Low Brow Artique presents their first solo exhibition, The Penis Mightier Than the Sword, featuring the work of Dickchicken. Returning from nearly a three-year hiatus for one last show, The Penis Mightier Than the Sword will represent a spectrum of the artist’s work, including a combination of new and previously unseen images. This body of work will be on display to the public from October 12th – November 3rd with an opening to the public October 12th from 7-10pm.
In his own words, Dickchicken says, “this thing started as a joke. I was attempting to have fun. So I continued doing it until it was no longer fun[ny]. The graffiti community in NYC is full of high school style drama. When that crept into this idea it ruined it. So I made the call to cut it off. Now and again certain opportunities arise. If I think they are worth the time and effort I participate. This is one of those. So here we are, many years later and many experiences have come and gone. This idea persists. You don’t have to like it. You don’t have to hate it. Use whatever energy you have and create something better. “
At the height of this fame, Dickchicken created a series of faux-magazine covers as large panel pieces. Since imaging his Vanity Fair debut, these pieces have been placed into storage. In addition to these previously unseen images Dickchicken will unveil a series of self-portraits with religious figures including the Virgin Mary and L. Ron Hubbard. By inserting himself into Renaissance style religious portraits and glossy covers, Dickchicken’s comprehensive body of work inserts his tongue-in-cheek humor into the historical canon of art history.
Codex Dynamic. Curated by Leo Kuelbs and John Ensor Parker. Video artworks by Gary Hill, Yi Zhou, and Marina Zurkow. (photo courtesy of The Festival)
16th ANNUAL DUMBO ARTS FESTIVAL TRANSFORMS LAND, WATER, AND SKY INTO
MASSIVE ARTS PLAYGROUND WITH WORKS BY MORE THAN 500 ARTISTS
Over 225,000 people expected for three-day free arts extravaganza in DUMBO
From huge projections across historic buildings and the Manhattan Bridge to interactive performances in Brooklyn Bridge Park to whimsical art floating on the East River, the 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival will offer a free feast for the senses from September 28-30, 2012, organizers announced today.
This year’s schedule, which was unveiled by organizers today, cements the Dumbo Arts Festival as one of the city’s largest and most ambitious arts events. Over three days, an expected 225,000 art-lovers will experience extraordinary art by more than 500 artists from around the world.
Set amid the backdrop of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline in one of the city’s most tech-friendly and culturally rich hubs, the Festival will showcase installations in stores, lobbies, scaffolding, and alleyways, performances and exhibits on more than 50 stages, and tours of 100 open artist studios.
“The 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival will bring the entire neighborhood to life, transforming its streets, parks, bridges, buildings, waterfront, and even sky into canvasses, stages, exhibition spaces,” said Lisa Kim, Festival Director. “Best of all, it is completely free, enabling everyone to experience extraordinary local, national, and international art at a price that can’t be beat.”
What: The 16th Annual Dumbo Arts Festival
When: Friday, September 28th to Sunday, September 30th
Time: Friday, September 28th – 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Saturday, September 29th – 12 p.m. to 8 p.m.
Sunday, September 30th – 12 p.m. to 6 p.m.
All outdoor projections are open from 6 p.m. to midnight all three nights.
Cost: Free
Where: Spans the neighborhood of DUMBO, Brooklyn, between the Brooklyn and Manhattan Bridges, including the waterfront.
“Urban Exploring” is often thought of as some kind of elite super ninja activity; tinged with adventure, a sense of danger, and definitely some flying nunchucks. For city folk with a sense of wanderlust and a need for exercise, the act of checking out an abandoned old building can be just as satisfying and dangerous as going for a bracing hike or rock climbing in the mountains, but it’s much closer to a deli.
Like most large cities in the US, New York has always had its share of run-down decrepit buildings that virtually welcome your exploration. It’s a surprise to find that even with improved city parks on the rise in NYC, when you duck through a hole in the fence to explore an old house or factory you may find other people doing the same thing. In fact sometimes you’ll find people living in them, riding skateboards in them, having sex in them, doing drugs in them, and of course spraying aerosol in them.
You can’t see all this action from the street but sometimes there are awesome interiors in cavernous spaces that continually evolve and metamorphose – an urban art gallery that has a regularly updated exhibition. The perspective will depends on your personal tastes of course.
This particular spot made us think of high-end magazines with shots of socialites posing and air-kissing and banging their hats into each other at charity fundraisers. Something about its grandness feels like a ballroom, even though it looks like it was a power station for the MTA in the early 1900s and the neighborhood itself is probably a SuperFund site, thanks to decades of industrial dumping.
