All posts tagged: Toxicomano

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.11.24

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.11.24

Happy Lunar New Year! Happy Chinese New Year!

And welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

New Yorkers are having a grand celebration this weekend as the Year of the Dragon begins, and traditional lion and dragon dances wend their way through Chinatowns in Manhattan and Queens. You’ll be seeing lots of red, hopefully getting some money in red envelopes (hongbao), and eating dumplings (symbolizing wealth), fish (representing surplus and abundance), and sticky rice cakes. To all our neighbors celebrating, “恭喜发财” (Gōngxǐ fācái), which means “Wishing you wealth and prosperity.”

Later this week, we’ll all profess love for one another on Valentine’s Day. Looks like red is the color for New York this week.

Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Homesick, Toxicomano, ERRE, CP Won, Qzar, Hektad, Jappy Agoncillo, ToastOro, Senk, Stesi, CASH RFC Crew, OSK OSK, NAY, and Kosuke James.

OSK OSK in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Homesick (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CASH RFC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NAY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
STESI (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Senk (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HekTad (photo © Jaime Rojo)
QZAR (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CP WON in collaboration with East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Kosuke James (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jappy Agoncillo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Toastoro (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Toastoro (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Toxicomano in collaboration with East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ERRE in collaboration with East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
#ceasefire (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Red Love (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.07.22

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.07.22

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

An exceptional collection of new works from across the city today. The streets are not resting this summer in New York.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis VOZ, Toxicomano, ERRE, A Visual Bliss, Huetek, Hef, COrn Queen, DepsOne, Baby Nivo, Vaynegiare, Ark, and Aerosol Kingdom.

ARK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aerosol Kingdom. A Visual Bliss (photo © Jaime Rojo)
C0rn Queen (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Toxicomano (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Toxicomano (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vaynegiare (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ERRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ERRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Huetek (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEF (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEF (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Baby Nivo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Black Lives Matter…yes don’t you ever forget. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DepsOne (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DepsOne. Detail. The Bushwick Collective (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. Summer 2022. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Photos Of BSA 2021: #14: Know Your Rights

Photos Of BSA 2021: #14: Know Your Rights

We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family for your support in 2021. We have selected some of our favorite shots from the year by our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo, and are sharing a new one every day to celebrate all our good times together, our hope for the future, and our love for the street.


Your human rights are inalienable. You are born with them, and no one can “take them away”.

Unfortunately, there always seem to be insidious new laws and new lawlessness to prevent people from exercising their rights fully.

We like this piece from Colombia’s Toxicomano on a New York street in 2021 because it has a certain “retro” style, dating back to the 2000s Street Art vernacular with its “photocopy” filtering – as well as the 70s/80s punk pioneers and the hand-made zine culture of that time.

We also think it is incredibly on-point today when rights are being eroded wherever you look, and knowing your rights is the first step to retaining them.

Toxicomano. Houston Street. Manhattan, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

More Information to Help You Know Your Rights

Courtesy the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)


Stopped by Police: Learn about your rights when stopped by the police, and how to stay safe.

Religious Freedom Learn more here about your right to express your religion and beliefs.

Students’ Rights Learn about your rights on campus and what to do if school rules violate those rights.

LGBTQ Rights Learn about your rights as a member of the LGBTQ community.

Voting Rights Learn more about how to exercise your voting rights, including how to resist voter intimidation efforts, and access disability-related accommodations or language assistance at the polls.

Protesters’ Rights The First Amendment protects your right to assemble and express your views through protest.

Sex Discrimination Learn about your right to be protected against sex discrimination.

Prisoners’ Rights Learn about your right to be protected against discrimination and abuse in prison.

Race, Ethnicity, or National Origin-Based Discrimination Learn about your right to be free from discrimination based on race, ethnicity, or national origin.

Disability Rights People with disabilities face discrimination, segregation, and exclusion. But federal disability rights laws provide protection.

Immigrants’ Rights Regardless of your immigration status, you have guaranteed rights under the Constitution.


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Images Of The Week: 07.11.21

Images Of The Week: 07.11.21

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Happy NYC Marathon! The trees all over the city appear to be at peak every year around this event – just check the aerial shot of the finish line as the runners cross it in Central Park today. Also, set your clocks back one hour today, or you’ll arrive late for work tomorrow. If you have a job, that is.

