Martha Cooper's Blog - Presented by 12ozProphet.com

Rollers Rock at Richmond’s G40

2012-03-28T21:35:37+00:00

An international roster of street artists has descended on Richmond, Virginia. The G40 event, organized by Shane Pomajambo, is giving a face lift to an emerging arts district. For me spray paint is synonymous with street art so I was surprised to see that the medium of choice was ordinary house paint applied with rollers attached to poles, some as long as 26 feet. Although this appeared cumbersome and tiring, requiring strength and patience, the artists were able to cover huge spaces, paint delicate lines and fill in with subtle color blends. Montana watch out!

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 1 Month, 2 weeks, 4 days, 18 hours, 42 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Wednesday March 28, 2012

JR & Liu Bolin: Trading Places

2012-03-19T02:13:00+00:00

JR and Liu Bolin pulled off a complex collaboration today at 11 Spring Street. This same building, just before a total renovation, was the site of a massive street art extravaganza organized by Marc and Sara Schiller of Wooster Collective in 2006.

Liu Bolin aka The Invisible Man usually has himself painted head to toe to blend in with his surroundings. Today, however, Bolin directed his assistants to paint JR into a background of a wheat pasted photo. The photo was one JR had taken earlier of Bolin. The disappearing act took place in full view of hundreds of fans, photographers and passersby amidst the sunny, springlike streets of Soho.

For more of Liu Bolin’s work, check out Eli Klein Fine Art at 462 West Broadway.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 1 Month, 4 weeks, 14 hours, 4 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Sunday March 18, 2012

Homage to Haring at Brooklyn Museum

2012-03-17T14:45:50+00:00

The Brooklyn Museum celebrated their big, new Keith Haring show with a gala opening on Wednesday. Many fellow artists, friends, celebrities and art world peeps were in attendance. The exhibit focuses on Keith’s early career 1978-1982 and includes all kinds of large and small works seldom seen before. There’s an entire room of chalk drawings peeled from subway signboards and charming, early videos of Keith at work. Personally I felt that LA2 deserved more recognition than just a mention on one panel and, I admit, I was disappointed not to see Subway Art among all the graffiti and street art books in the museum shop. But the show, which will be up until July 8, is a must-see.

Here are a few of my own photos—not in the show.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 1 Month, 4 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour, 31 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Saturday March 17, 2012

Mayor Launches Open Walls Baltimore

2012-03-10T14:06:59+00:00

A serious street art project is happening in my hometown of Baltimore and I’m excited to be part of it. Open Walls Baltimore, aka OWB, kicked off last week with a standing-room only press conference in the WindUp Space, an appropriately funky venue. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake was in the house and delivered an enthusiastic speech opening with the line, “I love art.”

The lucky neighborhood designated to receive the murals is the Station North Arts and Entertainment District. It’s adjacent to the train station and the Bolt bus stop if you’re traveling from NYC. Gaia helped write the grant for the project, select the walls and curate the lineup of international and local artists.

Baltimore is an old and beautiful city that, sadly, has fallen on hard times. Architecturally significant buildings and ordinary rowhouses, abandoned and boarded up, line the streets. The underlying agenda for murals of course, is to stimulate real estate investment and this can be a double edged sword. However responsible plans are in place to continue to provide reasonably priced housing in the area. PNC Bank, the primary funding source for OWB has a community development program focusing on investments to low and moderate income people.

I personally would love to see Baltimore become an international arts destination. This venerable city deserves some love.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 2 months, 6 days, 16 hours, 10 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Saturday March 10, 2012

RAMELLZEE - THE EQUATION, The Letter Racers

2012-03-09T13:39:17+00:00

A fabulous installation of Ramellzee’s Letter Racer sculptures, each representing a letter of the alphabet mounted on a skateboard, opened at The Suzanne Geiss Company gallery on 76 Grand Street last night. The opening turned into a nostalgic 80’s reunion with many of Ramellzee’s contemporaries, some of whom flew in for the occasion including Patti Astor from LA and Kool Koor from Brussels. Henry Chalfant, Fab 5 Freddy, Lee, Jane Dixon & Charlie Ahearn, Mare139, Jason, Riff, Revolt, Sharp and Bill Blast and many more were in the house as well as Ram’s lovely wife Carmela.

