BSA News Highlights for the Week
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Weblogs
The Art Law Journal Examines Street Art - Winning The Public Approval
Steve Schlackman, writing for the Art Law Journal, discussing the change in public perception of street art from crime to urban asset. In part he writes:
Whether graffiti is art or crime has an implication in protecting the integrity of a street artist’s work. If considered art, the creative works might be shielded under the Visual Arts Right Act (VARA). VARA protects the work of visual art, from intentional distortion, mutilation or other modification. As a crime, these works can be washed away without further consideration, as has been the fate of many.
Street artists across the country have been fighting back using the VARA argument. 5Pointz, an outdoor art exhibit space in Long Island City, New York, is considered to be the world’s premiere “graffiti Mecca.” Since 1993, with the property owner’s permission, artists have been creating unique artistic works on numerous walls of a 200,000-square-foot factory. 5pointz has now become a tourist attraction, with hundreds visiting each week. Now, the building is supposed to be razed to make way for a luxury apartment complex. Sixteen artists have sued to preserve the space citing VARA. They are currently seeking a temporary injunction.
Los Angeles, often on the forefront of intellectual property issues, recently passed a new murals ordinance making street art legal if you pay for a permit, get permission from the location, and publicly post your intentions. Shepard Fairey, best known for his Obama Hope poster and his Obey campaign, has teamed up with renowned graffiti artist, Risk to create a major piece in Skid Row. Another work will be painted in the Arts District by culture-jamming contemporary artist, Ron English.
I am very happy to see that lawyers and legal bodies are examining the value of street art rather than describing it as a crime. And it is my hope that VARA can be successfully used to stop the destruction of 5 Pointz and enable the art of the street to survive and thrive.
Is Street Art Losing Its Edge? Video on PBS
This is a subject that I have pondered for a while - what happens when street art goes mainstream? When it becomes acceptable and even encouraged? When the galleries and auction houses start pricing it? Does it lose its edge?
Some past posts:
The Beginning of the End of Street Art
NY Post - When Museums Start hailing Graffiti
I have been following street art for years. I have photos from Florence Italy in 1974 of graffiti (for that is what it was called in those days). The evolution of graffiti into street art has been gradual and exciting. And now, especially with Banksy's NYC installation month completed, street art is now in the forefront of the public's affection with art.
Is this good? I am ambivalent. On the one hand I am thrilled that street artists are getting the recognition they deserve. On the other hand I am concerned that street art will lose its edge, which is what makes it so exciting and attractive to me. Here is a video of a short special recently on PBS highlighting Banksy and interviewing Steven Harrington of the always great Brooklyn Street Art blog.
Want to Buy a Banksy for $60?
A one shot only opportunity to buy an origianl Banksy occured this past weekend. It is a shame that I was downtown all that day!!!
Follow Banksy in his month long New York tour at Better Out Than In
Project Neon!
Project Neon is a tumblr blog that celebrates old New York City neon signs. Beautiful glowing sentinals of the past, they are fast disappearing. Catch them here.
About Project Neon
Follow a girl as she follows the glow in search of New York's best neon signs. Every week I'll visit another one of New York City's neon-clad establishments and post a photo & story, and tell you more about why I'm traipsing around this metropolis in the cold & dark to visit pharmacies, shoe repair stores, and bars with good neon signs to buy cough syrup, get my shoes repaired or have a drink.
New York Neon
Just discovered this great new blog which captures all the old New York neon signs left in the city. At once modern and retro, these signs are fast disappearing. It is nice that there is a place where they can be collected, admired and remembered.
Here is the link to NY Neon.
Brooklyn Street Art Newsletter - June 9, 2013
Images of the Week: 06.09.13Big
murals are proliferating at the moment but it is still the domain of
the individual street artist to smack up smaller works, stickers,
stencils, wheatpastes and the like. We’re featuring quite a few of these
smaller personal pieces this week in the mix of some larger ones.
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Interactive Walls with Russia’s Concrete JungleExperimental Walls that React To Your Movement Vladivostok-based
Street Artists Feliks Mashkov and Vadim Gerasimenko have created a lot
of graffiti and Street Art murals on city walls in the last few years,
usually with aerosol. Just last year we got to watch them paint a wall
right here in Brooklyn.
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BSA Film Friday: 06.07.13Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
In this ... |
Judith Supine Update: Summer ’13New Sublime Ladies Clawing For Your Eyes
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QRST on the Streets; Flotsam, Jetsam, and the Goat Man ComethStreet
Artist QRST is back on Brooklyn streets with more modernly magnetic and
captivatingly surreal work than before, and just as mired in the muck
of human dynamics as ever.
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Hygienic Dress League Blings a Boarded Building in Clevelandhygienic
dress league (HDL) recently gold-plated an entire boarded up and
neglected building in the Collinwood section of Cleveland as part of
their ongoing conceptual branding art project. In the process, the
destitute structure transformed into a solid block of bling.