News this week that the prolific and cryptic text writer RAMBO has passed away. We extend our condolences to his friends and family. His passing follows quickly the death of the octogenarian Irish-New York street artist Robert Janz, whose street collages and text installations served as witnesses to ecological and social issues he felt strongly about, as well as were a commentary on the human condition in all its mysteries. Our condolences to all those who were touched by the work and the spirit of Mr. Janz.

Our interview with the street today includes Adrian Wilson, ERRE, Fernsehturn Berlin, Jim Avignon, Layer Cake, Miss Glueniverse, Peter Missing, Praxis, Ron Miller, Sara Lynne-Leo, Joanna Wietecka, Styro, and Toxicomano.

Colombia’s Toxicomano was in the streets of New York recently along with Erre. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sara Lynne-Leo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Styro Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Adrian Wilson with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Miss Glueniverse & Joanna Wietecka for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Miss Glueniverse & Joanna Wietecka for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fernsehturn Berlin (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Miss Glueniverse & Joanna Wietecka for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Layer Cake for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cheer Up, Maggie! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nat At Art. Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Toxicomano, Erre, and Praxis for The L.I.S.A. Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ron Miller for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jim Avignon for Urban Spree in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Peter Missing for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Peter Missing for Urban Nation Museum in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untilted. Berlin with clouds. October 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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Colombia Diary: The Completed Works, The Gold Rush, and the Jaguar in You

Colombia Diary: The Completed Works, The Gold Rush, and the Jaguar in You

Today a wrap up of BSA at an unusual location in Colombia to see a new initiative with Street Artists in an abandoned distillery brought back to life with their imaginations and penchant for transformation.


“Uh, yellow, black, with some white… because it’s high up,” Ben Eine says as he sketches out the four letters, G-O-L-D on a small piece of paper. He’s codifying an idea to paint the letters across the four huge storage tanks where M-City has painted a metaphorical gold-mining scene upon over the last few days. The massive piece is timely and timeless; referencing to the current informal gold rush happening here in Colombia, once again altering the physical and political landscape.


M-City at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A rotating mist fan is slowly stirring the thick tropical air while we sit at the round wooden table in this industrial compound watching Ben with a pen as he shows M-City his idea for topping off the piece – in his own charming manner.

“Yellow, black outline, little shadow. Your shit goes like this, blah blah blah. And then white outline. Or maybe like super light blue outline so it bounces off the silver. Yeah-yeah,” says the English graffiti writer with some final certainty on his vision.

Ben Eine sketching the idea with M-City. May 2018. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Ben Eine added GOLD to M-City ‘s piece at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Martha Cooper)

“Okay, perfect,” says the agreeable M-City, who quickly begins sourcing paint in a nearby pile of cardboard boxes. As a Street Artist who is curating this first phase of painting at this old Colombian distillery for Dictador Art Masters Foundation, he is helping others to hit their goals as much as he is directing his own creative work. Finally the collaboration is finished and it beams across the drying muddy field in the sun.

Ben Eine added GOLD to M-City ‘s piece at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Martha Cooper)

It’s this kind of collaborative camaraderie that often characterizes the Street Art scene across the world and one that sets this project apart from many “festivals”. For one thing, this project is private and small and away from the roaring crowd that can often accompany street works, and developing your idea as an artist can be done with minimal interruption.

The smaller artist roster also means that many of these creators have an opportunity to get to know one another better, to seek feedback, to formulate, to share perspectives. The old distillery setting itself is a highly unusual gallery environment that perpetuates the feeling of an extended studio.

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“We are completely amazed by all the stuff here on every level. All the objects, the whole factory,” says Jan, one half of the Polish duo Monstfur as he surveys a rounded tank that they are spraying layers of grey, black, and white to form a  stenciled cranium that also matches the one tattooed on his arm.

“Feeling the textures, seeing the patterns. Everything is so full of inspiration for us,” he beams. Placed in this laboratory of ideas, the guys seem right at home with their layers of decay and their Frankenstonian mythmaking – including their collective name that combines the English and Polish word for monster.

M-City at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As you climb rusty ladders and duck under cobwebs or the occasional silently swooping bat, you see the possibilities for childlike ideation, opportunities to launch imaginary tales and adventures, directing energy and stirring alchemy.

Toxicomano takes the journey even further.

