All posts tagged: Los Angeles

Dan Witz Creates Disturbing Street Art to Fight Political Imprisonment

Street Art Campaign With Amnesty International

“In many countries people are imprisoned simply because of their political views,” begins the video just released by Dan Witz and Amnesty international.

Screenshot from “Wailing Walls”, a video about the Dan Witz “Prisoners” campaign that raises awareness and engages passersby to immediately take action for human rights. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

So dangerous are those views that their outspoken owners are persecuted and hidden from us in an attempt to silence the ideas and opinions that may threaten a prevailing status quo. With his “Prisoners” series of installations on the streets of London, Frankfurt, Vienna, and Los Angeles, Witz is bringing much needed attention to those who are hidden against their will just behind walls, doors, and windows.

Image from London campaign, “Eric” by Street Artist Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

For Witz, using actual names and case histories brings the conceptual to painfully full light, and his well-known artistic command of light in these photo-realistic works gives these individuals an opportunity to step out from the shadows. In conjunction with an innovative street campaign entitled “Wailing Walls”, the street art pieces become interactive with QR codes and a phone app that allows passersby to learn instantly about the people depicted and to send their opinions to government officials while standing right there on the sidewalk with traffic driving past them.

Scanning the QR code (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

Learning and immediately writing to the “Wailing Wall”. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

During his presentation this weekend at the Amnesty International conference in Washington DC, Witz detailed his Frankfurt project in front of an audience of hundreds, giving a riveting first person account of how art on the streets has the power to impact social and political change.

Along with the video explaining the street and digital campaign that he created in collaboration with the Leo Burnett Agency in Frankfurt, the Brooklyn-based fine artist and street artist shares here his personal slides of the project, which he showed at the conference.  Of special note is the soundtrack to the new slide show which is composed by Witz at the piano and recorded on his phone; a tonal reflective transmutation of the myriad emotions that the images evoke.

Premiere: Slideshow of Dan Witz’s “Prisoner” Series of Street Art Installations

Shown at Amnesty International’s Annual General Meeting in Washington, DC, March, 2013

Among the many ways to measure success as a Street Artist; “Wailing Wall” garnered great traditional, web, and social media attention for the campaign in Frankfurt, raising awareness and advocating action on the behalf of those imprisoned. (screenshot from video © Spiffy Films and Dan Witz)

Premiere : “Wailing Walls” campaign by Dan Witz for Amnesty International

Photos by Dan Witz and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer

Our sincere thanks to Dan Witz for sharing his work and this very important project with BSA readers. A special BSA shout out to Christoph Wick, Tiffaney McCannon, Monika Wittkowsky, and Hans-Juergen Kaemmerer for their talents and tireless work on this project also.

 

 

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Cartwheel Art Presents: “Street & Outsider Art Spring Pop-Up” (Hollywood, CA)

WHAT: Hollywood newcomer PROJECT Gallery hosts CARTWHEEL’s Second Annual Pop-Up Art Show. This is an exciting opportunity for collectors and art enthusiasts to view and purchase unique works by eight stand-out street, outsider, assemblage, surf, and new contemporary artists primarily from the art fair circuit who are new to or emerging within Los Angeles. Along with the four day exhibition of art and installations, there will be a series of special interactive events occurring with artists daily including live music and painting, a family day gathering of fun to coincide with the Hollywood farmers market, and much more to be announced.

  • Corey Hagberg: A mural artist from Rockford, Illinois who works with paint and screen prints on both canvases and walls; his taboo topics are presented with optimism
  • Evo Love:  A Miami multi-media artist who creates unique altar-like assemblages and installations that focus on personal and universal symbols of belief
  • Greg Haberny: A New York artist who builds complex installations and assemblages that are part of prestigious public and private U.S. and international collections
  • Lydia Emily: An acclaimed L.A. street artist that makes her prints and paintings from a foundation of profound social responsibility and a duty to stand up and speak out
  • Lyle Carbajal: Images associated with childhood – comics, monsters, machines, and animals – draw on this Portland, Oregon artist’s affinity for the popular and primitive
  • RADICAL!: At only 21, with detailed illustrative work based on social observations, this young Albany artist has exhibited in New York City, Boston, and Copenhagen
  • Roy Gonzalez: This icon in the Orange County extreme sport industry’s art and design circles creates some of the most definitive images of the surf, skate, and music industries
  • Scott Michael Ackerman: An outsider artist from Woodstock, New York who receives acclaim for colorful paintings on found objects

WHERE:            PROJECT Gallery

1553 N. Cahuenga Blvd.

Hollywood, CA 90028

323-462-1100

WHEN:            Wednesday, March 20 7pm – 9 pm; Private preview

Thursday, March 21 7pm  – 10pm; Open to the public reception

Thursday, March 21 – Sunday, March 24; gallery hours; 10am – 7pm

http://www.cartwheelart.com/projects/cartwheel-events/press-release-cartwheel-street-outsider-art-spring-pop-up-at-project-gallery

