All posts tagged: Stephen Powers

“Beyond The Streets” Comes To Brooklyn in June

“Beyond The Streets” Comes To Brooklyn in June

Gastman’s Massive Graffiti and Street Art Show Arrives at Epicenter.

“I’m really excited to bring this show to New York,” says curator, graffiti historian and urban anthropologist Roger Gastman, “because the city plays such a pivotal role in the origin and evolution of the culture. The iconic images of covered subway cars made graffiti famous worldwide.”

Style Wars Car by NOC 167 with Door Open, Man Reading Newspaper, 96th Street Station, New York, NY, 1981. (photo © Martha Cooper)

He’s talking of course about “Beyond The Streets” the hybrid exhibition that he mounted in LA last year featuring the work of 150 who have proved to be pivotal to the evolution of a fifty year global people’s art movement that includes graffiti, street art, and urban contemporary art. Filling over 100,000 square feet of new space in Brooklyn, this two-floor cross-section survey will feature artworks by many of the same vandals, graffiti writers, Street Artists, and art activists who hit NYC streets, created dialogue with passersby, and were sometimes chased by the authorities. To see them showcased here is to recognize that there is not just one route to take – in fact there are many.

Guerrilla Girls at Abrons Art Center, New York, 2015. (photo © Andrew Hindrake)

“We have an incredible roster of artists for New York,” Gastman tells us, “and a brand new space in Williamsburg that has a stunning view of the Manhattan skyline as our backdrop.” Notably the lineup includes artists whose work BSA has documented on the streets in this very same neighborhood over the past two decades, including Shepard Fairey, Faile, Swoon, Bast, Invader, Aiko, and others. Ironically the appearance of free-range Street Art in the neighborhood has been seriously diminished since that time.

The exhibition is one more verification that a significant portion of the scene is being widely recognized for its cultural contribution and value in the contemporary art canon – a significantly fluid scene fueled by discontent and a desire to short-circuit the established routes to audience appreciation. Like large survey shows elsewhere, the takeaway is the significant impact street culture and its tangential subcultures continues to have on the culture at large.

Lil’ Crazy Legs during shoot for Wild Style, Riverside Park, NY, 1983. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Gastman says the New York version of “Beyond The Streets” will take an additional interest at the role of music and art activism on the street, along with immersive installations, a tattoo parlor, a special Beastie Boys installation with artifacts and ephemera, a new 30th Anniversary Shepard Fairey project “Facing The Giant: 3 Decades of Dissent,” and large scale works by Gorilla Girls, Futura, Cleon Peterson, and Takashi Murakami. 

More news coming on programming and events, but the important opening date to know right now is June 21st.

“All in all, it will make for a really special show this Summer,” says Gastman.


BEYOND THE STREETS TEAM

Curator: Roger Gastman

Co-Curators: Sacha Jenkins SHR, Evan Pricco, David CHINO Villorente

Producer: Ian Mazie & Pressure Point Creative


Tickets and hours of operation can be found at: BEYONDTHESTREETS.COM


FEATURED ARTISTS INCLUDE:

A-ONE, AIKO, Al Diaz, Alexis Ross, Alicia McCarthy, André ​Saraiva, Barry McGee, BAST, Beastie Boys, Bert Krak, Bill Barminski, Bill Daniel, BLADE, Broken Fingaz, Buddy Esquire, buZ blurr, Carlos Mare, Carl Weston, Cey Adams, C.R. Stecyk III, Charlie Ahearn, Chaz Bojórquez, Claudia Gold, Cleon Peterson, COCO 144, Conor Harrington, Corita Kent, Craig Costello, CRASH, DABSMYLA, Dan Witz, Dash Snow, DAZE, DEFER, Dennis Hopper, Dondi White, Doze Green, EARSNOT, Estevan Oriol, Fab 5 Freddy, FAILE, Faith XLVII, Felipe Pantone, FREEDOM, FUTURA 2000, Gajin Fujita, Glen E. Friedman, Gordon Matta-Clark, Guerrilla Girls, HAZE, Henry Chalfant, Herb Migdoll, Husk Mit Navn, INVADER, Jane Dickson, Jason REVOK, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Jenny Holzer, Jim Prigoff, John Ahearn, John Fekner, John Tsombikos, Joe Conzo, José Parlá, KATS, KC Ortiz, Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf, Kilroy Was Here, LADY PINK, LAZAR, LEE Quiñones, Lisa Kahane, MADSAKI, Maripol, Mark Gonzales, Mark Mothersbaugh, Martha Cooper, Matt Weber, Maya Hayuk, Michael Lawrence, MIKE 171, MISS 17, Mister CARTOON, Nina Chanel Abney, NOC 167, Pat Riot, Patrick Martinez, Paul Insect, POSE, PRAY, Rammellzee, Randall Harrington, RETNA, Richard Colman, Richard Hambleton, RIME, RISK, Ron English, Ruby Neri, SABER, Sam Friedman, SANESMITH, Sayre Gomez, Shepard Fairey, SJK 171, SLICK, SNAKE 1, SNIPE1, STAY HIGH 149, Stephen Powers, SWOON, Takashi Murakami, TAKI 183, TATS CRU, TENGAone, Tim Conlon, Timothy Curtis, Todd James, Trash Records, UGA, VHILS, and ZESER

The show is developed in partnership with Adidas and Perrier. Additional support provided by Modernica, Montana Colors, NPR, NTWRK, Twenty Five Kent and WNYC.

