All posts tagged: JMZ Walls

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.20.20

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.20.20

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Shana Tova to our Jewish brothers and sisters, even as we mourn the Friday passing of one of Brooklyn’s own, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was born here on East 9th Street in Midwood to Russian immigrant parents in 1933 and the governor says we’ll have a statue honoring her here too.

Meanwhile in our strained semi-democracy, daily anti-ICE protests continue in Times Square amidst accusations of heavy handed practices of the police, exotic animal complaints this year are up 77 percent possibly because people want to quarantine with roosters and monkeys to stay sane, and in-person school classes are again being delayed due to lack of preparedness and generalized fears of Covid-19 outbreaks among students and teachers.

Compared to all these news, the scene with Street Art appears tame. But from Red Hook to Soho to LES to Bushwick to Ridgewood, it is definitely not lame.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring BK Foxx, Chris Tuorto, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, De Grupo, Downtown DaVinci, Freakotrophic, Half, Joe Iurato, Kesta, Logan Hicks, Mish, Ouch, Praxis VGZ, Sac Six, Sean Lugo 9, Stikman, and You Go Girl!

Collaboration between Sean Lugo and City Kitty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Freakotrophic for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sac Six (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Half (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sitkman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ouch (photo © Jaime Rojo)
You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)
You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Logan Hicks and Joe Iurato for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Downtown DaVinci. This piece has plexiglass protection and that makes it very hard to photograph. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
BK Foxx and Kesta collaboration for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CRKSHNK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DE GRUPO (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Chris Tuorto (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mish and? (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.03.19

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.03.19

Happy New York Marathon! Turn your clocks back an hour! Also, protest against police brutality against black and brown youth on the subway! The latter is really disheartening for us all to see – and young people of all colors were fighting back this weekend in protest.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Abe Lincoln Jr., Adam Fujita, Alexcia Panay, Anthony Lister, Below Key, BK Foxx, Bobby Hundreds, Downer Jones, Dragon Art, Hops Art, Maia Lorian, Mastro NYC, Muebon, Pricey Alex, Shiro, Sinclair the Vandal, VKrone, and Want.

Top banner Maia Lorian and Abe Lincoln Jr. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BK Foxx portrait of Nipsey Hussle, the American Rapper, artist, activist assassinated in March 2019 in Los Angeles, CA. Ms. Foxx used a photo by Bobby Hundreds as a reference for her painting. For JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Adam Fu (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Abe Lincoln Jr. & Maia Lorian A Presidential Parody Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Abe Lincoln Jr. & Maia Lorian A Presidential Parody Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist portrait of the real Abe Lincoln and the model for what a real leader AND real president should be. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lister (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Want . Hound . Pear (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Imidiana Garcia & Alexcia Panay (photo © Jaime Rojo)
VKRone (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shiro for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hops Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Below Key for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sinclair The Vandal (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pricey Alex . Downer Jones . Mastro NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pricey Alex . Downer Jones . Mastro NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Muebon for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CNO PCU SBP ROC ARI16 JADA (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DRAGON (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.17.19

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.17.19

Patti Smith begins the roll call for BSA Images of the Week in this portrait by Huetek. The punk term is loosely tossed around today, but it only applies to a certain number of people truthfully. In so many ways she is one. But she is also an author, poet, activist, and champion of the people – who she says have the power.

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Adam Fu, Bella Phame, BK Foxx, Bobo, Deih XLF, Exist, Huetek, Isaac Cordal, Koralie, Koz Dos, Sixe Paredes, Smells, SoSa, UFO 907, Velvet, WW Crudo, and Zoer.

Huetek pays tribute to Patti Smith for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
BK Foxx for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
BK Foxx creates this portrait of American Rapper MacMiller, who passed away so young last September –for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
UFO907 . Smells (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Deih XLF for Points de Vue in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Deih XLF for Points de Vue in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zoer and Velvet in Bilbao, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SoSa (photo © Jaime Rojo)
“Yo can I get a drag off your Costco membership?” Bobo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Isaac Cordal for Points de Vue in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Isaac Cordal for Points de Vue in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bella Phame for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Exist in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Exist in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Adam Fu (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sixe Paredes in Bilbao, Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
WW Crudo and some Keith Haring stickers? (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Koz Dos for Points de Vue in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A digital “propaganda” advertisement telling people in Madrid the cost of buffing graffiti in the city… (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Koralie for Points de Vue in Bayonne, France. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
We Love You! Reads this political gate written in Basque to remind the people of Bilbao of the plight of political prisoners in Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Meanwhile in Bayonne, France an old political mural informs the public about the political prisoners who were detained and disappeared during the Basque Separatist confrontation with the Federal Government of Spain. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Sky landscape in Bilbao, Spain. March 2019. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals of 2018: A “Social” Survey

BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals of 2018: A “Social” Survey

There’s street cred, and then there’s social media credit. These are 15 of the latter, compiled by BSA by our own rigorous methodology.

