In the next few days, you might encounter a piece of paper taped to a wall with the inscription “Take me, free piece of art inside” somewhere around Bushwick. Well, you should take it. Inside is artwork by Alex Trema, a French street artist who is in town for a few days.

(more…)

Danielle Mastion’s Christmas Vacation (all photos by Hilary Lamb)

Want a dose of the local Holiday Spirit? 19 Wyckoff Avenue, a branch of Bushwick’s Five Points, was crawling with some of the world’s finest street artists on Saturday, all dedicated to depicting their Winter Solstice favorites.  Danielle Mastrion, the local artist responsible for the two-story mural of Biggie Smalls on the Five Points, sprayed Chevy Chase’s face upon one wall, his dubious face bedecked with Santa’s sombrero.

(more…)

Andrea Bergart and her helpers Aleksandar Sepi, Heather Garland and Mike Olin. (all photos by Katarina Hybenova)

Artist Andrea Bergart probably thought that painting on canvas was too boring.  Instead she decided to paint…a cement truck. Dré chose her signature Lisa Frank cheetah print and turned one of the boring trucks into a travelling sensation!

“I was inspired by the 1983 documentary Style Wars about New York street artists and the hip hop culture, ” said Dré while shaking up Ms. Jackson purple color spray. “I love how the street artists painted trains and those would then travel through boroughs. I love the idea of an image going ‘all city,’” she smiled.

(more…)

Never’s Owl on the Points

It’s been my habit to “photowalk” around the Five Points of Bushwick, where Scott Avenue ends at the intersection of St. Nicolas Ave and Troutman St.  On Friday morning (afternoon?), I felt hungover, when I heard the tell-tale sound of a spray can being shaken. Little did I know that the artist I spied spraying was painting the entrance to the Triangle, the outdoor performance venue of the Bushwick’s Five Points. The venue happens to have three sides, nestled in the triangle created by Jefferson St, Scott Ave, and St Nicolas.  (more…)

Hoacs hen I first encountered them

Hoacs’ finished product

I woke up on Saturday morning after a night of fun and fantasia at the House of Yes, and yes, I was hungover.  My favorite remedy for such a diagnosis is a nice walk, coffee in hand, amongst our favorite hulking warehouses.  Electric chords of music meander through open windows as I waltz, equipped with heavy-duty UV sunglasses and a camera.  On Meadows there was the intoxicant whiff of spray paint on the air.  I stumbled onto Bogart, and Lo! Here were some friendly street artists collaborating on a wall space.
Need a cure for that frayed party soul of yours?  Check out the art that was going up on Bogart between Meadows and Stagg.  Owns, an established neighborhood artists you may recognize, commented that the work was going on all day, and some LA artists were showing up periodically to contribute.  Here are some images of the two gentlemen hard at work.
Get out there Bushwick!  (more…)

Bushwick Daily is doing a round up of all of the best things that the sweaty, raining, raunchy, stinky and still sweet summer of ’12 had to offer. I thought long and hard about what’s been best this summer. Photography has dominated our homepage, but more interesting is seeing what all of YOU have been capturing out there in Bushwick this summer on your Instagram. I searched using Statigram, a great Instagram photo viewer, by tag #BUSHWICK and found almost 22,000 images. Most recently, there are over 200 instagram images tagged Bushwick each DAY. Holy moly, that’s a lot of content to sort through. Skylines, graffiti, tattoos, food and drinks, streetlife, and beautiful faces dominate the feed.

Have you seen our instagram by the way? You should definitely FOLLOW us (@bushwickdaily) for shots of art, food, music, kittens, street art and of course, incredibly attractive people.

That said, here is the BEST OF SUMMER (well, mostly August): Bushwick Instagram.

Best Rooftop Shot:

by: ngoziassata (more…)

By Katarina Hybenova

A BIG high five to all the street art minded people in Bushwick! Bishop203 known for his street art, long beard and chill demeanor recently opened a street art boutique, or artique, what he lovingly calls his cute little shop Low Brow located at 143 Central Ave (corner Willoughby) in Bushwick.

We gladly accepted Bishop’s invitation to check out his impressive stock of spray paint and his walls, both indoor and outdoor, which are dedicated to street art.

Named as the opposition to high brow art, Low Brow Artique is both a (street) art gallery and a (street) art supply shop, which sounds like a great combination to us. One aspect of his business can support the other!

