You are invited to The Top of The Standard (442 West 13th Street), this Saturday, March 5th, where JoséParlá will be signing his new monograph from 6 PM to 9 PM. This event is open to the public.
Junkerade, a London collective on Flickr, has posted images of a new campaign accusing Red Bulls’ new site that uses Google’s “Street View” technology of hijacking street art culture. With some simple handwritten posters they have begun a visual street backlash to encourage other discontents to mess with the messaging, including the posted piece above.
According to Junkerade, “Red Bull want to use it to flog their products without asking … to make them seem down and edgy. Let ’em know what you think, let them know they have no right to take our culture and try and sell it back to us in the form of a sugary drink”. It’s hard to predict how this will go down, but other Iphone and Android apps introduced over the last couple of years have struggled to populate their databases with relevant, accurate, good quality images and contributors. In a sweeping commercial gesture like this toward what many see as a grassroots movement, it is easy to question the company’s motives. Social media has a way of determining the rendering a decision, and so does the street.
And Now Some Levity with Devo and a Singing Unicorn!
And an ad for gum at the end that has nothing to do with us.
Comrade Luna Park charges through the streets camera in hand with panther-like determination and captures the wild (and wildstyle) on the urban safari. Monday you can get a chance to see her images and listen to her talk about her adventures in photography – or as she tells us,
“I’ll be telling the unlikely story of how a thirtysomething librarian fell into street art and became hopelessly addicted to graffiti along the way.”
“Street art is the fastest visual conductor out there. It compels people to think and question, react and connect, not just to the artist’s work but with the real issues that we battle each and every day. I believe for art to succeed it’s all about the experience and not about the possession. Art in the streets is an immediate communicator. It beats out advertising, text-based social media and even video. In this type of window presentation we are reducing the value of an art object to that of a shared visual experience for the general public and passerby without an admission fee.
The Donnell library was always known as the art library in the city. For the artists to respond to ‘a sense of place’ is like a location shot in a movie; you attempt to transcend that specific space to become something bigger than it originally was.
Street projects such as the upcoming Pantheon installation allow artists to modify, update and change their work to reflect what is happening in the real world. Try putting up a different painting in a gallery or museum exhibition. It’s not going to happen”.
While Nick Walker is in town hitting up all kinds of fancy, he spent a little time with BSA to make this new stencil in The People’s Republic of Brooklyn, above. Coming from the printers to check on the progress of the new release tomorrow (see below), Nick and his merry cluster of “assistants” rolled through the BK to poke his head into a couple of windows. Full process pics and the installation come up Sunday on BSA’s Images of the Week.
Nick Walker will be releasing a print in collaboration with Opera Gallery, 115 Spring Street, New York, this Saturday, February 26th, 2011 at 3pm EST. A lottery has been set up making 50 prints available for collectors in the UK. In order to apply for a print please email info@theartofnickwalker.com with New York TMA lottery in the subject box.
Nick Walker’s “Morning After New York” print release at Opera Gallery Tomorrow at 3:00 p.m.
The print will be a signed limited edition of 150 with 18 hand-finished Artists proofs.
Royce Bannon Catches Unusual Suspects at 17 Frost Tomorrow
Check out Abe Lincoln Jr. Celso, Chris RWK, Darkclouds, Infinity, Keely, Matt Siren, Moody, Nose Go, and Sno Monster, all curated by monster man Royce Bannon at this eclectic show in Brooklyn Saturday night. Read more and see images from the show HERE:
Please Support the Pantheon Show Across from the MoMA in April
This spring at the former Donnell New York Public Library across the street from MoMA Joyce Manalo and Daniel Feral will bring you PANTHEON: A History of Art From the Streets of NYC. This artist’s initiative is a 40 year history of New York Street Art told by the people who actually did the work. Run with volunteers, this show promises an erudite assessing of this moment in the timeline, and a look at how we got this far – and daily demonstrations in the windows. With your pledge to their Kickstarter campaign they will be able to afford to print catalogues and mount the show. Please throw them a buck! Click Here to see their KickStarter.
Opening Saturday October 16 from 18H Addict Galerie
Exposition Collective du 16 Octobre au 4 Décembre Mardi Samedi 11 :00 – 19 :00
Group Show from October 16th to December 4th Tuesday Saturday 11 :00 – 19 :00
La rue, laboratoire dun nouveau mode dexpression
Un art est né dans la rue parce que ses auteurs ne se définissaient pas comme des artistes. Cétait là, la révolution. Des jeunes aux doigts errants, voulaient simplement rappeler leur existence en prenant à partie un paysage urbain, prison de briques et de pierres, souvent délabrée, qui servait de décor à leur vie. Depuis maintenant plus dun demi-siècle, lesthétique des cités sen est trouvée modifiée.
