:: BerDerp™ ::

Recently Shepard Fairey, a well known artist, completed a very large mural in the SoHo neighborhood of NYC.  Located on Houston street, it coincided with his recent show “May Day” at the Deitch Gallery

However, Gothamist reported that recently there were some ‘illegal work orders’ posted nearby that may have called for its removal

You can see from these pics though that now after about a month of being up, other artists (ADEK) have painted over it – but some artists, such as COPE2, endorsed it

its ..Monday :/

I’ve been a fan of Mark Ryden since the late 90′s, and finally I got to see in person an opening night of his work go on display in the Chelsea district of NYC -  April 29th at the Paul Kasmin gallery. The title of this series is called “The Gay 90′s – Olde Tyme Art Showe” and below I have a few shots of my favorite pieces. Plus the show was packed and a lot of people had dressed up in “Olde Tyme” 1890-s garb. I should have taken some pictures, but I only focused on getting some photos of his work.

Mark Ryden got his start in Southern California where his first solo debut was in Pasadena in a series called “The Meat Show” – and through his weaving of cultural icons, alchemical references, religious allegories, and iconography, he creates a style that is uniquely childhood like, but surrealist, and chock full of pop references but with twisted (sometimes disturbing) imagery. Imagine if you will a psychedelic Jacques-Louis David (who I also admire) and maybe Sailor Moon or a doe-eyed Devil Martian playing a Saz .

I used to see Mark Ryden’s material in magazines in the city where I grew up. Publications such as Juxtapoz - who would often have ad’s from galleries in LA such as La Luz de Jesus. It was easy to get lithographs from them for a decent price, since there was no way I could ever afford a Mark Ryden original (at least not yet!).

Mark’s material gets shuffled into the Lowbrow Art movement aka Pop Surrealism, and I can certainly find several artists in that genre which I have grown to appreciate through early exposure to the style. Many of these artists are self-taught versus more traditional manners of going through art school, or apprenticing (which would be highbrow).

Flickr set here.

I’ve selected a few images out of a photo-essay I did called “Streets of NY” – which focused on just snapping shots candidly of people as we passed on the streets in NYC and Brooklyn. Certainly influenced by the likes of Bruce Gilden, but I wasn’t *that* “in-your-face“

you can see the “Streets of NY” Flickr set here.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mom’s out there.

Recently on a trip to NYC I took the 7 over to Queens, NY to visit the venerable 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center (aka the Institute of Higher Burnin). This outdoor exhibit space features over 300+ pieces and murals, from artists all over the world. The building itself is a 200,000 square foot warehouse situated in Long Island City & initially opened in 1993 under the name Phun Phactory. It’s current curator and “housekeeper” is Jonathan Cohen who helped re-open the space in 2001 after it was almost destroyed by vandals. I am hoping to cover more of this building in the future since part of the structure was inaccessible since earlier this year when a fire escape collapsed. I won’t be able to show all the pieces, obviously, so you can see the flickr set here.

Not too long ago I posted a looming overhead shot of the Empire State Building  — last night I revisited the rooftop location again & grabbed another shot.