Still burping from those last hors d’oeuvres that you dumped in your backpack at the chic opening we went to at the regular Art Basel last night? God, what was that? Anchovy paste or snot on a cracker? Pass me that pizza box please, I think I left a crust in there. Come on, let’s get outside to the street and find some coffee and we’ve got to see who’s putting new stuff up this afternoon.
Photographers Mike Pearce and Kendra Heisler are on the ground in Miami documenting the happenings and sending updates.
Miami is basically “South Brooklyn” starting right about now, minus the bagels, the B62 bus, and the compulsive habit of cutting you off mid-sentence. Artists, galleries, fans, party girls and boys, djs, – they all head south the first few days of December for the big fair and all the little ones.
It already seems a little quieter here because Fountain took the weirdos, Wynwood Walls took the Soho softshoes, and The Underbelly collected the hardcore characters just long enough to sign a book and scarf some pizza before looking for a tunnel somewhere. Art Basel is a feast and the draw of Street Art and graffiti continues apace this year, with entrants from all the strata looking for a wall, and maybe a party, and a honey to go skinny dip with.
We picked a few Street Art related gems here that you might want to hit, but even if you show up in Miami this week with no plans, you’ll easily find some trouble to get into, we trust. Do your best.
After a full year underground, The Underbelly Project is coming to Miami during Art Basel. A pop up gallery, the show will feature original artwork from many of the 103 international artists who participated in the hidden subway project in New York. The exhibition will feature a video piece of multiple installations happening simultaneously, as well as new pieces by many of the artists. Additionally a book signing of the first volume to come out about the project, published by Rizzoli, will take place on December 2nd. Artists participating in the signing include: Dabs & Myla, Rone, Gaia, Lister, Eric Haze, Joe Iurato, Adam Feibleman, Know Hope, Jeff Stark, Jason Eppink, Jim and Tina Darling, The London Police, Dan Witz, Specter, Surge and other surprise artists.
Included in the show are street, graffiti and fine artists alike. The full line-up includes: Faile, Dabs & Myla, TrustoCorp, Aiko, Rone, Revok, Ron English, Jeff Soto, Mark Jenkins, Anthony Lister, Logan Hicks, Lucy McLauchlan, M-City, Kid Zoom, Eric Haze, Saber, Meggs, Jim & Tina Darling, The London Police, Sheone, Skewville, Jeff Stark, Jordan Seiler, Jason Eppink and I AM, Dan Witz, Specter, Ripo, MoMo, Remi/Rough, Stormie Mills, Swoon, Know Hope, Skullphone, L’Atlas, Roa, Surge, Gaia, Michael De Feo, Joe Iurato, Love Me, Adam 5100, and Chris Stain.
THE UNDERBELLY SHOW 29 November – Press Preview 5pm/ Private View 7pm 30 November – Collector’s Preview 7pm 1 December – Secret Wars US vs. UK 6pm 2 December – General Opening 5pm and Artist Book Signing 6pm
The show will take place in the heart of Wynwood at 78NW 25th Street
SCOPE
Jonathan Levine Gallery At Scope with WK Interact, Aakash Nihilani, Olek, and Jason DeCaires Taylor
“Placing a focus on public art for this program, the gallery will present a series of works that highlight a diverse range of distinct styles, cultural perspectives and unconventional mediums. Each of the four artists selected represent fresh directions in creating work in public space through their innovative vision and inventive use of materials. Photography documenting their interventional imagery, sculpture, and performances convey the transformative effect their work has on its surrounding
White Walls will be hosting four booths at SCOPE, situated in the center of Miami’s Wynwood Gallery Arts District, featuring a MTN Colors Group show with APEX, Neon, Estria, Vogue, Blek le Rat, HUSH, Kofie and Chor Boogie, a White Walls Group show with Casey Gray, Ben Eine and Greg Gossel, and solo shows for both ABOVE and ROA. APEX, Eine, Kofie, ABOVE, ROA and Chor Boogie will also be painting at the Kohn compound on 24th street.
