Kevin Blythe Sampson Guest appearance on PBS Kids Cartoon Arthur

Kevin Blythe Sampson Guest appearance on PBS Kids Cartoon Arthur

When George’s sculpture accidentally gets taken to the dump, he learns you can find all types of art in surprising places! Tune in for an all new episode of ARTHUR featuring special guest artist Kevin Sampson, March 10th on

PBS KIDS

and the PBS KIDS Video App!

VIDEO CLIPS FROM MY UPCOMING APPEARANCE ON "ARTHUR'

Yes that is me talking i had so much fun doing the voice over.

Many thanks to Deborah the Producer at Arthur ..she has been truly amazing. Here I am for the world to see with real ears can i keep them...i always wanted them.

Thanks so much to PBS and Arthur for this honor and this wonderful promotion

PLEASE FEEL FREE TO SHARE.

 

 

Kevin Blythe Sampson Video Clip From PBS Arthur 

A Dialogue with Kevin Sampson

https://rhinohornartists.wordpress.com/2016/01/21/a-dialogue-with-kevin-sampson/

Rhino Horn Group

A Dialogue with Kevin Sampson

January 21, 2016 / rhinohornartists

Kevin Sampson has an enormous talent for creating powerful works of art that are empowered and beloved by his community. Sampson, a self-taught artist, found an early penchant for drawing while he was a law enforcement officer in the City of Newark, New Jersey. His adeptness at drawing the human figure led him to become a police sketch artist, which was a very in demand position within the force. Later, Sampson’s skills at forensic sketching would be harnessed in Wanted, a project by artist and activist Dread Scott that created fake police wanted posters that expose the racial profiling used by law enforcement agencies.

Fruit of the Poisonous Tree. Courtesy of Andrew Edlin Gallery, New York.

Sampson’s work is largely connected to socially engaged themes including identity politics, war, and civil rights. A major motif in his work is the memorial. He creates intricate vessels from found objects that have personal significance to either Sampson or his subjects. These vessels become spiritual energy containing the collective consciousness of the community at large.
In 2013, Sampson’s epic installation An Ill Wind Blowing, encapsulated the frustration of a nation and the broken American dream. The ship’s three sections represent the glaring socio-economic divide of the United States.
The front of the ship represented the large corporations, the middle represented the social elite, while the rear symbolized class struggle and racial disparity. The vessel also featured a “basketball hoop” where visitors could write their own political frustrations on a sheet of paper, crumple it up, and throw it into the fishing net resembling a hoop.
In 2015, a giant mural called Fruit of the Poisonous Tree, which was painted on site at Andrew Edlin Gallery’s former space in Chelsea, took on a myriad of complex issues that concern both himself and his community at large. From his days serving and protecting as a police officer to his current work as an artist, Sampson has always been in tune with his community. Today, he’s well known in Newark for his public art as well as being a devoted teacher and involved with many neighborhood events.
Kevin is a busy artist these days with solo shows and projects across the country. I recently had a chance to ask Kevin a few questions about his work and what drives his inspiration and vision.

Do you consider yourself a Humanist artist?
As I understand Humanism, it’s about giving value to humanity by working in concert with human values, all the while understanding that all humans are to be treated with the same understanding and respect.
If this is the case,  then this does apply to how I live and work. I am a community based artist, one that feels a responsibility to that community and people in general. As an African American it is a natural fit, as I seek to highlight the hopes, dreams, and problems of the (world) community as a way of staying in the fight, for the rights of all.

The Madjet….The Kron-Printzen, a slave ship. Courtesy of Cavin-Morris Gallery, New York.

Do you consider the figure to have a vital role in your art? 
Rarely, most of my world uses other means to feature the human condition. I tend to construct vessels, which illustrate a political thought or a spiritual connection, to either this world or the world beyond.
What is your artistic studio process like?
I am not a studio based artist “I live with my work” meaning that I don’t have a set place to work (I work all over my house.). I don’t set aside time for the studio, instead I work outside, inside and all around the town.  I am a process orientated artist; I work by reading by my constant contact with the public. When I finally construct my work it is already done in my head. And I rarely have the need to see my 0wn work after it is done.
Do you feel that contemporary art should have a commitment to issues that affect our daily lives? 
I have been teaching for over 30 years one of the things that I do, is make my students read the news, to follow it religiously. To become acquainted with social issues and causes particularly if they are artists of color. I do feel as though the world is sorely in need of protest and commitment to the many issues that affect this world. But I don’t expect every artist to have this commitment. But I do like it when they do.
 You take on very direct issues in your work, what are some specific reasons that you’ve chosen to address and create a visual dialog for these issues? 
I am the son of a civil rights leader, my father Stephen Sampson who was a self taught historian drilled into my siblings and my head commitment to civil rights of all. So it’s in my DNA and my father haunts me daily and keeps whispering in my ear his desire that I continue to fight for African Americans in particular and all people in general. Its just how I roll, religion and politics are interlinked in my head through the history of the African American.
Your work often has a prophetic vision of the future. Can you describe how you react and interpret the current state of the world into your sculpture and drawings?
What I really try to do is to “spirit Necklaces of a vanquished peoples magic”, meaning that through my work, with out being obvious, I try to create objects of power that show the problems of the world, while offering artistic solutions that cause these problems to transcend their circumstances. I attempt to create beauty where this is none as well as retrieving objects discarded by my community in an effort to give this objects (which hold memory) a new life…a new voice.

