Organized by Keith Schweitzer for No Longer Empty, Sponsored by the Coney Island Development Corporation, a new mural by OverUnder, Veng and Belgian artist Ephameron is underway on Coney Island’s famed Surf Avenue.

Photos by Samantha Sabatino

Although buffed in LA, Katsu has been making his mark in NYC. His stickers seem to be everywhere and a huge piece greets passersby in Chelsea.

Photos by Lois Stavsky

I’ve always loved Kosbe’s zany characters and somewhat esoteric messages. Mostly on stickers, they occasionally make their way onto wheatpastes, as this recent addition to NYC’s East Village.

Photo by Lois Stavsky

Yesterday, Kosbe shared with me — via his iPhone — a photo of his piece currently on exhibit in Martha Cooper’s “Remix” at the Carmichael Gallery in Culver City, CA. A recreation of Cooper’s iconic 1980 photo of Dondi sketching in his room with friends in East New York, Brooklyn, it uncovers another side of Kosbe’s flair.

Photo courtesy of Kosbe

Despite the prevalence of handmade stickers here in NYC, few depict characters.  While the sticker heads in Philly continue to create a range of personalities and creatures, most here seem to prefer to make their statements with assorted handstyles and messages. Red Nose aka Tazz, a Bronx native who began getting up in the lay-ups in the 80’s, is an exception.  I’ve come upon variations of his iconic pit-bull a few times this past week. This huge one is in SoHo.

Photo by Lois Stavsky

I met Dede Confidential this past fall in Tel Aviv. His whimsical stencils, drawings and stickers could be found throughout Tel Aviv’s edgier neighborhoods. He since tells me that the municipality has been buffing the walls in an all-out war against street artists. This has not stopped Dede from using his city’s walls as his principal canvas. He says he’s only more determined to engage the public. Luckily, he’s been documenting his pieces before they disappear.

Photos: Dede Confidential

An artist, curator and educator, Alice Mizrachi is the co-founder of the YOUNITY Arts Collective, a word-wide group of female artists committed to sharing their talents with the community and educating the next generation.  While visiting Alice’s studio in Sunnyside, Queens last week, we had the opportunity to pose some questions to her.

Your entire life – your own work and the work you do with others – seems to center on art. At what point did you realize that you wanted to be an artist?

I was always drawing, but I didn’t get serious about art until my junior year in high school. I reached out then to the art teacher at Benjamin Cordoza High School and told him that I wanted to be in his studio art program.  He was skeptical at first, but I won him over. I never wanted to leave my assigned “studio” space. I decided that the only college I would attend was an art school. I applied to Parsons – behind my parents’ back – and was accepted.

How did your parents respond when they found out that you were determined to attend an art college?

They were not happy.

I guess you had bills to pay! What kind of work did you find once you graduated?

I worked for a bit in illustration, design and animation.

What about these days?

My days are filled with creating art and inspiring others to create art. I teach both in school settings, informal spaces and in my own studio. On weekends about ten girls come to my class here where we do everything from making collages to cutting stencils. I’m also working on a number of proposals that will allow the members of the YOUNITY Arts Collective to share their talents with folks in other parts of the world.

What inspired you to launch the YOUNITY Arts Collective?  It is the force behind one of my favorite murals in Williamsburg.

Toofly and I were seeking an organized forum for women artists to share their ideas and to showcase their artwork to the public. We were also interested in teaching the next generation how to organize art events, while providing them with the opportunity to work with professional artists. We wanted a solid group in which each member could maintain her individuality, yet be part of a collective. And in 2007, YOUNITY was launched. We view YOUNITY as a world-wide catalyst for change.

What kinds of projects has YOUNITY generated?

Many! We’ve created murals in public spaces, curated exhibits, set up crafts markets, organized panel discussions and arranged youth workshops.

I first discovered your artwork a number of years back at Fuse Gallery in the East Village. But since I’ve since seen it on city walls. I’ve also noticed your stickers around town.  What initially inspired you to get up?

My brother’s a b-boy and while we were growing up in Queens, he turned me on to the whole hip-hop scene. When I was in junior high school, I started catching tags in the streets. But my first official wall was at a Meeting of Styles event in 2003.