On a souvent dénoncé le spontanéisme immature de ces peintres clandestins qui nobéissaient en réalité quà un besoin instinctif dexpression visant à déconstruire un certain académisme des formes. Dabord terrain dexpérimentation de jeunes amateurs, la rue est devenue le lieu dexposition dartistes issus des meilleures écoles allant à la rencontre dun public, souvent absent des musées.
A rebours de lindividualisme traditionnel du créateur, ces artistes ont su développer générosité et sens du partage pour élaborer des projets collectifs. Ils ont également renouvelé les outils traditionnels de la peinture en explorant toutes les techniques et tous les types de supports. Certains dentre eux en revisitent laspect figuratif avec lironie dun langage métaphorique. Dautres sapproprient aussi le multimédia pour nous sensibiliser aux dangers du monde virtuel.
Lart urbain est désormais un art de vivre pour beaucoup de ses adeptes, artistes authentiques à linspiration variée qui entendent créer en toute légalité, sur des supports autorisés.
Surgit alors un paradoxe : comment ces innovateurs nomades, ayant élu la rue comme terrain dexpérimentation, habitués à y exposer des travaux destinés à disparaître, comment ces acteurs du provisoire peuvent-ils se laisser enfermer dans un musée ou une galerie ?
Une chose est sûre : en investissant « lintérieur », en renonçant à leur clandestinité, ces artistes ne perdent rien de leur authenticité. Ils revendiquent simplement une inspiration différente mais fidèle à leur démarche créatrice. Tous se promettent également de retourner sexprimer dans la rue. Cette tendance nest pas nouvelle. Le passage du mur et du wagon au support léger, mobile et collectionnable se produit déjà à New York dès la fin des années 70, avec Crash, Lady Pink !
Face à ces tentatives qui se mondialisent que pense le citadin de ces « uvres » quon lui met sous le nez ? Il demeure sceptique, parfois choqué, souvent dérouté. Institutions et critiques en ont tiré prétexte pour tenir à lécart ces fabricants de signes indéchiffrables, ravalés au rang de propagateurs dune sous culture de ghetto aux slogans parfois subversifs.
La presse, de son côté, a fait preuve dune étonnante absence de curiosité à légard de ce mouvement quand elle ne la pas fustigé allant jusquà le traiter « dart dégénéré ».
Les musées lont largement ignoré. Les collectionneurs, mal informés, ne pouvaient que se montrer frileux à son endroit.
Un tel contexte assigne à lart urbain une place singulière dans lhistoire et ne facilite pas sa reconnaissance comme mouvement artistique à part entière. Même si la situation évolue lentement, à ce jour en France, très peu dexpositions lui ont été consacrées. Elles ont notamment peu pris en compte la variété des techniques quil met en uvre, ni la richesse de son inspiration, passant même à côté de certains de ses grands acteurs.
Il nétait que temps de témoigner de limportance dun des élans créatifs les plus révolutionnaires du Vingtième siècle car inscrit dans une époque condamnée à lentassement humain dont il réinvente les formes dart pictural.
Pour rendre compte de son ampleur, Addict Galerie lui consacre deux expositions, la première débutera le 16 Octobre 2010. Ce panorama voudrait témoigner du foisonnement des talents qui lirradie. Seront entre autres rassemblées les uvres de plus de quarante artistes internationaux, des pionniers tels Gérard Zlotykamien, John Crash Matos, Doze Green, Lady Pink, John Fekner et Don Leicht, Jean Faucheur, Toxic jusquaux jeunes talents tels Imminent Disaster, Jazi, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, 36RECYCLAB, Mambo Partageront aussi ses murs Jaybo, Marco Pho Grassi, Victor Ash, Herakut, Andrew Mc Attee, Nick Walker, Kofie, Boris Hoppek, Thomas Fiebig, LATLAS, Mist, TRYONE, Smash 137, Eelus, Dtagno, 108
Ce projet unique en son genre suppose une subjectivité dans les choix dont Addict Galerie a conscience et quelle assume librement. Il sagit pour nous de révéler, loin des sentiers battus, la cohérence dun mode dexpression qui, à travers sa multiplicité, saffirme comme imaginatif, inspirant et novateur.
