Illegal Baltimore part two: Rollers

Overunder, Avoid, Gaia, and Tence

Part one of the Illegal Baltimore series can be found here.

Due to the layout of Baltimore, the city makes the perfect playground for rollers. Built of bridges and tunnels, most of the graffiti spots contain elaborate pieces at eye level with equally as astounding rollers above them. The combination of these tunnels and the large amount of abandoned factories in the area makes for perfect spot to do elaborate, typographical rollers.

Nugz, Nanook, and Overunder

Even more astounding to me than the work itself was the number of familiar names I came across in, essentially, middle-of-nowhere Baltimore. People like Reverend, Nugz, Overunder, and Cash4, who had become my household names in New York had found themselves equally as prolific in this city. Through partnering up with local artists such as MTN NGC and Avoid, these New York artists seamlessly blended into the Baltimore scene, creating some interesting visual combinations in these spaces.

Avoid and Fisho
Reverend, Nugz, and Tence
Cash4 and Droid
NSF
Tence and Star
Nugz and Val
Gauz
Avoid
Gaia
MTN NGC
Nanook, Overunder, and Bloks
Cash4 and Droid
Hell Nation
Cash4, Avoid, and Droid

Photos by Rhiannon Platt

Poppington gallery? Seriously, should be good

Jim Joe and Beau

Despite the ridiculous name of Poppington for the new gallery at 60 Orchard Street in NYC (it has something to do with Nicki Minaj), their first show looks like it will be, well, I guess poppington. Grr, I kind of hate myself for writing that. Quality of LIFE includes some of NYC’s best writers, those with one foot solidly in the art world and the other solidly in traditional graffiti: PHIL has one of the finest handstyles in the city; Pixote and Sabio have a handful of rivals for best rollers going up right now, but they are certainly up there; Jim Joe’s styleless style and strange quips make him one of the most loved and hated characters in New York City; and KATSU is perhaps the best active writer in America, with a chance to become the next Barry McGee if he decides to go that route.

So Quality of LIFE is a show of writers going indoors, which is always risky even if it’s not their first time working indoors. Sometimes the work carries over beautifully, usually it falls flat. Sometimes writers go indoors and try something completely different, which also usually fails but sometimes works amazingly well. I wasn’t a fan of what I saw (only through the web) of Jim Joe’s recent solo show at The Hole, but I’m excited to see what he’ll do this time around.

Quality of LIFE opens on September 27th at 7pm and will almost definitely be worth checking out.

Photo by las – initially

Saber takes to the skys againt to #DefendTheArts

Photo by Nineteen92

On Sunday, Saber executed his latest skywriting campaign in New York City. About a year ago, Saber did something similar in Los Angeles to defend murals/protest LA’s ridiculous mural regulations. This time, Saber is defending the arts in general against Mitt Romney, who has said that a Romney administration would stop funding the National Endowment for the Arts, National Public Radio and the Public Broadcasting Service. The bold action was caught by photographers around the city and organized on twitter and instagram under the hashtag #defendthearts. Nearly 200 photos of the skywriting have been uploaded to instagram under the #defendthearts hashtag, and probably more without the hashtag.

Photo by changsterdam

In full, Saber’s message read: “Artists designers musicians writers actors poets patrons #DefendTheArts #RomneyHatesArt #gopfail Protect NEA PBS NPR No Cuts #ArtIsInspiration #ArtCreatesJobs #WhatInspiresYou #OccupyWallStreet #art #graffiti #streetart Haring Kase2 Sace IZ StayHigh149 AWR MSK EKLIPS REVOK RETNA MSK Twitter at Saber #DefendTheArts (flag)”

Photo by Adam Greenfield
Photo by changsterdam
Photo by changsterdam
Photo by changsterdam

Photos by Nineteen92, changsterdam and Adam Greenfield

Isaac Cordal goes kinda John Ahearn-y

Seeing this piece by Isaac Cordal for the MUU Street Art Festival in Zagreb, Croatia, I couldn’t help but think of John Ahearn’s sculptures where life-sized people sort of jump off the wall. Not that that’s a bad thing. Hell, it’s great. Isaac’s work is cool, and John’s work is too. I just want to make sure that John gets some credit as a possible inspiration for this particular piece of Isaac’s.

