Specter at The Festival of Ideas for the Bushwick Art Park 2011
BUSHWICK ART PARK
A one day community event June 4th, 1-7pm
Located at the proposed Bushwick Art Park on Vandervoort Place
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony with Council Member Diana Reyna at 2:30pm
The Bushwick Art Park hosted by Trust Art, Norte Maar and Factory Fresh, featuring works previously showcased at
the Festival of Ideas in May 2011, expands into a Sculpture Garden at the proposed Bushwick Art Park site on
Vandevoort Place. We invite guests to enjoy the fresh air and local views surrounded by outdoor sculptures.
Sculptures by Bast, Leon Reid IV, Specter, Skewville,
Ben Godward, Infinity, Garry Nichols and El Celso.
Political Podium by Seth Aylmer.
New Bushwick Art Park mural by Veng.
New work from Specter speaks of his desire to not repeat himself, a quality distinguishing the New Guard of street artists, whose work is highly individual and hand made, from those of the recent past.
The Brooklyn based Street Artist generally denounces the culture of repetition in street art, and takes the practice of making multiples under careful consideration. His precise handmade wheat-pastes and paintings often highlight the individual, many of them regular folks he’s met on the street – and you will usually only see one of them.
Right now he’s been toying with retooling his work and recently in Chicago he created new stuff that appears to be a repetition of himself without really putting up the same piece twice. The first piece is from his “If I Saw You in Heaven” series, and the second is from his “Window Project”. Says the artist “It plays with repetition in multiple ways, but on my own terms.”
To expand on the theme, his new show “Repeat Offender” at Pawn Works in Chicago continues the repetition, where he’s showing his work in new tints and configurations, sort of sidebusting himself.
Brooklyn Street Art Presents Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories in collaboration with ThinkSpace Gallery, an art show to exhibit at C.A.V.E. Gallery in Venice (LA), California on Friday, August 12, 2011.
Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories heralds the new highly individual character of stories being told on the streets of New York by brand new and established Street Artists from all over the world. Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com focus on this flashpoint in modern Street Art evolution by curating a strongly eclectic story-driven gallery show with 39 of the best storytellers hitting the streets of New York.
Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories, the gallery show, accompanied by an LA street wall series by selected artists and a public panel lecture and discussion, intends to stake out the New Guard in street art while recognizing some powerful near-legendary forerunners.
The mainly New York lineup exhibits talent from other parts of the US and internationally (Australia, France, UK, Canada, Israel, Germany) and it is as steely, idiosyncratic and storied as the New York scene itself, including Anthony Lister, Adam Void, Broken Crow, C215, Cake, Chris Stain, Clown Soldier, Creepy, Dan Witz, El Sol 25, Ema, Faile, Futura, Gaia, Gilf!, Hargo, Hellbent, How & Nosm, Imminent Disaster, Indigo, Judith Supine, Kid Acne, Know Hope, Ludo, Mark Carvalho, Miss Bugs, Nick Walker, NohJColey, Over Under, Radical!, Rene Gagnon, Skewville, Specter, Sweet Toof, Swoon, Tip Toe, Troy Lovegates AKA Other, Various & Gould, and White Cocoa.
The staunch individualists in Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories give voice to the evolution of the Graffiti, Mash-Up, and D.I.Y. movements that birthed them; creating an eccentric, highly individual, and raucous visual experience on the street. With widely varied backgrounds, techniques, and materials at play, “The Story” is the story. With truths as diverse and difficult as the city itself, each one of these artists is a part of a fierce, raw, new storytelling tradition that is evolving daily before our eyes.
Show Name: Street Art Saved My Life : 39 New York Stories
Location: C.A.V.E. Gallery, 1108 Abbot Kinney Blvd, Venice, California 90291
Date: Opening reception Friday August 12, 2011
Duration: August 12 – September 4, 2011.
Online Press Release: http://mim.io/692a11
Contact: Info@BrooklynStreetArt.com
Presented by Brooklyn Street Art in collaboration with ThinkSpace and C.A.V.E
Curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo of BrooklynStreetArt.com
Brooklyn Street Art is proud to collaborate with ThinkSpace Gallery and C.A.V.E. Gallery.Please note that the show will be at C.A.V.E. Gallery. Thank you.
Thinkspace Art Gallerywww.thinkspacegallery.com
6009 Washington Boulevard, Culver City, CA 90232 (310) 558-3375
Wed – Fri 1PM-6PM Sat 1PM-8PM contact@thinkspacegallery.com
C.A.V.E. Gallery (location of the show) www.cavegallery.net
1108 Abbot Kinney Boulevard, Venice CA 90291, (310) 450-6560
Wed – Sun 12PM-6PM or by appointment info@cavegallery.net
Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo are founders of BrooklynStreetArt.com and co-authors of Brooklyn Street Art and Street Art New York, both by Prestel Publishing (Random House). Harrington and Rojo are also contributing writers on street art for The Huffington Post.
