No Longer Empty (NLE) is comprised of arts advocates, curators and artists who orchestrate public art exhibitions in vacated storefronts and properties in New York City. The non-profit organization was conceived as an artistic response to our present economic condition and to revitalize empty spaces and areas around the venues by bringing thoughtful, high-caliber art installations with accompanying programs to the public
A little more than a week ago, I had the wonderful delight of receiving Steve Harrington from Brooklyn Street Art into my home, my city and my school. The product of that spontaneous, short but undeniably sweet visit to Baltimore and the studio has been published on the BSA blog in two parts! Check it out, pass it on and share it!
Part1:http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=5416
Part2:http://www.brooklynstreetart.com/theBlog/?p=5442
Here is a sample
Brooklyn Street Art: So what’s the best part about making street art?
Gaia: So this is obviously a question that I’ve tried to investigate throughout my entire process, beginning at an extremely basic place when I first started, and I have to constantly revisit it. What’s the best part of making street work? I always have to investigate my motive and if there is a process from conceptualizing to composing to drawing to putting it up to viewing the reception, .. If, in any of those steps I’m not really deriving a sense of fulfillment, that can be problematic. I have to always come back to these different steps and say “what’s going on here?” Honestly sometimes I consider my process kind of arduous. Sometimes it’s a real struggle for me. It’s cathartic but it’s not perfect or pure, it’s not what I enjoy. It’s a constant fight with the medium, with myself, with my concept, my intuition.
Organized by Sarah Doherty Axis Alley seeks through creative engagement to utilize the backyards of vacant properties and vacant lots as a canvas for creative works that transform, activate and revitalize the overlooked, under-attended areas of Baltimore’s back alleys. In neighborhoods where the vacancy rate of properties runs high, the alley seems to become the indicator of urban difficulties…trash, rats, homeless people, prostitution and drugs. These somewhat forbidding alley’s (dark and unlit at night),while speaking of endemic problems in the city, possess a certain toxic beauty and provide a fascinating possibility of urban intervention and creative gesture.
Last year, Jordan Seiler of Public Ad Campaign, orchestrated a massive one-day takeover of illegal, street level ad space in New York City. This video gives an overview of the project and features yours truly (in the blond long hair). Also check out the flickr photostream dedicated to the day’s events and expect to see some more action in the future!
Just caught this new piece by Fauxreel in Toronto that Simon Cole of Show and Tell Gallery just posted on his Juxtapoz Blog. That’s a lot of links for one sentence, all well worth checking out.
Probably one of the best spots that I have ever seen. The piece is indistinguishable from its placement. I really do questions whether he in fact wrote everything on that sign or just applied the piece. Anyways, he care and application is always generous and heartfelt.
Peace to Sabeth718 for the photo!
Given that they are next door neighbors only separated by a couple pieces of sheet rock gallery wall, its nice to see Eastern Disctrict and Ad Hoc collaborating! Especially with the likes of the ever playful Aakash. Here is the newsletter they just sent out to everyone on their mailing list:
Eastern District and Ad Hoc Art are pleased to announce their newly featured joint effort exhibit: “Tape and Mirrors” by artist Aakash Nihalani. Tape and Mirrors, the artist’s third solo exhibition in New York, will open on Friday September 25th, 2009.
Note, the Press/VIP Preview is from 6-7pm, followed by a public reception from 7-10pm. The exhibition will be on view weekly Thursdays through Sundays from 2pm-8pm until October 25th, 2009.
Eastern District is a contemporary exhibition space located at 43 Bogart Street in Bushwick, Brooklyn. They pride themselves on the merging of all creative artistic practices and presenting the community with art exhibitions as well as ongoing performance and event-based programming. Eastern District is excited to be presenting Tape and Mirrors with Ad Hoc Art. Ad Hoc, formerly located at 49 Bogart Street, is a staple in the Bushwick art community that has dedicated itself for years to being more than a gallery but a passionate creative fulcrum, showing work that is often marginalized by the larger New York art scene. This collaboration will undoubtedly be the first of many to come and will hopefully continue to build the local art community to another level.
Aakash Nihalani’s street work consists mostly of isometric rectangles and squares. Using brightly colored tape, he selectively places these graphics around New York to highlight the unexpected contours and elegant geometry pre-existing in the city itself. All execution of his street level tape work is done on site, with little to no planning.
For however brief of a time, Aakash Nihalani’s work offers people a chance to see a different side of New York, and momentarily escape from routine schedules and lives. “We all need the opportunity to see the city more playfully, as a world dominated by the interplay of very basic color and shape”. He tries to create a new space within the existing space of our everyday world for people to enter freely and unexpectedly ‘disconnect’ from their reality.
Playing off of the metaphor ‘smoke and mirrors,’ meaning an illusion created out of an elaborate distraction, Nihalani’s Tape and Mirrors exhibition aims to create a magical experience out of the mundane. By implementing mirrors in key positions throughout the space, the viewer is given an opportunity to step ‘into,’ and view themselves within, Nihalani’s signature tape installations. Creating a playful interruption to the regular gallery schematic, the viewer is prodded from a bystander into a participant, not only interacting with the space and materials around them, but also with their own reflections.Let Nihalani’s Tape and Mirrors open up a new portal of reality and experience yourself between dimensions at Eastern District gallery in Brooklyn.
Original prints and paintings by the artist will also be on view and for sale throughout the gallery.
To find out more information about Aakash Nihalani’s Tape and Mirrors exhibition, and more about Ad Hoc and Eastern District’s collaboration please go to adhocart.org and eastern-district.com.
For more information on Aakash Nihalani and his art visit aakashnihalani.com.Refreshments generously provided by Asahi.
Haven’t just straight up bombed posters in a while. As of late I’ve been trying to make each piece different using only the printed portrait as the static basis and the body painted for flexibility.
But its always nice to get back to putting up some prints on the street. So here is an overview of both strategies of putting up street work that I have pursued over the past couple of days.
These people sitting by the Deny Me Three Times piece were raving about it and beseeching me to explain the reference. I told them the parable. It was wonderful
The Cow heads are screenprinted onto newsprint divided into two screens and then pasted in two parts. The acetates are the enlarged block prints that have been blown up using photoshop and Kinkos. Here are photos from the day of printing the rooster heads.
Alternatively, the Deny Me Three Times piece is all handpainted except for the block printed portrait. The piece is made of long three foot sheets of newsprint that is then reassembled once on the street. Usually takes about twenty minutes to put up rather than the quick prints. Here is a photo of the process and the piece painted differently in chinatown
Looks like the long running Booker piece at the Bat Cave has finally been painted over.
“The old power station near the corner of 3rd Street and 3rd Avenue has lost its message. As per the bottom photo above, last year the top of the building had been tagged “No More Corporate Bullshit! Fuk Wall St.” The building was one of the parcels in the area bought by developers for a would-be project called “Gowanus Village.” GMAP
Bottom pic by letsgetridofny”
Via Brownstoner
