All posts tagged: Steven P. Harrington

Teo Vazquez and Mourad are Running “20 Meters”

September 22, 2020 Artists

Mourad is running! It’s 20 meters along this wall on the inner courtyard of
the Bac de Roda Housing Cooperative in Poblenou, a neighborhood of Barcelona, Spain.

Teo Vázquez “20 Metros”. In collaboration with JISER. Barcelona, Spain. September, 2020. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

The new stop-action installation is meant to freeze for a moment the emotions and sensations that can occur during migration – which many people are forced today to do all over the world, whether they are escaping from hardship, fear, war, environmental extremes, or decimated economies.

Artist Teo Vázquez wants us to think about the distance that people run, and how crossing a simple national boundary can be the difference between life and death. If you studied Western art history, these figures may also call to mind warriors and heroes of so-called classical antiquity.

Teo Vázquez “20 Metros”. In collaboration with JISER. Barcelona, Spain. Teo was assisted on site by fellow artist Magda Cwik. September, 2020. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Here Vázquez says he has captured “through a sequence of movements, different snapshots which reflect a mosaic of unique expressions.” This, he says, is “a figure who symbolically represents all who they have made a migratory journey risking their lives.”

Born in Cadiz, now living in Barcelona, Vázquez is participating in the fourth edition of MURAL / LOCAL, an artistic action that annually renews this wall. He would like to thank his subject Mourad as well as his fellow artist Magda Cwik, who assisted him in hanging the new installation. Our thanks go to photographer Lluis Olive Bulbena, who shares his photos of this new work with BSA readers.

Teo Vázquez “20 Metros”. In collaboration with JISER. Barcelona, Spain. Teo and fellow artist Magda Cwik with Mourad the young man depicted in the mural. September, 2020. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Madrid Dispatch: Primo Banksy and TVBoy

September 21, 2020 Artists

These days it is the default storyline of a non-British arts journalist to deign that their local street artist is “Tel Aviv’s Banksy”, or “Wanaka’s Banksy”. Here in Madrid, this artist just calls himself Banksy’s cousin, or at least that could be one interpretation of his artistic name.

Primo Banksy. Tribute at Garcia Lorca. Madrid, Spain. (photo © Ricardo Hernandez)

Primo Banksy is a trained artistic talent and uses his carefully rendered ink and watercolor illustrations to highlight cultural figures in art, politics, literature – like John & Yoko, the girl from the Velázquez’ Las Meninas, or this portrait of Federico García Lorca, the poet, playwright, and theater director.

Primo Banksy. Madrid, Spain. (photo © Ricardo Hernandez)

Meanwhile the street artist known as TVBoy is much closer in style and sentimentality to the Bristol-born street art man of mystery known around the world. The Barcelona based Italian favors the pop side of so-called “urban art” here, his filter treatments of popular figures a sure hit for passersby who relate to the subject.

TVBOY. Madrid, Spain. (photo © Ricardo Hernandez)

Our thanks to BSA reader Ricardo Hernandez who shares with us some recent shots while strolling the streets of Madrid.

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.20.20

September 20, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Shana Tova to our Jewish brothers and sisters, even as we mourn the Friday passing of one of Brooklyn’s own, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. She was born here on East 9th Street in Midwood to Russian immigrant parents in 1933 and the governor says we’ll have a statue honoring her here too.

Meanwhile in our strained semi-democracy, daily anti-ICE protests continue in Times Square amidst accusations of heavy handed practices of the police, exotic animal complaints this year are up 77 percent possibly because people want to quarantine with roosters and monkeys to stay sane, and in-person school classes are again being delayed due to lack of preparedness and generalized fears of Covid-19 outbreaks among students and teachers.

Compared to all these news, the scene with Street Art appears tame. But from Red Hook to Soho to LES to Bushwick to Ridgewood, it is definitely not lame.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring BK Foxx, Chris Tuorto, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, De Grupo, Downtown DaVinci, Freakotrophic, Half, Joe Iurato, Kesta, Logan Hicks, Mish, Ouch, Praxis VGZ, Sac Six, Sean Lugo 9, Stikman, and You Go Girl!

