All posts tagged: NYC

QRST Studio Visit and Interview

QRST Studio Visit and Interview

February 23, 2012 , , , , , ,

The Brooklyn Artist Talks about Painting, Street Art, and Choking Chickens

You’ve seen his cats and dogs and birds and rats and people in wheat-pasted drawings and paintings on the street in Brooklyn the last couple of years, their big dark eyes staring plaintively at you, usually with some critters holding a banner overhead displaying his tag, QRST.

In a way, these are snapshots of his life, endowed with psychological drama and musings and universal or personal symbologies. Comedians and storytellers are always the most successful when they stick to the regular stuff that we all do and weave in the outlandish – just enough that it’s fantastic but not so much that it’s fantasy. QRST renders his characters without romance but maybe nostalgia,  their magnetic eyes drawing you past the still countenance, grounded enough to sort of convince a passerby of their realness, even though they can’t possibly be. These are his relatives, his friends, his loves, his memories melted with meandering.

In addition to his regular job he’s been painting on a heavy schedule lately so he can have his show ready for unveiling this Friday in Bushwick, Brooklyn at The Active Space. A visit to his studio reveals a spare, brightly lit quietly manic room with a laptop playing the Bush Tetras balanced on a stool and a careful collection of the tools of the trade – paint tubes, canvasses stacked on the floor against a wall, a small pile of pencil sketches, an easel with a painting of a chicken beating up a boy.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Yeah, it’s called ‘Formative Years,’” QRST says as he describes it’s origin, “My aunt and uncle had chickens and a giant rooster and when I was like two or three, one of them just mauled me. So it’s that story … but it’s also a lot about sex in like a generic, formative way. It’s a cockfight… he’s choking a chicken… So it’s kind of like a joke at my own expense because I’m getting my ass beat by a chicken but it’s also about figuring out masturbation and sex hangups and weird sex issues.

Brooklyn Street Art: It’s all “nested” in there.
QRST: Yeah, and it’s all inside of a childhood.

If it is a battle, the boy in the painting doesn’t look like he’s going down without a fight. His stuff on the street explores the past plainly, including the painful parts, like his serious re-examination of the influence in his life of his deceased father, called “Patron”, laden with symbols and signifiers. The work can be odd, and oddly sensitive to meaning and nuance as QRST is compelled to continually assess and think his way through the battles of life, peering at it from all angles.

QRST does a painting of his mom in a snowy park. “She didn’t know she was posing for it.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think a lot of my work is always autobiographical. It always seems to come from stuff that I’ve experienced or thought about or people or places that I’ve seen, or been in, or things I’ve experienced. I think a lot of it is that. These paintings are not obviously exact. They are little seeds of actual reality that have all this stuff piled around them that comes from my mind wandering. So the stories kind of become fantastical and weird and their own thing but they really do start from a seed of, ‘I was walking down this street and I saw this thing’ – or ‘I was with this guy on the Mississippi River’, or ‘my aunt and uncle have a hummingbird feeder,’” he explains.

Brooklyn Street Art: Aside from studying painting, in a lot of ways I can see that your work is therapeutic for you.
QRST: Absolutely. If I’m not painting regularly I go crazy basically. I get all super depressed and mean. And I’ve had people tell me “I can tell when you haven’t been making art because you’re and a**hole.” (laughs) I’m like “Great! Cool.” I’ve had more than one person tell me that. You can tell when I’m not painting enough. I get really distressed. It can be also be drawing but painting seems to be the best.

One of the 50 hand drawn sketches QRST will be giving away at his opening. ” I just like the idea that a stranger that doesn’t know me gets a thing that I made just because they showed up.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For QRST the work he makes for the street is the fun stuff, the place where he can experiment and get a little looser. His painting teacher from his youth would have cringed at the idea of painting as being fun. “He yelled a lot but was a good teacher,” he remembers. “He used to yell ‘Painting is not fun! Painting is in the blood!’” On reflection, QRST agrees that painting is something more for him. “There is a certain truth to that. I mean, I need to do it and it’s immensely satisfying in a way that is not parallel to anything else in my life. But it’s not “fun”, ya know?”

QRST painted this portrait of his cousins after creating a version of them for the street.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST. The wheat paste version tells stories of their youth in this painted version for the street. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It may still be a little perplexing to the average person passing a particle boarded construction site to see one of his elaborately hand painted, wheat-pasted pieces. To think that he’ll spend forty to sixty hours on a street work that ultimately gets destroyed seems self-defeating but he has clearly delineated in his mind what work is meant to have permanence and what needs to stretch it’s legs and go talk to the city.