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Lace Presents: Logan Hicks “Thin Veils and Heavy Anchors” (Los Angeles, CA)

A pop-up exhibition presented by Pat Magnarella Management

LACE is pleased to host acclaimed New York-based street and stencil art visionary Logan Hicks for Thin Veils And Heavy Anchors, a new solo showing of his work.  Thin Veils And Heavy Anchors will debut to the public on March 8, 2013 and run through March 10, 2013, and marks a triumphant return for an artist whose works have been shown in Auckland, Cape Town, Shanghai, Taipei, and just about everywhere in between.

http://www.welcometolace.org/exhibitions/view/logan-hicks-thin-veils-and-heavy-anchors/

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BSA Covers the Globe, Top Stories with HuffPost in ’12

BSA is not just Brooklyn, you know. Last year we brought you new Street Art from Atlanta, Arizona, Baltimore, Berlin, Boston, Bronx, Brooklyn, Brisbane, Bristol, Costa Rica, Chicago, China, Dominican Republic, The Gambia, Guatemala, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Istanbul, Italy, Jamaica, Johannesburg, Kenya, Los Angeles, London, Mexico City, Miami, Mongolia, Nicaragua, Norway, NYC, Palestine, Panama, Paris, Perth, Queens, Reno, Spain, South Korea, Sweden, and Trinidad. And that is a partial, incomplete list. Remember that the next time someone says we cover just Brooklyn and New York. Not quite.

Also while we were surveying what we did in 2012, we were curious to see which were the top stories we covered for the Huffington Post, measured by hits, social sharing, and emails sent to us. Here are the top stories you liked the most of the 44 we cross-published with Huffington Post Arts & Culture in 2012. (A complete list at the end of the posting)

Baltimore Opens Its Walls To Street Art

 

MOMO. Open Walls Baltimore 2012. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atlanta Hosts First All Female Street Art Conference 

Neuzz (photo © Wil Hughes)

OS Gemeos And “The Giant Of Boston” 

Os Gemeos “The Giant of Boston” at the Rose Kennedy Greenway at Dewey Square, Boston. This side of the van was with Graffiti Artist Rize. (photo © Geoff Hargadon)

(VIDEO) 2012 Street Art Images of the Year from BSA 

Slideshow cover image of Vinz on the streets of Brooklyn (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mexico City: High Art in Thin Air

Escif (photo © courtesy of All City Canvas)

UFO Crashes at Brooklyn Academy of Music

UFO 907 and William Thomas Porter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

‘See No Evil’ in Bristol Brings Thousands to the Streets 

El Mac. (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

What’s New in Bushwick: A Quick Street Art Survey 

QRST in the wild. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sex In The City: Street Art That is NSFW

Anthony Lister in NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NUART 2012: International Street Art Catalysts in Norway 

Ben Eine (photo © Ian Cox)

Springtime in Paris : Une Petite Revue of New Street Art

David Shillinglaw and Ben Slow (photo © Sandra Hoj)

Pulling Strings in Berlin; “Heinrich” The Public Marionette

Various & Gould “Heinrich” (photo © Lucky Cat)

“Poorhouse for the Rich” Revitalized by the Arts

Adam Parker Smith. “I Lost Of My Money In The Great Depression And All I Got Was This Room”, 2012. Installation in progress in collaboration with Wave Hill. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here is the complete list of BSA / Huffington Post pieces for 2012

 

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Os Gemeos Photographed by Hieronymous

Os Gemeos Photographed by Hieronymous

We’re counting down the last 12 days of 2012 with Street Art photos chosen by BSA readers. Each one was nominated because it has special meaning to a reader or is simply a great photograph from 2012 that they think is great. Our sincere thanks to everyone who shared their favorite images.

Our first entry for comes from Hieronymus, an artist and photographer who spent years in LA and now hails from from North Carolina. This is his photo of a friend at the “Miss You” installation by the Brazilian Street Art twins Os Gemeos during their show in March.

“This is from the Os Gemeos show at Prism in LA; for me one of the best presentations ever,” says Hieronymous.

Os Gemeos (photo © Hieronymus)

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Visit Hieronymus’ site to see more photos of his work here.

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Check out the BSA Images of 2012 video here.

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Fun Friday 12.14.12

Hey bro and sis! Here are some of our favorite picks for the weekend around the global way as we head into the final holiday and New Year beauty that we hope everyone is surrounded by. Happy 7th night of Hanukkah to the Jews, and Happy ongoing holidayz to the Christmas and Kwanzaa and Solstice people.

