All posts tagged: San Francisco

Jim Prigoff – Shoot By Driving in San Francisco / End of Isolation

Jim Prigoff – Shoot By Driving in San Francisco / End of Isolation

New York officially marks 100 days of the pandemic today and is beginning phase 1 of ‘opening’ the city – allowing a certain modicum of liberty in some circumstances. In recognition of this we are discontinuing our practice of titling our postings called “Dispatch From Isolation”.

Eon75. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

We thought we’d celebrate by showing you new photos from San Francisco streets by a respected name in the graffiti photography scene, Mr. Jim Prigoff. He and many others will still continue to self-quarantine in the most conservative manner for the near future anyway, because if you are in your 90s, you still gotta be careful.

But you can still shoot directly from your car!

Yon. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

“After two and a half months of staying at home, I ventured to SF to make an important pick-up,” he tells us. “I never got out of my car. I documented a few aspects of the trip which I thought I would share.”

We’re honored to share these new shots with the BSA family. Thank you Jim.

Signs by Laf. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)
Unidentified artist. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)
“Balmy Alley had a Donald Trump virus wall,” says Prigoff. Unidentified artist. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)
Unidentified artist. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)
Unidentified artist. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)
“I exited highway 80 near Richmond to close with the final picture, a
note of HOPE,” say Prigoff. Unidentified artist. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)
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Faith XLVII Flies Her Flags “Unbound” in San Francisco

Faith XLVII Flies Her Flags “Unbound” in San Francisco

As an artist you can sometimes address, even resolve, emotional and intellectual conflicts with your creative practice, at least that it how it appears in this new “Unbound” campaign begun by Faith XLVII in San Francisco. A lifelong observer and analyst of socio-politico events and their greater implications, the South African graffiti/Street Artist tells us that today the state of many things cause her feelings of frustration.

Faith XLVII . Unbound. San Francisco, CA. July 2018. (photo courtesy of 2:32 AM Projects)


“Watching the disharmony, the dismantling of human rights and the continuous struggle for equality is exhausting,” she says.
“The only way I can keep going is if I can transform some of this into my work.”


Each flag here at the corner of Golden Gate Ave and Hyde Street in downtown San Francisco speaks to the root of many societal ills, a coded reference to a poem/manifest by Dion Fortune named “The Cosmic Doctrine.”

Faith XLVII . Unbound. San Francisco, CA. July 2018. (photo courtesy of 2:32 AM Projects)

Here in the heart of the Tenderloin district where the fallout of emotional and physical pain and abuse is played out on the streets openly by those seeking to dull the torment with drugs, the winsome and lithe artist talks about the power of the manifesto for her.

“It is not that I believe in an idealistic future, on the contrary I am at times overwhelmed with cynicism. But despite this, I do think that we have to push for the betterment of the future, for the sheer love of the planet and for each other.”

Faith XLVII . Unbound. San Francisco, CA. July 2018. (photo courtesy of 2:32 AM Projects)

And the flowing golden umber fabric at the tips of these poles? I spent time researching the symbolism of the white flag as well as the history of the Peace Manifesto,” she says, and talks about them taking many forms, “with voices spanning from the scientist who is protesting the use of the atom bomb, to Greenpeace and worker parties to Woman’s Rights associations.”

“The words speak of an existential search, for essentially, this is the root of our suffering and confusion.”

Avalon of the Heart
The Building of The Atom
The Beginnings of Consciousness
The Beginnings of Mind
The Creation of a Universe
Evolution Upon the Cosmic Planes
Influences Upon Humanity
The Natural Laws
The Law of Polarity
Influences Acting on Human Evolution
The Law of Action and Reaction
The Evolution of Form and Mind
The Evolution of Consciousness
The Evolution of a Solar System
Developing the Power to Communicate Thoughts
The Manifested Universe

Faith XLVII . Unbound. San Francisco, CA. July 2018. (photo courtesy of 2:32 AM Projects)

Faith XLVII . Unbound. San Francisco, CA. July 2018. (photo courtesy of 2:32 AM Projects)

Faith XLVII . Unbound. San Francisco, CA. July 2018. (photo courtesy of 2:32 AM Projects)

 


The “Unbound” Mural Project is for UC Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, California.