“Have you heard of Yage?” he asks, eager to share stories of a hallucinogenic plant that people who live in wooded, mountainous regions have used for years to transcend this reality. “It’s a strong beverage in the Amazonian,” he says. “When you drink it you are stoned.”

M-City at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fair enough, but how does that relate to the 4-story high yellow and black jaguar with nice hair that is staring at you like a feline Mona Lisa? You’ve seen him going up and down the cherry-picker carefully laying out and spraying the stencils here for days and this intense model has unveiled, then commanded, this brick wall.

“All persons have a jaguar that is inside,” he explains with a sincere stare into your eyes. You reflexively make a quick internal inventory of yourself to see if it is possible to confirm the veracity of that statement. Well, maaaaaayyyyyybeeeeeee, now that you mention it.

M-City at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“When you drink this yage you can begin to think differently about your place in the world, your people, your environment,” he says. “The jaguar is the tiger of South America. From Mexico to Argentina we have the same jaguar. I think they are really pretty. I think in this area it is possible to find jaguars as well,” he says, which seems to indicate an excellent opportunity to scan the adjacent field of tall grass.

What does this Colombian Street Artist’s jaguar want to do? “I think my jaguar wants to communicate to the others and tell people that everyone has a jaguar inside.”

M-City at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City adds a NYC touch on a conduit at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Martha Cooper)

A great note to end this hot and sticky week in the farmlands and mountains of Northern Colombia. Mixed with the sun and the mud it has also seemed like a possibly mystical place that once housed the precise and time-honored industry of distilling. Now enlivened with the new works of English, Polish, and Colombian graffiti writers and Street Artists, it becomes an installation in an unusual location full of possibility – and we are curious to see where the next phase of this adventure leads.

Artists include: D*Face, Ben Eine, M-City, Monstfur, Toxicomano, Stinkfish, and Erre.

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Martha Cooper)

D*Face at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Toxicomano at the old distillery Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano at the old distillery Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano at the old distillery Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano at the old distillery Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Stinkfish at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stinkfish at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stinkfish and Toxicomano at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stinkfish at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erre at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erre at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erre at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Erre at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Filmmaker Collin Day at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martha Cooper and Steven P. Harrington at the old distillery in Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


This event has been made possible by Dictador Art Masters Foundation. To learn more about the foundation click here.


Thank you to Martha Cooper for sharing her exclusive images with BSA readers.

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Selected Scenes from the Colombia Diary. Day 3 – Moments

Selected Scenes from the Colombia Diary. Day 3 – Moments

This week BSA is in an unusual location in Colombia by invitation to see a new initiative with Street Artists in an abandoned distillery now being brought back to life with their imaginations and penchant for transformation. Come along with us for a few days to see what we discover.


As we are chronicling the movement of the Street Art story into new spaces such as this hybrid venue that transforms an aged factory into a unique ex-urban gallery, it occurs to us that the revolution of this street culture movement has always been in its ability to adapt.

 Stinkfish. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

After last nights’ tumultuous rains that turned much of the dusty ground into thick chocolate mud we walked amongst these hulking steel giants of manufacturing again, seeing everyone and everything with new eyes.

Climbing up the rusted rickety staircases and rotting corrugated floor panels and peering out upon painters and vandals alike as they plot their next proposition, you remain alert for unscripted turns in the plot.

Ben Eine with Connor. Colombia. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Invariably a pause, an ellipse, a stolen moment may reveal something more about the artist and their passage into the creative ether. With a documentarian sense, you’ll want to capture it before it blinks away.

When the creative spirit is fluid in environments such as these, it is possibly impossible to articulate the complex set of actions, reactions, strategic calculations, synchronous movements, awkward missteps, punk pirouettes, and the occasional virtuosic executions that can take place.

Filmmaker Collin Day. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Once you accept that the process of creativity for Street Artists and those who enable them is rather full of magic, you have equipped yourself to see that magic wherever you look. It happens as quickly as the flight of the short-tailed bat that grazes rapidly passed your hat on its way to the roost .

These are fleeting moments.

Monstfur. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City and Martha. Colombia. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Filmmaker Radek Drozdowicz. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis and D*Facew. Colombia. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Ben Eine and Connor. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ben Eine and Connor. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur. Colombia. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Monstfur. Colombia. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

M-City and Martha. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Jensen. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wildife. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wildife. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wildife. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wildife. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barrel’s rings. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


This event has been made possible by Dictador Art Masters Foundation. To learn more about the foundation click here.