The USS Mr. Imagination.  Photograph by Jeffrey Machtig. Courtesy of the John Michael Kohler Art Center.

What’s next on the horizon? Any new shows?
I show constantly, I am currently showing at the outsider art fair this weekend, at my gallery of 23 years, Cavin-Morris Gallery’s booth. I have another show at Cavin-Morris Gallery, NYC in March.
I am showing in Philly with Philadelphia Sculptors on board the USS Olympia docked at Philly’s sea port in June. I have been giving the ships chapel to create an installation inside of.
I am also working on a Major Public art piece, for the Power Company PSEG (McCARTER Switching station) a new building with a strong public art feature.
The city of Newark and its Mayor Ras Baraka are creating a wonderful Public space at this site, it is being administered by Danny Simmons of Corridor Gallery Brooklyn and Victor Davson, Director of Aljira Gallery in Newark. I will be creating a 14 foot sculpture (along with a group of artists) that will be permanently installed on this site at Fairmount Ave in Newark.

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IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES: 30 YEARS AT CAVIN-MORRIS February 19 - March 14, 2015

IN DREAMS BEGIN RESPONSIBILITIES: 30 YEARS AT CAVIN-MORRIS February 19 - March 14, 2015

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Dread Scott-Wanted Composite Sketch By Retired Police Artist Kevin Blythe Sampson

Dread Scott

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Wanted

Wanted is a community-based art project that address the criminalization of youth in America.  It is presented in an art exhibition as well as on the streets of Harlem, New York. It resembles a series of police wanted posters which each features a “police sketch” of a young adult, a description of them and a statement of what they are wanted for.  For example “On Saturday May 17, 2014, at approximately 12:30 AM, a male black, 16-24 years of age was wearing a black waist length jacket and dark pants.  The male was observed engaging in conversation with other males.  The police allege that the suspect moved suspiciously when officers approached…”
It is a multifaceted project that included: public forums on the criminalization of youth, the creation of Wanted posters, for things aren’t illegal but for which the police harass Black and Latino youth, a forensic sketch session as performance art where adults described specific youth to a composite sketch artist, and the posting of the posters in barbershops and other business in Harlem and the dialogues needed for the posting.
A more detailed description of the project with full resolution downloads of the Wanted posters, documentation photographs and videos of the sketching can be viewed at wanted-project.com

Wanted Fits Description

Wanted, installed in Harlem NY deli

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All work Creative Commons CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

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GRAFFITI AND OUTSIDER ART AT VENICE BIENNALE

GRAFFITI AND OUTSIDER ART AT VENICE BIENNALE
One highlight of this summer’s Venice Biennale, June 4-Nov. 27, 2011, is the general exhibition organized by Parkett contributing editor Bice Curiger, of which details are due next month. In the meantime, we can tell you that Venice is also hosting a show of both graffiti and outsider art, courtesy the American Folk Art Museum. Co-curators Martha Henry and Carlo McCormick have selected eight artists, all African Americans, who are each making a site-specific installation at the historic Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the Grand Canal -- a building whose façade was at one time covered with frescoes by Titian and Giorgione.
The four graffiti artists are Steven Ogburn (aka Blade), Chris Ellis (aka DAZE), Lin Felton (aka QUIK), and Aaron Goodstone (aka Sharp), and the four outsider artists are Lonnie Holley, Gregory Warmack (aka Mr. Imagination), Charlie Lucas (aka Tin Man)and Kevin Sampson. The project is sponsored by Benetton, which owns the palazzo, and is having it renovated by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas.