From the Coolhunting website: Created over the course of 14 years, “The Letter Racers” sculptures are on view in NYC for the first time. They represent the artist’s manifestos “Iconoclast Panzerism” and “Gothic Futurism,” two works written in Rammellzee’s idiosyncratic language. The written and visual works explore the slavery and corruption of language and its liberation through the artist’s own work.
The complex theory behind “The Letter Racers” has to do with the freedom of language from its historical fetters. As Rammellzee writes, “In the 14th century the monks ornamented and illustrated the manuscripts of letters. In the 21st and 22nd century the letters of the alphabet through competition are now armamented for letter racing and galactic battles. This was made possible by a secret equation know as THE RAMMELLZEE.”

This is the first time these sculptures have been shown in NYC . The exhibit will be up until April 21.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 2 months, 1 week, 16 hours, 38 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday March 9, 2012

Retna on Houston Complete

2012-03-06T04:58:40+00:00

Retna completed his Houston Bowery wall today after a 3-day painting marathon. The finished wall, covered in Retna’s unique script, contains a universal message and also personal tributes to friends and writers in LA and New York. The main body of text reads:
“All the great ones are conscious of universal truths
Watch the heartbeat in your wrist- a precise pulsing beat of life’s drum with loss of timing if you are ill
The power of the world always works in circles.”

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 2 months, 1 week, 4 days, 1 hour, 19 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Monday March 5, 2012

Farewell to Faile as Retna n’ Retinue Arrive

2012-03-04T06:05:51+00:00

The Houston/Bowery wall is undergoing another transformation. L.A. based Retna, painting freehand with brushes, is covering the wall with his unique alphabet. I haven’t learned to read Retna yet but plan to work on it. Meanwile he’s promised to de-code his universal message when the wall is finished in the next couple of days.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 2 months, 1 week, 6 days, 11 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Sunday March 4, 2012

Snowblind Opens at Klughaus

2012-02-17T05:54:29+00:00

We’ve had a mild winter this year but if you want to be reminded of some serious past storms, come to the opening tonight of Snowblind. The group show at Klughaus, a sweet new little gallery in Chinatown, was curated by Carnage and Making Deals. I was happy to get a chance to dig into my files for some non-graffiti related flicks. The black and whites are mostly from New York 1978 and the color ones shot nearly 30 years later during the Baltimore blizzard of 2009. Snow photos are pretty but tricky to take. It’s difficult to retain detail in the bright whites and nearly impossible to keep driving snow off the lens.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 2 months, 4 weeks, 1 Day, 23 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday February 17, 2012

Few & Far Females Reign as Queen Bees for Basel

2012-02-02T04:51:18+00:00

I’ve been meaning to blog about this great wall ever since Art Basel—sorry it took me so long. Few & Far is a women’s collective with members from across the USA and plans to go global soon. For Art Basel, Primary Flight hooked them up with a very long wall in Wynwood. With artists flying to Miami from East and West coasts to paint together, a lot of pre-planning of colors and concepts was necessary to pull off what turned into a superbly unified effort.

Here’s the scoop on how they did it from L.A.‘s Erin Yoshi, “The mural came about through a collective process. Since native Honey Bees are moving towards extinction in the United States, we understand that this will have a huge impact on our domestic food supply in the future. We wanted to highlight this through our appreciation for Bees. Ksra suggested the honey comb theme, Meme evolved that into a Queen Bees wall for the women’s collective and Mags and Yoshi supported with the color scheme and background concept.

We were excited to have Ironlak as our sponsor. They support FnF with all the paint needed, came by multiple times to check on our progress and sent their media team to capture the moment.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 3 months, 1 week, 6 days, 15 hours, 26 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Wednesday February 1, 2012

Stuck-Up Opens in Chi-Town

2012-01-25T17:40:55+00:00

I flew out to Chicago on Friday for DB Burkeman’s art sticker show and book signing just in time for the first big snow of the year. DB has amassed an enormous collection of printed and hand-drawn stickers and thousands are on display at Maxwell Colette Gallery including super-rare ones from Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, Banksy, Barry McGee and other legends.