After this rotting and colorful corpse is cleaned up in a few decades, it will probably be razed for some deeeeeeluxe cookie-cutter condos selling for a million each. But for now, you can just squat and take pictures of the golden light streaming through the dirty cracked windows and gaping crevices. Here is your non-ticketed opportunity to enjoy the gorgeous mosaic of graffiti art that waits: rich with color, pattern and coded messages. It can be a brain tease to try to guess what this stuff says. Also, you can practice with your nunchucks.
UPDATE: BSA exclusive new footage courtesy of video artist Chris Jordan plus new images from Jaime Leo, Eszter Klajman and Chris Jordan.
New York’s skies got majorly tagged today. And Mitt Romney got called out in front of 8 million people as a #GOPFail
New Yorkers who looked up from stoop sales, soccer games, and strolls across the Brooklyn Bridge saw graffiti artist and fine artist Saber flying five planes in formation across sunny Sunday skies with messages castigating the presidential candidate for his plans to kill funding for cornerstone arts programs like the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), National Public Radio (NPR), the Public Broadcasting System (PBS).
As the planes spelled out #DefendTheArts over Manhattan, Saber explained to BSA in a phone interview, “Basically I’m calling out Mitt and any other politicians who are cutting arts funding because they are actually cutting jobs that are an engine to our economy. Not to mention the effect these programs have on creativity and inspiration.” One dot-matrix style message said “Protect NPR PBS NEA from cuts” while another offered the Twitter hashtag simply entitled “#MittRomneyHatesArt”.
As one of a handful of high profile graffiti/street artists in the US who have taken the national stage with their social and political commentary, Saber has “gone big” before, but never on this scale and never over New York City in an hour and a half display that he estimated could be seen over a 20 mile radius. “NYC is the art center of the world,” Saber says, “It is quite a good feeling to be able to spread this public message.”
BSA Exclusive Raw footage by Video Artist Chris Jordan shows artist Saber spraying the sky over Manhattan (VIDEO)
The extremely wealthy Republican candidate Romney told Fortune last month that in addition to scrapping the new national health program that is offering medical care to millions, he intends to cut funding to major arts programs if he is elected, saying of the arts programs, “I very much appreciate and like what they do in many cases, but I just think they have to stand on their own.”
Rather than relying simply on the generosity of patronage, Saber thinks that the government and society at large benefit from investing in artists in an increasingly “creative economy” – many of whom he called out in the sky today, including artists, writers, poets, designers, actors.
Taking his campaign to social media with the #DefendTheArts hashtag this time, Saber very visibly entered the national fray during the healthcare reform debate of 2009, saying that the existing for-profit system cut out people like himself, uninsurable because of his epilepsy. Today grassroots activism that emanated from downtown NYC has expanded the conversation and he acknowledges those voices who have focused attention on Romney and the so-called 1%. “We’re making sure to fly directly over Zucotti Park with a big ‘Occupy Wall Street’ message, because that’s what New York is too.”
Amid the political messages skywritten by Saber are shout outs to friends and graffiti artists who have passed; a nod to the roll-call community memorial walls that graffiti and street artists have done in cities for decades. This new way of “getting up” also has Saber waxing poetic as he sees the effect his fresh tags have at 34,000 feet as they melt into the blue canvas over most of NYC. “It’s almost like I’m painting in the sky – it has a really beautiful effect when a fresh one lays over the one that is fading away.”
As the planes made long oval trips over Manhattan, the East River, Queens, Brooklyn, Staten Island, and back, the normally tough stuff graff guy couldn’t really mask his enthusiasm, “I’m really excited about it!”
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets (and sometimes inside), this week featuring new shots of Barry McGee, Buttless Supreme, Dain, Elle, Etnik, Ive One, Jose Parla, Kashink, Klepto, Matt Siren, ND”A, Overunder, Pork, Swil, This Is Awkward and Zor.
Here are shots of the new GEOMETRICKS show as installed and opening this evening in Red Hook, Brooklyn at Gallery Brooklyn. These images look so austere and crisp, unlike the wildness on the canvasses, and nothing like the visual cacophony of the streets, where so much of this new abstractionist movement is happening. Guess that’s why they call this the “fine art” portion of the story, right?
Congratulations and thanks to all the artists, the gallery, the interns, and our Vandal/Visionary curator for this show, Hellbent. GEOMETRICKS runs for 6 weeks so if you would like to see it in person you are more than welcome.
