All posts tagged: NYC

Pandemic Gallery Presents: “20” Stikman Celebrates 20 Years on The Street (Brooklyn, NY)

March 13, 2012 , , , , ,

“20”


Pandemic Gallery Presents:

“20” a solo exhibition by Stikman

Opening Reception: Fri. March 16th 2012 • 7-11pm
show runs through April 6th

What more can be said about the mysterious artist known only as “Stikman” that hasn’t been uttered hundreds of times by passersby all over the city? His work is sneaky, incredibly thought provoking and uncommonly satisfying to come across, and if you have been living on the east coast or, well, basically anywhere in the states you no doubt have discovered it in some aspect. It could be in the form of 3D men made of small sticks to figures hidden in iconic imagery pasted to doors, or literally under your feet, smashed into the concrete. The range of mediums used and the calculated creativity given to each piece is overshadowed only by the sheer amount of work he has affixed to our cities surfaces. Tireless efforts aside, his stick formed character remains one of the most recognizable images in urban art culture. So, on that note we are proud and excited to announce the first solo exhibition of our favorite and New York’s most elusive street artist: Stikman.

from the artist:

It was the summer of 1992 that I deployed my first stikman in the East Village. In the early years the sticks were not painted, It took me much longer to make them at the time because I was always changing the way they were constructed. In the first year I don’t think I made more than 50 of them, they were between 5 and 6 inches tall and made of basswood. By 1996 I had started painting them and begun producing many more per year.

Once I started painting the 3-D stikmen I also started to paint stickers. Combining the 2 dimensional graphic element expanded my view of the ever changing stikman form, and the project took off in unforeseen directions. I was finding many different materials and processes with which to explore the realm of stikman.  Over the years I have affixed and painted the stikman on numerous LP record covers, prints, book pages, cut paper paste-ups, hollow core doors and a variety of metal, wood, cloth and plastic objects. Some of my favorite pieces include stenciling images on ping pong balls, bricks, tiny slide viewers, and playing cards. And of course there were always little wooden men made of sticks.

My pieces start their lives as static objects, but they come to life when I place them in a public place where they are subject to the forces of time, interactions with humans and climate. I share this transient form of art to connect with a viewer whom I will never meet, in hopes that the joy of finding the unexpected has altered their consciousness. It finds an indigenous space in our surroundings like a flower escaping from the crack in a sidewalk. Continuously altered by time and circumstance.

To celebrate twenty years of playing in the street with sticks I have created a special battalion of twenty figures to send out into the world with the hope that the friends of stikman will take him along on new journeys to places he has not yet been. I have also created twenty works on paper to commemorate the paper element associated with stikman.Ten of these are PAINTBLAST, which is a form of automatic painting that occurs when I paint the wood figures.

PANDEMIC gallery
37 Broadway btwn Kent and Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.pandemicgallery.com

Gallery hours:
Tues.-Fri. 11-6pm
Sat. & Sun. 12-7pm
closed Monday
or by appointment

L train to Bedford ave, J train to Marcy ave, or Q59 bus to Broadway/Wythe

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Mighty Tanaka Presents: “Color & Motion” Featuring JMR and See One (Brooklyn, NY)

March 13, 2012 , , , , ,

color and Motion

Color & Motion Opening Reception:

Friday, March 16th

6pm – 9pm

(show runs until April 6th)

(F Train to York Street, A/C Train to High Street)

Worlds are created, destroyed and manipulated with a single stroke of the brush.  Through the swirling movement and radiant bursts exists an abstract landscape of hostile environments intertwined with gentle allure.  A semblance of paths and trails carved through the terrain, guides the eye through a visual exposé of mutually complimenting color tones and textures, further descending into the heart of the painting.  Mighty Tanaka is happy to present our next show, Color & Motion, featuring the explosive abstract work of JMR & See One.  Together, they explore the bounds of abstract art and intend to move beyond the barriers.

Color & Motion is an all-encompassing journey of expression that highlights a strong pallet and maintains a constant flow.  Through the line work of JMR or the color shards of See One, both artists influence the movement of the eye with their chosen techniques.  The work lends itself to a variety of interpretations that exist in the eye of the beholder.

Both artists utilize the very idea of Color & Motion within the overall approach, choosing to create work with acrylic paint as well as incorporating collage elements.  JMR and See One, while similar in approach, both execute their work in unique and mesmerizing ways that invites the viewer to look a little closer.

