New Shots from Brooklyn

Lowride on Wythe - Brooklyn, NY - May 2010

Mr. Graceful - Brooklyn, NY - May 2010

Roa Permission Bunny - Brooklyn, NY - May 2010

Single-family homes - Brooklyn, NY - May 2010

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the Artist is Present: On the Streets

I was squatting on Broadway under the elevated tracks that make me think of chicago taking the picture above.

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the Artist is Present: Sitting with Marina Abramović

 Sitting with Marina (webcam shot by Dimitri Chrysanthopoulos) - New York, NY - May 2010
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Wellington Court Mural Project

Wellington Court Mural Project is underway in Astoria. Residents got sick of making calls to the city about removing the ever-steady tags covering big neighborhood warehouses. Then Ad Hoc stepped in with all the right resources. Now, the community is evolving into a public art destination in Queens. Nice.

Cern - Queens, New York - May 2010

Flower Guy, Swoon/Gaia, Royce Bannan - Queens, New York - May 2010

Chris Stain - Queens, New York - May 2010

Wellington Court - Queens, New York - May 2010

Wellington Ct - Queens, New York - May 2010

Gaia - Queens, New York - May 2010

M-City - Queens, New York - May 2010

Dan Witz - Queens, New York - May 2010

Ron English - Queens, New York - May 2010

  -- Making a very clever move, this guy jockey'd the project kick-off with nearby paste-ups.

Wellington Court Jockey - Queens, New York - May 2010

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the Artist is Present: Waiting on Marina Abramović

A beautiful morning in Manhattan came down on me when exiting the F at Rockerfeller Center today. I grabbed some coffee and sat on a sunny bench wishing I still smoked cigarettes. My head kept repeating the mantra "I am going to sit with Marina Amrabović today. I am going to sit with Marina Amrabović today." 

By taking the break I was playing a serious game of chicken with the line ahead of me, but saw no need to rush into something that's primary effort is about pressence. A ten minute limit was set, but as a practice i would have to wait out the whole ten minutes before crossing 6th Ave to get to the museum. 

I've never been to the MOMA in New York. The one in San Francisco, The Whiteney, The Guggenheim, yes. But the MOMA was always either closed or too expensive to just wonder into, so I had some anxiety about getting in which proved to be reasonable. There was the use of my roommates membership card and who knew where the entrance was. But i held my head up and looked confident. Chose a door to open and

After leading thrity or so people down the hallway to the MOMA offices entrance and standing in line at the gift shop check-out to redeem my membership ticket (all the while giggling that the MOMA actually has you enter and exit through the gift shop). I eventually walked out of the gift shop and into the museum to notice it's husstle. So many people were already there and walked in with an easy flash of the card. I walked up the stairs and turned to the ____ ____ audotorium  and there it was. accessible and big and real. I found a security gaurd who kindly showed me the end of the line and suggested asking to make sure i was in the right place.  

Her hair was braided and over the front of her left shoulder. She was in white from her neck to her wrists and ended in a deep puddle on the floor.

Here's some links to videos and interviews i've been hounding up since getting home:
- Marina Abramović presents at the Manchester International Festival, The Gardian 
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Booka Shade comes to Brooklyn on Examiner.com

Read my post Booka Shade comes to Brooklyn on their new album, More!, and the May 25th show at Music Hall of Williamsburg. 
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New shots up on Flickr

Look at these and lots more on my flickr page. There's also shots of Swoon and other artists' sculptures curated by Urban Art Projects for their May exhibition in East River Park. 

The middle photo is by German duo Various and Gould. They rule color and collage different body parts together for their small paste-ups.  This March, the pair had a show at Brooklynite Gallery called Make it Fit with Specter.

NEKST on Bowery  -  Manhattan, NY  -  May 2010

Various & Gould  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

Marilyn Mouths  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

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My shots on Feministing.com

The ever rad Courtney E. Martin wrote about street art today at Feministing.com. She gives big ups to yours truly and uses my shots of women artists' work. Read the post to peep Swoon, Imminent Disaster, Miss Van and Kundalini.
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Shepard Fairey shows, Gussa covers up

 

Considering his street roots it's hard to believe Shepard Fairey's dominance over the art world. I love Obey's genesis and the Obama portrait as much as the next gal, but let's be honest, the man's no artist. A cultural revolutionary? Yes. A genius marketer? Yes. An extraordinary illustrator? Yes. But calling him a fine artist is the stretch that broke the elastic. 

