Just got back from Miami and a visit to the Wynwood arts area. Bordered by some industrial and parched urban neighborhoods, this area is full of great street art on several blocks north, south, east and west of the main drag of West 2nd street. These photos do not do it justice but will give you a glimpse of the full possibilities. If you are in Miami or Miami Beach - go go go!!
Latest from DNAinfo: A California arts group is raising money to bring world-renowned street artists to paint murals on a commercial stretch still recovering from Hurricane Sandy.
Beautify Earth, which is based out of Santa Monica, is helping to organize mural painting on more than a dozen walls along Rockaway Beach Boulevard, and will also organize community cleanups and create a sculpture garden. The goal is to bring something positive to the peninsula, which is still slowly rebuilding after the devastating 2012 storm.
The positivity will hopefully allow “residents to become more engaged with their neighborhoods,” said Josh Manes, the east coast director of the program. Resident Matthew Villetto, 31, a senior project manager with Douglas Elliman Real Estate, reached out to the arts group months ago, realizing how significant it would be to have world-renowned artists to spruce up the bare exterior walls of local businesses. "My focus is on the social and economic impact this project will have on the community,” said Villetto, who’s working as a project leader and lives close to the first completed mural. He presented the plan to the community board, which loved it, he said.
In February, artist Alice Mizrachi turned a brick wall next to Sayra’s Wine Bar between Beach 91st and Beach 92nd streets into a mural featuring the legendary Billie Holiday. The next project starts this week and will be painted by Italian artist Alice Pasquini, who has worked in places such as Paris and Oslo. He also is planning to paint a mural uptown. It’s the first of three murals she’s scheduled to paint in New York and New Jersey, and she’s been inspired by the diversity and history of Rockaway, Villetto said.Other walls will be painted by artists including Chris Stain, Mitchel Coffman and Cernesto, he said.
Go and see Swoon's exhibit at the Brooklyn Museum...
Images of the Week: 04.13.14Editorz, 2014-04-13 04:22
Street Artists have been exhibited in museums before so Swoon’s “Submerged Motherlands” doesn’t break ground because of its presence inside a grand institution, even if said institution also holds one of the largest collections of Egyptian art, and is also hosting the largest US exhibition of Ai Weiwei next week, for example. What surprised us […]
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Global efforts at the Guggenheim to build an outpost museum in Abu Dhabi seem to be shrouded in unehtical behavior. Protests at the NY Guggenheim location draw attention to the exploitation of workers in the building effort. Here is a video of what happened the other night:
Cigarettes for all! That includes you kids! Come on, smoking is cool! You can just imagine a critique by helicopter moms of this new work for Judith Supine’s “Golden Child” show somehow morphing into an anti-smoking crusade. The fascination s/he has with those slender white smokable sleeves is unabated – if anything cigs are proliferating […]
One of the electrifying aspects of Street Art for many people is the prospect that public space can actually be a place to create within. There is something about the hand-rendered painting or tag that stops people, fascinates them; these neighbors who otherwise are inured to the commercial images and messages that have all but […]
Three decades since starting as an aerosol writer, Shok-1 may be more commonly referred to as a Street Artist today, even though graffiti is still in his bones. After experimenting with a number of styles that lean more toward illustration and caricature, the England born fine artist has primarily focused on one unique style that […]
In Amsterdam the temperature is above freezing and the trees are beginning to show little buds on the branches. With any luck this new “spring offering” by Skount and Pau Quintana Jornet will usher in the end of winter faster. Pau Quintana Jornet and Skount collaboration in Amsterdam. “Spring Offering” (photo © Skount) Inspired by Norse mythology, […]
When a neighbor who travels to Detroit often told me about how the buildings in the Heidelberg Project were being burnt I was shocked. Why would anyone purposely burn down these amazing art installations? I really don't understand people.
Here is the gist of it:
DETROIT (WWJ) - A fire has destroyed one of the few remaining houses at the famous Heidelberg Project in Detroit, which has been targeted by arsonists for nearly a year. The fire broke out early Friday morning at the Party Animal House, at the corner of Elba and Mt Elliot streets, which had dolls and stuffed animals covering the exterior.
Firefighters rushed to the scene, but the home was already engulfed in flames. All that remains now is the cement foundation and a pile of rubble. The house next to the Party Animal House is still standing, but has some fire damage on the second floor. No injuries were reported.