 

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Miss Van: Wishes And Hopes For 2018

Miss Van: Wishes And Hopes For 2018

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2017 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s an assortment of treats to surprise you with every day – to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2018. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to each of you for inspiring us throughout the year.

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Originally from Toulouse, France Miss Van’s roots in Street Art/graffiti began in the early 90s where she began a development of character works that exude great personality and mystery on the street. Today her amies fableuses are as well known in galleries on canvasses as they are in the streets of her current home Barcelona. A trailblazer in urban culture, Miss Van’s ever-more-surreal burlesque figures are known to take us into dark boudoirs and mask-required fantasies that may wander into fetish and plays on power. Fully in possession of her earthly powers and her artistic journey, and wholly engaged with the many dramas we can have inside, the artist offers vintage characters, strong archetypes and exotic scenarios that may or may not actually exist, except in your mind. Today Miss Van shares with us some insight into her personal evolution this year as an artist and the value of leaving home.


MISS VAN

I chose this photo because it represents a change in my personal and artistic life.

I’ve just spent 2 months in the Bay Area, escaping from my hometown Barcelona, in search of inspiration, new feelings and experiences .

I got very much inspired and motivated to paint for my upcoming show at Weinstein Gallery in San Francisco at the end of January 2018 (what a great way to start the new year !) together with some paintings of the magnificent surrealist female painter Leonor Fini.

In this photo stand Gitana I and Gitana II in front of the classical Victorian houses of San Francisco.

Those paintings are special to me, they manifest an evolution in my art life and will always remind me of this particular time, far away from home where anything could happen.

Miss Van. Gitana I and Gitana II, Lower Haight , San Francisco, November 2017. (photo © Miss Van)

 

Miss Van

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BSA Film Friday: 08.11.17

BSA Film Friday: 08.11.17

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

Now screening :
1.”6th Street Blow Out” Brian Barneclo
2. Gonzalo Borondo “Cenere” (Ash)
3. ARIA: Gonzalo Borondo 73 Figure Animation
4. Rallitox : Ritual Artistico-Científico Para Acabar Con la Adicción a Los Móbiles

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BSA Special Feature:”6th Street Blow Out” Brian Barneclo

“The guy in the car is like, ‘Get the fuck out of the way,’ and the guy on the street is like, ‘This is my home, this is where I live.’

A great piece of storytelling from artist Brian Barneclo as he makes observations on his city of San Francisco, his life there, his art. Naturally he has to try to make sense of the voracious market forces of gentrification on the people who get trampled underneath. There only a decade, the muralist and painter feels the rapid change and the violence of forces that radically redefine what neighborhoods were and what they become.

“Push came to shove and my rent got doubled,” he says. Directed by Jeremy McNamara, the tectonic (or in this case TECHtonic) shifts are remarkable and remarkably heartless as Barneclo takes us to this most storied intersection in San Francisco.

 

 

Gonzalo Borondo “Cenere” (Ash)

Borondo keeps it open for you, he provides the stage, the staging area, the proscenium, the altar, the emanating light, the associations and memories you have with your belief system, or lack of one. During his artist residency with residency Pubblica curated by Carlo Vignapiano and Elena Nicolini in May, the Street Artist (among other things) creates a journey as much as a destination in this intimate chapel. The video by Gerdi Petanaj captures this and perhaps a little more.

 

ARIA: Gonzalo Borondo 73 Figure Animation

The video animation of ARIA in collaboration with Studio 56Fili for Altrove Festival is composed of 73 figures photographed at different times of the day to catch different light and then digitally edited to create the movement.

 

 

Rallitox : Ritual Artistico-Científico Para Acabar Con la Adicción a Los Móbiles

First, it would be helpful for you to know that Street Artists and absurdist Rallitox likes to spread confusion. And we have proudly published his street interventions for a number of years.

Secondly, he has some bonified strategies for freeing ourselves from the enslavery of our digital devices.