If you can’t make it to the show be sure to check out DB’s book published by Rizzoli: “Stickers- from Punk Rock to Contemporary Art” AKA Stuck-Up Piece Of Crap featuring the over 4000 stickers by more than 1300 artists.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 3 months, 3 weeks, 2 hours, 36 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Wednesday January 25, 2012

Bobblehead Blade has Arrived!

2012-01-24T04:36:50+00:00

I received a wonderful surprise package in the mail last week—a Bobbleheaded Blade that looked exactly like the king himself. Since Blade recently relocated to Florida, the bobbling replica in my studio will insure that he will be remembered daily.

You can get one too at Toy Tokyo or Tuff City or order on line at G.A.G. Golden Age of Graffiti. Blade is planning to make a few guest appearances at selected venues in NYC in March so get your bobble on!

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 3 months, 3 weeks, 1 Day, 15 hours, 40 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Monday January 23, 2012

Art in the Streets SoWeBo Style

2012-01-11T18:45:49+00:00

Since 2006 I’ve been documenting a Southwest Baltimore neighborhood called SoWeBo known more for its portrayal in the TV program The Wire than for its art. But some of Baltimore’s earliest graffiti writers such as Shaken began their careers here and are still going strong.

Street art is a novelty here although there are plenty of very inviting walls. Recently Stefan Ways organized a major makeover of Carroll Skate Park. Last weekend I watched Gaia wheat paste a pigeon drawing in an alley that, in fact, has a lot of pigeons. Hopefully other artists will make their way west into this relatively virgin territory. I’ll be keeping my camera ready.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 4 months, 4 days, 15 hours, 31 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Wednesday January 11, 2012

Indoor Skelly Game for Old Fashioned NYC Xmas Gift

2011-12-20T16:54:09+00:00

For NYCentric folks, here’s an excellent Xmas gift idea. Darryl Jones is selling an indoor version of the street game Skelly. Skelly is a classic NYC game akin to marbles but with flat shooters designed not to roll on cement and asphalt. Kids used to make their own from bottle caps weighted with tar or wax. Skelly boards were mostly drawn with chalk although the Parks Department painted a few on playgrounds and even held official tournaments. I haven’t actually seen anyone playing this for years but in the pre-technology age it used to be popular. Attached are my vintage photos from Brooklyn, Bronx and Lower Eastside taken from 70’s to 90’s. For more info about Skelly (skully, skelsies) check out Street Play

Darryl has managed to patent the game (presumably only his indoor version) and have it manufactured in China. As a longtime fan of street games, I was super surprised to come across him in my hood a couple of days ago at Broadway and 104th.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 4 months, 3 weeks, 5 days, 17 hours, 23 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Tuesday December 20, 2011

Miami 80’s Graffiti History Mural Painted on Bakehouse Walls

2011-12-15T03:02:37+00:00

This year during Art Basel Aurelio Roman Jr. and the Miami Graffiti 80’s Group decided to celebrate Miami’s unique graffiti history by bringing together crews from the 80’s to paint a mural on the Bakehouse Art Complex. The Bakehouse, a former bakery, was the first place to allow writers to paint legally. Back in the day, Miami crews were sometimes at war with each other but in 2011 they put their differences aside and worked together to create a spectacular tribute to early graffiti MIami graf. Former Miami writers came from as far away as California, Texas and New York to paint in traditional 80’s Miami styles and colors. Classic old school characters representing elements of Hip Hop were reproduced from sketches made by the late Sevey Sev of Block Boys & Can Masters crews. The wall was also a memorial to writers who had died, with realistically painted R.I.P. portraits by G Whiz.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 1 Day, 21 hours, 15 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Wednesday December 14, 2011

Tokyo Tattoo 1970 Exhibit & Book Release with Aiko

2011-12-08T14:05:16+00:00

In 1970 I was living in Japan trying to get my photography career off the ground. I became fascinated with Japanese tattooing (irezumi) after seeing a traditional tattoo at a festival . With perseverance I was able to meet and photograph the artist Horibun I at work. At the time I hoped to do a magazine article but no editors were interested as tattooing had an unsavory reputation. For over 40 years the photos were buried in my extensive archive of unpublished work.

