The return of Art in the Streets....moving images

This weekend photographer Anita Rosenberg published her 20-minute video of never-before-seen footage from the historic and controversial, "Art in the Streets," show held in Los Angeles in 2011.

Anita Rosenberg at the "Art in the Streets" photoshoot, 2nd row, far right.  (Patti Astor hidden.) In the foreground is Martha Cooper taking the picture. 

It was worth the wait. See works from contemporary artists like Banksy, Mister Cartoon, Mode 2, Retna, Risk and Shepard Fairey. But, more importantly, take a history lesson on hip hop culture - graffiti, subway art photography and sculpture by checking out Futura, Henry Chalfont and Martha Cooper and Rammellzee, respectively.

Watching this video you'll witness a once in a lifetime recreation of Patii Astor's Fun Gallery (including a painstakingly handpainted gallery sign!) Inside the gallery, classic works by Keith Haring, Kenny Scharf and Fred Braithwaite was installed. As you approached the gallery from the museum entrance you saw the original Jean Michel Basquiat painting that was displayed in the window in 1981 during the inagural show!



Here's Lee Quinones quote from the video:

"The thing about Patti and the Fun Gallery and Bill Stelling was that they are...in the same shoes as Jeffrey [Deitch] is  now...where they were so excited about something that was so new and  needed at that time. That whole thing needed time to marinade and galvanize itself into art history. Jeffrey's at the forefront of an international, global version of that. So, of course, the old meets the new and then you have the splitting of atoms. And, you have a major explosion of greatness!" LEE, Geffen Contemporary at MoCA, 2011.

Going back into time  I went back to the 80s during my interview to celebrate the "Art in the Streets" opening with Patti Astor and Fred Braithwaite. Read it here. This was one of a series of four articles I wrote. Another insightful discussion was with Futura in which he provided his views on the street art scene and his place in it.

"Hodgepodge" Kenny Scharf opens tonight at Honor Fraser gallery, LA

"Hodgepodge," pronounced /ˈhäjˌpäj/ is the name of Kenny Scharf's solo show at Honor Fraser in LA.

The word "hodgepodge" is also described in the dictionary as "a hash, a mishmash, a jumble." Although Kenny Scharf's busy, colorful aerosol murals may resemble bubble and squeak to some observers, on closer viewing of Scharf's work you will see a consistent and unique cartoon-esque style that he has developed since the 80s in New York. His influences are surely Pop art and New York club culture, but he is also not shy of throwing in The Flintstones and The Jetsons.

Scharf, along with other pioneers of street art, has experienced a recent renaissance partly due to Jeffrey Deitch's seminal "Art in the Streets" exhibition and Royal/T's "West Village East" showcase last year. See the Kenny Scharf article in Unleashed Magazine penned by his daughter, Malia Scharf, which I uploaded to Scribd. If you are driving around LA, keep an eye out for the vast five-storey West Hollywood Library mural, definitely the most permanent recognition of Scharf's work in LA.

Kenny Scharf car, Art in the Streets, Museum of Contemporary Art, LA (credit: Julieannrhodes.com)

West Hollywood Library (credit: Stevio)

Tonight's "Hodgepodge" solo show at Honor Fraser solidifies Scharf's presence on the LA art scene. For the opening,  he will be joined by Ann Magnuson, an actress and art activist and Scharf's long-time collaborator. In the recent past, she worked on Scharf's 2009 book, "Kenny Scharf," which launched at Celebrity Vault in Beverly Hills. When I attended that book launch, I think it was the most "establishment," middle-aged audience I'd ever seen celebrating a graffiti icon! ;) His fans run deep!

"Hodgepodge" opens Saturday April 14th, 2012 6-8pm.
The show runs April 14, 2012 — May 19, 2012

Honor Fraser
2622 S. La Cienaga Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 9003.

Kenny Scharf: More, Newer, Better, Nower, Funner! #ArtInTheStreets

Last week at the premiere of "Outside In: Art in the Streets" the Kenny Scharf short film "More, Newer, Better, Nower, Funner!" was presented.

The film's title means a little more when you recognize that Kenny Scharf was the inventor of the name that stuck with Patti Astor's Fun Gallery! If you want to see Scharf's butt watch this film ;)

Tipster Chronicles...going back to '79-'82 New York #graffiti #ArtInTheStreets

Anita Rosenberg's "Tipster Chronicles"

When you think of hip hop graffiti documentarians props are rightly paid to the early photographers like Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfont. Their images of graffiti in public spaces and on trains eventually led them to the graffiti artists themselves who embraced these white, middle-class photographers from Manhattan into their clandestine world. And history was made with books like Subway Art, Style Wars, Spraycan Art and Hip Hop Files.

"Subway Art" 25th anniversary edition (credit: Arrested Motion)

Back in those days, Anita Rosenberg was also on the scene for a few years between 1979-82 photographing the emerging downtown art scene as it welcomed the renegade graffiti artform into their galleries and establishments. Rosenberg's approach was different to Cooper or Chalfont's. She was the first graffiti society photographer following the parties and gallery openings of her small group of very influential friends in the East Village.

