All posts tagged: Pandemic Gallery

Fun Friday 05.06.11

Fun-Friday

SABER at Opera Gallery now and Print Release Saturday

Los Angeles based artist SABER is in New York City for his solo show at Opera Gallery “The American Graffiti Artist”. The gallery is open from 11 to 7pm.

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Saber “Buffed” (Image courtesy © of the artist)

On Saturday from 3 -6 pm Opera is having a print release, seen here below.

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Click on the link below to learn more about this show:

http://www.operagallery.com/ny/NY16/saber.html

To see a video of the artist at work in his L.A. Studio click on the link below:

http://saberone.com/blog/2011/04/23/the-american-graffiti-artist-upcoming-solo-show-opera-gallery-nyc/

Leon Reid IV Closing Party at Pandemic Tonight

The folks at Pandemic Gallery really know how to throw a party that is at once welcoming, neighborly, and debauched. Tonight they invite you to the closing party for Leon Reid IV “Identity Theft” A Decade of Public Art.

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Leon Reid IV “Identity Theft” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ELIK at Brooklynite Saturday

After half decade, Elik returns with a big opening in BedStuy tomorrow at Brooklynite Gallery. Always a good show and a good time – special guest music maker the legendary DJ Kool Herc.

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According to Rae and Hope at Brooklynite, “ELIK’s been hoarding scrap wood, furniture, metal signage and a hell of a lot of city trash with plans to turn this place into some sort of ‘shanty town’. He’s politely insisted we turn the space over to him and find something else to do until opening night.”

Musical Guest: DJ KOOL HERC
Brooklynite Gallery is located at 334 Malcolm X Blvd., Brooklyn, New York 11233.
Phone 347-405-5976 • BrooklyniteGallery.com

Martha Cooper “Remix” Ends this Weekend

In Culver City, California Carmichael Gallery invites you this Saturday to view the landmark show Martha Cooper “Remix” before it closes. This is the last weekend this show will be on view and if you have not seen it you must go!

brooklyn-street-art-jaime-rojo-martha-cooper-blade-carmichael-gallery-3-web Martha Cooper “Blade” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Blade Remixes Martha Cooper’s original photo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Blade Remixes Martha Cooper’s original photo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Holdup Art Gallery Presents: “Hi-Graff”

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“Hi-Graff” is an installation-based street art exhibition that explores the concept of Graffiti as a contemporary art movement. The exhibition, which opens on May 7th 7-11pm, showcases graffiti in its most original form –collaborative murals applied directly to walls.

To learn more about this show click here

Happy Mother’s Day in the Mission District, SF

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Artists and humanitarians Jeffrey Waldman and Dave Harmatz came up with a nice little project for Mother’s Day in The Mission neighborhood of San Francisco.

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Forever Stamp
“Mission Statement: To send some much deserved love to moms and to be a part of strengthening a relationship. More than that, it was to inspire and motivate people to go out and create works of their own. To showcase how simple and cheap a project can be while still delivering a tangible product amid a fantastic and universal message. Plus we had all these old envelopes to get rid of.”

Click here to continue reading about this project

Overunder,Veng of RWK and Ephemeron in Coney Island

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Fun Friday 04.01.11

Fun-Friday

1. Birdsong ZINE Benefit
2. Nomade on LA Freewalls
3. 10th Anniversary of Robots Will Kill in Philadelphia Tonight
4. PANTHEON Opens in Manhattan on the Street Tomorrow
5. EL Celso Closing Party Saturday at Pandemic
6. Spring is Just Around the Corner!  Time For Wedding Planning!
7. GAIA Does Giant Martha Cooper Tribute in Chicago
8. BSA Was in the Newspaper Yesterday
9. Happy April Fools! Insane German Synth Pop “Razor Scooter” Video
10. Banksy Revealed as Nude USC guy having sex on the roof

Birdsong ZINE Benefit – Support Your Local ZINE – Tonight at Brooklyn Fireproof

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The Birdsong Zine birthday party and benefit — celebrating 3 years of the Brooklyn artist small collective that produces birdsong among other zines, celebrate with a print show and sweet live music.

art: featuring limited edition $20 prints by a group of artists who have contributed to, or who have been interviewed by, birdsong over the past three years: Blanco, Cara Fulmor, Cat Glennon, Elizabeth Hirsch, J. Morrison, Julia Norton, Joey Parlett, Danielle Rosa, Will Varner, and Michelle Yu
When: Friday, April 1st. Doors at 8pm, bands start at 9pm
Where: Brooklyn Fire Proof,119 Ingraham St @ Porter Ave, Brooklyn (Morgan L)
Why: $$$ goes to offset some of the cost of producing birdsong #15, a Brooklyn-based full color bi-annual lit/art/interview zine.