In this video he presents an artistic ritual to end the addiction to the mobile phone and all the social networks and applications that have you absorbed life. With a few simple steps you can become an independent person free of all ties.

 

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Louis Masai: Onward Ho! To San Francisco with “The Art Of Beeing”

Louis Masai: Onward Ho! To San Francisco with “The Art Of Beeing”

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Onward Ho! We are Bioneers of the brave new world!

The “Art of Beeing” Tour has made it to San Francisco, and London muralist and Street Artist Louis Masai has met some bee keepers, painted some Island Foxes, and talked at the Bioneer Conference. He also held a “Bee Hotel and Seed Bomb Workshop”, as you do…

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Painted for Ko the beekeeper at Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

“It was amazing for the opportunity to meet really interesting powerful and provocative thinkers,” he tells us. That news is not surprising considering the conference website says that organizers are interested in “growing this movement of movements for ecological restoration, justice and social transformation to turn them into lasting systemic change.”

If this sounds somewhat ethereal, euphoric, suspiciously emotionally touching and outlandishly possible, that’s because you have landed in San Francisco, people, so relax. There’s still “hippie” DNA here, it’s just small-batch brewed and slow dripped and costs 3 times what it should.

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Painted for Ko the beekeeper at Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

“We learned a lot at this conference about how fragile the environment really is and the power that my images can have as a way to communicate with a whole demographic of people that might not be so willing to accept information from scientists,” Louis says. We agree. Art has the power to transform situations, people, and lives and art on the street is having a big impact on communities – including the illegal stuff.

Although not all of his previously agreed on walls came through, he did get to paint a few bees and some Island Foxes. These foxes, as you may have guessed, are facing extinction. Good news is their numbers have been increasing due to human efforts, so that is something to cheer for. Check out Friends of the Island Fox to learn more.

Overall, San Francisco appears to have blown Louis’ mind a little bit, which is reassuring to know.

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Ko the beekeeper at Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

“We met some amazing beekeepers in San Francisco that really opened up this idea that nature and the engagement with nature can definitely start to generate a sense of love for oneself and the environment,” he says.

“Bees really are the planets’ little helpers, maybe they can cure depression too, who knows?”

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Island Fox. Near Threatened / California Channel Islands. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Island Fox. Near Threatened / California Channel Islands. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Island Fox. Near Threatened / California Channel Islands. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Island Fox. Near Threatened / California Channel Islands. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Island Fox. Near Threatened / California Channel Islands. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Jetty extracts Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Jetty extracts Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Jetty extracts Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

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Louis Masai The Art Of Beeing. Honey Bee. Jetty extracts Oakland. San Francisco, CA. October 2016. (photo © @lmnotree)

Click http://louismasai.com/projects/the-art-of-beeing/ to learn more about the project.

 

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One Street Portrait a Day: Artist Mel Waters Celebrates Black History in San Francisco

One Street Portrait a Day: Artist Mel Waters Celebrates Black History in San Francisco

“There are some beautiful people out there that have left the world better off.  I’m glad I could share some of them over Black History Month, one portrait at a time,” says Mel Waters when talking about his piece-a-day project in San Francisco’s Mission District in February. Funded from his own pocket, the 34 year old artist devised the project for himself and executed it on city walls (and one delivery truck) to pay tribute to famous African Americans during Black History Month.

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Rosa Parks by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

“It struck me as a very interesting concept, particularly in an art culture that mostly lacks social content,” says graffiti and Street Art expert, photographer and famed historian Jim Prigoff, who first shared the story with us after he began spotting black and white aerosol portraits of folks like Rosa Parks, Amiri Baraka, and Gil Scott Heron popping up around town.

“Piquing my curiosity I found they were part of a series of 29 portraits painted one a day throughout the month, principally in the Mission District, but running from Chinatown on the north to the south. Given that Mel either walks or takes public transportation it became logistically challenging,” says Prigoff.