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New Show Celebrates A Decade of “Beautiful Losers”

New Show Celebrates A Decade of “Beautiful Losers”

We’ve had the privilege of introducing ‘Beautiful Losers’ to theater audiences and to give away copies of it for a holiday event and even getting to meet a few of the Losers, so to speak. That’s why we’re excited about a new exhibition coming up in ten days in Manhattan at The Hole gallery to commemorate the 10-year anniversary of this classic documentary that debuted at the IFC in August 2008.

Directed by Aaron Rose and Joshua Leonard, it brings back a little of the magic of New York in the 90s – specifically the last years when Manhattan felt somewhat lawless and full of creative possibilities on the streets. The community of artists profiled had something that reflected the time and it was good to celebrate the ethos that ‘Beautiful Losers’ so warmly conveyed.

Hope you can make it to the show, or at least to see the movie. It’s always an inspiration for anyone looking to recover the creative spirit.


“DIY / ‘outsider’ art and its acceleration to the cultural forefront will be revisited with the ‘NOW & THEN: A DECADE OF BEAUTIFUL LOSERS’ exhibition. On site will be both artworks and collaborative RVCA merchandise from artists including but not limited to: Aaron Rose, Andre Razo, Ari Marcopoulos, Barry McGee, Cheryl Dunn, Chris Johanson, David Aron, Deanna Templeton, Ed Templeton, Geoff McFetridge, Ivory Serra, Jo Jackson, Margaret Kilgallen, Mark Gonzales, Mike Mills, Rita Ackermann, Shepard Fairey, Stephen Powers, Susan Cianciolo, Thomas Campbell, Tobin Yelland, and Tom Sachs.”


The Trailer: Beautiful Losers

Featuring Ed Templeton, Barry McGee, Mareraret Kilgallen, Jo Jackson, Chris Johanson, Thomas Campbell, Geoff McFetridge, Mike Mills, Stephen Powers, Harmony Korine and Shepard Fairey. A film by Aaron Rose with music by Money Mark.


An exhibition to commemorate the 10th Anniversary of “Beautiful Losers” will open at The Hole Gallery on Thursday, August 23rd. Click on the title of the exhibition next for more details: “NOW & THEN: A DECADE OF BEAUTIFUL LOSERS”

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Artists Bring 22 New Murals to “Coney Art Walls 2016”

Artists Bring 22 New Murals to “Coney Art Walls 2016”

Just in time for this weekend’s Mermaid Parade, London’s D*Face is finishing up “Live Fast Die Young,” his beauty-and-the-zombie comic couple sipping an ice cream float at the soda counter. Austrian surrealist slicer Nychos has completed his dissection of a Ronald McDonald-ish character without a sketch; running, jumping, nearly flying through the air with aerosol in hand, flinging the spent cans over his shoulder blindly to skitter across the pavement. Baltimore-based freeform anthropologist Gaia is cavorting with passersby who want to take cellphone selfies in front of his painted wall that depicts exactly that; selfies taken in Coney Island.

This is a modern version of the multi-mirror funhouse in mural form, and Coney Art Walls is bringing it again.

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Nychos. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

22 new murals on standing slabs of concrete join a dozen or so that were retained from last summer to present an eclectic and savory selection from the old-school and the new. When it comes to art in the streets, a salty luncheonette of city-style treats is on a large public platter these days, with names like graffiti, street art, urban art, installation art, public art, fine art, even contemporary art. For some of those hapless gatekeepers of any of these respective categories, this show in this location presents degrees of discomfort and anger as many subcultural roots are now brought into the light in tandem with one another in a public display – funded by a real estate firm. For the artists and majority of fans, however, the trend is more toward delight and gratitude.

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Nychos. The London Police photo bomb. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While you are unpacking that, consider that lead curator Jeffrey Deitch has often proved very adept at plumbing the aesthetic margins of our culture while rearranging and intermingling the parties, helping the viewer to appreciate their differences. This outdoor exhibit co-curated with Joseph Sitt provides a venue for a wide audience to contemplate the range of expression that New York streets have had over the last few decades, including a few artists who are trying this manner of expression for the first time.

