All posts tagged: OverUnder

OverUnder in LA and Vegas ; Faith, Family, and Gambling

July 4, 2015 Artists, Interview

OverUnder recently traveled to Las Vegas and LA to do some mural commissions for a large brand and he tells us he was having a bit of guilt for selling his soul to the devil to pay the bills. That was eased by the coolness of the employees he worked with, he says.

But regardless of what he is doing, OverUnder says he always brings extra art work with him to put up in a city – usually on the sketchy side of town – so he feels like he has covered his bets by doing “the sanctioned and the uncontrollable.” He attributes this unique yin/yang philosophy of balancing his artist output to the fact that he grew up in Nevada which gave him a gambling nature, always straddling the line between sanctioned and unsanctioned art.

Overunder (photo © Overunder)

And speaking of gambling, not only did he hit the neglected, run-down, ignored parts of town – standard fare for Street Artists – but he also waded into the LA River (currently not a river), a verboten area of some profile that raises the hackles of many a politician and taxpayer as it became a showplace for record-setting graffiti tags that were enormously expensive and difficult to remove. Yeah, this is a small wheat-paste that will melt in the rain over a short period of time, but still.

Overunder (photo © Overunder and Cass)

We asked OverUnder about these new images and an ever-evolving street work practice that at the moment seems to be influenced by home-life and possibly spirituality.

Brooklyn Street Art: The LA river is a famed and contested location for graffiti writers traditionally and not known too much for street artists. Can you talk about your experience – what significance it is to you as a visitor?
OverUnder: Since I was in LA with only a limited amount of pieces I knew one piece had to be reserved for the LA River. As a toy writer in the 90’s I deeply looked up to kings like Saber who influenced graffiti with his massive LA River piece. I was able to see it once in it’s glory but the LA River today is an endless sea of grey buff marks. I definitely see what you mean about the LA River traditionally being a famed graffiti spot and not known too much for street artists but I think as places change their roles also change. Or better yet, maybe Street Artists need to explore their roles in cities further.

Overunder (photo © Overunder)

I made my way down to the River mid-day to a mix of car photo-shoots, bums cleaning their makeshift houses, and bored BMX kids cruising the banks. I staked my claim and prepared my wheat paste from the river itself – I love to make the paste from the place I’m working. Against common sense and the opinions of passersby, I took off my socks and shoes, walked into the questionably clear water and traversed to the target. A few of the BMX kids came over to ask questions and one of the guys named Cass snapped the shot of me working. The interaction was really pure and as their jaws were dropping a bit it reminded me of how I was so enamored of early writers like Saber for putting in work. After all, the action is the whole point of it.

Overunder (photo © Overunder)

Brooklyn Street Art: These new figurative blue pieces look as if they are inspired by people. How did you arrive at these images?
OverUnder: The pieces as of late are not necessarily a blue period. I source 200-yard long rolls of paper at a time so that creates around 80 pieces. As I work my way through various colors I’ve come across a few favorites. Something about blue just seems right so I’ve probably hit the 1000th yard mark with it now. It doesn’t necessarily have a deeper meaning I just wanted to get away from colors associated with other figurative artists and the blue always seems to pop on your typical background of grey, cream, or beige.

Overunder (photo © Overunder)

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you find a dilapidated facade for the mother and child image?
OverUnder: I found the building for the “mother and child” piece while cruising around Oakland. I was down there meeting with Athen B Gallery to plan a solo show for this November. That particular building jumped out to me for its proximity to public transit and its dilapidated nature. I also really like how the upper window was tilted in the same manner as the interaction between the mother and child. I like subtle things like that so maybe when the piece gets waxed there is still a hint of it left behind.

Overunder. Oakland, CA (photo © Overunder)

Brooklyn Street Art: A praying, kneeling figure… mother and child… is this the faith and family tour?
OverUnder: Ha, I see what you mean about the overtly Christian themes. While I do like the idea of a faith and family tour I wouldn’t say it is that explicit. With the addition of my daughter to my family I have definitely been delving into some new territory. Don’t be surprised if everything I make from now on has a puppydog face on it.