Low Brow carries the most beloved brands of spray paint at really favorable prices – Ironlak from $5.25, Black Montana for $6.25, and Gold Montana for $7.00. Sweet! Bishop203 also points out the Luquitex paints (both hard and soft body), canvases and wood panels. You can find gesso, sketch books and Krink. Soon you will also be able to find fun stuff made by artists such as jewelry in the store…

Above the counter you can observe in fascination (as I did) a collection of “vintage” Krylon spray cans. Not for sale, naturally…

Bishop203’s gallery space isn’t big but it looks great. Low Brow’s current art show opened this past Saturday and it features collaborations of two artists per piece. Every show at Low Brow will be complemented by a mural painted by the artists in the show.  The mural is currently covered by awesome art by The Yok, Sheryo, See1, and Ski. However, this Saturday, August 18, our favorite street art collective Robots Will Kill is coming over and will be painting more stuff, which gives us a great opportunity to see some street art par excellence in the making…

From the current show: Fenix and Matt Siren

Welcome to the neighborhood, Low Brow Artique.

Low Brow Artique is located on 143 Central Ave, and it’s open Wednesdays through Fridays 12-8PM and 11AM-7PM on the weekends.

By Terri Ciccone

Alex Emmart, Bushwick resident, runs The Mighty Tanaka gallery in DUMBO.

Certainly NOT a traditional gallery setting. When entering  The Mighty Tanaka in DUMBO, you’ll encounter a pair of Skewville sneakers in the lounge area with a pot leaf on them strewn above your head.  Penises, breasts and vaginas are everywhere! And I mean everywhere. This is actually very appropriate however, because in the same exposed manner, Alex Emmart, the director of the space, left nothing of his thoughts of the art world to the imagination. And I mean nothing.

The striking not-so-private parts are part of the current show at the Gallery called Inside Out, and are created by artist Don Pablo Pedro. Also featured in the show is the artist Cake, who also follows suite in bearing the bones of her artwork.  Even though the pieces are striking and provide an electric and exciting energy in the space, plopping down on the soft leather couch in the middle of the gallery is actually encouraged. Alex emanates this exuberant combination of cool and joy that obviously translates into the work shown in the space. He believes that an art space should be fist and foremost an inviting place to connect with art and each other. “My art, I feel is the art of interpretation,” he said. “It’s the ability to display artwork in a way that engages the trifecta. The pieces communicate, the person viewing the art communicates with the work, and the people in the space communicate with each other.”

This appeared to work wonderfully as we sat comfortably and discussed the mission of his gallery and the trends in his collections. Even though the gallery is in DUMBO, Alex is Bushwick resident who is totally inspired by his neighborhood. “Bushwick is the largest pool of artists you can find of completely random cool stuff, so a large percent of artists I work with live in Bushwick, have studios in Bushwick or ties to Bushwick in one way or another. So that’s really been one of my biggest influences with finding artists.”

The Mighty Tanaka Gallery, named after a badass little league baseball player, will have a booth this weekend at The Fountain Art Fair. Be sure to stop by to check out the work that is made by “us” for “us.” Alex spoke about the fact that many galleries are showing outrageous and expensive pieces to sell to high end collectors; something he feels sometimes hinders the experience of the viewer. “What’s most important is that it’s the voice of our generation, and that we are displaying ourselves as individuals who are working with a wide spectrum of art,” Alex said. “I want to switch it up and be fresh I want to ride the crest of what’s happening of the now.”

We went on to discuss the very relatable and approachable pieces he had in his gallery. “I really try hard to kind of remove that glass wall that separates the average person for the gallery experience. There’s been this elitism that goes along with fine art. We’re young people and we’re into cool shit, and just because it doesn’t look like I’m going to be buying art doesn’t mean I don’t want to have this experience.”

There is no doubt that when he sets up his booth at The Fountain Art Fair this weekend, there will be a lot of “completely random cool stuff” that is relatable, fresh and exciting to see. I half expect to see a couch in there as well.

By Terri Ciccone

Before you cringe about thinking about your naked nanna, let’s start off by saying this is not the kind of Gilf you are probably thinking of. “It’s kind of like my secret word for me,” the street artists began to explain as she meticulously cuts and measured a stencil.  “I know what it means, but everyone else thinks it means something different. It’s light hearted, where my work can be really heavy.” Gilf of course isn’t her birth name, but the name she uses as she uses the street as her canvas to spread awareness about social, political and environmental issues.

If you entered Gilf’s studio and living space without prior knowledge of her line of work, you may mistake her for someone on the White House’s most wanted list, and she’d probably take that as a compliment. Aggressive red signs that read “Stop Corporate Douchebags” stand not too far from an almost ready stencil of Lady Liberty drinking the cool aid, literally, and multiple stencils that read “censorship” over and over.  A ridiculous and vomit worthy speech given by Rush Limbaugh plays in the background, no doubt to motivate her to continue making visually stunning pieces that stop and make the viewer think, as they give a voice to the underdog. “I started doing street art to talk about stuff that people didn’t wanted to talk about. I feel that people feel hopeless about a lot of stuff and they don’t know how to deal with big issues that are facing us globally and culturally.  If I can talk to them in a visual sense, maybe I can change their perspective over time.”