Bears lead the pack! A monkey is here as well. Skulls and Biggie Smalls make it in again. Text wisdom also wins along with representations of the natural world like Pejac’s tree and Naomi Rag’s flower. And a rep for Game of Thrones and the horrors of Hitchcock as well – you knew popular culture would represent.

These are the top murals from 2018 via tabulations of our website, Instagram, Twitter, and two Facebook pages. In a thoroughly unscientific survey that calculates “likes” and “clicks” and “re-Tweets” and “impressions”, and every year we cannot predict which one’s are going to be popular, but sometimes you can guess. We don’t publish a lot of murals of cats, but if we did, they would probably win. Just guessing.

This year we’re drawn to the two written word pieces, likely because they are erudite and witty to some extent – and because it is good to see how smart BSA readers are. Brilliant, we say!

Welcome to your favorite murals of the year:


15 – Banksy.

A tribute. A plea. A denunciation. A well used example of the artist’s platform to bring awareness of the plight of artists who dare to set themselves free with their art. Depicted here is Ms. Zehra Doğan, an editor and journalist from Turkey. She is presently serving time in jail for painting Turkish flags on a painting showing destroyed buildings and posting the painting on Social Media. Marking the time with tick

Banksy. Free Zehra Doğan. NYC. Houston/Bowery Wall. March 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

14 – Sonny Sundancer.

Sonny Sundancer finishes his final mural for his #totheboneproject , a grizzly titled “Standing Tall” looking out over Greenwich Village.

“Standing Tall” was done in conjunction with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

13 – Axe Colours.

Axe Colours goes GOT and the question going into 2019 in many people’s minds is: Will she or won’t she?

The Mother of Dragons on the streets of Barcelona as interpreted by Axe Colours. This photo was taken on November 2017 but shared on Instagram on February of 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

12 – Owen Dippie.

New Zealand artist Owen Dippie is known for pairing pop characters in his realistic large scale work. Here’s an odd couple of film director Hitchcock and Brooklyn rapper Biggie Smalls.

Pigeons, Ravens, Cigars, Mystery and Music on the streets of Brooklyn. September 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

11 – Kobra.

Brazilian artist Kobra gave himself a residency in NYC this year with the goal of painting as many murals as time and available walls would permit him. He succeeded by painting 18 walls throughout NYC – mostly the top level easy to identify icons found on t-shirts, posters and postcards for decades here. One of his portraits of Amy Winehouse proved to be hugely popular.

Kobra. Amy Winehouse. Manhattan, October 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1o – Disordered.

Anxiety rings true when the giveaways to business interests for nearly four decades under both dominant parties have gradually placed folks like these in this neighborhood constantly in fear of missing the rent, the grocery bill, the car payment, the cost of providing for their kids. Disordered is right.

#DISORDERED. Done in Welling Court, Queens for Welling Court 2018. July 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

9 – Kaos.

The KAOS Factory, colloquially named because the German graffiti artist by the same name has slowly taken it over with his work during the last few years, by default converting the former steam factory into his de facto “residency”.

KAOS. The Kaos Factory. Leipzig, Germany. October 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

8 – Naomi Rag.

Not specifically a Street Artist, Naomi Rag crochets her favorite things and puts them up mainly on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. This simple rose on a school yard fence steadily garnered attention throughout the year – and reminded us of this song from the 1960s.

“There is a rose in Spanish Harlem
A red rose up in Spanish Harlem
It is a special one, it’s never seen the sun
It only comes out when the moon is on the run
And all the stars are gleaming
It’s growing in the street right up through the concrete
But soft and sweet and dreaming…”

Jerry Leiber & Phil Spector

Naomi Rag. Red Rose in Spanish Harlem. March 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

7 – GlossBlack.