But seriously, I think it’s amazing being a dad and I want to put my life into my work as much as possible. It seems especially important to me when a lot of the places I find myself putting these pieces up in are comprised of fatherless children. I lost my father 6 years ago. I can’t imagine growing up without a father, or having them locked up, or even dead. I want to remind the kids I run into that there is an outlet. It may not be pasting pictures on walls but hey, that might be a good start.

Overunder. Oakland, CA (photo © Overunder)

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

April 21, 2015 Artists, Interview

Reno averages 114 cloudy days per year. Seattle is about twice that number. Can you blame Overunder for moving to Reno? Despite the endless days of gray, Seattle’s pretty nice to live in, according to many. The economy is fueled by the high tech industry and is also one of the most progressive cities socially, recently enacting a $15 minimum wage, new taxes on the wealthiest 1%, and there are well funded social services for the homeless and those seriously in need.

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Overunder AKA Erik Burke. “Kurt Kobangs” Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

And truthfully, painting under gray skies is actually preferable to burning under hours of blasting sun, so Overunder recently returned to Seattle to create a new mural for Urban Artworks, a youth oriented public art program that is celebrating its 20th year. In addition to the “monster mural”, Overunder also had the opportunity to complete some characteristically “free-range” installations, the kind we were more familiar with when Brooklyn was his stomping ground a few years ago.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

A very distinctive style on the street that recalls work of pals Labrona, Troy Lovegates, even Barry McGee and more West Coast folk surrealists, OU continues his visual anagrams on the street that toss around the elements now familiar to his vocabulary – rolldown gates, distorted monochromatic figures, brownstone facades, somewhat brooding expressions, wit. You’ll see the linework is cleaner and more confident than ever, the palette pleasingly saturated, the waving curvilinear forms now more expressive even as they beguile.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

We wanted to see what he had to say about his work now, and how his pieces on the street came about, and how he conjured the new mural for Urban Artworks;

Brooklyn Street Art: We notice that you are doing a number of portraits recently, and that they are fairly compact. Are these people in your life or your imagination?

Overunder: The wheat paste pieces are mostly imagined although a little reality sneaks in time and again for trips. When I travel I like to make pieces about place so naturally the people that live there become game for sampling. For example one piece is of a good Seattle friend who spends each year fishing in Alaska to make money for travel. That piece shows a man engrossed in a tornado emerging from a boat atop a coin.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: Can you describe a typical process for creating one of these – do you sketch, paint, cut-out, and wheat-paste?
Overunder: The process is very pure, just spray paint on paper. A typical process involves tacking a roll of paper up, cracking a beer, and just seeing what happens with a can of spray. Oh and maybe a little Freddie Gibbs or Isaiah Rashad as soundtrack.

I try to keep each piece to an hour or less so they don’t get over-worked and then I cut them straight off the wall. For every 2 or 3 pieces I put up in the streets probably 1 piece gets tossed in the trash and another archived so I can look back at my progression (sometimes regression). These pieces are very liberating and give me the freedom that I can’t achieve in my murals. It’s just my subconscious and the medium. Especially now that most of my murals involve more research, time, supplies, and stamps of approval from various parties.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: How do you chose the text that sometimes goes directly over the face, and what is it about?

Overunder: I don’t want my wheat pastes to be precious or special and the best way to de-virginize that smooth and perfect paper is to christen it with whatever’s on my mind. In a way the text chooses me. A lot of times I have no idea what I’m writing but it becomes brutally honest. There is a reason why diary and diarrhea are found next to each other in the dictionary.

Since I put shading and line work over the top the text gets pushed back and becomes more of a technique to build background texture. i.e. a kneeling red figure I put up in the ID (International District) reads, ‘There is comfort and then there is convenience and then there is undeniable devotion and then there is unquestionable kinship and then there is regrettable choices and then there is all the other stuff.’

That could be interpreted many ways but to me it was a joke about my inability to distinguish between then and than.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: How did you connect with Urban Artworks and can you describe the organization?
Overunder: They reached out to me after hearing about me through mutual friends. It was inspiring to learn about them as they are a very unique organization that works specifically with adjudicated youth to create public art. The youth are paid by the county to work on projects and they gain work readiness skills, art experience, and self confidence through the creation of their murals.