Collaboration between Sean Lugo and City Kitty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Freakotrophic for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Logan Hicks and Joe Iurato for The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Downtown DaVinci. This piece has plexiglass protection and that makes it very hard to photograph. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BK Foxx and Kesta collaboration for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Notorious RBG, Rest in Peace

September 19, 2020 Artists

Ruth Bader Ginsburg (1933-2020) A role model. A trailblazer. A pioneer. An intellectual. A woman of her time. A feminist. A mother. A wife. A daughter. A sister. A grandmother. An extraordinary human who dedicated most of her life to extending the reach of justice to all of us, and to protect us from the tyranny of others, including the state.

Her work is done and we are in deep gratitude to her for being such an amazing role model to us – even while we realize that our work will continue. Rest in Peace, Justice Ginsburg.

“Dissents speak to a future age. It’s not simply to say, ‘My colleagues are wrong and I would do it this way.’ But the greatest dissents do become court opinions and gradually over time their views become the dominant view. So that’s the dissenter’s hope: that they are writing not for today, but for tomorrow.”
– Interview with NPR, 2002

BSA Film Friday: 09.18.20

September 18, 2020 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening :
1. Wall Writers

BSA Special Feature: Wall Writers

Wall Writers: Graffiti in its innocence. Directed by Roger Gatsman and narrated by John Waters is a documentary accompanied by a book with an introduction by Barry McGee. The film was released in 2016. Redbull is streaming the full film on their website now. For those interested in the birth of graffiti and wish to know more about the pioneers writers such as Taki 186, Cornbread, Snake 1 and, many more legends this is a perfect weekend treat.

WALL WRITERS – Trailer AND Streaming FREE!!!

Taki 183 being filmed for Wall Writers (still courtesy of R Rock Enterprises)

SNAKE 1, STATIC 5, FLASH 191, and STICH 1 at the P.S. 189 school yard in Washington Heights, NY. Circa 1973 (photo courtesy of SNAKE 1)

Wall in The Bronx featuring NIXON posters and a CHARMING 65 tag. (photo © John Naar 1973, 2015)

You can watch the whole documentary HERE

“I Accuse! Vlady Draws Up a Checklist for Local Statues in Stockholm

September 17, 2020 Artists

Who are these revered men cast in iron, carved in marble, poured in bronze? What great lengths have they traveled to achieve what high aims, and who decided they were worthy of statuary? Also, how long should these figures stay up, remain relevant, remain revered?

Vlady. *Accusation Checklist*. Stockholm. 09-2020 (photo © Vlady)

History is written by the victors, not the morally sound. Some get elevated because of the cult of personality, or a campaign of suppression. So whether they are soaring, sublime, or ridiculous, most statues represent the values and goals of the society – or at least the dominant culture. But when values and social mores change, so do these character’s relevance and appropriateness.

Street artist Vlady questions whether we really know everything we should about these people hoisted above us at City Hall, in the center of the fountain at the park, at the entrance to the library. Have you done your due diligence?

In fact, Vlady believes that “despite our memorable achievements, we are all despicable people.”

“Morality, ethics, fashion, taste and even religion can change profoundly over time. Nothing remains constant, and neither good nor bad are defined exactly the same way.”

Helpfully, he has drawn up a number of “Accusation checklist” signs for Swedish city-dwellers to learn truthful or bogus facts about their statues.

“I have targeted random statues in Stockholm, assuming that each of these celebrated individuals of the past had despicable moral conduct, according to today’s ethics,” he tells us. “My accusations are on the funny side, but quite frankly, probably close to real.”

Lucy McLauchlan Naturally in London

September 16, 2020 Artists

Birmingham, Englands’ Lucy McLauchlin carries the patterns and textures of natural forms in her mind and her paint brushes wherever she goes. In this new mural on a pebbledash wall in London, her ongoing fascination for the organic again intercedes the spirit of graphic geometry.