As the Thunderbolt, Steeplechase, Cyclone and Wonder Wheel spin and swerve nearby and overhead, sending screams and personal projectiles into the ocean breeze, you have this paved lot full of paintings to peruse, lemonade in one hand and the cotton-candy-sticky hand of a sunscreen-slathered child in the other. Here you’ll see a large two-walled corner smashed with Coney Island themes by Bronx graffiti masters Tats Cru (Bio, BG183, and Nicer), a selection of hand-drawn wheat pasted portraits of Coney Island youth by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and 4 full-form sculptures by John Ahearn creating a modernist view of divers on the beach .

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Nychos. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tooling elsewhere through the loose labyrinth you come upon a monochromatic cryptically patterned tribute to Brooklyn-born Beastie Boys vocalist Adam “MCA” Yauch by Brooklyn tagger/train writer/artist Haze and a seemingly lighthearted abstractly collaged wall of mermaids by fine artist Nina Chanel Abney, whose work is currently on the cover of Juxtapoz. There is also a spectacular underwater-themed symmetrical fantasy topped by pylons bearing the likenesses of characters from “The Warriors” film by artist duo The London Police, and a stenciled “Last Supper” featuring heads of world currency playing the disciples and George Washington as Jesus sprayed across the face of a huge dollar bill by Iranian brothers Icy & Sot.

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Pose. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We often travel streets and neglected spaces in cities looking for signs of freewill artistic expression and often the creative spirit surprises us as it can be expressed in so many ways with emotion, agenda, and idiosyncratic point of view. It may be the plurality of voices one experiences surfing the Internet or the multi-cultural nature of living in New York with a continuous river of fresh arrivals mixing in with established and old-timers every day, but one comes to expect this variety of viewpoints and rather naturally creates accommodation for inclusion that celebrates without negating – and in many ways Coney Art Walls does that as well.

Oppositional viewpoints are present if you look: There are coded messages and obvious ones, critiques of corporate hegemony, issues of race, commentary on police relations, sexuality, religion, capitalism, community, the languages of advertising, movies, music, entertainment, local history, and examination of roles and power structures.

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John Ahearn. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

When tooling around this collection, you may wonder what, then, are the commonalities of this survey. Certainly there are the recurring references to Coney Island lore and aspects of performance and flimflam, oddity, fantasy, even the erotic. Naturally, there are elements of natural wonder as well, perhaps expected with the proximity to the beach and the ocean and the history of this place as a vacation getaway.

Aside from this, the connective tissue is what we frequently identify as what is distinctly New York – the plurality of voices. Arguing, making fun, praising, preening, bragging, lambasting, mocking, singing. Despite the continuous attempts by others to divide us, we’re strangely (very strangely), beautifully united.

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Jeffery Deitch with John Ahearn. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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John Ahearn. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Icy & Sot. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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“11 Instagram Posts”, by Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gaia. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Haze. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Haze. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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D*Face. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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D*Face. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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D*Face. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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D*Face. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Marie Roberts has multi-generational roots here and her work makes you stop and study it. She has painted many visions and views around the neighborhood, and is considered the artist-in-residence. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Marie Roberts. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Marie Roberts. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The London Police. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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AIKO. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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AIKO. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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AIKO. Side A. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally from Japan, Brooklyn’s AIKO has a double sided stencil sonnet to the romance of the sea. With “Tale of the Dragon King and Mermaids in Water Castle” Aiko tells a new version of Urashima Tarō, an old Japanese legend about a fisherman who rescues a turtle and is rewarded for this with a visit to Ryūgū-jō, the palace of Ryūjin. Says Aiko, “This piece speaks to my and all women’s fantasies; chilling hard super sexy in the beautiful ocean with friendly dragon who is super powerful and a smart guy – they are about going to water castle having good time.”

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AIKO. Side B. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Daze. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nina Chanel Abney. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nina Chanel Abney. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nina Chanel Abney. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mister Cartoon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mister Cartoon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mister Cartoon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Steve ESPO Powers. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Steve ESPO Powers. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Steve ESPO Powers. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jessica Diamond. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tristan Eaton. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tristan Eaton. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tristan Eaton. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tatiana Fazlalizadeh. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tatiana Fazlalizadeh photographing her subjects. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tatiana Fazlalizadeh. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crash. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BIO – Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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NICER – Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BG183 – Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tats Crew. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sam Vernon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sam Vernon. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Timothy Curtis. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Timothy Curtis. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Martha Cooper. Coney Art Walls – 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Coney Art Walls
2016 New Artists: Nina Chanel Abney, John Ahearn, Timothy Curtis, D*Face, Jessica Diamond, Tristan Eaton, Gaia, Eric Haze, Icy & Sot, London Police, Nychos, Pose, Stephen Powers, Tats Cru, and Sam Vernon. Returning artists who created new works: Lady Aiko, Mister Cartoon, Crash, Daze, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, and Marie Roberts. 2015 Murals on display: by Buff Monster, Eine, Ron English, How & Nosm, IRAK, Kashink, Lady Pink,  Miss Van, RETNA, eL Seed and Sheryo & Yok. There are also three community walls.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post

 

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Stephen ESPO Powers Signage Spills Outside the Brooklyn Museum

Stephen ESPO Powers Signage Spills Outside the Brooklyn Museum

While the branches on the trees in front of the Brooklyn Museum are not quite popping with buds it is a short time until they will be flushed with blossoms and then leaves, obscuring the view of some of the new site-specific signs just installed by Stephen Powers.