La scénographie proposée scande en deux temps le parcours de ce panorama sans en briser lunité même si la première étape comporte une dominante plus abstraite et la seconde plus figurative. Cette approche conforte au contraire une vision globale qui voudrait souligner la réussite du passage de cet art en galerie.
Par cette initiative hors norme, Addict Galerie souhaite rendre justice à lart urbain et laider à asseoir sa légitimité artistique.
Laetitia Hecht et René Bonnell
Pour toutes demandes Contactez la galerie : +33 (0)1 48 87 05 04 / info@addictgalerie.com
Information available upon request Contact the gallery: +33(0)1 48 87 05 04 / info@addictgalerie.com
ADDICT GALERIE
Laetitia Hecht
14/16 rue de Thorigny
75003 Paris – France.
T: +33(0)1 48 87 05 04
info@addictgalerie.com
ERIC FIRESTONE GALLERY PRESENTS:
I wanted to invite you to the launch of DOWN BY LAW: New York’s Underground Art Explosion, 1970s–1980s, a new exhibition I am co-curating, which opens at the Eric Firestone Gallery in East Hampton on Saturday, August 14.
The exhibition surveys the originators and innovators of the graffiti and street art movements, looking at where they have been and where they have come over the past 40 years. Highlights include:
Paintings by Coco 144, whose work in the early 1970s earned him the title “The Marcel Duchamp of graffiti subculture.”
Rarely seen canvases from the early 1980s by style master Dondi White, who by age 22 had had seven solo exhibitions and whose painting was in several European museum collections.
Zephyr’s animation sequence frames for Charlie Ahearn’s iconic film, Wild Style.
Original drawings from “Yo! MTV Raps”, plus original logo designs for the Beastie Boys, Run-DMC, and the Cold Chillin’ record label.
Featured artists include Charlie Ahearn, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Blade, Henry Chalfant, Coco 144, Joe Conzo, Martha Cooper, Cope 2, Daze, Jane Dickson, Dr. Revolt, John Fekner, Cousin Frank aka Ghost, Michael Halsband, Keith Haring, Eric Haze, Keo, Eric Kroll, LA2, Lady Pink, Greg LaMarche, Michael Lawrence, Chris Pape aka Freedom, Rammellzee, Carlos “Mare 139″ Rodriguez, Anita Rosenberg, Sharp aka Aaron Goodstone, Jamel Shabazz, T-kid 170, Dondi White, and Zephyr.
EAST COAST SPACE
4 NEWTOWN LANE
EAST HAMPTON, NY 11937
631-604-2386
Welling Court Mural Project Opens Over the Weekend in a Queens Community; Many Street Artists Contribute
There can be a bit of grand posturing around the word “community” especially by people (or corporations) who spend more time chasing the Gravy Train than climbing on the Love Train.And swimming in an acid-tongued media landscape that keeps saying we’re are a giant polarized society simply bubbling with animosity, you could be forgiven for not leaving your house, let alone breaking bread with your neighbor who is different.
New York people prove that lie to be wrong every day – we are a hugely diverse lot- our different mother tongues alone could lick a frosting bowl the size of Shea Stadium. And yet mysteriously all of us weird different kinds of people are all getting along with each other day after day – sometimes we even enjoy each other!
Welling Court Murals, a project with Street Artists in a neighborhood in Queens, New York, came to fruition on Saturday and the results were as colorful and eclectic as we are. While the people on the block barbecued and danced and played games, kids chased each other and rode their bikes and took many pictures of Street Artists doing their thing on the walls- spray cans, paint brushes, wheat paste, and markers busy.
Saturday was the “show day” for this project that the folks at Ad Hoc Art, with Alison and Garrison Buxton at the helm, have been “community organizing” for a long time. However, by no means is it the end of the project, as new friendships and alliances were forged and a neighborhood has a new panoply of street art to look at, ponder, and hopefully be inspired by.
The Welling Court Mural Project was one of the most cohesive “community” events we’ve seen in a long time. Street Artists plus an engaged neighborhood of very nice people… delicious home-made foods, music from Latin America and India/Pakistan, adults, kids, painting, asking and answering myriad questions, posing for pictures in front of pieces — all proving again that the arts can bring people together. A sincere “Thank you” to Ad Hoc and Allison and Garrison and all the artists for putting your best out there for others to share.