“The street stuff is really nice. It can get really stressful too but it feels less formal. It’s hard to describe but I can do whatever I want, and it’s just for kicks. I can figure stuff out real easily and put it out and it really doesn’t matter because it’ll be gone soon. It’s like doing studies or sketches or something,” he explains.

Brooklyn Street Art: It’s also maybe a safe way to experiment with an idea or technique?
QRST: Yeah, it is. It’s easy to be experimental because with oil paint there’s a way you are supposed to do it. I’ve thought about being more experimental on the canvas but then, it doesn’t feel right, at least not at the moment.

Of the studio work and the street work, he sees separate goals and lives. “They serve different purposes, they go in different places, they are supposed to function differently. Also with the street stuff – at the end of it it comes with the adrenaline rush of doing something very barely illegal,” he smiles.

Brooklyn Street Art: They need to walk out that door.
QRST: They do! They want to go outside.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST paints on three panels an homage to both his grandmothers in the gallery. In the family tree tradition his maternal Grandmother sits on the right while his paternal Grandmother sits on the left. The chair’s legs are represented by the roots of trees.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: That’s something I associate with your work is the symbolism and metaphor, the additional layers of meanings that can go in multiple directions.

QRST: I spend a lot of time – I come up with the idea and its something that is sort of stuck in my head and then I start to flesh it out.  As I’m painting it, I end up thinking about it a lot obviously. All of the language and connection to it comes out as I’m working on it. I’m like “oh yeah!”.

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

QRST’s solo show “Dreaming Without Sleeping” opens Friday February 24 at The Active Space. Click here for further details.

<<<>>><<>><><>>><<>>

Read more

Troy Lovegates. The King and the Artist.

February 20, 2012 ,

Ask a room full of artists living here in New York if anyone every feels like a chump for making soul-sucking mediocre commercial work just to pay the jacked up rent. Hands will fill the air like ‘Amen’s at the Brooklyn Tabernacle at a Sunday morning sermon. Compound the cost of live/work space with the fact that, if you were lucky enough to get an education, your student loans debts are like a massive cinderblock around your neck. Many of today’s artists are expecting to labor long hours doing commercial or corporate art for years, often now without benefits or security – leaving them with ever-less time and energy to build a career, let alone a body of artistic work.

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist Troy Lovegates is colorfully skewering the King in this County of Kings with his new surreally comedic metaphor called “The King and the Artist”, painted directly on the wall at the Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery in DUMBO, Brooklyn.  Like days of olde when the Church and Royalty held the purse for most creative expression, the 99% is waking up these days to the unholy marriages that wield growing influence over the entire cultural and institutional landscape, including areas of creative expression. With “The King”, Lovegates depicts a well equipped megaspender imperiously dictating what will be art and claiming it as his own with his platinum sword waving wildly while the barefoot creator, a mind bubbling with a multitude of other ideas, tries to fend himself with tools laughably inadequate.

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s a tug of war that is historical and contemporary of course – from faux communist capitalists to gold encrusted power families to religious gangs gilded in sanctity, artists have always procured the propaganda and painted a world view according to someone else’s vision. With signs ever more obvious around us, Mr. Lovegates informs us here that the game is still the same and some young artists are painfully aware of the rigged class system they’re working within.  Hopefully someone will buy it.

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates. No he doesn’t paint with his eyes closed. He closes his right eye when he paints details and when he is drunk. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Troy Lovegates (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Ocean Size”, a group show, is currently on view at the Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery. Click here for further information.

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more

Fun Friday 02.17.12

February 17, 2012

Woo Hooooooooo! Street Art and graffiti shows are hopping tonight ya’ll! With shows in Chinatown, Dumbo, and Williamsburg, you’re going to have to take the train and the bus if you want to catch it all.

1. Cake and Don Pablo Pedro at Mighty Tanaka (DUMBO)
2. “All Talk” Group Show at Pandemic (Williamsburg, BK)
3. “Snowblind” at Klughause (Chinatown)
4. “Ocean Size” at Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery SATURDAY 2/18 (DUMBO)
5. “What I Know,” curated by Jason Andrew
6. ” The Permanent Collection Volume II: My Own Private Serpico,” English Kills Gallery
7. Kraftwerk Retrospective at MOMA in April
8. William Thomas Porter – Splendid Cycles (VIDEO)
9. Connor Harrington “Black Herds of the Rain” (VIDEO)
10. JAZ in Mexico City with MAMUTT (VIDEO)
11. Nuria Mora in South Africa (VIDEO)

Cake and Don Pablo Pedro at Mighty Tanaka (DUMBO)

We’ve interviewed Cake this week, and Don Pablo Pedro when he wasn’t in shows, and we can assure you that “Inside Out” is about all the disgusting little bits you keep inside. Tonight they’re out at Mighty Tanaka.

