All posts tagged: Queens

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.12.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.12.16

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The annual Welling Court Community Festival in L.I.C. in Queens took place yesterday. BSA was there on Friday to photograph the completed walls while a bevy of enthusiastic artists were busy at work on their walls and getting ready for yesterday’s block party. We wanted to bring you Part I of our coverage of this year’s festival on this Sunday’s edition of BSA Images Of The Week. Sit tight, Part II will come later next week as we wait for a few artists to complete their walls.

The 7th year for this eclectic homegrown collecting of graffiti and Street Artists for communal mural-making has not diverged much from its original character. You are still entirely welcomed. There are no corporate sponsors or sales of T-Shirts or silly app-designer types striking poses or stroking beards or like, privileged like, verbally challenged, like, young professionals looking for like brunch? nearby? Er whatever.

Wellington Court still feels like real people, and hard working families, with plenty of kids and community and homemade foods. At least for now. Thanks to organizers Garrison and Alison Buxton for pulling this off once again.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Billy Mode, Cern, Chris Stain, Depoe, Drsc0, FKDL, Icy & Sot, John Fekner, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Myth, OX, REPO, Skewville, Stikman, Vlady, and Voxx.

Our top image: Icy & Sot draws a direct connection between industrial pollution and the globe. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Skewville. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CERN. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DEPOE. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Fekner. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Chris Stain . Billy Mode. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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REPO. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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REPO. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI. Welling Court 2016. L.I.C. Queens. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Street Artist LMNOPI lends her voice to the growing calls for stores to boycott the world’s largest supplier of berries until they treat their employees fairly after being accused of abuses, among them child labor. Learn more about the worldwide boycott of Driscoll’s here.

 

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Coloquix (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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OX and Vlady do some clever circuit-jamming of public space here with advertising signage that features images of advertising signage. Also an impossible to read larger message. Biancavilla, Italy. (photo © Vlady)

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Stikman was framed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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While gazing at the gams on this one earlier in the week, we found ourselves wondering if London Kaye will get a tan this summer. London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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drscØ left a few new pieces around town this month, each appearing to be shocked in disbelief at something, maybe passersby. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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drscØ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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drscØ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Heaven knows I’m miserable now. (S)Myth takes maudlin self pity to heroic lengths. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Unidentified Artist’s take on The Donald. The HRC, referencing Hillary Clinton was added later for an additional bit of levity. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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FKDL (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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VOXX (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Los Angeles, CA. April 2011. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 01.24.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.24.16

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Happy blizzard weekend New York! Who knew it would be so much fun to run free literally in the streets thanks to a travel ban on all non-emergency cars. It’s a bit of genius really, because if you DO get hit by a car, its probably an ambulance.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Anser, AX, Blek le Rat, BK Foxx, Cern, Domenico Romeo, Horace Panter, Key Detail, LMNOPI, Marthalicia, READ, Sean9Lugo, Solo Selci, This Is Awkward, and WERC.

Our top image: BK Foxx does a black and white mural based on a photograph by Brenda Ann Kenneally for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Solo Selci in Sabina, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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A restaurant uses David Bowie to sell food in Manhattan (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Horace Panter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cern heating things up for “Top To Bottom.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Marthalicia for “Top To Bottom“. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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READ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blek le Rat for Wunderkammen Gallery. Rome, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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Blek le Rat for Wunderkammen Gallery. Rome, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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Blek le Rat for Wunderkammen Gallery. Rome, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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This Is Awkward (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Key Details for “Top To Bottom“. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Anser for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bathroom graffiti in layers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Domenico Romeo. Monza, Italy. (photo © BlindEyeFactory)

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Sean9Lugo for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ax on the streets of Chicago. (photo © AX)

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WERC for Top To Bottom. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. January 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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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Queens Hit “Top To Bottom” by New Mural Project in L.I.C.

Queens Hit “Top To Bottom” by New Mural Project in L.I.C.

The spirit of New Yorks’ 5 Pointz graffiti/Street Art holy place has popped up in the same Queens neighborhood where it was demolished in 2014, and since last summer more than 50 local and international aerosol artists have been hitting a new project “Top to Bottom”.

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The choice of “Top to Bottom”, a graffiti term that recalls 1970s trains painted their entire height, is no mistake as creative director James P. Quinn reveres the classic style and histories of those original writers like internationally and institutionally celebrated artists Crash and Daze, who have collaborated on a mural here.