Kevin Blythe Sampson 3 Recent news storys on Kevin work (video Site)

 Click link to go to site that contains three recent videos of Kevins work
News 12 New jersey
Channel 4
Kevin Blythe Sampson

CWOW introduces a second generation of ‘The Newark School' that refines downtown’s seminal assemblage art 

 

Published: Sunday, February 20, 2011, 8:00 AM

By Dan Bischoff/For The Star-Ledger

 
Photo: Noelle Lorraine Williams, All things Considered....Please Stay

Courtesy of City Without Walls  

James A. Brown shows 32 drawings in a collage called "Paradoxical Realities,"small pages covered with sharp caricatures of clowns, monkeys, white and black people, and phrases such as "White Only," "I gotta racket for you" and the N-word.

There’s magic in the word “school” around here. The New York School is the name given to a small coterie of abstract artists in the late 1950s and ’60s who launched the first internationally respected original American art style, abstract expressionism. The New York School is famous now, but back in the day it was mocked or ignored — and not necessarily in that order.
So a new exhibition at City Without Walls and two other locations downtown, called the “Newark School,” is laying claim to historical vindication — what once happened to a circle of downtown artists across the river could, likely will, happen here, too. And this show is not devoted to the mostly African-American collage artists who put Newark on the map, aesthetically anyway, in the 1970s and ’80s, but to a new generation just coming of age today.
“What we call the ‘Newark School’ has an urban sensibility, an unorthodox approach to materials — assemblage has long been its dominant expression — and a quirky sense of humor,” says Alejandro Anreus, who co-curated the exhibition with Petrushka Bazin. “It has grown with time and changed from its origins among a relatively small group of artists who started combing through the abandoned ruins of the old city after the riots and white flight.
“What we hope to show is how a first generation of artists, people like Victor Davson (co-founder and head of Aljira, A Center for Contemporary Art), Willie Cole, Bisa Washington, Chakaia Booker and Kevin Sampson, among others, laid the groundwork, if you will, for a new generation of Newark artists today,” Anreus says.
James A. Brown’s work, Anreus continues, is a critical bridge between the two generations, bringing in Pop references, sound, video and elements of painting together to define that urban identity.
Brown is certainly the most confrontational personality in either generation, showing here 32 drawing/collages called “Paradoxical Realities,” small pages covered with sharp caricatures of clowns, monkeys, white and black people, and phrases such as “White Only,” “I gotta racket for you” and, of course, the N-word. Brown is an artist who holds the nettle of racism in his palm — and then makes a fist.
That’s not really what the first generation Anreus mentions did. They turned the detritus of the industrial city into African totems, fashioning clan shields out of scavenged steam irons (Willie Cole) or black scarecrows out of feathers and rattan (Bisa Washington), making the city bloom with brave cultural markers even as white eyes fled them. Inside that art was a dogged refusal to be either mocked or ignored that the new generation takes as a starting point, allowing them to be much more direct.
Most of the work here is by African-Americans, not surprisingly, since so is most of Newark’s population; there are a few white artists, an even smaller number of Hispanics, and no Asians. And while not all the work makes a direct reference to race in American culture, the politics by and large do seem inward-looking and identity based.
“What you need to realize is that the older generation of artists in the ‘Newark School’ all lived through a tumultuous period in American history,” says co-curator Bazin. “But the younger generation did not. They are more idea-driven in their art, though they share certain basic stylistic practices with the older artists, like using found objects. All of them are very into layering themes and materials.”
What you see in the younger artists is a similar aesthetic but pushed much farther in their media, she says. “An artist like Noelle Lorraine Williams gets at what I’m trying to say — she makes figural, sculptural work, but its full meaning is tied to a performance by the artist.”
The Jersey-City-born Williams makes dwarf-sized dolls, usually knitted out in neatly sewn white-vinyl suits; in this piece, “All Things Considered,” the figure rises on four insect-like legs and sports a bird-like mask. Williams’ work can be scary and antiseptic, and quite political in its way — this one includes a tiny figure of a big-bellied black woman on the floor, like a deflated balloon. But it’s her technical skill that draws the eye, the polished, sophisticated presentation that wows judges, not the transformation of raw materials, found or handmade.
Sculpture is the coming medium for many of the younger artists. Like Williams, J.C. Lenochan uses found objects, in his case books, with a similar aplomb. His series “The Melanin Chronicles” (a reference to the skin pigment that gives our skin its shade) includes stacks of real art books on a school desk, such as “Negro Art” or “Native Art,” supported by a much larger book marked “White Art” (the absurdity mocks all broad categorization). The child’s desk is, technically, a “found object” — it’s more than a pedestal, but not quite the subtly transformed objects shown by Willie Cole.
Some of the older generation, such as Jersey City’s Charlee Swanson, are included (here he shows a trademark composition made from salvaged barbed wire, his favorite medium), but this is very much a second generation show, and reaches further than you might expect. Ibrahim Ahmed III, for example, was born in Kuwait City, and his painting/collage compositions, done on old window sashes with the glass intact, are among the most lyrical images here, suggesting carved Arab shutters overlain by gestural splashes of paint.
It’s a very big school.
The Newark School
Where: City Without Walls, 6 Crawford St., Newark
When: Saturday through April 30. Open Thursday to Saturdays, noon to 6 p.m. Also open at two other venues: through April 29 at Seton Hall University Law School, 1 Newark Center, open daily from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.; and March 17 through April 6 at Arts High School, 550 Martin Luther King Blvd., by appointment.
How much: Free. For more information, call (973) 622-1188 or visit cwow.org.

