Martha Cooper | Brooklyn Street Art

Rock On! Sticker Madness at Ad Hoc With Martha Cooper Going Postal

February 22, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events, Gallery

Long before Flickr was a Flicker in your daddy’s eye, Martha Cooper

was “all-borough” out on the streets and subways of New York with her camera capturing and documenting the legacy of graffiti images for future generations. A quarter century later, Ms. Cooper picked up her first digital camera and found it’s diminutive size and ease of use was perfect for capturing one of her new street loves, the postal sticker, in it’s multitude of incarnations.

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On Friday night Ad Hoc Gallery hosted a lively show, party, and sticker fair to fete Martha and her new book “Going Postal”, the bound document that presents what she’s been snapping since 2002. To paraphrase Ms. Cooper, the book recognizes the aesthetics of the postal label and preserves the ephemeral form in print.

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Lined up outside in the cold Bushwick night, the guests ranged from 7 to 77, the widest demographic we’ve ever seen at a show like this, attesting to the regard people have for sticker art as an art form, and, more likely, their regard for this strong proponent of the creative spirit, Martha Cooper.

Martha Cooper basking in the sticker glow (with family helping at the sticker table) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

The Crowd Stuck for Hours before Peeling Away

The Crowd Stuck for Hours before Peeling Off to the Afterparty (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Retrieving the newly dry stickers from the clothesline (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Fans flipped through books to select their favorite (Kosbe) (photo Steven P. Harrington)

This troupe of art fans added a new energy to the night! (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Tazz Red Nose says he's been on the scene since back the day (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Tazz Red Nose says he's been wreckin' stickers since way back in the day. This piece is a full size canvas tribute to two of his most popular characters. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

9 Panels like this with stickers dating back to 1990, were placed around the Ad Hoc gallery. Martha likes the way the two distinct disciplines of graff-styled lettering and street art have intersected on stickers. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Looking hard while posing for a pic. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Trading and giveaways between fans were happening all around (photo Steven P. Harrington)

A new giant bear by C.Damage (photo Steven P. Harrington)

A new bear by C.Damage (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Kosbe covers the options (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Blanco Explains Why BK is Down (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Dwell and One Unit win the award for most fanciful and otherworldly use of materials on stickers. A small collection of their work incorporated wood patterned shelf-lining vinyl collage on postal labels. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Chris Stain pulls at your humanity with his depictions of our neighbors. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Depoe had more colorful abstracts on canvas in the show. Here is one of his stickers. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Aiko bunny with splashes of paint (photo Steven P. Harrington)

PC? - This may stand for Prince Charming (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Giving generously, Chris from Robots will kill prepared envelopes containing 3 stickers and a button for the show. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Blanco obliterated a postal label completely (almost) to create these stencil tributes to Norman Rockwell. This one refers to

Blanco opaqued a postal label completely (almost) to create this stencil tribute to Norman Rockwell. This girl walks the red line - the original "The Problem We All Live With" by Norman Rockwell appeared in Look magazine in 1964, ten years after the Brown Vs. Board of Education decision and during the height of the Civil Rights Movement. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Hilarious tributes to the cassette tape, Blanco made multiple variations of this stencilled sticker and, with an actual typewriter, gave them labels, including MixTape groupings of old-skool jams, as well as iconic album titles like "in Utero" by Nirvana, and this one. (photo Steven P. Harrington)

Click here for “Going Postal” by Martha Cooper

First Splash from the “Street Crush” show

February 15, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Events

A Kisser-Packed Spectacular

Martha Cooper “Next I caught the L out to Greenpoint where Alphabeta was having a very cool (or should I say hot?) Valentine’s bash complete with a Kissing Booth and Strippers.”

Hrag Vartanian “Nothing like a blindfolded burlesque dancer twirling a hola-hoop in front of a wigless drag queen..

It’s kind of hard not to have fun when you are surrounded by art, artist, homies, kissers, and ladies with sequined tassles hanging from the ceiling.

Fun Valen-Times, a perfect street art/ graffitti marriage, and a mash-up of cultural influences swirling around that may not have happened since chocolate met peanut butter. No time to go into it all right now so here’s a few pics to sate your appetite.

But it is never too early to express a heartfelt Thank You to all the street artists, the burlesque performers, the djs, the projectionists, the electronic drummers, the kissing booth builder, the Kisser volunteers, and the family of Alphabeta.

"Girls Can Play" by Aiko (Detail)

Kissing Booth Happy; The show reflected in Jess's smile.

"The Girl with No Thumbs" (Detail) by Broken Crow

Nasty Canasta and Mimi the Clown (photo Steven P. Harrington)

"Wild In the Street" (detail) by Jef Aerosol

"Wild in the Streets" (detail) by Jef Aerosol

Kissing Booth Fun

Tigger! and Madame Voulez-Vous debate the necessity of clothing.

"Sex Sells" (detail) by Royce Bannon

Harvest Moon flies above the crowd (photo by Kat)

"Mam'zlle de mon reve!!" (detail) by Titi from Paris

What did he just say? I can't look, but I can't stop staring.

Clams Casino Elegance

The gallery is open till the 28th!

“Going Postal” Book Release and Sticker Show with Martha Cooper at Ad Hoc

January 11, 2009 Artists, Brooklyn, Gallery

Going Postal

by Martha Cooper

Book Release and Sticker Show

Going Postal

by Martha Cooper

Book Release and Sticker Show

Opening Reception: Friday, February 20th, 7-10pm

Sticker Show on view for 2 more days: Sat Feb 21st, Sun Feb 22nd (1-8pm each day)

Grafitti photography legend Martha Cooper has compiled a collection of photographs shot in numerous cities, including New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco, Tokyo, Berlin and Amsterdam, featuring postal-sticker art created by FAUST, STAIN, C.DAMAGE, GET2, COSBE and many more.

Going Postal documents how an old-school method has burgeoned into another rich facet of the world’s graffiti cultures.

Ad Hoc Gallery

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