There is something so technically beautiful in Gilf’s rebellious work.   As a self-proclaimed tomboy, Gilf expressed that her childhood dream was to design cars. She went on to study engineering in college to make this dream a reality. After learning this was far less than a creative field, and fearing a long career of designing tail lights for a living, Gilf decided she wanted to enter a new path in life involving a more artistic approach that would inspire and help others. As a result, her work has almost a mathematical approach to perfection. She meticulously cuts tiny dots, fills almost invisible cracks, and spray paints letters so perfectly that these pieces often get confused with screen prints.  All of this hard work is made with the knowledge of the ephemerality of the street as canvas, and it doesn’t matter to her as long as her points get across. “It’s about engaging everyday people on the street and opening a dialogue about important issues. I put it out there and hope it reaches people, I hope they go home and Google it and talk about it with their friends.”

Her latest projects will be shown at the upcoming Fountain Art Fair. One series portrays a play on vision charts that spell out things like “stop looking the wrong way” and “vision is impossible when your eyes are closed.” Other powerful pieces such as a stencil of a birth control wheel with the words “why are men making these decisions for us?” put in place of the days of the week, prove that her pieces aren’t just beautiful, but a call to action.

Another one of Gilf’s undertakings involves a gardening initiative to promote hunger awareness. A wooden structure resembling a tree is mounted to her studio wall, brushing the ceiling. Spaces where “branches” should go will be filled with blue pouches made from 100% recycled plastic. The pouches will contain soil and the seeds of an edible plant. Gilf dreams of building these structures on the sides of buildings in underprivileged neighborhoods in New York, as well as in countries struggling with hunger across the globe. “The idea is to bring it to different places around the world that have been hit with war or natural disaster. I’d like to do this project with a community that’s been through the worst, to bring a collaborative spirit back to their world.”

Her name speaks volume’s to her work, even if we don’t know what it actually means. Our first reaction is to assume it is closely associated with the acronym, Milf. But like the messages in her work, things aren’t always what they seem, and we should never take what someone tells us, or doesn’t tell us for face value. Always challenge things you feel are unfair, and use whatever talents you have to make your voice heard and to open a dialogue. That’s what this Gilf taught me anyway.

By Terri Ciccone

There’s something brewing inside Big Snow Buffalo Lodge, a new Bushwick music venue that caught my attention, and it wasn’t a band.

Instead of filling the place with the usual music venue decor – posters, stickers and some graffiti – the owners decided to make the walls into a sort of living, breathing art project that’s continuously developing.

Maybe “living” and “breathing” were poor choices of words considering the subject matter…. On a wall in the space is a lone skeleton, standing from floor to ceiling, frozen in time as he somberly plays his guitar. His large hat hints to us that he was once a member of a mariachi band, now playing tunes from the grave. His bony fingers grip the guitar at sharp angles, yet he appears to be effortlessly stroking the strings. His bright white cartilage contrasts with the deep warm color behind him, the color of algae resting on a serene lake under a deep blue night sky. His whittled tree bark-like guitar perhaps carved from a piece of drift wood.

The piece called Dia De Los Muertos Mariachi is inspired by a combination of Mexico’s Day of the Dead and mariachi music, a theme Bushwick based artist and musician, Jeremey Aquilino has been drawn to and working with for quite some time. He often creates different groupings of skeletal mariachi men using his characters and sometimes bases them on real bands. That leaves me wondering which musicians inspired which?

“Last year I was living over in northern Bushwick close to Ridgewood, and my neighbors would always play Spanish music, and loud (he makes a bass reggae tone noise). It would just be everywhere, and I started painting this stuff last year in that apartment,” Jeremy said with a tone of possibly coming to a realization. “So it could have been influenced by that.”

What’s also cool about the piece is there is a the possibility to add more characters, so that the lone skeleton can maybe one day form his own band. This piece, along with additional paintings in the basement of neon aliens in a geometric patterned planet, are all evolving. The artists at Big Snow seem to take pride in the fact that they never actually consider their work finished.

“It might stay as is or it might change over the next few months,” Jeremy looking up at the skeleton with adoration and skepticism, “I like to look at all my artwork as unfinished. It leaves me the option of adding, who knows,” Jeremy said.

“I kind of like the constant art that’s been developing in this place,” Jeremy said, “like over there, that happened last night” he points to a drawing pasted up on a mirror, a scene of a grumpy old woman scowling at the venue that was drawn by someone working the door during a show at the venue the night before.

This music venue is charming; I imagine it didn’t set out to become an art space. But to me, with the well-crafted stylized paintings along with the cool transformative and collaborative working styles, it seems like a great creative environment where inspiration and artist collaboration kind of drips from the walls. That defines an art space, right? So if you’re going to check out your favorite band at Big Snow, look around, you might see something different each time.