Put the emphasis on ART when you say street art, pal. Here is an exclusive from TMZ - someone who defaced a Banksy will be prosecuted and possibly jailed:
Street artist Banksy has obviously gone to a whole new level when he is the subject of TMZ EXCLUSIVE!!!!! reports. Here’s the latest!!!!
David William Noll has been charged with FELONY vandalism. According to the criminal complaint — obtained by TMZ — Noll defaced 2 of Banksy’s most famous works — Girl on Swing and Peeing Dog.
The L.A. County D.A. filed FOUR separate vandalism charges, because Noll allegedly defaced both works and 5 days later went back and used paint remover on the walls. Max penalty — 5 years in prison.
Why didn’t Banksy get arrested for his initial vandalism?
The D.A. says the only way they will prosecute for vandalism is if the property owner complains — and Banksy got lucky … no one complained about his art … but they definitely weren’t into Noll’s handiwork.
This isn’t the only Banksy taunting going on in YouTube land. Another artist — perhaps the same man? — vandalized two protected works by Banksy in Park City, Utah, destroying one completely. But don’t worry, as last week a painting conservator was hired by the Park City building owner to save it. No, really:
In respose to the desecration of 5 Pointz by whitewashing the exterior in the stealth of night, the Jeffrey Leder gallery located in LIC is staging an art opening with some of the 5 Pointz artists represented. Here is the ir press release in full. The opening is April 5, 2014. Try to attend:
The Jeffrey Leder Gallery will open with a unique exhibition featuring 9 Graffiti Artists and 2 photographers. These artists have created art that explores their strong reactions to 5 Pointz being whitewashed overnight. The Jeffrey Leder Gallery is proud to present this expansive and provacative exhibit: “Whitewash.” The exhibit will occupy 2 floors of the gallery. We are located in LIC, New York City: 8 minutes from Mahattan, around the corner from MoMA PS1 Museum, 2 blocks from the Sculpture Center and 6 Blocks from the Noguchi Museum.
Contributing Artists:
Auks, Cortes, Hans Von Rittern, Jerms, Just One, Meres One, Orestes Gonzalez, Poem, Shiro, See TF,
Topaz, Zimad
“Whitewash, is an answer to the violent act of G&M realty on November 19th, 2013 in Long Island City Queens. Overnight thousands of murals adorning the building known as 5 Pointz were destroyed. It‘s a story of pain, sadness, and anger at times and reflection - An epic of an art community and its home coming apart under the pressure of economical trends and waves of gentrification.
Bringing together a cluster of resident graffiti artists and two Queens photographers, the exhibition enables the artists to express their true feelings and thought process since loosing their work to a white layer of paint, and their home to the pressing demands of real estate development. For the first time since the whitewash we will witness how affected this collective is by being eclipsed from their 11 years home.
The artists in Whitewash share a medium known as graffiti or aerosol art, and all contributed multiple murals at 5 Pointz. Their raw feelings will emerge from the work on view, coupled with a renewed belief in art as a healing tool through their favored medium of communication.
Starting with the violent images of the once colorful building, turned white, the show itself and its creative process serves as catharsis for the artists, and as a crucial push to move forward. Different views and emotions emerge from the works on view, leading to renewed belief in art as a tool for mythmaking.
The works in Whitewash aspire to such : Laying feelings on canvas, and letting go of the pain, the show brings together artworks that can be interpreted as confession, lessons, or reflection but also aspirations and hopes.
Whitewash is an obvious requiem for 5 Pointz the building but also maybe the beginning of a rebirth of 5 Pointz the community and its true core: the people.“
Marie-Cecile Flageul
“I miss 5 Pointz.
There’s an emptiness that I experience now that 5 Pointz is no more.
When the 7 train emerged from the tunnel onto Long Island City and took the bend around 5 Pointz my experience of the brightness and social statement of the artwork on the walls was very compelling and constantly evolving through Meres One astute direction. Or at times hearing the gasps of delight from packs of tourists on the train as we’d emerge into the daylight and they experienced 5 Pointz for the first time - you could see the excitement on their faces as they’d take in the color and expertise of the outdoor artwork.
With the Jeffrey Leder Gallery located just a block away, 5 Pointz was a constant backdrop for many of my days and a positive experience, both aesthetically and emotionally. The work on the 5 Pointz walls was a perfect example of art in every sense of the word - an outdoor art gallery of the highest order. Though ever-evolving through Meres’ direction, the creative, personal and meaningful work was a stark contrast to the corporate, and impersonal world we often find ourselves living in.”
Jeffrey Leder