Nomade on LA Freewalls

Haven’t seen these fellers in action before, now, have ye?  Bunch of black blobs on their faces though. Did you see the pictures of the final installation here a couple of days ago?

10th Anniversary of Robots Will Kill in Philadelphia Tonight

And if you find yourself in Philly today and want to have a good time and experience great art and excellent company head over to the Vicent Michael Gallery where RWK Art Collective is celebrating their 10th Anniversary of art making

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At the Robots Will Kill show will be this piece “Winter Flower” by Veng RWK

PANTHEON Opens in Manhattan on the Street Tomorrow

Curators Daniel Feral and Joyce Manalo invite you to go window shopping this Saturday April 2 to view and buy the art on display on the windows of the old Donnell Library across from MOMA for their exhibition PANTHEON: A History of art from the streets of New York City.  See some detail pics from the show here:

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907 Crew. Detail. “907 Was an Inside Joke” (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

PANTHEON:
A history of art from the streets of New York City

Windows exhibition runs April 2-17, 2011
On view 24 hours a day

EXHIBITION LOCATION
chashama at the Donnell
20 West 53rd Street, b/w 5th & 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10019 (across from MoMA)

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Image Credit: GRAFFITI & STREET ART diagram by Daniel Feral is a 75th Anniversary celebration of Alfred H. Barr’s CUBISM & ABSTRACT ART diagram.

EL Celso Closing Party Saturday at Pandemic

Pandemic will be hosting a closing party for their El Celso show tomorrow night (1/2) from 7-11pm

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It’s your last chance to dance like a maniac in their exclusive…El Celso Mini Discoteca.

Pandemic
37 Broadway (between Wythe and Kent)

Brooklyn, NY 11211
(917) 727-3466

pandemicgallery@gmail.com

Spring is Just Around the Corner!  Time For Wedding Planning!

Fools rush in …. where angels fear to tread. Enjoy some of these inspiring Photoshopped delights from romantic Russia and your friends at Sad And Useless

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GAIA Does Giant Martha Cooper Tribute in Chicago

Pawn Works and Maxwell Colette Gallery recently hosted New York Street Artist GAIA in Chicago for his “Resplendent Semblance” show and helped him find some walls, like this one in an image from the Pawn Works site, which doesn’t mention that the original image is a photograph from Martha Cooper.  Ms. Cooper’s Remix show prep begins in earnest today as she touches down in LA to start installing the her photos and the 50+ original works by graffiti and street artists who have reinterpreted them.  Brooklyn-Street-ARt-WEB-Copyright-Pawn-Works-Gaia-Chicago

Image of GAIA piece courtesy and copyright of Pawn Works

From our piece with Chris Stain, Billy Mode, and Ms. Cooper a couple of weeks ago:

Brooklyn Street Art: Oh yeah! Gaia is doing that one for this show!
Chris Stain:
He is?  Cool, that’s cool.
Brooklyn Street Art:
Well he loves doing birds, and feathers, and animals.
Chris Stain:
Well Gaia’s a bird brain, that kid, so it makes sense.

BSA Was in the Newspaper Yesterday

Yes we geeked out to see Brooklyn Street Art in the AM New York newspaper yesterday morning! Plus we were all over the fact that NohJColey and El Sol 25, two of the newest talents on the street got some props. Oh yeah, and that guy Shepard.

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See it in the online version here.


Happy April Fools! Here’s An Insane German Synth Pop “Razor Scooter” Video



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Pandemic Gallery Presents: Leon Reid IV: A Decade of Public Art (Brooklyn, NY)

Leon Reid IV

brooklyn-street-art-leon-reidIV-jaime-rojoLeon Reid IV (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Leon Reid IV:  A Decade Of Public Art


Photography, sculpture and drawings exhibiting the span of Leon Reid IV’s public artwork, 2000- present.

On Display:
Sat. April 16 – Sun. May 8, 2011

Opening Reception
Sat. April 16, 2011 7-11pm



‘A Decade Of Public Art’ is Leon Reid IV’s first New York City solo exhibition and features a new public sculpture viewable outside Pandemic Gallery. The show reveals a vast range of unpublished material associated with his well known public artworks. Sketches, maquettes and video footage flesh out works such as “True Yank” the controversial Abraham Lincoln intervention; “Free As A Bird,” a sculpture installed on a prison guard tower; and “The Kiss,” the cherished London installation for which he is most known.  Reid provides a glimpse into his plans for future public works, including his monumental “A Spider Lurks In Brooklyn” project, which recently received Fiscal Sponsorship from New York Foundation For The Arts (NYFA).