Our weekly interview with the street hits some bright notes including new arrivals from El Sol 25, Specter, and Faile along with some shots Futura did of HAHA in Melbourne and even a taste of Kentucky Street Art.
The roll call this week; Bast, Billi Kid, Clown Soldier, El Sol 25, Faile, L.E.T., QRST, Rae, Romi, S, and Specter.
Stay tuned on BSA this week as we’ll bring to you an interview and studio visit with enigmatic El Sol 25. This self described hippie artist has bounded onto the scene in the last three years with his colorful, witty and well executed hand painted collages.
A major new collaborative initiative led by the New Museum to harness the power of the creative community in imagining the future city will feature an innovative StreetFest along the Bowery, where fresh new ideas for the city will be prototyped and on display.
Be sure to follow the Festival of Ideas blog, featuring guest posts by Trust Art.
Manhattan, New York – The Bushwick Art Park, a Trust Art project led by the artist collective and brotherhood known as Skewville, will be just outside the New Museum of Contemporary Art as part of StreetFest on Saturday, May 7. You can come ‘kick it’ at this street-inspired sculpture garden and philosophize on how to transform an under-used street in Bushwick into a community art park.
Don’t forget the ribbon-cutting ceremony at 1pm, featuring representation from the office of Council Member Diana Reyna.
The prototype art park will be curated by Factory Fresh gallery director Ali Ha, and feature pieces by Skewville, Leon Reid IV, Specter, and Olek.
Be Sure to join us at the Bushwick Art Part,
located in front of the
New Museum
Saturday, May 7th, from 1-7pm
MEET THE BUSHWICK ART PARK TEAM
Bushwick, NY – An whole team has emerged intent on making the Bushwick Art Park a reality. From three “Pratt Bratt” graduate students who are helping with policy research, community surveys, and proposal-writing; to Ali Ha, gallery directory at Factory Fresh; amazing infographic experts; and the hundreds of people who have already signed our petition, the Bushwick Art Park has a lot of friends. Live in Bushwick? Take our quick survey.
Click on the link below to learn more details of Street Fest
As we start a new year, we say thank you for the last one.
And Thank You to the artists who shared their 11 Wishes for 2011 with Brooklyn Street Art; Conor Harrington, Eli Cook, Indigo, Gilf, Todd Mazer, Vasco Mucci, Kimberly Brooks, Rusty Rehl, Tip Toe, Samson, and Ludo. You each contributed a very cool gift to the BSA family, and we’re grateful.
We looked over the last year to take in all the great projects we were in and fascinating people we had the pleasure to work with. It was a helluva year, and please take a look at the highlights to get an idea what a rich cultural explosion we are all a part of at this moment.
The new year already has some amazing new opportunities to celebrate Street Art and artists. We are looking forward to meeting you and playing with you and working with you in 2011.
We’re very grateful for a wildly prolific year of Street Art as it continued to explode all over New York (and a lot of other places too). For one full year we’ve been granted the gift of seeing art on the streets and countless moments of inspiration. Whether you are rich or poor in your pocket, the creative spirit on the street in New York makes you rich in your heart and mind.
To the New York City artists that make this city a lot more alive every day we say thank you.
To the artists from all over world that passed through we say thank you.
To our colleagues and peers for their support and enthusiasm we say thank you.
To the gallery owners and curators for providing the artists a place to show their stuff and for providing all of us a safe place to gather, talk, share art, laugh, enjoy great music and free booze we say thank you.
To our project collaborators for sharing your talents and insights and opinions and for keeping the flame alive we say thank you.
And finally to our friends, readers and fans; Our hearts go out to you for lighting the way and for cheering us on. Thank you.
Each Sunday we featured Images of the Week, and we painfully narrowed that field to about 100 pieces in this quick video. It’s not an encyclopedia, it’s collage of our own. We remember the moment of discovery, the mood, the light and the day when we photographed them. For us it’s inspiration in this whacked out city that is always on the move.
The following artists are featured in the video and are listed here in alphabetical order:
Aakash Nihalani,Bansky, Barry McGee, Bask ,Bast, Beau, MBW, Bishop ,Boxi, Cake, The Dude Company, Chris RWK, Chris Stain, Dain, Dan Witz ,Dolk ,El Mac, El Sol 25, Elbow Toe, Faile, Feral, Overunder, Gaia, General Howe, Hellbent, Hush, Imminent Disaster, Jeff Aerosol, Jeff Soto, JMR ,Judith Supine ,K-Guy ,Labrona, Lister, Lucy McLauchlan, Ludo, Armsrock, MCity, Miso, Momo, Nick Walker, Nina Pandolfo, NohjColey, Nosm, Ariz, How, Tats Cru, Os Gemeos, Futura, Pisa 73, Poster Boy, QRST, Remi Rough, Stormie Mills, Retna, Roa, Ron English, Sever, She 155, Shepard Fairey ,Specter, Sten & Lex, Samson, Surge I, Sweet Toof, Swoon, Tes One, Tip Toe, Tristan Eaton, Trusto Corp, Typo, Various and Gould, Veng RWK, ECB, White Cocoa, Wing, WK Interact, Yote.