 

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Images of the Week: D*Face Drama in NYC With 3 Murals in 1 Week

March 11, 2012 , , , , , , ,

It’s true that the art fairs descended on New York this week. Equally true is that the multiple fairs don’t just bring rivers of collectors and dealers and Looky-Loos, these teeming steaming orgiastic fuster-clucks with names like Poke, Stroke and Fountain also can bring in a wave of the Street Artists! Look at the seven days alone with BSA posts on LA’s Retna, Tel Aviv’s Know Hope and todays’ very special edition King of Images of the Week, D*Face!

D*Face “Love Lost”. The first and largest mural to go up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face, one of Street Art’s original British invaders, hit up New York with three new murals this week (two in Williamsburg, one in SOHO) employing sharply graphic pop lines and a humorously tart tongue to create works of high drama. With themes of lust, treachery and broken promises, the D*Face miniseries was streamed live on the street with no cover charge or icy art matron scanning through her iPad list for your name.

D*Face “Love Lost”. The first and largest mural to go up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face “Love Her, Hate Him”. The second mural in SOHO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The final mural D*Face did was on Friday in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. While nicely sunny, the wind whipped through often enough to keep his fingers cold and his collar up. But on days like this New York can feel like a small town and the icy weather didn’t prevent a small group from hanging out, helping the artist and entertaining one another. Producer Stephen Thompson, photographer Jason Lewis and videographer Cliff Cristofarah took turns making observations, cracking jokes, fiddling with the music, and checking out the local parade as it scurried by.

For an additional feeling of street art community, Futura sauntered by to say hello and to offer entertaining stories and even go on a run for refreshments; water, coffees, and Mexican Coca Cola (with real sugar!).  With Rob and Cliff taking turns at their MP3 players and the speakers blasting a bit of a 70s arena rock tribute (The Who, Led Zepplin, Black Sabbath), a couple of bike dudes came by to practice their tricks with a dog in the backpack.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How would you describe these new pieces in New York?
D*Face: All the pieces surround the notion of ‘Love’, ‘Loss’ and ‘Longing’, all drawn from recent personal experiences, everything I create is pulled from experience personal to me, hopefully people will also connect to them too.  I have three new pieces so I wanted to get three good spots with as much visibility as possible, the larger the better.

Brooklyn Street Art: Will you get a chance to skateboard while you’re here?
D*Face: Unfortunately not. I love this city for skateboarding, but I wont get to do much other than paint walls and hopefully cut loose and party a bit.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you talk about where your work is going thematically now?
D*Face: Thematically my work always draws upon personal experiences, whether thats the saturation of media in our lives, our fascination with celebrity and stardom or more singular experiences such as the loss of loved ones, searching your heart for love or holding people close when you should be letting them go.

I mostly rework old imagery that I’ve discovered, chopping bits of one or several images with another to create a new image that I feel is more relevant to today’s society and certainly the message I want to get across. So thematically its a continuation, it just has several veins that it runs off into.

Brooklyn Street Art: It feels like the Occupy Wall Street movement may have taken up some of the same punk aesthetics and energy that you were first drawn to.  Is your work changed or affected at all by OWS?
D*Face: Haha! No not at all, but there’s always someone more punk than you, punk!

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Reworking the vocabulary of advertising and the practice of culture jamming can be very effective as education. Do you think of your work as message-driven?
D*Face: Yes, first and foremost my work has to have a concept, an idea, a message, it’s that which drives my work. Conceptually I’m always trying to push my ideas, push myself, keep myself excited and interested. I don’t want to stand still and see the growth of my work as a flik book, by that I mean small evolutions over time, what I want are solid chapters, which carry a thread of thought linking them all together.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What role does humor play in your stuff?
D*Face: Oh its massively important, life is pretty heavy at the best of times, so even serious messages or thoughts don’t have to be heavy in execution, even the dark thoughts or concepts in my work I hope are executed in a poppy way, I want to draw people in first, get them to appreciate the aesthetic, then hopefully they start to question the image, its content, its meaning. If they don’t and appreciate it only on its surface value then thats fine. I don’t want to ram messages, political, religious, consumerist or otherwise down peoples throats in a way that burdens life’s load.

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg reflected on the side window of a vintage Ford Falcon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg. Stephen Thompson his producer and assistant showing some back handed technique and snaazy foot wear.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You’ve had some serious success in galleries. Why is it still important to you to hit the street today?
D*Face: I’m privileged to have the gallery success I do. I thank everyone that has supported me and my work over the years, to live as an artist, support my family, employ artists to help me, is an amazing opportunity and something I wake up thankful of everyday.