Additionally, in yet another sign that the celebration of art on the streets is ever more ecumenical, Quinn and his project lead Geoff Kuffner are bringing the newer Street Artists who are expanding and  defining the current era for art in the streets like Case Ma’Claim and Rubin 415. Not surprisingly, both of these artists started in graffiti, as did nearly every name here.

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Case MaClaim (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I felt like a comfortable amount of space should be allocated to certain styles,” says Quinn as he describes the process of parceling out spots for the façade and roof of  the 124,000-square-foot former warehouse. Truthfully, he tells us, not all the surfaces and shapes are attractive to graffiti artists, so a variety of styles is best.

“I tried to fit them in where I felt that graff writers could enjoy themselves and do something expansive. There are only a couple of spaces here that fit the epic, horizontally spaced forms of style writing. There are a lot of strange shapes to navigate as a painter here, rather than easy space to develop style as a writer.”

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Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Quinn and Kuffner give a couple of visitors a tour around the entire block on a gray day where heavy fog hangs in the air obscuring the top half of Manhattan and they excitedly recall stories about the many installations in this first project of their newly formed Arts Org NYC. Using the word “garden” often, Quinn reiterates that this project for them is a “proof of concept” for bigger projects that will spread further through the city. “Ultimately I’m approaching it as a mural project,” says Quinn, who has organized mural programs a number of times since the 1990s. “It’s just a beginning.”

Street Art has evolved into districts of murals in cities as a gentrification device in the last five years and despite the critique that it is often used for economic development, many urban art watchers would also agree that we’re in the middle of a renaissance of public/private art. Quinn says he wants to capture part of the public’s new interest and make it grow. “I’d like to leverage the current hype and acceptance of mural painting to open up doors to people – old women, young kids, everybody.”

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Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The neighborhood itself feels like it is in transition but it is not clear where it is heading. With Silvercup Studios and the number 7 subway line nearby and MoMA PS1 within a 10 minute walk, a quick survey reveals mixed light industry, sweatshops, corner delis, and the occasional strip club. Below the off-ramp of the Queensboro Bridge, which sweeps past the “Top to Bottom” exhibition, you will see first and second generation immigrants from the areas’ latin and African communities walking by, and Quinn reminds you that the Queensbridge Projects where Hip-Hop storyteller NAS grew up is just a short walk from here.

Conversation turns to plans for more focused programming on the walls in Phase II, possible fine art shows with local gallery spaces, and ultimately a city-wide mural project that offers art and art-making to greater audiences, including school kids.

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I do feel like murals get focused in certain locations but I feel like the entire city as a whole is still suffering. Huge demographics aren’t getting the painting,” he says, invoking the civil rights leader Martin Luther King, Jr. “I feel like my ‘I Have a Dream’ speech about this project is that I hope it gets to the point where 10 year-olds can have as much access to a neighborhood as developers.”

Does he think that projects like this are pawns for business interests to draw investments into the neighborhood and push poorer populations out? “You can debate whether or not we are opening the way for more shiny condos… but that shit is happening whether we do this or not. For me the importance is keeping us here; So we’re not totally pushed out 30-45 minutes away from here”

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Because of its proximity to the now destroyed 5 Pointz, where hundreds, perhaps thousands, of urban artists painted a much larger block repeatedly for two decades, we ask Quinn if he’s concerned with comparisons.

“I’ve always managed other projects like this in my own style and my own way. There are comparable aspects and I have nothing but a huge sensitivity and respect for Meres and 5 Pointz,” he says, referring to the artist and de facto director of the hallowed spot. “It’s comparable only because it’s a building and it’s in Long Island City. But this is only a jump-off. I want to do way more projects like this across the city.”

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As the business partners walk past new pieces by DMote, Li-Hill, Icy & Sot, and Jick, the topic of the historically strained relationship between graffiti writers and Street Artists appears to be addressed head-on by the project by the inclusion of all manner of painter. The guys say that it is less of an issue than some people would have you think. As a long-time artist and muralist and curator of projects like this, Quinn says he’s over the supposed rivalry of the two camps, and sees mainly just one camp these days.

“I don’t know what the fans of graffiti or Street Art have any problem with. To me it’s all awesome.”