Cake. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

“All Talk” Group Show at Pandemic (Williamsburg, BK)

“Some of New York City’s boldest anti-heros, cynics and preachers” – Say no more! Tell me where to sign. “All Talk” is the new group show at Pandemic Gallery opens today with the participation of: Aakash Nihalani, Andrew H. Shirley, Cassius Fouler, Destroy & Rebuild, Gabriel Specter, Isabel Lasala, J. Ralph Phillips, Jenna Hicock, Jesse Edwards, Map, Merk, and NohJColey.

Aakash Nihalani (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Snowblind” at Klughause (Chinatown)

We’re gonna start calling it SLUGHOUSE because their first 3 shows have been heavy hitters for such a small scrappy gallery at the foot of the Manhattan Bridge, near a Police Precinct, and yet in damn near darkness. The concept for tonights show is cool, but what’s cooler is CARNAGE, the magazine by Ray Mock, one of the best graffiti photogs on the street today. Oh, also, Martha Cooper is in the show. See ya there!. “Snowblind” opens today with the participation of Martha Cooper, Ray Mock, Alexander Richter, Mike P, Bob Barry,  Oscar Arriola, Graham Shimberg, Michael Fales, and Jesse Edwards.

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Ocean Size” at Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery SATURDAY 2/18 (DUMBO)

Yo, we checked this one out as it was going up yesterday – It’s worth it and Toronto based Street Artist and fine artist Troy Lovegates just killed it with this brand new piece which we’re showing you a detail of below.

Troy Lovegates. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this weekend

“What I Know,” curated by Jason Andrew – The Bushwick arts leader who makes art happen, Mr. Andrew curates a 40 person show at NYCAMS (New York Center for Art and Media Studies), opening tonight. Download the PDF here

English Kills Gallery Permanent Collection opening Friday night : ” The Permanent Collection Volume II: My Own Private Serpico,” the second installment of works from the English Kills Permanent Collection featuring David Pappaceno, Don Pablo Pedro, Cleon Peterson, Steven Thompson, Brent Owens, Vilaykorn Sayaphet, Hiroshi Shafer, Joe Borelli, Frank Stella, Peter Dobill, Andy Piedilato, Jim Herbert, Tyrome Tripoli, Kevin Brady, Jenn Brehm, Kevin Regan, Giles Thompson, Jeff Clark, Mike Olin, Shane Heinemeier, Dan Taylor, Lenny Reibstein, Tescia Seufferlein, Andrew Ohanesian, Andrew Hurst, Austin Thomas, Evan Ryer, Gary Cullen

 

Kraftwerk Retrospective at MOMA in April – Tickets on Sale Wed 2/22

The live presentation “Kraftwerk-Retrospective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8″ will explore their pioneering electronic music and each of their eight, groundbreaking studio albums with a unique set of projected images (some in 3-D ):

The music called electronic was basically created by Kraftwerk, who began four decades ago and whose influence and flat out appropriated music appears in work by these artists, to name a few: Jay-Z, Coldplay, Afrika Bambaata, Chemical Brothers, Pink Floyd, Fatboy Slim, New Order, Fergie, Ladytron, Missy Elliott, Franz Ferdinand, Thompson Twins, and yes, McDonna.

William Thomas Porter – Splendid Cycles (VIDEO)

Creater and builder of the famous “F*ck Bike 001” now on view at the Museum of Sex show “F*ck Art”, here is a video following William Thomas Porter around on his preferred form of transportation.  “I wouldn’t call them mutants,” he says of his bike caricatures, “because that would make them sound ugly. It’s more like creating this… splendid form.”

Connor Harrington “Black Herds of the Rain” (VIDEO)

JAZ in Mexico City with MAMUTT (VIDEO)

Nuria Mora in South Africa (VIDEO)

 

Read more

Cake Studio Visit : Inside Out

February 16, 2012 , , , , , , , ,

The Street Artist Readies for Her Show “Inside Out” with Don Pablo Pedro

Inside out. The words capture the dynamic of an artists journey to the canvas – and the Street Artists trip to the wall. Cake, her street name, has been hitting New York streets for five years with some of her innermost dialogues; stories of love, loss, addiction, emotional turmoil. The act of painting, cutting, and wheat pasting her figurative work on decayed and battered walls bears witness to the story. The thought of what can happen to it frightens and thrills her, an experience she has referred to as therapy.