1. 215 “Orgullecida” (Barcelona)
2. “Kids Eat For Free” at Tender Trap (BKLN)
3. Fresh Low-cost Original Silkscreens at “First Worldwar in Silkscreen” Group Show (BKLN)
4. “Graffuturism” at Soze Gallery (LA)
5. “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”, Photography by Imminent Disaster (BKLN)
6. “Snap Back…” Rime and Toper at Klughaus (Manhattan)
7. New2 at White Walls (San Francisco)
8. Dave Kinsey “Everything at Once” at Joshua Liner (Manhattan)
9. Brett Amory at 5 Pieces (Switzerland)
10. RISK: The Skid Row Mural Project by Todd Mazer (VIDEO)
11. Swoon’s Konbit Shelter in Haiti (VIDEO)

215 “Orgullecida” (Barcelona)

French Street Artist C215 has a new solo show titled “Orgullecida” at the Montana Gallery in Barcelona, Spain. The artist has been for awhile using a lot of color with his multilayered stencil work – expanding his established vocabulary bravely in a way that most artists are too afraid to do. His portraits are placed well, are individually hand-cut, and sprayed with a sense of the humanity he’s always giving center stage.  This show is now open to the general public.

A one color stencil from an earlier period by C215 on the streets of Brooklyn, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A detail from a more recent C215 (© and courtesy the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Kids Eat For Free” at Tender Trap (BKLN)

A phrase lifted from restaurant franchises that serve food like you are livestock at a trough, “Kids Eat For Free” is a mini survey of train riders who know the back sides of the country well. Under the moniker of The Superior Bugout, curator Andrew H Shirley continues to explore fresh talent from the emerging margin, and this group exhibition features work by North Carolina’s NGC Crew. Now open, and don’t forget the kids!

For further details regarding this show click here.

Fresh Low-cost original Silkscreens at “First Worldwar in Silkscreen” Group Show (BKLN)

The best way to support your local artist is to give their stuff as a Christmas/Hanukkah/Kwanza/Soltice present. No kidding. Everybody wins. Tonight a show of original silkscreens at totally reasonable prices is at Low Brow Artique in Bushwick. For tonight’s opening of their silk screen print show where you’d be able to purchase prints for $20…yes you read it right $20 bucks buys you art from 25 artists – many of them with work on the street – from Sao Paulo, Brooklyn, Buenos Aires and Berlin. Participating artists include: Selo, Markos Azufre, Hellbent, El Hase, ND’A, XOXU, Daniel Ete, Salles, Baila, Anderson Resende, DOC, SHN, XILIP, Serifire, Vero Pujol, Marquitos Sanabria, Diego Garay, Desastre, and Head Honcho.

Head Honcho. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Salles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Graffuturism” at Soze Gallery (LA)

This is like an exclamation point for the end of the year. No kidding.

POESIA, founder of Graffuturism, the term and website, continues to explore the depths of “Progressive Graffiti” or, as it was previously known, “Abstract Graffiti”. With great intelligence, passion and an acute eye for detail, POESIA brings to the forefront the importance and beauty of this emergent new direction that is impacting the Street Art and graffiti scene (with ramifications for others).

“Graffuturism” opening tonight at Soze Gallery in Los Angeles and promises a smart-headed visual feast of shapes, patterns and color from a mini-galaxy of talent from all over the world. Perhaps more significantly, it’s a bit of a decentralized movement that has been centralized for you. The artists list includes: 2501, Aaron De La Cruz, Augustine Kofie, Boris “Delta” Tellegen, Carl Raushenbach, Carlos Mare, Clemens Behr, Derek Bruno, Doze Green, Duncan Jago, DVS 1, El Mac, Eric Haze, Erosie, Franco “Jaz” Fasoli, Futura, Gilbert 1, Greg “Sp One” Lamarche, Graphic Surgery, Hense, Hendrik “ECB” Beikirch, Jaybo Monk, Joker, Jurne, Kema, Kenor, Lek, Marco “Pho” Grassi, Matt W. Moore, Moneyless, O.Two, Part2ism, Poesia, Rae Martini, Remi Rough, Samuel Rodriguez, Sat One, Sever, Shok-1, Sowat, Steve More, West and Will BarrasSoze Gallery in Los Angeles .

Also New York chronicler and enthusiastic lover of the graff/street art scene  Daniel Feral will be there with a  special edition of the Feral Diagram in glicee prints, and a couple other formats (salivate). An ambitious exhibition like this is rare and not easy to come by so if you are in Los Angeles you must go.

El Mac on the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show and to read a great essay for the show written by Daniel Feral click here.

“Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”, Photography by Imminent Disaster (BKLN)

Self-appointed moral custodians (mostly white men) have traditionally hampered the exploration of sexuality in formal art history and the academic canon of what gets celebrated and revered continues to evolve more quickly now. The sea change that modern social liberation that was once revolutionary is now a given, but the debate of the appropriate role of sex and sexuality in the arts is far from over. We may have just quashed one Trojan horse of social conservatism in the White House, but the radical right wing has pulled the center pretty far in the last decade and some have even said there was a war on women launched legislatively throughout 2012. So we are pleased to tell you about fine artist and Street Artist Robyn Hasty AKA Imminent Disaster, who has a new show in collaboration with Alex Pergament entitled “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets”. Furthering her exploration of photography Ms. Hasty has semi-retired her now well known hand cut paper pieces and lino prints on the street and traded the cutting knife for the camera. With this show of photographs, sculptures and performance art she’s aiming to tear apart the inhibitions associated with the  sexual act. “Dark Corners, Savage Secrets” opens tomorrow at Weldon Arts Gallery in Brooklyn.

