All posts tagged: M City

Project M/3 Opens for UN in Berlin and Martyn Reed on Table Etiquette

March 20, 2014 Artists, Interview

“good table manners, social awareness, whether or not they are house trained…”

Project M sounds like a James Bond plot feature, and if you’ve seen the smartly swarthy man of mystery at the helm of this installation you may expect him to scale the facade of the Urban Nation, instead of simply curate it.

But that is what Nuart’s founder Martyn Reed is doing in Berlin right now – cultivating a diverse program of urban artists on the ground level of a promising new project now under construction. Last week Martyn met with a number of the participants who flew, drove, walked to this neighborhood in transition to install their works for M/3 – including New York’s Martha Cooper, Melbourne’s Buff Diss, and Berlin’s Various & Gould, among others.

Martha Cooper. Shot from inside the window. (photo © Luna Park)

Project M, now in it’s 3rd edition, is a rotating street level exhibition to draw attention to the birth of an auspicious new cultural and art project that will anchor Berlin even further in the minds of fans and academics alike who follow the scene that continues to evolve around art in the streets.

An international presence in an internationally revered street art/ graffiti/ urban art/ mural city, so far Project M has featured artists such as Faile, Ron English, Know Hope, Sandra Chevrier and Strøk, and by the end of this series will have featured many more who are lending shape and form to this global scene with many names.

Martha Cooper poses in front of her window, 33 years after taking the original photo. (photo © Luna Park)

On hand for the installation action a few days ago was New York based photographer Luna Park, who shares with BSA readers some of the installation action, and we spoke with Mr. Reed about his curatorial vision for this iteration of Project M.

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you tell us about Project M and what you will be drawing attention to here?
Martyn Reed: It’s an interesting project and quite unusual in that it uses the inside of windows to house the work, and due to the nature of the project has quite a few restrictions that we’re not used to on the street or gallery. But like working on a canvas, these restrictions can often focus the mind.

For this iteration of Project M (the third), we set ourselves three tasks; to integrate Berlin artists into the group, to focus primarily on Stencil Art, and to mix well know names with emerging talent. We also asked a few of the artists, Martin Whatson and Ernest Zacharevic for example, to work site specifically.

So much for the “Broken Window” theory. Martha Cooper (photo © Luna Park)

Brooklyn Street Art: When you were thinking about which artists to choose for this project that is still in its early days at UN, what qualities were you looking for?
Martyn Reed: As ever with Nuart, it’s not always just about the art. This was to be a pretty intense 12 hour working period in a relatively small space with a crew who hadn’t yet met the artists. In cases like this it is important, like at all great dinner parties, to get the mix of guests just right.

Failing that, it is important to ensure that there’s plenty of alcohol available. Other qualities we looked for were good table manners, social awareness, whether or not they are house trained, and whether they can they be trusted with sharp implements etcetera. – For the most, I think we got the balance just right.

Levalet at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Brooklyn Street Art: Berlin obviously is a major city for street/urban/graffiti/mural art. How would you describe the influence of the local scene as factoring in to your curatorial vision on this project?
Martyn Reed: I think it’s important to get to know as much as possible about the artists and area you’re working in. Fortunately we have a lot of friends based in Berlin and a pretty intimate knowledge of the scene.

I knew which artists and style of work I wanted for this project and also those I thought who would be valuable allies for the UN project in the future. Berlin’s an interesting place to work with its heady mix of activism, anarchy and youthful abandon. I guess finding a way to harness and present this without becoming it, is key.

Levalet (photo © Luna Park)

Brooklyn Street Art: You have had some view of this already during the installation – but which artist do you think will provoke the most response from passersby?
Martyn Reed: For me it is Martha Cooper’s “Cops” from 1981, a vintage photo install chosen specifically for this location that is overlooked by the U-Bahn, Berlin’s Subway. It’s 20% larger than life and is really imposing in situ and when viewed from the train. It has already garnered the most interest and I’m sure is on its way to being a “future classic”.

I’m really happy bringing this particular work to the street and presenting it as a work of art in its own right, and of course, it’s always a pleasure to honour such a legend as Martha.

