May 23, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Somos Luz: Boamistura

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The folks of Boamistura (previously here & here) were at it again, doing what they do so well: fostering pride and community in impoverished neighborhoods with their street art interventions. Their latest participatory urban art project Somos Luz (We are Light) took place this past March in Panama City. Invited by the Panama Art Biennial and as part of their own Crossroads project, Boamistura enlisted the help of the inhabitants of the Begonia I building in El Chorrillo to paint the phrase “Somos Luz” on the façade of their building. Each apartment (50 total) was responsible for painting their own home including corridors and stairways. The concept was based on a color grid that, when seen from up close, looks like abstract shapes but, from a distance, spells out their proud bright message. It’s win-win all around. The building got a much needed coat of paint (see ‘before’ in third photo down from top.) The community, down to the young children, were included in the project. And a sense of well-deserved pride was instilled in all who live in the Begonia I building. Nice work as usual Boamistura!

May 3, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 5/3

Free & Cheap things to do this weekend in NYC (5/3/13 to 5/5/13)
It’s going to be a perfect Spring weekend so here are plenty of suggestions to keep you out and about with culture and fun. Free & Cheap things to do this weekend in NYC (5/3/13 to 5/5/13) Walks, talks, music, art, Ideas Festival, Pen World Voices Fest, Red Bull Music Fest, Nuit Blanche events, Kentucky Derby, Cinco de Mayo and so much more!

1. THEATER: Fri 5/3 and all weekend – Blondie of Arabia. Monica Hunken’s one-woman show on her odyssey biking through 3 countries in the Middle East weeks before the Arab Spring. A quirky comedy. Monica talks after the Fri 5/3 and 5/10 performances. 8pm. $25.

2. LITERATURE/READINGS: Fri 5/3 – PEN World Voices of International Literature’s Literary Mews. Nestled among the cobblestone streets of NYU’s storied Washington Mews, this day-long “festival within the Festival” will feature writers’ workshops in the morning and readings in the afternoon. FREE

3. ART: Fri 5/3 & all weekend through 6/20 – Holton Rower Focus paintings, Pour Paintings two bodies of work side by side. Diverse results achieved by the artist through his innovative and deceptively simple process of pouring hand-made acrylic paints over wood. Rower will also introduce a new body of work titled “Focus paintings” which are amazingly out of focus! Opening Fri 6 to 9pm. FREE

4. FILM: Fri 5/3 & Sat 5/4 – New York Indian Film Festival $15 See schedule.

5. ART/ARCHITECTURE/URBAN STUDIES/DESIGN/FOOD: Fri 5/3 & Sat 5/4 –Ideas City is a biennial Festival in New York City of conferences, workshops, an innovative StreetFest around the Bowery, and more than one hundred independent projects and public events that are forums for exchanging ideas, proposing solutions, and accelerating creativity. So much to do so check schedule to pick. A few events that caught my eye: Creation 3D; Human Hotel; and Murals on the Bowery. 9am to Midnight. FREE

6. MUSIC: All weekend & through 5/31– Red Bull Music Academy. An amazing amount of music events all around town ranging mostly from FREE to $20. Check events on their site.

7. WALK/ARCHITECTURE: Sat 5/4 – The Great Saunter. A 32 mile walk around Manhattan’s Shoreline.7am to 7pm $20

8. ART/VIDEO/LIGHT: Sat 5/4 – Nuit Blanche presents Change of State. Site-specific projection on the facade of the New Museum. And Mulberry Street Night Fest where the street is converted into a series of cool light, projection-mapping, and video installations. 8pm to midnight. FREE

9. ART/PARTICIPATORY/FUN: Sat 5/4 & Sun 5/5 – The Institute for Psychogeographic Adventure: Experiment 17 – DUMBO Individuals (or pairs) sign up for a personalized journey that remixes history, memory, the everyday and the spectacular. A multitude of performers will be scattered through the neighborhood to lead you through a series of unexpected and fabulous DUMBO encounters. Noon to 5pm $10.

10. ARCHITECTURE/WALK/TOUR: Sat 5/4 – Made in LIC: A Jane Jacobs Walking Tour of Long Island City 12pm at The Clock Tower. FREE

11. MUSIC: Sat 5/4 – Brooklyn Flea Record Fair at Smorgasburg 11am to 6pm. FREE

12. ARCHITECTURE/WALKING TOUR: Sat 5/4 – Hudson Yards: Design(in) The New Heart of NY. OHNY. Exhibit and architect-led tours. 10am to 3pm. Register. FREE.