Imminent Disaster and Alex Pergament (exclusive photo for BSA © courtesy of the artist)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Snap Back…” Rime and Toper at Klughaus (Manhattan)

Freshly snapping back to New York from their successful truck trip to Miami, Klughaus Gallery brings Brooklyn natives RIME and TOPER for their new exhibition titled “Snap Back – Dangerous Drawings About New York”. The storytelling show features illustration and painting inspired by personal stories. Says RIME. “This show aims to tap into our life experience coming up in New York.” Show opens Saturday.

Rime and Toper shown here with Dceve in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

New2 at White Walls (San Francisco)

The White Walls Gallery in San Francisco are fortunate to host Australian artist New2 with his solo show titled “In One Hand a Ghost, The Other an Atom”. New2’s work on the streets is complex and dynamic with aerosol, but his handcut collage work for the gallery is moreso somehow – maybe because of a painstaking process of arranging thousands of hand cut pieces of paper. This show opens on Saturday.

New2. Detail of one of his hand cut paper pieces. (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

New2 on the streets of San Francisco. (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

Dave Kinsey with “Everything at Once” at the Joshua Liner Gallery in Manhattan. This show is now open to the general public. Click here for more details.

Brett Amory at the 5 Pieces Gallery in Berne, Switzerland opens on Sunday with his solo show “Lil’ Homies”. Click here for more details.

RISK: The Skid Row Mural Project by Todd Mazer (VIDEO)

Art in the Streets from MoCAtv

 

Swoon’s Konbit Shelter in Haiti (VIDEO)

Street Artist Swoon is looking to return to Haiti to build more shelters for people in the rural part of the country. This video gives a great look at the families and community who are helped. You also can participate by donating to the Kickstarter campaign to help Swoon make it happen.

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Soze Gallery Presents: “Graffuturism” A Group Exhibition (Los Angeles, CA)

Graffuturism

Graffuturism.com, opens in the new Soze Gallery location at 2020 E 7th St, Unit B, Los Angeles, CA, 90021.

Since Graffuturism’s inception as a public blog and private Facebook group in 2010, there have been two major group exhibitions that featured associated artists: “Rudimentary Perfection” in Glasgow and “Futurism 2.0″ in London. Both were successful in their curatorial intentions and created a sense of community and motion for the movement. Soze Gallery also has been an early advocate hosting solo exhibitions in 2012 by Jaybo Monk, Moneyless, Remi Rough, Dale Marshall, and a two-man show with Augustine Kofie

and Jaybo. Recognizing the significance of the Graffuturists, Soze Gallery also presented the opportunity for Poesia to curate this exhibition, which he chose to simply call ““Graffuturism.” This exhibition has been eagerly anticipated as the first group show to be curated by Poesia, because he is the founder of Graffuturism.com and also a well-respected graffiti artist with a twenty-year history. Ending up in this unique dual position as artist and commentator, it has fallen on him to be the cultural instigator and diplomatic facilitator of this renewed interest, practice and discourse surrounding what he calls “Progressive Graffiti,” which has also previously been called “Abstract Graffiti.” At this juncture in the three-year history of the website, as well as in the thirty-year history of this over-looked aesthetic trajectory within the Graffiti movement, Graffuturism.com has become a hub and Poesia the dedicated and consistent chronicler and theoretician. With the internet as his podium and round table, he has been historicizing and canonizing these artists, young and old, who have been creating art outside the norms of traditional graffiti, esoteric forms of painting and sculpture that veer outside of the proscribed boundaries into the experimental, the abstract, the poetic, and the hybrid.Artists that fall under the term Progressive Graffiti are generally innately gifted draftsmen, who aspire to a Master’s Level at their craft. Overall this movement could be classified as a “High Style New Millennial Aesthetic.” The art they produce is derived from a dialogue that ricochets around within a pin-ball matrix constructed of coordinates lying between the historical and the contemporary, including high and low influences, fine art and graffiti studies, scholarly and street pursuits, intellectual and visceral marks. Whether the resulting output is graffiti, painting, murals, design, sculpture or installations, the pictorial elements are mutated and transformed through each artist’s unique vision into a personal vocabulary of cross-pollinated styles. Whereas the Street Art movement of the mid-2000s tended to focus on figurative stencils and wheat-pastes, this group of artists on the whole is more concerned with hands-on, singular creation, whether within an academic or street setting. Unlike Post-Modernism, the resultant overall aesthetic is a seamless personal statement, not a collaged juxtaposition of historic styles.