Urban ArtWorks also takes pride in giving aspiring muralists opportunities to build their own portfolios and skill sets through the whole process. The program is in its 20th year and looking to build their roster by working more with artists beyond the Seattle area – so, I hope to be back to create with them again and maybe even lead a youth mural next time.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Brooklyn Street Art: The mural features airborne creatures … and a cassette tape that looks like a mix of home jams. How do these fit together?
Overunder: Under the supportive assistance of Urban Artworks I created this mural titled “Contribute” for a new apartment development on Capitol Hill. While the theme involves showing birds flying to a nest with gifts to contribute I was also fortunate enough to involve several of my all-time favorite Seattle artists as they helped contribute to the overall mural.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Collaboration has always been important to me as a humbling bi-product of process and as a tool for apprenticeship. Aside from Derek Yost (who assisted on most of the mural), I involved No Touching Ground, Kyler Martz, Yale Wolf, Paulina Cholewinski, and Kathleen Warren who is the Director for Urban Artworks. The mural itself combines Gulls, Swallows, Killdeers, and other two-winged friends reported to be seen most by the Seattle Audubon Society.

I tried to create some movement amongst the large space by weaving birds, birch trees, and unspooled cassette tape as it gets tangled in the birds nest. The background blue gradient utilizes the natural shadows cast by the architecture to create an abstract sundial from sunrise to just past high noon.

Brooklyn Street Art: Why does it always seem to be raining in Seattle?
Overunder: I don’t know but I do know that that is the reason why I moved out of Seattle in 2004.

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Process shot. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Process shot. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Kathleen Warren/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Detail. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Erik Burke/Urban Art Works)

Overunder AKA Erik Burke. Urban Art Works. Seattle. March 2015. (photo © Jake Hanson/Urban Art Works)

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

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Overunder: Key In Search Of A Home

November 24, 2014 Artists

Heading out to Nevada today to check out a mural on the plains that honors a cattle rancher and a freight-jumping graff legend cowboy as well. You may not think they have much in common but have you ever considered a cattle brand is essentially the same as a graffiti tag? Or corporate logo?

The connection Overunder draws here is the key. Literally.

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Overunder and Derek Yost. Work in progress. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

“This mural is called ‘Key in Search of a Home’,” he says, “and it is a tribute to John Key, an Elko, Nevada cattle rancher.” Commissioned as a memorial to Mr. Key’s passion, you can see the family ranch house in the horse shoe and the great sky in the masked silhouettes. Over the door to the house you can see the family brand; the shape of an old key.

Overunder and Derek Yost. Work in progress. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

A decade ago Overunder and Derek Yost road bikes from Reno to Gurden, Arkansas and met Colossus (aka buZ blurr), who began putting his mark on the sides of freights in 1971. “buZ took us out to his ranch where he had two beat up Ford’s that he had been filling with keys mailed to him from every part of the globe,” says Overunder about the key association in his mind. “Since our visit I have mailed him countless keys and always think of him when I come across a key in search of a home.” So it only seemed natural to put buZ’s brand on this long cowboy themed mural, and the integration is a compliment to both.

The two painting friends re-banded to create this mural, so that may also be the key to the connection. “Derek now lives in Portland but it seemed only appropriate to involve him in this mural. Along with his awesome overall assistance he painted the cowboy silhouette composed of a golden eagle.”

Overunder and Derek Yost. Work in progress. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder and Derek Yost. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder and Derek Yost. Detail. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder and Derek Yost and an electrified tribute to the prolific train writer buZ blurr. Detail. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder and Derek Yost. Detail. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

Overunder and Derek Yost. Nevada. Fall 2014. (photo © Overunder)

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Graffiti Haven “American Flats” Slated for Destruction in Nevada

November 13, 2014 Artists

The news of the impending destruction of a primary spot for graffiti fans in Nevada has saddened a number of artists who have spent long hours painting and socializing at the former site of the American Flat Mill in Virginia City. According to the Reno Gazette-Journal in late October the Bureau of Land Management has just awarded the contract “to dismantle, crush and bury what’s left of the massive mill.” As an abandoned industrial site for the last ninety years or so, it is catnip for graff writers and street artists. Even though it is one of Nevada’s most culturally fascinating relics anyone would admit that it can be hazardous because of its state of neglect, even if its an open secret that it is well trafficked by thrill seekers. For former Brooklyn-now-Reno Street Artist Erik Burke, the news signals the end of an era for him not only as an artist, but because he married his wife on the site. Today Erik provides an essay for BSA readers about his perspective on the loss of this site that holds many memories for tourists, artists, filmmakers, and countless others.