For a full listing of exhibitors and events click here SCOPE
Wynwood Walls
Wynwood Walls is premiering 7 new Street Art murals and 16 new pieces at Wynwood Doors and walls outside.
Debuting in tandem with the new murals and installations during Art Basel this year on Tuesday, November 29, 2011, the “Shop at the Walls” the first Wynwood Walls Pop Up gallery space that will offer artworks and the new Wynwood Walls book.The book has interview with Street Artists and photography by Martha Cooper.
Artists include Retna, The Date Farmers, How and Nosm, Gaia (USA), Saner and Sego (Mexico), Liqen (Spain), Neuzz (Mexico), Nunca (Brazil), Vhils (Portugal), Interesni Kazki (Ukraine), Faile (USA) and b. (Greece). Kenny Scharf is expected to augment his existing wall, and remaining work from the last two years from Nunca, Shepard Fairey, Aiko, Ryan McGinness, Stelios Faitakis and avaf will be on display.
Walls Outside the Wynwood Walls, encompassing key locations outside of the actual art park itself and in the surrounding neighborhood, will be created by Friends With You (USA), avaf (Brazil and France), Nunca, and Interesni Kazki (Ukraine); joining works previously completed by Swoon and Barry McGee.
Location:
Wynwood Walls and the Pop Up Shop are located at NW Second Avenue – between Joey’s Italian Café on 25th Street and the art-filled Wynwood Kitchen & Bar on 26th Street – and are open to the public free of charge.
HERE COMES THE NEIGHBORHOOD: WYNWOOD (Video)
Fountain Art Fair
“Our preferred punk rock lopsided Anti-Fair.” —Brooklyn Street Art
This year Fountain Miami’s signature on-site street art installation is curated by Samson Contompasis, director of Albany’s The Marketplace, and will feature over 150 feet of work Street Artists including Sharktoof, Chris Stain, Olek, Hugh Leeman, Chor Boogie, OverUnder, White Cocoa, Army of One, Clown Soldier, Joe Iurato, CAKE, Tip-Toe, Elle, Ian Ross, Know Hope, Depoe, and Zero Cents.
Brooklyn’s own Mighty Tanaka Gallery is showing at Fountain Participating artists include: Adam Void, Alexandra Pacula, Alice Mizrachi, ChrisRWK, Ellen Stagg, Gigi Chen, Hellbent, Hiroshi Kumagai, JMR, John Breiner, Max Greis, Mike Schreiber, Robbie Busch, Skewville, TooFly, URnewyork, VengRWK & Miguel Ovalle
December 1–4, 2011 2505 North Miami Avenue (at the corner of 25th St) | Miami, FL 33137 General Hours: 12pm–7pm daily Tickets: $10 daily / $15 weekend pass. All tickets sold at door.
Primary Projects
A new exhibit debuting during Art Basel Miami Beach 2011
Thursday, December 1
Opening Reception
7:00 to 10:00 p.m.
RETNA, Jessy NITE, Stormie MILLS, Evan ROBARTS, Lena SCHMIDT, Luis PINTO, Andrew SCHOULTZ, Karen STAROSTA-GILINSKI, Kenton PARKER, TM SISTERS, Samantha SALZINGER, Emmette MOORE, Anthony LISTER, Charles KRAFFT, Tatiana SUAREZ, Edouard NARDON, Andrew NIGON, Johnny ROBLES and Lawrence GIPE.
Primary Projects
4141 NE Second Avenue
Suite 104
Miami, FL 33137
Living Walls is working with with Primary Flight, one of the original graffiti and Street Art mural projects, to create 3 new murals in the Wynwood District.
Our sincere thanks to BSA reader and New Yorker Spencer Elzey, who took a trip to Sydney at the beginning of the month and had the opportunity to check out the Outpost Project Street Art festival. Here’s his report.