Like graffiti, tattooing was an underground art that, in 2011, has surfaced and proliferated throughout the world although the tools, techniques, and designs have evolved. I’ve been especially interested to observe the overlapping of graffiti and tattooing. Many tattoo artists began as graffiti writers. I was excited when Dokument in Sweden, the publishers of many graff books including my book, Tag Town, offered to publish my tattoo photos.

This year, Aiko Nakagawa created a magnificent stencil based on one of my photos for my Remix show at Carmichael in LA so we decided to team up for a tattoo show in NYC. Adam Suerte’s Urban Folk Art tattoo studio and gallery was the perfect place for an exhibit and book launch because he’s one of the many tattoo artists who started off as a writer. Please stop by Friday evening if you’re anywhere near Brooklyn.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 1 week, 1 Day, 10 hours, 12 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Thursday December 8, 2011

The Wynwood Walls - Part 2

2011-11-27T03:51:55+00:00

Here are more walls painted in the past few months. They are just a few of the dozens of murals you will see around Wynwood. There are more being painted this minute.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 20 hours, 25 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Saturday November 26, 2011

IRAK Bombs Wynwood

2011-11-26T04:04:03+00:00

IRAK spent a few days and nights bombing a Wynwood building located a little off the beaten track. Walk south on 2nd Avenue from NW26th Street and you can’t miss it. Only two sides of the building were finished when I left Miami a couple of weeks ago. One was tagged on black in gradations of white, silver, gray and black and the other on white in silver, gray and a bright orange which nicely coordinated with their T-shirts and shorts. Are there any other IRAK tags around Wynwood? Take a guess.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 20 hours, 13 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday November 25, 2011

The Wynwood Doors

2011-11-24T14:56:53+00:00

When in Wynwood, be sure to check out The Wynwood Doors. They are located in the lot farthest from the main entrance on NW26th St & 2nd Ave. The Doors are metal roll down gates covering portraits created by different artists mostly in 2011.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 3 weeks, 1 Day, 9 hours, 20 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Thursday November 24, 2011

2011 Wynwood Walls - Art Basel Preview Part 1

2011-11-23T18:10:20+00:00

There’s a lot of fresh paint in Wynwood so if you’re planning on coming to Miami for Art Basel, be sure to
head over to NW26th St & 2nd Avenue. For those of you who can’t make it, here’s a preview—too many to
post all at once. I’ll be there from November 27 through December 5th. Seeya

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 6 hours, 7 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Wednesday November 23, 2011

Puttin’ on the Dog with the London Police at Opera Gallery

2011-11-18T07:11:06+00:00

Bob and Chaz of The London Police celebrated their spectacular new show “Who Cares Wins” at Opera with a singalong medley of dog songs . The Dandy Warhols harmonized with the artists on favorite tunes including Dogs Rule the World, Terminator Dog, Dog in a Box and Kentucky Fried Dog.

TLP’s huge new paintings feature many recognizable NYC buildings, portraits of friends and public figures, hundreds of their iconic LADS characters and even a few dogs. Opera Gallery is at 115 Spring Street.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 5 months, 4 weeks, 17 hours, 6 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday November 18, 2011

Crazy 5 Bronx Reunion

2011-10-23T17:16:16+00:00

Last night Freedom and I attended an exclusive reunion of the Crazy 5 and a few friends at a Bronx bar. It was a thrill to meet members of this early, legendary crew and hear their tales in person. Coming soon…the book.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 6 months, 3 weeks, 2 days, 21 hours, 1 minute ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Sunday October 23, 2011

Peace!

2011-09-11T01:15:37+00:00

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 8 months, 5 days, 17 hours, 2 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Saturday September 10, 2011

Remembering 9/11 - Panel & Book Launch

2011-08-30T01:34:32+00:00

Next week I will participate in a panel discussion about the spontaneous 9/11 memorials and also launch my little book, Remembering 9/11. It’s hard to believe but the 10th anniversary of the September 11th attacks is upon us. On 9/11 in 2001, I watched television with my mom while on a visit to Baltimore. The shocking sight of people leaping to their death just before the towers crumbled is not something easily forgotten. I remember driving back to the city on September 12th and seeing a cloud of smoke along the New Jersey Turnpike where a view of the towers used to be.

