All posts tagged: Steven P. Harrington

Hannes Tirén Paints in a WWII Bunker in Malmö, Sweden  (Video)

Hannes Tirén Paints in a WWII Bunker in Malmö, Sweden (Video)

“An underground bunker from World War II.

A manic artist painting day and night for several months.

A party in the forest and his first show/exhibition…”

That’s how street artists Erik Vestment & Nils Petter described to us this hidden art installation and show by Hannes Tirén that they recorded on video below the surface in Malmö, Sweden.

brooklyn-street-art-Hannes-Tiren-Erik-Nils-Petter-web
Hannes Tirén. (photo © Erik & Nils Petter)

In it you see the Stockholm native buffing the bunker and acclimating to his new environment, gradually filling the ceiling and walls with one contiguous mural, culminating one night in a small candle lit art show for friends and family.

“I had just moved down to Malmö and bumped into Erik over a beer and we knew each other through common friends, and he asked me straight away if I would be up for talking a bike ride down to the shore in the cold rainy autumn evening to show me this military bunker that he thought I should paint,” says Hannes as he recounts the experience, which was more difficult than he may have realized at first.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-2-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

“I spent many many night alone down there trying to paint my way in the darkness with batteries that got moist and with a brain that also kind of went a bit nuts sometimes,” he says as he describes feelings of isolation and strange imaginings – and and how he pushed beyond them.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-3-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

At first, it wasn’t clear what kind of art project he wanted to make in this clandestine concrete cubby hole in the ground. “I had lots of different ideas; to fill it up with candy, or maybe with stolen bike skeletons that I found on my nightly expeditions,” he says.

“But in the end I decided just to try to tell a story in the room with my paint.” For inspiration he looked at his life. “It’s a story about death, love and confusion I suppose – and maybe some more ingredients.”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-4-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

Hannes says he settled into a pattern of waiting until just after dark when he knew respectable people would no longer be walking their dogs on the public lawn near the bunker, and he climbed down into the hole with art supplies and candles to explore. While working he tried not to be disturbed by the eerie acoustics.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-6-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

“I had to wait to climb down to into the pitch dark hole that made sounds vibrate in impossible ways,” he says with some trepidation. “The waves from the ocean, the birds that screamed in the middle of the night – they all sounded different in different places. So when I moved into a new position or location the sound vibrations in the half-sphered room played tricks with me.”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-7-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

After many trips from his apartment to the bunker over the course of a year, it was finally show time. “Erik brushed off the dust and made the last night epic and magic,” Hannes recalls. “He had a tent that we put over the entrance to the bunker, filled it with candle lights and much much more. He really pulled much of the tough work and I’m forever grateful for how successful the night became.”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-5-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

The plan was for guests to keep warm by a bonfire a hundred meters away and for Hannes to invite them in small groups to come see the installation below. “I told them to be careful because of all the burning candles,” he says about the possibility of hair catching on fire in the close quarters. “I myself accidentally started a fire the night before when I lit a candle that was too close to the wall. Not much damage done although there was much smoke.”

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-8-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

Brooklyn-Street-Art-740-9-screenshot-copyright-Hannes-Tiren

Hannes Tirén. (screenshot from video © Erik & Nils Petter)

 

Have a look at another hidden underground oasis project from last year by Erik Vestment & Nils Petter, who debuted their project “The Pier” last June here on BSA.

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

Read more
El Mac Brings Electricity to Creativity at Northeastern University

El Mac Brings Electricity to Creativity at Northeastern University

El Mac, the LA based aerosol Caravaggio has just illuminated a university wall in Boston with a portrait of his wife as alchemist, a glowing vision completed on the side of Northeastern’s Meserve Hall this month in time for Spring graduation.

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-1

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

“The meeting of art and sciences is key to this campus,” says Todd Mazer, who lives in the city and who spent a lot of time with the artist while he painted, shooting incredible photos of the process. The image based on a photo of Kim presents a perfect marriage of symbols for the university, but also may refer directly to the artists’ personal lineage, he confides.

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-4

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

“Mac’s father went to Northeastern and studied Engineering where he met Mac’s mother, who was an artist going to MassArt at the time,” he explains, “so the lightning, which is science, and the brush, which is art, just may represent his parents. In his distinctive style that includes scientifically chilling paint cans in a cooler with ice, El Mac renders an heroic, comely, and gentle figure even on this rough surface using a circular patterning that appears alternately mechanically digitized or smooth as a Vermeer, depending on your angle and distance from the work.