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DMOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alexandre Keto (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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EGS (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Binho (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NEVER and Dirty Bandits (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zumi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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PORK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Key Details (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Yes Two (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pixote (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kans115 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze . Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Erasmo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

For more about ArtsOrg please go to www.artsorg.nyc.
#ArtsOrgNYC and @artsorg on Instagram
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This article is also published on The Huffington Post 

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A Community Mural Festival in NYC, Highlights From Welling Court 2015

A Community Mural Festival in NYC, Highlights From Welling Court 2015

An annual mural tradition of non-pretense, New York hosted the 6th Annual Welling Court mural festival this weekend in a working class neighborhood in Queens, thanks to a grassroots couple who hustle to match artists with walls and opportunity. More than a hundred artists, whose styles span the graffiti-urban art-street art spectrum, participate every year in this community event that eschews the creeping fingers of commercial interests and the pontificating tongues of the art critics.

That is not the point here. That’s not why you fell in love with Street Art and the unvarnished expression of the creative spirit.

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LMNOPI. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thanks to hearty and big-hearted organizers Alison and Garrison Buxton, the selection is as varied as the participants and the neighbors who come out to share home made dishes, music, and personal stories. Invariably the kids are racing around on their bikes and skates, people are meeting artists and posing for selfies, and some of the kids get to try their hand at painting.

So if you want to see what some of the organic art work is on the scene at the moment, walk through this unassuming Queens neighborhood with us and enjoy the real beat of New York. It’s a small selection, but you can get the flavor.

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LMNOPI. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Fekner (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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XO. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Rubin415 . Joe Iurato (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Too Fly. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Too Fly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Peace (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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WANE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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C. Cardinale. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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C. Cardinale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Queen Andrea . Mick La Rock. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Queen Andrea . Mick La Rock (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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SHIRO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Andy Golub . Leif G. Process shot. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Andy Golub . Leif G. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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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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BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.15

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Shout out to all the great Swoon fans we met last night during the artists talk with her. All the seats were filled so it was standing room only in the back but yet it felt so intimate. Ya’ll are stupendous and smart and handsome and beautiful and we were honored to be with you.

Shout out to the family of American blues institution BB King who passed on this week. His music and talent influenced so many. Sending love and condolences to his family and friends.

Let’s see what Jeffery Deitch has in store for Smorgasburg Coney Island starting this week in preparation for the Memorial Day weekend opening – published reports have the roster of street artists at 15 but we’re hearing closer to 25 will be hitting up temporary concrete walls in this outdoor gallery he is doing in partnership with a large real estate firm to promote the new Coney Island.  Some names you’ll recognize are old skool 70s-80s train writers like Lee Quinones, Crash, Daze, Lady Pink, Futura, and new people he has been reaching out to from the 2000s and 2010s scene who we bring you regularly like How & Nosm, Skewville, Steve Powers, possibly even ROA . This list will surely grow as word gets out and artists besiege Mr. Deitch to participate. The full installation is to last a month and will be surely caught on film and timelapse video.

Meanwhile, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alexis Diaz, Alka Murat, Appleton, Marco Berta, Blaqk Blaqk, City Kitty, Creepy Creep, Dain, Dasic Fernandez, Duke A. Barnstable, Elsa Sauguet, Eva & Adele, Ever, Goldman Rats, Ines Maas, JR, Penny Gaff, Robert Janz, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas, Seikon Stav6, and Swoon.

Top Image: Alexis Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dasic for Welling Court in LIC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Appleton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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An unknown artist created this installation of a suspension bridge in Chelsea and we dig it! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Front view of the suspension bridge in Chelsea by an unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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A scene from Nicolas Romero AKA Ever in Buenos Aires, Argentina in collaboration with performers Elsa Sauguet, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas y Ines Maas and sculptor Marcos Berta (photo © Ever)

About the show, from Ever:

” ‘头部 (The Head)’ is an art installation based on the analysis of Chinese Communist posters. When the posters represent the ‘idea’, people are always down the picture and the Mao Tse Tung portrait always floating in heaven, protecting that theory founded in the Russian winters. When they want to describe the pragmatics, Mao is cultivating flowers, going to visit schools, etc.