New York is a constant source of inspiration for countless artists of all disciplines who have made a home and hopefully a career in this dynamic city of endless serendipity and challenge. GlossBlack hit the mark with this tough and tumble tribute to the city.

GlossBlack in collaboration with Klughaus in Manhattan. March 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

6 – Bordalo II.

Bordalo II has evolved a spectacular practice of creating street works from our refuse that shock and thrill many a passersby with his ingenuity and evocative image making – while raising our collective consciousness about our responsibility to the earth.

Bordalo II. Lisbon, Portugal. June 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

4 – BKFoxx.

With a commercial eye toward the natural world and larger societal issues BKFoxx chooses subjects for their emotional impact and their ability to translates easily for an image-savvy audience whose endless hours of personal screen entertainment has produced an expectation for a big budget Hollywood and consumer culture slickness with high-production values.

BKFoxx in collaboration with JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. April 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

3 – Terry Urban.

Inspiration to create flows from many rivers and tributaries. Many times that inspiration comes from a fellow artist as is the case here. Art is for everyone, and the street is more than ever a perfect place to see it.

Terry Urban channeling Basquiat in Manhattan. January 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

3 – Egle Zvirblyte.

Egle’s feminism is abundantly clear on her work. A mixture of pop and riddles and unabashedly self assured.

Egle Zvirblyte. A project curated by BSA with the production assistance and wall access from Joe Franquinha / Crest Hardware and paint donated by Montana Cans. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2 – Pejac.

The Spaniard Pejac came for a few weeks to New York this spring and left this piece in Bushwick. The wall is a brick façade typical of many Brooklyn neighborhoods, but this one appears to have grown a tree this week. Perhaps he chose to paint this tree because the promise of spring had inspired him, or because this neighborhood remains industrial and could benefit from some more of nature’s influence. For us it’s all about context so it is good to see that a tree grows in Brooklyn.

Pejac. The Bushwick Collective. Brooklyn, NYC. March 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1 – Adrian Wilson

Just in under the wire and straight to number 1, this cleverly turned phrase and hooded ideogram is an ironic amalgam of Banksy and Warhol that hit the nerve of readers who are becoming acutely aware of us all slipping into a surveillance society. Also, it’s funny.

We only published this mural in December but the number of hits and comments across social media indicated that it resonates strongly across a wide demographic. Photographer, videographer, former gallery owner and infrequent Street Artist Adrian Wilson clearly is not shooting for anonymity.

Top image: Adrian Wilson plays with words to reflect our pop culture trolling both Warhol and Banksy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.11.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.11.18

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

100 years since the end of World War I today. The US is engaged in 7 wars right now. Two facts to contemplate as the city takes a breath and regroups from another election cycle.

Republicrats won at the polls and the ratings were high on TV – yet for some reason you still don’t have health care and you have about $1,000 in savings.

GOOD NEWS! – Manhattan real estate has experienced a dip this quarter so that the average apartment is just a little more than $1.1 million to buy.

This week in NYC there were Anti-Trump Pro-Mueller demonstrations in Times Square, the head of the subway system has resigned, and NYC is turning into a major tech hub with 25,000 more tech workers said to be flocking here for jobs at Google and Amazon.

Also Manny down at the corner deli just got this new calico cat that has already caught two mice this week.

Somehow the streets are always alive, always teaming with new images, installations, paintings, fire extinguisher tags.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Daily, Adam Fu, Bortusk, Cy Tremblay, DAIN, Dolganov, Invader, JeimeOne, Kobra, Sabio, and SacSix.

Top Image: Adam Fu for Spread Art NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cy Tremblay (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Resa.Menace for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bortusk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sabio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sabio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown. A very old stencil in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Daily (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 A clever step back from JeimeOne for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kobra (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASacSix (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dolganov in Moscow. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan. Fall 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.29.18

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.29.18

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, Amanda Browder, Antennae, City Kitty, Dirt Worship, Dragon76, Jason Naylor, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Makatron, Sheyro, The Yok, and Trap.

Amanda Browder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Browder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jason Naylor (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dragon76 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dragon76 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dragon76 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dragon76 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1UP Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Antennae (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentied artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Makatron for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Yok & Sheryo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Worship (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. July 2018 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 04.22.18 – Focus on BKFOXX

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.22.18 – Focus on BKFOXX

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Normally on Sunday we give you a hit parade of different pieces on the street so you can stay connected with the movement on the street. This Sunday we are looking at work-in-progress images of just one large piece by New York Street Artist BKFoxx, one artist of the current mural-making generation who draw inspiration from advertising, pop culture and photography, melding them together into a polished photo-hyperrealism.