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This is How It’s Done : Colombia Diary. Day 2 – Process

This is How It’s Done : Colombia Diary. Day 2 – Process

This week BSA is in an unusual location in Colombia by invitation to see a new initiative with Street Artists in an abandoned distillery now being brought back to life with their imaginations and penchant for transformation. Come along with us for a few days to see what we discover.


In factories and in art-making, process is crucial to success.

Back at this Colombian factory site for a second day of work, the artists are climbing ladders, tracing out shapes, stepping back to check perspective, and lunging forward for the first genuine phase of painting. The brand new initiative on this industrial site sparks your mind with ideas – nothing seems impossible, actually. The future is unwritten.

Ben Eine and Connor. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

So it seems especially appropriately audacious when you see Ben Eine and his son Collin rolling by you on a massive lift that holds them aloft overhead with cans in hand. You deftly dart out of the way so you are not smushed underneath the massive rubber tires that roll toward you, carefully ducking the occasional leafy limb that is snapped off the tree they are grazing in their metal bucket as they paint, now wrapping to another side of the building.

Ben Eine. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

They are spraying out a series of Eine’s iconic lettering across the top floor of one of the compound’s brick facades, and suddenly you may have the feeling that this is the first page of a new book being written. We may not yet know what it will say, but you can appreciate the process, two guys from different generations extending their arms toward the wall, can in hand, propelling clouds of aerosol forward, writing a common missive.

Ben Eine. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scattered through these rusty dusty caverns and crooks there are Street Artists at work; with birds and bats and beats filling the air. A new of industry at work, one can  appreciate now how the image is built. It’s a mysterious and sometimes spell-binding unveiling, carefully considered.

With no specific aesthetic guidelines from their hosts and no review of sketches, we are privileged to see these self-driven murals disclosed in real time without prejudice on walls of the artists choosing.

Stinkfish. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There are myriad processes at play. Placed in the hands of artists who can appreciate the opportunity to create quality works , there is attention to detail and context. Whether it is D*Face’s ironic reappropriation of symbols/text and dramatically tragic heroes – or the pop culture humor of Toxicomano’s leopard queen, or the golden disk framing Stinkfish’s neo Colombian intergalactican icon, its a studied process that makes it happen.

Stinkfish. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City drips with rivers of sweat in the merciless humidity while peeling away one more panel of his four pillar stencil opus called “Goldmine”, his paint encrusted hand dropping another wet cutout with a deft gesture – leaving it to drift in the heavy breeze 3 stories beneath him to the ground.

The Monstfur duo carefully balance on ladders to reach and hold stencils, spraying out each textured layer of industrially inspired grayness, careful to align the successive hand-cuts that they are gridding across a tank that previously carried toxic fluids.

Stinkfish. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

As this projects’ character is taking shape while we are watching, you see that these artists are pouring themselves into the act properly, giving top flight performances.

It’s part of the process.

D*Face. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stephen Thompson of D*Face tam. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D*Face, Louis and Stephen. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City with Martha. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M-City. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Monstfur. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stinkfish . Ben Eine. Colombia. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


This event has been made possible by Dictador Art Masters Foundation. To learn more about the foundation click here.

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New Spirits in an Old Distillery : Colombia Diary. Day 1

New Spirits in an Old Distillery : Colombia Diary. Day 1

This week BSA is in an unusual location in Colombia by invitation to see a new initiative with Street Artists in an abandoned distillery now being brought back to life with their imaginations and penchant for transformation. Come along with us for a few days to see what we discover.


The fantasies of graffiti writers and Street Artists are myriad but a few rise to the top; the abandoned factory is like a fever dream for a certain passionate class of urban explorers who crawl through holes in fences and slide through broken windows just to discover what lies inside these neglected hulks of industry – and to leave their mark.

Stinkfish. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“So when I began painting in Colombia and mainly in Bogotá I would take a photograph of someone in Bogotá and paint it. When I started to travel and I began to take people from one place to another so for example I took people from Colombia to Mexico. I took a lot of photographs in Mexico and took those images with me to Europe. I enjoyed bringing Mexican and Colombian people to Europe. So of course when I was in Europe I took pictures of this girl who was in the subway in Paris – and I brought her back to Colombia,” says Stinkfish.


