Here’s the thing about street art — whether or not you realize it, you’re already intimately familiar with the artist’s work.

Such is the case with NYC-homegrown artist Gaia‘s rugged linoleum prints. This weekend, instead of hitting the streets, he’ll joining the legendary Italian artists Sten & Lex for a show at Brooklynite gallery.

We talked briefly with Gaia about why he puts his art on the street, what he thinks of Baltimore, and why art that’s illegal can sometimes be the most beautiful.

Interview after the jump, and make sure you check out the show’s opening party this Saturday, featuring music by the formidable Wham City artist collective member DJ Mark Brown (check out the video he just did for Beach House).

“Portraits” opens 7pm October 16 at Brooklynite gallery on 334 Malcom X Blvd, off the Utica Ave stop on the A/C.

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courtesy whowhatwear.com

Do some good with your Thursday night and attend the The Art of Elysium Orientation at 3rd Ward. The L.A.-based (and star-studded) non-profit works to brighten the lives of children with serious medical conditions through creating art. And not just macaroni necklaces, The Art of Elysium is expanding and looking for NYC volunteers involved in acting, fashion, filmmaking, music and writing, too. You live in Williamsburg: you fit in there somewhere. Why not share your talents with those who may need it most? Plus, the good karma is instant – there’s free wine.

The Art of Elysium Orientation
Thursday, October 14, 7 to 9 pm
3rd Ward – 195 Morgan Ave
FREE
RSVP here

No, it’s not that old Chevy your uncle has in his garage.  It’s mobile theater right here in Brooklyn, and they’re taking the show on the road. Touring the East coast, eventually planning to perform at the New Orleans Fringe Festival, Jean Ann Douglass and Eric Meyer are kicking off their trip Nov. 4-9 with shows each night in a different Brooklyn neighborhood.  The idea behind the project is a theater that moves from place to place. An unassuming moving van is actually a stage for installation and performance.   They use the back of a Budget Rental Truck and set up the “theater” to suit each piece, changing the interior, rearranging seating, and shaping the entire experience around the play, and well, the truck. From their website:

For each work, the truck interior is transformed into a dynamic playing space, based on the needs of each piece. As much an installation as it is performance, one show creates a vaudeville theater…another is performed in a barren, dark space where all audience members are led to their seats with flashlights. Each configuration of the truck can seat 20-35 people, and several short works are performed in repertory each evening.”

The Truck Project is looking for donations to fund the tour, but buying a ticket for the Brooklyn shows will help too. With limited seating, you should get yours here soon.  The Brooklyn showings feature a play about the inner workings of Amy Winehouse’s mind called “Not Winehouse” and the aforementioned vaudevillian production “The Backroad Homeshow.” The weekend of the performances, try to save any free parking spots you see around town until a moving van drives up.

The Truck Project Kickstarter Video from Jean Ann Douglass on Vimeo.

Now on view at MoMA is “Abstract Expressionist New York”, a review of the New York-based abstract artists who transformed the world of art over half a century ago.

The exhibit is large, taking over space on three floors. As expected, you can bathe in Rothko’s “multiform” blocks of color and Pollack’s drip paintings as well as works from de Kooning and Gorky. However, works from artists outside single-name recognition abound, and the organization of the pieces helps to trace the evolution of aesthetic and message of this unique movement borne of post-war American life.

“Abstract Expressionist New York” is on view through April 25, 2011

What are you doing this weekend? Why not go see some art shows?

A piece from "SeenoEvil..." opening at Factory Fresh on Friday

Friday Night: At FactoryFresh the crazy/weird/surreal show “seenoevilseenoevilsee evil” is opening – featuring work by Jeremiah Maddock, Daniel Trocchio and Amanda Wong. All three are showing crazy hypnotic and colorful pieces, ranging from drawings to paintings to video.

And then, Saturday! Artist-run gallery Pandemic is opening their latest show,”Split Personality,” with a Pabst-Blue-Ribbon sponsored party. Split Personality is the first solo show by Laos-born artist Vilaykorn Sayaphet and features work split between two sides – an impressionist/painterly body of work and a more serious collection of illustrations.

“seenoevilseenoevilsee evil” opens Friday September 24 from 7-10pm, and is running from September 24-October 24 at Factory Fresh, at 1053 Flushing Avenue between Morgan and Knickerbocker, off the L train Morgan Stop.

Split Personality opens on Saturday, September 25th, 2010, from 7-11 PM, and runs through October 10th at Pandemic Gallery, on 37 Broadway (between Wythe and Kent) off the Marcy stop on the J/M/Z.

A piece from the Split Personality show opening Saturday night at Pandemic

Today, from 5-8pm artist and illustrator extraordinaire Maxwell Loren Holyoke-Hirsch’s show, “Primal Objects,” is opening at the By & By Gallery on Grand. Come by for the art, and stick around for an awesome performance by Philadelphia based band Sweatheart. Can’t make it tonight? The show will be up until October 13.

By & By is at 552 Grand St., Brooklyn, NY.

Little Skips, a recent addition to the Bushwick coffee house landscape, opens its fourth art show tonight with a collection of works grouped around the theme “Beauties & Beauty”. Local artists Camille Altay, Canyon Castator, Eric C. Holmes and Ray Jones examine “the elegance of an everyday stance, a mystery that lies in nature’s sexuality, the magical powers of the open airs… [and] the intricacies of deforming facial expressions” through painting and illustration.

Little Skips
941 Willoughby Ave.
7 – 11pm

It happens around this time every year– dozens of art galleries ring in the fall season by effectively creating massive art-walks (read: booze and crazy people), and tonight has a lengthy list of choices.

One good one is DUMBO’s Bose Pacia gallery, hosting an opening reception for its exhibit Material Witness, featuring LA artist Bari Kumar and Buenos Aires collective MONDONGO (whose mixed-media works incorporate all different kinds of materials into large-scale pieces with multiple layers and various historical contexts).

This show has actually been up for a bit, but I just got around to seeing it. Do yourself a favor and check it out before it’s gone in a few days.

100 Records is the culmination of a massive year long project by artist and musician Sonny Smith, front man of the group Sonny & The Sunsets. Smith invited 100 artists to produce 100 7” record covers for fictional bands. Smith concocted the personas of these fictitious bands, then wrote and recorded one hundred songs to correspond with each 7” record. Recording with his band The Sunsets, as well as with members of notable bands such as the Sandwitches, Fresh N Only’s, Thee Oh Sees, Ty Segall, and the Kelley Stoltz Band, each record stands on its own as a solid piece of music and spans a wide range from pop, concept ideas, spoken word, instrumentals, surf, garage, folk and rock n roll.

CINDERS GALLERY
103 Havemeyer st.
Brooklyn, NY 11211
718-388-2311
Wed-Sun 1-7pm

August 12th – September 5th 2010

http://www.cindersgallery.com

These Spoiler Alert subway notification additions were modded by Newmindspace and Jason Eppink.

These LED signs also threaten historical social behaviors, rendering obsolete the time-honored New York tradition of leaning over the platform edge with the hope of glimpsing headlights from an approaching train.

The Spoiler Alert signs warn waiting riders of this potentially unwanted information – allowing them to avert their eyes so they may preserve their spirit of adventure – while still leaving visible the data for travelers who wish to ruin the surprise for themselves.

[h/t buzzfeed]