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Muhammad Ali by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

As he painted the portraits, Mr. Waters says his interest in these historical figures grew stronger and the project affected him in positive ways. “During the project, I did research nightly on who I was going to paint the next day. There are so many amazing stories and choosing who to paint was another challenge for me,” he says. “During my research I stumbled upon people I never heard of.  That was an amazing experience in itself for me.”

It is an unusual story, as Prigoff observes, because so much of graffiti has been traditionally about getting one’s name up and marking territory and a large number of the new Street Artists appear to avoid political or socially themed work today. “In the beginning of modern Graffiti it was tags, then letters and characters,” Prigoff explains. “As ‘pieces’ were developed, few raised social concerns as the focus was principally on the writer’s names with various embellishments.”

 

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Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

Waters says the act of painting daily, and painting quickly, has tightened his game and he also learned how to be more efficient with his time. “It was a real challenge from the start, not only to pay for it, but also to find the time to paint daily while keeping up with my other obligations and to find locations where I could paint,” he says.

“I learned how to paint faster and I developed some new techniques. For example, I would roll out the face with bucket paint so I didn’t have to spend much time filling the face in with spray cans.  Then I would just come in with the spray paint for shading… There was no time to create masterpieces, so I learned to let go of that need for perfection, too.”

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Josephine Baker by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

With figures as varied as statesman and abolitionist Frederick Douglass to singer Josephine Baker, poet Langston Hughes, and Major League Baseball player Larry Doby, Waters gives San Franciscans a taste of the vastness of African American contributions to history. Additionally he says he felt encouraged on his self-elected one man sojourn from people on the street who stopped by to talk with him while he was working.

“There were nice reactions from the communities I painted in and good feedback on social media.  I love celebrating my culture, which is African American and Filipino, through my art. I think it’s good to know about our past so we can use it to help us for the future.”

Mr. Prigoff tells us that he was elated to meet the artist in person and to get a tour of the paintings and to find a hopeful and positive project like this – especially in a Street Art scene that he has been documenting since its inception. “The use of public space to raise political awareness is meaningful to me and I hope it will be to others,” he says. “In this era of celebrated artists with major funding, Mel’s “street story” in creating a dynamic project is heartening and in the spirit of how this street art movement came to be.”

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W. E. B. Dubois by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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A collection of four important female figures: Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Fannie Lou Hamer, and Septima Poinsette Clark by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Frederick Douglass by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Marvin Gaye by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Nikki Giovanni by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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A partially buffed portrait of the 2nd Negro player in Major League Baseball, Larry Doby. Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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James Baldwin, Toni Morrison, and Langston Hughes by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Emory Douglas by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Coretta Scott King by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Kendrick Lamar and Charles Mingus by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Art Shell by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Mario Woods by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Gil Scott Heron by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

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Dr. James E. West by Mel Waters. Black History Month 2016. San Francisco, CA. (photo © Jim Prigoff)

 

Our very special thanks to James Prigoff for sharing his observations, insights, and photographs here for BSA readers.

 

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

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BSA’s Piece on “Submerged Motherlands” Acclaimed for Year

BSA’s Piece on “Submerged Motherlands” Acclaimed for Year

BSA with Swoon at Brooklyn Museum Sited by Huff Post Editors as Proud Moment of 2014

We’re very pleased and thankful to be included in this short list chosen by the editors of Huffington Post Arts & Culture as a story they are most proud of publishing last year.

In her introduction to the list, editor Katherine Brooks writes:

“It turns out, 365 days is hard to summarize in anything but a laundry list of seemingly disparate phenomena, filled with the good — woman-centric street art, rising Detroit art scenes, spotlights on unseen American art– and the bad less than good — holiday butt plugs, punching bags by Monet, Koonsmania. But, as a New Year dawns, we found ourselves just wanting to focus on the things that made us beam with pride in 2014. So we made a list of those things, a list of the pieces we’re proud of.”

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Describing why we thought this was an important story for us we wrote:

“We loved a lot of stories this year, but this hometown Brooklyn one about a street artist with humanity mounting her first solo major museum exhibition was a special turning point — and an astounding success. For us street art is a conversation, a continuum of expression, and Swoon is always a part of it. From following her street career to her transition to international fame to witnessing this exhibition coming to fruition in person in the months leading up to the Brooklyn Museum show, it is easy to understand why Swoon still remains a crucial part of the amazing street art scene and continues to set a standard.”

