Video: MOCA TV – Art in The Streets “Building Detroit Part’s 1 & 2”

The excellent Art in The Streets series from MOCAtv returned today with two new documentaries that were shot & directed by Colin M. Day on the current artistic scene taking place in Detroit. Many onomatopoeia favorites are featured in the two shorts, which you can read about in much more detail below…

Like New York City in the 1970s, modern day Detroit is a paradise for street art. The miles of unused facades and ample loads of refuse in this "bombed-out, dilapidated urban landscape" are grist for graffiti artists and writers from the United States and beyond. In this short film, Los Angeles artist REVOK discusses the creative community that has coalesced in Detroit, highlighting the fantastic assemblages he creates from abandoned houses and buildings, and collaborates with POSE to mount a tribute mural to local icon Sean Griffin, better known as NEKST, on the western facade and southern wall of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit. Without local authorities policing or buffing their work, the city itself becomes an enormous canvas. 

Featuring work by Nekst, Revok, Pose, Askew, Risk, Rime, Flying Fortress, Nychos, Decolonize.

In Detroit, Michigan, where economic demise has forced the city to shrink and turn its back on empty homes and properties, a community of artists thrives by continuing its rich tradition of building. Under the auspice of Power House Productions, a local nonprofit which supports neighborhood revitalization, Oakland artist Monica Canilao (you need to see her website) transforms a dilapidated Victorian into an aesthetic object straddling the worlds of street art and architecture. On the land surrounding his African Bead Museum, DABLS incorporates discarded construction material into his network of sculptures and installations. And in his backyard, a former General Motors employee named Dmytro Szylak continues to build and tinker with a massive visionary environment which evokes both the auto plant and his own Ukrainian heritage. The factories are closed, but the desire to work remains.

 

Artists:

Powerhouse Project: Monica Canilao, Richard Coleman, Swoon, Saelee Oh, Retna,

Ben Wolf.

African Bead Museum: DABLS

Hamtramck Disneyland: Dmytro Szylak

N'Kisi Concorde Filmmakers: Nikki Sass & Brittin Richter

Os Gêmeos Designs a Scarf for Louis Vuitton

French luxury brand Louis Vuitton continues to work with contemporary and street artists alike. After just launching their collaboration scarf with RETNA  last week at their Design District Miami store, where the artist also painted the entire exterior wall, we get our first preview of their next collaboration with Brazilian street art heavyweights Os Gêmeos. The twins’ signature art has found its way onto a Louis Vuitton silk scarf, which is apparently being released on January 1st, 2013.

Video: RETNA Mural at Houston & Bowery Wall in NYC

If you live in NYC you are most probably familiar with the iconic wall on the corner of Houston and Bowery that over the years has played host to works from  Keith Haring, Shepard Fairey, JR, Kenny Scharf, Barry McGee  and most recently Fail. The next stint belongs to RETNA, his signature art covers the wall and we have a nice video of the artists process below….

El Mac/Retna - "Let The Arts Roam" video

Another great video of El Mac this time featuring his collaborator of often Retna, description and video below…

Wherever they go, they try to make something that makes sense for the neighborhood, and the community. And they always make something positive, something the artists hope people can enjoy -- regardless of whether life has greeted them with great fortune. Armed with a vision and their cans of spray paint, El Mac and Retna will transform a forgotten wall into a piece of art.

“El Mac and Retna are street artists, born in LA. They use building walls as blank canvases for their imagery, and the duo has collaborated to create murals all over the world. El Mac and Renta have very different styles, and have been collaborating the last few years. They combine their artistic forces in a specific way: El Mac creates huge lifelike portraits and Retna, calligraphic brushwork and decoration. The result is striking imagery that is unique and recognizable as theirs. It's not uncommon for street art fans and documentarians to gather to watch the progression of an El Mac and Retna work in progress.

El Mac and Retna art feels appropriate for the street because the artists themselves embrace the city streets, the different neighborhoods, and the blend of cultures and backgrounds of the people that fill them. Street art, including the work of El Mac and Retna, also reflects a new attitude about accessibility to art in our environments. "Why not see all the walls painted," says Retna. "Let the Arts Roam!"

Created by Joris Debeij & Terence Loos. Music by The Pilots 

Let The Arts Roam from I Am Los Angeles on Vimeo.