Stevio and Anita at Fun Gallery event in 2009, Meltdown Comics, LA

Who's Who To this day, her circle of friends remain a Who's Who of urban culture due to their pioneering work in the late 70s and early 80s: Patti Astor, Fab 5 Freddy, Kenny Scharf, Charlie Ahearn, Futura and Zephyr; and legends who passed too young Dondi and Keith Haring.

Rosenberg's book, "Tipster Chronicles," was given that name by her then boyfriend, Zephyr (although it was just a scrapbook back in the 80s.) And if you know you hip hop trivia, you'll know it was Zephyr, along with Dr. Revolt and Sharp, who painted the legendary "Wild Style" mural for Charlie Ahearn's film of the same name. And you'll also know that Wild Style is hip hop 1.01 for generations of youth!

"The players on the scene always get the spotlight, but it's the folks in the wings who make the show roll. In the wild early 80s our East Village art scene was like a new born baby...She [Anita] saw us as important in our own right, long before the media did, and she shot these extraordinarily candid phots of the artists from the FUN. Later many became legend. Many died. But Anita got the intimate shots when we were young and pretty." Zephyr

You can read an interview with Anita Rosenberg on Miss Rosen's wonderful blog. It touches on some of the "Tipster Chronicles" stories that will transport you back to the days when New York was a melting pot of border-crossing cultural entrepreneurs.

Limited Edition The small book is self-published and limited to only 140 copies ($32) so cop yourself one at either the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA store (signed by Anita) or directly at her website.

UNleashed Magazine is out! #ArtInTheStreets edition

The magazine is fresh off of the press. And it's a weighty, 124 page tome with full color images of amazing street art.

Copies of the magazine have been circulating since last night's launch party in honor of Fab 5 Freddy who I interviewed for the magazine. Other interviews include Patti Astor, Nick Walker, Futura, TATS Cru, Kenny Scharf, The London Police and Logan Hicks.

And each page is packed full of wonderful, glorious images of street art from Fab 5 Freddy's latest Swarovski crystal encrusted pictures to Logan Hicks' photorealistic stencil paintings.

Stay tuned! I will be re-publishing the stories I wrote over the next few weeks as the MOCA "Art in the Street" exhibitions gets underway.

PS If you're going to be at the MOCA members' opening of the show on Saturday 16th April then the publisher will be handing out copies of the magazine on the night. 

L.A.'s Retna goes old skool with one-off monotype prints

Rivera & Rivera has shown Retna's work in the recent past in its downtown Los Angeles gallery. But, this time it has stepped up the game with something unique and limited.

Imagine Retna's lettering and brushwork painted onto glass and then "pressed" to paper. This is monotyping which dates back to the 17th century! With monotyping only a single print - a monotype - is produced because most of the ink is removed during the initial pressing. Anyone who's seen Claudio Stickar, (who has worked for Frank Gehry, Roy Lichtenstein and Robert Rauschenberg) will be able to vouch for how good these prints will be.

"RETNA really needs no introduction. He's fresh off an explosive 15-page feature and cover of September's Juxtapoz magazine with a glowing introduction by MOCA's new director- Jeffrey Deitch. Last week, RETNA finished a commission at the Las Vegas Cosmopolitan towers alongside of Kenny Scharf and Shepard Fairey, and, this week, he's in Detroit painting alongside of Richard Colman for the Juxtapoz x Power House restoration project. RETNA is also slated for a solo show at Primary Flight during Art Basel Miami. Needless to say, he's staying quite busy ahead of his participation in the 2011 MOCA exhibit (See recent Financial Times coverage here)." Rivera & Rivera

Raid the piggy bank If you have $1,800 spare you can get your hands on one of these monotypes at 1200 PST tomorrow, Friday 22nd October.

Just head over to Rivera & Rivera. The price covers taxes and insured second day shipping within the continental United States. All orders are fulfilled from Los Angeles, California

Jean-Michel Basquiat remembered - "The Radiant Child"

Last month, Nowness, aka eLuxury, (led by Jefferson Hack for LVHM) presented Tamra Davis' documentary film "Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York.

Where did this film come from? Well, it seems that Davis was a good friend of Basquiat’s in the 80s and filmed him over a period of several years before he passed in 1988. It's said that Davis kept her footage a secret until the art dealer (and now Los Angeles MOCA director) Jeffrey Deitch encouraged her to complete her film.

The result is a mix of old footage and new interviews, graphics by Shepard Fairey's Studio Number One and original music by Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond of Beastie Boys fame.

It's not often you get Fab 5 Freddy Brathwaite, Kenny Scharf and Jeffrey Deitch sat in one room. But the MoMA "The Radiant Child" screening brought Basquiat's friends together to discuss Basquiat's rise and fall, his heroin addiction and subsequent death by overdose in a poignant end to this screening event. I wonder if anyone sat at the table thought they'd be discussing how this played out over 20 years later in the same city?