In the imagination of many aerosol-armed archaeologists is a vision full of heavy pipes, deep coal ovens, chicken-wired windows, soaring steel silos and rusted rotund tanks, puffy clouds of steam wafting about, electrical boxes with color-coded diagrams, and an endless array of iron walkways and ladders that criss-cross at tight angles and climb higher toward the promising future of the Industrial Revolution.

Imagine what it would be like to have one of these places all to yourself and your friends and instead of fearing the security guard, he is there to protect you.

M-City. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This is precisely the project we have walked into – thanks to an invitation from Polish Street Artist and professor M-City, who has convened with Dictador Art Masters Foundation to invite an intimately eclectic mix of European and South American Street Artists to create new pieces inside the hidden compound nestled in leafy palm oil plantations and more than an hour from the nearest city.

M.City. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Closed for decades, the former distillery still contains all its necessary armature of equipment and its ovens and tanks and charcoal barrels – along with tall grasses, a murky stream, many centipedes, some blue spotted wood lizards, black iguanas, and the occasional leopard Gecko.

BSA is here in Colombia for the next few days with M-City, D*Face, Stinkfish, Toxicomano, Ben Eine, and Monstfur along with some other special guests. Today we’ll just show you the work of the “advance crew” of M-City and the Colombian Street Artists Stinkfish and Toxicomano who checked out the place a few months ago and tested walls with some work examples just to see if it would be as divertido as they thought it would be to explore the old factory.

It is.

M-City. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This was just for fun it’s sort of an abandoned submarine which I also did it on a canvas,” says M-City. It is also on the wall at Urban Spree in Berlin.”

What appeals most to him about this project? “It’s exciting because it’s very far from my home in Poland and if you look around you see that there’s nothing around here. It is in the middle of nowhere. We just have the palm trees around and the distillery is in the middle. So we do not have a “public” here. The artists are completely free to do what they want and there are not many people around taking pictures – it’s even kind of secret. So it’s private and it is protected. Nobody can just drop in you know?”

Toxicomano. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Colombian Street Artist Toxicomano took us on a tour of a number of stencil based pieces he put up in advance of this weeks events, explaining that he likes to reclaim symbols and use them for his own meanings. One Smurf we found on a concrete-splattered tiled basewall says “Fuck Racism”.

“I like to use these images because people have in their minds some common association with it and they remember something about it from when they were a child. Now they can  start to think about it differently.”

“In Colombia we have a mixture of races we have black people we have indigenous people we have roots from Spanish people and now we have American and European influences it’s a lot. We mix a lot of things like a soup like a Latin Americans Full of ingredients and we have a special flavor. Also I think a lot of people think of Smurfs as blue but they don’t know that the first Smurf comic was actually a black Smurf and in that particular story the blue Smurfs have a problem with the black Smurf.”

Toxicomano. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“This stencil got me in a lot of trouble on Instagram,” he says the stencil that says “Las mujeres son la verga” (roughly “Women are the dick”) – mostly because it is a slang that is interpreted differently across Latin America and Spain – including within his own native Colombia. Some thought it insulted women, others thought it empowers them. He says he really enjoyed seeing the differences of opinion  but regretted that some of the comments got into personal attacks. “I preferred to not comment and to observe,” he says.

Toxicomano. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our friends the lovely iguanas at the distillery in Codazzi, Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Toxicomano. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sunset at the distillery. Colombia. May 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 


This event has been made possible by Dictador Art Masters Foundation. To learn more about the foundation click here.

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Bogotá : A Liberal Approach To Art Creates Exceptional Street Culture

Bogotá : A Liberal Approach To Art Creates Exceptional Street Culture

Thanks to a globalism of culture, many cities around the world have sprouted vibrant Street Art scenes – including today’s focus, Bogotá, Columbia. Far more open to expression than many cities, Bogotá has become a tolerant and welcoming place for artists on public walls, with the mayor actually agreeing and decreeing that graffiti and street art are a form of valued artistic expression, as long as you lay off the statues and City Hall. The government even gives grants for some painting, and political and social protest on walls goes a little further than you might expect. As part of a personal tour of Columbia in the last couple of months, occasional BSA contributor Yoav Litvin travelled to Bogotá and met a couple of artists who told him about the scene there.
 
 
by Yoav Litvin

We arrived at the Bogotá airport in the evening. For convenience sake, we took a cab from the airport to our accommodation in the heart of La Candelaria, an area of town known for its museums, beautiful architecture and street art. I knew Bogotá was going to be as special as far as its street art scene. I just did not know yet how incredible it was going to be.