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The signs on the plaza, many humorous and coded, were originally created for a project he did with the New York City Department of Transportation a couple of years ago and they follow a theme of “emotional wayfinding” that he has been playing with in much of his sign-themed work for a while.

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The effect is almost decorative, to see so many of these clustered in one area – and a reminder that Street Artists have been using all variety of street poles as a means of expression for at least the last 20 years with regularity. This may be the first time we have heard of a museum acknowledging this means of communicating in public space, and Powers is a good ambassador for the technique of communication  practiced by so many.

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Of course this installation is in concert with the announce extension of his show inside the museum, Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull), which was going to close this week but has been extended until August 21. The show, which features Powers and other sign painters occasionally in person painting (check museum schedules) is organized by Sharon Matt Atkins, Vice Director for Exhibitions and Collections Management, Brooklyn Museum.

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Stephen ESPO Powers. Brooklyn Museum. (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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Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still A Dreamland (To a Seagull) exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum is now on view and extended through August 21st.

 

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BSA Film Friday: 12.04.15

BSA Film Friday: 12.04.15

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

Now screening :

1. Brandalism Takes Over Bus Stops to Counter Cop21 Misinformation
2. OLEK Working Women
3. Madame Edwarda: R.ö vs Höy
4. Lilys – High Writer at Home by Joey Garfiled and Stephen Powers
5. Miss Me By Pablo Aravena
6. So Much Winning! So Much! Head Spinning Winning!

 

bsa-film-friday-special-feature

BSA Special Feature: Brandalism Takes Over Bus Stops to Counter Cop21 Misinformation

Misinformation is an entire industry today. It’s goal is usually not to make you active, but make you passive.

Here is a brief intro video about Brandalism’s answer to UN COP21 – and the first of what will surely be more videos about this massive effort by 82 Artists from 19 different countries to take back public space and the public dialogue about climate change from those who are skillfully employing misinformation and bending laws to enable them to continue making money at all costs.  “Two days before the launch of the UN COP21 Climate Conference, 600 posters were installed in outdoor media spaces across Paris – to challenge the corporate takeover of COP21 and to reveal the connections between advertising, the promotion of consumerism and climate change.”

 

OLEK Working Women

A new conceptual performance piece by OLEK and a troupe of Olekians on a sunny day in Union Square.

“The artwork is destroyed as it is created, and created out of its own destruction in an infinite loop. Like the perpetual punishments of Sisyphus or Prometheus, a woman’s work is never finished. Subject and object, static and metamorphic, old and new, enduring and fleeting, public and private, concealed and revealed, traditional and innovative, decay and renewal, are all interchangeable.”

 

Madame Edwarda: R.ö vs Höy

“Why do you do that – you see, she said, I am God.”
But seriously, this is really scored well, even if we don’t know what it is about. Something related to cutting off your head during coitus. Not your average Friday, is it?

 

 

Lilys – High Writer at Home by Joey Garfiled and Stephen Powers

Out of print for 20 years, this newly re-released album is coupled with Stephen Powers’ project “A Love Letter to Philadelphia” from a couple years back. As you get carried my the haze of the soundtrack you will swear that these two projects were originally with each other in mind.

“From the limited 21st anniversary vinyl LP pressing of the 1994 album, Eccsame the Photon Band – Lilys’ etheric second full-length album has become a shoegaze collector’s favorite.”

Also don’t miss Stephen Powers’ new installation at the Brooklyn Museum now on view. >>> Coney Island Dreaming: Following The Signs To Stephen Powers

 

Miss Me By Pablo Aravena

“When I started going on the streets, it just felt like the ultimate cry for freedom” says Montreal based Miss Me.

So Much Winning! So Much! Head-Spinning Winning!

Yes, you knew something sounded familiar. Those are your drunk neighbors winning over there. More biting revelatory critique than an hour and half of SNL, frankly.

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Joshua Liner Gallery Presents: “Direct Address: An Inaugural Group Exhibition” (Manhattan, NYC)

Joshua Liner Gallery is proud to announce the opening of its new home—a street-level, 2,600-square-foot exhibition space located at 540 West 28th Street in the Chelsea Arts District. The gallery’s relocation to a ground-floor space contributes to the life of this burgeoning block, which boasts new high-rise construction, the final section of the High Line, and redevelopment of Hudson Yards just to the north.