Whilst I love gallery shows and the opportunity to work in a gallery, it brings with it the ability to create different works, execute concepts and play with space in a different way, but you have to want to see ‘art’ or know about the artist or the gallery to see that work, galleries can be intimidating places, I don’t want that, I want my work to be inclusive, not exclusive, so putting work in the streets is the most effective way of doing this.

You can’t beat the feeling of painting in the street, interacting with people, hearing their views, thoughts and ideas on what it is your painting… you know you get to bring the unsuspecting public in, people that may have no interest in art, never walked in a gallery, suddenly when faced with a painting in the street have a different take, a different perspective… it’s really, really interesting, that interaction, even if they don’t like it, you’ve still changed their day, opened their eyes, hopefully you might get them to LOOK at their surroundings and not just see.

D*Face. Doing a bit of mixiology.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Stephen takes D*Face and Futura’s portrait.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Futura tagging a dollar bill for D*Face. (He did one for Word To Mother as well).  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Two local kids and a puppy.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cliff gets the law of the land.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Painting the three dimensional part of the mural in the studio.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Third mural in Williamsburg.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With special thanks to the Corey Helford Gallery for helping coordinate these murals  and to Rob at Thunderdog Studios for hosting us on the Williamsburg sidewalk.

 

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Fountain 2012 Lands in a Grand Old Location

March 8, 2012 , , , , ,

Armory Week is back in town and Fountain Art Fair is nailing it. At the moment – literally. Walls are going up as you are reading this. 200 feet of walls are dedicated to Street Artists – Enough said. Fountain has moved inland this year from the floating, sometimes harrowing, gallery and submarine Murder Lounge on the Hudson waterfront, and in many ways the new Fountain also feels more grounded. Don’t worry, not too much.

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Apart from being in an actual Armory building, a 106 year old institution that lends a certain New York Beau-Arts grandness to it all, Fountain is still anybody’s guess in terms of content and execution; which in our minds is precisely the point of going. The chaotic nature of the creative spirit as wielded by many of these youngish artists means that they are better thought of as corralled, rather than curated, into this grand sweeping space that has plenty of headroom.  Part punk D.I.Y. art party and part Occupy Art Fair, the promise of Fountain lies in the work and your own sense of exploration, rather than the prepackaged pomp of slick-talking retailers.

Naturally there are a slew of Street Artists in Fountain this year, including Chris Stain, Know Hope, GILF, Imminent Disaster, Joe Iurato, LMNOP, Elle, ShinShin, LNY, Cake, En Masse, Sophia Maldonado, Hellbent, Radical! and Wing.  BSA caught some of them working in the last couple of weeks as they completed pieces and we give you some sneak peeks here.

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY, one of the newer Street Artists of New York at the moment, talked to us as he prepared his Fountain piece deep in Bushwick. His careful illustrative style has an unassuming quality, a sort of hand rendered fantasy he is channeling, and discovering, mixing and remixing symbols and imagination.

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you arrive at your current hybrid style of human/animals? Your depictions keep the humans remaining wholly human and the animals remaining wholly animals. They just seem to be attached to each other?
LNY: Animals are very interesting on their own but at the same time they have been used symbolically so much everywhere. For instance I noticed that many countries use the eagle as a national symbol: Egypt, USA and Mexico all have eagles in their national symbols. When I have an inclination to draw I often find myself drawing animals.

Brooklyn Street Art: On this piece you are working on for Fountain you have NYPD Mounted Police with wings on them?
LNY: Usually my ideas just sort of pile up and then they get to something else. For instance the wings are going to be fire actually. I will add a couple more riders and they could be an apocalyptic kind of scene. The fun thing about symbols is that you can read whatever you want into them. I like the ambiguity of symbols a lot.

Brooklyn Street Art: How do you find the process of painting?
LNY: I really don’t paint anymore. I used to paint. What I used to do with painting doesn’t work anymore because I lost faith in the idea of painting – so I have to find something else.

LNY working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LNY working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Know Hope (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Know Hope. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hellbent working on his piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mockup for Hellbent’s piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Finished! A semi-blurry cellphone pic of it from last night. (photo © Hellbent)

I lo-lo-lala-lo-love you. Radical! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to learn more about Fountain Art Fair 2012

 

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RETNA At The Houston Wall in NYC

March 6, 2012 , , ,

The weather is turning friendly, and RETNA is encouraging the conversation

We have been having a very mild winter in New York, even scarily warm. The daffodils are almost in bloom and you can already see the faint shades of pink on the buds of the cherry and apple trees. “Wait!”, we want to yell at them, “Wait! – there might be a frost yet.”  But when it is sunny and warm out, everybody wants to come out and play.