The show’s up and the bubbly is waiting for the iceman to cometh and of course we hope you’ll be rolling through as Hellbent curates our first “Vandals or Visionaries” show, entitled GEOMETRICKS.
Tricks are for kids, and for Olek, who has reserved one of her raunchy text messages for you to discover crocheted into her sculpture, and for Overunder, who is hanging his free wheeling story-telling metaphors with pattern overlays on large sheets of draftsman paper. It’s also tricky to make your eyes focus through multiple abstractions, line plays, blinding colors, and rippling patterns that jump off at you as you walk through the gallery space.
All of these artists have been bringing it to the streets, and all come at it from different perspectives. See One developed his through the NYC graffiti scene, Augustine Kofie evolved his draftsman approach out of his days as a writer in LA during the 90s, and Jaye Moon is a fine artist from Korea who’s had a gallery career before she started taking Legos to the streets. But when you see it all together, you realize there is one new language in formation in the Street Art AND Graffiti scene.
“Art from the streets has been heralding a new eye-popping geometric disorder that can now fairly be called a movement.
With roots in recent art history and the rhythms of the street, artists are giving themselves over to pungent color, pattern, grid inspired line, and a sharp edged abstraction. No one can say what has moved the conversation toward this aesthetic — it all mimics the repetitive patterns that are found in nature as well as the cool symmetries programmed by human industry. These modern alchemists from across the globe are somehow pumping the Street Art scene with an oxygen-rich supply of lifeblood and a variety of possible directions to explore.” ~ from Color, Geometry and Pattern on the Streets, our recent piece on the Huffington Post.
Yo Yo what’s up all the Brooklyn peepuls and the New Yorkers and the LA’ers and the Chicago’ers and the Stavanger Norway buddies and shout out to Martha as she hangs in Johannesburg today and to everybody who’s brave enough to tap into the creative spirit. Today in Brooklyn it’s sunny and bright and there’s a bird singing on the chain link fence outside my house. As usual the place to be is where you’re at. Also, we’d be really happy to meet you tomorrow at our show in Red Hook if you can fly by.
1. Kit Kat Flex Dancer in Brooklyn (VIDEO)
2. GEOMETRICKS Opens Saturday (BKLYN)
3. Shai Dahan “Broken Window” (Sweden)
4. Fall Group Exhibition at C.A.V.E (LA)
5. Sydney curates a show on the Street (Australia)
6. “Luchadores” by El Hase is now open to the public at One Art Space in Manhattan.7. Ricky Powell is “Back in BK” and you can catch him tonight at Mishka in Brooklyn
7. PUBLIC WORKS PART I By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
8. PUBLIC WORKS PART II By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
9. Narcelio Grud: “Spiral” Invention and Graffiti (VIDEO)
10. TEJN Has a lock on Street Art (VIDEO)
11. Don John in Copenhagen by Alexander Lee (VIDEO)
Let’s start Friday by getting inspired by KitKat – a Brooklyn flex dancer who knows her stuff. (VIDEO)
GEOMETRICKS Opens Saturday (BKLYN)
Of course we had to put this one first because we have 11 cool artists showing work that collectively illustrates one of the major new directions that Street Art and Graffiti are going in right now.
The Red Hook neighborhood is where the fun will be this Saturday as the opening of “GEOMETRICKS”, curated by Hellbent, takes place at Gallery Brooklyn. With a FREE shuttle from the G/F Trains on Carroll St to the Gallery courtesy of local Brooklyn Crab restaurant, a Young Collectors Wall with dope pieces by the artists in the show all priced at $200 each (you must have valid student ID for these pieces), and music provided by Sleptember, you are going to see a slice of community we’ve all grown to love.
Support the inaugural show of “Vandal or Visionaries” Series by BSA and enjoy the beautiful art works by: Augustine Kofie, Chor Boogie, Drew Tyndell, Feral Child, Hellbent, Jaye Moon, Maya Hayuk, MOMO, OLEK, OverUnder, See One. Then join us at Brooklyn Crab to hang after the show – and the restaurant will be offering a FREE shuttle back to the G/F Trains. So what’s there not to like? And we thank our local Red Hook based sponsor, SixPoint Brewery.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Sydney curates a show on the Street (Australia)
It looks like the Australians’ love affair for Street Art continues strong. Ambush Gallery has teamed up with Darling Quartet, Sydney’s new precinct and public arts space to mount an outdoor exhibition opening to the public today. The works of art on view are by a handful of well known and respected Street Artists working today including: Anthony Lister (Bris/NY), Beastman (Syd), Shannon Crees (Syd) and Hiroyasu Tsuri/TWOONE (Melb). The exhibition is FREE, open 24/7 and it will be illuminated at night.
