Beyond The Streets 🗽

[Mercer]

A few things I was lucky enough to see while checking out this exhibit which was pretty well done IMO. Went twice, had so much fun Saturday night and was able to score free tickets to come back and bring my wife who couldn't make it Saturday. Actually took flicks on Sunday, the last day of the exhibit.

 

Complete list of Artists ect.

https://beyondthestreets.com/pages/artists

 

 

 

 

 

Personal fave both art, and general personality wise almost as soon as I walked in. Incase you haven't met him yet Futura 2000 is the man. Dude lives by his own rules very well.

 

 

Probably should have shot more of the freight stuff. This giant miniature of the Southern Pacific box car was pretty dope.

 

 

For scale, not sure why this looks like a bad pano but you get the picture. 

 

2019-09-28 18.34.42.mov

 

Cool installation, lots of foreign currency on display.

 

 

 

 

Out of all the stuff I hadn't seen before, this piece above got me really stoked the most. Not that I didn't come across a lot of cool shit I hadn't seen before, this is just so dope to me. Not even sure who the artist is. Now I realize why people were taking pictures of the little signs next to the art lol. Photo does no justice it was huge, I want to say 8 feet tall maybe.

 

 

 

 

 

Beastie Boys exhibit was pretty dope, a lot of cool details I'm sure I overlooked some of them.

 

 

Taki and early NYC gang era wall.

 

 

 

Right across from Taki, the one and only true pioneer himself.

 

 

 

 

West coast pioneer/original as well.

 

 

 

 

They had the uni's, and the mini's...

 

 

 

 

 

Took a quick oontz break.

 

 

 

 

 

I've seen this artists work before online, doesn't do it justice. Cleon Peterson I think. Really dig the style, the use of color, and the confirmation bias I get as an Anarchist. At least that's the statement/message I walk away from it with. Government is violence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Artists that have hands on shit for kids to do at art shows earn automatic respect. IMO these are the most important, and most overlooked people at any art show.

 

 

Couldn't resist a quick one liner.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lady Pink shot by Martha Cooper, Jesus Christ she was dope.

 

 

That's all I got, hope you enjoyed.

Edited September 30, 2019 by Mercer
more commentary

[Kults]

Sooo fuckin envious you got to go. Thanks for posting this stuff for those of us who missed out. Hope they take the show on the road

[Mercer]

If you ever make it out this way you've got a tour guide@Kults, there's always something going on.

[Kults]

Thanks man, appreciate that 

[Schnitzel]

I wish I'd gotten to see that.

 

 Thanks for taking the photos for the peeps on the other side of the earth.

 

@MercerThat timothy Curtis guy is mad. (bicycle painting guy) love those works. 

 

timothy.curtis is his insta handle. Philly guy who got a lot of grief jail wise i think

 

Was it Finsta that has the spot for kids to do stuff?

 

The writers bedroom is fantastic as well! Assume that was Reas?

 

 A friend of mine hit me up on Saturday about going to New York for that Henry Chalfant exhibition that's just started.

 

Fuck knows how I'm going to get a leave pass to go to New York when it's 22 hours each way and about $2,400.

 

 

Edited October 8, 2019 by Schnitzel

[Mercer]

@SchnitzelI'd be down to link for that Chalfant exhibit, or anything else if you come through NYC.

 

Also thanks for confirming, there was a little sign on that wall said Timothy Curtis if I remember, but it was on the other side of a bunch of photographs, so I'm assuming those photos were also his. Like I said, my photos of that work do it no justice, most inspiring artwork for me hands down, granted a lot of it was never seeing his work before, up until the moment I came across it in person. Just looked up/checked out his site, holy shit https://timothycurtis.com/

 

BTW, my wife already has plans to steal this framing/display technique. 

 

I think the drawing room is a Danish artist HuskMitNavn, he uses a pretty well established style so it's easy to mix some of his work up up with several artists, even some well known native NY artists. Don't get me wrong, that's not a dig against him, sometimes that's cool. My props are based on the bigger picture here, things like his exhibit 100% wins when it comes to who was able to inspire the next generation etc. even has a cool style kids can learn from, and imitate.

 

 

[misteraven]

Wonder what his work is selling for? Need to dig through old archives... Fairly certain I have a few letters from him from when he was in prison. Definitely recall sending him copies of the mag way back when.

[Mercer]

That's crazy, his work is pretty really good. I could see it fetching prices I definitely can't afford one day, not sure if that's now yet or not.

[Schnitzel]

 he's done a bunch of stuff for a casino in Vegas so I think he's possibly reached  that echelon where you're dropping serious money on his works.

 

 I'm not sure but I think he got made an example of and did a lot of jail time for graff (5 years plus or something dreadful like that.)