Listed as one of the “60 Innovators Shaping Our Creative Future” by Thames & Hudson, Leon Reid IV has been on the edge of public art for over 15 years. He grew up as a traditional graffiti writer (a.k.a VERBS) and quickly developed a knack for unconventional practices such as painting street signs and installing them during daylight disguised as a construction worker. His most famous work of this period is “Verbs St – Oh Yes I Did” a cleverly manipulated subway sign installed in Canal Street station, NYC. His experiments in graffiti lead him to move beyond the genre and pursue site-specific installations under the pen-name Darius Jones. The New York Times featured an article on “It’s All Right”, a subtle contortion of a One-Way sign and a Phone sign creating the illusion that the two are in love. Reid is one of the few artists responsible for introducing sculpture into the language of street-art, his techniques of installation combined with his humorous and romantic themes have made a sizable impact on urban artists of his generation.

Reid’s current work remains sculptural, highly contextualized and is often installed on existing architecture. In Norway, “The Great Recession” features a giant Kilroy-Was-Here styled sculpture hanging over the ledge of a local bank, apparently holding on to his last dollar.  In Brazil, “Bring The House Down” depicts a life-sized human figure made of chain, attempting to uproot the building pillar of a cultural institution. Reid’s latest works add striking visual elements to existing structures, the result of which he considers a true collaboration with the structure’s architect.

At present and through out his career, Leon Reid IV has designed his work to communicate directly with the public at large. He considers every site -be it domestic or international- an opportunity to create work that is meaningful and accessible to the community where it exists.

Leon Reid IV’s work has been exhibited worldwide and featured in publications/media such as: Time Magazine, The New York Times, PBS, BBC, Radio National Australia, Good Magazine, Creative Review, Recharge and The Wooster Collective among others. He co-authored a novel based on his experience in graffiti and street-art “The Adventures Of Darius and Downey” as told to Ed Zipco” Thames & Hudson 2008. Reid holds a B.F.A. from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and an M.A. from Central Saint Martins School Of Art and Design in London. He lives and works in Brooklyn, NY.

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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Pandemic Gallery Presents: El Celso “¡NO HABLA ESPAÑOL!” (Brooklyn, NY)

El Celso
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Opening Reception

Friday, March 11, 2011, 7-11pm

¡NO HABLA ESPAÑOL! is El Celso’s most personal show to date. This new series of works was inspired by a recent trip to Peru where the artist became obsessed with posters made in the “chicha” style. These hand-made posters line city streets all over Peru and generally feature an eye-popping neon color palette and commercial graphics-inspired lettering. They are generally used to advertise working class concerts and other events. During a recent trip around Peru, in 2010, Celso began collecting discarded and out-of-date fragments of these posters – known as afiches chicha in Spanish – from the streets of towns such as Chachapoyas, Chiclayo, Cajamarca and Lima (to name a few).

Further inspired by their look, he established contact with the esteemed Fortunato Urcuhuaranga at Publicidad Viusa (publicidadviusa.com.pe), the print workshop that originated this iconic DayGlo look back in the 1980s. (Urcuhuaranga is a former radio DJ and he originally created these posters to advertise his station’s musical happenings.) Based on the outskirts of Lima, in the suburb of San Juan, Ate, this renowned family-run studio has produced posters for countless local Peruvian acts, as well as visual artists and arts organizations around the world.

In collaboration with the Urcuhuarangas, Celso created a series of posters inspired by the Peruvian chicha style. However Celso’s posters are a wry play on the idea of the advertisement: event posters created for non-events. Since last year, he has installed dozens of these on the streets of New York and Miami.

His exhibit and installation at the Pandemic Gallery will feature these colorful pieces, as well as fragments of the original Peruvian street posters that inspired them. Also on display will be a series of intricate collages on wood that recreate the feel of the way these posters inhabit the street. Most importantly, the show will feature a diminutive discotheque – a free-standing structure that will feature light, sound and wild graphics. All of it will serve as a tribute to contemporary Peruvian nightlife culture.

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Fun Friday 02.11.11

Fun-Friday

Benjamin Lozovsky at WG Gallery

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Let’s hear it for supporting your local talents, like photographer Ben Lozovsky, who’s been developing his own distinctive style and has his first show tonight. We love it when he does street art, but he’s also got an eye for architecture as sculpture.

WG Gallery is very proud to present the first solo exhibition of the photographic works by Benjamin Lozovsky.

Friday, February 11
6-9pm
WG Gallery
50-52 Dobbin Street (bet. Nassau + Norman)
Brooklyn, NY 11222

Shout out to Genia Gould!

