In light of the parallels series that I am doing I thought I would share these two projects before going deeper into Alfredo Jaar’s work. Martha Rosler’s “Housing is a Human Right” (1989) and Alfredo Jaar’s “A Logo For America” (1987) pieces in Times Square
Continue reading “Street/Studio 2.0”
Hot on the heels of their most recent opening, “Portraits”, at the Brooklynite Gallery with yours truly, Sten and Lex collaborated on a new wall deep in Bushwick on Waterbury street. For this piece the duo returned back to paint instead of their most recent process of poster-stencils.
Once and a while I am going to post art works, whether they be installations, video, or other ephemera, that exist in the public realm and have existed parallel to contemporary street art but have been categorized into other art movements. Since the dawn of modernity and urbanization, there has been a rich history of artists using the city as their medium and subject, from impressionism to fluxus. Yet interestingly, these street practices that have existed before contemporary Street Art do not have much of a presence on the internet and the dissemination of these works are still limited to access to institutions and exhibits.
I would like to take this opportunity to present the Bus Shelters of Dennis Adams. The installations here were erected between 1983 and 1988. The aluminum and steel structures each featured a light box that presented the pedestrian with an image or text, the result being a didactic conflict with the routine of daily life. The pictures of political scenes becomes innocuous without context, like any floating image, and are a disparate discourse from the everyday. To gain more insight his various political projects check out this interview
Continue reading “Parallel: The Bus Shelters of Dennis Adams”
Yes there is other Street Art in Baltimore actually … And Frank actually looks attractive Via http://andrewlaumann.tumblr.com/
The opening night at Brooklynite Gallery for the “Portraits” show with Sten and Lex and I proved to be a great success, which came to no surprise considering the crowd’s the gallery has attracted in the past. Here are some photos from Brooklynite’s flickr page and some pieces from the show.
Continue reading ““Portraits” Opening Night Photos”
Sten & Lex • Gaia at Brooklynite from Charles le Brigand on Vimeo.
So the preparation for the Saturday’s show with Sten and Lex has thus so far gone swimmingly with the outside murals almost completely finished and the inside show basically hung. Here is a sneak peak of the work that will be featured in the exhibition. For more information visit Brooklynite’s site.
OK I feel kind of like a jerk for not posting this sooner. Because this show literally opens in twenty minutes, but I rarely have access to the internet (although it would seem otherwise) and its better late than right? SO my people cahil muraghu and erik burke are putting on what looks like an amazing collection of their works and collaborations at 17 frost in Williamsburg and it is not to be missed. So get off the computer and get out the door.
17Frost is proud to announce…
This Land Is My Land
Erik Burke & Cahil Muraghu
Opening Fri, October 8th, 2010, 7 – 11pm
Burke and Muraghu’s collaborations are vivid representation of the American landscape. The show’s title, This Land is My Land, taken from Woody Guthrie’s landmark song, embodies the artists’ intent behind both the work and their own lifestyle. Guthrie describes the disenfranchised American staking a hypothetical claim to the landscape, reiterating native American concepts of land ownership. Their work inspired by the New York City graffiti movement and the Hudson River school not only attempts to document the American experience, but lay claim, even if only for a moment, to abstracting our relationship to the landscape.
October 16 – November 6 Opening: October 16, 7-10pm
REQUEST A PREVIEW: info(at)BrooklyniteGallery.com
The world’s oldest known “Portrait” is believe to be created over 27,000 year ago. So why after all this time is it still the most often used subject of creation? A portrait often speaks much less about the physical features we are viewing, then it does about what’s behind the gaze in ones eyes or the telling angles of their mouth. This fascination continues to intrigue us through the work of three street artists who use traditional and non-traditional techniques to create their own brand of “PORTRAITS”.Just because street art tandem, STEN & LEX are widely considered to be the pioneers of “stencil graffiti” in their Italian homeland, doesn’t necessarily mean they are content with resting on the title. Best known for introducing their “halftone stencil” technique, these two self-proclamined “Hole School” artists spend ample time hand-cutting pixel dots and lines to compose their imagery which is best viewed from a distance. Choosing to forgo the common pop culture imagery often associated with street art, STEN & LEX’s subject matter pulls no punches. Saints, Popes and the Italian Christian Church were primarily referenced early on –minus the often added social commentary. However, most recently and for their upcoming exhibition here, the subjects of choice comes from the historic Italian archives they’ve rescued. The 1960’s, 70’s and 80’s portraits from all walks of life are the focus this time around, as they are put through the rigorous transformation of stencil cutting style that is trademark STEN & LEX. The final appearance of these portraits appear to have been fed halfway through a paper shredder then pulled back at the last minute leaving the shreds left to dangle. The images are for the most part of common folk—young and old. People who have lived lives and have stories to tell. Just read their faces.
Seems as if the young, hard charging NYC street artist GAIA has been showcasing his bold imagery to the masses since before he could walk. Well maybe it hasn’t been quite that long but over the past few years he’s managed to garner a lot of attention by using more traditional techniques to create his wildlife animals and distinguishing human portraits. Taking a more intelligent, reflective approach to his work, this “old soul” uses wood block carvings and hand-drawn methods to achieve the fur textures of bears, tigers and rabbits as well as the worn lines in the faces of his latest portrait series entitled, “Legacy.” At it’s core, “Legacy” raises the question of infrastructure design and how we are forced to live with the decisions, good or bad, created by figures such as Robert Moses, James Wilson Rouse & Mies van der Rehoboth, all of whom have shaped parts of the American landscape. GAIA also plans on featuring a series of faded self portraits called “Sunsets”. Sunsets are a portrait of the nature of the street artist as an identity. It’s a pseudonym, to the person behind the work and the conflict between the secret, the collective and the fame of the individual. Some of the work is directly painted onto reclaimed street posters and found materials.
This new series is entitled Legacy and it is a very basic attempt to reinscribe the figures who have shaped our landscape back onto the surface of their legacy, the infrastructure and policies that we have inherited and must navigate.
Robert Moses was commissioned by the city of Baltimore to oversee the planning of the Franklin St expressway, otherwise known as Route 40, which passes through the primarily black West Baltimore. The quote reads “… Some of the slum areas through which the Franklin Expressway passes are a disgrace to the community, and the more of them that are wiped out the healthier Baltimore will be in the long run” 1944 www.uctc.net/papers/659.pdf
The quote reads:“Flight of the medium and upper income families from the city limits and the replacement by persons of both races of the lowest income levels is a threat not only to our municipal solvency but to the economic stability of the entire metropolitan area,” James Wilson Rouse (April 26, 1914 – April 9, 1996), founder of The Rouse Company, was a pioneering American real estate developer, urban planner, civic activist, and later, free enterprise-based philanthropist.
Photos by Gaia