“Because it’s relinquishing control, which I have huge problem with doing in my life, so that helps me,” she explains while glancing out at the Brooklyn street below the window of her warm studio in a former factory on a recent winter day. “You put it there and then you leave it. Someone can go over it, or destroy it the next day, you know? That – I mean that would kill me when that happened. I mean I hate when that happens but it helps me – it makes it so that everything is not so precious.”

 

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

It’s all part of the game for Street Artists. You know it’s temporary but it still feels entirely necessary. The new work by Cake for her show at Brooklyn’s Mighty Tanaka this month is not far from the exposed portraits she has pasted on the street – layered and flat, stiffly lifelike, healthy and gaunt, painfully…pretty.

“These are all of my friend Emily mostly. Usually I take pictures of the models myself, because I know what I want. Instead of that, since she’s kind of an actress and an artist too, I told her to pose herself and to take the pictures herself so she wouldn’t be inhibited by my presence. And so she did… and the pictures turned out f*cking amazing.”

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When you see the pretty torment of a Cake wheat-paste on a brick wall low to the sidewalk, the exposed raw uncomfortable nature of the portrait surrounded by graffiti tags, it can be an oasis from falseness, and a mystery. Like the 4, 5, 6 layers of paint she uses to build the canvas, these figures have more drama stirring than is obvious on the surface. Each painting is almost an unconscious act she says, and with the help of talking with others, she gradually peels back the layers of meaning, becoming conscious. One thing is evident; She’s lived this, and she’ll tell you about it when she’s ready.

BSA: When do you realize the underlying stories in your work?
Cake: Usually by talking about it, or from someone else.
BSA: So sometimes with the aid of another person
Cake: No, like a LOT of the times. Because it helps me when other people see things that I can’t see because I’m too close to it.

She explains how she coached her friend to model for the pieces. “I basically told her to think of these dramatic words, like ‘agony’. Like f*cking rip yourself apart and feel that, you know? Like I wanted to see how you look when you are experiencing that kind of reaction to life.”

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Her intensity when describing this tells you that pain is not abstract. Ironically, that is exactly how she painted before becoming a Street Artist.

“I was an abstract painter for like 13 years, in Pratt and in Parsons. I didn’t do this figurative work or Street Art. But the second I got out of Parsons in 2007 I was doing it. Because I was an abstract painter for so long… paint is like my – like I can really do f*cking sh*t with paint, just because I’m always doing it – Working with the material.

BSA: You have a deep love and regard for it.
Cake: The paint? Yeah I’ve always been like that. I’m such a f*ckin formalist that way. I’m really obsessed with the material.

BSA: So you are a trained fine artist?
Cake: Yeah, well my grandmother taught me how to paint when I was nine, because she was a fine artist. So I was always doing it.

BSA: There are many fine artists on the street now.
Cake: Yeah, that’s good, I like that.

BSA: Yeah it’s like it has changed the whole nature of Street Art.
Cake: What do you mean?
BSA: Previously in graffiti, and when it kind of morphed into what we call street art, there weren’t many art majors, or graduates, or art school kids, or whatever you want to call them.

 

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake: Yeah, Street Artists are art-school kids, right?
BSA: Now there are many, yes. The disciplines are many, the techniques. It’s not limited to say, aerosol art, or stickers or massed produced wheat pastes. It seems like the second half of the 2000s there started to appear more one-offs, more highly individual pieces…

Cake: Well I think that’s because there are just so many out there you really have to work harder to make something beautiful. I mean I do it for beauty. I don’t have any political stances or anything like that. Like I don’t give a sh*t about that. I probably should though, huh?
BSA: I don’t know why you should.
Cake: I don’t know. I mean you should be higher quality, that’s for sure. I don’t know. I think everything should be high quality though, like workwise.

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: So this one is like “The Virgin Mother with Child in Outer Space”
Cake: (laughs) Oh I got this from this picture in Metro over the summer. I’ve never done this before, but I saw this picture. The thing is, do you see this? – the mother’s face, like she’s not panicking. She’s very peaceful and calm, and somehow she’s okay but she’s holding her like dying f*cking baby. I don’t know …it like hit me really hard so I just painted it. But it took me a long time. I started this picture in the summer and then I stopped working on it. And then I was able to finish it with this series. And I usually don’t take so long, I can finish a painting in a f*cking week.

Cake. Her inspiration for the painting above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: What stopped you?
Cake: I don’t know. I didn’t know where to put them. Then I placed them in the night sky. I was looking at all these Renaissance portraits too for this show and there were like f*cking UFOs inside of them. Did you know that?

BSA: No!
Cake: Yeah! In some Renaissance paintings you’ll see a UFO. I’m not kidding you, and it’s totally weird.