"In his short career, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a phenomenon. He became notorious for his graffiti art under the moniker Samo in the late 1970s on the Lower East Side scene, sold his first painting to Deborah Harry for $200, and became best friends with Andy Warhol. Appreciated by both the art cognoscenti and the public, Basquiat was launched into international stardom. However, soon his cult status began to override the art that had made him famous in the first place.

Director Tamra Davis pays homage to her friend in this definitive documentary but also delves into Basquiat as an iconoclast. His dense, bebop-influenced neoexpressionist work emerged while minimalist, conceptual art was the fad; as a successful black artist, he was constantly confronted by racism and misconceptions. Much can be gleaned from insider interviews and archival footage, but it is Basquiat’s own words and work that powerfully convey the mystique and allure of both the artist and the man." Sundance Film Festival 2010.

Fun Gallery resurrected for '09

Galo hit me up about the Fun Gallery show in Los Angeles to celebrate what that space did to bring together the best of the 80's New York graffiti to the downtown art gallery scene.

Little did I know there were gonna be old skool hip hop luminaries there. Patti Astor aka "Virginia" the reporter in Wild Style, "Queen of the East Village" and co-founder of the Fun Gallery. I also got the chance to meet with Anita the photographer behind some amazing and never-seen-before pics of Dondi, Keith Haring, Futura and Kenny Scharf's work exhibited at the Fun Gallery.

Learn, yo! If you want to know what it was like, here's an article from Charlie Ahearn published in Artforum 10 years ago in 1999.

Patti Astor as Virginia in 'Wild Style'

Graffiti classics uncovered in New York

I used to wish I could travel back to New York in the 80s so I pick up all those old break beat albums, hang out with the legends and may be even get myself a role in the film, Wild Style! Okay, the last two wishes are only since I've moved to LA trying to make a name for myself! Hah!

SoHo in the 70s So, why mention this now? Well, I got to thinking after reading a recent Newsday report that a Futura (2000) tag was uncovered in a 10-storey limestone building dated ~1973! Damn! I'm out by a decade! :)

Along with the Futura tag was work by SAMO (aka Basquiat) and Fab 5 Freddy. How could this be? What *is* this building. Well, it seems that the 8th floor loft was lived in by art critic, Edit deAk, until 1984. During those years he had cool uptown kids visit his loft and let them loose on his walls and stairwell.

The artwork isn't high-end gallery fare. It's simple, raw and archaic! It really captures the early formative days of graffiti art. Before it hit canvas and US$ '000s dollar price tags. The picture above shows various images and tags in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker in a limited range of colors - silver, gold, pink and red (unlike the rainbow-colored subway cars they later painted). Newsday added,"There are cartoon-like pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a heart and a cake, and several references to Quaaludes, a popular 1970s party drug".

"It's a great discovery," says Alberto Mugrabi, a major Basquiat and Andy Warhol collector. "It's the beginning of graffiti (as art)."

"Obviously, it's a critical piece of history, SoHo history," says Lisa Dennison, the former director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum.

The building was bought by developers in 2004 who wondered about the rumors about some hidden art within the walls. It's reported that Rite-Art magazine editor, deAk, even bragged: "There is a Basquiat, and it's somewhere where you won't think it is."

Art over commerce? The construction development has stopped now the art scrawls have been authenticated by Guggenheim chief conservator Paul Schwartzbaum and other experts. But, I can't help but feel if this discovery didn't have any (social) currency* value it wouldn't be high on anyone's 2008 list. In place of demolition, the developers decided to create an exhibition, investing "six figures" on the mural, hiring art conservator Harriet Irgang and California landscape photographer Bob Weingarten to document the process and produce a catalog for the exhibit.

"Irgang has stabilized the two walls by applying an adhesive to flaking paint and glitter. Next, she will cover the mural with tissue paper, cheesecloth and a stiff fabric to enable the graffiti to be 'peeled' off _ a process that involves using spatulas and chisels to separate the plaster from the coarse brown mortar behind it. Once freed, the graffiti will be mounted on a lightweight panel so it can be moved".

The Wild Style Exhibit The mural will be publicly unveiled on 29th November 2007 and called "The Wild Style Exhibit" after the classic hip hop film directed by Charlie Ahearn. The retrospective exhibit will feature the graffiti art movement between 1980-1985. The show has Keith Haring, Basquiat, Kenny Scharf, Ero and Fab 5 Freddy with many pieces coming from from private collections that have never been seen before.

The show runs until February 15th 2008 in the SoHo building's Gallery 151. Funnily, someone I know in NYC has a friend who works there who said the opening party was "off the hook!" I hope to make a trip to see the show before it ends so watch out for my blog in a few weeks (Farecast says prices are over $300 now, but due to fall) - I don't care what Gawker says. Or may be I do!

* not just money, but socialite value. Here's a thought: does art attract money, or money attract art? Is graffiti art? I've always thought that the joke was on the buyers of graffiti, especially in the case of "Banksy fever".