The idea with ‘The Head’ is to think why the “communist theory” fails in its application to reality, and this is because many times the idea has to be corresponded o taken through a body, a body that exercises the idea, that exercises power. That’s why, part of the installation that we present here, invites people to get into the head, so we all can have the feeling that we are not loyal to the theory; the idealization is as dangerous as it is obsessive.”

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stav6 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Creepy Creep (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Blaqk Blaqk in collaboration with Seikon in Greece. (photo © Alka Murat)

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JR from his Walking New York series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Penny Gaff must be warming up for the Faile arcade show coming to Brooklyn Museum in July. War games…lethal. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Robert Janz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Goldman Rats already has selected the next president. You may now return to your regular scheduled programming. Enjoy! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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It’s lilac season! Duke A Barnstable is feeling poetic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Art in the streets as Berlin based performance artists and fine artists Eva & Adele are seen here “performing” some  last minute ensemble adjustments before hitting the art fairs – as is their wont. Chelsea, New York City. May 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Film Friday: 11.21.14

BSA Film Friday: 11.21.14

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Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :

1. We Don’t Need More Rats: The Clandestine White-washing of 5Pointz
2. DISTORT by Element Tree and Art Primo
3. HOT TEA “UUGGHH”

BSA Special Feature: We Don’t Need More Rats: The Clandestine White-washing of 5Pointz

Hard to believe it has been a year since 5Pointz was buffed, and yet the shock to many has gradually sunk in. Almost a year to the day, we give you this personal remembrance through the eyes of a hometown filmmaker named P. J. Monsanto. With interviews with a few of the artists who had a close association with the graffiti holy place and some helpful backgrounding detail, Monsanto gives you a sense of the shock many felt the morning after the white-wash. Big Ups to P.J. for putting together this piece of New York’s collective history.

 

DISTORT by Element Tree and Art Primo

Distort takes his time on this roof burner captured on a sunny afternoon in New Jersey by Element Tree and Art Primo.

 

HOT TEA “UUGGHH”

You saw it first here! Hot Tea shares with BSA his latest installation and his commentary on the loss of an iconic building for that renegade brand of painting that New York is known for. This family owned building on Bowery and Spring in Soho that is one of the last spots in Manhattan for graff and Street Artists to hit up has been sold – for millions. For most Street Artists the allure of Manhattan has long since died, but every last bite of the Gentrification Monster has been a moment to pause, to consider the mall-ification of a vibrant downtown culture and a city once full of wild wonder and to say, “UUGGHH”.

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Freewill Gallery in New Yorks Military Bunker on the Beach

Freewill Gallery in New Yorks Military Bunker on the Beach

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.

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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.

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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?

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Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cake (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NAD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Elvis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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

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KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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You Go Girl . Mistakoy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

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Never (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Overunder (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

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Armer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

 

 

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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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This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

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A Layered History of 5 Pointz Currently on View

A Layered History of 5 Pointz Currently on View

Peeling Back Layers of Paint Offers Inspiration of a Different Kind

Typically one needs to go down underground, over a fence, through a broken window, or behind rusty chained metal doors to be an urban explorer. A flashlight is also advised. However, at the moment you can explore in broad daylight from the sidewalk the urban archaeology of a subculture as the walls of 5 Pointz reveal the layering of pigment one over the other multiple times – a rich cortex of history encased in the stacked strata of sprayed and brushed paint.

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Much like a palimpsest, New York is again erasing history to make room for something new. As the ever-expanding cloud of affluence steamrolls across Gotham into the outer boroughs, this urban castle of effluence still stands as a record of the graffiti history that sparked a thousand aerosol aspirations by everyday New York youth – and many international ones as well. Your closer examination of the mottled walls of this former graffiti holy place reveals a peeling façade demarcated by the layers of colors and creative expression that once raced across these walls.

Perhaps by way of skirting the emotional outpouring that was sure to accompany a public act of white blight, the property owners of 5 Pointz in Queens chose to buff this massive complex under cover of night last fall, rather than letting it become a drawn-out public affair. But now it’s just standing here, waiting for demolition.

 

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

And as long as this site persists, the burly former home of artist spaces, photo/video shoots, inventive industry and an all encompassing skin that proved to be a magnetic canvas is still fixed as a perpetual reminder of its former self.