In the aftermath, New Yorkers were willing to donate blood, blankets or anything but there was little anyone could do to be helpful. Along with hundreds of others, I took to the streets with my camera. My focus was the many handmade tributes that people left in memorials around the city—in Union Square, along Canal Street, at the firehouses and in all five boroughs. I also tried to document the spontaneous rituals and ceremonies New Yorkers creative as they came to grips with the attacks.

Although the term “street art” was not widely in use at the time, many of the memorials were just that. People appropriated space on the street for their art. Like street art, the memorials were ephemeral so photography became an easy yet powerful way to preserve, share and remember these poignant tributes. More of my Remembering 9/11 photos here.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 8 months, 2 weeks, 3 days, 16 hours, 43 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Monday August 29, 2011

R.I.P. Case 2 - King of Style

2011-08-15T06:49:46+00:00

Your incredibly creative and original work lives on in books, on film and in memories. You will never be forgotten.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 9 months, 2 days, 1 hour, 28 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Monday August 15, 2011

Aiko in A-Dam with Laser

2011-08-12T22:33:20+00:00

I’m finally getting around to editing photos I took last month in Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Berlin. First to A-dam for the opening of Aiko’s Unstoppable Waves show at Andenken Gallery. The gallery was started in Colorado by Hyland Mather and Malia Tata who then moved it to the Netherlands in 2008.We had a whirlwind few days including some night bombing by boat along the canals. More on Aiko’s blog here.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 9 months, 4 days, 9 hours, 44 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday August 12, 2011

OBEY in Town

2011-07-01T11:18:59+00:00

Shepard and crew have been stenciling and wheatpasting all over town. I caught this delicate gold lotus blossom logo going up on Mott and Prince yesterday. More coming soon.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 10 months, 2 weeks, 2 days, 10 hours, 58 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday July 1, 2011

Liu Bolin Vanishes on 7th Avenue

2011-06-28T02:10:05+00:00

This afternoon Chinese artist Liu Bolin aka The invisible Man painted himself into a fence hung with hundreds of 9/11 memorial tiles. Tiles for America began on 9/12/2001 just after the attack on the World Trade Center. Liu and his assistants began painting the clothing for the disappearing act in Eli Klein Fine Art gallery where Liu’s show will open on June 29th. Today was Bolin’s final performance in New York City—at least for this trip.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 10 months, 2 weeks, 5 days, 20 hours, 7 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Monday June 27, 2011

BKC’s East Coast Sticky Sticker Art Show

2011-06-27T14:29:24+00:00

Saturday James n’ Jerry of Brass Knuckle’s Crew put together a super sticker show. They mounted hundreds of stickers on large panels and exhibited them at the Witzenhausen Gallery in Chelsiea. Unfortunately it was only a one day event but they’re planning on repeating it at more venues soon.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 10 months, 2 weeks, 6 days, 7 hours, 48 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Monday June 27, 2011

More JR on Grand & Wooster

2011-06-25T16:43:07+00:00

JR pulled an all nighter working from midnight until 8:00am installing another of his humongous photo murals. Like the Houston Street wall, the image is from his Native American Standing Rock Nation project in North and South Dakota. The location shares a wall with my Shepard Fairey Defiant Youth colab. It also faces the parking lot on Grand directly opposite Henry Chalfant’s fabled studio where writers used to hang out for hours checking out Henry’s latest subway graffiti photos. Another JR installation is around the corner on Wooster.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 10 months, 3 weeks, 1 Day, 5 hours, 34 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Saturday June 25, 2011

JR Wheatpastes on Houston Street

2011-06-25T02:50:16+00:00

French artist/photographer JR and crew spent a few hours in the rain yesterday pasting a gigantic photo of a pair of eyes over Kenny Scharf’s Houston Street mural. In real life the eyes belong to DJ Two Bears who was in New York to help with the installation. The photo was from a series of portraits JR took and pasted up at Standing Rock Nation, a Native American reservation straddling North and South Dakota. If you keep your eyes open you’ll probably spot several more JR works going up around town.

This article was posted by Martha Cooper 10 months, 3 weeks, 1 Day, 19 hours, 27 minutes ago.
©Martha Cooper & 12ozProphet - Friday June 24, 2011