An occasionally formally trained artist who joins the many professionally skilled artists who have put in the time on the current legal mural wall scene. Now travelling the world to paint at festivals as well as putting up walls in NYC, she is frank about her current home in Long Island and her roots, recently telling Graffiti Street “I’m from the suburbs. I was raised in a culture vacuum, so I’m just trying to learn as I go. It’s terrible.”

BKFOXX. Detail. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It is a disarming admission perhaps for the hardcore graffiti scene that once characterized the New York street, but an otherwise perfect position for a globalized cultural hierarchy that been flattened by ubiquitous digital communications that obliterate boundaries. It’s a healthy message: we’re all trying to learn so bring your best game.

We have found a certain refreshing straightforward attitude among the late Millenials and first outliers of Gen Z that is not defiant to that “old” street order necessarily. Instead they seem ready to face the New Order of late capitalism with the communication tools that they have gathered and refined along the way.

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While there has been a lot of hand-wringing by critics from the 1st wave (80s-90s) and 2nd wave (90s-00-10s) of graffiti/Street Art over the exploding mural movement for reasons rooted in hard-won scrappy street cred (and some nostalgia) no one is debating the New Muralisms’ powerful impact worldwide on public space, even if there is not yet appreciable critical discourse. From the old rebels turned gatekeepers there is a guarded and qualified appreciation yes, but probably not enough props are given for the new space that this muralism is creating for more artists and voices.

With a commercial eye toward the natural world and larger societal issues BKFoxx chooses subjects for their emotional impact and their ability to translates easily for an image-savvy audience whose endless hours of personal screen entertainment has produced an expectation for big budget Hollywood and consumer culture slickness with high-production values.

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With much consideration and dedication to the craft of painting as well as content, this can be seen as a departure from the hit-and-run Street Art culture of a decade ago, one that can only be accomplished with many hours and days on a legal mural.

BKFoxx sees with a photographers eye and sometimes directs the image to address subtext, even with biting critique: an American movie/tv culture that normalizes violence, the consumer acquisition mindset that reduces human interactions to superficiality, our disrespect for the same Earth that we depend on. It’s a credence built around the metaphoric image, whether with direct agenda or not, and BKFoxx is gifted at crafting some the strongest ones to communicate.

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We spoke with her this week about her newest mural in Brooklyn, a fictionally realistic scene of actual bear cubs looking with curiosity at a patched up toy bear. We asked her a few questions in between her breaks.

BSA: The animals depicted in your work have the feel as if you personally know them. Do you know some of them?
BKFoxx: Some of them. The less wild ones. I try to take my own photos as much as possible, but it’s tough when you’re painting a grizzly bear.

BSA: How do you communicate with animals – through conversation?
BKFoxx: You communicate with animals the same way you do with someone who doesn’t speak a word of your language. And it’s difficult, but when you have a moment of understanding between you, it’s one of the best feelings.

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: What do you think will happen when wildlife runs out of space because of increasing encroachment of human displacement of their habitat?
BKFoxx: I don’t know. I hope it doesn’t come to that. I think the thing people seem to miss is that their environment is everything around them, not one person or one place, but everyone and everything. Nobody lives in a vacuum. We are all affected by the world, no matter how far it seems from us sometimes. Taking care of the environment is taking care of ourselves.

BSA: There’s realism in your work but it goes beyond that. Your pictures are often imbued with social commentary. How did you become interested in social issues and why is so important for you to give them voice on your work?
BKFoxx: Social issues are just human issues. I paint things that I think, that I feel, affect me or people I care about. It’s actually hard for me to paint sometimes unless I am able to speak through it, I need to feel like there’s a reason for the work. And like I mentioned in the last answer, your environment is everyone. If I can improve the lives of the people around me, the quality of my own life will improve. And the world is so small these days, everyone is not too far away.

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: There’s also a mild sense of humor in your work, a gentle wit about it. Do you agree and if so can you talk about it?
BKFoxx: Part of the challenge for me is being able to say something important and profound but also keep the image itself light. I want you to want to look at it and find it aesthetically pleasing, even it’s about something kind of negative. And I like things that are tongue in cheek and clever – life without a sense of humor is pretty terrible.