Even the starry sky may be a reference to his father, we learn, because of his father’s history with things astronomical. “Also the stars above could be of significance too because although Mac was born in LA he moved to Phoenix because his father was pursuing a career in the space program.”

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-3

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

On breaks from plowing through 150 or so cans of paint, El Mac also took time to see art at his dad’s Alma Matter, poking inside the Museum of Fine Arts, Todd tells us. “He mostly painted but since he was just across the street from the MFA it was on his mind and when he got some small windows of time he would head over there,” says Mazer.

“It was nice to see him get off the lift and put down the iced out cans and catch some inspiration from a different surface. I remember him with a pencil and a sketchbook in front of a sculpture and just like earlier in the day at the wall I got a sense he was somewhere he belongs.”

Our sincere thanks to Todd for sharing these images with BSA readers.

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-6

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-2

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-9

Northeastern University (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-5

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-10

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-11

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-8

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

brooklyn-street-art-el-mac-todd-mazer-northeastern-universty-boston-05-15-web-7

El Mac (photo © Todd Mazer)

 

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more
Skount and Rone : Lady Lying Under an Amsterdam Bridge

Skount and Rone : Lady Lying Under an Amsterdam Bridge

Collaboration between artists can be fraught with peril; styles don’t mesh, egos don’t play nice, mismatched palettes produce nausea.

Here is an example when it works. Rone’s realist/pulp fiction figures wouldn’t normally dance with Skounts’ folk patterns and mystical symbols but here they are complimentary. Rone provides the girl, Skount gives her a dress.

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-7

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

Wonder what she thinks about when she opens her eyes and stares at the bottom of the bridge, listening to the traffic rumbling across it above her. The Australian artist Rone paints portraits of sexy women – not in a sexualized manner, just oozing with sexiness. Skount, who is from Spain but lives in Amsterdam takes inspiration from old masters and popular culture as well as from traditional ornamental geometry and illustration. This is an unusual pairing that works well as collaboration.

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-3

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-2

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-5

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-1

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-4

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

brooklyn-street-art-skount-rone-amsterdam-05-15-web-6

Skount . Rone. Amsterdam. May 2015. (photo © Skount)

Read more
Mario Mankey: GO! GO! GO! BIG BIG DIG! in Valencia

Mario Mankey: GO! GO! GO! BIG BIG DIG! in Valencia

Mankey is a Spanish artist now living in Berlin who is challenging himself to study and learn from artists and culture to find his own distinctive voice. Combining elements of comics, animation, primitavism, deconstructed graffiti, abstraction, Miro, Picasso, and Basquiat, the energy powering his assembled exploration is a professed desire to learn from and to talk to an audience.

brooklyn-street-art-mario-mankey-valencia-05-15-web-3

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

“Going Big” is what a lot of street artists and muralists are doing today, and this title is probably as sarcastic as it is directive. Mankey questions the testosterone fueled impulsive behaviors of man, even while observing them in himself and this figurative raging stallion, powered by an electric abstraction in his loins is pushing out into your field of view and as far off the wall as it can get with fury and possibly fear.

His bio says Mankey contemplates social topics such as hierarchies, male chauvinism, anthropology, racism, and respect for the environment – it is interesting to see how those concerns are expressed in this aesthetic context.

He says the purpose of his work is to start a dialog through art. See if you can break it down.

brooklyn-street-art-mario-mankey-valencia-05-15-web-4

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

brooklyn-street-art-mario-mankey-valencia-05-15-web-1

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

brooklyn-street-art-mario-mankey-valencia-05-15-web-2

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

brooklyn-street-art-mario-mankey-valencia-05-15-web-6

Mario Mankey. Go! Go! Go! BigBigDig! Valencia, Spain. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of the artist)

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 05.24.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.24.15

brooklyn-street-art-cern-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-2

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

New York is bittersweet as we are welcoming summer this weekend and remembering those who served and who were lost in war as well (Memorial Day); amidst a changing political atmosphere where the country is tentatively beginning to seriously debate whether the US should have gone to Iraq and Afghanistan.