BSA: Is it like an aura, an aurora borealis?
Cake: No it’s clearly like a UFO. And in some of them there is a person in them. It’s really bizarre. It’s kind of hokey but I don’t know. It’s like this; everyone is always in wonder “the universe is so big, what does it matter?”. But look at this. This matters. Oh my God I just figured this out. That’s good.

Cake. The first layer of a piece in progress. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inspiration in Cake’s studio (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Portrait of the artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cake and Don Pablo Pedro show “Inside Out” opens Friday February 17, 2012 at the Mighty Tanaka Gallery in DUMBO. Click here for further information regarding this show.

Read more

Kunsthalle Galapagos Gallery Presents: “Ocean Size” A Group Show (Brooklyn, NY)

February 15, 2012 , , , , ,

Ocean Size

Troy Lovegates (image courtesy of the gallery)

Kunsthalle Galapagos presents:

Ocean Size

February 18 – March 4th 2012

Opening Reception: Saturday Feb. 18, 2012 6-9pm

Image: David Enters Adulthood by Jebediah Long, 2012

Tony Ingrisano, Sylvia Jeffriess, Jebediah Long, Troy Lovegates,

James Moore, Fumi Nakamura

Kunsthalle Galapagos is pleased to present Ocean Size, a group
exhibition of six artists who question our perceptions of reality.
Their works coax us to join them in fantastical worlds of bold colors,
precise lines, and mutated patterns. Distorted characters and
fragments morph and fray into an ordered chaos. Disjointed narratives,
found memories and alter-egos situate us, then shift our perceptions
of our own state of being. The work compels us to reach beyond our
own comprehension to something bigger than ourselves, something “ocean
size”.

Along with the exhibition, Kunsthalle Galapagos presents a new limited
print edition by Troy Lovegates,

published by Marginal Editions.

Ocean Size is curated by Julie McKim, Erik Hougen, Albert Shelton, Gracie Kazer

Kunsthalle Galapagos

16 Main St.

DUMBO

Brooklyn, NY

www.kunsthallegalapagos.com

Gallery Hours: Thurs – Sun 1-6pm

F train to York St

A/C train to High St

Read more

Fun Friday 02.10.12

February 10, 2012

1. Giants Fans in Manhattan Streets (VIDEO)
2. “F*ck Art” at Museum of Sex
3. CASA DE EMPENO at Anonymous (Mexico City)
4. “Love & Hate” Group Show at Stolen Space (London)
5. CREEPY at Okazi Gallery (Berlin)
6. Chris Stain and H. Veng Smith at C.A.V.E. Gallery (Los Angeles)
7. Winter Group Show at White Walls Gallery (San Francisco)
8. Zes and Retna new show “Excavated Revelations”
9. German duo Herakut paint a mural at Big Art Labs (VIDEO)

Giants Fans in Manhattan Streets (VIDEO) Weeeeeeeee are the CHAMPEEEEENSSSS

Streets in Manhattan were bloated with about a million crazy football fans this week as the Superbowl-winning New York Giants had a parade and almost everybody skipped school and work to go see their heroes. Office workers literally dumped garbage cans of shredded paper out the window en masse while fans poured into the city from every direction, including nearby states, to roar as the players rode by. Some people were well behaved, but they were hard to see or hear because of all the hooligans raising holy hell. Here’s a video taste of it –  some seriously funny sh*t. Watch out for unbridled testosterone fueled aggression, swear words and Giants inspired freestylin. NSFW, but okay for the street.

F*ck Art at Museum of Sex

The Museum of Sex new show “F*ck Art” is open to the general public. With a group of 20 Street Artists participating from different cities and countries the show includes: AIKO. Andrew H. Shirley, B-rad Izzy, Cassius Fouler. DICKCHICKEN. DROID, GEN 2, OZE 108 of 907, El Celso, Jeremy Novy, JMR, LUSH, Miss Van, MODE 2, Patch Whisky, ROSTARR, RTTP: Nathan Vincent & Bryan Raughton, Tony Bones, William Thomas Porter, WOLFTITS, and Wonderpuss Octopus.

Lush (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further details on this show click here

Click here to read our article and interviews with the curators and some of the artists.

CASA DE EMPENO at Anonymous (Mexico City)

In Mexico City Anonymous Gallery new group show “Casa de Empeño” opens today to the general public. Centered around the themes of a Pawn Shop the show includes internationally recognized Street Artists Judith supine. Maya Hayuk and Davil Ellis among others.

Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

“Love & Hate” Group Show at Stolen Space (London)

“Love & Hate” the new group show at Stolen Space Gallery in London opens today to the general public. With the participation of several Street Artists from different cities including: D*Face, Dan Witz, Miss Van, Ronzo, Toshi, Will Barras, Word To Mother, Jeff Soto and EINE among others.