My introduction to Bogotá street art and graffiti was the highway from the airport into town, aka Calle 26—it was completely BOMBED. When I say bombed I mean there was not a single space free of art on the walls or tunnels of the highway for miles on end. The beautiful graffiti and street art along with countless tags adorning the walls made me feel like a kid in a candy store. Immediately I knew Bogotá was going to be special, a heaven for street art and graffiti.

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Stink Fish. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

During my visit I was fortunate to meet two very active local artists: DJ LU (aka Juegasiempre), otherwise known as the “Bogotá Banksy” and CRISP, an Aussie transplant that has made the city his home. They were courteous and answered some of my questions.

Yoav Litvin: What makes the street art and graffiti scene so unique in Bogotá? Please discuss the political background in Bogotá in particular and Colombia in general and some policies (legality etc.) that influence the great diversity of work on the streets. What’s special here?
DJ LU: Bogotá’s treasure is its diversity, in every sense. It has very eclectic architecture, interesting places, and is extremely multiracial. Urban expressions are not the exception; here you can find murals, tagging, hip hop graffiti, paste ups, stickers, characters, lettering and stencil work among others. Bogotá is an ideal playground for public expression. First of all, its urban structure is patchy making it ideally suited as far as context; there are many residual spaces, remnants of highway constructions, parking lots and abandoned structures.

Second, the legislation is tolerant, so unless you are engaged in a very clear act of vandalism you won’t have a problem with the law. Residents are also becoming familiar with the practice so there is tolerance from the local population.

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Toxicomano . Unknown .  DJ LU .  Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

CRISP: Bogotá is one of the most exciting, underrated and prolific urban art scenes on the planet. This is due to a combination of several factors, which have created a melting pot of creativity and expression. Firstly, there is a long history of civil unrest, inequality and injustices in Colombia that make street art and graffiti a potent form of expression and protest for the people.

It actually has the longest running civil war in the world, over half a century of bloodshed!

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Toxicomano . DJ LU . Lesivo . Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Secondly, it has a very tolerant legal approach to urban art compared to most other cities in the world. It’s not technically illegal but “prohibited”, which provides a unique situation where grafiteros can take their time and paint in broad daylight. That said, an artist still needs to be cautious of police depending on the type of street art you are doing and due to police history of brutality.

Thirdly, Colombia has a rich resource of inspiration: its people, music, food, indigenous cultures, animals and plants from the Pacific, Andes, Amazon and Caribbean! This complex mix of factors makes Bogotá’s urban art scene truly unique.

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DJ LU Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Yoav Litvin: What motivates you in your work? Please discuss how your work is an expression of your development within the scene in Bogota.
DJ LU: My work is motivated by reality. I’m interested in making people aware–through art–of lots of situations that affect us as a society. The first project I started with on the street is the Pictogram project. It is based on semiotics and sign language. As it proposes very simple designs it is intended to relay a message immediately. In this project I have designed more than 60 pictograms that I have put up all over Bogotá and many other cities around the world in stencil form, stickers and paste ups.

Afterwards came the Street Pride project in which I took photographs of anonymous people whose appearance I found aesthetically interesting and who were interacting with the public space and I used them as models for my work. I believe that advertisements and the media in general are fabricating idols for the people to follow and to speed up consumerism. I want to make the invisible visible, to bring attention to anonymous people who construct our street culture.

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 Crisp. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

CRISP: I’ve always expressed myself through art from a very young age. In terms of street art I was a late bloomer. Despite an interest and curiosity in urban art, It was only when I came to Bogota that I truly became a street artist! I met grafitero friends here who encouraged me to put my artwork up in the street. Street art has shown me that it’s important that our public spaces aren’t controlled and dictated solely by councils, corporations, marketing companies, and formal art institutes.

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Toxicomano. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

Yoav Litvin:  How do you see the future of street art and graffiti in Bogota?
DJ LU: I believe that the progress of street art and graffiti is determined by a lot of factors: legal issues, trends, politics and economics. Graffiti and street art are trendy now in Bogotá, and this will most likely decrease. At that point only the ones that are doing it for real will keep working outside.

CRISP: The huge changes I’ve witnessed since 2001 through 2008 until the present are phenomenal. Bogota’s urban art has exploded in terms of quality and quantity. Everywhere you look, walk and drive, you see some form of creativity and expression on nearly every block in the city!

