedrich Diederichsen. It also features interviews and discussions with influential street artists about wild style, cholo graffiti, and the art that emerged from skate and punk subcultures. Additional contributors include Fab 5 Freddy, KET, Caleb Neelon, Lydia Yee, Kathy Grayson, Cheech Marin, Bill Daniel, and Hiroshi Fujiwara. The book was designed by Conny Purtill, whose previous projects include Barry McGee: The Buddy System and Beautiful Losers.

RELATED EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY OUTREACH
An extensive program of educational and community workshops will complement the exhibition. As part of its exhibition sponsorship and ongoing community collaboration initiative, Levi’s® will host the Levi’s® Film Workshop at MOCA, offering a diverse schedule of programming that celebrates the craft of filmmaking and explores the exhibition’s subject matter. Access to the Levi’s® Film Workshop’s resources is open to all and free of charge.

Special versions of Associate Curator Aaron Rose’s Make Something!! educational project will also be presented at Culver City High School and at The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in conjunction with Nike SB. Art in the Streets will include a graffiti and street art film festival presented in collaboration with the Cinefamily, and music and dance programs featuring some of the originators of hip-hop and break dancing.

Art in the Streets is made possible by The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Sydney Irmas Exhibition Endowment.

Major support is provided by Levi’s®. Additional support is provided by Mandy and Cliff Einstein, Nike SB, MOCA Contemporaries, MOCA Partners, and Montana Colors.

In-kind media support is provided by Ovation, Los Angeles magazine, and KCRW 89.9 FM.

Saturday in the Streets is presented by Ovation.

MEMBERS’ OPENING
Saturday, April 16, 7–10pm
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA

Join us for another legendary opening party at MOCA as we premier Art in the Streets, featuring performances by the stars of the classic hip-hop film, Wild Style—Busy Bee, Cold Crush Brothers with Grandmaster Caz—and the award-winning B-Boy crew from Los Angeles, Killafornia. Cash bar.
INFO 213/621-1794 or membership1@moca.org
FREE for MOCA members, $25 for additional guests

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Censorship! MOCA Has A BLU Tiger By The Tail

It’s hard to believe that Jeffrey Deitch censors artists.

One quick look into his adventurous past incarnation as the director and owner of Deitch Projects in New York shows a guy who has championed the work of artists outside the mainstream and given them a forum to speak. Hard to see the same guy who mounted a burned-out meth lab by Jonah Freeman and Justin Lowe, (Black Acid Co-op) being queasy about offensive content. Did you ever see the parade he sponsored through the streets of Lower Manhattan for a few years? Don’t remember anyone crying censorship in those very public multi-membered panoplies of costume and conceptual art. The fact is there is a very public record stretching back many years that shows he routinely encouraged his artists to expand intellectually and explore new ideas regardless of how difficult or controversial they might have been.

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The BLU mural as it was completed on the MOCA wall last week. (photo © Brain Forrest/MOCA)

The public controversy of the buffing of a large wall on the side of the Geffen Contemporary Wing of MOCA by internationally known street artist BLU shortly after it’s completion last week feels more like an easy way to pile on him, maybe by those who didn’t like him in the first place. Sometimes people just like to see successful people fall. If you were to listen to the wailing of the Censorship Battalion you would have thought that Mr. Deitch himself had run screaming, bucket in hand, through the streets splashing paint on the mural and all over his pink suit, ranting about the dollar-draped coffins BLU had arranged in formation across the massive wall. But the timeline of how Deitch mismanaged the quickly exploding events after the buffing really points more to being obtuse than obstreperous. He didn’t handle the information communication very well. Looks like he made some rookie mistakes in his new position as the head of a major public institution of art. And?


Only a year ago in October 2009 BLU finished another giant mural on the  Deitch Projects location in Long Island City in Queens that some said was a fun-loving jab at Deitch himself. So it looks like this curator-artist  relationship has some history.

Blu at Deitch Studios LIC
Blu at Deitch Studios in Long Island City, New York, October 2009 (photo @Jaime Rojo)

It just doesn’t add up.


Censorship in this country, especially art censorship, is always a hot spicy topic – Why, did you hear about the Smithsonian? Less obvious is the ongoing sort of cleansing across our increasingly corporate mono-culture and this alien creature politics-as-sports media that exhausts the populace into confusion and conformity. That kind of censorship of the many gray areas simplifies everything to an Us vs Them mentality. Rather than the knee-jerk suggestion of boycotting his upcoming show of Street Art, let’s give the new guy a chance to acclimate to this new position he’s had for six months.

brooklyn-street-art-casey-caplowe-good-MOCA-blu-12-10BLU Mural being buffed. (Photo courtesy of and © Casey Caplowe/Good Culture)

That said, if Deitch was being sensitive to the Veteran Affairs neighbors and cognizant of the history of the Japanese community in the US, his timing was a bit late. And if we are talking about sensitivity and communication, it looks like BLU got left out of the equation altogether. How can this be? A very prolific artist travels to LA to paint a big commissioned wall and there wasn’t a sketch?


We all censor ourselves every day. Sometimes for honorable reasons like not mentioning your co-workers’ deceased wife, or even pragmatic reasons, like rolling down your sleeves to hide your tattoos from your girlfriend’s dad. It’s all about context, and nuance. In the end, this microscopic chapter in Street Art is between BLU and MOCA, and only they know the contracts they have and the inner workings of their relationship. Maybe we can all find something else to speculate about.

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New Interview and Signing With Swoon: Her Book With Jeffrey Deitch

“Never wait, and never let the bastards get you down”

Swoon’s got a book, as you know – and she’s going to be signing it Saturday in Brooklyn.

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Jake Dobkin at the Gothamist just published a delicious interview with the paper-slicing queen on the street. They talk about “Swimming Cities”, the Gowanus neighborhood of Brooklyn, MOCA, Jeffrey Deitch, and her trip to Zambia.

Rushing past (image courtesy Jake Dobkin at The Gothamist)
Rushing past (image courtesy Jake Dobkin at The Gothamist)

From the interview:

Looking through the pictures, we were struck by how much artistic ground you’ve covered in just ten or eleven years. What do you see as the essential themes that bring all of your work together?
Workaholism. Um, just kidding. Themes? How about the hands on creation of our world—that’s tops. And the creation of moments of pause, human connection, empathy, surprise, wonder and ridiculousness. Bringing what you make to people in places where they are not expecting it. The belief that loving attention can and will be transformative. Democratized public spaces. The tying together of classical mediums and modern contexts. An obsession with looking deeply into the faces of other human beings. Also, never wait, and never let the bastards get you down. Are those themes? They should be.

Read the complete interview with Jake here:

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