Various & Gould at work on their piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Various & Gould (photo © Luna Park)

Martin Whatson at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Martin Whatson (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss (photo © Luna Park)

Evol. Detail. (photo © Luna Park)

Plot Bot at work. (photo © Luna Park)

Ernest Zacharevic at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Ernest Zacharevic stands aside his new installation for M/3 (photo © Luna Park)

Poland’s M-City through the glass. Detail. (photo © Luna Park)

M-City with David Hochbaum on the right. (photo © Luna Park)

Rone on the facade, upper portion. Curated by Urban Nation. (photo © Luna Park)

David Hochbaum on the lower facade. Curated by Urban Nation. (photo © Luna Park)

We wish to extend our heartfelt gratitude to Luna Park for sharing her photos with us. If you wish to see more of Luna’s work click HERE

PROJECT M/3, curated by Martyn Reed of Nuart features: MARTHA COOPER (US), DOTDOTDOT (NO), ERNEST ZACHAREVIC (LT), VARIOUS AND GOULD (DE), M-CITY (PL), LEVALET (FR), PLOTBOT (DE), MARTIN WHATSON (NO), EVOL (DE), BUFF DISS (AUS)

For more information on Urban Nation, click HERE.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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BSA Film Friday: 11.15.13 – Exclusive Premiere David Choe / Aryz

November 15, 2013 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening:

1. David Choe/Aryz PREMIERE on BSA: Medvin Sobio’s “L. A. Nights”
2. Niels “Shoe” Meulman Calligraffit
3. Tom Herck aka Atek84 2012-2013
4. The End Of The Line Pt 2; NYC Train Lines by Janosch Delcker.
5. NUART 2013: Showtime
6. M-City in Norway. Time lapse.
7. Alex Yanes: Woven Into Me

BSA Special Feature:

BSA EXCLUSIVE DAVID CHOE/ARYZ PREMIERE:
Medvin Sobio’s “L. A. Nights”

Director-film maker Medvin Sobio takes another unconventional spin on the now somewhat conventional mural-painting subgenre by playing with time signatures, hitting straight up wrong angles, and stirring in a thick sinuous sucrose veneer that makes us begin asking existential questions by the time the droll closing credits roll by.

It’s all here directly from the perfectly banal and brutal life on the street, with little clusters of gadflies and homies swimming around sort of drunkly – aided by a soundtrack heavy with Spanish-language 45s that were left sitting on the radiator. Just as you get the groove, prepare for Sobio to switch it, and for David Choe to glide by the screen like a ninja/Vader/suburban lawncare specialist from San Antonio with leaf blower in hand. The new film captures just a little bit of the LA street insanity of summer where almost everyone is baked — and its debut is here for BSA readers today exclusively.

YOU MUST ENTER THE PASSWORD TO WATCH THE VIDEO: Here it is>>>>> bang

Niels “Shoe” Meulman: Arts In The Streets

Shot and edited by Colin M. Day

“I guess it all started with me as a little kid being into looking at signs and letters,” says Niels in an understated way as he traces his evolution into an amalgam of graffiti and calligraphy that he has fashioned. Follow him as he narrates through the studio environment into a number of venues, all the while rhythmically marking walls, floors, cars with his signature U and N characters.

Tom Herck aka Atek84 Video Compilation 2012-2013

A sizzle reel of sorts by artist Tom Herck that hits upon his tangling with the meaning of selling ideas and beliefs and the paranoiac behaviors bred by surveillance. At least, that’s what we think. Guy has some good ideas and a knack for dramatic symbols, but some may be jarring – like the burning cross at the beginning, for example.

The End Of The Line Pt 2; NYC Train Lines by Janosch Delcker.

Journalist and documentary filmmaker Jonosch Delker offers the companion piece to his “End of the Line” film that explored the final stops on the train lines in Berlin two years ago; Today he brings us the final stations of the NYC subway system. He likes to say they are “non-places” because tourists rarely see them but just the glimpses of human interaction that he captures tell you that these are full of life and possess an urban poetry of their own. It’s true, a rare tourist will ever see these termination stations, as the major hubs of visitor activity are smack in the middle of many train lines. An adventurous or dozing visitor can find these places, though most probably won’t. With his choice of Moby to accompany you on your trip to the ends of the lines, you won’t need to do it either – but you may be encouraged to.

NUART 2013: Showtime

Time for a victory lap on the 2013 installment of Nuart.

M-City in Norway. Time lapse.

Quietly he works. M-City in Norway.

Alex Yanes: Woven Into Me

“Every artist that I ever met that is successful has paid dues,” says visual artist Alex Yanes in this tight video shot and edited by Duffy Higgins that traces the process Yanes followed to create and mount his first New York show – a show we caught at Low Brow Artique for its opening. It captures the energy and enthusiasm of the artist who had some trepidation about bringing his Miami style to Bushwick and the ready to rumble every day life of New York.

BSA Film Friday 09.27.13

September 27, 2013 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening: Graphic Surgery for “The Canals Project“, OLEK in “Russia’s PRIDE“, Team OBEY Visits FAILE, STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt, and M-City in Paris.