Ben Eine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

CREEPY at Okazi Gallery (Berlin)

Kyle Hughes-Odgers AKA Creepy new solo show “If We Can’t Control the Boat, Let’s Control the Ocean” opens today at the Okazi Gallery in Berlin.

Creepy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

Chris Stain and H. Veng Smith at C.A.V.E. Gallery (Los Angeles)

Chris Stain and Veng go to Little Venice, CA for the opening of their new show this Saturday at C.A.V.E. Gallery.

Veng and Chris Stain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to read our article on Chris’ new works for this show.

And a preview of Veng’s work on The Street Spot.

For further information regarding this show click here

Winter Group Show at White Walls Gallery (San Francisco)

The White Walls Gallery new show “Winter Group Show” opens this Saturday in San Francisco with the participation of well known Street Artists including: Eine, Blek le Rat, Apex, Know Hope, Above, D*Face, Augustine Kofie, D Young V and Ernesto Yerena among others.

Blek le Rat (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

Also happening this weekend:

Zes and Retna new show “Excavated Revelations” opens this Saturday at Known Gallery in Los Angeles. Click here for more details on this show.

German duo Herakut paint a mural at Big Art Labs (VIDEO)

Read more

Mighty Tanaka Gallery Presents: “Inside-Out” Featuring Works by Don Pablo Pedro and Cake (Brooklyn, NYC)

February 9, 2012 , , , , ,

Inside Out

Mighty Tanaka presents:
Inside Out
Featuring the artwork of Cake & Don Pablo Pedro

Look in the mirror, what do you see? Does your reflection smile back at you? Or does it hide behind layers of doubt? As each of us interprets the notion of self differently, the ways in which we choose to outwardly express ourselves varies greatly. For some, personal identity cannot always be communicated simply with words alone, so other means are utilized to translate the inner dialogue. Mighty Tanaka is pleased to bring you our next show, Inside Out, featuring the artwork of Cake & Don Pablo Pedro.

Inside Out is the outward expression of ones innermost feelings. The figurative and symbolic imagery relates to the personal struggle for understanding and emphasizes the desire to be heard. It’s the rare insight into the mind of another, a visual representation of an individual’s emotions. In essence, Inside Out is the exploration of self.

Cake & Don Pablo Pedro, two artists who’s work both compliments and conflicts, juxtapose each other in a complimentary way. From the soft touch of muslin fabric to the rigid edges of a wooden panel, their chosen materials are representational of their message, as they open themselves to the world.

OPENING RECEPTION:
Friday, February 17th, 2012
6:00PM – 9:00PM

Mighty Tanaka
111 Front St., Suite 224
Brooklyn, NY 11201

Office: 718.596.8781

Read more

“F*ck Art” Opens Wide at Museum Of Sex (Not Safe for Work / School)

February 8, 2012 , , , , , ,

Be Sure to Ride the 14 Foot Long “F*ck Bike”

“F*ck Art”, an undulating and adventurous group show by New York Street Artists opens its arms and legs to you at the Museum of Sex (MoSex) tomorrow and whether it’s the human powered penetrating bicycle or the glass bead encrusted dildo, it endeavors to satisfy.

Miss Van. Detail. Oil on Canvas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Co-curated by Emilie Baltz (Creative Director) and Mark Snyder (Director of Exhibitions), the show selects 20 current Street Artists who have pushed notions of propriety into provocation on the street and it invites them to let it loose behind closed doors.  Not that Miss Van needs anyone’s permission; her sensual role-playing painted ladies have been playfully preening on graff-piled walls and blue-boarded construction sites for much of the 2000s.  Similarly the powerfully stenciled sirens by Street Artist AIKO have been bending over in high heels on walls all over the world with just a hint of the geishas from her native Japan for over a decade.

Aiko. Detail. Collage on canvas. (photo © Jaime Rojo).

The “Fuck Bike #001”, a pedal operated plunging machine by William Thomas Porter and Andrew H. Shirley, has at its conceptual base an ode to the lengths a guy will go to reach his natural objective. The two artist met at a Black Label Bike Club event called “Ridin’ Dirty” in 2010 and later schemed together to make an entry for a bike-themed group show in Bushwick, Brooklyn that featured many Street Artists like DarkClouds, Ellis G., UFO, Noah Sparkes and Mikey 907. “I approached Tom with the idea of creating a kinetic bike sculpture which you could f*ck someone with,” remembers Mr. Shirley, “Tom is a very gifted artist and bike engineer, it took a few days for him to build our design.”