 

 So for him to be out and about and making great success is unreal.

@mercer will gladly look you up! just gotta convince my wife to let me go.

Edited October 9, 2019 by Schnitzel

[STYLEISKING]

me personally would like to see more "StyleWriting" in the show

a lot of writers are left out and deserved to be presented there, but

it all comes down to Roger Gastman taste...

[Fist 666]

@STYLEISKINGI know there is a fair amount of politics in the artists' invitations, too.

 

Cope2 threatened to beat me up because I made fun of him for not being allowed in. And then actually had a conversation with dude about it. Like you said, it seems to be a gastman history of graffiti, not necessarily a complete one. 

 

All that said, I wish I could have made it. Oh well, a few cans that I dug up were on that wall.

[Hua Guofang]

Is Cope2 the man-child in real life that he comes across as online?

[Joker]

Roger is a decent human, but I won't deny that his choice of artists in his exhibitions have become predictable. And I say that as an artist highlighted in two (or is it three?) Gastman publications, and one of his exhibitions. 

 

That said, I would not want to be responsible for taking on a show of this magnitude. You're never going to please everyone on your choices of who is in and who isn't, you're never going to be able to show the things that true writers see as most important, and you're never going to have a space big enough to give every writer who has made an impact in our culture room to shine. I assume that's why he continues to show the same people and mostly the same content. Those artists are solid representations of our culture directly or as artists who came from Graffiti, but also these artists are easily digestible for people who aren't writers. 

 

Personally, I'd love to see an exhibit about bombing, true Graffiti. Like, if the books The Official Bootleg Series and Also Known As were an art exhibit. I love seeing artists do their thing, it's beautiful, but an exhibition that shows the grit of bombing would be absolutely amazing. 

 

Eventually someone is going to have to have the real conversation about the differences between Street Art and Graffiti. They're not the same so they shouldn't be lumped together as if they are. 

[STYLEISKING]

Nyc is blessed, having some good exhibitions out there like: Beyond the streets, Art vs transit (Henry Chalfant) and latest the Rooftop Legends

[Mercer]

2 hours ago, STYLEISKING said:

... and latest the Rooftop Legends

@STYLEISKINGI haven't heard of this one yet, any links?

[STYLEISKING]

https://www.instagram.com/rooftoplegendsny/

 

[asthma al]

Got a chance to check this out....good stuff.

[CALIgula]

Nice one flow. 

Taki, stay high, cornbread. 

Pink... id paint 3 wholecars for a piece of that.

[Elena Delle Donne]

bumping this. i agree with joker, this sort of thing is very much roger gastmans schtick now and you know what you're gonna get when you see something he's curated. that said they were thorough, at least, and the beastie boys section was genuinely cool even if adidas sponsored it. i am a fan so i'm biased, of course. 

 

i went with a buddy who isn't into this world and he had a great time. definitely appealed to a broader cross section of people, which is gastmans job, i guess. 

 

i wasn't a fan of the massive treatment shepherd fairey got but i'm sure he put up $$$$ to help make this show happen. 

[Joker]

I kind of agree with you, but I also kinda think Roger would include Shepard Fairy whether he put up money to sponsor the show, or not (for the record, I've no idea if he did). And I only say that because much like Banksy he's the darling of the "Street Art" world, and everyone knows his work... even soccer moms and old folks. To not include him would be a large miss. I think Roger would include him solely because it gets serious collectors to the show, gets admirers of his work to the show who have no connection to Street Art or Graffiti, gets stencil/Street Art artists to the show, and gets the handful of Graffiti writers who appreciate his work to the show. It's ticket sales for Roger, and at the end of the day that's his job. 

 

Not including Shepard in these types of exhibitions would be similar to doing a show on street bombing and not include JA or Adek. To quote Min One - "That's never forgive action".

[One Man Banned]

Not for nothing but pretty sure Shepard's early work was included in things like WYWS (and similar mags of the time) so no reason not to include him.  

If you go through graf mags from then there was a time where the graf world found him cool.

[Elena Delle Donne]

oh yeah i'm not saying don't include him at all, sorry if it came off that way. he earned a spot and was in WYWS. i just feel like he got so much space on that top floor and as a curatorial decision i wasn't into it. 

 

i would've cut some and tried to give a chunk of it could've to other (former) writers who have post-graffiti fine art practices like ian de beer or even contemporary writers whose work ends up in galleries like uter.

 

obviously they're not household names like fairey and y'all make a good point re: name rec and attendance. but i would've shaken up the top floor a bit and given more space to smaller artists who nevertheless fit the "what is made after graffiti" space that was in effect up there. 

Edited September 27, 2020 by Elena Delle Donne

[asthma al]