BSA Special Feature: Graphic Surgery
for “The Canals Project”

Erris Huigens and Gysbert Zijlstra, artists from Amsterdam who together are called Graphic Surgery, work here in the industrial fields along the waterway near London’s site of the Olympics last year. The primary audience will mostly be floating by in this area once known for local spontaneous Street Art and now curated, and Graphic Surgery’s silhouetted geometrics will be sharply cutting as you pass, minimal and constructivist while you propel through the rippling canal. All the mirroring and refracting of angles and shapes are flattened momentarily, wavering and ricocheting off and with their surroundings in black and white.

As they speak the two artists take you with them to see how it is done, and how it is inspired – capturing the lines and the physical context of placement with intention while their intersections with modernism and industry are distilled.

Graphic Surgery: The Canals Project. London 2013. Produced by Cedar Lewisohn.

OLEK “Russia’s PRIDE”

A new video documenting Street Artist Olek as she did a public art installation in St. Petersberg last week. You can also read her interview this week with BSA here: OLEK Interview and Exclusive Photos “From Russia With Pride”.

Team OBEY Visits Team FAILE

A quick look inside Faile’s studio as they prepare for their currently running show at Dallas Contemporary museum.

STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt

Ending today the Schrirn Kunsthalle has been showcasing the diversity of Brazilian graffiti art as Brazil was the guest of honor at the Frankfurt Book Fair.

Artists included are HERBERT BAGLIONE, GAIS, RIMON GUIMARÃES, JANA JOANA & VITCHÉ, NUNCA, ONESTO, ALEXANDRE ORION, SPETO, FEFE TALAVERA, TINHO, and ZEZÃO

M-City In Paris: Interview

A relaxed look at stencil Street Artist M-City as he completes a huge wall in central Paris, followed by an interview at Itinerrance Gallery by Chrixcel.

With special thanks to Fatcap.com

Splashes of Color in the Norwegian Rain: NUART 2013

September 11, 2013 Artists

The pale wan institutional hues of the Stavanger International Airport now are punctuated by the brilliant blues and stencil patterning wrapping around the control tower.

Small multi-layered stencil portraits pop from post-boxes, primary color-clad children hang off of stoop stairs and balance on stacked chairs and a graffiti slathered Michaelango stands on the corner next to the eye doctors office. Turn up another street and an aerosoled sultry geisha rises, wrapped in boisterous brocade on a typically white wall in this rather monochromatic sea town.

With these new wall works by M-City, C215, Ernest Zacharevic, Martin Whatson, and Hush (respectively) and a number of others, Nuart 2013 brought a lot of color to the streets this year as it celebrated what founder Martyn Reed called “one of, if not thee, finest Nuart events yet”.

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Best Wishes from cold and rainy Stavanger!” says Ernest’s friend Gabija in her note to us as she talks about the cool grey storms that held up many of the visiting artists waiting to paint. It didn’t delay the pieces going up on tunnel walls of the venue where the opening party crowds teamed Saturday night. The special installations by C215, David Choe, and Aiko among others also included a 1,300 slide show at the end of one tunnel that showed 50 years of graffiti, Street Art, and street life photography by Martha Cooper, who was invited as an artist.

Even the minister of culture stopped by for a tour on Thursday, which shows how far graffiti and Street Art have grown, or strayed, in the years since public service commercials equated aerosol art with illicit drug use, truancy, terror, and illegal firearms. Today we give tours in the streets to appreciative people who snap photos and pose with friends in front of the spray painted walls.

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Of course this is an international mural festival, and much of the work is done by more accomplished artists who may have once (or still do) sprayed their stuff illegally. The themes may need to pass some review process, but the opportunities that come from taking your time are appreciable also. One of the newest talents showing this year was the Lithuanian twenty-something Ernest Zacharevic, who photographs and paints kids interacting and playing on a variety of wheeled machines, usually the self propelled kind.

Ably steering clear of cute, Zacharevic uses props with his wall paintings to “tap into the original instincts of adult viewers who may have lost their ability to access their playful nature,” or so we said in our interview with him. He also merges 2D with 3D quite seemlessly. For his tunnel installation on opening night, Zacharevic sawed a car in half so his kids could dance on the roof, cram inside, and push it from the back like it was out of gas. More than likely it was the missing wheels that kept the car stationary. But no harm in playing.

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

But of the 16 artists invited this year, each can say they brought life and their A-game to this jewel of an outdoor art show in Norway. Nuart 2013 included MARTHA COOPER (US), DAL EAST (CN), ROA (BE), M-CITY (PL), FAITH47 (ZA), HUSH (UK), VHILS (PT), ERNEST ZACHAREVIC (LT), C215 (FR), DOT DOT DOT (NO), DOTMASTER (UK), STRØK (NO), MARTIN WHATSON (NO), DAVID CHOE (US) AIKO (JP).

With very special thanks to photographer Martha Cooper for sharing these images with BSA readers.