To celebrate this milestone move, the gallery is pleased to present Direct Address, an inaugural group exhibition featuring works in diverse media by longtime gallery figures as well as new additions to the program. Participants include the following artists:

Alfred Steiner, Clayton Brothers, Cleon Peterson, Dave Kinsey, David Ellis, Evan Hecox, Greg Lamarche, Ian Francis, Jean-Pierre Roy, Kris Kuksi, Oliver Vernon, Pema Rinzin, Richard Colman, Riusuke Fukahori, Shawn Barber, Stephen Powers, SWOON, Tiffany Bozic, Tomokazu Matsuyama, and Tony Curanaj.

Direct Address makes full use of the gallery’s 500+ square feet of added space and 15-foot ceilings. Graphic design, typography, digital imagery, and assorted printing techniques variously inform works in painting, mixed media, and collage by the Clayton Brothers, Evan Hecox, Greg Lamarche, and SWOON. Allusions to cartoons, cultural icons, and the collective unconscious turn up in watercolor-on-paper works by Alfred Steiner, as well as in Cleon Peterson’s stylized depictions of mass violence. Working in enamel on aluminum, sign-painter-turned-artist Stephen Powers combines image and word in a new selection of his visual aphorisms, or Daily Metaltations.

http://joshualinergallery.com/exhibitions/direct_address_march_21_2013/?utm_source=Direct+Address+Reminder&utm_campaign=Direct+Address&utm_medium=email

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FUN FRIDAY 09.14.12

It’s a BSA Fun Friday and we’re gonna tell you all about some stoopendous Street Art shows this weekend from Brooklyn to Chicago to Paris to Vienna but first….Everybody get up and do some FF dancing like my homeboy PSY in Korea.

This sh*t is Gangnsta, bro.

SEOUL, YOU THINK YOU GOT TALENT…

1. VIDEO “Gangnam Style” Dance Frenzy from Korea
2. Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)
3. “Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)
4. LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)
5. “All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)
6. “Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)
7. GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)
8. Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)
9. Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope “Others’ Truths”
10. The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria
11. Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You”
12. “Permanence at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada
13. eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)
14. When Lucent Met Herakut (VIDEO)
15. Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

Bäst Sells Olive Oil and Opens New Show at Opera Gallery (NYC)

Street Artist Bäst has always mixed a savory chopped image salad.  With his dicing, cutting, collaging and stencilling work on the street over the last decade, a lot of his recent stencils are twisted Bodega style signs advertising basic staples for the pantry. But of all the collaborative advertising that Street Artists have been getting into, we never could have predicted this; Olive oil. You can actually go to snooty classist foodery Dean and Deluca and buy a bottle of Bast style olive oil right now. Only 500 were made in this limited edition and the oil smells better than the petroleum-spilled brownfields in industrial Bushwick where you usually see his work, so why not?

This Brooklyn native artist has been amusing, hijacking, and inspiring with his work on the streets of New York for well over a decade and it’s also cool to see his gallery work at his solo show “Germs Tropicana” opened last night at Opera in Manhattan. If the pieces are too pricey, Dean and Deluca is just a couple of blocks away!

Bäst (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Just Your Type” at Low Brow Artique (BKLN)

Outside is the brand new wall piece by ND’A and Dirty Bandits. Inside this art store/gallery they are joined QRST and Gilf! in this new small show called “Just Your Type”, opening tonight.

ND’A (Photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

LUDO “Metal Miltia” at Galerie Itinerrance (PARIS)

Parisian Street Artist LUDO was in multiple shows around the world and blanketed the Paris Metro and bus shelters with his subvertisements for two years before a gallery in his native city invited him inside. Tonight Galerie Itinerrance will have LUDO’s first solo show entitled “Metal Militia”.

With a truly unique approach to social critique that serves as a cunning indictment of the advertising industry and the military industrial complex, you won’t find anything like the pretty disgust than the work of LUDO.

LUDO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“All Write You Scumbags” with Reyes and Steel at Klughaus (Chinatown, NYC)

Ever the ballsy wiseguy, the Klaughaus Gallery in Manhattan continues to produce and present quality shows that challenge your possibly prejudicial pre-formed perceptions of propriety and pugnacity. This time they invited West Coast natives Reyes and Steel to exhibit at their space with a show titled “All Write You Scumbags”.

From the press release, “The New York debut for both artists and showcases a distinct chemistry cultivated over years working together as friends, creative partners and members of MSK, one of the highest regarded graffiti artist collectives in the world.” To find out what this means go to their show opening tonight.

Reyes (image © courtesy of the gallery)

Steel (image © courtesy of the gallery)

For further information regarding this show click here.

“Dominant Species” by ROA at 941 Geary (San Francisco)

Street Artist ROA concludes his US Summer Tour 2012 in San Francisco at his own victorious opening Saturday at  941 Geary Gallery. The show is aptly called “Dominant Species” and will feature many of the cast of creatures you have grown to expect.