“Casual Encounters”

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“Drawing conveys the artist’s id and deepest subconscious” – That’s what the press release says. I’m thinking it’s mainly about everybody’s favorite topic. Check it out because it is cold outside peeps and you might find an instant valentine.

Mighty Tanaka present Casual Encounters, as we take a look at the humorous and otherwise ridiculous illustrations of what make us human. Featuring the artwork of Lauren Asta, Jac Atkinson, Abe Lincoln Jr., Rick Midler, Reginald Péan and RTTP, this show provides an off kilter version of life.

“Vivid Summit” Group Show at Pandemic Gallery This Saturday

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More at Pandemic

RETNA Killed it Last Night. Just Sayin’

Bad cell phone pic – I’m sure there will be more online. Martha Cooper said he is shooting into the stratosphere and if you saw all the canvasses, the huge R-E-T-N-A sculpture and the hundreds of people there, you might be inclined to agree. Plus he’s going to be painting a jet.

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Nick Walker “The Morning After-New York”

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Nick Walker, the British artist, will releasing a print in collaboration with Opera Gallery, 115 Spring Street, New York, on Saturday, February 26th, 2011 at 3pm EST.

The print will be a signed limited edition of 150 with 18 hand-finished Artists proofs.

A lottery has been set up making 50 prints available for collectors in the UK. In order to apply for a print please email info@theartofnickwalker.com with New York TMA lottery in the subject box.

French graffiti Artist Traz documents his latest creation on canvas

Street Art And Reality on Hanbury Street. London By Shafiur Rahman

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Fun Friday 01.07.11

Fun-Friday

Tonight in Brooklyn: “Wholetrain” Screening at Closing Party for H. Veng Smith

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Tonight at Pandemic they’ll be screening the film “Wholetrain” to close the “Identifiable Reality” show by H. Veng Smith.

“Florian Gaag manages to recount a tale colored by tension and aggression. The result is a many-sided portrait of characters whose world has never been documented in this way before. Their subculture remains authentic and realistic. Edgy editing and grandiloquent camerawork, a pulsating soundtrack and an excellent ensemble of actors, make WHOLETRAIN a film experience not to be missed.” – Wholetrain Website

SCREENING BEGINS AT 8:00 PM.
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PANDEMIC gallery
37 Broadway btwn Kent and Wythe
Brooklyn, NY 11211
www.pandemicgallery.com

Walk All Over Shepard Fairey If You Like

On the streets of Milan, Italy five artists (Shepard Fairey, Invader, The London Police, Flying Fortress and Rendo) has been invited to create about 20 manhole covers.

more at The Street Art Blog

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West Coast Holla! – Here’s Three;

Carmichael Gallery “After the Rain”

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Carmichael’s first show of the year “After the Rain” featuring new work by Boogie, Guy Denning, Aakash Nihalani, and Pascual Sisto.

5795 Washington Blvd Culver City, CA 90232
January 8 – February 5, 2011

Opening Reception: Saturday, January 8, 2011, 6-8pm

Whoops, “There It Is” at ThinkSpace

“There it Is” at ThinkSpace

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‘There It Is’
Featuring new works from three Oakland CA artists:
Brett Amory / Adam Caldwell / Seth Armstrong
(Main Gallery)
Paul Barnes
‘Happy Valley’
(Project Room)
Both exhibits on view: January 8th – January 29th
Opening Reception: Sat, January 8th 7-10PM

Thinkspace Art Gallery
6009 Washington Blvd.
Culver City, CA 90232
(310) 558-3375 | Open Wed. – Sat.
1pm-6pm
or by appointment
contact@thinkspacegallery.com

“Street Degrees of Street” – Abztract Collective

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Abztract Collective and Crewest Gallery group show “Street Degrees of Separation”

Opening Reception Jan 2008

CREWEST GALLERY

110 Winston Street

Los Angeles, CA

213 627 8272

BOXI and BANKSY TAKE No. 1 Spots

Here are the Final Results of the Year End 2010 BSA Polls

It was a blast to watch the images jumping positions like a horse race for the last weeks of the year as two BSA Polls were up on the Huffington Post.  Thousands of people participated in the voting and we got lots of funny emails, and some varying opinions – and here are the results;

As voted by readers on Huffing Post Arts page , here are the top 10 Brooklyn Street Art images from 2010.

1. Boxi

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2. ROA, “Ibis”

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3. ROA, “Squirrel”

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4. Retna & El Mac

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6. Os Gemeos and Futura

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7. Jef Soto

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8. El Mac

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9. Gaia

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10. Gaia

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********************

And in our highly subjective and fun compilation of 10 Best Street Art Moments of the Decade, here are the results of the votes – The Top Five

1.     “Exit Through the Gift Shop”, Banksy

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Image promotional still from movie.