Because of Poesia’s dual roles within the movement, he as been in the unique position to attract this international line up of esteemed contemporary artists, which includes many of the significant forefathers from the seventies and eighties. As a result, by including so many of these original Masters, he has created a chronological continuum within the line up, which defines this historical thread from its earliest days. Therefore this group show has developed into a “survey” that historicizes and canonizes each artist within the Progressive Graffiti thread, as well as within the larger Graffiti movement. One of the earliest, and possibly the most influential to most these artists, is Futura. In the early eighties, after a ten-year career as one of the early seventies writers, he broke away from one of graffiti’s most sacred traditions, the letterform as subject matter. At that point he began to paint in what became known as an “Abstract Graffiti” style. With his groundbreaking subway whole-car “Break,” as well as on the canvasses he was painting at the time, he pushed an atmospheric geometric style to the forefront of his work and began to experiment with a wide array of experimental spray can techniques that had not been seen before.

Around this same time, other early NYC writers, who had also started their careers in the seventies, began to experiment with new hybrid directions not based in pure graffiti traditions. In 1985, Carlos Mare began to combine abstraction and Wildstyle within the medium of sculpture, which over the past couple of decades has expanded to include other mediums under the term Urban Modernism. Haze also began to cross over into the fine art domain and over the years has created a body of work that might be referred to as Iconographic Minimalism. Doze Green was also a significant member of the early community of writers who crossed over with an experimental style that included the use of archetypal icons, poetic typography, figurative motifs and painterly styles. West was also another early intrepid explorer, adopting a gestural expressionist style, applying the muscle memory of train and wall painting to the canvas with his long whole-body marks and splashy, dripping strokes.

This exhibition has also united artists from the second generation who took off along the path forged by those early pioneers. These artists started to formulate their progressive aesthetics in the late eighties, such as Delta, the European three-dimensional geometric letterform pioneer turned pure abstractionist; New Yorker Greg Lamarche aka SpOne, who has been able to establish an abstract typographic collage aesthetic parallel to his foundation as a graffiti writer obsessed with the hand-written letterform; Part2ism was one of the earliest UK experimentalists in Hyperrealism, as well as co-founder of the Ikonoklast Movement in the UK with Juice126, which also came to include abstract colorist Remi Rough in the early-nineties.

Also beginning in the late eighties on the West Coast of the US, the Wildstyle-reductionist Joker was one of the first graffiti artists to paint purely geometric abstractions and pushed for its acceptance within the graffiti community by founding the Transcend Collective in 1991 with She1, who was an abstract writer in the UK. Poesia, became a key member of the collective in 1995, exploring a more hybrid, expressionistic approach to Wildstyle, as well as taking it into pure abstraction, which he is currently pushing in new directions, as well as reaching back to the Baroque painters and reinterpreting their masterpieces as graffiti-dissected new millennial re-paintings. Over in Europe, first in Paris then Italy during the same time period, Marco Pho Grassi started out as a wall and train painter but quickly started mixing in abstraction and more painterly expressionist techniques much like Poesia, yet totally unknown to each other. Then in the mid to late nineties, back in the US along the West Coast, other artists with alternative, experimental mind-sets, who were aware of recent developments, were coming out with brilliant, refined hybrid styles, such as Augustine Kofie and El Mac.

Artists such as these had been forced to skirt the edges of graffiti culture as well as the fine art world for the past ten to thirty years. Due to the esoteric nature and hybrid aesthetics of their graffiti-based paintings, and their disparate locations around the globe, they had no way to band together or find an audience to support them because of the lack of enough interest in their local communities for their esoteric and singular aesthetics. On the other side of the tracks, they were also ignored by the fine arts establishment because of their association with graffiti culture and for unabashedly continuing their gallery-related practices under the term Graffiti, which they still did not entirely leave behind. But, as the world population grows and becomes more connected through the internet, these geographically disparate artists have found it easier to come together, work together, and share global opportunities with each other, rather than being confined to tiny local communities.

Now, as this historical thread comes of age and recognizes itself in the mirror of history and on the faces of its youth, as the pioneers of the culture are canonized and the younger artists are united, there are many more opportunities afforded them within the design market, auction houses and fine art world, as these communities continue grow in their recognition of the cultural value and influence of Graffiti and Street Art, as the most prevalent styles and art movements in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. This particular Graffuturist group exhibition, as well as the previous two, are significant steps in the growth of awareness and activity. This is a significant exhibition because it connects all the artists across the continuum of this overlooked historical trajectory back to these forefathers to finally make the connections and give the recognition due to Progressive Graffiti in all its current manifestations and their historical referents.

Across the board, 2012 has been an explosive year for Progressive Graffiti. The synchronicity of all these group exhibitions and solo shows can only emphasize that there is increased activity by the artists and an amplified interest in the audience. Futura had his first solo show in ten years, which attracted a massive turn out of the wealthy and the fashionable, as well as the highly-respected hardcore members of the graffiti community, which is a testament to his growing importance outside the culture, as well as cementing his stature within it. Following on the heels of the success of his solo show, Futura exhibited with two other crucial esoteric Old School Masters, Rammellzee and Phase2, in conjunction with the Modernist Master Matta in the exhibition “Deep Space” in NYC. This exhibit was particular significant because it canonized these three graffiti artists within the fine art pantheon by successfully illustrating their undeniable aesthetic accomplishments in relation to Matta’s masterworks. Rammellzee also had a banner year, being included in the “Vocabularies Revitalized” exhibition at the MoMA, as well as being given a complete retrospective at the Children’s Museum, both of which were in NYC, not even to mention his solo show at the Suzanne Geiss gallery in 2011 called “The Equation.”