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American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 . Please help ID the artists on this photo. (photo © Meryl Burke)

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by Erik Burke

Over the last week there has been increasing talk of the imminent demolition of The American Flat Mill. In case you are not familiar with this place, the CliffNotes version of the American Flat is that it was a gold, silver and low-grade ore processing plant that opened in 1922 and after a painstakingly brief period of boom it went bust in 1926. Since that time it has been a sightseeing and activity playground for countless visitors. Since local nostalgia is currently running a fever and countless people are sharing their experiences I feel compelled to share my unique bond with this skeletal ruin of Nevada’s formative mining days.

American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014. Please help ID the artists on this photo. (photo © Meryl Burke)

The American Flat will always hold a special place the relationship between my wife and I. It had been the destination of one of our first dates and in April of this year we were married there. The fact that we were able to share this experience with our closest friends and family was truly astonishing given the fact that our hallowed ground was on hollow ground.

The smell of sage and spray paint mingled with our Pastor’s words as we confided our eternal love for one another in a makeshift church, and while we forgave those who trespassed against us we too hoped the Sheriff would return the favor. It was in those time-slowing moments that we all could attest that there truly is beauty in ruins.

American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Meryl Burke)

During the prior week my closest friends and I spent whole days preparing for the ceremony by secretly removing fallen obstacles, assembling monumental towers of rusty barrels, creating mirrored mosaics, sweeping aisles through rubble, tie-wiring bouquets of brush and wild flowers. We also installed works by artist friends from Berlin, Tel-Aviv, Portland, Seattle, Minneapolis, and New Orleans.

Each morning we would arrive to a bit of un-curated vandalism that happened during the night and we would have to do damage control. When people say, ‘how would you like it if I tagged your house?’ I can now sympathize.

Arnz . Rogue. Yesir . Sunset. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Meryl Burke)

By the day of the wedding we had completely transformed the place, and like so many current testimonies about the Flats, the site had also transformed us. Whether you perceive the ruins as a backdrop to your fashion shoot, canvas to your creative whim, or, as my wife and I did, center stage for exchanging your vows, I think The American Flat should be preserved for generations to come.

While some individuals and entities see the demise of the flats as a trash-strewn, rotting liability of juvenile vandalism, a far larger majority see it as an Americana gestalt. Sadly, Building Solutions Inc. out of Reno recently won the contract with a $1.3 million bid for an un-building solution and they will begin dismantling shortly.

American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Meryl Burke)

When the Reno Gazette Journal interviewed Dave Erbes, a BLM geologist working on the project, he said, “There is going to be more known about the site after it is gone than there ever was before. In a couple of months hopefully you will be able to go online and tour the whole thing.”

Sadly the difference between knowing and experiencing is quite significant. Future generations will never know the feeling of clinging to the sun-warmed iron stairs as pebbles of concrete ping their way into a darkened tunnel or the sight of dropping a cheap flashlight into a pool of cyanide and watching it illuminate.

American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Mark Twain said, “an honest politician is an oxymoron”, and he would be rolling in his grave at the thought of an online “experience”. It’s disheartening to live in a western society that chisels history off the totem pole and places a fence around the remainder all in the name of liability. While it seems that salvation of the mill is not in our cards perhaps this demolition will serve as a good kick in the ass for us to get out there and truly experience our diminishing back yard.

American Flats, we’ll miss you.

American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Author. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Clairvoyance. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Meryl Burke)

Dirt TBK . Overunder. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

ABC Art Attack. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Various & Gould. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Overunder. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Meryl Burke)

IRGH . The Reader. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Klone. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Joins CBS. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Overunder . Klone . Joins CBS. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Mike Fitzimmons. American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Erik Burke)

Erik and Meryl’s wedding ceremony at American Flats. Reno, Nevada. 2014 (photo © Lindsey Pisani)

Please help ID artists whose names we didn’t know in this article. Thank you.