2.     Tate Modern hosts “Street Art”

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© Tate Photography

3.     Nuart Festival Established by Martyn Reed

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© CF Salicath

4.     Shepard Fairey’s Obama Posters

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© Jaime Rojo

5.     Swoon’s Swimming City Arrives at Venice Biennale

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© Tod Seelie

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Pandemic Gallery Presents “Trespass” A Group Show Curated by Evan Robarts (Brooklyn, NY)

Pandemic Gallery
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Opening Sat. Jan. 15th, 7-11pm

Pandemic presents:

TRESPASS

Curated by Evan Robarts

A group show featuring 10 young artists working in different media and vernaculars. Along with the traditional meaning of the word, TRESPASS violates social conventions and openly engages in the taboo. TRESPASS places private moments in a public exhibition, where the act of viewing invades personal boundaries. TRESPASS questions established and preconceived notions of art.

TRESPASS is an action, a state of mind, an invitation.

___________________________________________________________

The show will feature a wide array of styles and mediums. Painting, sculpture, photography, video, and more. The artists themselves represent a new age of aesthetic visionaries and emerging inspirations. The visual mix, in perfect tandem, will provide a glimpse into a world of stimulating beauty often hidden from view.

Featured Artists:

Edouard Nardon
Grear Patterson

Victor Payares
Evan Robarts

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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Pandemic Gallery Invites You To The Closing Party for H. Veng Smith Show “Identifiable Reality” and Private Viewing of Florian Gaag Film “Wholetrain” (Brooklyn, NY)

Pandemic Gallery
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On Friday, Jan. 7th we will be hosting a closing party,
and will be screening the film “Wholetrain” by German filmmaker Florian Gaag

7-11pm film will start @ 8pm. BYOB.
hope to see you there!

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WHOLETRAIN

Florian Gaag tells the story of a crew of four “writers” – David, Tino, Elyas und Achim – who observe the hierarchies, the values, the rules and the codes of the graffiti scene. Night after night they make off for the subway stations of the city, intent on leaving opulent images behind. But as another crew appears on the scene, and the four feel challenged, a creative battle ensues, one that will change the lives of these young people for ever.
We are confronted with life taken to the limit. Constantly on the edge of legality. Always on the run from the law.  Urban space must be reclaimed. Friends are made and lost. Unbridled creativity and doing things for the sheer love of it are watchwords too.

To read more about WHOLETRAIN and to watch the trailer click on the link below:

http://www.wholetrain.com/english/home_fs_engl.htm

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

Read more

Happy New Year! BSA Highlights of 2010

Year-in-review-2010-header

As we start a new year, we say thank you for the last one.

And Thank You to the artists who shared their 11 Wishes for 2011 with Brooklyn Street Art; Conor Harrington, Eli Cook, Indigo, Gilf, Todd Mazer, Vasco Mucci, Kimberly Brooks, Rusty Rehl, Tip Toe, Samson, and Ludo. You each contributed a very cool gift to the BSA family, and we’re grateful.

We looked over the last year to take in all the great projects we were in and fascinating people we had the pleasure to work with. It was a helluva year, and please take a look at the highlights to get an idea what a rich cultural explosion we are all a part of at this moment.

The new year already has some amazing new opportunities to celebrate Street Art and artists. We are looking forward to meeting you and playing with you and working with you in 2011.

Specter does “Gentrification Series” © Jaime Rojo
NohJ Coley and Gaia © Jaime Rojo
Jef Aerosol’s tribute to Basquiat © Jaime Rojo
***

January

Imminent Disaster © Steven P. Harrington
Fauxreel (photo courtesy the artist)
Chris Stain at Brooklyn Bowl © Jaime Rojo

February

Various & Gould © Jaime Rojo
Anthony Lister on the street © Jaime Rojo
Trusto Corp was lovin it.

March

Martha Cooper, Shepard Fairey © Jaime Rojo
BSA’s Auction for Free Arts NYC
Crotched objects began appearing on the street this year. © Jaime Rojo

April

BSA gets some walls for ROA © Jaime Rojo
Dolk at Brooklynite © Steven P. Harrington
BSA gets Ludo some action “Pretty Malevolence” © Jaime Rojo

May

The Crest Hardware Art Show © Jaime Rojo
NohJ Coley © Jaime Rojo
The Phun Phactory Reboot in Williamsburg © Steven P. Harrington

June

Sarah Palin by Billi Kid
Nick Walker with BSA in Brooklyn © Jaime Rojo
Judith Supine at “Shred” © Jaime Rojo