Welling Court Artists include: Alice Mizrachi, Beast, Chris Mendoza, Chris Stain, Celso, Cern, Cey Adams, CR, Cycle, Dan Witz, Darkclouds, Daryll Peirce, Don Leicht, Ellis G, Free5, Gaia, Garrison & Alison Buxton, Greg Lamarche, JMR, John Fekner, Lady Pink, Leon Reid, Matt Siren, M-City, Michael De Feo, Mr. Kiji, Pablo Power, Peripheral Media Projects, R. Nicholas Kuszyk, Remi/Rough, Ron English, Royce Bannon, Sofia Maldonado, Stormie Mills, Sweet Toof, Swoon, TooFly, Tristan Eaton, and Veng RWK.
No, not Queen Elizabeth, – it’s the borough of Queens this time.
Ad Hoc Art, with the Queen Alison Buxton and her ever-loyal servant Garrison at the helm, are putting together a very fun and expansive show on the walls on Saturday.We know the list, and there are a couple special guests, so don’t miss it. It’s kind of far, but it will be worth it when you get there.
Welling Court Artists include: Alice Mizrachi, Beast, Chris Mendoza, Chris Stain, Celso, Cern, Cey Adams, CR, Cycle, Dan Witz, Darkclouds, Daryll Peirce, Don Leicht, Ellis G, Free5, Gaia, Garrison & Alison Buxton, Greg Lamarche, JMR, John Fekner, Lady Pink, Leon Reid, Matt Siren, M-City, Michael De Feo, Mr. Kiji, Pablo Power, Peripheral Media Projects, R. Nicholas Kuszyk, Remi/Rough, Ron English, Royce Bannon, Sofia Maldonado, Stormie Mills, Sweet Toof, Swoon, TooFly, Tristan Eaton, and Veng RWK.
The neighborhood of Park Slope in Brooklyn is better known for beautiful Brownstones, impossible parking, towering maples, social liberals and baby strollers than graffiti or street art.There is one commercial strip down the upper middle of this town-y enclave,with delis and bagel shops and The New York Times on Sunday –and aside from the occasional mural or stickered paper-box, not a whole lot of Street Art action.
On a recent sunny Saturday on 5th ave and Union Street, you may have seen a window display that made you think of street art. In fact, you can see it from the street, and local artist Ryan Seslow is a huge fan of the New York Street Art scene.
Park Slope window installation by artist Ryan Seslow as a satelite to “Programmed”
Brooklyn Street Art: Tell us about yourself.
Ryan Seslow: My name is Ryan Seslow. I’m a multidisciplinary artist living and working in New York. I am also a professor of fine arts teaching studio courses between 4 colleges here in NY and I’m always involved in several different projects at once, it seems, either as an artist, curator, or both.
I feel like I’m 3 or 4 different kinds of artists all trapped into one body. I have more energy than I usually know what to do with, so I love to exercise that on artistic potential and experimentation. Making art from a very young age, my real love for art came from the inspiration I found in 1980’s graffiti, public art, and cartoons. Martha Cooper’s “Subway Art” was, and still is, one of my all-time favorite books.
I was a teenager when the b-boy movement got a hold of me. My entire family is from various parts of Brooklyn, so weekends and summers were spent combing the streets looking for inspiration, while trying to mimic the works I saw.
The original “Subway Art” book by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant
Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about “Programmed” and what it’s about?
Ryan Seslow: I was recruited to do a satellite installation for “Programmed“, a show about rethinking the relationship with these electronic objects in our lives that we no longer use. The concept of the show was to synthesize the use of obsolete electronics into your work. It touches areas of recycling and the ephemeral existence of many things in today’s world.
I had already been doing this in another commercial window space for a few years, so the fit was nice and exciting. The owner also had this great public window space that he wanted to use to showcase my installation-based works, rather than just filling the space with redundant advertising so we collaborated ideas on the use of the space.
In both projects I wanted to inspire and reach the general public of Park Slope with colorful installations that would show a variety of traditional art techniques as well as more non-traditional works. The context of the commercial window space was perfect to contradict what is essentially public work.
Artist Ryan McIntosh’s piece from the “Programmed” exhibit, made from hard drives, is called “Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall” (image courtesy www.cultofmac.com)
Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about some of the materials you used and their significance.
Ryan Seslow: The materials are intuitive manifestations and representations of what can be used to make ART. I’m all about the allowance of communication and self-expression. The curators did ask me to emphasize the use of obsolete electronics. The Mac Support Store (the installation site) is also a hub for the recycling of used computer parts.
The store had this enormous mountain of stuff to choose from and I was drawn to the keyboards right away because keyboards are objects of serious potential; amazing tools and an intermediary means of infinite communication. Each keyboard has the potential of writing the next great literary novel or the next great resolution to help the world. The keyboards connect both the familiar and unfamiliar imagery in the installation, maybe helping the viewers create narratives between the pop icons and the technology.