So it’s also Fleet Week in New York, which means a lot of sailors and marines and Coast Guard personnel are carousing the tourist spots and bars – sort of a military spring break and a chance for the local girls and boys to yell out “Hey Sailor!” – and  flash some flirty eyes. It’s also big weekend for movies, barbecues, beers, burping, suntans, rummage sales, bike rides, and of course spray painting empty trailers in cluttered lots. That’s why we start this weeks pack with a new stallion just sprayed on a trailer in Williamsburg by Cern. He’s running wild with a great view of the cityscape behind him.

Also, Kiss Me I’m Irish!

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Cern, Christos Voutichtis, David De La Mano, Din din, Dont Fret, DourOne, Iraq Veterens Against the War, Kuma, Mata Ruda, Miishab, Musketon, Pablog H Harymbat, Rebel, Smells, Sweet Toof, Temo & Miel, and Urma.

Top image above by Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-cern-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-1

Cern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-irak-veterans-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

Iraq Veterans Against The War (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-mata-ruda-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-1

Mata Ruda in Jersey City, NJ for Savage Habbit. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-mata-ruda-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-2

Mata Ruda in Jersey City, NJ for Savage Habbit. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-telmo-miel-dormunt-germany-web

Telmo & Miel new mural in Dortmund, Germany for 44309//Street Art Gallery. (photo © Courtesy of 44309 // Street Art Gallery)

brooklyn-street-art-smells-sweet-toof-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

Smells . Sweet Toof (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-artist-unknown-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-6

Musketon. It’s in the cloud… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-dourone-phil-sanchez-los-angeles-05-24-15-web-1

DourOne new wall in Los Angeles, CA. (photo © Phil Sanchez)

brooklyn-street-art-artist-unknown-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-1

Artist Unknown. This has got to be one of the more elaborate ways we have seen to throw an insult. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-miishab-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

Miishab (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-dont-fret-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

Dont Fret (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-david-de-la-mano-pablo-h-harymbat-montevideo-uruguay-05-24-15-web-1

David De La Mano and Pablo H Harymbat in Montevideo, Uruguay. (photo © Harymbat)

brooklyn-street-art-david-de-la-mano-pablo-h-harymbat-montevideo-uruguay-05-24-15-web-2

David De La Mano and Pablo H Harymbat in Montevideo, Uruguay. (photo © Harymbat)

brooklyn-street-art-kuma-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-din-din-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-2

Din Din (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-din-din-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web-1

Din Din (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-rebel-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

Rebel (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-urma-domenico-laterza-Christos-Voutichtis-milan-05-24-15-web

Urma. New installation in Milan. (photo © Christos Voutichtis)

In case you thought that your uncle Ernie was the only one full of hot air, public artist creates this installation that attempts to capture the breath of the city. He tells us that in the end he decided his experiment was a good mix of architecture, Art, and postmodern French literature.

“I applied simple means to build parametric and temporary installations;

It is an open system, varying with steadily modifying environmental processes, but without completely changing its own structure.”

brooklyn-street-art-urma-domenico-laterza-milan-05-24-15-web

Urma. New installation in Milan. Interior. (photo © Domenico Laterza)

brooklyn-street-art-jaime-rojo-05-24-15-web

Untitled.  Manhattan fly over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

 

Read more
Coney Art Walls: First 3 Completed and Summer Begins

Coney Art Walls: First 3 Completed and Summer Begins

Summer Just Got More Fun in NYC as Coney Reinvents Itself Again

You know the scene: Cotton candy, blasting music, bold fonted signs, city beach, sticky fingers, tattoos, carnival barkers, rollercoaster barfing, stolen kisses under the boardwalk, big bellied men with their shirts off, giggling girls in flipflops smelling like coconut sunscreen, garbage on the sand, mermaids, porta potties, stuffed animals, concrete, cigars, hot dogs, butts, boobs, lipstick, screaming, flashing old-timey light bulbs, kids passed out in strollers, boozy Romeos, sketchy snake oil salesmen, aerosol painted walls by New York’s old skool graff writers. That last part is now in effect, actually.

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-1

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Instead of being hunted down for catching a tag or bubble lettered throw up, a couple dozen graffiti/street art painters are invited to hit up Coney Island this summer and since today is the inaugural Saturday of the first unofficial weekend of summer in New York, we’re bringing you the first three freshly completed pieces. Part of “Coney Art Walls”, the muralists began taking the train out to this seaside paved paradise that is re-inventing itself once again, this time courtesy of art curator Jeffrey Deitch.