13. MUSIC/ART/FUN: Sat 5/4 – Earth Day Rockaway: Free activities, live music by Il Collectivo, art-related booths, kite-making, recycling olympics and much more. 12 to 4pm. FREE

14. FUN/SPECTATOR: Sat 5/4 – Kentucky Derby watch sites

15. THEATER: All weekend & through 3/19 – The Pulitzer Prize winning play ‘Night, Mother by Marsha Norman. General Admission $18

16. MUSIC/DANCE/PARTY: Sun 5/5 – Cinco de Mayo with Body Language. Dance Party at Glasslands Gallery. 8:30pm. $10 to $12

17. MUSIC/ART/INSANITY: Sun 5/5 – The National perform their song “Sorrow” for 6 hours straight as part of Ragnar Kjartansson’ A Lot of Sorrow at PS1 in the VW Dome $15 Tkts

18. FOOD/DRINK/FIESTA: Sun 5/5 – Roberta’s Cinco de Mayo Celebration. Tacos, Cervezas. Tequila, music, pinatas! 2pm to 10pm

Get outside and enjoy!

April 29, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Graphic Surgery: Gateway & More

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Amsterdam-based studio Graphic Surgery works across many genres and methods, but their constants are the use of black & white, and angular geometric abstract forms. They make and apply these images to their design work, public murals, installations and architecture too. Their recent collaboration with Penta Architecten was a garage door/gate they refer to as Gateway. Using oxidized Corten steel and perforation this dramatic and very urban looking entrance was created. I personally like their work best integrated with architecture. The urban and constructivist look really adds tension and excitement to the structures.

Photos: Graphic Surgery, their flickr, & trendbeheer

via gestalten

April 16, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

JR’s Inside Out Project in Times Square

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Well this should be fun. French street artist JR (previously here and here) is bringing his large-scale participatory Inside Out Project to NYC starting next week. People are invited to take their self-portraits in a specially designed photo booth stationed in Times Square. Some of the black and white instantly-printed 3′ x 4′ posters will be displayed in Times Square but each portrait-taker is encouraged to take their poster back to display publicly in their home community. The photo booth truck will be making early visits to the four other boroughs as well, with the initial portraits featuring community members from NYC Hurricane Sandy-affected areas.

Inside Out New York City coincides with the world premiere of the documentary film Inside Out: The People’s Art Project on April 20th as part of the Tribeca Film Festival, and will later have its television debut on HBO on May 20th.

I would imagine there will be lines, so you might want to pick a weekday to head over to the photo booth truck, but based on our own personal experience with the Inside Out Project, I highly recommend participating one way or another.

Inside Out New York City will run from April 22 to May 10, 2013 in Times Square.

Photos courtesy Times Square Alliance; Inside Out Project; Inside Out NYC’s facebook page; and collabcubed.

April 10, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

cartonLAB: Venn Diagram

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The latest from the folks at cartonLAB (previously here, here, & here) is their one-third of the Mustang Gallery’s three-part exhibit installation Diagrama de Venn (Venn Diagram)—in Alicante, Spain—which consists of a cumulative and collaborative process between three groups of artists: cartonLAB, street artist Rosh, and Erre Gálvez. Each artist will take their turn inhabiting the gallery space with a work that intervenes, interacts, and adds to, the previous artist’s installation, each in their own unique style. In addition, for each installation, the public was (and will be) enlisted to help with the production and installation aspects.

cartonLAB, along with the help of graphic and package design students, among others, made giant cardboard box people, climbing the gallery walls, lying on the gallery floor, as well as sitting and flying through the space. You can see in the bottom two photos Rosh’s work that followed; spray-painting some of the boxes and reconfiguring them into piles and graffitied walls. We’ll have to wait and see what Erre Gálvez will come up with toward the end of the month with his typographic(?) take.

I really like the collaborative concept behind Diagrama Venn. It’s got a bit of a Layer Tennis feel, only in 3D.

Photos courtesy of cartonLAB and mag’s facebook

April 8, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hands Project in Barcelona

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HANDS is a street art installation with socioeconomic commentary through the placement of white cast hands doing a variety of things in conspicuous places throughout the streets of Barcelona including: making a finger-gun by an ATM toward its user; prying into a payphone coin slot; or dangling a noose. Artists Octavi Serra & Mateu Targa, with help from Daniel Llugany & Pau Garcia, are the masterminds behind the project, a manifestation against the current economic crisis in Spain that, along with Greece, are the most affected countries in the European Union with record-high levels of unemployment.

via juxtapoz

March 27, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Jay Shells: Rap Quotes

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I don’t pretend to know much about rap and even used to refer to Busta Rhymes as Buster (yeah, I know…) but I got a kick out of this project: Graphic artist Jay Shells brought together his love of rap and his keen sign-making abilities in his street art project titled The Rap Quotes. He made 30 official-looking street signs with rap lyrics that cite specific locations and posted the signs at those very locations. Everyone from Mos Def to GZA, Puff Daddy to Kanye West, and more are quoted.