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stroek casts a shadow. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stroek and a street scene. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stroek finishing up his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 does this portrait of fellow Street Artist Indi. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 self portrait looking perplexed, perhaps. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 on a post box in Stavanger. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martin Whatson (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO (photo © Martha Cooper)

A tour of the walls in Stavanger with AIKO’s piece on the background. (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO and Martha Cooper’s collaborative tunnel, with Aiko’s stencils on both sides and a slide show at the end. This slide is of New York graffiti writer and fine artist Futura as a young buck at the tunnels’ end. (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO’s walls and Martha Cooper’s portrait of her in a perfect collaboration. (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO and Martha Cooper’ slide show on the background. (photo © Martha Cooper)

VHILS (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City. Detail. (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH in a stunning shot by Ms. Cooper, who caught a woman in a hijab walking past at just the right moment. (photo © Martha Cooper)

DOT DOT DOT keeping warmed by the fire. (photo © Martha Cooper)

ROA’s whale is spouting oil, a reference to the driving force behind the local economy perhaps. (photo © Martha Cooper)

FAITH 47 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Dal East (photo © Martha Cooper)

Founder of NUART Festival Martyn Reed, standing in front of David Choe’s piece while giving a tour of the art to Norway’s Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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NUART 2013 Update – David Choe, C215, Aiko, Vhils, Ernest Zacharevic, Dot Dot Dot, Hush, and M-City

September 7, 2013 Artists

“We’ve had terrible weather–rained most of the day today–so artists have been slow getting their walls done,” said Martha Cooper about the scene in Stavanger for Nuart 2013 on Friday. Today is looking much better, she reports, almost good enough for a boat ride.

Each of the artists have been commenting on the sometimes heavy rains, which can sort of kill your aerosol buzz, but no one really minds because the festival buzz is building toward tonight’s big events. We think the folks at Nuart had it planned this way because there is work that needs to be done underground in the tunnel gallery spaces for the Saturday night opening.

Ernest Zacharevic uses the attitude of childs play in his Street Art installations around the world, often incorporating a third dimensional installation element to complete it. Look for an interview with him on BSA shortly. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Here under cover from the storms C215 is hard at work on a very large and color drenched portrait, Hush is on a ladder glossing the lips of a modern geisha, and Aiko is stenciling a signature sexy pop-inspired theme that covers two thirds of the front of one tunnel – leaving the remaining space for Ms. Cooper to project some 1300 of her photos for the expected crowd this evening.

DalEast and Faith47 have been slowed down a bit too. “Raining now,,, waiting for it to stop,” she taps out on her keyboard in a brief cadence as if sending a guarded cable in Morse code across the Atlantic. Meanwhile, there are some other diversions to be inspected, and other artists to meet. Everyone has been talking about taking a local fjord boat ride up Stavanger Peninsula so they may accompany Martha on the voyage to see the natural beauty of the Norwegian coastline while things are drying out today.

Founder of NUART Festival Martyn Reed, standing in front of David Choe’s piece while giving a tour of the art to Norway’s Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Luckily a fair share of work has been completed, and the Minister of Culture has already stopped by to tour and pose for a photo in front of the David Choe piece, and the scaffolding on the airport control tower came down to reveal the new large stenciled mural wrapping it by M-City, who has since moved on with ROA to Lodz, Poland for the Urban Forms festival.

“We’ll all be here through the weekkend so that’s when the bigger walls may get finished,” says Martha. Martin Whatson is just about finished and Ernest Zacarevic completed his outside installation with a stack of chairs for his stencil to balance upon. He also rather conspiratorially reveals this teaser to BSA, “my main installation for Nuart 2013 will feature a car, half sliced.” He says it will continue a theme in his previous work.

More from Nuart soon, but in the mean time, here are some progress shots for BSA readers including work by David Choe, C215, Aiko, Vhils, Ernest Zacharevic, Dot Dot Dot, Hush, and M-City.

C215 at work on his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

DOT DOT DOT (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH working on a second piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

VHILS (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO working on her piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City. Detail. (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martha captures the mimicry of Martin Whatson’s body language with the fellow working in his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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Martha Bikes the Hills, Martyn Keeps Up at NUART 2013

September 5, 2013 Artists, Interview

“We’re really honored to have Martha amongst us this week,” says Martyn Reed, the barely well behaved director of Nuart 2013, as he welcomes the photographer Martha Cooper, who has just touched down next to the new piece going up on the airport control tower by Polish Street Artist M-City. Not that Martyn was there when she landed. “Unfortunately not, what with the Mayor and everything there wasn’t room in the limo,” he says in the joking manner that tells you he is still kind of in awe of the success of this internationally known Street Art festival now underway for its ninth year.