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-3

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This week while the sun was still struggling to get a handle on Summer, we captured the early crew hitting up the temporary two sided walls outside and inside the compound that will share space with food vendors, picnic tables and a stage for music performances. Some brought family while they worked and a few even took a ride on the Cyclone with Martha Cooper just to scream their heads off. The artist lineup is looking stellar, with golden names predominantly associated with New York’s 70s-80s graff heyday sprinkled with a few of the current street art contenders, but you never know what is popping up next, or who. It’s Coney Island after all.

Here are the first three completed murals with the Tats Cru twins How & Nosm leading the pace, followed by Crash and Daze.

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-2

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-4

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-martha-cooper-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web

The one and only Martha Cooper shooting How & Nosm at work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-6

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-7

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-5

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-how-nosm-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-8

How & Nosm (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-daze-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-2

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-daze-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-1

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-daze-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-4

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-daze-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-3

Daze (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-2

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-8

Crash. The inspiration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-7

Crash. The sketch. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-6

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-5

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-4

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-crash-jaime-rojo-coney-art-walls-05-22-15-web-3

Crash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This article is also published on The Huffington Post

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Huffpost-Coney-Island-740-Screen-Shot-2015-05-27-at-11.24.17-AM

 

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more
BSA Film Friday: 05.22.15

BSA Film Friday: 05.22.15

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Copyright-Animal-Rap-Quotes-ATL-740-Screen-Shot-2015-05-21-at-10.07

bsa-film-friday-JAN-2015

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

Now screening :

1. Rap Quotes ATL: Dirty South Edition
2. Narcelio Grud – Cinetic Graffiti
3. DourOne in South Park LA by Phil Sanchez
4. Haeler Keeping Detroit Alive

Rap Quotes ATL: Dirty South Edition

We’re here in the Waffle House in the dirty south talking about putting up site-specific rap lyrics all around Atlanta. Pass the syrup please. This Rap Quotes project has taken you from New York to LA and Philly and now to the gateway. It’s a treasure hunt, it’s educational, it’s musical, historical, geographical, features strip clubs, – fun for the whole dysfunctional family! Big ups to Jay Shells and Animal New York for keeping this flame high!

Narcelio Grud – Cinetic Graffiti

The latest project incorporating hand made creations and artistic vision, Grud may have perplexed more participants than titilated with this one; a hand-powered sound installation.

DourOne in South Park LA by Phil Sanchez

The neighborhood of South Park hired DourOne to paint this mural in Los Angeles through their business improvement initiative. The commercial artist from Madrid has done a number of jobs with alcohol brands so his chops are smooth and this multi-sliced portrait is meant to evoke the character of various neighborhoods in LA.

Haeler Keeping Detroit Alive

Another entry from Animal New York this week – the graffiti artist Haeler in Detroit, where all things are running wild right now as entrepreneurs, artists, prospectors, and snake oil salesmen are laying claim to the bones that the banks left. Sidenote: why do people sound like Darth Vader in these videos?

Read more
“We are the people!”, Xenophobia, and Penises for Rallitox in Berlin (NSFW)

“We are the people!”, Xenophobia, and Penises for Rallitox in Berlin (NSFW)

“Wir sind das Volk!” and Dildos from the “Confusionist”

Continuing his human sticker campaign, street artist Rallitox has gathered a nice crowd in front of this portion of the Berlin Wall, otherwise known popularly as the East Side Gallery, many of whom are happily snapping photos as he sticks a couple of friends to it. The installation is a bag of mixed messages, perhaps the biggest is “look at me”, but we’ll help you unpack a couple of others here while we all stare at the spectacle of duct tape and dildos.

brooklyn-street-art-rallitox-berlin-05-15-web-4

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

Wir sind das Volk! (We are the people!) is a phrase associated with a populist movement of reunification that erupted during the fall of the Berlin Wall that separated West from East twenty five years ago, but strangely, according to Rallitox, has been recently commandeered by xenophobes who want to get rid of certain immigrants. “Now the movement called Pegida, who are against the “Islamification” of Germany, are using this slogan for their own profit,” he says, and he is unhappy with this perversion of the original meaning in a campaign that is swaying opinions.