In London, also significant in its curatorial aims to canonize and historicize, as well as it’s grand scope, was “Futurism 2.0,” which compared and contrasted the Futurists and the Graffuturists in an exhibition, book and documentary. Another group show of significance was BrooklynStreetArt.com’s exhibition “Geometricks” which held high the torch of Abstract Graffiti in it’s title and Progressive Graffiti in its roster, which included Hellbent (the curator), Augustine Kofie, Drew Tyndell, Momo, OverUnder and SeeOne. One of the most significant of the many murals and “in situ” collaborations painted this year by Graffuturist-related artists was the abstract mural painted on the Megaro Hotel by Agents of Change members Remi Rough, Augustine Kofie, Lx.One, and Steve More, which is currently the largest mural ever painted in London. Also, a slew of solo and duo exhibitions opened every month around the world by many of the artists associated with Graffuturism and Progressive Graffiti: Poesia, Dale Marshal, Part2ism, Remi Rough, Augustine Kofie, Jaybo Monk, Mark Lyken, Moneyless, Carlos Mare, She One, Matt W. Moore, Jurne, Greg Lamarche, Delta, Hense, Rae Martini, Marco Pho Grassi, and Graphic Surgery. In order to see the full scope of activities though, one would have to go back through Graffuturism.com for a complete review.

Above and beyond the growing interest in Progressive Graffiti is the expanding interest in the over-all culture as well during these first two decades of the new millennium. Massive museum exhibitions encompassing the full spectrum of subcultures and historical threads within the Graffiti and Street Art cultures have also opened to wide acclaim. The success of ticket sales for “Street Art” in 2008 at the Tate Modern in London and “Art in the Streets” in 2011 at the MOCA in Los Angeles revealed the mass cultural interest of these art movements and all the art forms that are connected to them. The fact that these two exhibitions happened at all signifies the growing acceptance by the fine art community as well.

These museum exhibitions, as well as the trend towards many other smaller historical exhibitions, such as “Deep Space” and “Futurism 2.0” at the end of 2012, and “Pantheon: A history of Art from the Streets of NYC” in 2011, indicate a new interest in the study of the history and cultural significance of these movements. Other indicators are the release of high quality scholarly books, articles and movies, such as “Abstract Graffiti” by Cedar Lewisohn in 2011; “Beyond Graffiti” published in ArtNews in 2011 by Carolina Miranda; the 2005 documentary “Next: A Primer on Urban Painting” by Pablo Aravena; and “The Feral Diagram 2.0: Graffiti and Street Art” published in 2012 by Daniel Feral. These are all testament to the growing enthusiasm of scholars, historians, and theoreticians to examine, define and record the fifty year history of graffiti and street art, and recently in particular the Progressive Graffiti thread. Like any misunderstood movement before these, such as rock’n’roll, comic books, and cinema, eventually the art forms, the audiences and the scholars united to finally recognize the movement’s undeniable cultural value, relevance and resonance in all their forms from the simple and visceral to the esoteric and intellectual.

Text by Daniel Feral

On Friday, Dec 14, 2012, the eponymously-titled “Graffuturism” exhibition curated by Poesia, the founder of Graffuturism.com, opens in the new Soze Gallery location at 2020 E 7th St, Unit B, Los Angeles, CA, 90021.

The complete artist list in alphabetical order by first name is as follows: 2501, Aaron De La Cruz, Augustine Kofie, Boris “Delta” Tellegen, Carl Raushenbach, Carlos Mare, Clemens Behr, Derek Bruno, Doze Green, Duncan Jago, DVS 1, El Mac, Eric Haze, Erosie, Franco “Jaz” Fasoli, Futura, Gilbert 1, Greg “Sp One” Lamarche, Graphic Surgery, Hense, Hendrik “ECB” Beikirch, Jaybo Monk, Joker, Jurne, Kema, Kenor, Lek, Marco “Pho” Grassi, Matt W. Moore, Moneyless, O.Two, Part2ism, Poesia, Rae Martini, Remi Rough, Samuel Rodriguez, Sat One, Sever, Shok-1, Sowat, Steve More, West, Will Barras.

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Fun Friday 11.30.12

 

It’s Friday yo! Tomorrow starts December but the tree is already up at Rockefeller Center and the city is flushed with wide-eyed tourists bumping into each other and we are busy touring graffiti covered abandoned buildings smashed with paint balls. It’s all good.  Here’s some ideas for dope stuff to check out this weekend.

1. “Out of Chaos” Paul Insect (NYC)
2. “Organized Chaos” CYRCLE (LA)
3. The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum (NYC)
4. VINZ “Batalla” (Chelsea)
5. DALeast “Powder of Light”
6. ROA by Makhulu (VIDEO)
7. “Dominant Species” by ROA (VIDEO)
8. IBUg Festival of Urban Art and Culture (VIDEO)
9. “Eyez Open” with Peat Wollaeger (VIDEO)

Paul Insect “Out of Chaos” (NYC)

London based Paul Insect has his “Out of Chaos” solo show at Opera Gallery in Manhattan.

