Tag Archives: New York

New York, Street Art, Photography, Katherine Lorimer, Luna Park, book, book launch, Frost Gallery

Street Art Book Launch This Sat

What has New York street art got to do with Shoreditch?  Well loads actually, as New York is essentially the birthplace of graffiti who’s travelling mutant offspring led to Shoreditch becoming the spiritual home of street art.

d-face

D*Face in NY, photo by Luna Park

 

New York hosts a glorious city-wide panorama of ever changing street art and graffiti and in my opinion its foremost photographic recorder is Katherine Lorimer, known to many as Luna Park.

vermibus

Vermibus (Fr) by Luna Park

 

For close to a decade since I discovered her photographs on Flickr, Luna Park’s coverage of the New York street art and graffiti scene has been a daily “must see” for me.  Luna has (at last!) produced a photography book covering the full range of New York’s street art and graffiti scene. Across 192 pages of lush exciting goodness,  Luna’s taste in street art and graffiti will ensure that this book contains the very very best New York has witnessed over the past decade or more and will be beautifully photographed and laid out.

shiesta

welded iron graffiti, Shiesta, by Luna Park

 

Katherine’s book launches this Saturday, October 22nd in New York with a launch event hosted at 17 Frost Gallery in parallel with a 10th anniversary showcase for Ad Hoc Gallery.   NY readers should definitely make this a “don’t miss” event in their diary.

sheryo yok

Sheryo Yok by Luna Park

 

Folks from other parts of the world may have to satisfy themselves with obtaining a copy from their favourite book store but if you are a lover of street art, don’t miss out on this book.

wk interact

WK INteract by Luna Park

 

I have taken the liberty of linking to a few of Luna Park’s recent photos from her Flickr account, not from the book.

 

Book Launch Details:

Date: October 22nd, 6pm – 11pm

Location: Frost Gallery, 17 Frost St, Brooklyn, NY 11211, United States

 

A little “PS” – the Ad Hoc show should be worth seeing, Garrison Buxton, the guy behind Ad Hoc Gallery which in those days had a physical presence as one of NY’s leading urban art galleries had an exhibition in London’s Pure Evil Gallery in 2008.  I recall Garrison had firm views on the need for street art to take a political stance. This show at 17 Frost sounds like it should be interesting, another reason to go!

 

 

STIK – Signing and poster giveaway.

If you are in New York tomorrow..this is too good to miss..the STIK – Signing and poster  giveaway.

London, Shoreditch, New York, Street art, STIK, signing

If you buy a copy of Stik’s awesome book (there is a copy in the Shoreditch Streert Art Tours library, it is great) at the opening tomorrow night, not only can you get the nicest guy in street art to sign your copy, you will be eligible to enter a lottery to win a set of limited-edition lithographic cardstock Stik posters, signed by Stik himself. The set, one orange and one blue, are one of only five printed and depict the same image seen on the book’s cover.

 

More information here:

http://www.strandbooks.com/event/stik

 

Photo: via Stik

And great street art goes…..

Following on from the recent post about great new street art appearing in Shoreditch in which we hailed the return of illegal art to an old stencil hall of fame, at the other end of the cycle we celebrate the life of a top quality illegal piece of street art which passed on a couple of days ago.

Above created this breakdancer back in the Summer, yup – we did have one this year and someone, presumably the building owner, had covered it in Perspex within a couple of days.  This is what it looked like at night when the perfection of its placement was apparent.

Shoredtich,London,Street Art,TOurs,Alternative

Above (NY) – Night TIme Break Dancer

Perspex on a piece of street art suggests either that a piece is being preserved for sale or that it is being “conserved”, protected from the rough and tumble of a normal healthy outdoor life.  Usually we infer the former.  Persons unknown expressed their distaste for this kind of curation, or profit preservation – take your pick – and tore most of the perspex off.  Then someone disfigured the piece by chrome spraying an X across the dancer’s body.  Someone else opposed this action by attempting a vigorous cleaning of the chrome off the bricks, looking like an attempt at restoration.  Still with me?

A few days after the clean up started, yesterday in fact, the morning Shoreditch Street Art Tour found that the artwork have been brushed over with a foamy chemical wash.

Above, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,New York

Above – Chemical wash
Above, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,New York

Above – foam paint remover

In the afternoon a vigorous buff had been carried out to the point the art was a feint smudge and today there was just a discoloured damp patch where the Above Breakdancer had been.

Above, Shoreditch,London,Street Art,artist,stencil,New York

Above buffed

So there you have it, an excellent piece of work lived its life to the full and to a natural conclusion.  Thankfully most street artists are pretty resilient types and aren’t deterred by a bit of buffing.  Where one piece is buffed, five new pieces will rise up to take its place and Mobstr’s High Five remains undisturbed!

all photos: NoLionsInEngland