Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Chupa, Elsie the Cowww, Gane, Gemma Gene, Kai, Li-Hill, Mr. Babby, Panic, Peachee Blue, Pork, Skewville, Sydney G. James, and Zexor.
Did you see that micro-moon on Friday the 13th? We were up on the roof with artists and friends and weirdos celebrating “mid autumn moon” and looking at the New York skyline and that beautiful moon, which didn’t seem 14% smaller, did it? Seemed like your run-of-the-mill gorgeous Harvest Moon, right? Also, a dope opportunity to say “apogee“, which you just don’t get to say very much. No those are not those tassels that exotic dancers put on their nipples.
So here’s our harvest of Street Art and graffiti for you! The city has been producing amazing crops all year, to tell the truth.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Almost Over Keep Smiling, Crappytalism, Jason Naylor, Jocelyn Tsajh, Li-Hill, Peoples Power Assembly, Plannedalism, Pure Genius, Rider, Subway Doodle, Surface of Beauty, The Joker, Thomas Allen, and Will Kurtz.
Research about Grenoble, France was foundational to Canadian Street Artist Li-Hills’ new mural for this street art festival, as was science.
“The figures become an allegory for the technological advancements of humans through history,” says Li-Hill, “pulling the water from the neighboring rivers and harnessing energy into innovation throughout time.”
Hidden within this multiple exposure action painting is the artists research into the city’s geographic setting “amid the mountains and rushing rivers, allowing for the advancement in early Hydrological energy,” says the
Bushwick is in the mix this week as the new murals made to augment the collection for this years Bushwick Collective Block Party brought more persons and personality to the streets here. As murals are ruling this moment in the Street Art scene, today for your edification, this is how its looking out here.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Bert, BK Foxx, Cabaio Spirito, Franck Duval, Golden 305, Hops1, Jeff Henriquez, Li-Hill, Loomit, Michel Velt, Mr. Hydee, Mr. June, Niels Shoe Meulman, Reme821, Ruben Ubiera, Sipros, Skewville, and Solus.
BSA founders Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo are part of the Curatorial Team for the 2018 Artmossphere Biennale and today BSA is pleased to announce the “Open Call” for artists to apply.
Artmossphere is the only Russian biennale that focuses primarily on Street Art and its corollary practices, with the first two launching in 2014 and 2016. You may remember the full coverage BSA had in 2016 at the Moscow Manege;
60 Artists at a Moscow Street Art Biennale: “Artmossphere 2016”
Among the artists participating on previous editions of Artmossphere have been people like The London Police, Brad Downey, Claudio Ethos, Agostino Iocurci Miss Van, L’Atlas, Sickboy, Jaz, Nespoon, Martha Cooper, Remi Rough, Alexey Luka, Remed, Li Hill, Jessie and Katey, Moneyless, El Tono, and many others – but clearly you can see that the quality and diversity in practices and backgrounds is well represented here.
For the 2018 edition of the biennale we will be curating the program along with some of our respected peers internationally in this field and collectively we are asking artists to consider what it means to be “Offline”. So much of graffiti and Street Art’s roots extend back to a practice of making work for a largely local audience that is limited to geography.
Today much work in public space is conceived of, at least in part, for its ability to traverse to audiences on social media, blogs, video, and all manner of digital platforms. As we constantly are flooded with online Street Art, is it possible to be ‘Offline”?
The 2018 main exhibition will take place in the Excise Storehouse of Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art in Moscow from August 30th to October 17th. Additional special exhibitions will be held in the Red and White Halls, as well as in the art cluster outdoor territory.
The open call is open to Russian and international artists and applications with projects exploring this year’s theme will be reviewed by an international jury consisting of Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, co-founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com and curators at Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art (UN), Peter Ernst Coolen, curator of the Amsterdam Street Art Museum, Cedar Lewisohn, curator of the Street Art project in Tate Modern, Ethel Seno, researcher of street art and curator, Anna Dimitrova, curator of Adda Gallery, Paris and MTN Gallery, Barcelona, and Nikolay Palazhchenko, the founder of the Winzavod Centre for Contemporary Art in Moscow.
To take part in the biennale, Artmossphere artists should submit their portfolio and their project application for the biennale before June 18th, 2018. All the projects should be made exclusively for the biennale. Click here for all details.
#ARTMOSSPHERE #BKSTREETART
Welcome back! This is our first Images of the Week in weeks! So much has changed since last year!
For example we had a Bomb Cyclone this week, which no one had ever heard of before. It sounded like it was made up for ratings on the Weather Channel which is still trying to give storms individual names and is still thought of as very dumb for doing so.
The winter bomb cyclone closed all the schools, chased cars and people off the streets. Jaime took the snowstorm opportunity to go to Central Park and shoot video till his battery died. Once the temperature dipped to 3 degrees farenheit (-14 celcius) with strong winds, seeing Street Art in New York was sort of something to do as you stumbled and slipped passed it in a hurry to the deli or laundromat or job if you work in medical services or drive a snow plow.