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Freewill Gallery in New Yorks Military Bunker on the Beach

October 22, 2014 Artists

Exploring Fort Tilden

National monuments are typically solemn places for reflection and remembrance. In the case of many decommissioned military installations across the world, the hidden parts of forts and bunkers are also serpentine galleries of freewill art shows. You may call it graffiti or you may call it a colossal explosion of creativity and unscripted free speech, but in all likelihood you will be moved by the clandestine display it in one way or another.

The entrance… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The site of New York’s abandoned WWI era military base (and site of the first Trans-Atlantic flight departure), Fort Tilden, also conveniently is a beach for many of its creative types and related mis-matched fun loving miscreants. While there are snide asides about this being a hipster spot, it is much more than a place for one-dimensional posers – if only because it is sort of hard to get to.

But it is also a little utopia for the grimy self-powered soot-covered bicycling city-set who gravitate to the margins and outskirts for a day at the beach; There are art shows and ad hoc performances, long days of reading and snacking, splashing, Backgammon, and nudity. Sometimes all at once.

Additionally the entire site can be a hidden, yet open, art gallery.

Artist Unknown. Also, Mika loves Mea. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Perched atop the bunker you can have a 360 degree view of the ocean and most of New York City, including the cluster of skyscrapers in yonder Manhattan. Inside it’s labyrinthine spaces below with a flashlight you will discover a 360 degree view of most all of the graffiti and Street Art techniques that are freely experimented with in these mid twenty teens.

On a recent overcast/sunny day at the end of the summer season we took a tour of the darkened spaces that are open to the public to find what kind of art gallery is on display and to discover hidden gems, furtive artists, discarded liquor bottles and the occasional condom. Are these the aesthetic meanderings of mad minds, the seeds of tomorrow’s art stars, or simply the unfiltered mark-making of youth on a summer day’s spraycation?

Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

NAD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elvis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A monument to Walt Whitman by artist Patty Smith is one of many placed here during this summers “Rockaway!” art show here, organized by PS1’s Klaus Biesenbach. Whitman’s masterpiece “Leaves Of Grass” begins with the words carved on the stone above. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I Celebrate Myself. And what I assume you shall assume. For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you”

~ Walt Whitman. July 4th 1855

KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl . Mistakoy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Newserf. Collab between News & Serf. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“United States of pills and corn syrup”, says ARC as he washes down an Oxycontin with Coke. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Armer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The New York Skyline from the top of the bunkers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

“Pintemos Mexico” with Specter, OverUnder, Shente and Libre in Ensanada

September 11, 2014 Artists

Irish Catholics like Specter always get romantic when they see the Virgin Mary being worked into a mural. The Brooklyn based Street Artist just got back from the heavily catholic country of Mexico (Ensenada) where the virgin Guadalupe is the local version that people revere and he says he was inspired by the “Tree of Life”. The metaphorical árbol in this case is the ceramic sculpture displayed at the Museo de Arte Popular in México City.

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Gabriel Specter. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

Joined by Street Artist OverUnder from Reno and Shente and Libre from the HEM crew out of Tijuana one of the oldest graffiti crews in Mexico, Specter worked on his mural for an art project called “Pintemos Mexico”. Each artist chose a more modern and public approach to popular icons and religious figures and storytelling, says Specter, and he liked finding a way to relate his own heritage to the folklore and religious fervor of Mexican culture. With many of the neighborhood kids pitching in to help, these are murals for a community that hopefully reflect the people back to themselves.

Sculpture by Oscar Soteno on display at Museo de Arte Popular in México City (image courtesy Wikipedia).

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Gabriel Specter. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

OverUnder. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

OverUnder. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © OverUnder)

Libre. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

Shente. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

“Pintemos Mexico” is made possible by Infonavit and the Fundacion Hogares, with Mamutt as one of the collaborators.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.10.14

August 10, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

If you haven’t gone barefoot in the park yet this summer, what are you waiting for? Everybody’s doing it. Not recommended for the sidewalk in Bushwick, Bedstuy, …okay, most of Brooklyn. Limit your barefootness to grassy areas.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring AK, Bifido, Che Man, Clint Mario, Cooper, Crummy Gummy, Damon, Jilly Ballistic, Karl Addison, ME, OverUnder, Pyramid Oracle, Razo, Sean9Lugo, and Skount.