I have to give a nod to a friend who had another rap lyric-related project idea a while back that we briefly worked on together: rap tees. Who knows? Could still happen…

You can follow @TheRapQuotes for more on Shells’ project.

via gothamist and animal

March 21, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Mark Hartman: Billboards

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Some of my favorite “street art” is the type that occurs naturally, unplanned, with no single artist responsible. It’s the collage-like effect created by the little bits of postings and ads left behind and piled upon each other on billboards and plywood throughout the city. It’s actually been a longtime (unfulfilled) plan of mine to try to recreate this effect on a wall in my home. New York based photographer Mark Hartman has honed in on this very subject matter in his personal photo series project titled Billboards. He describes himself as curator, picking and choosing specific parts of these shredded walls, beautifully cropping and photographing them.

via Prism

March 12, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Hense: Recontextualizing Church

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What could be better than a graffiti mural? Multiple graffiti murals on one building. In this case, a Church in Washington D.C. Atlanta-based artist Hense was commissioned to paint the former church in D.C.’s up-and-coming arts district. Along with a small crew, some rollers, brushes, spray paint, acrylics and more, Hense and his team covered every inch of the structure with de Kooning-esque colors and Pollock-esque splatters and scribbles. Talk about an extreme makeover! The vibrantly colored transformation sits across from the future home of a 20,000 sq. ft. museum, how appropriate for this sculptural work. Hense’s installation is the perfect combination of contemporary abstract art and classic architecture that defines the artsy neighborhood. You can see Hense’s latest painted building in Atlanta, the WCAC, over here.

Photos: Miguel (M.I.G.) Martinez ©Hense

via i-ref

March 4, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Erik Johansson: Skrapan Illusion

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Some of the works Swedish photographer, based in Berlin, Erik Johansson creates are street illusions. He sees photography as a way of collecting material to realize the ideas of the mind. Last fall, Johansson was commissioned by the Stockholm shopping mall Skrapan to create a perspective illusion for their 5th anniversary. Being one of the tallest buildings in the city, they wanted to incorporate the view from the top of the building into the optical illusion. From the right angle, Johansson’s installation tricked the viewer into the 3D illusion of being on top of the building looking down from the safety of the sidewalk.

Here’s a video for more of the effect:

All photos by Erik Johannson

via inspir3d

February 27, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

No Limits: Alexandre Arrechea

Alexandre Arrechea (previously here and here) has been on our radar since Em became aware of his work a couple of years back. Now, starting Friday, March 1st, the Cuban-born artist will be exhibiting 10 massive sculptures along Park Avenue here in NYC. This outdoor exhibit, titled No Limits, embodies some of New York City’s most iconic landmarks in a playfully twisted way. These architecturally elastic works include: the Chrysler Building, Citicorp Center, Empire State, the Flatiron, Helmsley Building, MetLife, Metropolitan Life Tower, Seagram’s, Sherry Netherland and US Courthouse. The rolling, winding and spinning 20-ft tall sculptures will be placed along the Park Avenue mall from 53rd to 67th Streets. Plus, you can join the artist for a walking tour on Saturday, March 2nd, from 4 to 5:30, meeting at the corner of 54th St. But even if you can’t make the tour, fear not, No Limits will be up through June 9th.

Photos courtesy MagnanMetz Gallery; Alexandre Arrechea’s facebook; and Wallpaper.

February 22, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

NYC Culture on the Cheap: Weekend 2/22

Click on individual photos for official event page or use the corresponding numbered links below.

This weekend’s picks for Free & Cheap things to do in NYC (2/15 to 2/17) in art, music, theater, performance, dance, architecture and general fun.

1. THEATER/PERFORMANCE: All weekend & through 3/3– Frigid Festival – Fringy theater and performances. $12 to $15.

2. ART/TECH: Fri 2/22 & Sat 2/23 & through 3/2: Gimme More: Is Augmented Reality the Next Medium? Visitors explore the link between the physical and digital worlds via augmented reality-based immersive installations. 12 to 6pm FREE

3. ART/TECH/DESIGN: Sat 2/23 & Sat 2/24 – (though the poster & website say differently, we have been told by one of the panelist that the event is actually Sat & Sun) PlayThings a 2-day symposium and workshop exploring the concept of play in the fields of art, media, and technology. 11am to 5pm. FREE

4. PHOTOGRAPHY: Fri 2/22 and through 5/5 Roman Vishniac Rediscovered most widely recognized and reproduced photographic record of Jewish life in Eastern Europe between the two World Wars. FREE Fridays 5 to 8pm. All other times $14

5. ART: Fri 2/22 through 3/22 – Gathering Place: Selected artists fill the formerly-vacant 8th St. storefront with site-specific works exploring the street and neighborhood’s unique history of commerce and culture. Opening 7pm.

