Street artists transform abandoned East Village building into dynamic canvas

Hanksy
Hanksy. Photo by Dani Reyes Mozeson.

Over three dozen artists were busy last week transforming an abandoned East Village building into an explosively expressive canvas. Conceived and coordinated by Hansky, the venture culminated in a one-night showing, “Surplus Candy,” that rivaled the best gallery exhibits in town.  Here are a few more images:

LNY (huge fragment on left) and Icy and Sot
LNY (huge fragment on left) and Icy and Sot
Alice Mizrachi
Alice Mizrachi. Photo by Dani Reyes Mozeson.
Magda Love
Magda Love and Edapt +
Hanksy and Mata Ruda
Hanksy and Mata Ruda. Photo by Dani Reyes Mozeson.
Col with Enzo Nio on extreme right
Col with Enzo Nio to the right. Photo by Lois Stavsky.
And a message from Gilf!
And a message from Gilf!. Photo by Dani Reyes Mozeson.

Photos by Dani Reyes Mozeson, City-as-School intern Eduardo Dibono and Lois Stavsky

Sunday link-o-rama

Jaz, drawing entirely with charcoal.
Jaz, drawing entirely with charcoal in Buenos Aires.

Had a quick holiday in New York City combined with a nasty cold to delay posting this link-o-rama, but I’m back so here we go…

  • Dave aka nolionsinengland has been a friend and also one of my favorite street art/graffiti photographers for many years now. I’m very excited to see that he’s now offering street art tours of London in addition to his street art photography workshops. There aren’t too many people who can take me on a graffiti or street art tour of London, but Dave has shown me around before and he still schools me every time we meet up. This guy knows his stuff, and regular reads of this site have seen his photos on here for years. I haven’t taken this tour of course, but from every experience I’ve had with Dave over the past 5 or so years, I cannot recommend him highly enough.
  • Another longtime friend whose work I’ve admired is Know Hope, so I’m overjoyed to see him getting some serious recognition in the UK with a solo show coming up at Lazarides Gallery’s Rathbone Place location. Like Os Gemeos, Know Hope make work that grabs me and sucks me in to his world, and that’s a rare and beautiful experience. The show opens August 2nd.
  • Banksy’s No Ball Games street piece in London has been removed from the wall and is due to be sold next year. The profits from the sale will be going to charity, but I’m curious if that means the profits for person who owns the wall, or if the group organizing the removal and sale are also forgoing any profits. The company that removed this wall is the same one that managed the sale of Banksy’s Slave Labour street piece earlier this year.
  • Very nice NSA-theme ad takeover.
  • Gold Peg and Malarky are showing together in Stoke on Trent in the UK on August 3rd. It’s not often that Gold Peg shows her work indoors, so this is a really special treat.
  • Faile are on the cover of the latest issue of Very Nearly Almost, so there will be launch events in both NYC and London. The NYC launch is July 31st at Reed Projects and the London launch will be 8th August at Lazarides.
  • This year’s Living Walls conference/festival line up has been announced. The festival (my personal favorite in the USA) will be August 14th-18th in Atlanta. Caroline and I will be there, as well Steve and Jaime of Brooklyn Street Art. I highly encourage you to make the trip out if at all possible. Artist painting this year include Jaz, Inti, Know Hope, Freddy Sam, Trek Matthews and many more. More info about the conference (including all the things planned besides the murals) here. Also, you can donate to the conference here.
  • Remi/Rough recently put together a book of sketches that you can read online. Most artists who have met me know that I’m always carrying around a blackbook, and that I love to collect sketches, so this project of Remi’s was a real joy for me. It’s really fascinating to see what’s going on behind the scenes with this work.
  • Caroline and I went to this show in Brooklyn on Saturday night. I was really impressed with EKG’s drawings. A few of them definitely reminded me of Rammellzee. Col’s screenprints on wood were also interesting as a change of pace for someone who I’ve always known as a master with spray can.
  • Have I missed something? These new Titifreak works for his upcoming show at Black Book Gallery look very different from the Titifreak I remember. Still great though. I hope I get a chance to see this show while I’m in Denver next month.
  • Surreal awesomeness from Dome.

Photo by Jaz

Col at Orchard Windows Gallery

The grandson of a self-taught painter, Gregg Bruno aka Col — from an early age — loved modern art, particularly abstract expressionism. Twenty years ago, he began hitting the streets of NYC and beyond as a graffiti writer. His current work – a mix of 3-D styles on paper and found objects – is currently on view at Orchard Windows Gallery on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Here are some images:

The exhibit continues through Sunday @ 37 Orchard Street in NYC.

Photos by Lenny Collado

Weekend link-o-rama

Bonon. Photo by Kriebel

That was a long week. But at least it was a fun one too. For one thing, Jill Cohen was in town for a show at my university. Definitely have a look at her drawings. That’s some crazy skill. Here’s the art news I’ve been reading:

  • Col has a show coming up very soon at Orchard Windows Gallery in New York.
  • Shai Dahan, Ollio and Ekta got together to paint in Sweden.
  • Roger Gastman has directed an upcoming film about the earliest modern graffiti writers (is that term a contradiction?).
  • Shepard Fairey’s latest print is called Eat The Rich. I hate to be the one to call him out on this one since many will understandably perceive it as hypocritical of me, but can a millionaire artist really legitimately make that statement? I know he is a hard-working guy who has been at this for decades, but then the proper time for that rhetoric was 20 years ago. Not when his art sells for hundreds of thousands to millionaires and his overpriced t-shirts are found in the fanciest clothing stores. Plus, the man is a committed and unashamed capitalist. Thoughts? Maybe he is just using the phrase as an example of a culture he is interested in, rather than as part of an intended propaganda poster?
  • The Vacuum Cleaner is hilarious!
  • Agents of Change members Remi/Rough, LX.One, Steve More and Augustine Kofie painted what may be London’s largest mural just across from King’s Cross.

Photo by Kriebel

And one last thing about Miami

Jade. Photo by Jade

This is (probably) my last post about the outdoor work at Basel Miami 2011. Here’s a somewhat random selection of pieces that went up this year by Entes, Jade, Col, Anthony Lister, Free Humanity, Pez, Chanoir, How and Nosm, Greg LaMarche, Romi, Aeon, Haze, Aaron De La CruzJohn Wendelbo, Mare139, Gaia and others. Some of the walls are from Graffuturism’s In Situ project, and you can find a full set of those walls on their site along with an introduction to that project written by Haze.

Gaia. Photo by Mike Pearce
Haze. Photo by Clams Rockefeller

More after the jump… Continue reading “And one last thing about Miami”

Miami murals captured in progess

Eine

Mike Pearce was in Miami last week taking photos of the murals getting painted. As it has been over the past few years, Wynwood was overrun (in, I think, a good way) for about a week with artists working outdoors on any wall they could get permission to paint or get away with painting. Here are a few of Mike’s pictures of the artists at work…

La Pandilla
Free Humanity, Anthony Lister and Col
Pixel Pancho
Augustine Kofie
Greg Mike
Hebru
Tati Suarez
Entes and Jade
Buff Monster
Trek 6

Photos by Mike Pearce