 

brooklyn-street-art-rallitox-berlin-05-15-web-2

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

“Since I was a child I was fascinated with how advertising was conditioning our behaviors, the way we act and how are we supposed to be. I guess that at the end, everything is created in our brains. If you can control people’s minds you can dominate them. If you want to manipulate people you have to control in the best way the languages and symbols that affect us as humans,” he explains.

He admits that this new message of his may not be entirely clear. “This is my psycho-confused response to all those who are trying to claim that there are people who deserve to be ‘the people’ and others who are not good enough to be part of it, depending on what they believe.” That seems pretty clear from here – Rallitox wants to seize the slogan and reclaim it in some way.

brooklyn-street-art-rallitox-berlin-05-15-web-3

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

Now, about the fleshy pink appendages pointed rather parallel to the pavement and attached to this installation: that meaning is slightly less obvious, even while being completely obvious.

“For me the penis is an icon that reflect perfectly the human state of mind,” he explains. “The hypocrisy toward part of the human body that is considered ugly and tasteless even when more or less half of humanity have one between their legs is interesting. On the other hand, drawing and working with penises gives me a lot of trouble in terms of selling my art and it closes doors in some mainstream street art circles where this ¨bad taste¨ is normally not so well received, with the exception of some more open minded blogs or magazines.”

Dang! That compliment was obvious too. Sure glad we are open minded, and since you, dear reader, are reading this, you clearly must be as well

brooklyn-street-art-rallitox-berlin-05-15-web-5

RallitoX. East Side Gallery AKA Berlin Wall. Berlin. May 2015. (photo © courtesy of RallitoX)

Yes under a patriarchal construct you may associate these duct-taped dildos as symbols of power and dominion, or as possible weapons and open provocation, or the implication of a virile conceptual idea. Or we may see these as a criticism of boner headed thinking. Mainly we just keep in mind that dick jokes are often funny and when placed on the street at roughly eye-level, present a great number of entertaining photo opportunities.

“Some viewers don’t understand what the relationship between penises and politics is,” Rallitox says as he sounds like he is about to explain. “I aim to be a confusionist and to use Street Art to spread confusion, awareness, and chaos in some organized way.”

You may agree that the confusion aspect of the work is quite successful here.

 

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more
Skulls, Death and “Memento Mori” on the Street Art Scene

Skulls, Death and “Memento Mori” on the Street Art Scene

Oh death, the world simply brims with it.

Naturally so do the streets.

We’ve been able to cheat it, cavort and dance with it, even bargain with it but so far we have been unable to win the fight. Everyone succumbs.

“Remember you shall die”, or Memento mori, is the medieval Latin theory that we come face to face with, or skull to skull.

brooklyn-street-art-olek-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Olek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artists have been doing the danse macabre for centuries and one cerebral motif appears throughout every medium: the skull. From traditional African masks with skull faces to Shakespeare’s exhumed Yorick in Hamlet to 16th and 17th century European paintings featuring the skull as a motif in portraiture. The Mexicans make sugar candy with skulls, Warhol did multiples with them, Bowie sang to one, Tattoo culture covers skins with them, Damien Hirst encrusts them with diamonds, Game of Thrones has the Lord of Bones, they’re featured at the Museum of Morbid Anatomy, and Korean rapper Jay Park is styled as one on his video.

Even current Street Artists have a fascination with skulls, with Swoon in a show called Memento Mori and the Italian Street Artist Borondo’s named his new book after it. Today we wander out into the street with your hand in ours to look at death, as interpreted by artists of the street right now.

brooklyn-street-art-sweet-toof-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Sweet Toof (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-vexta-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Vexta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-nick-walker-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-mr-toll-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-zach-meyer-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Zach Meyer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-qrst-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-dee-dee-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-daek-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Daek (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-alexis-diaz-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Alexis Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-katsu-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Katsu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-dennis-mcnett-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Dennis McNett (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-el-nino-de-las-pinturas-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

El Niño de las Pinturas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-eurotrash-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Eurotrash (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-bunnym-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-buff-monster-jaime-rojo-10-30-13-web

Buff Monster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-balu-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-code-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Code (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-el-sol-25-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

El Sol 25 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-damon-jaime-rojo-05-15-web

Damon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-mr-toll-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-2

Mr. Toll (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Brooklyn-Street-Art-Huffpost-Memento-Mori-740-Screen-Shot-2015-05-21-at-10.33.53-AM

Read more
Hot Tea Creates a Swimming “Asylum” on Roosevelt Island

Hot Tea Creates a Swimming “Asylum” on Roosevelt Island

Street Artist and installation artist Hot Tea is back in New York and getting ready for summer by blending his color palette into concrete rather than suspending it strand-by-strand in the air.