Martha Cooper. “Banner on wall in arrival area at airport” -MC. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“The trip was fine—a short flight from Oslo,” says Ms. Cooper, who immediately snuck an iPhone photo of the welcome banner with her name at the top, before wondering whether photos were actually allowed in that area of the airport. “I was met by Krystal, a Stavanger resident who has worked with Nuart before and who is very knowledgeable about the artists and the whereabouts of murals past and present,” she says.

“Faith 47 and Daleast were also waiting at the airport, having arrived a few minutes earlier from Cape Town and it was fun to reconnect with them.” And did they all get a look at the new piece that M-City is painting? “Unfortunately it was raining so we were unable to get a good look at the airport control tower which was shrouded in scaffolding and plastic,” says Ms. Cooper, but “The fact that permission had been obtained to paint the tower is an indication of how city officials have embraced street art.”

Martha Cooper. “This is Stavanger. I have a bike to ride around on but need to get in better shape to handle the hills”- MC. (photo © Martha Cooper)

As the visiting artists continue to land in Stavanger, already a number of pieces have gone up – ROA and David Choe have installed theirs and run out of town, for example. “I was especially happy to see C215 again because I hadn’t seen him since visiting Vitry a couple of years ago. Also I was excited to see a number of artists on the list whose work I was unfamiliar with. That always makes a festival more exciting,” says Martha.

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you been to Nuart before?
Martha Cooper: This is my first trip to Stavanger and I was really looking forward to it because I’d heard many great things about the festival from How & Nosm and also photographer Ian Cox, who had shown me beautiful photos of the walls and the charming seaside town.

Brooklyn Street Art: Typically you are an invited guest as a photographer. This time you are also regarded as an artist, right?
Martha Cooper: Correct. Although I usually say that I’m not an artist, it’s actually a relief not to be responsible for official photography.

Ian Cox. David Choe teaser. (photo © Ian Cox)

Brooklyn Street Art: What sort of project are you thinking of doing?
Martha Cooper: I’m not doing anything unusual. I’m having a slideshow of over 1300 photos; a sort of graffiti/hip hop/Street Art retrospective that we’ll be showing in an underground tunnel in the main venue. There is a series of short tunnels that artists are painting. Aiko is stenciling the sides of mine and the slides will be projected at the end.”

Cooper mentions her buddy Aiko, who will also be stenciling some work of her own on distinctive Norwegian seaport architecture that sometimes has as much character as the new stuff that adorns it. Aside from her projected installations, Ms. Cooper will of course be every where she can possibly be with her camera in hand, and probably one or two in her backpack.

“Martha’s here as an artist and our guest, she’ll be treated the same as all of our artists; Like a Queen,” Reed cracks, “only on a bike with a camera.”

“But seriously,” he continues, ”Martha’s quite rightly perfectly happy being recognized as a documentary photographer and I wasn’t sure she would accept being invited as an artist, but she did and we’re very thankful of that. I don’t see any reason why Martha can’t occupy this space. Inviting Martha to participate as an artist is due to the fact that, when I look at her work, I see art. I’d also heard she was a wonderful down to earth person with few airs and that’s very important for Nuart, which is fundamentally a volunteer-run organization.”

Ian Cox. Aiko teaser. “The blurred character is a volunteer who was helping Aiko to move her scaffold”-IC. (photo © Ian Cox)

Already the two of them have been having fun together checking out possible walls for projects, digging up found materials and strategizing how to prevent visitors from stepping in front of the projector on opening night. Also there was the moment in one of the installation tunnels when Martha came rushing toward him with her phone out to him saying “,Quick, quick, it’s the attaché to the Norwegian Culture Minister, they want to speak to you”. It was a confusing moment he won’t ever forget he says, because he couldn’t imagine why the minister was on Martha’s phone.

Reed recalls, “I was thinking, a) it was a practical joke, b) ‘how did they know where I was,’ and more importantly, c) How the hell did they get Martha Cooper’s private number?” While Martha stood there beaming he took the phone and the voice on the other end said, “ Hello, this is the personal assistant to the culture minister Hadja Tajik, she’d like to visit Nuart on Thursday…” .

“After the call, we stood there a little dumbfounded, but after scratching our heads for a while trying to work out how they came to call Martha, we realized the festival had used my bank card to buy a Norwegian SiM card for her phone and that the Government had searched and found the number registered to me,” he says with a brightening realization, and then a darkening one. “I know, very NSA. Anyway, mystery solved.”

But for him, the moment was a marker in his memory, he says, “The image of Martha Cooper rushing over to pass me the phone to speak with the Culture Minister of Norway will stay with me for life. It felt like the festival had finally come of age.”