For further information regarding this show click here.
Also happening this weekend:
“Luchadores” by El Hase is now open to the public at One Art Space in Manhattan. Click here for more details on this show.
Ricky Powell is “Back in BK” and you can catch him tonight at Mishka in Brooklyn. Click here for more details on this show.
PUBLIC WORKS PART I By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
PUBLIC WORKS PART II By Jason Wawro (VIDEO)
To learn more about LALA Arts Public Works Project with the participation of Ron English and Shepard Fairey, as well as How & Nosm, Insa, Push, Revok, Risk, Seen, Trustocorp, WCA Crew, Uglar and Zes click here.
Narcelio Grud: “Spiral” Invention and Graffiti (VIDEO)
TEJN Has a lock on Street Art (VIDEO)
Sculptor TEJN from Copenhagen broadens our conception of what street art and public art and sculpture are with his installations that he chains and locks and leaves. Basically, he’s just giving you his art, and if you really want it probably you will need a blow torch.
Hope you got a taste for a nice icy Frozade, because we’ve got a hell of a photo show coming to 350 Broadway this Friday: the one and only Ricky Powell, designated visual cataloguer of New York City’s hip-hop history, will be bringing a selection of his work to the store in a collection entitled Back In BK. Never more than a lens away from the heart of NYC’s street scene since the 1980s, Powell captures the vibrancy of this city and its music, whether its through pictures of stars like The Beastie Boys and Run DMC or citizens rambling through the village.
Back in BK will show off work from his entire career, a portal into a New York long past and a window the one that still thrives just outside your door. As usual, we’re throwing a party to celebrate the opening night, and I have to imagine that Mr. Powell will be bringing out quite the crew. So be sure to come by 350 Broadway this Friday night. Come back to BK. You know you want to.
Friday September 21st, 2012, 7-10PM Мишка NYC
350 Broadway
Brooklyn, NY
We’re keeping it local today with an empty patch of real estate on Manhattan’s Lower East Side called “The Grassy Lot” that’s been semi-curated for about a year with an eclectic mix of American and Australian ex-pats. It’s a nice little patch of grass that is sometimes rented out for events and receptions – also it is used occasionally for rumored topless sunbathing, water balloon fights, or the periodic impromptu late night assignation after stumbling out of a nearby watering hole.
Like all fun things, Summer is drawing to a close, at least officially. For those of you who walk the streets of this city either with your eyes closed or fixed on your belly button we inform you that it was the Summer of Love ’12 for The Yok and Sheryro, who stayed at the top of the aerosol charts due to their sheer industry. This little lot has some examples of their stuff, but really they seemed to get up all over. Here also is Queen Andrea, who has also been making a strong showing of late, along with stuff from Cake, Cern, Daek1, Gaia, Nanook, Never, and Sean Morris.
Brooklyn impresario Joe Franquinha of Crest Art Show fame was the procurer of art at “The Grassy Lot” again this year and we extend our gratitude to him for letting us give a peak to BSA readers.
That’s kind of how this expansive space feels with no people in it. It is a universe created by a post-graffiti graffiti godfather who has freed his own imagination to search for new planets of influence, new centers of intelligence. Many of the New York graffiti artists who made names on trains in the 1970s and early 80s found a track to transition to the future, whether through evolving their style or reprising it again and again. When you look at the influence of 20th century fine art abstraction as it has matured on the Street Art scene of the last decade, this cat may have begun in this retro-future, and we’re now just catching up to him.
Thirty years after he took his work into the gallery from the trainyards, Futura reminds us of the greater possibilities of aerosol as a tool for expression, exploration. The power of the works as presented is cosmic; explosive, exploratory, often serene. Fire and lava formations, oceans, suns, patterned reflections and free nebulous images as captured by powerful telescopes as they float above us. While his hand is freestyle and almost impulsive, Futura can be as selectively deliberate as he is uncontrolled. Viewed in this wide open and darkened gallery galaxy, the space-age illumination gives the works a feeling of astronomy, with each canvas a floating body in the cosmos, clearly viewed from your own porthole. But it’s clear who the north star is.
Street art welcomes all manner of materials and methods, typically deployed without permission and without apology. This hand-formed wire piece …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