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-8

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Minneapolis based yarn artist very possibly has some Mexican blood because this private pool commission is strikingly washed in color that plays with the structural geometry in a way reminiscent of work by the architect Luis Barragan and his disciple Ricardo Legorreta. The Spanish conquerors were reportedly impressed with the colorfully painted buildings as well as the advanced architecture they found when they invaded the Aztec City of Tenochtitlan, now known as Mexico City and here on Roosevelt Island Hot Tea embraces jubilant color with the same passion that the two Mexican Masters did in their public and private projects.

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-2

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In his large scale yarn installations the gradient fade from one color to another in three dimensional circumstances can evoke deeper emotional/psychological responses than one may expect: likely because of the gradual shifts and bending light waves and your own associations that are triggered by color. Now using paint instead of yarn, Hot Tea says that the desired effect is the same.

“This piece is inspired by my color field installations that take up both private and public spaces.  I love introducing color to spaces that seem neglected or forgotten.”

Once the home of an asylum, the island is still a quasi secret getaway that just happens to lie in the plain view of Manhattan and Queens. Because of its location and its history, the artist says he has felt that the pool project has summoned both associations of a place to escape to and a place where mental states are out of balance.

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-1

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I entitled this piece “Asylum” because the act of creating it pushed my mental and physical endurance so far that I wasn’t sure I could complete the task,” he says of the challenge. Painting by himself such a large expanse in only a few days may have been more difficult than he had estimated, but he is satisfied with the otherworldly effect the result is summoning.

“When people experience my installations I hope that they will remember the experience far after the moment is gone.  My goal for people who are viewing my work is to evoke subconscious feelings one may have forgotten.”

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-3

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-6

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-5

Hot Tea, perfectly framed by his own creation, takes a lap in your imagination. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-4

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-hot-tea-jaime-rojo-05-15-web-7

Hot Tea (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

Read more
The Adventures Of Anthony Lister

The Adventures Of Anthony Lister

Superhero and Street Artist/painter/contemporary artist Anthony Lister still crushes walls thank you very much. He never left the street actually – he just opened the door to the studio as well. And he lit things on fire in both.

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-1

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Formally trained, he is one of the few of those much maligned art school kids painting on the street whom some graff heads allow themselves to admire, mostly because he doesn’t seem to give a good f**k. Don’t be mislead – he is a superhero as well as a villain, aesthete as much as vandal, respectful of convention even while shredding it. Anyone watching him work over the last decade will tell you that he cares very much and he is willing to do the heavy intellectual/emotional/physical labor to bring it to another level.

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-2

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Not-quite “mid-career” this collection none-the-less sets him up for it and a smart museum would be reading these pages carefully, pouring over the tags, Lister family tour stickers, inflateables, masks, installations, performances,  as well as the more formal canvasses and supercharged murals  and considering where this child/adult paradox fits into the record of art history.

It’s the poetic movement of Degas ballerinas as much as the busty cellulite-free duct taped anti-heroines that captivate and denigrate. His slouching insouciance belies a rabid unglued ferocity that will mock mass consumer culture and then smother you in pink frosting and rainbows, stubbing his cigarette in the mountain of sugar and Crisco like it is the final candied cherry.

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-3

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adventure Painter, the mid-sized Lister tome released last year on Gingko, lets you see the rage and the release all at once. He’s furious because he’s paying attention – well thank God somebody is.

With figures that are alive, gestural, stylish and taunting, these beauties will save, lay, or kill you – perhaps all three. The  portraits are full of quixotic personality, angst and revulsion. We imagine Listers’ people lustily self-mocking and fantastic while jumping off dangerous cliffs and sleekly folding into a roll out of it without suffering the crash. From their perch below they look up to you standing on the ledge and beckon, “Okay, your turn!”