Top Image >> Jilly Ballistic blasts something out of the sky while the modern version of the Keystone Cops blasts an advertisement at unsuspecting citizenry. What’s with all the guns all the time? Jeez.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Che Man makes a comparison with Pancho Villa and the EZLN in Bushwick. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Overunder continues to completely blow your mind. This one for Wall Therapy 2014. Rochester, NY (photo © Mark Deff)

And it goes something a little like this… Karl Addison for Wall Therapy 2014. Rochester, NY (photo © Josh Saunders)

Skount at Java-Eiland. Amsterdam, The Netherlands. (photo © Skount)

Sean9Lugo making perfect sense as always. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Love in the bushes. Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here’s something from waaa-hay-hay back. Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cooper (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Clint Mario and ME do a collaboration and an ad takeover. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Damon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Crummy Gummy new installation in Detroit. (photo © Crummy Gummy)

“I recently visited Detroit, MI and created some new work while I was there. When I told people I was going to Detroit the typical reaction was “It’s Dangerous” Or “That place is dirty!” or they would just make a face about it like I’m crazy for going. After visiting I felt, yes there are some areas that are not great to hang around at, but I also fell in love with the people there and how they take a lot of pride in their city. So the two works loosely were inspired by people’s reactions to visiting Detroit using references of “crime” and “cleaning up” with my twist of humor put in them” – CG

Crummy Gummy new installation in Detroit. (photo © Crummy Gummy)

AK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bifido. Cusano Talk Festival. Cusano Mutri, Italy (photo © Bifido)

Razo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Razo feeling the pulse of the city EKG (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Razo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pyramid Oracle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. August 2014 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.20.14

July 20, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 907 Crew, Ainac, Aero, Afrodoti Galazios, Blanco, Bleeps, Cash4, Daek, Dasic, Elbow-Toe, Fecks, Icy & Sot, IDT Crew, Mike Makatron, Miss 17, Mr. Penfold, Overunder, Seth, Sheryo, Smells, Sonni, Sweet Toof, The Yok, Tripel, UFO 907, Wolftits, and You Go Girl!.

Top Image >> IDT Crew. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

IDT Crew. IDT is a Chinese Crew. It reads on the background “5ive” to celebrate their 5th anniversary piece. Miss 17 on top was a later addition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sweet Toof. Smells. Cash4. UFO907. Please help ID the rest of the tags. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron with an assistant at work on his recent mural in Williamsburg. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mike Makatron (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe. The stencils below are by Ainac and Tripel. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy & Sot (we think) (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bleeps new piece in Athens, Greece. (photo © Afroditi Galazios)

Blanco new piece in Saratoga Springs, NY. (photo © Blanco)

Blanco. Detail from the piece above. (photo © Blanco)

The Yok, Sheryo, Daek and Fecks for Zoetic Walls in Cleveland, Ohio. (photo © Pawn Works)

DAEK for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo with Sonni on the background for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sonni for Pawn Works/NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. Penfold for Pawn Works/NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Paint a Mural on My House : Overunder With Baton Rouge Youth

July 17, 2014 Artists

“I try to create these open-ended situations with a loose play of abstract iconography to allow various interpretations. My interpretations alone change overtime, which I enjoy, so it makes sense to me to not be too didactic in my public work,” says OverUnder about his work and we can swear by it!

brooklyn-street-art-overunder-the-king-baton-rouge-07-14-web

The Street Artist and otherwise artist just spent some time in South Baton Rouge, not too far from the Mississippi in Louisiana making a handful of murals with some local youth there. Sponsored by the The Museum of Public Art, OverUnder worked on walls as part of the Love Our Community Summer Youth Employment Program along with some other artists like Seth (Paris), Static (Chicago), Aniekan (Nigeria), Pose2 (CA), Hunto (Italy), and Daze (NY). Overunder reports that the neighborhood where they were creating a majority of work was isolated and abandoned – even though it was just within earshot of downtown and prominent neighborhoods like the Garden District.