Andrew H Shirley and William Thomas Porter “Fuck Bike #001” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Visitors to the show are invited to mount the bike and take it for a spin. “This bike is more sculpture oriented, but still functions sexually. It’s also totally interactive,” explains Mr. Shirley, who has displayed the bike in cities in Europe and America, most recently at Art Basel in Miami in December. So the bike has gotten around and Shirley happily recounts stories of intimate encounters it has had with both genders. (See the very Not-Safe-For-Work film of the bike in action below.)

The street has certainly seen an increase of fairly graphic sex related Street Art in the last decade or so as people have become more comfortable with such themes and much of this show can often be seen throughout the city without the price of admission. Gay couple Bryan Raughton and Nathan Vincent have been putting large and small scaled paste-ups of sexually themed imagery as a Street Art duo called RTTP for about two years on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Short for “Reply To This Post”, the line-drawn torsos and spread eagles are all part of their collaborative Street Art project that explores the desires of men seeking men on Craigslist.

 

RTTP. Collage directly on wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Describing the work, Vincent says it’s a process of lifting the mystery off of a just-below-the-radar Internet dating game – and pasting it on a lightpole. “Users post an ad with an image, title, and a short description of what they are looking for tonight. The photograph they post of themselves is drawn and titled with the ad’s title.” By putting these erotically based desires on the streets, Vincent thinks “they magnify those desires that often seem to live at the edges.” Says Raughton of the project, “We see it as an interesting way to take people private desires to the public street.”

 

Lush. Spray paint directly on wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In discussing the origins and underpinnings of a show like this, the co-curators reveal a more academic and sociological grounding than the prurient and salacious sauciness one might infer by a display of so much “F*ck Art”.  We asked Baltz to give us a sense of the context for a Street Art driven sex show.

Brooklyn Street Art: What is your favorite part of curating a show like this?
Emilie Baltz: Seeing the different interpretations and energy that each artist brings to their work is always the most interesting part of curating – with this topic, especially, it’s the fact that they are all pushing the limits of their medium by creating such provocative statements.

 

Wonderpuss Octopus. Sex toy with paint buildup and glass beads applique. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: While these pieces are behind closed doors available to a certain audience, Street Artists typically put their work out in the public. Do you think the work should change depending on the audience?
Emilie Baltz: We don’t think it’s about changing the work, it’s about how the work changes the environment it lives in. Street art has a long history of revealing different perspectives on its surrounding environment and by placing this work in a museum it creates a certain energy and visual provocation that changes the relationship we traditionally have to the museum-going experience.

Wolftits. Painted floor mat on rubber.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: Do you think there has been an increase in sex-related street art in recent years, and if so, why?
Emilie Baltz: There definitely is an increase in sex-related conversations in recent years. It’s not that there is more content suddenly, it’s just that culture is actually ready to start talking about it now, rather than ignore it.

 

Tony Bones on wood affixed to wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: We have noticed that themes of sex and sexuality are often quickly destroyed on the street, while other pieces remain for months. Is this a form of selective censorship by the public?
Emilie Baltz: Street art is a dialogue. Its creation is about expression and commentary, and therefore can become a barometer of cultural consciousness (or unconsciousness). The intimate and emotional nature of sexual content can obviously elicit strong feelings in viewers, and, given that street art is an environmental medium, either you have to live with it or get rid of it. Sex walks a fine line between acceptance and rejection. Public response to this kind of art is potentially a mirror into how our society relates to the topic.

Brooklyn Street Art: What surprised you the most about putting this show together?
Emilie Baltz: The enthusiasm from the public. People are genuinely excited to talk about sex in public space and it’s an incredible honor to be able to help facilitate that discussion.

 

Patch Whisky. Detail. Diorama with spray paint, paper collage and painted mannequins. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dickchicken. Detail. Hand colored wheatpaste directly on wall with painting on wood panel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Droid, Gen 2, Oze 108, 907 Crew. Detail. Spray paint directly on wall with image on a light box. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

El Celso. Paint on Lucite. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cassius Fouler. Detail. New piece painted directly on wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Bike on Display in the Window at The Museum of Sex (NOT SAFE FOR WORK OR SCHOOL)

<<<<>>>BSA<<<>><><>>BSA<<<<>>>BSA<<<>><><>>BSA<<<<>>>BSA<<<>><><>>BSA

F*CK ART
A Street Art Occupation at the Museum of Sex in New York City, opens February 8 and will run through June 10, 2012.

Emilie Baltz, Co-Curator, Creative Director, F*CK ART
Mark Snyder, Co-Curator F*CK ART, Director of Exhibitions, Museum of Sex
Meghan Coleman and Alex Emmart of Might Tanaka Gallery in Brooklyn served as Chief Advisors.