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-4

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-6

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-9

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-10

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-anthony-lister-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-11

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” Gingko Press. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Anthony Lister “Adventure Painter” is published by Gingko Press and available at book stores worldwide.

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

 

Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.15

brooklyn-street-art-alexis-diaz-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Shout out to all the great Swoon fans we met last night during the artists talk with her. All the seats were filled so it was standing room only in the back but yet it felt so intimate. Ya’ll are stupendous and smart and handsome and beautiful and we were honored to be with you.

Shout out to the family of American blues institution BB King who passed on this week. His music and talent influenced so many. Sending love and condolences to his family and friends.

Let’s see what Jeffery Deitch has in store for Smorgasburg Coney Island starting this week in preparation for the Memorial Day weekend opening – published reports have the roster of street artists at 15 but we’re hearing closer to 25 will be hitting up temporary concrete walls in this outdoor gallery he is doing in partnership with a large real estate firm to promote the new Coney Island.  Some names you’ll recognize are old skool 70s-80s train writers like Lee Quinones, Crash, Daze, Lady Pink, Futura, and new people he has been reaching out to from the 2000s and 2010s scene who we bring you regularly like How & Nosm, Skewville, Steve Powers, possibly even ROA . This list will surely grow as word gets out and artists besiege Mr. Deitch to participate. The full installation is to last a month and will be surely caught on film and timelapse video.

Meanwhile, here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alexis Diaz, Alka Murat, Appleton, Marco Berta, Blaqk Blaqk, City Kitty, Creepy Creep, Dain, Dasic Fernandez, Duke A. Barnstable, Elsa Sauguet, Eva & Adele, Ever, Goldman Rats, Ines Maas, JR, Penny Gaff, Robert Janz, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas, Seikon Stav6, and Swoon.

Top Image: Alexis Diaz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-dasic-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Dasic for Welling Court in LIC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-appleton-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Appleton (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-swoon-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Swoon (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-artist-unknown-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-2

An unknown artist created this installation of a suspension bridge in Chelsea and we dig it! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-artist-unknown-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-3

Front view of the suspension bridge in Chelsea by an unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-Ever-nicolas-Romero-Elsa-Sauguet-Sebastian-Reinoso-Salinas-Ines-Maas-marcos-berta-05-16-15-web

A scene from Nicolas Romero AKA Ever in Buenos Aires, Argentina in collaboration with performers Elsa Sauguet, Sebastian Reinoso Salinas y Ines Maas and sculptor Marcos Berta (photo © Ever)

About the show, from Ever:

” ‘头部 (The Head)’ is an art installation based on the analysis of Chinese Communist posters. When the posters represent the ‘idea’, people are always down the picture and the Mao Tse Tung portrait always floating in heaven, protecting that theory founded in the Russian winters. When they want to describe the pragmatics, Mao is cultivating flowers, going to visit schools, etc.

The idea with ‘The Head’ is to think why the “communist theory” fails in its application to reality, and this is because many times the idea has to be corresponded o taken through a body, a body that exercises the idea, that exercises power. That’s why, part of the installation that we present here, invites people to get into the head, so we all can have the feeling that we are not loyal to the theory; the idealization is as dangerous as it is obsessive.”

brooklyn-street-art-andy-warhol-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-dain-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-stav6-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Stav6 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-creepy-creep-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Creepy Creep (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-Seikon-blaqk-alka-murat-greece-05-16-15-web

Blaqk Blaqk in collaboration with Seikon in Greece. (photo © Alka Murat)

brooklyn-street-art-jr-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

JR from his Walking New York series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-penny-gaff-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Penny Gaff must be warming up for the Faile arcade show coming to Brooklyn Museum in July. War games…lethal. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-robert-janz-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Robert Janz (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-goldman-rats-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Goldman Rats already has selected the next president. You may now return to your regular scheduled programming. Enjoy! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-duke-a-barnstable-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

It’s lilac season! Duke A Barnstable is feeling poetic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-artist-unknown-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web-1

Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-city-kitty-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

brooklyn-street-art-eva-adele-jaime-rojo-05-10-15-web

Untitled. Art in the streets as Berlin based performance artists and fine artists Eva & Adele are seen here “performing” some  last minute ensemble adjustments before hitting the art fairs – as is their wont. Chelsea, New York City. May 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read more