Street Artist Cake brought her hand painted people to Albany yesterday, with these portraits of a “wondrous traveler”named Saige. A fine artist who makes one of a kind wheate-pasted pieces as a means of therapy and tribute, Cake has a unique style that is at once melodic and medical, enabling the viewer to have x-ray vision. Recently Cake has been introducing metallic, as in these two new pieces using silver leaf.
Living Walls Albany
*For the most up to date information follow us Mural by Mural on-
http://livingwallsalbany.tumblr.com/
and also
About
Living Walls: Albany is a project designed to raise awareness about the use of public space. It is about exploring options that a smaller city like ours has and giving the people here a chance to interact with public space as they never have before. Through a series of lectures, performances, and the involvement of some of the world’s great mural artists, we are looking to provide and education into public art. The Living Walls project is intent on creating an open dialogue between the people and city.
The Living Walls conference was started in Atlanta GA. Along with changing the urban landscape, the Living Walls conference set out to highlight a number of problems facing the city. Living Walls did not just showcase art, but also built a platform for much-needed dialogue in the city. The success of the event was so great that Living Walls is returning this year to take place in Atlanta, Ga and Albany, NY.
Dates For 2011
September 16th – 18th
Venues for Living Walls: Albany
St. Joe’s– 38 Ten Broeck
The Marketplace Gallery– 40 Broadway
Grand Street Community Arts– 68 Grand St
“Arrival and Departure” Performance Art venue-99 Pine St.
Contact
For more information please feel free to contact us by email: livingwallsalbany@gmail.com
or visit our site at:
“The amount of talent pouring into Albany is incredible,” says Street Art stencilist Joe as he watched the Street Artists arrive and spread out to hit their walls right now. Broken Crow has been in the capitol city since the weekend, ROA just touched down and How & Nosm is coming from Miami on Friday – and that’s just a taste. “By week’s end, the transformation will be something to see for sure,” Joe glows.
For his part, Mr. Iurato spent a couple of days in beautiful late summer sun drenched bliss and managed to knock out two pieces – one on Central ave in Albany, the other on a highway buttress across the river in neighboring Rensellaer. Hewing to some of his favorite themes, you will see references to faith, redemption and the spiritual journey here in some exclusive pics just for BSA readers.
Overunder is a fast-moving free-associating surrealist whose Street Art pieces catch your eye as you skip past a run down neglected piece of property. Always balancing on the edge of your reality and his boundless imagination, the painted plumcake pieces will strum the brainwaves and may make you all skittish like a cat at a rocking chair convention.
Overunder on a burned out carcass of a building. (image © Overunder)
Okay, which way we goin’? (image © Overunder)
Penny for your thoughts, bro. (image © Overunder)
Overunder (image © Overunder)
The trick for fashions for Fall ’11 is to accessorize. Just the right bling can take you from day to evening. (image © Overunder)
This piece is still wet because Overunder finished it as the sun set tonight as part of Living Walls : Albany. Samson Contompasis caught this quick phone pic with the subject of the portrait posing with his painted self. More Overunder coming soon!
Chris Stain (photo © Andrew Franciosa)Working in the monumental landmark of St. Joseph’s church, the focal point marking Albany’s Ten Broeck Historical District, everything echoed. The shake of the spray paint can, Chris Stain’s soft but direct voice, friends casually eating out of take-out containers and the sliding of a huge ladder against the wooden floor echoed against the high, detailed ceilings of the church, breaking the silence in what felt like both a privileged and private setting to be working in.
This portion of the “Living Walls: Albany” project directly faced the challenge all artists face: make something out of nothing. For the organizer, Samson Contompasis, that challenge was making a 40 by 16 foot wall out of 20 wooden pieces for Chris Stain to create his contribution to the project. Challenge met. Next.
As Chris Stain humored me in talking about Albany, the culture of zines and independent art books, doing his art homework on the train up here and how the quietness of the church was peaceful, he worked very swiftly. With one can of spray paint on deck in his back pocket and one in his hand, he got to work on his installation piece, depicting a scene of firefighters, an American flag and slanted city buildings, working with the ‘perfect’ red and an assortment of spray paint cans aligned like soldiers ready to go.
The finished piece alongside the ornate details of the church allowed for a natural moment of silence, soaking in what Stain sprayed before us, ready to be taken apart and installed in the setting of the New York State Museum the next day as a part of the new exhibit, “Reflecting on September 11, 2001.”
“Reflecting on September 11, 2001” opens at the New York State Museum Friday 10.9.11. Please click here for more information.
Over the next few weeks, New York State’s capital city, Albany, will be the site of a large scale Street Art show with many artists whom you are familiar with and a number of new ones on walls in desolate areas, historic districts, and even a church.
When local artist and visionary Samson Contompasis asked BSA to be partners with Living Walls last winter, we already knew about his reputation as a stalwart proponent of the creative spirit who opens doors for artists of many stripes. If Samson is in love with something, it’s going to happen.
Now “Living Walls: Albany” has grown to encompass not only multiple walls for Street Artists from around the world but the involvement of civic leaders, building owners, arts institutions, historical ombudspeople, electronic and print media, artists, musicians, galleries, a museum, and arts programming for kids and families. That was one sentence.
A new livelihood is radiating around the colossal work of Gaia and Nanook, which debuted the Living Walls: Albany last week. Their vibrant piece adorns the side of a vacant, unroofed building currently aging on N. Pearl and Livingston.
Ten minutes into my third visit, a handful of neighborhood children flocked in front of the massive brick before me to point out what they liked about the Street Art as two passer-bys curiously paused. The figure of a man pushing a contemporary piece of art (currently housed in the Rockefeller Empire Plaza Concourse) towards the face of Nelson Rockefeller is inexplicably alluring. The collective work is as perplexing as it is simple.
The merging of Albany landmarks in a notion of “pushing forward” is an attentively constructed kick off to the project this fall. One of the energetic neighborhood children, unaware of his metaphorical wisdom, looked at me and said, “I guess it’s a new day.”
Participating artists include: Army of One , Broken Crow ,Cake ,Chris Stain ,Clown Soldier ,Deacon Czar , Depoe , Dwell & One Unit , Evereman , Gaia , Gregory Maxwell Dunn II , Hellbent , Jacqueline Brickman , Joe Iurato , Jon Burgerman , Marcus Anderson , Michael DeFeo , Nanook , Over/Under , Papertwins , Radical! , ROA , Scott Michael Ackerman , Skewville , Uneek , Veng , VRNO , White Cocoa , YARK
238
138
45
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