July

Interview with legend Futura © Jaime Rojo
Os Gemeos and Martha Cooper © Jaime Rojo
Skewville at Electric Windows © Jaime Rojo

August

Specter Spot-Jocks Shepard Fairey © Jaime Rojo
“Bienvenidos” campaign
Faile studio visit © Jaime Rojo

September

BSA participates and sponsors New York’s first “Nuit Blanche” © Jaime Rojo
JC2 © Jaime Rojo
How, Nosm, R. Robots © Jaime Rojo

October

Faile “Bedtime Stories” © Jaime Rojo
Judith Supine © Jaime Rojo
Photo © Roswitha Guillemin courtesy Galerie Itinerrance

November

H. Veng Smith © Jaime Rojo
Sure. Photo courtesy Faust
Kid Zoom © Jaime Rojo

December

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Fun Friday 12.17.10

Fun-Friday

Fun Friday

Bing and Bowie Reunion 2010!

To put you in the right spirit for your holiday shopping and spray painting, BSA reader Jodi has alerted us to this charming holiday classic, remade by two of today’s singing sensations!  Grab your cardigan and pipe!

Veng from RWK Flies Solo

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Detail of “Jerome”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

H. “Veng” Smith “Identifiable Reality”at Pandemic
BSA Interview with H. Veng Smith this week.

Legacy of Letters

Luca Barcellona really impresses with his command and his almost choreographic hand style at calligraphy. Sit back and enjoy on this fun friday.

New SWOON “Walki” Print

As she readies to return to Haiti (interview next week), Swoon is offering a new print to support The Konbit Shelter Project.

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“The Walki print is an immediately touching portrait by Swoon of a boy named Walki who lives in the village of Bigones and spent time with the Konbit Shelter team at the community center building site this last summer. The print is made of a three-layer screenprint on handmade Indian jute paper measuring 13″ x 21″ and is limited at an edition of 300 – all proceeds from the sale will go towards support of the Konbit Shelter Project.

The Konbit Shelter Project was created with the idea that a group of artists, engineers, architects and builders could pool their individual knowledge, resources and time to make a lasting difference in post-earthquake Haiti”

Learn more here at Upper Playground

Looptaggr: Endless tags on the Run

BSA Technology and Art UPDATE: This weekend the new Tron movie comes out to thrill and chill techno geeks everywhere. Apparently they took 28 years off of Jeff Bridges with new developments in CGI. I’ve pre-ordered the personal CGI device coming out this spring by Apple – the iDigress personal age reducer should enable me to jump fences and run through empty lots with more agility.  Speaking of Hi-Tech wizardry, take a look at the new LoopTaggr, which really cuts down on your stenciling time.

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H.Veng Smith Solo At Pandemic: Studio Visit And Interview

Aerosol, Arsenic and Squared-Jawed Vikings

Forging Identity in “Identifiable Reality”

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-1“Visual Thought”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A traditional A-frame wooden easel smacked up with street art stickers sits in a tiny pitched roof attic studio. The focused artist sits, poised brush in hand, staring intently at his palette of carefully selected and mixed pigments with linseed oil, deciding how to recreate a spray painted tag by Street Artist Dark Cloud onto the stone walled bridge in his canvas.

“With these pieces I’m more interested in trying to have fun with them. I want to give you a reality, but at the same time an alternate reality,” so explains Veng of Robots Will Kill, now H. Veng Smith.  The name itself indicates his desire to consolidate two extremes in his career so far – “Veng” from his days as a graff/street artist and member of the New York collective Robots Will Kill – and the formal name “H. Smith” under which he first showed his finely rendered oils on canvas.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-2Detail from “Visual Thought”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As Veng painted canvasses over 3 months for his first solo show as a “Street Artist” on display indoors at Pandemic Gallery this Friday, he found himself again reconciling his two distinct interests – graff culture and the Dutch Masters. Looking at the oil painting of a survey of the expanse of a river alongside a non-descript European town from perhaps a few centuries ago, you see he has included tags from Street Artists circa 2010 like ECB, Chris from RWK, and Dark Cloud on walls in the village.

Brooklyn Street Art: I like the way that you pay homage to street artists and graffiti artists in these formal, painterly, old-world settings

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-19Veng: That to me is the ideal world. I really enjoy that piece because it mixes the things that I like all in one. It’s got the street art, which I like, it’s got the graffiti, which I like, it’s got some modern conveniences like trucks moving because obviously you need to drive. I don’t want to be sitting around with a horse and buggy or something. Airplanes…. I like my laptop.  At the same time I like the simple quiet old times, and the ideas of them, the old buildings.  You know if you look at the city today I don’t think it looks as nice as it did a hundred years ago or in the 1800’s.  If you go to some of the old Brooklyn or Manhattan buildings, you see that they’re beautiful. And the Manhattan skyline is beautiful too – it’s world-famous obviously. But I’m for classy, rustic, old world aesthetics. And I hope that’s what you get when you look at these pieces.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-4“Jerome”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Identifiable Reality”, his first solo show as a Street Artist will showcase his own version of reality, which is to say, fictional.