Check out this varied collection along with some details of the pieces themselves.

This was a class project on the side of one of the students home.”The mural refers to ten of the most historically significant African American quilt templates,” says Overunder of the patterning beneath the huge riveting orbs, as he explains that there were just ten basic building blocks for the multitude of quilt designs that came from the quilt-making tradition in the US.

“Of course there are many deviations and permutations but the basic building block of the majority of quilts can be traced back to these ten. While most people (especially the slave masters) viewed these quilts as decorative blankets, the underlying agenda of the quilt patterns and stitching provided an ingenious method of Underground Railroad communication,” he says. “Within these quilts slaves remixed African symbols to convey information pertaining to escaping the bonds of slavery. The quilts in this mural partially obstruct the face as a symbol of protest. The piercing, yet kind expression of the eyes reinforces the notion of communication without words.”

For a piece called “Sundial” Overunder made a time capsule for freedom on the 4th of July. “It uses the natural shadows from the building’s architectural features to keep time starting at sunrise, ” he says. “Gradients of color and the letter “I” from the nearby I-beam are transcribed every 15 minutes starting at 7 am. Behind that is a vertical “Red Stick” (Baton Rouge) with radiating detached branches forming the majority of the mural. In the lower right corner is a hovering shutter door graffiti’d with the outline of the state of Louisiana. A highway encompassed my metallic seeds flows out from the shutter door.”

Iris, who owns this house, requested that the collaborative piece include her favorite things, namely, her namesake iris flowers. “She looooved her flowers!” says Overunder, who created a chain link outline for the students to paint their individual floral sections within. He says the Interstate highway and its placement looks like it has a lot to do with the neighborhood’s isolation from affluent neighborhoods and the racial segregation that is evident, and he wanted to reflect that and the history of the neighborhood, if obliquely.

“This mural shows an inverted landscape with an abstract interstate dividing the plane. Three large Iris’ grow through the fence, shuffling between the links referencing the history of immigration (both forced and voluntary) as well as the common Louisiana flower and it’s stylized transformation into the iconic fleur de lis. On the front of the house, the fence transforms into 2 criss-crossing wild roses alluding to the concept of fences being a man-made construct based on nature,” says Overunder

This was a preliminary workshop with Overunder’s students transforming an ex-trap house. “Within each of my signature paper birds the students painted positive messages they wished upon the neighborhood,” he says.

Thanks to Dr. Kevin Harris of the The Museum of Public Art.

Opiatic Overunder Gives You Poppies in Cleveland

June 24, 2014 Artists

As we enter into the languid sweaty city summer of your dreams and the cloud of concrete dust and carbon dioxide kicked up by passing cars settles onto your dewey skin, it’s time to spend a few hours with aerosol cans on a wall.

“It’s been busy lately,” says Overunder, who is relishing an extended tour through select cities this summer and he’s already on his way now to Baton Rouge at the Museum of Public Art for a mural program with young adults.

But here we bring you his latest interactions with fluid geometric forms, pulldown gates, planes and poppies. Yes, bright red poppies. May they provide an opiatic reverie to thee in your lawn chair and your bare feet as you mop your brow and enjoy an icy can of cola.

“Summer Sketch” by Chet Baker – a fitting accompaniment to your reverie…

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Overunder with Flying Metal Gates in Cleveland for “Zoetic Walls”

May 8, 2014 Artists

OverUnder is swinging through Cleveland with his flying pull down gates, upside downy paper birds, bolts of bending flat energy, and circling blue DNA balls of cytosine. The visual dictionary that OU consults regularly for his street symbols varies and grows but often it pops with these metal gates that you’ll find throughout commercial strip malls and city streets after business closes.

For him they are a magnet – and his dream state must be swirling with these ubiquitous rolling metal gates that seem to invite some artists and writers to hit them up with tags and throwies and scraps of poetry and other little bits of mark-making. Ironically perhaps, the same metal gates have also been used to protect Banksy pieces. By recreating them with their original art or markings, he is preserving them and copying that piece of urban visual language into another neighborhood, even another city.

