B Scene Zine, Volume 1, Issue 5, The Street Art Issue

Vol. 1, Issue 5, March, 2022

B Scene Zine

Jean-Michel Basquiat Keith Haring Richard Hambleton More Graffiti Superstaz Hektad/ChrisRWK Freeman's Alley Freeman's Alley Ohio Mike/eva f Al Diaz/Cate McNider/Felix Morelo Majo San/LeCrue Eyebrows/FireFlower Leviyev/Stickermaul/BD Sara Leo/BuyIt/Dina Inks Skatchface/Early Riser

We expect this month’s issue will generate a lot of complaints: Why wasn’t my art recognized? Why isn’t my favorite street artist included? You left out this important figure, or that one. Well, if you’re looking for an apology, we’re sorry…we’re not apologizing. What we’re presenting here is a wholly unscientific and subjective listing of street artists, from historically significant ones to up-and-comers. We’re not presenting an exhaustive list and this is not our last street art issue, so recommendations for future profiles are certainly welcome.

Cave drawings notwithstanding, street art as we know it today had its nascence in NYC, beginning with simple name-number tags and gang logos in the Bronx and Brooklyn in the 70s. But it was in the East Village during the go-go 80s that graffiti morphed into street art with the emergence of a wave of talented young artists who transformed the city into one gigantic, communal canvas. Basquiat, Haring, Hambleton, Scharf and so forth.

Some graffiti writers made the shift to galleries, some went on to fame and fortune, too many died. But today a second and third generation of writers and artists have stepped to the fore. Some are making a living at it, but most are still looking for their chance. This is where galleries have a responsibility. Please, gallery owners, quit the incestuous circle jerking, quit showing hobby art by friends of friends! Look to the streets where you’ll find real artists/real art.

Front Cover: art by ChrisRWK, original photo by Hank O'Neal. Back cover: Hektad, courtesy Hektad Haikustrology by Ron Herczig Aries Too optimistic?

Reefs lie hiding in your course Be conservative Taurus You get the job done Stability brings comfort Smooth sailing ahead

Writer: Marquez "Quez" Woods

Jean-Michel Basquiat, the East Village street artist turned latter-day fine-art demi-god, made the jump from the streets to the suites after a year-long residency on E. 12th St. It was here that his Samo© partnership with Al Diaz dissolved.

"Our lives converged at an extraordinary moment in the East Village..., a vortex where art was life and life was art," wrote Alexis Adler, who in 1979-80 shared a sixth-floor apartment/art studio/performance space with the young Basquiat. "We were punk pioneers, homesteading in this ever-evolving remnant of a neighborhood. Art blossomed by feeding off the lawless decay," she wrote in the 2017 book, Basquiat before Basquiat: East 12th Street, 1979-1980.

By the time he left E. 12th in 1980, Basquiat was becoming a key figure in the growing street art movement, appearing in national magazines, starring in the independent film Downtown 81 with Debbie Harry (to whom he sold his first painting) and showing in ever more important galleries.

Within a few years, Basquiat would be earning $1.4 million a year for his art. An established art superstar, Basquiat spent the mid-80s in a global whirlwind of gallery shows, parties and drugs. He died of a heroin overdose in August, 1988, age 27, at his home, which still stands, on Great Jones St. near the Bowery. Interest in Basquiat's work has kited since his death. His work, In This Case (1983), sold for $93.1 million at Christie's last year.

These images are copyright of the artist and no reproduction is permitted without the express written permission of the artist. For artwork & information please visit: www.BishopOnBedford.com or email us at INFO@BishopOnBedford.com.

In 1980, Haring began organizing exhibitions at the Saint Marks art headquarters Club 57, featuring his unidentifiable, ageless, raceless, often genderless people, animals and geometric designs. In 1982, he painted the first mural on the Bowery Wall, a location that has endured as a venerable street art spot ever since.

Haring opened his Pop Shop in Soho in 1986, selling shirts, posters and such, an effort, he said, to break down barriers between high and low art. Even as he gained wealth and global fame, Haring continued to work on behalf of sick kids and people affected Exclusive photos by Daryl-Ann Saunders

by HIV/AIDS. In 1986, Haring created his most enduring public work, the Crack is Wack mural in East Harlem, which is visible today from the FDR Drive. It was restored as recently as 2019.

Works by Haring sold for more than $5 million at Sothebys last year. Haring died in 1990 of AIDS-related complications.

Since then, his legacy has been perpetuated by the Keith Haring Foundation.

GRAFFITI EXPLOSION 2, 1984

Richard Hambleton, aka the Shadowman, first gained notoriety for his “mass murder” images that began appearing on the sidewalks of lower Manhattan in the late 1970s. He followed that up with the life-sized, lurking Shadowman paintings that startled and amused passersby and made him famous.

“I painted the town black…They could represent watchmen or danger or the shadows of a human body after a nuclear holocaust or even my own shadow,” he said in a 1984 interview with People magazine.

The Canadian-born artist and graduate of San Francisco Institute of Art later expanded the Shadowman project to include works in Paris, London, Rome and other cities around the world.

