urban art – Page 2

Basquiat: A Fresh Look At Genius

June 30, 2023 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Basquiat fan “Jewelz” says he’s “not worthy” to stand by the painter’s work. He’s not alone.

Exploring the new exhibition called Jean-Michel Basquiat: King Pleasure — curated by the younger sisters of Jean-Michel — practically made me dizzy.

There have been three times I’ve been rendered speechless —perhaps paralyzed—by coming face-to-face with artwork I’ve only seen in photographs: Seeing Henri Rousseau’s “The Dream” at MOMA in New York as a teenager, bumping into a massive Cy Twombly at the Tate in London, and a series of Robert Rauschenberg combines at MOCA in Los Angeles.

But the current Basquiat show at The Grand in downtown LA completely consumed me — to the point of hyperventilating — like a cat on an unbearably hot day.

First, watching charming home movies taken by his parents when he was a toddler, getting up-close-and-personal with sketches that preceded his now iconic painterly pieces, and then walking through a reproduction of his studio in NYC back in the eighties — well, brought me closer to someone I thought I knew.

I HAD to know what was collage, what was paint. I used two pairs of reading glasses to determine the kind of oil stick or paint pens he used to make his classic childlike markings. Were those images slapped onto the canvas really xeroxes? Was there another painting underneath? What are the words he crossed out? And how is it I’m willing to unravel his series of puzzles?

There are so many lessons for us in Basquiat’s work. First, he’d paint on virtually anything. Doors, friends’ apartments, fences, appliances, public walls. He was fearless, and probably one of the most innovative artists of our time. When he had to express a thought there was no hesitation. His spontaneity led to hundreds of modern masterpieces, and each one more exciting than the other.

Obsessed? Yes. Grateful? Yes. What a gift — that his work can be shared with us, and even decades after his death, we can celebrate his impact on art, culture and society.

Highly recommended — Show extended through October 15th. Website: https://kingpleasure.basquiat.com/

Angels Of This Earth

March 31, 2018 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Going viral: Soldier passes by Colette MIller’s Angel Wings installation in Ciudad Juárez in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. March, 2015. With this one dramatic photo, the Los Angeles street artist “gets ink” in scores of mainstream publications. She says, “It changed everything.”

The extraordinary impact of one woman’s mission to shed some light.

At first, when I saw photos of random angel wings on social media, I had no idea what kind of global footprint this trailblazing artist was leaving. But Colette Miller’s interactive street art initiative called the “Global Angel Wings Project” has taken flight beyond the decaying urban walls of Los Angeles (where she started), and taken her to countries (many in conflict) all over the world. She’s painted in Cuba, Kenya, Australia, Turkey, England and Japan. (Map of wings locations.)

I caught up with her in Yokohama this week, as she installs sets of wings in that densely-populated Japanese city on Tokyo Bay. She told me in the beginning there were no grants, no agents, and no sense of what was to come. She was broke, and only relied on the messages that came to her during meditation: “get it out there.” She was fed up with the bombardment of commercial messages in cities like Los Angeles, and vowed to fight manipulative marketing campaigns with something that would lift and inspire. “Wings kept coming to mind,” she told me, “and I had to act on it.”

She says her “dream installation” would be on the walls between Israel and Palestine, underscoring “the similarities between the two, rather than their differences.”

Colette describes her background as fairly “global.” Her mother grew up in Indonesia and Holland “and after World War II basically became a war refugee. She met my father in Hawaii where he was studying Buddhism, Philosophy and Art at the University of Hawaii.” Colette says her exposure to art started early, when her Mom took her to museums and bought her an easel when she was a toddler. She says she knew very early on “the difference between a Van Gogh and a Gauguin.” The artist is also known as a performer in the heavy metal band “Gwar” during its formative years between 1986-1987.

Since 2012, from pets to politicans, the range of fans and “selfie subjects” is astounding. If you check out Colette’s website, you’ll find pugs and policemen all taking a moment to record their angelic experience. Check out some of the favorites below.

I follow her now on Instagram, where she posts her latest installations from all over the world…. and she is not slowing down. Miller says she has completed about 150 outdoor angel works, but she is not trying to collect followers or earn a spot as the hottest social media sensation. She just wants to be authentic with her mission, and remind us that “we are all angels of this earth.”

Link to Colette Miller’s web site

Link to Los Angeles wings locations

Link to Colette Miller limited edition prints

(Pic #3) My first pose in front of an original Miller. Arts District, downtown Los Angeles.

San Francisco: Homegrown Graffiti Explosion

April 30, 2015 by Lonnie Lardner

(Pic #1) Exterior, home in the Mission / painted utility box, center

“The difference between graffiti and art is permission.” — San Francisco Police Dept.

On your next trip to the 415, check out the miles of high energy, super bold, larger-than-life street art. It’s everywhere. It jumps off the wall and then into your head. Much like the strip of graffiti art on Rue Denoyez in the Belleville section of Paris, many SF artists are now building up layers and creating a sense of dimension and heft (Pics #1, #2). They are painting in broad daylight, and sometimes, it’s even legal. A non-profit arts organization called “Precita’s Eyes” organizes artists to design and paint murals and mosaics on “approved” walls. But for the most part, what you see on the street is considered “vandalism” by San Francisco Police.

The city spends $20 million a year on graffiti cleanup.

(Pic #2) 3D graffiti mobile, Mission district

The San Francisco Public zovirax Safety Ordinance reads this way: “Graffiti is detrimental to the health, safety and welfare of the community – in that it promotes a perception that the laws protecting property can be disregarded with impunity. This perception fosters a sense of disrespect that results in an increase in crime, degrades the community, and leads to urban blight.”

Precita’s Eyes believes its mural projects are “a bridge to the community; that artists communicate with the people; and the result is a reflection — a mirror — of that community.”

There may be truth in both of those statements, but the bottom line for me is: true art can be discovered anywhere. It may emerge from the cracks in the sidewalk or the drips on a can of paint. And if it’s fresh and new — even if it’s whimsically splashed onto an electrical panel — there’s a good chance it’s the real deal. Check out my photos below, and let me know what you think.