Cockatoo Island is the Governor’s Island of Sydney. The ferry leaves Circular Quay, motors beside the shimmering tiles of the Sydney Opera House, sweeps underneath the arching Harbor Bridge and the tourist who pay $200 for a chance to climb the upper deck above. Twenty minutes later, a large “No Trespassing” sign begins to become in focus. We have arrived at the Outpost Project.
The island, who’s past includes an old Imperial prison and one of Australia’s largest shipyards, welcomes each street art enthusiast with a detailed information brochure. The inner cover contains a fairly easy to follow map of what lies ahead. Right away three large inflatables (imagine a small grounded hot air balloon) greet you adorned with Anthony Lister’s iconic caricatures. The info packet says it best when describing the images; the “superheroes are never indomitable conquerors or unequivocal villains.” Straddled by two of these is a large piece by Belgium artist, and frequent Brooklyn talent, ROA.
Follow the art around the corner through a mural-lined alley between two buildings and some familiar styles present themselves including the stick-figure arms by Perth Street Artist Creepy.
The second floor of one of these buildings is the current home to a large private collection of work by Banksy. The OI YOU! Collection had an interesting start, but where it currently stands is 22 pieces by Banksy. Intermixed are items by Faile, Swoon and others. The husband and wife team collecting behind OI YOU!, George Shaw and his wife Shannon Webster, sold both of their cars and re-directed a home improvement loan to feed their need for owning more street art.
Inside the main building, known as the Industrial Precinct, MOX (Mark Cawood) is hard at work. After over 120 hours of intricate stencil cutting, his diligence is well on its way toward a completed final product. At the end of the hall, behind the small traffic jam of mangled cars, is a life size recreation of the childhood home of Street Artist and fine artist Kid Zoom.
Located deeper within the hall of the Industrial Precinct are two other impressive arrays; NEXT by T-World and Pastemodernism 3. Both of these installations, while serious in their scope, were whimsical at heart. The NEXT collection, overseen by “Melbourne-born T-shirt messiah Eddie Zammit,” asks 20 artists to assemble over 1,500 T-shirts to display. Local shout-outs included Barcade in Williamsburg and Katz’s Deli on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Pastemodernism 3, now in it’s third year at OUTPOST, is the self-proclaimed “largest celebration of ‘paste-ups’ in Australia.” Over 100 artists had a part in this collaboration.
Traversing the Artery, a limestone lined subterranean tunnel, one passes by a “rogue gallery of 30 hand picked Australian street artists” including HA HA, Ghostpatrol, Numskull, Dmote and Yok, just to name a few.
Upon exiting, you end up back at the beginning, next to the “No Trespassing” sign and amongst a collection by Will Coles. His concrete cast items, usually adorned with a word or two, are lifelike enough even the Seagulls seemed a bit confused.
London continues to apply mud masks and disappearing creams in anticipation of presenting a sparkling face for the 2012 Olympics, and usually that would mean Street Art gets buffed right? Kind of. It’s a tricky position when Banksy has made your city a worldwide tourist destination for many and the Cans Festival is still talked about three years after it brought hundreds to a tunnel next to Waterloo Station. So Street Art persists for selected engagements in selected venues – with and without permission, as ever, despite the whole of UK being covered by millions of cameras.
Photographer Geoff Hargadon shares some images with BSA readers of his foot tour last month in Shoreditch. Part II will follow soon.
By now it has been very well documented that Monster Island in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has closed its doors after seven years of art exploration and experimentation with murals, art shows and music concerts. The building is set for demolition and it is rumored that it will be replaced by a Whole Foods Store.
During these years we’ve watched the exterior of Monster Island with great interest as it was an every-changing heaven for emerging artists to show their stuff to the public. The environment engendered creativity; With non for profit art galleries and performance spaces, an underground music venue, a surf shop, a screen-print studio, a recording studio, several artists studios and a family of lovely street cats, Monster Island was a symbol of what Williamsburg was all about; artists and community struggling to make cool stuff for each other and sometimes a big audience. Since the early 1990s, ad-hoc love-driven venues like this have opened and closed, along with art parties, loft performances, artist collectives, and a loose association of art galleries. The settlement of writers, dancers, bands, performers, and all sorts of artists helped give the area a decided edge, even if you couldn’t convince your Manhattan friends to come visit the neighborhood at night.