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For example Los Angeles based Street Artist and fine artist RETNA, who took Saturday through Monday to complete the Houston Wall with his brightly secretive musings, messages, and tributes painted in his now famous alphabet.  Maybe it was the holy day, or the holy hangover, but watching this piece appearing on Sunday was like seeing the wall turn into a soaring stained glass cathedral of gestural markings in crimson and blue, a private prayer out in the open.

Watching an artist at work is always a pleasure and it is a gift to see the unfolding magic of a community coming alive on the street, bonded by the humanizing experience of art in progress.  RETNA can be playful, serious, contemplative, relieved, pleased, and you will see it all.

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Houston Street is not one of those quiet hidden romantic streets where an artist can just zone out, no matter the hermetic fit of headphones; this rumbling thoroughfare splits Manhattan loudly and boisterously, dividing Soho from Noho, both ever more expensive and increasingly mall-like these days. Whatever the composition of foot traffic, the sense of community comes alive in this sacred presence of the creative spirit; Passersby, complete strangers, well-wishers and friends stop to say hello, to ask a question, dare a request, or just silently and introspectively observe the process.

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A very young painting fan gets an expert lesson on photography from his daddy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And he was a very good student of the new RETNA wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA obliged a fan with a request of a personalized tag. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA…on the back of what he claimed was a one of a kind Georgio Armani jacket. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA. Cigarette break. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RETNA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Images of the Week: 03.04.12

March 4, 2012 , , , , , , , , ,

Our weekly interview with the street, this week including Bronco, Cindy Sherman, Dan Witz, LNY, Miyok, PK, Read, Royce Bannon, Stikman, Swoon, Trojan Horse, Various & Gould, and Who is Charlie?

LNY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Who is Charlie? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman says go put your records on (photo © Jaime Rojo)


Dan Witz was recently in Los Angeles and Daniel LaHoda from LA Freewalls Project took him around to visit some walls. This and the following images are of his series WTF in The Arts District, The Warehouse District and the Manufacturing District. (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Dan Witz (photo © Dan Witz)

Swoon, Royce Bannon and a Polaroid shot of an amorous couple complete this snap shot of the dialogue on the streets of NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miyok (photo © Jaime Rojo)

German duo Various & Gould spotted this box/crate free standing on the streets of Berlin. The crate was built to protect a very old iron gate from the harsh German winter weather. Then they got thinking… (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. Back at their place they build a horse head with a wooden frame and covered it with cardboard.  (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. And with the help of BRONCO and Studio Nura they transformed the box into an Art Deco Trojan Horse! (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

Various & Gould. “Trojan”, Berlin 2012 (photo courtesy of © Various & Gould)

We are very excited about the great, talented and hugely influential artist Cindy Sherman current exhibition at MoMA. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A Mushroom Cloud in Manhattan: If You See Somethin’ …

February 29, 2012 , , , , , ,

Artist Jean Seestadt Plants a Package in a Bus Stop

Since the never-ending “War on Terror” commenced so publicly a decade or so ago, an intermittently insistent campaign exhorting the public to be aware of odd things and behaviors has beat a steady message of fearful dread in New York.  Posters on buses, brochures in city offices, and disembodied, firmly voiced recordings on trains and in airports remind us that evil walks secretly amongst us and we should be ever-vigilant and tell the nearest police officer if you see something suspicious.

Aside from the obvious challenge of staying alert on the morning subway ride when you haven’t gotten a coffee yet and you stayed up until 2 am playing “Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3”, the plain fact is that most New Yorkers have no idea what strange looks like. We lost that ability sometime after hippies and freaks turned into punks and goths, pants dropped below butts, zombies had parades, “no pants day”, men started making out with each other on the park benches, and of course Donald Trumps hair. For something to catch our eye these days it would have to have to be levitating or in some way involve chocolate.  Otherwise, we’ll keep walking and texting.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The billowing cloud rising in Manhattan this time is from artist Jean Seestadt, whose cut paper installation in the bus stop entitled “If you See Somethin” evokes one prevailing vision of the unmarked package spilling forth it’s curvilinear bilious hot plume into a public place with a stylized hand. On a warmish evening last week it went up on this buzzing island metropolis without anyone saying something.