6. TALK/TECH: Fri 2/22 – Part of Social Media Week: Art Exploring Image Sharing Platforms: #selfieaffirmation Panel of internet energy healers and pioneers discuss the relevance of self portraiture and online avatars. 5 to 8pm. FREE

7. ART: All Weekend – Moustache Man (aka Patrick Waldo) who penned his signature cursive “moustache” tag on thousands of subway ads has a solo gallery debut only through Sunday. FREE

8. MUSIC: Fri 2/22 – David Lynch presents Chrysta Bell w/ She Keeps Bees. 7:30pm $15 to $17.

9. ART/TECH: All weekend: The Public Private exhibit that explores the impact of social media and new technologies on the relationship between the public and private realm. FREE

10. ART/TALK: Sat 2/23 – Do It: Hans Ulrich Obrist and Massimiliano Gioni in conversation. 3pm $8

11. PERFORMANCE/ART/HAPPENING: Sat 2/23 – E.S.P. Live From the Control Room repurposes the museum’s Open Studios into E.S.P. TV LAB hosting a variety of artists and performers. A happening-like environment: 7pm $5 to $7

12. ARCHITECTURE/FUN: Sat 2/23 – Secrets of Grand Central Scavenger Hunt. Discover little-known passageways, gourmet foods and much more in the terminal and its environs. 2pm $24.50

13. THEATER/PARTICIPATORY: Fri 2/22 & Sat 2/23 Shakespeare Shakedown presents: A Midsummer Night’s Dream at a secret loft location. Immerse yourself as actors spin wildly through the party blending Shakepeare with improv. 7pm Use code G&SFRIENDS for $15 tkts.

14. FILM: Sat 2/23 – Premiere of Mostly Awake a micro-budget independent comedy filmed in Bushwick. 8pm FREE

15. THEATER: All weekend: Hit the Wall by Ike Holter previews. Ltd amount of $35 tkts remain: Use code HTWBST35

16. MUSIC/OPERA: Sun 2/24 & through 3/2 – The Turn of the Screw by Benjamin Britten based on Henry James’ ghost story and conducted by Jayce Ogren. $25 and up. Use code 19286 for 20% off through 2/26.

17. PARTY/FILM: Sun 2/24 – OscarViewing Party at SideBar 6:30pm $10 general admission

18. MUSIC/DANCE/CIRCUS: Sun 2/24 – The Super Hot Cheap Fun Variety Show: an evening of Circus/Dance/Music and indescribable wonderment. Part of the Hot Cheap Living Festival. 7pm. $10

More…
>>Film –Fri 2/22 – The Throwaways Sneak Preview – Documentary about filmmaker and ex-felon Ira McKinley who struggles to turn his life around in inner-city Albany. 7:30pm $10.
>>Theater – All Weekend – Big Flower Eater $12
>>Art – All weekend & through 4/28 – Marcel Proust and “Swann’s Way” at Morgan Library FREE Fridays 7 to 9pm.
>>Film – All Weekend – Red Flag a new film by Alex Karpovsky (of Girls) $8 to $10
>>Theater – Fri 2/22 & Sat 2/23 –Collected Stories by Donald Margulies performed in the Strand’s Rare Books Room. 7:30pm $20 or $15 with code bookworm.
>>Food/Fun – Sat 2/23 – Iron Chef Flux. Come watch our most talented Flux chefs compete head to head in an intense culinary battle. 6 to 8pm. FREE to watch; $5 to sample food.
>>Fun/Oscars: Sun 2/24 – Oscar Viewing Party at Eventi’s Big Screen Plaza. Kick off at 6pm. FREE. Drinks $3 to $6.
>>Fun/Oscars: Sun 2/24 – The Big Oscars Quiz Thing. 5 rounds of multi-media Trivia Quiz. Doors 5:30pm Quiz 6pm, with Awards Broadcast following. $15.
>>Fun/Oscars: Sun 2/24 – Alt. Oscars Awards Event – outlandish Awards Event & Dance Party with ongoing performances, interactive red carpet & dedicated Hollywood Oscar viewing area. 6pm. $5 presale. $10 at door