Now “The Edge” of course is the name of a corporate looking glass tower on the waterfront and the moderate frightened masses began their march to Williamsburg after the developers re-zoned 30+ blocks in North Brooklyn in 2005, transforming it quickly to a New York suburb with quirky, kooky shopping opportunities. It’s an old story, but we have to tell it; Now the rents are too high and the culture is increasingly inhospitable to artists and the Monster Island landlord has a different plan for the lot and the lease wasn’t renewed. Williamsburg is going upscale just like Manhattan and the rest of the city and for struggling artists and the venues that give them shelter and nurture them this is another reason why we are watching people move to other neighborhoods or out of New York altogether. In a way, this is what NYC is all about; Re-invention and greed.
We have been photographing the ever-changing facade of this building that was offered as a canvas for local and visiting artists all over the world to put their art up. Today we pay homage and say farewell to this iconic institution and to the people that endeavored to make it unique with a photo essay of the numerous murals that went up there since 2004. We have made an effort to identify most of the artists. Please let us know if you know the names of the artists we have tagged as unknown or if we erroneously credited a piece of art.
The Outpost Project begins in two days on a former military outpost, Cockatoo Island, the largest island in Sydney Harbour in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. This city really knows the value of the Street Art scene and celebrates the contributions of artists to the cultural wealth of the people who live there.
The entire island is basically porn for Street Artists, and right now about 150 are readying work their magic ways on the industrial spaces. Artists like ROA, Ethos, KidZoom, Anthony Lister, Everfresh Collective, Os Gemeos, Swoon, Faile, and Banksy are on the bill and a number of other projects will be taking place simultaneously, including a Pro/Am skateboarding exhibition, a region art gallery, DJs, artist battles, and pop-up bars. The island becomes a canvas, and there is no admission. Um, are you coming?
Also included will be the Oi You! Collection featuring the largest private collection of Banksy’s, amongst works by David Choe and Herakut. As well, live painting by Sao Paulo artist Ethos and Belgian monotone muralist Roa.
“The crown jewel of Sydney harbour, Cockatoo Island, a former military outcrop and penal colony will be transformed this November. In conjunction with the Sydney Harbour Federation Trust, witness the island wide invasion as aMBUSH Gallery launches a curatorial take-over – transforming the industrial monument into a battlefield of street-art. The Outpost Project will be the Southern-hemisphere’s largest Street Art Festival to date, with a projected 90, 000 visitors over the course of 5 weeks. Amongst a myriad of forums, educational programs, aMBUSH will bring to the table the nexus of content featured on the island.”
For further information and a complete list of participating artists, events and schedule please visit the sites below:
Happy Halloween to all you good boys and ghouls lurking behind heavy closed doors with frogs in your pockets and bats in your hair. Do you dare venture out this All Hallows Eve? What will you see tonight in the cold black air?
“What beckoning ghost along the moonlight shade
Invites my steps, and points to yonder glade?”
We know that BSA fans dig Halloween more than many holidays. Almost more than your birthday, but not quite, but almost. From his year round collecting of images, here’s a monstrous 39 photo essay from photographer Jaime Rojo of werewolves and vixens and frankenfreaks and zombies and ghosts just for you today.
This weekend in London is the Moniker Art Fair, which features the work of a number of Street Artists, as well as the artists themselves installing, performing, drinking. Part commerce and spectacle, the atmosphere at an art fair always has an expectant air of interactive theater; directors, actors, and prop masters all milling around fervently and working to create a dramatic scene. Ready or not, the doors fly open and in rushes the calico crowd of collectors, fans, and looky-loos to belly up to the stage, discover who has a new idea, and who is recycling old ones. This years Moniker includes work by Aiko, Banksy, Ben Eine, Best Ever, Cash For Your Warhol, D*Face, Dabs & Myla, Greg Miller, Herakut, Jaae, Matt Small, Nate Frizzell, Peeta, Marco ‘Pho’ Grassi, Pure Evil, ROA, Rero, Russell Young, The London Police, and Word to Mother.