Mostly it is grass roots, passion-driven and totally devoid of the more corporate, council and gallery-organized and funded “street art” you see in many other cities in the world. In the near future I see many talented Colombian artists finally getting the recognition, support and ability to share their work with a wider international audience they deserve. Ironically this point isn’t important to many grafiteros here.

It’s the way of life, the friends, the culture, pure expression, fun, connecting with the public and the happiness this connection with the street brings that’s most important! In the future Bogota will be known as an urban art mecca but for all the right reasons!

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Lesivo. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Guache. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Stinkfish. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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APC . Stinkfish . FCO . Temor. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Praxis. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Frank Salvador . Sur Beat. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Bastardilla wheatpaste afloat beneath a handful of dripping tags. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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Bastardilla. Detail. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

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El Pez. Bogota, Colombia. (photo © Yoav Litvin)

 

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“Latido Americano” Part II, la Segunda Parte

From “Latido Americano” in Lima, Peru comes Part Two of our photo survey of a Street Art / Graffiti event that blasts vibrant color all over your keyboard and onto your desk. No amount of pollution and traffic congestion in this crowded city can get these Street Artists and their color palettes down, even as the metropolis itself can seem like it’s often enveloped in grey. Entes y Pesimo obviously have a sincere love for their city and the fortitude that it takes to get such a large group of walls and artists and resources organized to make this a success, and our hats are off to them.

See our Part 1 here: From The Streets of Lima, “Latido Americano”, A Latin Heart Beat

Entes y Pesimo. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Entes y Pesimo. Detail. “Latido Americano” Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Entes y Pesimo. Detail. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Twis . Soten “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Toxicomano. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Steep. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Soten . Twis . Yuinhnz “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Soten . Twis . Yuinhnz. Detail. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Sego. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

OZ. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Cuore. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Saner. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Saner. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Phetus . Ket “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Pau. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Pau. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Meki. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Ket. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Jade. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Inti. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Hes . Fisek “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Hes . Fisek. Detail. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Guache. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Guache. Detail. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

DA2C Crew. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

DA2C Crew. Detail.. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

El Dem . Fog “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

El Dem . Fog. Detail. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

DMJC Crew. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Charquipunk. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Bien. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Bien. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Benas. “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

Benas. Detail “Latido Americano’ Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Estudio)

 

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From The Streets of Lima, “Latido Americano”, A Latin Heart Beat

From the 4th to the 15th of March in Lima “Latido Americano” took place courtesy of organizers and home-town artists Entes y Pesimo. Successfully putting it together for a second year, E&P are well respected among their peers as artists and social activists and they placed an international assortment of invited graff and Street Art people around the City of Kings, as it is called. With artists from Denmark and Mexico, Australia and Chile, “Latido Americano” exposed a number of cultures to one another in many neighborhoods in this city of immigrants and indigenous people where the sky is almost always grey and fried guinea pig is sold in the street markets.

Bien . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

During the event a number of process shots and finished pics were collected by Alqa Studio, and we gather them together here to give BSA readers an overview of the action. Our special thanks to Entes y Pesimo for their hard work and their contributions to BSA.

Included in the list of international and local artists participating in “Latido Americano”:

Benas (Mexico), Bien (Mexico), Charqui Punk (Chile), Cuore (Argentina), Fisek (Chile), Fog (Peru), Guache (Colombia), Hes (Chile), Inti (Chile), Jade (Peru), Jeanvi (Ecuador), KET (USA)Meki (Peru), Oz Montania (Paraguay), Pau (Chile/Germany), Phetus (USA)Saile (Ecuador), Saner (Mexico), Sego (Mexico), Soten (Denmark), Steep (Ecuador), Super (Peru/Germany), Tiws (Denmark), Toxicomano (Mexico), and Yuin (Australia), among others.

Steep . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Ket . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Phetus . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Fisek . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Entes y Pesimo . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Toxicomano . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Saner . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Sego from Mexico is well framed at Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Denmarks Soten and Tiws with Australian Yuin at Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Paraguay’s Os Montania in progress at Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Jade . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Hes . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Guache . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Benas . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

da2c . Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Fogdem tracing out the contours. Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

Daoe . Kars . Supermusik. Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

A Chilean in Lima; Inti at Latido Americano in Lima, Peru. (photo © Alqa Studio)

 

 

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