“Here is a Street Artist who has very effectively escaped the street, an introvert traveling quietly in the extroverted world, with open eyes and an acute talent for observation; decoding the universe through study of the natural, and unnatural.” BSA

ROA at work on his recent stop over in NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read BSA’s feature on ROA this week and to see beautiful images of his work in Mexico, Africa and Cambodia earlier this year click here.

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN in “Zim Zum” (Baltimore)

GAIA, MOMO AND MICHAEL OWEN are transforming the space at the Creative Alliance Gallery in Baltimore with a collaboration that promises to spill over the street and beyond. If you want to see what the trio is up to put the gameboy down and head out to the gallery for their opening tomorrow night with an exhibition titled Zim Zum.

MOMO at work on his recent participation on Baltimore Open Walls this Summer. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

See MOMO in GEOMETRICKS, presented by BSA and curated by Hellbent next weekend in BROOKLYN, baby.

Don’t Fret in “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay”(Chicago)

Chicago based Street Artist Don’t Fret has a new solo show, “No Shoes, No Shirt, No Chardonnay” opening Saturday night at the Bizzare Gallery in Chicago.  So if you are planning to arrive naked, BYOB and put your wallet under your armpit. Lo-fi comic book doodling that make most people look like family day at the tractor pull, Don’t Fret drawings are people you know and often dang hilarious.

Don’t Fret in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Also happening this Weekend:

  • If you are in Tel Aviv: Israeli Street Artist and poet Know Hope is releasing a new zine titled “Others’ Truths” and he’s mounted a small exhibition of the drawings that illustrate it. This exhibition will remain open all day today until 4:00 pm. Click here for more details on this show.
  • The 2012 Edition of The Black River Festival in Vienna, Austria is now open. The festival has an important selection of Street Artists putting up works throughout an entire week of programs. Roster includes Blu, Evan Roth, Florian Riviere, Isaac Cordal, Mark Jenkins, and ZukClub. Click here for more details on this festival.
  • The film screening by Stephen Powers AKA ESPO “A Love Letter for You” is being hosted by the Joshua Liner Gallery in conjunction with their current show by the artist “A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures”. The screening will take place tomorrow at The Tribeca Grand Hotel. The artist will be in attendance along with the director and a Q & A  will follow the film. Click here for more details on this event.
  • “Permanence” is the title of the new group show at Space 27 Gallery in Montreal, Canada. With an ambitious line up international and Canadian artists this show aims to juxtapose the “ephemeral nature of street art with the permanence of collectible art.” From their press release. Click here for more details regarding this show.

In the spirit of Unity, we present Street Artist eL Seed in Tunisia (VIDEO)

This week there has been much news of sadness, discord, and suffering in Libya, Egypt, and Yemen. Street Artist and painter eL Seed gives us a moment to pull back and reflect on the beauty and poignancy that a religious belief system can contribute to the lives of some.

Here he creates ‘Madinati’ Calligraffiti on Jara Mosque in Gabes.

When Lucent Met Herakut by The One Point Eight (VIDEO)

“A short documentary which presents the show involving graffiti duo Herakut and the Lucent Dossier group, detailing both the rehearsal process and the final performance in a unique and different way.”

Voice Of Art “Graffiti Against The System” Presents GATS (VIDEO)

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Joshua Liner Gallery Presents: “A Love Letter for You” A Film by Stephen Powers AKA ESPO (Manhattan, NYC)

A Love Letter for You

In conjunction with our current solo exhibition, A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures, Joshua Liner Gallery and Stephen Powers will be hosting a screening of Powers’ feature film A Love Letter For You followed by Q&A with Stephen Powers and director Joey Garfield.

The screening will be held this Saturday 9/15, at the Tribeca Grand Hotel at 8pm. Tickets are limited, so get them while you can!

Click here to buy tickets. Click here (or click on the image below) to watch the trailer.

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Fun Friday 09.07.12

Happy Friday! Not much to do this weekend, sorry – Aside from these eighteen possibilities.

1. Maya Hayuk at Cooper Cole (Toronto)
2. NohJColey “In the Midst of Living” Friday (BKLN)
3. Judith Supine at Jonathan Levine Saturday (Manhattan)
4. Swoon Opens Pearly’s Beauty Shop Sat (Long Island City, Queens)
5. Brooklyn Busts Open Studio Doors for “GO” Courtesy Brooklyn Museum
6. “Epilogue” at Hold Up (LA)
7. “Disamiguation” at Carmichael (LA)
8. Mind Trip with ETAM at Inoperable (Vienna)
9. Bien Urbain Festival (Besancon, France)
10. Graffitimundo “Walls of Buenos Aires” at Newcastle Project Space
11. ESPO “A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures” at Joshua Liner (NYC)
12. TRXTR “Lucked Up” at Get Up Gallery (Vegas)
13. Group show “This Art is So Street” (Philadelphia)
14. “Public Display” at Agnes b. (NYC)
15. “100 Story House” with Leon Reid IV at JJ Byrne Park
16. RERO Image Not Available at Fabien Castanier in Studio City, CA
17. RONE at White Walls (SF)
18. Ben Frost at Shooting Gallery (SF)