-Jaime Rojo & Steven Harrington, HuffPost Arts&Culture bloggers and co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art

In fact, we wrote 48 articles that were published on the Huffington Post in 2014, and as a collection we hope they further elucidate the vast and meaningful impact that the Street Art / graffiti / urban art movement continues to have on our culture, our public space, and our arts institutions.

Together that collection of articles published by BSA on Huffpost in ’14 spanned the globe including stories from Malaysia, Poland, Spain, France, Norway, Switzerland, Germany, New York, Arizona, The Navajo Nation, Philadelphia, Sweden, Istanbul, New Jersey, Lisbon, The Gambia, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, Rome, India, Italy, Delhi (India), Montreal, San Francisco, London, Coachella, Chicago, Kabul (Afghanistan), and Kiev (Ukraine).

Here on BSA we published another 320 postings (more or less).

We thank you for allowing us to share these inspirational and educational stories with you and we are honored to be able to continue the conversation with artists, art fans, collectors, curators, academics, gallerists, museums, and arts institutions. Our passion for Street Art and related movements is only superceded by our love for the creative spirit, and we are happy whenever we encounter it.

Our published articles on HuffPost in 2014, beginning with the most recent:

 

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Happy New Year 2015 – BSA Readers Choice Top 10

Happy New Year 2015 – BSA Readers Choice Top 10

Happy New Year to All! Thank you for inspiring us to do our best and to those of you who continue to support our personal art project / cultural examination, we extend our gratitude more than ever.

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Begun as an enthusiastic discovery of what was happening in a few neighborhoods in New York, we continued to expand our view into more cities around the world last year and into the history and future of the scene. We also aimed to provide you with a critical platform for examination of the street art/ graffiti / public art/ contemporary art continuum with interviews with artists, curators, collectors, organizers, observers and thinkers in the street, studio, gallery, and museum – trouble makers and taste makers alike.

In the end, it’s your observations and the conversations on the street that are most important. As we begin the year with over 300K fans, friends, and followers on social media platforms and 225 articles on the Huffington Post (thanks HuffPost team!), we feel like we get a valuable good survey of current opinions heading our way daily.

With in-depth interviews, investigative articles, opinion infused examinations, plain celebratory reverie, occasionally silly non-sequitors, and public appearances where we get to meet you, we get a good analytical look at an ever-evolving movement, glittery polish and warts and all.

As the new year begins we take a look back at the top stories chosen by BSA Readers in the last 12 months. Among them are two takeover pop-up shows in soon-to-be demolished buildings, a story about commercial abuse of artist copyrights and the effort to fight back, a street art community’s response to the sudden death of an activist street artist, a Street Art tourist trip, and a few inspirational women, men, and Mexican muralists.  Even though we published at least once a day for the last 365 days, these are the most popular pieces, as chosen by you, Dear BSA Reader.

10. Exploring Lisbon as a Street Art Tourist

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Os Gemeos / Blu (photo © Stephen Kelley)

9. Kara Walker and Her Sugar Sphinx at the Old Domino Factory

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Kara Walker. The artist portrait in profile with her sugary sphinx in the background. (photo via iPhone © Jaime Rojo)

8. Women Rock Wynwood Walls at Miami Art Basel 2013

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Fafi (photo © Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls)

7. A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

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Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

6. Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

5. It’s All the Rage, Street Artists Filing Lawsuits Left and Right

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4. Shok-1 Street Art X-Rays Reveal a Unique Hand at the Can

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Shok-1 (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

3. 12 Mexican Street Artists Stray Far from Muralism Tradition In NYC

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Sego (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2. Army Of One, Inspiration To Many : Jef Campion

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Army Of One AKA JC2 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1. Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

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Pixote in action. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

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It’s All the Rage, Street Artists Filing Lawsuits Left and Right

It’s All the Rage, Street Artists Filing Lawsuits Left and Right

In what could be charitably described as a sign that Street Art has entered a new phase of cultural acceptance and appropriation, some creators of art in the public sphere are attempting to lay legal claim to the profit-making that they didn’t necessarily sign on to. In just the last few months a handful of artists from New York, Los Angeles, and Buenos Aires have discovered their murals have been used in fashion, music, and cinema to great effect, but sadly, they say, without their knowledge or permission.