Brooklyn Street Art: What does the title of the show refer to?
Veng: Just to all the pieces in the show that are realistic – you know what you are looking at, nothing is abstract in the design. But at the same time the ideas are a little abstract. You don’t usually see somebody with a hat made of books on their head with candles.  Even though the candles on the hat is a realistic idea, because in olden days they would put candles on their hats for visibility to paint at night.  Michelangelo and Goya both wore hats with candles when they were painting. A lot of people assume that this is all fantasy but it is not completely fantasy.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Goya- Self-Portrait in the Workshop, 1795Goya’s ” Self-Portrait in the Workshop”, 1795, shows the artist with candles in his hat. (Courtesy Museo de la Real Academia de Bellas Artes, Madrid)

Out the open hinged window comes the sound of two Black-capped Chickadees calling each other in the branches of the blazing fall yellow trees. The conversation turns to the poker-faced man who appears throughout his giant street pieces and in these smaller canvasses. Veng calls the reappearing ever morphing costume-changing dude his “character”, and his blunt center stage presence is always beguiling with a hint of the comic.  Truthfully, these “characters” are all probably versions of Veng, exhibiting different qualities of his own character, if  only slyly.

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Detail of “Jerome”, by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: In a lot of your work there is a healthy dose of humor, however subtle.
Veng: Yeah – I wouldn’t consider it too serious. It’s kind of playful.

Brooklyn Street Art: Your character for example; It’s got this expression in this piece. What is that expression? Is he tasting a sour lemon?
Veng: He’s an unhappy Viking. You know, he’s plundering and he’s just not in the best of times I guess.

Brooklyn Street Art: I’ve noticed the shape of the face of the character has now become completely square, even with corners now.
Veng: I started off doing a more circular shape and I like it because it is recognizable and I always want to stick to more simple shapes, and I like them to be unrealistic. So no matter how realistically you paint an eye or a nose, no matter what you ever do to it, it is never going to look real because the shape alone is going to kill that for you totally.  I would never use, say, a triangle or something.  I like the idea of having that clean edge circular or square shape to break up the reality that you might otherwise get.  I think it separates it from other things that are going on.  I could sit here and do all of these with more realistic facial proportions but I feel like, for me, it would take out some of the fun of the character.

Brooklyn Street Art: And in fact, the character is fun.
Veng: Yeah, you look at first and it almost looks “identifiable” but then you realize it’s completely square. You take away the eyes and nose …..

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-11(image © Jaime Rojo)

For a minute you forget you are talking to a well known aerosol wielding Brooklyn Street Artist in this cozy Staten Island hideaway. It’s stillness is free of clutter and there are neatly stacked glass jars of pigment, oils, a mortar and pestle. Reconciling these two worlds must be work in itself.

Brooklyn Street Art: Recently there was a show at 17 Frost Gallery with Erik Burke & Cahil Muraghu where they married graffiti techniques and vocabulary with the Hudson School of painting.  When I saw some of their pieces I was impressed and I was also thinking of the way that you are marrying two styles are a few centuries apart from one another.
Veng:
You know if you look at the books I have on my shelf, people usually get a kick out of it because there will be a Chuck Close book next to a book on Jan van Eyck, or some Dutch guy. I personally find great interest in all of them and I reference them and I think when you can combine them using creativity it is a great luxury. Technique-wise, we have a lot to learn from the past.

Brooklyn Street Art: I’ve heard you talk before about having within your style these polar opposites and you’ve withstood some criticism from people like your peers for example. When you were doing graff on the street and you started to do Street Art based stuff – let alone Dutch Masters influenced pieces- what were some of the responses you were getting?
Veng: It’s definitely been tougher from the graffiti crowd than the Street Art crowd. But the graffiti crowd, especially here in New York, has loosened up on it’s ideas basically due to a lot of Europeans coming over doing graffiti too.  The graffiti scene was always sort of A-B-C-D.

Brooklyn Street Art: In what way?
Veng: You spray paint, you use your caps, that’s it. You do it illegally, you never get too artsy. Whereas with Street Art, you can kind of get almost as artsy as you want.