Speak to some wistful visiting passersby or check out the scrawled angry missives newly appearing and you learn that this is tantamount to an open wound for some fans, artists, organizers who make up the eclectic mix of mark-making would-be congregants. They still make the pilgrimage to Long Island City if only to look once more, stopping to consider it.

Possibly they are using x-ray eyes as they imagine under the surface buff membrane wrapping this hulking mass lie the burners, throwies, tags, murals, wheat-pastes, exhortations, rants, call-outs, poetries and affinities that were once visible. Now they are all just sitting quietly just under the layer of hastily applied patchy neutral tint.

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looking for remnants of what was once there, you discover the layers of paint now chipping and fanning in a thinly striped crust of paint, bending back its jagged edge; hues and shades and tenors discordant. Sugar soda orange, shamrock green, forest moss, fire engine red, lemon yellow, cerulean blue – the primary layers here must reveal something to us, like the rings of a tree as read by a dendrochronologist examining the stump; each line of color marks a moment in time, giving us news about the calm or harshness of the climate in that era.

Presently appearing as a giant hunted pachyderm fallen in the urban jungle, the relevance of 5 Pointz once hinged on the evolving collection of freshly painted works going up day after day, year after year, by well known and lesser known artists who visited from all over the world. Some even called it Mecca, for lack of a better word, and painters and fans alike felt compelled to visit it. Yet, you may consider it to be still alive.

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So the murals on the surface are gone but in reality they are not – they are here in front of us, just covered by layers of paint. If you want to, you may see it as evidence of the tribute to  collaborative public space that 5 Pointz embodied – the affirmation of a multi-membered community united in all it’s multi-colored splendor. Here is your visual forensic report: before you is a brief sampling of the thousands of hours of sweat, labor, inspiration –  and thousands of gallons of paint, vividly represented, richly textured, and unquestioned proof of the success of 5 Pointz.

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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5 Pointz. Long Island City, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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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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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

 

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Huffpost-740-5Pointz-Peeling-Screen-Shot-2014-07-09-at-12-16-38-PM

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.29.14

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.29.14

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Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alice Pasquini, Boy Kong, El Topo, Flood, Foxx Face, GSC, Kaffeine, Li-Hil, LMNOPI, Myth, NTC Cru, Olek, Ozmo, Texas, Gane, TV With Cheese, and Versus.

Top Image >> Snowden at 5Pointz.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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OLEK “Believe the Magic” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kaffeine for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MYTH (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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OZMO for The L.I.S.A. Project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Texas & Gane are names you’ll usually see in Philly. Interesting incorporation of the attenuated lettering you may associate with extinguishers here rendered solid and with a drop shadow.  (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Li-Hill (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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TV With Cheese (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Versus does Saddam Hussein (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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And Versus paints Yasser Arafat (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Foxx Face. One of his 17 plates installed in Little Italy for The L.I.S.A. Project. The artist took his inspiration from photographs of Italian immigrants whom he researched at the Italian American Museum in Little Italy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Foxx Face. One more plate for The L.I.S.A. Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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El Topo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NTC Cru (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Flood (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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In NYC the streets are paved with gold…yup. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Boy Kong (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alice Pasquini for The L.I.S.A. Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

 

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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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“Welling Court” 2014, a Grassroots Mural Event Turns 5 in Queens

“Welling Court” 2014, a Grassroots Mural Event Turns 5 in Queens

When the revered graffiti holy place named 5Pointz in Queens, New York was buffed and slated officially for demolition last fall the collective response of the graffiti / Street Art fan base and community was horror and lament. Nonetheless, community persists, and art in the streets is stronger than ever in many cities, including right here in Queens which has played host to an ever growing grassroots exhibition on the walls for five years called Welling Court.

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Imagined and produced by two advocates of creativity in the public sphere and run on a shoe-string budget, Welling Court is a series of 100+ walls throughout this largely working class neighborhood that feels like it perhaps has been overlooked by the rest of the city. With a mix of some of New York’s newest immigrants and families, the modest residential/light manufacturing neighborhood has had a eye-jolting injection of spirit and free art every summer since 2009.

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Veng RWK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We look forward to this annual event for a number of reasons, among them: the unpretentious spirit of community creativity at work as tens of artist straddle ladders and stepstools side by side painting walls, the friendly inquisitive neighbors who hang out and discuss the art and prepare a variety of foods to share on folding tables in the middle of the street, and the unbridled enthusiasm of the kids who race through the neighborhood on foot, bicycle, scooter, even grocery cart.