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Of course this sort of inspiration/appropriation has been going on for years – if you want to meet models on the sidewalk just move to Bushwick, Brooklyn and you’ll probably accidentally end up in a fashion spread yourself. Here is where countless fashion shoots, video shoots, movie scenes all happen continuously and money is exchanging hands to make it happen – just not for the artists. Usually they are essentially unpaid, uncredited backdrop artists for the edgy “street” fantasies of stylists.

The courts ultimately will have to decide the relevance of these recent claims but the topic does raise fascinating questions about public space, intellectual property, copyright, and the reasonable expectations of the artists once their work is set free into the streets.  In these cases the artists had permission and encouragement to create their works and perhaps thousands of images of the works are in existence since the work is made public. The concern here is raised once those images are privatized or pass into the purely commercial world of selling product.

More interesting will be to see if these lawsuits will extend in the future to include the unsanctioned, un-permissioned, acts of vandalism that appear on private property as well. Will artists seek protection from a legal system they actively transgressed? Can the pieces of art placed illegally be re-claimed by the artist when the work is found printed on a lycra bodysuit or embossed on a wallet? If so, how will the artist claim ownership?

Here are just three recent examples of lawsuits reportedly being filed by artists laying claim to the benefits of their work.

Maya Hayuk

Street Artist and fine artist Maya Hiyuk is reportedly suing pop star Sara Bareilles, Sony, and Coach for using her Houston Street wall in New York as a back drop to sell their products.

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Hayuk on the left, the wall used in a campaign on the right (Screenshot from New York Post, Page Six)

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A detail from the Houston street wall by Maya Hayuk (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Revok, Reyes and Steel

MSK crew members Revok, Reyes and Steel have filed a claim saying that designer Roberto Cavalli was a little more than just inspired by their collaborative mural in San Francisco when designing a line for his “Graffiti Girls” collection sold through the website. A quick Google search shows that the line extends to clothing, accessories, sneakers, even a phone case and is sold at stores like Nordstom, Neiman Marcus, and online giant Amazon.

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Worse, says the claim, “Sometimes, Cavalli added what appears to be a signature, creating the false impression that Roberto Cavalli himself was the artist.”

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An view of the original wall by Revok, Reyes and Steel (image © MSK) and a screenshot of one of the dresses for sale at Cavalli’s website.

See more about this at Mass Appeal.

Jaz, Ever, and Other (aka Troy Lovegates)

Street Artists and muralists Jaz, Ever, and Other are suing for copyright infringement because the newest Terry Gilliam (Twelve Monkeys, Brazil) film The Zero Theorem allegedly featured a mural that looks startlingly similar to one they painted together in Buenos Aires about four years ago.

You can actually still see a number of stills from it it on The Zero Theorem Facebook page right now if you like.

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See a pdf of the lawsuit here.

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From Other’s Flickr page, the original mural in progress (image © Other)

 

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Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

Most viewers want to know, “How did he do that?” when looking at the medieval script arching and swerving through a splattering of stars or surrounding a black hole. Niels “Shoe” Meulman continues to take Calligraffiti into new realms that are more abstract and mystical, disconnecting the elements from their tissues and reconfiguring them.

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

Adele Renault was on hand with Mr. Meulman while he was creating new works in his studio in Amsterdam for “Unearthly Paintings”, which opens today at White Walls Gallery. Here you can see the physical aspect of rearranging atoms, as well as contemplate how Meulman authors actions that produce another series of reactions in the universe.