Paul Insect. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

While Paul Insect is advancing the idea of  a world out of chaos …

CYRCLE is all about “Organized Chaos” (LA)

Street art collective CYRCLE opens their solo show tonight in Los Angeles, CA.

“Order and Chaos is a huge cornerstone concept we work with, and it’s one of our favorite examples of duality in life. It’s also a huge part of the way we work together.”

CYRCLE (photo © theonepointeight)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read our piece on a CYRCLE studio visit click here.

The RAMMELLZEE Galaxseum (NYC)

The Childrens Museum of the Arts is a good place to go to see the innerworkings of the visionary graffiti writer who turned his imagination into a galaxy. This kind of art-making gives inspiration to adults and  kids because he fashioned toys and warships and costumes from everyday objects that were not expensive, and his output of mythic Gothic Futurism gods, heros, villains and storylines over three decades lays bare your excuse for not being creative.

It’s about the same price as a movie but the comprehensive collection of the artists work and the self-esteem mission of the museum is priceless. The Rammellzee Galaxseum is a great place to visit for an afternoon with the kids in your tribe and explore free expression – inside where it’s warm and your imagination can fly.

VINZ “Batalla” (Chelsea)

The VINZ solo show “Batalla” opens Saturday night at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Manhattan. This Spanish Street Artist plays with the realities of humans, using his own photographs of nude models and animals to construct hybrids by playfully merging their bodies with striking results.

VINZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

DALeast “Powder of Light”

Chinese Street Artist DALeast is also at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery tomorrow with his own solo show titled “Powder of Light”.

DALeast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

ROA by Makhulu (VIDEO)

“Dominant Species” by ROA (VIDEO)

From Art in The Streets – MOCAtv

IBUg Festival of Urban Art and Culture (VIDEO)

From 2012 in Glauchau, Germany.

“Eyez Open” with Peat Wollaeger (VIDEO)

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Peek Inside Organized Chaos of CYRCLE

Peek Inside Organized Chaos of CYRCLE

Beauty is something wonderful and strange that the artist fashions out of the chaos of the world in the torment of his soul. – William Somerset Maugham.

Street Art collective CYRCLE couldn’t agree more, and they invite you to take chaos as a hands-on personal challenge.

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

Organizing multiple mediums to convey a sense of coherence is an additional talent for the creative and the porous among us in this time of social, political, science and information tidal waves. While largely conceptual in process, the physical manifestation of CYRCLE’s work in these last few years is evidence of how pulling techniques and mediums together can create a sense of order, while divining a greater message.

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

Even their own existence as a collective has been recently rocked – Following a handful of years as a three-member collective, CYRCLE is now a duo; Rabī and Davey. After their third member, Devin, departed a couple of months ago in what is described as an entirely amicable way, this internal earthquake may be the immediate one that the two remaining members are addressing at the moment. As they buzz around the studio in preparation for their new show, Rabī is reassuring, “Order and Chaos is a huge cornerstone concept we work with, and it’s one of our favorite examples of duality in life. It’s also a huge part of the way we work together.”

Emblematic of the omnivorian approach that many of today’s new crop of Street Artists are taking to mixed media in public spaces, CYRCLE isn’t being too precious, limiting the show to one medium or plane. Looking at the pieces and installation plans as they come together, one can see that the guys are creating interactive, participatory experiences for visitors. For those who routinely put work on the streets, the concept of an ongoing conversation between viewer and artwork is a given. Coupled with the discomfort of mounting your work inside a typical gallery show environment, CYRCLE wants to keep this conversation alive.

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

Rabī says that collaboration is one way he and other artists find clarity in the chaos that can arise during the creative process. Describing the process of coming up with new work with Davey, he says the end product is something larger than the sum of its participants, “We have different points of view on everything from design to relationships… to food.  Once we reach a point where the aesthetic marries the concept, the execution reveals a work that neither of us would have been able to create without the other.  We rejoice, then Davey tells me to grow up, and I tell him to grow down,” he laughs, “which is just one example of our differing approaches to life.”

Using the metaphor of the beehive and the flower and the resulting nectar for “Organized Chaos”, their Los Angeles show that opens this week, CYRCLE clearly relies on interconnectivity. Additionally, the image of a puzzle reappears in many of the works and we see that the implied solution to chaos may be more orderly than you originally imagined.

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

“Puzzles generally have one correct solution,” Rabī intones, “the CUBIX pieces in our show are both completed and unresolved all of the time depending on how the viewer feels. You can rearrange the pieces into millions of different solutions. There are images that come together as a whole, but the main idea is that the look of the piece is constantly changing, in the same way that life is constantly evolving. The mystery is in the process of putting it together.”

Ultimately for CYRCLE, the process may be paramount in the creative act and chaos is merely a challenge. “Once the puzzle is completed,” says Rabī, “all you want is another puzzle.”