BSA: What is the biggest challenge to painting outdoors in the city besides the weather?
BKFoxx: Being (usually alone) in an uncontrolled environment and trying to focus all my energy on working at the same time. And honestly, being a female. But only because people take so many more liberties when interacting with women than men. I know people, mostly strangers wouldn’t be sneaking up on me and hovering a foot above my shoulder or grabbing me for a photo if I were a dude.

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Who was your biggest influence when you were growing up?
BKFoxx: My dad. He is one of the best people I’ve ever met, everyone loves him – I’m very lucky to have him. He has always been incredibly supportive of anything I’ve wanted to do, and he really genuinely doesn’t care what I do as long as I am happy.

We used to play John Madden football on our Sega when I was a little kid. He would beat the crap out of me, and then at 60-0 he’d let me score and pretend I did it myself. I’d celebrate for a second, and then catch him smiling and throw a tantrum that he gave me any free points, which then made him laugh really hard. He’s my guy.

“Thanks so much to everyone who came to the opening and to everyone who supports my work!”

BKFOXX. WIP. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: When you paint you listen to music. What’s on your play list?
BKFoxx: All kinds of stuff, depends on my mood. I have a classical playlist, a hip hop playlist, an alternative playlist – just having something going helps me focus and block out the world around me a little bit.

BSA: Have you ever lived someplace else besides Long Island?
BKFoxx: I was born on Long Island and have always lived there – although I won’t always live in NY. I keep moving closer to the boroughs but New York City life is expensive and small – I need some space for paint. So sometimes I feel like I live in Brooklyn during the day and sleep on Long Island at night.


BKFOXX. Detail. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BKFOXX. JMZ Walls. Bushwick, Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)



LowBrow Artique is currently hosting a small exhibition by BKFoxx and she has created a limited edition print called “The Long Road Ahead ” for it.

 

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1st Mural By the Blind & Sighted in Brooklyn: Rubin415 & John Bramblitt for “World Sight Day”

1st Mural By the Blind & Sighted in Brooklyn: Rubin415 & John Bramblitt for “World Sight Day”

Brooklyn’s always breaking records – and today it can boast having the first mural collaboration between a Street Artist and a blind artist. Rubin415 and John Bramblitt have just combined their two uniquely different styles on a Bushwick wall to blast away misconceptions about art, blind artists, and the inevitability of people becoming blind.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Highlighting World Sight Day on October 12th, the new mural combines the modernly austere geometrical abstraction of Rubin415 with the striking realism and intense colorizing of John Bramblitt. The long thin wall at the base of a building in a lot provides a welcoming warmth and sophisticated decoding of the design complexity on display in our cityscape.

Blind/Sighted, Street/Studio, Finnish/American, Monotone/Vivid; It is a wonder that these two guys could work together at all. But as we found out during our interview at the wall last week, they forged a creative common ground – and a musical common ground that includes both being serious fans of  The Doors, the rock band from the classic era of the 1960s and 70s.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

On this bright and sunny late summer day in an empty Brooklyn lot, everybody was feeling the heat and looking for a cool place to sit while the street traffic charged by and receded into conversations, a gritty thick breeze gradually covering sweaty skin with a film of textured coating.

It’s not always easy to coordinate a small event like this, with artists, equipment, paint, a camera crew, and surprise visitors and inquisitive art fans, including neighbors and even the police, who came to investigate and give a message of support.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A project sponsored by the SeeNow campaign and executed by Purpose with JMZ Walls, the whole team want you to know that blindness can be avoided, eyes can be treated and, in cases like the artist John Bramblitt, obstacles can be overcome with fantastic results.

We spoke with the artists and organizers about the new mural, how Bramblitt devised a technique for painting, how they met and how they worked together.

BSA: Did you know each other prior to this project?
John Bramblitt: No. We met for this project – but I am a big fun of Rubin’s work.

BSA: Rubin did you know John’s work prior to this project?
Rubin415: No I hadn’t met him. They asked me if I wanted to collaborate with a visually impaired artist for World Sight Day on October 12th and I said “Sure!” It sounded interesting and I did some research about the organization and about John.