February 21, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Mike Hewson: Homage to Lost Spaces

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New Zealand-born and -based artist Mike Newson, trained as a civil engineer, has recently made the switch to focusing on his art full time. Last July Newson started creating massive mixed-media works on the destined-to-be-demolished Christchurch Normal School in New Zealand, due to damage created by last year’s 6.3 earthquake. Covering the building with 130 square meters of plywood and large-scale digital images depicting artists and others who had lived and worked in the structure, Newson opens up a dialogue between art and architecture by questioning the nature of our relationship to civic spaces. In similar fashion, Newson has also used his talents on street plywood and more recently on stretched canvas in his show Polymorphia being exhibited right now through March 9th at FirstDraft Gallery in Sydney.

via beneath the surface, via cool hunter

February 19, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

E1000: Fingerprint-like Street Art

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Spanish street artist E1000 (previously here and here) has recently been leaving his mark in the form of a triangular multi-fingerprint-like image. Maybe they’re fingerprints or maybe just abstract patterns, but either way they have a nice effect, giving the color of the wall as much weight as the paint itself. Plus, the cool cropping!

Photos e1000’s flickr and guillermo de madrid.

via escrito en la pared

February 14, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Baltimore Love Project: Michael Owen

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Seems fitting to post about a love mural on Valentine’s Day, no? The Baltimore Love Project began a few years ago when local artist Michael Owen developed a design of four hands spelling out the word love. Since then the image has been painted on several walls with a total of 20 scheduled across Baltimore City; the idea being a way of expressing love and connecting people and communities all around the urban center. The community seems to have lovingly embraced the project with an impressive level of enthusiasm including a couple taking their wedding photos in front of one of the murals.

You can see a time lapse video of one of the murals in progress below, and there’s a 5-minute documentary on the project over here.

via think.bigchief via notcot

February 11, 2013 by collabcubed - 0 comments

Les Ballets de Faile: NYC Ballet Art Series

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Looks like the ballet has developed an edge. For the inauguration of their NYCB Art Series, the New York City Ballet has commissioned the Brooklyn-based street artist duo Faile to create an installation for the special Art Series performances on February 1st and May 29th where each seat was/is available for $29 and each audience member takes home a limited edition work (seemingly in the form of a cube) made specifically for the event by the artists. Inspired by the old posters, playbills, and other past company-related ephemera that fits so well with their collage style work, Faile created a tower in the ballet’s main hall titled Les Ballets de Faile. Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller who make up the artistic collaboration see their participation as bringing together the “glamour and grime” of NYC under one roof.

There is limited availability left for the May 29th performance, but the installation is open to the public this week (2/10 to 2/17) for free. You can see the schedule here.

And here’s an interview with Faile on the project:

Photos: NYC Ballet; Faile; loftgallery, Kayellepea, and s0le1728 from NYCB’s facebook.

via wooster collective; video via animalny

February 4, 2013 by collabcubed - 1 Comment

Ed Young: Irreverent Edginess

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South African conceptual artist Ed Young enjoys challenging the art world and its methodologies working in various mediums ranging from sculpture and painted type murals to videos and more. And his work does not go unnoticed. Last year at the Jo’burg Art Fair, Young created an exact-to-scale silicone replica of his naked self at two-thirds his actual size, titled My Gallerist Made Me Do It, fascinating most of the 8,500 attendees of the fair. His piece titled Arch (short for Archbishop Desmond Tutu) swings from a working chandelier in the conference room of the IDASA headquarters, and apparently brought huge smiles to the Archbishop himself upon setting eyes on it.

Young’s murals are equally provocative in their bold type. Unknowingly, we ourselves came across one of Young’s murals a few years back in Miami…that’s Em in the bottom right photo!

Young doesn’t say a heck of a lot about his work when interviewed as you can see in the video below.

via SMAC

January 29, 2013 by collabcubed - 2 Comments

Luzinterruptus: Portable River

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Last September the Spanish art collective Luzinterruptus (previously here and here) was invited to Caracas, Venezuela to participate in their urban arts festival Por en Medio de la Calle (In the Middle of the Street) which celebrates the importance of public space. Luzinterruptus stuck with one of their recurring themes: water. It is common for the streets of Caracas to flood in the rain, so in the hopes of having viewers stop and admire the element, they created a Portable River (Rio Portatil) filling 2000 transparent bags with water and made into ephemeral aquariums with toy fish and plants, highlighted with lights. At the end of the night, visitors could take the illuminated ecosystems home with them.