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

CYRCLE “Organized Chaos” (photo © theonepointeight)

ORGANIZED CHAOS (Video)

Special thanks to photographer and BSA Collaborator Carlos Gonzalez for sharing these images in exclusive to BSA. To see more of Carlos’ work click on the link below:

http://www.theonepointeight.com/

 

 

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Bamboo Replaces Billboard on LA Freeway

 “Imagine floating, globally connected urban forests growing where billboards stand. Artist Stephen Glassman and his team are doing it.”

Here’s a unique breath of fresh air by artist Stephen Glassman, an LA based sculptor who has worked many times with bamboo for large projects in the public realm. Here he has an idea for designing and engineering a green project that reclaims one of the thousands of billboards in Los Angeles and turns it into an oasis of bamboo.

Image © Stephen Glassman

With an eye toward bamboo’s resiliency, Glassman creates here a welcome metaphor for the man-made environment and our ability to adapt it to our changing needs and evolving understanding of our internal and external environments.

“UrbanAir transforms existing urban billboards to living, suspended bamboo gardens. Embedded with intelligent technology, UrbanAir becomes a global node – an open space in the urban skyline… An artwork, symbol, and instrument for a green future.”

You can donate to his Kickstarter page to help make it happen.

All images ©  Stephen Glassman

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Soze Gallery Presents: Augustine Kofie and Jaybo Monk “Conversations” (Los Angeles, CA)

Kofie/Jaybo

Opening tonight, Downtown Los Angeles

C o n v e r s a t i o n s 

Recent individual and collaborative work by Augustine Kofie & Jaybo Monk of Agents of Change

+ the release of 2 zines in a limited edition of 30, ”When The Seas Catch Fire’ by JAYBO and ‘OBSERvations’ by KOFIE 

“Augustine Kofie and Jaybo Monk have been secretly working on new work for a one day show at Soze Gallery’s new Location in Los Angeles. The show titled “Conversations” focuses on recent studio sessions involving both artists. … Unconventional in approach, Soze Galley allows the artists to freely create and curate their collaboration. It is great to see a gallery allow true creative process take place. In a time when social media hype, PR and numerous outlets pushing a show and its agenda take precedence, it is nice to see the art take first priority. What is left is a one day show that culminates in new work from the artists in a conversational style. It was the artist intention to also have media silence during the creative process to allow a true conversation take place. A pure collaboration and jazz like session of making art, “conversations” seems to be a success in that it allowed for the work to flow. For one day only the show will open tomorrow, make sure you don’t miss this outstanding body of work.”
-Graffuturism

Public opening:

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

7-11 pm

Soze Gallery DTLA [New Location]

2020 E 7th St Unit B

Los Angeles Calif. 90021

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Fatima Robinson and Rhea Scott Present: Cyrcle “Organized Chaos!” (Los Angeles, CA)

CYRCLE

 

WITHOUT ORDER NOTHING CAN EXIST!
WITHOUT CHAOS NOTHING CAN EVOLVE!

This eponymous mantra resounds throughout the incredible breadth of work in CYRCLE.’s second solo show, opening to the public on November 30th at 6608 Lexington Avenue, Los Angeles CA 90038.  The “ORGANIZED CHAOS!” theme binds the entirety of the show and defines the creative process that brought the art collective to their philosophy, relying on the metaphor of intertwined relation between bee and flower to illuminate the symbiosis between art and society. 

It is interactive.
It defies the boundaries of the archetypical gallery show.
It showcases a tactile experience and encourages participation.

The “ORGANIZED CHAOS!” show is the embodiment of what CYRCLE. has come to represent in the Los Angeles art community.  Refusing to constrain themselves to a particular definition, as street artists, graphic designers, or traditional fine artists, the collective is interested in what the function and form of the work itself demands.  

Artist Shepard Fairey, best known for his work on the 2008 Obama Hope campaign and his Andre the Giant OBEY propaganda, says: 

“People frequently ask me who the new upstarts are in street art… I’d say CYRCLE., but that would be underselling the diversity of their talents and the depth of their conceptual process. CYRCLE. work in many mediums and techniques, utilizing whatever approach most powerfully delivers the concept and aesthetic. CYRCLE. are surprisingly focused and rigorous for some young punks.”

JR, a 2011 TED Prize winner, who is currently expanding his Inside Out Project in Japan states, “CYRCLE. bring back the Power of working as a colléctive.”

In a physical manifestation of CYRCLE.’s signature brand of chaos, the viewer will be encouraged to become the bee and to initiate order within the chaos of the human movement occurring within the show, therefore creating a type of performance art within the actual pieces of the show itself.

The show is produced by Fatima Robinson and Rhea Scott, in association with Black Dog Films.
Check out all of their work at www.cyrcle.com

Public Opening- 11/30 7pm-11pm

Operating Hours 12/1 through 12/16
11-6pm T, W, Th, and Sunday
11-9pm Friday and Saturday
Closed Mondays

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