Maya Hayuk at Cooper Cole (Toronto)

Street Artist, Fine Artist and Brooklyn resident Maya Hayuk has a solo show at the Cooper Cole Gallery in Toronto, Canada is now open to the general public. Ms. Hayuk paintings are saturated with color, catching the prism from the crystal and permuting it into a multitude of geometrically inspired patterns and shapes, realize on canvas and walls across the land. Crisply precise, or improvised and free wheeling, Hayuk let’s her mind and her palette run with enthusiasm for the raw creative spirit.

Maya Hayuk on the streets of Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

Maya Hayuk will also be featured in GEOMETRICKS September 22nd in Brooklyn, curated by Hellbent and presented by BSA.

NohJColey “In the Midst of Living” Friday (BKLN)

NohJColey first solo show “In The Midst of Living” opens tonight at Weldon Arts Gallery in Brooklyn. Come and see in person NohJ characters and stare at their eyes. See who blinks first.

NohJColey. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read our preview and for more images click here.

Judith Supine at Jonathan Levine Saturday (Manhattan)

Judith takes over the project room at the Jonathan Levine Gallery in Manhattan for a triple header with Audrey Kawasaki and Jeff Soto sharing the bill. Get there early because the line will be long so you can see them all and appreciate this opportunity to see why Judith Supine is “Too Much for One Man”.

Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read our interview and studio visit with JS as he prepared for this show click here.

Swoon Opens Pearly’s Beauty Shop Sat (Long Island City, Queens)

Nails done by a painter? Hair diorama by a sculptor? Makeup by a conceptual artist? When was the last time that at the SPA you got pampered by a bevy of talented, happy, fun, funny and not shy fine artists? Never?

A fundraiser for the Braddock project, Street Artist and fine artist Swoon has dreamed a perfect SPA party for you, inviting and recruiting many of her close artists friends to make you feel special and to look glorious. “DJ’s Roofeeo, Dirtyfinger, Manhate, and 3 Kings International Sound will make your body move and your fresh coat of glam shine while you explore indoor and outdoor dance parties, music, installations and performances by Lady Circus’ Anya Sapozhnikova, Marshall LaCount, Shenandoah Davis, Audra Pace, and Yea, Well, Whatever all situated in a stunning visual landscape.” This Saturday pick your outfit and be prepared to have the experience of a lifetime.

For further information regarding this event click here.

Brooklyn Busts Open Studio Doors for “GO” Courtesy Brooklyn Museum

The Brooklyn Museum continues to plug into community and show love for the blossomed artists neighborhoods that are transforming Brooklyn into the true creative powerhouse rivaling Manhattan, which is looking so “last century” across the river. BAM is a loved museum that regularly gets “it” by bringing community in, thanks to the efforts of many, including the talented curatorial team headed by Sharon Matt Atkins who opens the conversation and knows how to listen to the beat on the street and make a huge institution relevant to a new generation.

This time Ms. Atkins and the museum’s Chief of Technology, Shelley Bernstein are taking  inspiration from the thousands of artists who work and live in Brooklyn, creating the largest open studios event we’ve heard of in DUMBO, Williamsburg, Bushwick, Greenpoint, Gowanus, and Red Hook this weekend. You can vote for your favorites by nominating three artists for inclusion in an exhibition at the museum. The museum’s curators then will visit the ten artists who received the most nominations and they will select two or more artists to have their work shown at the Brooklyn Museum for and Exhibition opening on December 1.

1735 artists have responded to this call. How many can you visit? You have this Saturday and Sunday to GO AND SEE ART.

For further information regarding this project click here.

“Epilogue” at Hold Up (LA)

“Epilogue” is a trio exhibition opening this Saturday in Los Angeles at Hold Up Art Gallery with Street Artists Eddie Colla, Hugh Leeman and V Young D have combining talents to explore themes of their vision of a coming collapse of society. Fun times!

“Epilogue” (photo © Taylor Morgan)

For further information regarding this show click here.

To read our preview for this show and to see a video click here.