Unsponsored by brands and run by community elbow grease, Welling Court brings lots of Street Art / graffiti / public art enthusiasts and almost no police presence or crime for that matter. Breaking their own record this June at 127 painted walls, organizers Garrison and Alison Buxton help hook up the opportunity and artists are happy to take advantage of it. Here is just a relatively small selection of images taken by photographer Jaime Rojo at Welling Court 2014.

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Fresh from graduation and walking in front of a RHAK gate. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Joe Iurato and Rubin collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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R.Robots (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sub (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kaffeine at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kaffeine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Toofly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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MRC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Ahearn temporary installation with a Dennis McNett wheat paste from last year as a background. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Ahearn working on the details of the live casting he did of Roger Smith. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Ahearn. More to be done with this Roger Smith piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pyramid Oracle at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Greeg Lamarche, Wane and Trap (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Not Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cekis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Cake and Ryan Seslow collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Bishop203 with an old Flying Fortress in the middle gate. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ellis G, Joseph Meloy and Abe Lincoln collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Esteban Del Valle (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Alice Mizrachi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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PRVRT (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gregg Lamarche (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Damien Mitchell at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Christopher Cardinale (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fun! Fun! Fun! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

 

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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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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

 

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13 from 2013 : Jim Kiernan “Snowden – Eyes Are Watching”

13 from 2013 : Jim Kiernan “Snowden – Eyes Are Watching”

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Happy Holidays to all you stupendous and talented and charming BSA readers! We thank you from the bottom of our socks for your support this year. The best way we can think of to celebrate and commemorate the year as we finish it is to bring you 13 FROM 2013 – Just one favorite image from a Street Art or graffiti photographer that brings a story, a remembrance, an insight or a bit of inspiration to the person who took it. For the last 13 days they will share a gem with all of us as we collectively say goodbye and thank you to ’13.

December-26

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The intersection with culture and politics and the street is not always evident in Street Art in an explicit way, but photographer Jim Kiernan will be glad to show you more than just a pretty mural or happy face if it means there is a dialogue to be had. 2013 was the year that some of the veil regarding domestic spying by our leaders fell from American eyes, and of course that theme was visited by art on the street. In his choice for image of the year Jim shares one he shot in ’13 that he values because it raises awareness, takes a position, and transcends aesthetics in the service of a larger message.

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BAMN. Queens, NYC 2013 (Photo © Jim Kiernan)

Snowden – Eyes Are Watching

~ Jim Kiernan

“Being called a traitor by Dick Cheney is the highest honor you can give an American… If they had taught a class on how to be the kind of citizen Dick Cheney worries about, I would have finished high school.” – Edward Snowden

There are a number of reasons why I like this image. The composition is straight forward and self-explanatory which is something I typically like. I enjoy simple things that appear clear on the surface.

Beyond that there are several levels to this image for me. The first and most obvious is the political message. I am personally appalled by the surveillance state which has been exposed that are we are living under and even more so by the nearly complete apathy from the American public and the lack of outrage.

Another level for me is that this piece was part of the inspiring Welling Court project that Garrison & Alison Buxton put on every year. They’re friends of mine and I love what they’ve been doing, dating back to the Ad Hoc days.

Finally, the coolest thing was seeing the beginning of this mural. The artist showed up towards the end of one of the final days to begin working on it. When I first saw this work, the pulldown was just being whitewashed/prepped for the piece. I had no idea what was going up here but when I returned the next day to see the finished piece I loved it.

A huge motivation for me & my photography is to highlight social justice issues and to shine a light on places, people, ideas and events that otherwise might go unnoticed. This pieces hits all of these marks for me.

Artist: Bamn

Location: New York City, 2013.

 

 

 
#13from2013

Check out our Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo here.

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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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The 2013 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

The 2013 BSA Year in Images (VIDEO)

Here it is! Our 2013 wrap up featuring favorite images of the year by Brooklyn Street Art’s Jaime Rojo.

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Before our video roundup below here is the Street Art photographer’s favorite of the year, snapped one second before he was singled out of a New York crowd, handcuffed, and stuffed into a police car – sort of like the Banksy balloons he was capturing.