Just flown into Shoreditch for an engagement all week, (don’t forget to ask your waitress for the House Specials), here’s your photographer/artist/collector Geoff Hargadon in the thick of it all with a photo essay of some highlights of the the action.
1. MONIKER in London
2. CASH FOR YOUR WARHOL with Garage
3. Dabs & Myla with Shea&Ziegler from London
4. D*Face with Stolen Space
5. Able and Baker Gallery from Cologne: Ben Aine. ROA. Pure Evil. Herakut. Rero.
6. AIKO with Andenken Gallery from Amsterdam
7. AIKO Solo Show at PURE EVIL (London)
8. Word to Mother solo show “Essence of Adolescence” Friday Stolen Space Gallery
9. “Ok, Enough, Goodbye”, film at MOMA
10. How and Nosm solo show “Achtung!” Saturday at Known Gallery (LA)
11. WRONA at Pandemic Saturday (Brooklyn)
MONIKER in London
Let’s all head to Shoreditch in East London this weekend for the Moniker International Art Fair, where there will be new stuff from a bunch of Street Artists . In addition, some of the galleries at the fair are having openings back home. Here are some of the exhibitors to help you find your way:
Word to Mother solo show “Essence of Adolescence” Friday Stolen Space Gallery
‘Essence of Adolescence’ is an enlightening glimpse into the artist’s visually obsessed mind. Word To Mother invites the viewer to take a glimpse of his inner mindscape. An outward manifestation that combines references drawn from his childhood and the visual stimulation that he absorbed; cartoons juxtaposed with more serious emotive thoughts and fears that face him as an adult living and painting in East London.
Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia will be on hand to answer questions when they screen their new film “Ok, Enough, Goodbye” at The Museum of Modern Art in New York City this weekend.
Rania Attieh and Daniel Garcia. “Ok, Enough, Goodbye” Still from the movie.
The screenings with the Auteurs in attendance will be held this weekend on Friday and Saturday.
For more information about times and tickets please click on the link below:
For the last 10 months this initiative to bring Street Art and public art to the forefront of the conversation in New York’s capital has been a boon to discourse, unusual during a period of retrenchment and an ongoing financial crises that is rocking every segment of society in the US. After years of incremental cuts to arts programming in public schools and cultural institutions at every level, it is a perfect opportunity for artists to re-assert their voices as this Street Art movement continues to evolve and develop in an organic way. Ironically this scene with roots in graffiti has shape-shifted and its emergence looks like a democratic movement, messily yet constructively filling a creative void for this new generation while the budgetary axes continue to fall around them.
As Street Artists have been installing their new works on walls around Albany these past 10 days or so, the common story one witnesses is the level of engagement of adults and kids stopping on the sidewalk, in their cars, watching the process, photographing and discussing the art, and exploring the creative process. Some folks have even become assistants to the artists, creating a sense of ownership, and yes, community. There is obviously more to this evolving story, and we’ll continue to track it.
Below are photos from photographer Jaime Rojo to give you an idea of the wealth of creativity that is alive in Albany at the moment. And we commence with our weekly interview with the street this week featuring Broken Crow, Chris Stain, Gaia, How and Nosm, Joe Iurato, LNY, Nanook, ND’A, NohJColey, OverUnder, Radical! ROA, Shin Shin, and Wing. First, we go to church with Joe Iurato.
Within moments of ROA’s arrival on site to his designated building for “Living Walls : Albany,” he spotted a recently departed squirrel, took it as a sign and it became quite clear what he was going to do next.
The squirrel population in Albany is (somewhat) jokingly of a “different” breed – they are as tough as they are territorial, while still somehow managing a natural presence and a non-intrusive interactivity with passer-bys. Squirrels are everywhere in Albany, making it a more-than-fitting subject for ROA’s large-scale contribution to the Living Walls project.