For me collaborating with another artist is all about the person, that is far more important than the work itself. Of course the work is also important – but it’s very important that I can connect and relate with the person. We also talked on the phone and yeah, we clicked. I have collaborated with many artists but never with any artist who is visually impaired.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: John, were you aware of Rubin’s work prior to this project? I am not sure when you lost your eyesight.
John: I wasn’t aware but I’m learning more and more about graffiti artists and street artists. I lost my eyesight in 2001 so it was quite a long ago – so the whole world on the street is incredible and yet I had no idea that all this time I have been walking through these cities and I haven’t been able to see the works and now I realize that I’ve been walking in an open door gallery basically. I was walking through a museum.

This makes me want to go back and revisit every city I have visited all these years since I lost my eyesight. It is incredible how a whole new world has opened up to me. With all this art that so many artists have been making the world is so much more beautiful and an interesting place to be. It’s like the mural we made here and the statement we want to make – we can take Art and make a great statement with art.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: John how is your memory?
John: When it comes to art is very good! (laughs) I can remember every painting I have made but when it comes to names my memory is not very good.

BSA: John Are you able to remember colors? How do you mix the colors?
John: It’s through touch. It basically works the same way with a sighted artist and how she or he would work when they mix their colors. With me, instead of using my eyes, I use my hands. Whenever I draw, I draw lines that I can feel. I know the lines are raised. For instance here on this wall the surface is very dry and grainy feeling so the paint that I’m using is slick. So it’s smooth and that makes it very easy for me to tell the lines.

It in my studio I mix mediums with the colors. With every color I actually build differently, like the red will feel differently than the blue because I mix it to feel differently. Here on this wall it’s a little bit different. I didn’t want to get crazy with the mediums; I wanted to be concerned about the weather and that the wall wouldn’t be damaged.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Were you trained by an expert to learn how to discern colors by using your hands?
John: No. I am the one who came out with the techniques for painting and one of the things that I do is go to the museums and I go to schools. I work with blind services all over and I try to teach visually impaired children – but there wasn’t anybody to teach me.

When I started I was lucky to learn about drafting and illustration and they were so supportive. So I’m just taking what I learned from that and from my traveling with my guide dog or with a cane. You learn techniques on how to touch and how to understand where you are – and where other things are. So I’m applying that to art. It is the same way I navigate a canvas or a wall. It is the same way I get around the city streets when I leave my house. The more I paint the easier it is for me to get around actually and the more I get around – the easier it’s for me to paint.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Rubin, was there a time at some point that you tried to describe your work to John?
Rubin: That’s a good question. You know what? Most of the time I forgot that John cannot see. We mostly talked about music and we kept painting listening to music – talking about music.

BSA: So are your musical tastes similar?
John: We actually like a lot of the same music, we were grooving on the same music actually.

Rubin: I asked John kind of a hard question. I asked if you were to pick you favorite musical artist who would that be? And you know he mentioned the same band that I will have chosen too: The Doors. I would also pick the Doors, it is a hard question but when John said that when we were talking about music I tried to go with my gut feeling and I knew that John and I will connect really well on that level.

BSA: It is fantastic that two plastic artists are able to connect and find common ground through a different artistic expression.
John: Oh my goodness. In my studio I have this technology where I can have a photograph and make it a raised line. I have 3-D printers and I can print things out. When Tony and I were talking about all of this I was able to feel his artwork. I was able to feel the lines, the geometry. The shadiness, of course, I couldn’t but the complexity I could. So as soon as I was feeling it I thought “Oh, I can’t wait to meet this guy. It’s just going to be so great.”

One concern I had because I cannot see when I’m working with another artist and I don’t know what they are doing – I don’t know what’s going on. But the moment I talked to Rubin and the moment I was able to feel his work – all of that went away. I thought “This is going to be brilliant. I cannot wait to get here and meet him and to see what he does on the wall, even though I worked on the wall as well. I also had the joy of being an spectator and to see his creative process.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So the difference between the museums and the street is that on the street you can actually touch the works but in museums you usually cannot go and touch the works, can you?
John: Not usually but it depends. The museums that I work with – we try to make the artwork more of a visceral experience. On the tour that I’m a part of when I’m giving talks we may actually go and touch the sculptures, or we will learn some dance – anything that we can do to use any of our other senses. In life we use all of our senses to get around the world and to appreciate things around you, so when you go to a gallery or to a museum and suddenly they say, “No you can only use your eyes,” its so restrictive. So this is one of the great things about street art. People can come and touch the artwork. They can have a picnic in front of it if they want.