After a successful shift to gallery art, Hambleton began to withdraw from the art world after the deaths of Haring and Basquiat. He died in 2017 of cancer at 65.

Photo: Hank O'Neal

Exclusive Photos: Daryl-Ann Saunders

Kenny Scharf should have had his own page, but we just ran out of space. Like his contemporaries profiled on the last few pages, Scharf’s contributions to the genre are immeasurable.

His playful, colorful, cartoonish work evoked a sense of joy and optimism on a scale that challenged both viewers and other artists. His work includes painting, sculpture, fashion, video and performance art. A Scharf piece sold for $870,000 last year at Christie's. Photo: kennyscharf.com

blog.tshirt-factory.com/?s=seen New York native Sinclair the Vandal translates his experience in the graffiti culture from the ‘80s and 90s onto canvas.

Photo: Dazeworld.com

Lady Pink started writing in 1979, the first female to compete and thrive in the male-dominated graffiti culture. Pink painted subway trains from 1979-1985.

Photo: Ladypinknyc.com

Hektad, a name comprising his graffiti name Hek and the name of his first crew Tad, began writing in his home borough of the Bronx in the mid-1980s. Today, his love infused work helps soothe moods citywide, especially in the EV where his work is ubiquitous.

During the late 1980s, Hektad took a break to spend more time with his family, returning to street art full time in the 1990s after meeting and being inspired by the mysterious street art legend Banksy, who has since become his friend. Since 1996,Hektad has made love his theme, with redundant hearts a common motif and the motto “I choose love.”

“I just want to show the world to love art, love each other, and to spread all of that,” he said.

Photo: Johnny Utah (RIP)

It wasn’t until 1999 that the Staten Island native came up with the “Robots Will Kill” notion to warn about the potential threats posed by technology: “If you do something too much and too often, it becomes robotic, and you lose your love for it,” he told streetartnyc.com.

But despite the apparent seriousness of the message, Chris relied on inspiration from Gary Larson, Jim Davis and Disney to put non-threatening faces on his ideas. And thus he created the cartoon characters that are now iconic on the streets of lower Manhattan and in galleries. Among them: the lovable, forlorn, yet optimistic, silver robot who offers uplifting messages like “You won’t always feel this way.”

Today, Chris' work is in galleries, his art has been turned into toys, clothing and other stuff and his street paintings and stickers can still be seen across the city.

“I will continue to do what I do. Create, paint and get my stickers out there,” he said.

In 1983 street artist Richard Hambleton moved to the east storefront at 5 Rivington next to Sandy Schulman's cuttingedge storefront art gallery, home to Richard Prince's Spiritual America. A three-story social mural overlooking the parking lot at 12 Rivington loomed over the alley and block. Street heroin dealers controlled the street midday. The alley graffiti consisted of small name tags and images written by local teenagers.

In 2004 Freemans restaurant opened at the end of the alley.

Soon commercial advertising campaigns aggressively papered the alley.

Photos: Daryl-Ann Saunders

Overnight street artists responded to the adverts by claiming the alley walls as their turf. Pasteups dominated the alley until 2019. During the cloak of the lockdown, writers made claims for specific high visibility areas of the alley obliterating the smaller scale image and message-oriented paste-ups.

The yin-yang between paste-ups and writers continues each week, bringing an erasure and new visual by paste-up or spray can.

-- Jimmy Wright Photo, right, a work by Richard Hambleton captured in the 80s by Jimmy Wright, the alley's unofficial historian and its only resident. Previous page, Jimmy near his home in the alley.

0H10M1ke is a graffiti artist specializing in the single-line tag.

From spray paint to drip pens sticker slaps to wheatpastes, known in the East Village for 20 years, he may have drawn your portrait on a matchbook, found object or a slice of paper in less than a minute without lifting the pen. As curator of #0h10M1keandfriends, M1ke brings artists together to showcase their talents and celebrate the street art community. With live performance, NFTs, and paintings sold in galleries in 2021, 0H10M1ke seeks to paint more murals in 2022. @0h10m1ke

eva f began her career as the street artist known as thechalkjungle, creating joyful chalk art on boarded up storefronts in New York City during the pandemic of 2020 transforming her life experience to become a citizen artist, without formal training, spreading positive feelings during challenging times. After conquering the streets, she began studio work to continue her approach of transforming all kinds of emotions into images that are simple, joyful, and full of energy. She is always looking for ways to maintain the feeling of her initial medium of chalk in her street art.

A portion of her sales benefit God’s Love We Deliver, a New York City based charity.

Legendary first-generation downtown graffiti artist Al Diaz has come a long way since shaping graffiti culture in the 70s then helping to usher in the 80s tectonic shift from uptown name-number tagging to downtown street art as partner with the late Jean-Michel Basquiat in SAMO© graffiti. Today Diaz' work brings together influences from the street, the subway and the studio in colorful word art pieces with provocative, often uplifting, messages. Left, Dias, who was featured in BSZ #2, examines BSZ #1. Right, spring-themed LES piece.