Martha Cooper. ROA. “Whale spouting oil. Stavanger is an oil rich town”-MC. (photo © Martha Cooper)

For her part, Ms. Cooper is laying plans for the out door component of her participation as artist/documentarian/photographer. “We are also planning to project photos on the sides of buildings in town,” she reveals, “ – including a huge silo. This will be the night of the opening and we won’t know whether it works until it happens. I’ve selected about 25 verticals and horizontals with a little more contrast that I think might work well.”

Reed doesn’t much mind what they end up doing – he’s just glad that he’s having this opportunity right now. “Martha holds the unique position of being a forerunner, pioneer, ambassador and also important contemporary voice in our culture – we wanted to salute that.”

Ian Cox. M-City painting the Air Traffic Control tower at Stavanger Airport. (photo © Ian Cox)

Martha Cooper. “M-City with his completed control tower mural. Scaffolding to be removed in a day or two but he has already left”-MC. (photo © Martha Cooper)

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BC Gallery Presents: Inaugural Group Exhibition (Berlin, Germany)

April 16, 2013 Afghanistan, Artists

Grand Opening

Bumblebee
Interesni Kazki
Inti
Jaz
M-City
Moneyless
Sixeart
Sowat
Stinkfish

Grand Opening 26/Apr/13, 18H

Located in the center of Berlin’s culture magnet Friedrichshain, BC Gallery has its headquarters in a brand new top-of-the-line gallery space at Libauer Strasse and a breathtaking off-location on the famed RAW strip .
The grand inaugural gallery show will feature works by Bumblebee, Interesni Kazki, Inti, Jaz, M-City, Moneyless, Sixeart, Stinkfish and the calligraphy French master Sowat, who just finished an impressive work on the gallery floor.
BC Gallery: Libauer Str. 14, 10245 Berlin . Friday April 26th at 6pm

http://bcgallery.de/?cat=3

BC Gallery Presents: Group Exhibition (Berlin, Germany)

April 2, 2013 Afghanistan

Grand Opening April 26th, 2013 with a group exhibition containing work from:

Bumblebee
Interesni Kazki
Inti
Jaz
M-City
Moneyless
Sixe Paredes (aka Sixeart)
Stinkfish
Sowat

Make sure to RSVP if you plan to attend the opening!

BC Gallery
Libauer Strasse 14
10245 Berlin

http://bcgallery.de

“See No Evil” in Bristol Brings Thousands to the Streets

August 29, 2012 Artists, Bristol, Events, Features, On the Street, Street Art Festival, U.K.

Basking in the warm glow of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad, the “See No Evil” festival unabashedly celebrated Street Art in Bristol with thousands of fans thronging through the street while London was scurrying to deal with the threat of the unofficial Street Art of the Olympic kind.

In its second year, the one-week festival invited about 40 Street Artists from around the globe to hit up the walls of one long street while visitors traveled great distances to watch. In yet another sign of the full emergence of this first global art form, people witnessed live painting day and night, took photos, visited pop up galleries, attended graffiti workshops, danced to live music on six stages, and ate huge mountains of food at what organizers called a “New York Style” block party.

M City, Nick Walker, She One and El Mac. (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

On the map for the Street Art scene since the early 1980s, Bristol was known for its own style then, eventually giving rise to some of todays’ better known names. With this expansive celebration initiated by locally raised graffiti star Inkie, many styles from the worldwide scenes of graffiti and Street Art exist alongside one another in this grand thoroughfare. Notably only 3 of last years 72 or so works survived into this year (by Nick Walker, Aryz and El Mac), suggesting a very slim chance that many of these new pieces will last for long, but few seemed to mind this month.

El Mac. (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

The 2012 crop includes painters from Los Angeles, New York, Paris, Poland, Austria, and across the UK who used an estimated 3,500 cans of aerosol to collectively create a massive gallery of public art. With roots in what was once strictly illegal, it’s mind-bending to imagine how occasionally even a police officer or mayor has been photographed proudly adding to the artworks at festivals like these. Within the space of one small decade or so, the appreciation for this form of expression has skyrocketed and in fact this month thousands in Bristol are seeing no evil in it.

Our special thanks to the talent of photographer Ian Cox, who shares these images with BSA readers. Also thanks to Ben Merrington for his photo of the ROA piece.