Who are some of your influences? Artists who’ve inspired you?

Many, many…I feel a strong connection to Basquiat and Frida Kahlo. I love Swoon, both her art and her sense of social responsibility.  I’m also inspired by Trystan Bates who runs Honeycomb Arts.  And my friends and members of the YOUNITY Arts Collective are a constant source of inspiration.

Your art seems to reflect a strong Middle Eastern sensibility. Where does that come from?

My parents were born in Israel and I visit the country once a year. I’m intrigued by Hebrew and Arabic calligraphy which I’ve begun to incorporate into my artwork.

That explains it! If you could collaborate with anyone, whom would you choose to work with?

Among the artists I’d love to paint with are: Know Hope, Gaia, Os Gemeos and the Peruvian collective, Pussy Crew. And I would LOVE to work with the Guerilla Girls.

If you could paint anywhere, what spot would you choose?

My desire is to get up in a large policed area like Times Square.

What’s next?

I just had an interview that aired last week on GritTV.com. I am part of a group show that opens on March 24^th at NYU’s Bronfman Center Gallery. In April I may be traveling to China with some of the YOUNITY ladies to paint in a jam. In July I will be exhibiting at Causey Contemporary Gallery with Honeycomb, an arts collective based out of Argentina. In 2012 there will be a YOUNITY exhibit at Causey Contemporary. I’m also currently applying for grants for upcoming projects – so we’ll see where that goes.

‘sounds great! What do you see yourself doing in the years ahead?

Art, art and more art. I’d also like to travel more. Last summer, I participated in a residency in Paris, where I had the opportunity to paint murals and work on a commissioned series of prints of jazz musicians. I would love more opportunities to create artwork abroad.

The following image, courtesy of Alice Mizrachi, is a collaboration between the artist and Trystan Bates:

Interview by Lois Stavsky

Opening tomorrow, Saturday evening, from 6 – 10pm at the 17 Frost Art and Performance Space at 17 Frost Street in Williamsburg, The Unusual Suspects features new and collaborative pieces by Abe Lincoln, Jr., Celso, Chris RWK, Darkclouds, Deeker, Infinity, Keely, Matt Siren, Moody, Nose Go, Royce Bannon and Sno Monster. Curated by Royce Bannon of the famed Endless Love Crew, the artwork ranges from minimal iconic characters to splashy expressionistic compositions.   There are some surprises, too, like this collaboration between Abe Lincoln, Jr. and Nose Go:

Photo by Lois Stavsky

While most of NYC’s first-rate stencils, wheatpastes and pieces have left Manhattan for Brooklyn and parts of Queens, my borough still boasts an incredible range of stickers.  Faust, Sure (RIP), Ader and Baser are among those whose handstyles delight me daily.  Yesterday while walking along Hudson Street in SoHo to 14th Street in the West Village, I came upon dozens of Baser stickers. He’s beginning to rule certain neighborhoods! Here is a recent sticker by NYC’s self-proclaimed “Incredible Style Animal.”

Photos by Lois Stavsky

Legendary in his native Chile and throughout South America, Cekis is currently based in Brooklyn, New York.  Working primarily as a muralist here in the U.S., Cekis’s artwork has also appeared in a number of galleries including the Carmichael Gallery, the Brooklyn Rotunda, Ad Hoc, and the Abrons Arts Center. As a member of the YMI Crew, working primarily with Cern, he has created large works in the streets of Bushwick and Washington Heights. While visiting his studio earlier in the week, I had the opportunity to ask him a few questions. – Lois Stavsky

When did you first get your work up public spaces? I was 17 when I first started painting on the streets of Santiago, Chile.

What was your inspiration at the time? I fell in love with graffiti when I saw the movie “Beat Street.”  I was also influenced by the political graffiti I saw in my city. Then in 1993, a group of us started painting on the walls in Chile.

What was it like back then? There were risks.  My country was in a transitional period. We were still reeling from Pinochet’s brutal dictatorship. We had to begin painting way past midnight. We’d start at 2 or 3 in the morning.  We all spent some time in jail for what we were doing.

How did your parents feel about what you were doing? My parents are traditional. They didn’t really understand what I was doing.  It was not easy gaining their acceptance.