Also happening this weekend:

  • The Carmichael Gallery in Culver City, CA is hosting Carlos Mare, Rae Martini, Remi/Rough, Sixeart in a group show titled “Disambiguation” opening tomorrow. Click here for more details on this show.
  • ETAM, the Polish duo open a new show, “Mind Trip” at Inoperable Gallery in Vienna, Austria is now open to the general public. Click here for more details on this show.
  • BIEN URBAIN the Art Festival being held in Besançon, France has begun and it will continue until early October. With a great inclusion of Street Art in its abundant program this year they invited Mark jENKINs et sandra FERNANDEz (USA), hYURO (Argentine), MOMO (USA), ElTONO (France), EsCIF (Espagne), sAM3 (Espagne), Agostino IACURCI (Italie), Guillaume BERTRAND (France), pascal RUEFF (France), Graffiti Research lab (France), pascal RUEFF (France), jIEM (France), Caroline AMOROs & Co (France) to paint murals. Click here for more details on this festival.
  • The walls of Buenos Aires have moved to London with Graffitimundo show “The Talking Walls of Buenos Aires”. Interested to hear what they have to say? Head over to the Newcastle Project Space and put your ear to the walls and your eyes on the art. This show is now open. Click here for more details.
  • “A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures” is the title of the new show by Stephen Powers AKA ESPO now open at the Joshua Liner Gallery in Manhattan. Click here for more details on this show.
  • TRXTR is in Vegas, with a new show titled “Lucked Up” at the Get Up Gallery. Now open, click here for more details on this show.
  • Curly’s curatorial debut takes place in Philadelphia with a group show titled “This Art is So Street” opening tonight at the Stupid Easy Gallery. With the inclusion of a certain Mr. Brainwash is in the line up of artists with talent and skills, Curly might be sending a secret message. Let us know if you decode it. The artists are: LNY, NoseGo, Don Pablo Pedro, Darkclouds, The Yok and Sheryo. Click here for more details .
  • The fashion label and store(s) Agnès b is on “Public Display” with a group show curated by ASVP opening Saturday at their store on Howard Street in Manhattan. The participating artists include: D*Face (London, UK), Faile (Brooklyn), Gaia (Baltimore), Hellbent (Brooklyn), Invader (Paris, FR), Miss Bugs (Bristol, UK), ND’A (Brooklyn), QRST (Brooklyn), and ASVP (New York). Click here for more details on this show.
  • Artists Leon Reid IV and Julia Marchesi‘s new public art project “100 Story House” will be open to the public on Saturday at the JJ Byrne Park, 5th Avenue btwn 3rd & 4th St. Park Slope, Brooklyn. Bring Books if you go! Click here for more details on this exhibition.
  • French artists RERO is a wordsmith with an extensive experience as a graffiti artist. His new solo show titled “RERO: Image Not Available” opens on Saturday at the Fabien Castanier Gallery in Studio City, CA. Click here for more details on this show.
  • Australian Street Artist RONE new show “Darkest Before The Dawn” at the White Walls Gallery in San Francisco opens on Saturday. Click here for more details on this show.
  • Ben Frost is in San Francisco at the Shooting Gallery with his new show “See Inside the Box for Details“. Click here for more details on this show.

 

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Joshua Liner Gallery Presents: Stephen Powers: “A Word is Worth A Thousand Pictures” (Manhattan, NYC)

ESPO

Stephen Powers (photo © courtesy of the gallery)

Joshua Liner Gallery is pleased to announce our September exhibition with Stephen Powers. A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures will be Powers’ first solo exhibition in New York in over seven years. The prolific artist will present a panoramic assemblage of paintings that will occupy the entire breadth of the gallery. A Word is Worth a Thousand Pictures will consist of a multitude of enamel on aluminum paintings, ranging from 10 x 8 inches to 10 x 10 feet.

Joshua Liner Gallery
548 W 28th St. 3rd Floor
New York, New York 10001
212-244-7415
joshualinergallery.com

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The Power of Pun : Steve “ESPO” Powers’ Signs in Brooklyn

Philadephia born New York Street Artist Stephen Powers AKA ESPO has been covering walls in Brooklyn since last summer with puns, phrases, and messages that hide in plain sight. Borrowing from a visual vocabulary of mid 20th century commercial signage and injecting his low-brow sarcasm and a knack for wordplay, the former graffiti writer perfected this kind of lettering more than a decade ago doing non-commissioned street art work in broad daylight on storefront grates in dilapidated New York neighborhoods.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Like his barking carney signage for famous Coney Island, the work has all the subtlety of a cannonball. But you may be bamboozled. The sharply sweet uptown fonts and punchy retro palette could look like he’s giving you the straight dope, but a second glance reveals the winking eye of a court jester.  With an advertisers  sensibility, his recent expansive public art installations  – “Love Letters” to Philadelphia, Syracuse, and now Brooklyn – have a tough-as-nails enamel gloss while the soft center swirls a sentiment more gooey, even maudlin.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Using phrases snatched directly from Brooklyn folks conversations on the street as well as his penchant for the parlance of snake oil salesmen, Powers yells boldly these non-sequitur and illusory missives across a parking garage, regularly looking back to see if “yah heard?”.  It’s what emotional signage this size demands and gets, if only for a second.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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