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JMR Escapes to Hong Kong
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Images Of The Week: 06.02.13Stoop
sales, hula hoops, fire hydrants, ladders and paint. Get me one of
those ices from that guy with the cart on the corner, will ya?
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Entes, Pesimo and Conrad for “Noche De Los Museos” in Lima, PeruLast Friday Lima had their 5th Annual “Night of the Museums,” where the city welcomes throngs of people to walk through and see art in this metropolis that boasts an appreciable number of museums including Museo Nacional de Arqueología, Antropología e Historia del Perú, Museum of Art of Lima, the Museum of Natural History, the Museum ... |
BSA Film Friday: 05.31.13Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
“Las Calles Hablan is a story about discovering a ... |
All Female Power on the Bushwick Tip, SisWe received a roaring response from BSA readers about yesterday’s post on Bushwick and the changing nature of the scene on the street and its relation to this artists neighborhood that feels like it is on the cusp of full-throttle gentrification. With all the factors implied for a maturing giant cultural moment years in the ... |
Bushwick Is Hot Now. Hurry!Bushwick Open Studios is Paved With Street Art
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Royce Bannon, Alice Mizrachi, and Bluster One on Piano in NYC StreetsStreet Artists Among those Painting Pianos for “Sing for Hope” this Year
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Colorful Character Jim Avignon Paints in Peru and Brazil
Solo in Lima and with Carlos Dias in São Paulo
Today we have photos from two new projects by Berlin based Street
Artist and fine artist and Renaissance man Jim Avignon that he just
completed in the southern hemisphere.
São Paulo, Brazil
As part of a cultural exchange project for the Goethe Institute, Avignon and Brazilian graffiti/fine artist ...
Pinterest Graffiti
Brooklyn Street Art Newsletter
Images of the Week: 05.26.13Here’s
our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring Beau Stanton,
Brett Flanigan, Cannon Dil, Cosbe, Creepy, Deeker, Gats, Icy & Sot,
Invurt, Jaz, Keely, Nunca, Rubin, Sexer, Solus, Sonni, Zimad.
The paint is still wet on this one by ... |
Swinging Trunks – Cernesto Gets Elephantine in LondonWhat ya gonna do with all that junk inside your trunk?
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BSA Film Friday: 05.24.13Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Rise and Fall of Street ... |
First Time EVER – The Street Artist in ClevelandA Hammer, Pliers, and Kaleidascopic Vision
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Don John Takes a Bite In CopenhagenUsing a Thick Marker to Ink Out His New “Bird With A Bite”
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Brett Flanigan and Cannon Dill in ChicagoBrett Flanigan and Cannon Dill just finished this huge mural in Chicago’s Pilsen neighborhood combining abstract black and white renderings of the animal world and bright popping abstracts wrapping forms from head to toe. On their way across the country from hometown Oakland they stopped off to see their buddies at Pawn Works for this ... |
Good Willow Hunting : Street Art Brothers Use Symbols from Their Rural ChildhoodToday we look at Street Artist Willow and his bro Swil as they build a street mise en scene referencing the agrarian life of a huntsman with highly saturated wheat-pasted images. The two have been up around Brooklyn for the last couple of years, often working in tandem on handmade pieces but more often its ... |
Images of the Week: 05.19.13Here’s
our weekly interview of the street, this week featuring Andreco,
Athens, Col Wallnuts, CrispyT, eL Seed, En Masse, Faile, Faust, Greg
LaMarche, Henry Darger, James Rubio, JJ Veronis, Jon Hall, Katsu, Mr.
Toll Phetus88, Rae BK, Reme821, Sure, and Toofly.
Sure . Faust ... |
Mexican Street Artists Bring Kids Up the LadderStreet Art as an Educational Instrument for Community
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BSA Film Friday: 05.17.13Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
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Heads Up! Swoon Says You Will DieNew show by Mike Snelle is about death, and Swoon Carves a Human Skull
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JR and José Parlá Show the Wrinkles in Havana at Bryce WolkowitzWhile in New York for his “Inside Out” project, French Street Artist and photographer JR joined with American artist José Parlá to exhibit photos and a couple of new pieces to celebrate their collaborations on walls in Cuba last year. “The Wrinkles of the City, Havana, Cuba” at Bryce Wolkowitz continues in the route of ... |
JR Debuts on Broadway and You Were the Star on This StageIn a New York minute, the Curtain Opens and Closes on “Inside Out”
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Specter With Local Artists In Tashkent, Uzbekistan
Street Artist, teacher, and cultural emissary Specter just returned from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan where he was working with local artists in a project called Global Art Lab to try their hand at painting walls, including these inside a crumbling theater building. The under-utilized Tashkent space is spare and open and analogous to the abandoned ...