Luckily for us all, that was the only bomb we have had to deal with, but with the Very Stable Genius we have misleading the country, no one can say for sure for how long .
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Ai Wei Wei, Baron Von Fancy, Bäst, Basto, Havoc Hendricks, Jimmy C, Juce Boks, Li-Hill, Otto Schade, Tinta Crua, Tomadee, Wane, Wk Interact, and Zola.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adnate, Ben Angotti, Cekis, Cesism, Damien Mitchell, Danielle Mastrion, Dirt Cobain, Evan Paul English, Gongkan, Li-Hill, MeresOne, UFO 907, Vince Ballentine, and You Go Girl!
To learn more about the work that Young New Yorkers do and to get involved click HERE
Here is the first public look at the new print by Li-Hill which he made especially to aid Heliotrope programs in Haiti and Braddock, Pennsylvania for Swoon and Heliotrope Prints. The limited run print will be released this week, April 6th, at a pop up show opening in Manhattan and we hope you can come.
Street Artist Swoon asked BSA to curate this special Spring 2017 edition of prints and we chose Li-Hill as one of six world renowned Street Artists whose work we admire greatly and whom we think you will appreciate as well.
Canada-now-Brooklyn-based Li-Hill uses some of the language of graffiti in his mural painting, but you can be sure where it originates. There is a definite wildstyle, but it is scientific in nature, arrays of nerve receptors and transmitters; beams of light shooting outward, mirroring back. His figures are heroic, his animals allegorical, his diagnosis a thunderbolt of revelation. He says the works are meant as critique of the modern expressions of age-old battles of man against nature, man against himself, fears of losing our grip on technology. The complex sculptural installations, the painting, illustration, and stenciling – it blends and balances, and takes him around the world including Australia, Thailand, China, Myanmar… we last saw him in Moscow. Now he’s heading back to Montreal, closer to his familiar Toronto… but we’ll let him tell you about it.
We asked Li – Hill about this new piece for the Heliotrope benefit.
BSA: Can you tell us about the image you have chosen for this new release?
Li-Hill: The image I have chosen is something newly made for the release.
Lately I have been creating these split scenes, dividing the picture plane into a dark background and a light background to marrying two thematic and stylistic approaches into a single idea. This is the first time utilizing this approach off of a wall.
A lot of my work is about the effects our current global dynamic of information saturation, technological advancements and economic structures effect the outside and inner worlds. Many of my figures are about the psychological impact while the animals allude to the ecological effects. Here they are both represented and reacting to the circumstances of their world. There is also a reoccurring theme of man versus nature in my work and at it’s most basic level that is what this design depicts but the fact the two main subjects (the figure and the bear) face away from each other creates a more ambiguous reading, they could be attacking each other or both reacting to their own hostile individual situations.
BSA: Do you have a special connection with the people of Haiti or Swoon?
Li-Hill: Not specifically besides knowing her work for a long time. She has been an inspiration through so many of her projects. I find it really inspiring that she works to change the world around her by not just making artwork about that change but using that work in practical ways to benefit people. I think the first project that really impressed me about her approach were the floating ships. The fact that the project wasn’t just the act of having these floating artworks but that it created a community around them was so impactful. I also own a print of hers from donating to one of her projects years ago. It was the music box in New Orleans and the idea of a house as an instrument was so intriguing to me.
BSA: How do you see the role of an artist in relation to addressing socio-political/humanitarian issues in the world?
Li-Hill: I see this role shifting between artists and the work they create. I think it depends a lot on the artist and what they are addressing. I use to think that work that did not address these issues was a missed opportunity, that artwork should address the ills of the world to help better it. But sometimes I see it in another light, that if every artist and artwork were political or heavy with message, we would be over burdened. Sometimes touching on other subjects can allow the viewer a break from the pressures of the world. I do personally think that it is very important that artists do address these issues because in many ways we are set up in our society to impact a lot. It reminds me of a quote by Queen Victoria that one should “Beware of artists. They mix with all classes of society and are therefore the most dangerous.”
BSA: Many art fans are excited to buy prints of their favorite artists – have you made many prints in the past?
Li-Hill: No, I actually have only made 3 prints in the past and small runs of each. I have also never made a print of one of my figures in motion.
BSA: What new project are you looking forward to this year?
Li-Hill: I am really looking forward to the Montreal Mural festival where my proposal to create a semi-permanent installation has been approved. I am excited because it will be one of the first outdoor installations that is on the street as well as combining a community element. I will be asking neighbors to house elements of the installation on their balconies and in windows. It should be really interesting and a fun project. I also really love Montreal and haven’t been back in years.