“Class, today we are going to make puppets. Jimmy sit down please. Did everyone remember to bring a sock to school today as I had requested last Thursday? Yolanda do you have yours? Jenelle? Good. Let’s see everybody hold their sock in the air. Okay good. Jimmy… Okay these are going to be our “pretend friends”. And does everyone have two buttons for the eyes? Okay, I’ll wait until some people in the back stop talking – I’m sure we all would like to get on with the project. Tony and Lindsay, do I need to split you two up?”
Art classes at school are just about the funnest thing there is – mostly because they combine work and play and imagination. Brooklyn Street Artist Specter has been making his own imaginary friends on the streets of Paris and Chicago this fall. To be more precise, he’s been making sisters – the ones he says he wished he could have when he was a kid.
The new series is called “Les Filles”, and it is “about my mate’s five sisters and my desire to have sisters my entire life. Now I feel like I have what I’ve always wanted,” explains Specter excitedly, as he contemplates eating some paste while Miss Pennywhistle writes something on the chalkboard.
Education continues to be hotly discussed and chronically underfunded, much to the detriment of current and future workers in the US. Despite the rhetoric of the last ten years, many children have been left behind. For some reason we can save banks but not schools. As elsewhere in the social strata, the gap widens between those with access and those who don’t stand a chance.
A recent show in Manhattan featured Street Artists and others to raise funds and re-kindle the education discussion about how the collective “we” is in danger in the US when it comes to preparedness in science and technology among other areas. Street Artist Specter participated in the Re:Form School show and is now thinking about how to translate that experience into his work on the street.
Explains Specter, “My new series, ‘Undereducated,’ continues the discussion of the RE:FORM SCHOOL art show and the release of Waiting for Superman. A text-book sculpture was placed at the entrance of P.S. 277 in the South Bronx’s 7th District. Old text books are renewed to inspire students, bring art to their streets and force attention to disastrous cuts in arts education. By placing art around schools we can expose students to different ideas and present art where it has been cut out.”
Bring to Light is New York City’s first-ever Nuit Blanche festival. A Nuit Blanche is an all night arts festival of installations and performances celebrating the magic and luminance of light.
BRING TO LIGHT NYC will be held in Greenpoint, Brooklyn primarily on Oak Street between Franklin St. and the East River waterfront beginning at sundown this Saturday Oct. 2. The event is free and open to the public. This unique block will play host to local and international artists, performers, galleries, and musicians as they Bring to Light the street itself as well as its unique assets including metal, set design and textile workshops, residential facades, an indoor gymnastics park, and much more.
Jacob Abramson will perform his Digital Graffiti at “Bring To Light”
The experience will be thrilling, original, mesmerizing, ceremonial, contemplative and illuminating. This is a one-night event to remember, but also the start of something intended to grow into an annual, world-class event. Artists will create works that inhabit street corners, galleries, shops, rooftops, vacant lots and buildings. These spaces will act as sites for light, sound and unexpected installations, performances, projections, works of art with natural and artificial LIGHT.
Please click on the animation here to visit the event’s site for a full list of artists as well as all pertinent information regarding time, location and transportation to the event.
WE ALSO ENCOURAGE YOU TO PLEASE CLICK ON THE “HELP FUND THISEVENT” BANNER ON THEIR SITE. DONATE WHAT YOU CAN TO THE KICK STARTER CAMPAIGN. WE DON’T WANT THESE KIDS TO GO BROKE TO ILLUMINATE US ALL!
BLF in New York
Long before Street Artists like Fauxreel or PosterBoy started messing with them, the BLF (billboardliberation.com) began altering outdoor advertising in 1977. They like to say they are helping improve the billboards. As they say in their press release, “prior campaigns have included work for Exxon, R.J. Reynolds, and Apple Computers.” Thoughtful, no?
A new short film featuring Specter, Signtologist, the Public Art Campaign and Jayshells
Here is an image of how Specter did his sidebust spot-jock unwanted collaboration with Faile, who told us Thursday night they thought it was funny and well done. See more about Specter’s latest project here on Huffington Post. (image courtesy Stencil History X)
This week BSA found an entire zoo of odd animals loosed on the streets in New York – and we’re not just talking about Fashion’s Night Out. Mother Nature’s voice thunders again this week on the walls with foxes, whales, sharks, octopuses, panthers, aliens and of course men in drag. Included along the way are a declaration of love and other gems.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Specter at The Festival of Ideas for the Bushwick Art Park 2011
Crotched objects began appearing on the street this year. © Jaime Rojo