Lucy McLauchan. London Mural Festival. London, UK. (photo © George Mapp)

“I tend to approach a wall by firstly understanding it’s situation within its surrounding area,” she tells us, “this leads my painting so it’s more of a collaboration in a sense.” Working in context is still uncommon in the street art milieu, although some profess to create work with the local culture firmly in mind. For McLauchlin, it’s an intuitive process.

“In this case I allow a spontaneous approach to guide my brush marks as they grow across the surface,” she says.

Naturally.

City Takes Your Bus Stop? Biancoshock Will Help You Build a New One.

September 15, 2020 Artists

“The citizens, using their artisanal skills, built a new bus-stop in the same place where the institutional one resided,” says street artist Biancoshock, “choosing the shape, the colors, the useful information and its name.”

Biancoshock. *A Via Nov (New Street).* Cvtà Street Fest. Civitacampomarano, Italy. (photos courtesy of the artist)

This is community participation at its best and another route of inquiry into public space and its relationship to city dwellers for this Italian conceptual artist.

“The old bus stop was removed many years ago because it was damaged. The transport company never replaced it,” he explains.

The space was abandoned by the municipality but not by the neighborhood – so he and another noteworthy street artist Alice Pasquini convened a Zoom meeting with area neighbors during a Covid-skewed version of this years’ CVTà Street Fest in Civitacampomarano. Pasquini is also the Artistic Director of the Festival in this Medieval Italian village that is wrestling with depopulation and the related loss of services.

The bus shelter was designed to shelter a historic bench where every day the inhabitants meet for a chat at the end of the day – a symbolic and meaningful place that helps keep the sociability alive.

Together with the shelter, the stop pole was created, which shows the institutional signage and the updated timetables of the urban routes that connect the village with the city. Together they have named the bus stop A-VIA-NOV, which in the local dialect is translated as New Street.

A great new public space for the public to enjoy and the municipality is still happily ignorant of the fact. “No transport company was notified about this action,” Biancoshock tells us.

“So for me, this intervention can be interpreted more as an activist gesture than an artwork.”

Project by Biancoshock

Art direction: Alice Pasquini

Cvta Street Festival 2020, Civitacampomarano (CB) – Italy

Bastardilla in Love With Bees and the Taste of Summer in Stornara, Italy

September 14, 2020 Artists

Before there were drones, there were bees. They are far more sophisticated still when it comes to their subtleties of collecting pollen on their furry bodies, flying on translucent panels through the heavy sticky air.

Bastardilla. Stornara, Italy. (photo © Bastardilla)

Here in Stornara, Italy, artist Bastardia is thinking of their bodies positively charged with static electricity, nervously excited as they plunder the petals, ready to attract the fine powder dust shaken loose from the flower, alight on the music meanderings of summer.

The artist invites us into this delicate world, imagining further the relationship of the bees and the flowers, playing to one another, with one another, their minds drunk with love.

BSA Images of the Week: 09.13.20

September 13, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring CAM, David F. Barthold, JJ Veronis, Martha Cooper, Poi Everywhere, REVS, SoulOne, Tones, UFO 907, Winston Tseng, and WK Interact.

Tones tribute to SoulOne (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REVS SuperSport has been updated one more time. This piece has been running for more than a decade going from black to silver to red and blue. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. ACAb (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As it’s become customary every year, the FDNY honored their fallen brothers and sisters who rushed to save the victims of the 9/11 attacks on the Twin Towers in NYC 19 years ago. Hundreds of firemen in uniform gathered at the Firemen’s Memorial Monument at Riverside Park in Manhattan. The names of the 343 members of the New York City Fire Department who were killed at the site of the attacks were read. In addition to those killed 19 years ago, 227 firemen have died of illnesses related to their rescue and recovery efforts at the WTC, their names were read as well. Riverside Park, Manhattan, NYC September 11, 2020. (photo © Martha Cooper)

European Month Of Photography 2020 in Berlin Features “Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures” Exhibition at UN

September 12, 2020 Artists

We’re proud to announce that our exhibition Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures will be featured during the prestigious European Month of Photography (EMOP) in Berlin this October for Urban Nation Museum’s very first photography-based program.

