Graffiti pioneer Part One
Style masters Shank aka Dmote, Wane and Aplus
Smoke
The rooftop of the former Seward Park High School on Manhattan’s Lower East Side has evolved into one of NYC’s most enticing graffiti canvases. Following is a sampling of what we saw this past Sunday as Rooftop Legends, curated by New Design High School dean, Jesse Pais, celebrated its sixth anniversary.
Photos by Lenny Collado and Tara Murray
New York city has another public art contribution on view at the famed Bowery/Houston wall. West coast heavy weights, Revok and Pose orchestrated a mass overhaul with their crew leading up to the opening of the artist’s show at the Jonathan Levine Gallery, ‘Uphill Both Ways’. There was an undeniable buzz amongst on-lookers as the wall came to life, positive vibes at the scene and black books were exchanging hands. This crew was unstoppable even under the pressures of uncomfortable conditions set forth by mother nature. There was no halting this project which was completed in a matter of days.
All photography: Kelly Salih
Zam Art at Welling Court in Astoria, Queens
Phetus in Williamsburg, Brooklyn
Wisher914 at Welling Court in Astoria, Queens
Fumero in NoLita
Kosby at Welling Court in Astoria, Queens
Kenji Takabayashi at Welling Court in Astoria, Queens
Sheryo and the Yok in Manhattan’s Little Italy
Hef atWelling Court in Astoria, Queens
Joseph Meloy at Welling Court in Astoria, Queens
Photos by Tara Murray and Lois Stavsky
Roger Gastman, co-author of The History of American Graffiti, has just curated the two-person exhibition Uphill Both Ways, featuring art by graffiti artists Pose and Revok. In addition to the exhibition at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, Chicago-based Pose and Detroit-based Revok are also collaborating on a large-scale mural on Houston and Bowery streets in New York City.
Uphill Both Ways is inspired by the work of late graffiti artist NEKST. The exhibition recounts the challenges Pose and Revok have dealt with in the legal sector and a general theme of human struggle that seems to run through the body of work by each artist. Both Pose and Revok are members of world-renowned graffiti crew Mad Society Kings (MSK), as well as West Coast arts collective The Seventh Letter. While there are many similarities apparent between the two artists, Pose and Revok are stylistically and technically very different in many ways. Pose’s work generally alludes to pop and comic art, skateboarding, advertising, graphic arts, collage, sign painting, and graffiti. Pose strives to paint the human condition as he sees it. Revok’s art creates abstract geometric patterns with vibrant colors, and does so through the use of found materials such as pieces from abandoned homes, schools, businesses, and churches in order to revive and reinterpret the hopes, dreams, and aspirations of the people from whom these found-bits have been sampled.
Uphill Both Ways opens on Saturday June 29th at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery, with a reception to be held from 7-9pm. The show will be open for viewing from June 29th-July 27th 2013.