Brooklyn Street Art: So you are saying that those people who might have given you a hard time before might not be doing it now.
Veng: Now they don’t do it at all. But at the same time, a lot of people won’t consider it graffiti. They’ll say, “Oh, he uses spray paint to do it but it’s not graffiti”. So I think a lot of the borders have all been cut down.

Brooklyn Street Art: So would you say a certain level of respect exists across all of it?
Veng: Yeah. I mean I’ve always been pretty peaceful and I’m pretty easy going. I’ve never really had any personal problems.  I mean some people give their opinions, which is fine obviously, because not everybody likes everything the same and thank God.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-12(image © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: So you pick all of your paints.
Veng: Yeah, a lot of the paints, about 85% of them, I mix myself from the pigments.  There are certain pigments I don’t use.

Brooklyn Street Art: What do you mix the pigments with
Veng: Oil – linseed oil or possibly walnut oil. – Which you can kind of smell in here. And then I add to them different stuff like resin, which will speed up the drying and give it a glossy hardened feel.

Brooklyn Street Art: Where do you get your pigments and supplies?
Veng: A lot of the supplies I get from a local colorman in Brooklyn, Robert Doak in Dumbo.  His business has been around longer than I’ve been living.  A lot of the pigments and materials I use come from him. It’s really specific, not just to oil paintings but to traditional materials.  Also I get a lot of stuff from a company out in California called Natural Pigments, which specializes in all the hard-to-find pigments. Also I use the more dangerous stuff like lead-based paints and paints that contain arsenic.

Brooklyn Street Art: Really? Arsenic?
Veng: Yes, it’s a color called Opiate. It’s a really gorgeous yellow, but it contains arsenic.

Brooklyn Street Art: So do you have to wear a mask using some of these pigments?
Veng: When I mix the pigments I have little dust mask on for the super dangerous ones.  – Not that I feel like I really need one because I’m dealing with it in very small doses. Obviously I don’t have the window open in front of me or the fan going. But just to be on the safe side I do wear a dust mask. Some are more dangerous if absorbed through the skin.  Like Vermillion – (takes the glass bottle to show) – it’s a really really nice red.  But if you absorb it through your skin it’s dangerous.

Brooklyn Street Art: This is a pestle.
Veng: It’s a grinder for the paints. You put it on here with the oil.  Here are different oils, here is the walnut you can smell if you want.

Brooklyn Street Art: Yeah I think I can smell the linseed. That is really understated.  I think people use linseed oil for furniture.
Veng: Yup, linseed oil – if you would ask people, probably 80% of them use linseed oil for their paints.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-13A partial lineup of pieces by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brooklyn Street Art: How does it feel doing a solo show?
Veng: It feels great. I’m nervous. I hope everyone enjoys the work and likes it and shows up. It’s been good to get a body of work together in this genre because I’ve never really had a full collection of these pieces before that is more influenced by my Street Art. I’ve done a single piece for a commission or a group show here or there. So I’m really excited putting them together and coming up with similar ideas, breaking them down into groups, and having them all come together.

Finally it’s like a family of these street art pieces.  To be honest I’ve never seen so many of these character paintings together in the studio.

Excerpt: Painting Birds

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-16

Veng photo © Jaime Rojo

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-9A Nuthatch by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I think they are the neatest things to paint. They give you all sorts of texture, they give you colors. I just think that technically they are great to paint, they give you the details, you can keep them super rendered. I’ve always been a big fan of birds in general – watching them, taking pictures of them. When I lived in Pennsylvania I did a lot of bird watching.  So I just like them in general, and to paint them it’s a lot of fun and so far people have shown a lot of interest in my birds.”

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-10

“Alone in Thought” by H. Veng Smith (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Excerpt: Swedish/Norwegian Architecture

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brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-7

“Gotland” by H. Veng Smith ( photo © Jaime Rojo)

We had relatives from Sweden here and they gave me this tile, which has a Stave church in it, which I thought was really great. So I looked up these churches and they all have these really good architectural features, so I did my character like them. It’s a church. Instead of saying church building, you would say “stave”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Stave-Church-copyright-sue-renaut

Norwegian Stave Church (photo © Sue Renault)

“I thought the buildings looked amazing so I automatically thought of  putting it in.  I just like the old wooden buildings like that.  They are fun to paint and not a lot of people reference stuff like this.  It’s not secret, everything I have at home is kind of European, or fantasy based.  But at the same time, this church is an actual architectural design that exists.

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-8Detail of “Gotland” by H. Veng Smith ( photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-veng-jaime-rojo-12-10-web-15Portrait of the Artist by Jaime Rojo ( © Jaime Rojo)

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“Identifiable Reality” at Pandemic Gallery with H. Veng Smith

Friday December 17, 2010, 7-9 pm

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