The European Month of Photography is a network of European photo festivals which began in 2004 when photography enthusiasts in Berlin, Paris and Vienna decided to put photographic art at the center of public attention for one month at least every two years. It is Germany’s largest photography festival.

Today EMOP it is a network of photography and visual arts institutions from seven European capitals: Berlin, Budapest, Bratislava, Ljubljana, Luxembourg, Paris, and Vienna with aims “to confront expertise in curatorial practice in photography and the intention to develop common projects, notably exhibitions, including exchange of information about the local photographers and artists concerned with photography. Founding members include the Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, the Cultural Department of the City of Berlin (Museumspädagogischer Dienst Berlin headed by Thomas Friedrich) and the Department for Cultural Affairs of the City of Vienna (director Bernhard Denscher).

Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures combine photographs and personal artefacts in this retrospective that traces her life from her first camera in nursery school in 1946 to her reputation today as a world-renowned photographer. The exhibition covers Cooper’s wide range of subject matter. Many of her photographs have become iconic representations of a time, place, or culture and are distinguished by their frank human vitality, with an eye for preserving details and traditions of cultural significance.

We’re grateful for this recognition of the exhibition and look forward to participating in the EMOP 2020 this October and we hope you can join us at Urban Nation – if not in person then please join us ONLINE for our LIVESTREAM opening October 2 ! https://www.facebook.com/events/3400074053384213 All are welcome!

Our special thanks to our entire team at Urban Nation including but not limited to Martha Cooper and Director Jan Sauerwald and
Melanie Achilles, Dr. Hans-Michael Brey, Carsten Cielobatzki, Sean Corcoran, Annette Dooman, Steve Fiedler, Seth Globepainter, Florian Groß, Sven Harke-Kajuth, Nancy Henze, Michelle Houston, Hendrik Jellema, René Kaestner, Kerstin Küppers, Nika Kramer, Barbara Krimm, Tobias Kunz, Jean-Paul Laue, Beatrice Lindhorst, Nicola Petek, Carlo McCormick, Selina Miles, Michelle Nimpsch, Christian Omodeo, Christiane Pietsch, Dennis Rodenhauser, Jens Rueberg, Dr. Anne Schmedding, Malte Schurau, Janika Seitz, Anna Piera di Silvestre, Skeme, Markus Terboven, Reinaldo Verde, Lennart Volber, Akim Walta, Samuel Walter, Rebecca Ward, and Susan Welchman.

BSA Film Friday 09.11.20

September 11, 2020 Artists, BSA Film Friday

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

Now screening :
1. Esteban del Valle – The End is Near
2. NADIA VADORI-GAUTHIER: Une minute de danse par jour – September 2020.

BSA Special Feature: Esteban del Valle

An excerpt from Esteban del Valle’s artist talk for The Fine Arts Work Center Summer 2020 Virtual Event, where he discussed his work in an upcoming solo exhibition “The End is Near” at Albert Merola Gallery Sept 4 – 24, 2020.

Une Minue de Danse in 2020

LET’S DANCE! Your interpretation is welcomed.

It’s good to see that Nadia Vadori-Gauthier is still innovating on the street. BSA has featured her work many times in the last half-decade, and we admire her tenacity. With more than 2066 daily dances, the French performer has been dancing every day for at least one minute since January 14, 2015.

She often stages her performances in Paris in public spaces. Before Covid-19 she had the freedom to interact with the public and immerse herself within the context of the public space. Below we share with you some of her most recent performances.

NADIA VADORI-GAUTHIER: Une minute de danse par jour / September 7 2020.

NADIA VADORI-GAUTHIER: Une minute de danse par jour / September 3 2020.

NADIA VADORI-GAUTHIER: Une minute de danse par jour / August 23 2020.

NADIA VADORI-GAUTHIER: Une minute de danse par jour / July 3 2020

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