BSA also talked with Joonas Virtanen from Purpose, who is the Creative Lead of the project:

BSA: Joonas how did you get involved with this?
Joonas: We were asked to do something interesting to raise awareness for World Sight Day. We decided not to do a normal traditional ad campaign, instead we decided to try something different and raise awareness through art. We have seen John’s work online and he blew us away with his processes and we are also big fans of street art – so we felt like how crazy would it be to see if John would be able to do some street art and essentially make the world’s first Street Art piece painted by a blind person.

But we also wanted to make sure that John was comfortable and that the whole piece was actually interesting so we needed to pair him up with an actual street artist and we were looking through some different options. We wanted to find someone whose style is distinct enough from John’s so that it compliments it instead of competing with it and I have seen Rubin’s work, I live here in Bushwick. I thought that he would be the perfect partner for this because of his work with its geometric lines, monochrome colors whereas John’s work is more like super colorful in his style, so I felt like those styles worked really well together. The first time I talked to Rubin over the phone I knew that he was going to be a very good partner.

John Bramblitt . Rubin415 for World Sight Day in collaboration with JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)


See Now | The movement to end avoidable blindness

www.seenow.org

International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB)

On World Sight Day, the IAPB will be releasing new country-specific data on avoidable blindness in your country.

www.atlas.iapb.org

Editors Note: The interviews were recorded and slightly edited for brevity and clarity.

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BSA Images Of The Week:07.16.17

BSA Images Of The Week:07.16.17


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A great collection of stuff this week during the height of summer in New York. From block parties where the street gets closed and cousin Eddie grills some meat and kids jump in bouncy houses or run through the water spraying from a fire hydrant, to going to  concerts in the park and sitting on a blanket with grapes and cheese and food from the deli, to spending the afternoon with a few hundred other close friends at McCarren pool or thousands on the sand at Coney Island, everybody wants to go out and play.

We’re all trying to forget our troubles and because – Hey! It’s only summer for a short time. Let’s go ride bikes! Let’s sit on a stoop and watch the pretty girls and boys go by. Let’s hike up the railroad tracks and see new graffiti and Street Art.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Damien Mitchell, El Sol 25, Jerkface, Marina Zumi, Molly Crabapple, Naveen Shakil, Nick Waler, Plasma Slug, RAD, and Sonny Sundancer.

Top image: Sonny Sundancer. Detail.The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonny Sundancer. The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerface (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Nick Walker. The L.I.S.A. Project NYC in Little Italy, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Molly Crabapple’s dark, frightening and humorous illustration about the mult-headed monsters steering the ship of state. She calls it “Trumpbeast”(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marina Zumi for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plasma Slug (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plasma Slug (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plasma Slug (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plasma Slug (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damien Mitchell for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Naveen Shakil (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. July 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.09.2017

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.09.2017

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Culture Vultures, yo. Those folks and corporations and brands who don’t originate, but they sure know how to take. They’ve been around for millenia, but are always a surprise anyway. This week the graffiti comedian Klops leads the way on Images of the Week. He’s always cracking us up with his social/political commentary – like Mother Mary and others at the foot of the cross taking a selfie with Jesus, or his bubble tagged slogans like “Yuck. Poor People,” “USA, Why You Always Lyin’?” and “War Money War Problems.” This week his culture vultures took us by surprise. Recognize anyone?

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Andrew Hem, BK Foxx, Camo Lords, Dede, Drinkala, Eelco Virus, Golden 305, Influx Residence, Key Detail, Klops, London Kaye, ONO, QRST, and Sipros.

Top image: Klops takes aim at Culture Vultures, those folks you just love. One of them is Mr. Brainwash, but who’s the other? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Key Detail for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Camo Lords (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eelco Virus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dede (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Andrew Hem. “Misty Blue” for INOPERAbLE Gallery and INFLUX Mural Residency. Providence, RI. June 2017. (photo © Damian Meneghini)

Drinkala for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BKFoxx doe JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros rendering of Dali as a dummy. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ONO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This actual wall appeared in a painting we covered in an interview we did with Laura Schecter last week. Below is her painting. Various artists hit up this magnet wall in Brooklyn regularly – and here it is viewed from the J train. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Laura Schecter in studio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Golden305 for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Summer 2017. Manhattan, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals Of 2016 – A “Social” Survey

BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals Of 2016 – A “Social” Survey

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Murals have captured so much of the popular imagination about what the Street Art scene is today and although they may be part of the definition, murals remain only a part of the entire scene; a visual conversation that includes legal, illegal, small, anonymous, massive, deliberately confounding, low-energy scrawl, stickers, tags, poetry, diatribes, culture jamming, ad takeovers, sculpture, installations. Every week we aim to present a varied selection of expressions currently represented on the street, and then it is your turn to respond.