Even so, the buzz around Fairy's "May Day" opening at Deitch Projects is immense. Too bad the space is more inspiring than the show itself. It's clear Jeffrey Deitch feels he's done enough to refine contemporary art and simply wanted the coolest party of the year to close out his gallery forever before taking the reigns as the director of MOCA in Los Angeles.

The exhibition was actually much more interesting in January at Jef Aerosol's first New York show, "All Shook Up," after a 30+ year career in public art. Aerosol's iconic stencils of Biggie, John Lennon and Jean-Michel Basquiat spoke bigger messages off of Ad Hoc/Eastern District's walls in Bushwick than almost the same images did in Soho. 

Here, at the May Day show, the portraits are tired. They make you wonder how Fairy didn't just kill it. You know, come up with something huge to let everyone know that it's not only hype that puts him on top. Any artist would do cartwheels to show in Deitch's Wooster Street gallery, and it's like he put as little thought into it as he could. The party might have been a blasting way to close out the gallery but was the work worth such a honored moment in New York art history? After all, the most interesting thing I saw during the visit was Jeffery Deitch closing a deal. But that's hard to live up to even when the work is stellar. 

A treat out of all the hoopla is a new presence in Gussa. The artist smacked a big smiling face across the street from Deitch on Wooster. Maybe as a warning of what was to come. Later the same happy rainbow-face covered and incorporated one of Obey's numerous promotional posters in Brooklyn.

Jeffrey Deitch and Biggie  -  New York, NY  -  May 2010

Martha Cooper shot painted by Obey  -  New York, NY  -  May 2010

Gussa Obey Cover-Up  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

Gussa welcomes Obey on Wooster  -  New York, NY  -  May 2010

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Vivian Girls are Brooklyn girls in Examiner.com

Read my post Vivian Girls are Brooklyn Girls in Examiner.com. 
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Dolk in Brooklyn

  Dolk in Willimaburg. The piece was put up with permission and came up just before his show with M-City at Brooklynite Gallery.

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Big roses for Mom in Crown Heights

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Mother and Child review in VenusZine

Writer/director Rodrigo Garcia's Mother and Child opened May, 7th. I went to the New York premiere at the Paris Theater on a rainy spring day. Read my review in VenusZine.

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Swooning over Swoon

 

Swoon is all the rage and her book release party let it be known. None of her intricately cut pieces were up at Urban Art Projects in Williamsburg tonight, but her work was everywhere. The walls were covered in open books so the work was displayed, in a sense. To get one, you paid at one table, took the book off the wall and went to another table to have it signed.

Meeting Swoon is a thing like meeting ... She is a American international art super star and she sets the standards for the boys who run the show. She's personable with big smiles and seems as if she's the one having the most fun at the party. Her presence is great reminder that art is made, in fact, by people. 

So I bought the book and got it signed for my mom. Her birthday is coming up and she delights in Swoon's dreamy style and renegade personality. A moment of horror almost took me when I told her my mom is big fan. I hoped not to induce Rex Manning disappointment at his one teenage fan in Empire Record's signing line. But all rolled smoothly. She took a sharpie to a whole front page of her book and wrote, "HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!" Until she remembered it was for her birthday and added the extra salutation facing it. 

The book is striking. One of her figures looks you right in the eye on a glossy red cover, there's an introduction by Jeffrey Deitch and the pages are full of her various projects. Included is a glimpse at her river raft expedition, which is magical to say the least. 

Swoon starts on her next project soon. The artist is bringing a team to Haiti to build Konbit Shelters  for communities ravaged by the earthquake. The structures were originally designed by Iran-born architect and humanitarian Nader Khalili and consist of ninety percent earth. A prototype is on exhibit in Urban Art Projects’ inaugural Williamsburg Waterfront Sculpture Exhibition in East River State Park during the month of May.

Swoon Konbit Shelter  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

Swoon Konbit Shelter  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

Urban Art Projects Exhibition  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

Urban Art Projects Exhibition  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

Urban Art Projects Exhibition  -  Brooklyn, NY  -  May 2010

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