 

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Following a similar installation in the subway a few weeks ago, Seedstadt brought her new installation to a well lit bus shelter on the street. Aided by a stool, a roll of tape, some scissors, and her good friend Nick, Jean rolled up her sleeves and installed her new work while some people stood by looking, pawing through their mobile devices, or leaning forward to preen down the street for a bus. Cacophonic truck and car traffic, including periodic police cruisers, rattled by in the night while the two enterprising Street/Public Artists took turns teetering on the stool to get it to hang just so. If anyone paid attention at all, no one said something to the artist or her assistant. You see??

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: You have done painting and ink work previously. What do you think of cutting paper?
Jean Seestadt: Cutting paper has all the things I like about painting and works on paper, I love the tedious beauty to it, but I was having a really hard time feeling that I could reach a viewer to the fullest when I am forced in a square 2D format.  Also, the process of letting go of the overly crafted piece and knowing it is eventually going to turn to litter is a real release.

Brooklyn Street Art: Would you say these are sculptures?
Jean Seestadt: They are very sculptural… I guess I think of them more as site-specific installations.  They have no meaning when they are in a static setting.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: What leads you to mount this work in such a public place?
Jean Seestadt: I was interested the fragile, traditional paper cutting medium being forced into a public context. Each piece will be eventually be broken down by either the viewers or by the environment. Because it is not in a precious space the viewer can approach the work however they’d like-if that means touching it, ripping it, taking it, or taking care of it.  The piece doesn’t really work without people feeling free to do whatever they want.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Have you seen paper cut work by street artists?
Jean Seestadt: I’ve only heard of Swoon… it doesn’t seem like the ideal material for street art because it only last for a day if you are lucky.  But street art is all about the temporal nature of the city’s surroundings so I think it makes a lot of sense as a medium.

Brooklyn Street Art: What makes you explore the theme of “If you see something, say something”?
Jean Seestadt: I was interested in the daily reminder we all digest about terrorism and how it is a fragile ghost of this city.  It just floats about our transit system and I thought it was really sad and strange. People might think I am making light of terrorism but I am really not.

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“If You See Somethin”, Jean Seestadt (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Secret Project Robot and Brad Truax Present: “Hyper/Hypo” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)

February 28, 2012 , , , , ,

Hyper/Hypo

March 10th to 25th     

Brad Truax Presents:  HYPER/HYPO    

Opening Reception Saturday 3/10 8 to 11

WITH A PERFORMANCE BY: BUBBLES  

AND DJ’S ANIMAL COLLECTIVE 

 

In this month long installation and group show curator Brad Truax turns the lens onto the artist and asks them to explore themselves and the way in which they make art.  Are they-

HYPER overactive, active, energetic; busy, fidgety; excited, frantic,  frenetic,frenzied, adrenalized, feverish; or Hypo- low, under, beneath, down, below normal.

The exploration of the state of mind of the artist will give incite into their work offering a glimpse at the creative process and the aesthetic accomplishments and styles which develop out of these different emotional states… It will be interesting to see if the viewer’s expectations correlate to how the artists actually approach their work- which in turn puts the lens onto the viewer, asking them to gauge their assumptions about the way in which they look at art.

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The Superior Bugout Presents: “Leap Year 2012 Party Time” Art, Walls and Music (Brooklyn, NY)

February 28, 2012 , , , ,

Leap Year 2012

The Superior Bugout is very stoked to present a really tight line up of amazing musicians / artists for this night, wednesday 10pm at the el dorado in brooklyn (976 grand st). come out and celebrate the new party holiday LEAP YEAR 2012!!!
with:
JAPANTHER
NINJASONIK
FAKE HOOKER
JOGYO
BEEF
and DJ DIRTYFINGER

with art walls by SMELLS / CASH4 / FADE AA / R2 / GEN 2 / UFO 907

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Klughaus Gallery Presents: OBLVN “100 Paintings” (Manhattan, NY)

February 28, 2012 , , , , ,

OBLVN

AARON OBLVN “100 PAINTINGS”

MARCH 10—APRIL 1, 2012
OPENING: SATURDAY MARCH 10, 2012 FROM 6-10PM KLUGHAUS GALLERY
47 Monroe St. New York, NY 10002

Emerging Pacific Northwest artist OBLVN hand paints 100 exclusive illustrations in honor of New York City debut—New York, NY – Feb 27, 2012 – Klughaus Gallery is proud to announce the debut of “100 Paintings,” a solo exhibition of brand new, one-of-a-kind illustrated works by Portland, Oregon-based artist and cartoonist Aaron OBLVN. In honor of his first ever east coast show, OBLVN has been hard at work for months preparing one hundred illustrations exclusively for Klughaus; highlights of the character and cartoon-heavy exhibit include contemporary, tongue-in-cheek remixes of classic cartoon characters like ‘Felix The Cat’ as an art thief and ‘Dennis the Menace’ as a vandal, as well as many original works, from mischievous spray can characters to runaway inkwells.