From the artist: “Art, science and religion have a common origin; the unknown. My latest pieces touch on subjects like ‘anti­knowledge’ and ‘the great doubt.’ This exhibition is an exploration to find mysticism in science. Particle accelerators are modern cathedrals for people who believe in quantum mechanics. With every discovery, more questions arise. Scientific findings of the last decades are more fantastic than all of the fables in religious books put together.”

Thank you to photographer and BSA contributor Brock Brake for sharing these images today with BSA readers.

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

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Niels “Shoe” Meulman. Process shot. (photo © Adele Renault)

 

Niels “Shoe” Meulman solo exhibition “The Unearthly Paintings” opens today at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco. Click HERE for more information.
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San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” so says Charles Dickens in the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, and who can’t believe it is true that he was speaking of today? Whether you are Darnay or Carton, that books two protagonists, this is the prism through which you will see the twin beasts of wisdom and foolishness in all the writings on the walls in our cities.

Easily dismissed for decades by the classists as the uncouth scribblings of the unschooled, the graffiti that persisted throughout train yards and tunnels and cities globally also developed and deepened, expanded and metamorphosed. Once simply seen as outright rebellion, the language around the graffiti scene has  transformed, and with reason. Today sometimes clumsily grouped under the moniker “street art” or “urban art” graffiti and its family gets a second view, and a third; while academia and theorists and philosophers grapple to come to terms with a language they didn’t create, cannot compose in, but endeavor to learn.

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Reyes (photo © Brock Brake)

Meanwhile it is collected, traded, reproduced, emulated and imitated. For its part, new generations of freewheeling graffiti and its practitioners and celebrants continue unabated; uncommissioned, un-permissioned, and despite ever more apoplectic attempts by municipalities and technologies to silence it, it continues to speak.  Further confounding, some of its denizens have taken up arms and laid in the same bed with that most benign and good-willed pillar of public art, the legal mural.

Today we go to San Francisco, one of our most pricey cities, to see what the aerosol writers are saying currently. With new shots that capture part of this moment by photographer Brock Brake, we see that the language of the street and even the row house have become as multitudinous as the dominant culture and as perplexing as it is sometimes powerful. Or not. Are these the best of times?

“..in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only,” says Dickens.

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Niels Shoe Meulman. Detail of ‘ununhappy times’, a larger piece by the calligraffitist. (photo © Brock Brake)

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“Familia” by Reyes (photo © Brock Brake)

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Nekst . Jade (photo © Brock Brake)

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A tribute to a deceased and well loved graffiti writer named Nekst by Steel (photo © Brock Brake)

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Steel MSK (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz. Detail (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz (photo © Brock Brake)

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Andrew Schoultz RIP Jade. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Toro (photo © Brock Brake)

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Atomik (photo © Brock Brake)

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Treas (photo © Brock Brake)

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Steel . MSK . d30 (photo © Brock Brake)

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d30 Crew (photo © Brock Brake)

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Ich (photo © Brock Brake)

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Jurne . Amanda Lynn . Mags (photo © Brock Brake)

 

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

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Poesia and Kwest Pay Tribute to Persue In San Francisco

Poesia and Kwest Pay Tribute to Persue In San Francisco

“It is an amazing hybrid piece,” says Brock Brake as he describes the letter structure and color combinations of this new piece in San Francisco.

With Poesia bringing the wildstyle flames that evoke the firestorms that race across the western region of the US every summer, the graffuturist continues to tighten the angles here with Toronto’s accomplished and hi-definition Kwest in this new wall in San Francisco.

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Poesia, Kwest, and “Persue”. (photo © Brock Brake)

The wall is a tribute to their friend, the San Diego graffiti writer/graphic designer/ entrepreneur Persue, who is very much alive, says photographer Brock Brake, so don’t mistake it for a memorial wall but rather a “you’re rad, dude, we like your style” wall.  Nice.

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Poesia, Kwest, and “Persue”. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Poesia, Kwest, and “Persue”. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Poesia, Kwest, and “Persue”. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Poesia, Kwest, and “Persue”. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Poesia, Kwest, and “Persue”. (photo © Brock Brake)

Special thanks to photographer Brock Brake for sharing these photos with BSA readers. For more about Brock please click HERE.

 

 

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