These new walls are part of Zoetic Walls – a project that Pawn Works has been intermittently and quietly facilitating for muralists around forgotten areas of Cleveland for a little over a year. “We have had the honor of curating our own little world of murals free of hype, thus far,” says Nick Marzullo of Pawn Works.

“We have started our 2014 Cleveland work with OverUnder. By leaving the existing brick to be used as the fill for his iconic paper birds, OverUnder created this high concept piece in Cleveland’s Historic Ohio City neighborhood,” he says.

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“Outdoor Gallery” Surveys Current Street Art Scene in NYC

February 20, 2014 Artists

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin

The outdoor gallery is the one we visit most and NYC is always front and center in our heart even as we branched out to about 100 other cities and towns last year. Outdoor Gallery – New York City is also the name of the brand new book by photographer and writer Yoav Litvin, who has spent the last couple of years shooting New York streets and meeting many of the artists who make the painting and wheat pasting that characterizes the class of 2014.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Chris Stain.

Published by Ginko Press, the large 235 page hardcover features nearly 50 street artists / graffiti artists whose work you see here regularly (with the exception of two or three) along with comments and observations from the artists about their practice, their experiences, and the current Street Art scene primarily in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

When Yoav told us of his hope to publish a book last year we offered whatever advice we could – but primarily we advised him to stick to his vision and not to let anyone discourage him. A true fan of the scene, he has worked tirelessly to do just that and now he can share with you a personal survey and record of many of the artists who are getting up today in New York.

Outdoor Gallery. New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Joe Iurato.

“Outdoor Gallery – New York City grew organically to embody my process of exploration and discovery on the streets of New York City. It is a creation that was born out of love for New York City streets and their people, and focuses on artists as leaders with a unique and necessary role in a society that aspires for freedom and change,” says Litvin in his introduction, and throughout the book you can sense the respect he has for the art and the dedication he has put into this project.

Careful to let the artists speak for themselves, he presents their work without commentary and with ample space given for expression. Using primarily his own photos, it is carefully edited and presented as an uncluttered and measured overview of each artists work.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Jilly Ballistic.

For us it is a proud moment to see someone’s dream realized after so much effort and dogged determination – especially in a scene whose challenges we are well familiar with. No one knows how hard it is to make something happen unless they do it themselves. So congratulations to Yoav for sticking to his vision and having the fortitude to finish this and thanks to him on the behalf of the artists whom he is helping to receive recognition for their work as well.

To that end, you are invited to the big launch party this Saturday at 17 Frost in Williamsburg. We’ll be there and we hope you can make it out for a great New York Street Art family reunion. You can’t miss the entrance, it’s been newly smashed by El Sol 25, Bishop 203, Royce and some other people we can’t remember right now but who will remind us as soon as this goes up ; ) .

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Gilf!

You can find out more about it on the Facebook Event Page, but we understand there will be a newly debuted video from Dega Films, a special tribute to Army of One, and a full show of new works from many of the artists in the book, including;

Adam Dare, Alice Mizrachi, Army of One / JC2, Astrodub, ASVP, Billy Mode, Bisho203, Bunny M, Cern, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Cope2, Dain, Dirty Bandits, El Sol 25, Elle Deadsex, Enzo and Nio, Free5, Fumero, Gaia, Gilf!, Hellbent, Icy and Sot, Indie 184, Jilly Ballistic, Joe Iurato, Kram, Lillian Lorraine, LNY (Lunar New Year), Miyok, ND’A, OCMC, OverUnder, Phetus88, QRST, Russell King, Shin Shin, Shiro, Sofia Maldonaldo, The Yok, Toofly, and Veng RWK.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Icy & Sot.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by Hellbent.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Art by QRST.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City by Yoav Litvin. Front and back cover art by Bishop203, LNY, Alice Mizrachi, QRST, Gilf!, Cern and Icy & Sot.

Below is a look at behind-the-scenes of the making of the mural for the cover of the book.

Outdoor Gallery – New York City will be launched in conjunction with an art exhibition this Saturday, February 22nd at 17 Frost Art Space in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. Click HERE for more details.

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