Research Archive

Welling Court, Astoria, NY 2012

An Ad Hoc Art Project

Photo: © Jeewon Shin 2012

The stencil project, He Was Simply A Guy Who Painted Messages In The Street is intended to function on two levels.

Most every artist will do a self-portrait at some point in his or her career. Mine is not a traditional portrait; it is a self-portrait with words. Every individual is unique in the world and has something to contribute no matter how small the thought or message might be. Sometimes, a work on the street is all it might take to help someone else get through a difficult moment: an anxious night, a period of strife or uncertainty in their life. Art on the street is for everyone. It can be funny, soothing, insightful, joyous or reflective. It is an instant of communication meant to cause an immediate reaction on the viewer.

The project also functions a tribute to every unknown individual whoever grafftied, scrawled, scratched, wheat-pasted, stenciled or spray painted without anyone ever knowing the name of the anonymous person. With so much unrest in the world, people tend to stop believing in the most simple and basic truths, ideals and needs. An artist’s knowledge is their trade. Artists are here to visual express and share universal concepts of peace, love, hope, compassion, equality and understanding with the general public.

Takeover in Times Square July 24th, 2011

Public Ad Campaign & The Heavy Projects

Featuring John Fekner, Ron English, PosterBoy, Doctor D and Ox

http://vimeo.com/26852474

http://daily.publicadcampaign.com/2011_07_01_archive.html

Photo courtesy: Rebecca Fuller

The Teenage Years

Fekner’s first outdoor work was the phrase Itchycoo Park painted in large white letters on a park house of a Queens playground in 1968 with his friends Robert, Harry, Dennis and Pat while Steve played the lookout.

On Friday night, August 15th, 1969, before leaving from Itcyhcoo Park to go to Woodstock with Robert and Steve, Fekner created his 2nd text-based work of hand-cut letters out of paper. The phrase White Lake Or Bust, pertained to the upstate location of Bethel where the concert was originally scheduled, was taped on the inside windows of a Chevy station wagon driven to the Woodstock Music and Art Festival in upstate New York.

The following summer, Fekner painted two murals entitled Luv Flowers on two backyard walls; one in Jackson Heights, NY and the second in Canoga Park, California.

During the summer of 1968, 69 and 70, Fekner worked as a messenger at 841 Broadway at 14th Street in NYC and constantly used the city subways at that time. The amount of graffiti on subway lines, walls and buildings was not noticeable at that time.

A history of art from the streets of New York City

20 West 53rd Street, b/w 5th & 6th Avenue
New York, NY 10019 (across from MoMA)

Group show runs April 2-17, 2011
Open to the public 24 hours

www.chashama.org
www.pantheonnyc.com
flickr

Ongoing Collaboration with Don Leicht since 1982

In 1979, Fekner’s stencil work begins to appear outdoors in Sweden and continues in Germany, England and Canada.

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Fekner’s first environmental stencil project in 1977 entitled A Tribute To The Green Grass That Valiantly Grows Through This Asphalt is painted at Gorman Park.

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The Remains of Industry is painted at the abandoned Trunz Meat Factory in Greenpoint, Brooklyn with assistance from two brothers who were squatting in the building.

The NO TV/Read stencil project is Fekner’s first project in which he creates multiple versions in other media including video, music, painting and performance.

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In the 80s, manifestations of toxicity was rampant not only by the poisoning of the planet by deliberate and careless dumping, but by those who chose a complete disregard for one’s existence with the recreational use of hard drugs. Toxic Junkie was spray painted on a well-used drug den on 2nd Street between Avenues B & C in conjunction with The Black and White Show at Kenkeleba Gallery, Lorraine O’Grady, Curator.

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