“Among all the thousands of photos I took this year there’s one that encapsulates the importance of Street Art in the art world and some of the hysteria that can build up around it,” he says of his final shot on the final day of the one month Better Out Than In artist ‘residency’ in NYC this October. It was a cool day to be a Street Art photographer – but sadly Rojo was camera-less in a case of mistaken identity, if only for a short time.

Released two hours later after the actual car-jumping trespasser was charged, Rojo was happy to hear the Chief Lieutenant tell his officer “you’ve got the wrong man”, to get his shoelaces back, and to discover this photo was still on his camera. He also gets to tell people at parties that he spent some time in the holding cell with the two guys whom New York watched tugging down the B-A-N-K-S-Y.

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What’s everybody looking at? Jaime Rojo’s favorite image of the year at the very end of the Banksy brouhaha. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Now, for the Video

When it came to choosing the 112 images for the video that capture the spirit of the Street Art scene in ’13, we were as usual sort of overwhelmed to comb through about ten thousand images and to debate just how many ‘legal’ versus ‘illegal’ pieces made it into the mix. Should we include only images that went up under the cover of the night, unsanctioned, uncensored, uncompromised, unsolicited and uncommissioned? Isn’t that what Street Art is?

Right now there are a growing number of legal pieces going up in cities thanks to a growing fascination with Street Art and artists and it is causing us to reevaluate what the nature of the Street Art scene is, and what it may augur for the future. You can even say that from a content and speech perspective, a sizeable amount of the new stuff is playing it safe – which detracts from the badass rebel quality once associated with the practice.

These works are typically called by their more traditional description – murals. With all the Street Art / graffiti festivals now happening worldwide and the growing willingness of landlords to actually invite ‘vandals’ to paint their buildings to add cache to a neighborhood and not surprisingly benefit from the concomitant increase in real estate values, many fans and watchers have been feeling conflicted in 2013 about the mainstreaming that appears to be taking place before our eyes. But for the purposes of this roundup we decided to skip the debate and let everybody mix and mingle freely.

This is just a year-end rollicking Street Art round-up; A document of the moment that we hope you like.

Ultimately for BSA it has always been about what is fresh and what is celebrating the creative spirit – and what is coming next. “We felt that the pieces in this collection expressed the current vitality of the movement – at least on the streets of New York City,” says photographer and BSA co-founder Rojo. It’s a fusillade of the moment, complete with examples of large murals, small wheat pastes, intricate stencils, simple words made with recycled materials or sprayed on to walls, clay installations, three dimensional sculptures, hand painted canvases, crocheted installations, yarn installations etc… they somehow captured our imaginations, inspired us, made us smile, made us think, gave us impetus to continue doing what we are doing and above all made us love this city even more and the art and the artists who produce it.

Brooklyn Street Art 2013 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

A Dying Breed, Aakash Nihalini, Agostino Iacursi, Amanda Marie, Apolo Torres, Axel Void, Bagman, Bamn, Pixote, Banksy, B.D. White, Betsy, Bishop203, NDA, Blek le Rat, br1, Case Maclaim, Cash For Your Warhol, Cholo, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Billy Mode, Christian Nagel, Cost, ENX, Invader, Crush, Dal East, Damien Mitchell, Dase, Dasic, Keely, Deeker, Don’t Fret, The Droid, ECB, el Seed, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Faile, Faith 47, Five Pointz, Free Humanity, Greg LaMarche, Hot Tea, How & Nosm, Icy & Sot, Inti, Jilly Ballistic, John Hall, JR, Jose Parla, Judith Supine, Kremen, Kuma, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Love Me, Martha Cooper, Matt Siren, Elle, Mika, Miss Me, Missy, MOMO, Mr. Toll, Nychos, Okuda, Alice Mizrachi, OLEK, Owen Dippie, Paolo Cirio, Paul Insect, Phetus, Phlegm, Revok, Pose, QRST, Rambo, Ramiro Davaro, Reka, Rene Gagnon, ROA, RONES, Rubin, bunny M, Square, Stikki Peaches, Stikman, Swoon, Tristan Eaton, The Lisa Project 2013, UFO 907, Willow, Swill, Zed1, and Zimer.

Read more about Banksy’s last day in New York here and our overview of his residency in the essay “Banksy’s Final Trick” on The Huffington Post.

 

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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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