More from Isaac’s work in Zagreb after the jump… Continue reading “Isaac Cordal goes kinda John Ahearn-y”

BSA and Hellbent Bring You “Geometricks”

(Detail) Olek

In the first of hopefully a prolific series of exhibitions, Brooklyn Street Art presents Geometricks, curated by street artist and art historian Hellbent. Rather than simply pairing random street artists together, as many exhibitions do, Geometricks attempts to delineate a movement that is currently at play within the scene. Artists scattered around the world have started creating pieces whose focus is abstract geometry. Featuring the work of Augustine Kofie, Chor Boogie, Drew Tyndell, Feral Child, Hellbent, Jaye Moon, Maya Hayuk, MOMO, OLEK, OverUnder, and See One, the show reaches to several cities to gather artists from different ends of the geometric(k) spectrum.

(Detail) Overunder
(Detail) Maya Hayuk

The different ends of this spectrum include artists who both directly and indirectly create work from rigid forms. With the paintings of featured artists Maya Hayuk and Augustine Kofie, the thematic connection to their imagery is blatant, though stunning nonetheless. It was, however, the installation pieces of Olek and Jaye Moon that I found to be most engaging in the space. The dimensionality inherent in the way that they create their pieces added a layer to their importance in a show centered on shape.

Jaye Moon
(Detail) Augustine Kofie
Jaye Moon

It is important to note that in addition to the work seen above, Hellbent has featured a wall specifically for a student’s budget. Many artists, such as Jaye Moon (featured above), See One, and Feral Child, have created smaller interpretations of their larger gallery pieces and have been priced at under $200.

Geometricks will have a public opening tonight from 6pm to 8pm at Gallery Brooklyn and will run from September 22 to October 28. Free shuttle service will be provided from the Carroll Street F/G station to the gallery as well as from the after party back to the station.

All photos by Rhiannon Platt

Weekend link-o-rama

Stinkfish

I’m headed to Nuart next week, so expect updates to be sporadic any maybe Nuart-focused. Should be a great festival. Here’s what I missed this week:

Photo by Stinkfish

Illegal Baltimore part one: Pieces and freights

Stab HOD

A few months ago, I was lucky enough to be able to visit Baltimore during their Open Walls Baltimore mural program. In addition to being fortunate enough to meet some of the most amazing artists from around the world, I was also able to explore the many hidden graffiti spots that the area had to offer. With a local writer as my guide, I was able to document over two dozen spots and see a wide range of work. Due to the prolific nature of Baltimore’s graffiti scene, the posts have been divided into three parts: pieces and freights, rollers, and street pieces. Continue reading “Illegal Baltimore part one: Pieces and freights”

NEVERCREW’S magical murals grace Swiss school

Whenever I pass bleak-looking school buildings, I imagine their exteriors transformed into playful wonderlands. NEVERCREW, a first-rate Swiss-based artists duo with roots in graffiti, did just that to an elementary school in Lugano. Here are some close-ups:

Photos courtesy of Pablo Togni of NEVERCREW

Makatron’s travels

Cape Town, South Africa
Makatron has recently returned to Melbourne after a bit of traveling and painting. Here are some of the highlights in Mike’s own words:
Brazil – Essencia Event – Over a week we painted murals in all 4 zones of Sao Paulo Favelas, (north, south, east and west and then an exhibition in the centre).

Brazil – Graffiti Vale -An event in a tiny village situated in a valley in Sao Paulo State. This village had no graffiti at all when we arrived. About 40 graffiti artists from all over South America took over for 4 days, the locals loved it, feeding us, finding more walls, beers, ladders etc.. Everyone was really talented at whatever they did, either writers doing pieces or weirdo artists like me.

Uruguay – I was there for a week and painted a few walls in Montevideo and up the coast with a litre of black and white.

South Africa – I was invited to do an art residency for about a month with a group in Cape Town called A Word of Art. This meant living in a shared house with other artists from Nigeria, France, and Canada. The residency helped out by finding walls and providing paint and also gave me an insight into the art and culture of South Africa.

Also keep an eye out for Mike’s upcoming solo show in late November at House of Bricks Gallery in Collingwood, Melbourne.

Cape Town, South Africa
Floripa, Brazil
Punto del Diablo, Uruguay
Sao Paulo, Brazil
Montevideo, Uruguay
Cape Town, South Africa

All photos courtesy of Mike Makatron