Cate McNider arrived in NYC from London in 1985 and immediately settled in the East Village. Her first collection Separation and Return was published in 2010 (Vantage Press). To follow on IG: @catemcnider and @thelisteningbody. For purchasing her book or artwork: www.catemcnider.com or catemcnider.net.

‘Hooli-Ooops on 10th, look on the walls, Maiden Lane Tagged, Avenue B.

‘Hiss’ on post boxes, “Hooli oops’ on brick, who was Big Lou? ‘Love is Love’ on 10th.

Love ‘em or hate ‘em those good luck/bad luck spots on the sidewalk in and around Tompkins Square Park and other downtown locations aren’t going anywhere. At least not if Felix Morelo, the Queens man behind the spots, has his way. Felix first took up the chalk life in 2009; since then he has been applauded for his good luck spots and kissing spots, but booed for the bad luck spots many people go out of their way to avoid. "I think I get more love than criticism, but either way I'm not gonna stop," Morelo said.

I’ve always been curious about and amazed by my context and what exists beyond that context, always seeking to find this primary essence that connects us all. I’ve been inspired by nature, stories, shapes, colors and feelings from the people and places I’ve been. I believe everything is connected and I like to remind and be reminded of that connection. When I observe things and other creatures in the world, I see the whole universe, I see myself.

I strongly believe in POSITIVE full creative expression. To uplift, empower and generate a profound positive chain reaction, in the mind and in the nearest reality.

There is always beauty and purpose in everything and everyone. If we can see the magic in ourselves, we can see the magic in everything and everybody else. @majo_san

if words can bend so can time, if intention can shift so can direction. is this the world? is this the bison? if the crowd can direct a path will you build a lonely empire? what are you willing to will? the truth lies in words but dwells in tells. be the tell in your passion, be the tell in your craft, be the tell always...the soil is what once stood tall, and the soil is what will feed what is to rise next. @art_by_eyebrows

FireFlower is a mixed media artist based in Queens, New York.

Inspired by light, nature, and music, her use of vibrant colors, and abstract graphics portray the evolution of a strong female spirit. @fire__flower

no one cares about your dreams until they become reality but at that point your not on the crew you are just a fan. keep those that belive your vision from day one close. dream until it's your reality. @LEVIYEV.ART

Slapping positivity, word play and love on the streets of New York.

Keep your eyes open and, when you find them, take a moment.

Pause. Engage. Enjoy. Smile. Laugh.

Giggle. Groan. Guffaw. Share.

Truth or Dare?

Be Bold. Be You. Happiness starts with you. Be Kind. I see you.You got this. Stay Amazing. See you on the streets.

With love, @Stickermaul

Brittany DiMauro is a NYC based artist who uses discarded materials to create intricate visual works that delve into complex issues regarding the malleability of the mind and its exploitation through the advent of celebrity. Collage has been a serendipitous journey for the New England born artist who spent their youth in the nineties as an outsider in an insidiously homogeneous environment. After coming to New York in 2006 BD worked in film production, ultimately deciding that the pathway to purpose was through total commitment to their own works of art. More recently BD has brought the work outside, enlarging the original collage and giving it a new home in the wild using her own method of wheatpasting. @EternalPossessions

Sara Lynne Leo is a contemporary street artist whose work focuses on societal conversations surrounding mental health. With a bit of dry humor and a dash of existential dread, Sara Lynne's #StreetComix seek to encourage open communication and end stigmas around mental wellness.

I gravitated towards stickers as I was (still am) a skateboarder, and stickers are currency in the culture.

BUYIT is the mascot for capitalism.

Like capitalism, it spreads far and wide while mutating and cannibalizing any cultural artifact to match its own image.

Its brand is empty. BUYIT mimics everything but promises nothing.

Dina Levy is a NYC based artist who makes female figurative paintings and sketches from the inside of her soul; exploring feminism, surrealism, sexuality and body image.

Her work incorporates fashion illustration, figurative expressionism, symbolism, and her imagination, and feelings.

She started making stickers of her art and slapping them all over NYC a couple of years ago.

Skatchface is an artist from the Hudson Valley whose focus is in street art and graphic design. With a background in skateboard graphics and the apparel industry, he has since gone on to show his fine art and create murals across the country from Portland, OR to working with the Bushwick Collective and Ron English in Miami, FL. His work is heavily influenced by 1980’s graffiti, skateboard art and often combines the grotesque with the irreverent. You can find his recent work on his instagram @skatchface.

Early Riser is a mixed media New York City based street artist, most well known for her colorful and emotive work featuring special needs animals. Stylistically varied, the artist builds her works in blocks of color typical of a printmaker. The artist describes her work as lying between Neo-expression and Pop, coining the term “NEW POP” to define the genre. Her work is found is sidewalk stencil paintings and on painted sign installations around New York City.

BScene Zine

Vol 1, Issue 5, March, 2022

Hektad ChrisRWK Hambleton Ohio Mike Al Diaz Haring Basquiat Eva f Felix Morelo Many more