Cosmically or maybe even comically enough, as ROA was working up in the lift adding detail to the animal laying on its back, a man associated with the building’s owner shared an anecdote of how a couple years back a pesky squirrel’s nest almost resulted in the same building burning down, with firefighters called to the scene and all.
During ROA’s time creating the piece, people stopped by to inquire more about the wall and what was going on, with many lingering on the “why a squirrel” question.
“People are bored with simple messages,” said ROA “they want something deeper.”
With the inspiration of the piece still laying off to the side, ROA entertained the public’s curiosities with a grin saying, “Its for you to figure out if it’s dead or alive and the meaning behind it. It’s a very simple message – just a squirrel on it’s back,” as another onlooker proudly repeated his take on ROA’s work in succession, “that symbolizes something!”
Wooooo Hoooooooo! It’s Friday in Brooklyn! Great news in the mailbox from the postman this morning about a big Keith Haring exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum this April “Keith Haring: 1978-1982”. Guess it was meant to coincide with the big “Art in the Streets” exhibit that was moving from LA MOCA to Brooklyn in 2012 but was cancelled recently. That’s okay, we still get Keith, a patron saint of Street Art. And we are completely convinced that “Art in the Streets” will be coming to New York, so don’t be surprised.
Living Walls : Albany This Friday Saturday Sunday in New York’s Capital City
BSA has been partnering with Living Walls : Albany to bring you the new Street Art and other stuff and today is the official kick off day, coinciding with a big Fall festival Albany has every year. Props go to Samson Contompasis for his unwavering commitment to artists and the creative spirit.
Yo, check the archive to see all the BSA coverage http://mim.io/5e3391 . Also follow the Twitter Feed at @LivingWallsALB . The list of participating Street Artists includes How & Nosm , Chris Stain ,Gaia, Cake ,Michael DeFeo, Broken Crow, Over/Under, Nanook, Jon Burgerman ,Veng, Depoe, Radical!, White Cocoa ,Evereman Scott, Michael Ackerman, Uneek, Clown Soldier, Marcus Anderson, Joe Iurato ,Papertwins, Jacqueline Brickman ,VRNO , Hellbent, ROA ,Gregory Maxwell, Dunn II, YARK, Army of One, Deacon Czar
Saturday, September 17th Located in the Clark Auditorium of the New York State Museum
3:30-4:45PM KEYNOTE LECTURE
“Street Art Stories: A New Direction on the Street”
Presented by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of Brooklyn Street Art
In Street Arts’ latest chapter, the storytellers are hitting up walls with all manner of influences and methods. More than ever before, formally trained and self taught fine artists are skipping the gallery route and taking their work directly to the public, creating cultural mash-ups and highly personal stories of their own, altering the character of this scene once again. Eclectic, individual, and as D.I.Y. as you can imagine, these Street Artists may have knowledge of who came before them or not, but they are determined to be a part of one art scene that is perceived as authentic, relevant, and alive.
Join Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, authors (“Brooklyn Street Art”, and “Street Art New York”, published by Prestel/Random House) and founders of Brooklyn Street Art (BrooklynStreetArt.com) and contributing Street Art writers for The Huffington Post ARTS, as they show and compare examples of work from New York’s streets today. Then join a lively discussion in a Q&A session to help explore this storytelling practice and discuss how it may be evolving what we have been calling “Street Art” for the last decade.
Hosted by “Living Walls : Albany”, Samson Contompasis, Director, and Grand Street Community Arts, James Shultis, Executive Director.
Mexican Street Artist KRAKEN at Hold Up Gallery (LA)
KRAKEN’s solo show “Fantasmas” this on Saturday:
For more information regarding this show please click on the link below:
Isn’t that nice? Neckface and his fine feathered friend “Fuck Life” have a dainty little show at New Image Art this weekend in West Hollywood. Bring your Barbies!
For more information regarding this show click on the link below:
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