Have you gained it? Yes, when they saw the respect I was getting as a muralist, they were better able to come to terms with my decision to be a full-time artist.

I know that you’ve painted with Os Gemeos back in Chile. Who are some of the other artists you’ve collaborated with outside of the US? Among those I’ve painted with are: Loomit, Lazoo, Vitche, Stohead, Herbert Baglione, Doze Green and Cycle.

What are some of the crews you’ve represented? DVE, ADEP, VLOK and YMI

Any favorite artists? Many, many. Among them: Aislap, Grin, Phil Frost, Kara Walker, Keith Haring, Lee Quiñones, Nick Cave, Nema TPG, Os Gemeos, Jr., Sure (RIP), Nunca, Diego Rivera, Martha Cooper, Dondi, Mode 2…

That’s quite a diverse group! These days you work mainly in your studio, and your work has appeared in galleries.  But you still keep on working on the streets.  Is that your preferred canvas? I love the way street art engages so many people. And I love interacting with the public.  When I paint in my studio, I prefer wood to canvas because it feels more like I’m painting on a wall.

What do you think of the street art scene here in NYC – principally in Brooklyn these days? I like when artists use the streets to communicate and share their talents with passersby.  I dislike when folks use the streets to further their own careers.  Not all kinds of art belong or work in the street, and some artists use the streets as a means to access galleries.  That’s not what street art’s about.

What about the street art scene in Chile these days? How is it different from what’s happening here? In Chile and throughout Latin America there’s more freedom to paint on the streets because most people don’t see it as a criminal activity.  The South American writers lack the access to the kinds of art supplies that we have here in the U.S, so they’ve become more inventive – both in their process and, as a result, in their styles.  Also, because the police generally don’t harass street artists in South America, they have more time and more space for experimentation.

Any other differences? The folks there tend to value us far more than they do here.  They appreciate what we are doing. They often react strongly to what we are painting on the walls, and they love to watch us while we’re painting. They’re always offering and bringing us food and drinks.

I’ve sensed that in my visits there. I only hope it stays that way!  What are you working on these days? I’m currently working on a series of paintings on the theme of immigration in preparation for my first solo show sometime later this year.  I’m also in the process of working on a proposal for a public mural on an extended thoroughfare in southwest Brooklyn.

Good luck! I’m looking forward to all your ventures!

A commissioned mural by Cekis on 116th Street in East Harlem

Photos and interview by Lois Stavsky

Dave the Chimp takes a little look at “the buff”, it’s uses and misuses, and where it can head in the future.

I used to live by a small park. Kids walked through the park to take a short cut to school. Drug dealers worked the same route. There was a garage there covered in tags. I had the idea to paint the garage with some friends, covering the tags with a brightly coloured mural. The idea was to make the space a little brighter, a little less like a spot where drug dealers would hang out. I made a fake letter from my local government authority giving me permission to paint the garage, just in case anyone asked, and set to work. This is the result:

One of my neighbours saw me painting and later told me she thought I was doing “community service”, which in England is an alternative to a prison sentence!

ESPO made his own “community service” projects as a way to get his name up, starting with his “Exterior Surface Painting Outreach” program in New York (those infamous shutters), and later with his “Community Service” project in LA, where he buffed graffiti in the way we are all familiar with today (blocks of colour) so that the buff-marks spelt his name.

You can see these projects here and here.

What I like about this latter project is that it uses the anti-graffiti weapon as the weapon, like a martial artist using their enemies’ strength against them. It also sits nicely with the way graffiti is abstracted so that it becomes a code that can only be read by certain members of society. And it’s incredibly amusing.

Here are some photos of some abstract compositions I made earlier this year by adding my own buff marks to a wall that had been buffed, and other buff marks that I added to spell my name, much like ESPO did, though I created huge letters by only painting the negative spaces in the letters. I didn’t think much about this piece. I had a bucket of paint that was left over from another project I was working on at the time, and I just walked outside to see how I could use it, and this was the result. I’m sure with more thought better pieces could be created with this method. Feel free to take this idea further.

Another body of work utilising the buff was the Toasters‘ Bluff Buff, which inserted the shape of their toaster into areas of buff, as a comment on the inaccurate colours used to cover graffiti: here and here.