“I love making art. I’m pretty much obsessed with the process of generating things. I love learning new skills, not so much to isolate the skill itself, but more to integrate it into what I am already doing. I like to test the potentials of things,” Ryan Seslow.
Brooklyn Street Art: How long did it take you to prepare for this, and do the installation?
Ryan Seslow: This installation was built in less than two hours – It is an art practice in itself.
My installations are all intuitive and immediate. I have been working pretty large for about 10 years now so the energy that goes with setting up an installation is always thrilling and I like the challenge of working with the space. Each piece is created individually, so they must hold up that way first, but the installations are 100% modular. Every piece must ultimately fit and work together as a whole by means of form, color and content.
Brooklyn Street Art: Do you think of this as street art?
Ryan Seslow: I do think of this installation as street art. I have been a lover and a participant in the medium of street art for a long time. I may be a lot more careful about when and where I put my work up than I was 10 years ago; that knowledge comes from past experiences. Art forms should be embraced as ongoing expanding things, by seeing the potential of why and how they can fit the foundation of where they began. This exercise itself forms ideas and allows for expansion.
The work is right on the street, the viewers are those walking by on the side walk, or driving by in their cars. It has been framed in glass and protected to a degree. I find this interesting as well. I anticipate more museums and galleries doing this in the future as the context of public art develops and artists continue to push its limits.
Brooklyn Street Art: Do you have any favorite Street Artists whose work you follow?
Ryan Seslow: I love and follow several street artists on a daily basis. I’m a big fan of the BSA site as well as the Wooster Collective. Some of my favorite artists are John Fekner, Michael DeFeo, Gaia , Jeff Soto, Abe Lincoln Jr., Miss Van, Faile, Bast, Robert Williams, Lady Pink , Fafi, Gary Baseman, Tim Biscup, Barry McGee, Swoon, and so many more, too many to name!
Ryan used computer pieces, paper, film, and this image of Jackie Kennedy on the screen of a monitor for the installation.
Brooklyn Street Art: How does Jackie Kennedy figure into the piece?
Ryan Seslow: Funny, Jackie O and JFK have always left this long-lasting impression on me. When the John F. Kennedy assassination was brought up to me in the 5th or 6th grade, in a history class, it never left me. I recall being really freaked out by the way I was interpreting the whole event. As time went on, by the time we got into high school, we were shown the actual assassination film itself (you know the one). At least once a year, I seek to find old and grainy images of the couple. I think they represent some form of the ephemeral with in me. They remind me that our stay here on this planet is not forever, it activates this crazy gratitude to and for all things.
60 second silent collage of the Kennedys.
Brooklyn Street Art: Do you ever hang out and spy on people who have stopped to look at your installation?
Ryan Seslow: Nah, not too much spying, but I do get people who approach me and ask some interesting questions from time to time. Kids seem to be big fans on a regular basis! I have gotten several independent commissions this way, just by creating live art that invites the public to participate by simply talking to me. I am always left with a memory of the experience.
Brooklyn Street Art: You’ve done drawing, painting, stenciling, collage, even sculpture – is there something you haven’t tried but would like to?
Ryan Seslow: That is a great question. I love making art. I’m pretty much obsessed with the process of generating things. I love learning new skills, not so much to isolate the skill itself, but more to integrate it into what I am already doing. I like to test the potentials of things. I would love to do more with the synthesis of street art, public sculpture, experimental film and collaborations.
Actually, this is what I mean; I want to collaborate more with other artists. There is so much to learn when you work with other people, which is one of the main reasons I became an art professor.
Detail from the installation by Ryan Seslow
Brooklyn Street Art: What’s the next project you’ll be working on?
Ryan Seslow: Got several things going on right now. I’m teaching 8 courses this semester, so teaching is a bit more demanding than usual. I’m also curating a special video art/experimental documentary program for The Streaming Festival in the Netherlands , working on an installation series for public art in Jericho Plaza in Long Island, a group video art stills project in Denmark, participating in MagMart in Naples, and I’m part of a top secret underground stencil project.
All images of Ryan Seslow’s work courtesy the artist.
“Programmed”: a group installation art exhibition, is curated by Michele Jaslow & Spring Hofeldt. Park Slope, Brooklyn. The show is open until March 13, 2010.
The Mac Support Store is located at 168 7th Street in Brooklyn. The store is open Monday thru Friday from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The store is closed on Sundays.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