Participating Artists:

AIKO. Andrew H. Shirley, B-rad Izzy, Cassius Fouler. DICKCHICKEN. DROID, GEN 2, OZE 108 of 907, El Celso, Jeremy Novy, JMR, LUSH, Miss Van, MODE 2, Patch Whisky, ROSTARR, RTTP: Nathan Vincent & Bryan Raughton, Tony Bones, William Thomas Porter, WOLFTITS, and Wonderpuss Octopus

 

 

Read more

Images of the Week: 02.05.12

February 5, 2012 ,

Our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Above, Animal Takeover, Buff Monster, Cash4, Cope, Dan Witz, Dasic, Didi, Droid, Earsnot, Food One, Irak, Joe Iurato, J.Robles, Jade, JT, Never, Pessimo, Sand One, Shiro, Sue Works, and Uno Entes.

Animal Takeover (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sand One . Shiro. Cope (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JT . Food One (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jade Uno Entes Pesimo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

J. Robles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Earsnot of the IRAK crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Didi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dasic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Above has been gone over by MPX and a chubby squirrel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cash4 Droid (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Joe Iurato . Sue Works  (photo © Stan Sudol)

Joe Iurato . Sue Works  (photo © Stan Sudol)

Joe Iurato . Sue Works  (photo © Stan Sudol)

Untitled (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read more

Fun Friday 02.03.12

February 3, 2012 , , ,

1. The Skewvilles are turning 80 tonight (Bushwick, BK)
2. “Unpaid Dues” Cassius Fouler at Orchard Windows Tonight (LES, NYC)
3. “Should The Light Not Take Us” – Armsrock at the Galleri Profilen  (Aarhus, Denmark)
4. “Street Wall” at Fourth Wall Project Gallery Saturday (Boston)
5. Philip Lumbang solo show “New Arrival”
6. LA Mural Ordinance Community Discussion with Shepard Fairey and Saber
7. New Sten & Lex Low Res VIDEO in Rome
8. MAMBO Goes for a Swim (VIDEO)
9. Creepy Tries to Control the Ocean (VIDEO)

We start Fun Friday this week with thanks to Don Cornelius for making the Soul Train an incredibly important part of the ride for lots of us for four decades.

Much respect to his work and to his family.

Here’s his interview with a new group called Run DMC.

 

The Skewvilles are turning 80 tonight (Bushwick, BK)

Join the Skewvilles today at Factory Fresh as they celebrate their 80th Birthday with a Retro-Retrospective. See some of the treasures they’ll be lugging out of the basement here in yesterday’s post.

Skewville (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

“Unpaid Dues” Cassius Fouler at Orchard Windows Tonight (LES, NYC)

Despite initial apprehension, Orchard Windows Gallery is proud to present Cassius Fouler, who is in about four shows this month. Dang!

For further information regarding this show click here

“Should The Light Not Take Us” – Armsrock at the Galleri Profilen  (Aarhus, Denmark)

Armsrock says his new show is an investigation of parapsychology, ideology and crisis, through drawings, objects and texts. His style is getting tighter too.

Armsrock in Brooklyn NYC 2007  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here

“Street Wall” at Fourth Wall Project Gallery Saturday (Boston)

New York is chocolate and Boston is peanut butter so when you mix these artists from both Street Art scenes together in one show you get something grittily sweet that will  stick to the roof of your mouth.  Want a root beer? Vodka? Featuring LNY, Radical!, Tiptoe, Nanook, The Phantom, Geoff Hargadon, Zatara and Blackmath.

Geoff Hargadon CFYW in Los Angeles. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Check out more about this show here.

Also happening this weekend:

Philip Lumbang solo show “New Arrival” at the Unit 44 Gallery in Newcastle, UK opens today. Click here for more details on this show.

LA Mural Ordinance Community Discussion with Shepard Fairey and Saber at Lab Art Gallery in Los Angeles. Find out how the new mural laws in Los Angeles are affecting the Urban Art and what the answers are to your questions. This event takes place on Saturday. Click here for more details.

New Sten & Lex Low Res VIDEO in Rome

Italian Duo Sten & Lex have a new body of work on the streets of Rome. Here they show us how The Stencil Poster was born.

MAMBO Goes for a Swim (VIDEO)

MAMBO pays tribute to Johnny Weissmuller and the Molitor swimming pool in Paris:

Creepy Tries to Control the Ocean (VIDEO)

Creepy “If We Can’t Control the Boat Let’s Control the Ocean” by K. Hughes-Odgers

Read more

Recent Articles on BSA