M City, Nick Walker, She One. (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

M City (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

She One (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

Conor Harrington (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

Conor Harrington. Detail. (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

TCF Crew (photo © Ian Cox 2012)

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Fun Friday 05.11.12

May 11, 2012 Artists

1. “Streets of the World” Now Open in Soho
2. “A Night With The London Police” (Newcastle)
3. Word To Mother (San Francisco)
4. “Lo-Cal” at C.A.V.E.
5. “French Invasion” in Ventura City
6. “The Exchange Project: Series I” in LA
7. Lister in a video by Carlos Gonzalez
8. REVOK: The Seventh Letter x The Hundreds

“Streets of the World” Now Open in Soho

“Streets of the World”, the massive new show at Opera Gallery is open to the public today after a boffo opening last night. It’s not all brand new stuff, but we’ve never seen it before – this is a very fun Street Art to go see. Also, for Aunt Bea, there’s even a real live Banksy! Make sure to go down stairs as well as the show continues in the basement.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also…“The Streets of the World” Converge at Opera Gallery

“A Night With The London Police” (Newcastle)

If you are up to spending the night with the naughty boys of The London Police then head over to Newcastle yonder in the UK where at Unit 44 Gallery where they’ll charm you with their natural wit and talent tonight at the opening of their show “A Night With The London Police”.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Word To Mother (San Francisco)

In San Francisco at the White Walls Gallery will be the British Street Artist named Word To Mother on Saturday. He’s been busy tagging and will be glad to tell you why he “Can’t Afford To Be Broke”.

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

At C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice Beach, CA “Lo-Cal” A group show including BECCA in the back room. Click here for more details on this show.

At the Fabien Castanier Gallery in Ventura City, CA a “French Invasion” takes place with JonOne, Nasty, Rero, Speedy Graphito and Tilt in a group show. Click here for more details on this show.

At The Navarro Residence “The Exchange Project: Series I” in LA opens on Saturday with Radical!, Patrick Porter and Scott Michael Ackerman. Click here for more details on this show.

Lister in a video by Carlos Gonzalez

On this video Carlos Gonzalez interviews and documents Anthony Lister during his multiple trips to Los Angeles.

REVOK: The Seventh Letter x The Hundreds

“The Streets of the World” Converge at Opera Gallery Tonight

May 10, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, Opening

Without much fanfare, the Opera Gallery is selling the streets of the world. The crossroads of many countries meet there tonight as the gallery presents a survey of some of the better-known Street Artists of the moment and a few predecessors; a show of their growing roster of names from the last decades’ explosion on the street and a reflection of the tastes of a new generation of collectors.

Take a survey of the action in auctions, galleries, art fairs, Flickr pages, and even blogs, and anyone would conclude that the streets are a source of life that ignites the imagination of many in the art world today. While the movement of Street Art and graffiti-inspired art into commercial sales always sparks debate about it’s rightful place (or definition), the undeniable fact is that the market for Street Art is now in full bloom.

So here they are, some of your favorite Street Artists, most of whom have been profiled here on BSA, collected in one space for you to view and appreciate under well lit conditions and protected from the elements. Watching the transition from ignominy to untouchable over a little more than a decade is positively head spinning as the identities of many of these same artists were once shrouded, and some still are. When you look at pieces made specifically for the gallery, it can be gratifying and illuminating to see whose talent can evolve and deepen when there is no need to hit and run, or look over your shoulder. As we cross this gossamer veil to see the work of these artists once more before it disappears into private collections, it’s worth noting that the creative spirit is always alive for anyone who wants to access it. That’s what keeps us running to the street.

BSA got a chance to see the show going up – and caught just a few of the amazing pieces – but many were not unpacked yet or hung. If you are in New York, this little show is a big one that you will be glad you saw.

Among the artists on view are Anthony Lister, Rone, Kid Zoom, ROA, Dal East, Blek le Rat, Herakut, How and Nosm, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, b., Know Hope, The London Police, M-City, Sixeart, Hyuro, Liqen, Interesni Kazki, Paul Insect, Remi Rough, Nick Walker, Mark Jenkins, Saber, Augustine Kofie, Revok, Faile, Bäst, Swoon, Ron English, Trustocorp, Mare 139, Jose Parla, Eric Haze, Logan Hicks, Aiko.

“Streets Of The World” opens today at the Opera Gallery in Manhattan. Click here for further information regarding this show.

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Opera Gallery Presents: “Streets of the World” (Manhattan, NY)

May 1, 2012 Artists, Events, Gallery, Manhattan, NYC, Opening

Opera Gallery

May 11th – May 31st

Free admission: 11:00 – 7:00 daily

Telephone number: 212.966.6675

Email: nyc@operagallery.com

For the first time, Opera Gallery will be uniting forty of the most important contemporary artists to emerge from the Street Art Movement. These artists span the globe, including the United States, Brazil, France, Ukraine, Poland, Belgium, Israel, Spain and China, proving that the Street Art Movement has no borders. Opera gallery is proud to have put together this unique show. Thank you to all the artists for creating some of their best works for this occasion.