Why one hundred works? “I’ve been drawing my whole life, but really focusing on this style for about three years now—but not on this scale,” says OBLVN. “I read once in a sign painting comic strip by [cartoonist] Justin Green that it takes about 100 hours of brushing before you finally get your lettering down,” says OBLVN of one of the motives behind sitting down to tackle the daunting task of creating one hundred pieces of art for a single show. “So I figured if I did 100 characters, I would definitely get some good practice in. I can tell from the first cartoons I started doing a few years ago that I’ve gotten better. It’s always great to see your own progress.”

In addition to breaking the gallery record for the highest number of works in a single show, the breadth and depth of OBLVN’s body of playful, accessible work makes “100 Paintings” a show with literally something for everyone. “I love cartoons,” he says of his trademark subject matter. “I’m picky, but I love a lot of styles. From Vaughn Bode, Basil Wolverton, Skip Williamson, Text Avery, Ralph Bakshi and John K to more contemporary artists like Barry McGee and Todd James.”

In this vein “100 Paintings” is both a one-of-a-kind body of work as well as a collective ode to the artists OBLVN emulates, and he is looking forward to piecing together his collection of puzzle pieces in New York City: “I’m really stoked on the work as a whole,” he says. “So much of my time is spent up close with the pieces, my face only a few inches from my brush and the ink that it’s sort of crazy to step back and see the work as a body. It’s pretty cool to see how much I cranked out. It’s so awesome that [the opening] is in NY, but seriously daunting. I’m excited.”

The opening for “100 Paintings” will take place Saturday, March 10th from 6-10 pm. Please RSVP to rsvp@klughaus.net.

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Fun Friday 02.24.12

February 24, 2012

1. QRST  “Dreaming Without Sleeping” (Bushwick, Brooklyn)
2. Anthony Lister at New Image Art (Los Angeles)
3. Invisible Cities with Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Swoon at Black Rat (London)
4. Royce Bannon Curates “While You Were Sleeping” (Brooklyn)
5. Whisper Gallery Group Show (London)
6. Show Teaser for Anthony Lister at New Image Art (VIDEO)
7. David Shillinglaw “People Get Drunk” (VIDEO)
8. Italian Street Artist TELLAS  in Sardinia. (VIDEO)

QRST  “Dreaming Without Sleeping” (Bushwick, Brooklyn)

Street Artist QRST has his first solo show today at The Active Space. See our interview with him yesterday QRST Studio Visit and Interview .

QRST working on this mural under the watchful gaze of his two grandmothers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Anthony Lister at New Image Art (Los Angeles)

Anthony Lister new solo show at New Image Art Gallery in Los Angeles opens today to the general public. Lister used live ballerina models for this new paintings.

Anthony Lister prepping for his show. (photo © Carlos Gonzalez)

For further information regarding this show click here

Invisible Cities with Banksy, Shepard Fairey, Swoon at Black Rat (London)

London’s Black Rat Projects Gallery first show of the year, “Invisible Cities” featuring secondary market works by Banksy and Shepard Fairey alongside works by Swoon. This diverse group of artists are eponymous with the current Street Art movement in their retrospective cities.  This show opens today to the general public.

Swoon on the streets of Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend:

Royce Bannon Curates “While You Were Sleeping” A Group Show. Click here for more information about this show.

Whisper Gallery in London offers a Group Show for February. Click here for more information about this show.

“$prayed in Full” featuring INCH at the OneThirty3 Gallery in Newcastle, UK. Click here for more information about this show.

Show Teaser for Anthony Lister at New Image Art (VIDEO)

Carlos Gonzalez created this video for the show.

David Shillinglaw “People Get Drunk” (VIDEO)

Italian Street Artist TELLAS  in Sardinia. (VIDEO)

Tellas did this in collaboration with Roberto Ciredz.

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