I painted characters so they looked as though they were behind areas of buff in Berlin and Hamburg, and turned the actions of the buffer into comedy:

And in this case, the original piece was buffed for real, so I pulled out a marker and turned the buff into fog:

Earlier this week we saw a piece by Mobstr which became a game, with his opponent being the buff man. Comments posted suggested further ways to play the game.

Banksy took a shot at New Orleans famous buffer Fred Radtke AKA The Grey Ghost when he visited the city:

Photo by eastcolfax

Photo by Lauren Craig

Mr. Radtke has taken it on himself to buff, with grey paint, any graffiti he sees, and even got himself in trouble with police by buffing a legal mural.

He is featured in an upcoming documentary, along with other buffers such as the “Silver Buff” from Berkeley, California, who believes there is too much “visual noise” on the streets. Watch the trailer here. Something I found interesting is that one buffer in the movie talks about how buffing makes him feel “in control” of life. This suggest that the actions of graffiti and street artists can make people feel like they have no control, making them victims. This is something to consider next time you hit the streets.

The buff itself can also be seen as art. Artist Cody Vanderkaay recreates the grey shapes left by buffers in the streets as “black boards” for people to draw on.

Photographer Chris Brennan documents the layers of colour haphazardly applied to the city walls to cover up layers of colour that were made with more thought. His photos often look like the work of abstract artists. One of the photos we see at that link puts me in mind of the work of Mark Rothko, though I doubt the buff in the street can ever be as effecting as being in a room with one of his huge, deep paintings.

Another weapon in the buffers armoury is the pressure washer, that cleans off graffiti. It can also be used to clean dirt off of walls, a fact ZEVS put to great use. Other versions of “clean graffiti” can be seen here. I’m sure we’ve all seen advertisers use this technique too, usually to place logos on city sidewalks.

It’s not unusual to see advertisers use street art techniques, just as it’s not unusual to see street artists fight back against advertising.

I like these pieces by the Thought Police member Eric Pentle, who will happily cut out your carefully constructed copy, or simply paint your whole billboard black. Unlike other artists, such as OX, that use advertising space as their canvas, there appears to be no clever message in Pentle’s billboards. He simply removes their ability to be effective. He is reacting to the lack of control he has in a world full of messages constantly being shouted at him, and thus makes his environment quieter. This is much the same as the Silver Buff does with graffiti. I find this very interesting, as I live in a country where I understand little of the language, and so advertising has no effect on me. It creates a more peaceful daily experience to not be told what to do all the time. See Pentle defuse more advertising here.

As we can see, the buff is nothing to fear. In fact, let us embrace the buff, and see where we can take it. Let us use this negative energy and turn it into a positive force.

One of the advantages of the buff is that, with a little effort, you can get the materials for the job for free. Try ESPO’s technique and tell the city you want to cover the graffiti in your neighbourhood, and are willing to work for free if they give you paint. Failing that, many cities have “paint recycling depots” where unused paint is taken to be disposed of. My friend Ekta in Sweden gets most of his paint for free by going to his local recycling depot and simply asking for the paint. Also keep your eyes open to see where legitimate painting work is happening. Brushes and rollers are often thrown away as people don’t want to make the effort of cleaning them. Soak them in water and the paint soon comes off. Or if they use an oil-based paint and you don’t want to mess around with turps trying to clean them, just wrap them in a plastic bag, they’ll be good for a few more days. Free brushes and rollers! Sorted!

As buffing requires little skill, this fun activity is open to everyone. No need to spend hours cutting stencils, screen printing posters, or learning how to draw – just grab your roller and a bucket of paint and make your mark in the world. The streets are a playground for everyone! I would suggest though that you have an idea before leaving the house, otherwise your efforts will be as destructive and unattractive as The Grey Ghost and his friends.

So come on kids, lets get buffing! Maybe by employing the buff as one of our weapons, applying it liberally around town, we can confuse city authorities so much that they start employing artists to paint art over all of the ugly buff marks in our cities. They can pay us to do what they paid themselves to undo.

- Dave the Chimp

Photos by Dave the Chimp, Eric Pentle, eastcolfax and lacraig819