During 2016 BSA readers responded to images via our website, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbr, and Facebook pages. In a thoroughly unscientific survey that calculates “likes” and “clicks” and “re-Tweets” and “impressions”, we tallied up which murals (or images) got the most interest from you all. Care to read into the results?

The top 3 really sum it all up for 2016 and shouldn’t surprise us, but they still do; Militarism, Mis-information, and the Man of the Year.

If you ever doubted how much art on the street reflects the psyche of a society back to itself, no need to wonder anymore. If only we could read these tea-leaves and tell the future…


No 15.
David Choe’s Portrait Of Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016.

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David Choe. Detail. Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally appearing here:

 


No 14
Plotbot Ken’s car installation on the Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin.

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Plotbot Ken’s post-apocolyptic installation on a car at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

 


No 13
Faust and Shantell Martin in Manhattan, NY.

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Handstyle and all New York, baby. Faust. Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 12
Swoon in Brooklyn, NY.

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One of Swoon’s new additions to the street in 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 11
ASTRO in East Harlem.

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ASTRO in East Harlem for #NotACrime campaign in collaboration with Street Art Anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 10 
Nychos in Manhattan, NY.

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More than his multiple murals published here this year, this sculpture on 23rd Street in Manhattan in the spring captured the imagination and gave his work an added dimension. Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 9 
MadC in Marrakesh, Morocco.

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Mad C. MB6 Street Art. Marrakesh Biennale 6. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 8
Maya Hayuk in Brooklyn, NY.

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Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 7
Invader in Jersey City, NJ.

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Space Invader in Jersey City for Mana Urban Arts Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 6
Collin Van Der Sluijs. Super A in Berlin.

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Collin Van Der Sluijs . Super A.  Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 5
Kurar in Berlin

brooklyn-street-art-kurar-jaime-rojo-berlin-03-06-16-web

Kurar for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 4
Biggie Smalls in Brooklyn, NY.

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Rocko & Zimer. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 3
Otto “Osch” Schade in Brooklyn, NY.

brooklyn-street-art-otto-osch-schade-jaime-rojo-05-01-16-web

OSCH for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 2
Klops in Brooklyn, NY.

brooklyn-street-art-klops-jaime-rojo-02-07-16-web

Klops for The Bushwick Collective illuminates the concentration of 90% of the media in the hands of 6 companies. In 1983 there were 50. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.


No 1
Ron English in Brooklyn, NY.

brooklyn-street-art-ron-english-jaime-rojo-june-2016

Ron English brings Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty on a wall – in collaboration with The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 05.01.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.01.16

brooklyn-street-art-otto-osch-schade-jaime-rojo-05-01-16-web
BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

“Hooray! Hooray! The first of May. Outdoor f***ing begins today!”

– Or at least that’s what we learned in school. Brooklyn’s hawthorn trees and lilacs are in bloom, as are the cherry trees in the Brooklyn Botanical Garden. High school girls are wearing short skirts and long hair and boys are well, boys; strutting around like peacocks trying to get attention with fun and foolish behavior, and Duke Riley is setting pigeons free after dark till June 12.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring BAT, Billi Kid, Binho, D7606, Damien Mitchell, Enzo Sarto, Freddy Sam, JMZ Walls, Kafka, Maya Hayuk, Modus, Mr. Toll, Otto “Osch” Schade, Pyramid Oracle, Ricky Lee Gordon, Seb Gorey, Weed Dude, and Zeso.

Our top image: OSCH for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Seb Gorey. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Seb Gorey (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ricky Lee Gordon AKA Freddy Sam for #notacrime campaign in West Harlem. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-ricky-lee-gordon-jaime-rojo-05-01-16-web-1

Ricky Lee Gordon AKA Freddy Sam for #notacrime campaign in West Harlem. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BAT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Maya Hayuk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zeso for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Enzo Sarto with Kafka (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Binho for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Billi Kid (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Modus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Damien Mitchell for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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d7606 and The Ramones (currently at the Queens Museum) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Weed Dude (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. April 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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