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We are honored that Li-Hill agreed to participate in this show with us and pleased that she is part of this great effort.
WHAT: Swoon x Heliotrope x BSA Pop-Up Opening Reception
WHEN: Thursday, April 6 at 6 PM – 9 PM
WHERE: 88 1/2 7th Avenue, between 15th & 16th St., New York, NY
Live DJ for your enjoyment. Refreshments provided by Stolen Rum and by Smart Beer
Hello and happy Saturday to you! Hope you are finding time to relax and to do some laundry and maybe bake some cookies or go out and paint or see some art today. We’re starting the day with an egg and cheese on a roll and a large coffee from the local deli – and thinking about how lucky we are to be curating a small print show for Street Artist Swoon next week. We hope you will be able to come by and support her and her team, our team, your team – next week in NYC.
And what a strong show it is! We’re honored to present six world-renowned Street Artists who each have established clarion voices of their own in the last decade or so – on the street and in more formal settings, with inspiring, sometimes breathtaking work. Additionally we know that each one of these artists hasn’t forgotten why they started doing work on the street and each have a deep connection to helping others – which is the real way of keeping it real.
Starting Monday, one by one, we’ll reveal each of the the new prints from works by Case Maclaim, Li-Hill, Faith XLVII, Miss Van, Icy & Sot and Tavar Zawacki (aka Above) for this brand new edition of Heliotrope Prints. You will have the first look! In addition to the prints Caledonia Curry AKA Swoon will present a new series of her hand drawings from Haiti – a selection you will totally dig.
Have a good Saturday! Sending love from Brooklyn.
WHAT: Swoon x Heliotrope x BSA Pop-Up Opening Reception
WHEN: Thursday, April 6 at 6 PM – 9 PM
WHERE: 88 1/2 7th Avenue, between 15th & 16th St., New York, NY
Live DJ for your enjoyment. Refreshments provided by Stolen Rum and by Smart Beer
Brooklyn Street Artist Swoon has traveled to hot, hopping Hong Kong recently to create the façade for the tramline with HKwalls, a program of customization for the historic public transportation cars in the city center that has included also Portuguese Street Artist Vhils with HOCA, and during Art Basel this year a site specific tram from Hong Kong artist Kingsley Ng.
Not surprisingly, as is the custom of Street Artists everywhere, the wheat-pasting romantic portraitist introduced a number of her friends to the streets of the Incense Harbor city among its myriad winding cobblestones, wending staircases, and wiley alleyways.
The experience of a local is perhaps to discover this new entity on a wall suddenly, a figure so full of presence and personality as if it may speak to you. As an international traveler the experience may be to be greeted in a foreign land by a friendly familiar face.
In our case, that same face greeted us again in the entirely scrubbed austerity of the white cube of a Parisian art dealer, nested as it was among a honeycomb of other white boxed and illuminated beneath a vast white canvas on a pier by the Ferris Wheel.
We meditated lightly on this topic of the gallery on the street – commercial gallery – museum gallery continuum during our Images of the Week wrap up this week. It is an unusual position that Street Artists’ occupy and one that introduces topics around speech, advertising, commercialism, and traditional graffiti practices of getting up and marking one’s name.
And now we muddy those waters once again, by telling you of a BSA-curated show of new prints that will benefit the Heliotrope Foundation when it debuts next week in New York. Swoon’s Heliotrope non-profit is literally building community, homes, shelter, and helping people become teachers in Haiti. (more at end of posting)
By donating our efforts along with the donated talents of 6 world-renowned Street Artists; Miss Van, Tavar Zawacki (Above), Li-Hill, Case Maclaim, Faith XLVII, and Icy & Sot, we encourage others to contribute to Heliotrope and to buy a custom new print from these artists. We’re proud to curate for this project, to be associated with these great artists, and to provide a platform for everyone to make these connections.
Additionally, Swoon herself will release new drawings from Haiti.
A fun time on the streets this week in New York and elsewhere in the Northern Hemisphere as parts of spring infuse the air with excitement and hormones – later to be drowned in rain, or smothered under snow!
The rolling dumpster fire keeps frightening and perplexing everyone and we are gradually figuring out that as dreadfully entertaining as the occupant of the White House is, the real story is the wealthy men behind him stabbing at the poor and the elderly and the sick and the immigrants. Please, the only thing that is going to help us is a sense of humor and a lot of yelling apparently.
Almost every day you see new Street Art about this situation, this multi-pronged attack on the people, which quite possibly has begun to frighten those people who thought they were voting for a populist who cared about them.
Today we even have a homemade sign that has been scotch-taped into a car window on BSA Images of the Week. No one can say we’re elitist, bro. We’re down with your moms too, son! Get out that scotch tape!
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Adam Fujita, DeerBLN, Fred le Chevalier, Li-Hill, Moe79, Ostap, Senz.
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BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