Featuring Anthony Lister, Rone, Kid Zoom, ROA, Dal East, Blek le Rat, Herakut, How and Nosm, Alexandros Vasmoulakis, b., Know Hope, The London Police, M-City, Sixeart, Hyuro, Liqen, Interesni Kazki, Paul Insect, Remi Rough, Nick Walker, Mark Jenkins, Saber, Augustine Kofie, Revok, Faile, Bäst, Swoon, Ron English, Trustocorp, Mare 139, Jose Parla, Eric Haze, Logan Hicks, Aiko.

Opera Gallery

115 Spring Street New York, NY 10012

(212) 966-6675

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“good table manners, social awareness, whether or not they are house trained…”

Martha Cooper. Shot from inside the window. (photo © Luna Park)

Martha Cooper poses in front of her window, 33 years after taking the original photo. (photo © Luna Park)

So much for the “Broken Window” theory. Martha Cooper (photo © Luna Park)

Levalet at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Levalet (photo © Luna Park)

Various & Gould at work on their piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Various & Gould (photo © Luna Park)

Martin Whatson at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Martin Whatson (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss (photo © Luna Park)

Buff Diss (photo © Luna Park)

Evol. Detail. (photo © Luna Park)

Plot Bot at work. (photo © Luna Park)

Ernest Zacharevic at work on his piece. (photo © Luna Park)

Ernest Zacharevic stands aside his new installation for M/3 (photo © Luna Park)

Poland’s M-City through the glass. Detail. (photo © Luna Park)

M-City with David Hochbaum on the right. (photo © Luna Park)

Rone on the facade, upper portion. Curated by Urban Nation. (photo © Luna Park)

David Hochbaum on the lower facade. Curated by Urban Nation. (photo © Luna Park)

BSA Special Feature:

BSA EXCLUSIVE DAVID CHOE/ARYZ PREMIERE: Medvin Sobio’s “L. A. Nights”

Niels “Shoe” Meulman: Arts In The Streets

Tom Herck aka Atek84 Video Compilation 2012-2013

The End Of The Line Pt 2; NYC Train Lines by Janosch Delcker.

NUART 2013: Showtime

M-City in Norway. Time lapse.

Alex Yanes: Woven Into Me

BSA Special Feature: Graphic Surgery for “The Canals Project”

OLEK “Russia’s PRIDE”

Team OBEY Visits Team FAILE

STREET ART BRAZIL via Frankfurt

M-City In Paris: Interview

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ernest Zacharevic (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stroek casts a shadow. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stroek and a street scene. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stroek finishing up his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 does this portrait of fellow Street Artist Indi. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 self portrait looking perplexed, perhaps. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 on a post box in Stavanger. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martin Whatson (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martin Whatson (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martin Whatson (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martin Whatson (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO (photo © Martha Cooper)

A tour of the walls in Stavanger with AIKO’s piece on the background. (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO and Martha Cooper’s collaborative tunnel, with Aiko’s stencils on both sides and a slide show at the end. This slide is of New York graffiti writer and fine artist Futura as a young buck at the tunnels’ end. (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO’s walls and Martha Cooper’s portrait of her in a perfect collaboration. (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO and Martha Cooper’ slide show on the background. (photo © Martha Cooper)

VHILS (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City. Detail. (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH in a stunning shot by Ms. Cooper, who caught a woman in a hijab walking past at just the right moment. (photo © Martha Cooper)

DOT DOT DOT keeping warmed by the fire. (photo © Martha Cooper)

ROA’s whale is spouting oil, a reference to the driving force behind the local economy perhaps. (photo © Martha Cooper)

FAITH 47 (photo © Martha Cooper)

Dal East (photo © Martha Cooper)

Founder of NUART Festival Martyn Reed, standing in front of David Choe’s piece while giving a tour of the art to Norway’s Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ernest Zacharevic uses the attitude of childs play in his Street Art installations around the world, often incorporating a third dimensional installation element to complete it. Look for an interview with him on BSA shortly. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Founder of NUART Festival Martyn Reed, standing in front of David Choe’s piece while giving a tour of the art to Norway’s Minister of Culture Hadia Tajik. (photo © Martha Cooper)

C215 at work on his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

DOT DOT DOT (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH (photo © Martha Cooper)

HUSH working on a second piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

VHILS (photo © Martha Cooper)

AIKO working on her piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City. Detail. (photo © Martha Cooper)

M-City (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martha captures the mimicry of Martin Whatson’s body language with the fellow working in his piece. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martha Cooper. “Banner on wall in arrival area at airport” -MC. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Martha Cooper. “This is Stavanger. I have a bike to ride around on but need to get in better shape to handle the hills”- MC. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Ian Cox. David Choe teaser. (photo © Ian Cox)

BSA EXCLUSIVE DAVID CHOE/ARYZ PREMIERE:
Medvin Sobio’s “L. A. Nights”

BSA Special Feature: Graphic Surgery
for “The Canals Project”