Kevin says: Nero Fiddles while Newark New Jersey Burns

Nero fiddles while Rome burns, Newark is turning into a city of God

But who is Nero

Over the course of the past few days the whispering campaign has started

The layoff of police officers in Newark, has started the gossips and fear mongers

Tongue wagging.

I was talking to a friend who owns a alarm shop, and he said that he is getting more and more business

He told me that this city thugs…………. have begun testing the response time of the Newark police department

They have been pushing doors hard enough to set off the alarm

Then standing in the background they try to see how long it takes for the Police

To show up

This is a tech used though out the ages

But law enforcement responds with patrol techs that include

Being systematically unsystematic.

Therefore, they had better watch their asses

Having said that

Their they are

Teasing

Testing,

Tasting

At least

This is the gossip

I have had several people advise me

Not to walk around at night like

I used too

I hear rumors of three deaths a day,

Shooting, shooting

Of course this didn’t start with the police layoffs

The mood was set months ago by

No jobs, no programs no care

Whose fault is it?

Not the Cops,

Not the Mayors

not The governor

Rodney’s             …..

Lord knows it not the President Obama

Its not about fault, anyway

Its about bad economic times and a inner city

Impact well beyond the rest of the country

Anyway

I have felt the chill in the air….. long before it got cold

The have seen

The look of uncertainty on the faces of the working poor

For over a year

The violence of inaction

On the faces of business folks

Sitting idly by while no customers come in

To purchase or to order

I have seen it in the faces of family and friends

A despair

A desperation and longing

 

for  some happy days

Or ………………..just some good days

I refused to believe that a few laid off cops

Caused this up surge in crime

It’s the holidays

Christmas is a brutal time for any city

A formative time for crime

A constant cause of stomach aches for me

Depression for others

And most of all a time of robberies

I didn’t believe that laying off some cops

Would change a city this fast

But it has

It’s a pr war and the city is losing

Once people stop feeling safe,

Ok once people start feeling even less safe

Its lost already

More people retreat t inside and less eyes on watching

On the outside

I have a advantage

People don’t pay attention to old people like me

Unless they look closely

And see my dead eyed stare

As they figure out that I am too not only old

Too mean to play with

Anyway

While

Walking to the bus stop today

I walk to ferry street by the way

Today their were more people on the street

It was crowded on the street and barren in the stores

As I was walking

Some thing told me…………………. to turn my head

And just as I did

Two young guys riding double on a bike

All dressed in black

Whizzed past me

I mean Evel Knievel fast

As they did

They extended their arms and as they got near a street vender

A stall set up by the curb selling winter wears

Glove and hat s scarps and more

Where was I

Mean both of these guys flying past on this bike

Snatched a arm full of gloves, hats and belts

They didn’t slow down,

They didn’t hesitate

They didn’t miss a beat

The storeowner ran out of the coffer shop, located no more

Than ten feet away

But it happened so fast

Their was nothing to do………..but sigh

I mean it was like……………..watching one of those Japanese movies

Where assassins riding on motorcycles, Spray machine gun fire at their subject

And keep on trucking

It happened too fast to react

The shop owner and me, just looked at each other,

As we bent down to pick up and clean up the carnage

Nothing was said

Two old men looking at each other

Silently

I felt like we were both veterans of Normandy

Not a word was said

It didn’t have to be

I continued on and got on the number one bus

Which is lately has been coming much slower

The bus was crowded

The traffic was horrible

But it was warm

Suddenly the whole bus turned their heads to the left

I looked just out side my window

And saw that their was a crowd of kids fighting

Now I am talking about a Portuguese kid fighting a Latino kid

I mean these kids were no more than 10 years old, with a group of about 15 kids watching

The girls were the loudest egging the boys one

Well those two boys squared off and hooked the shit out of each other

My fellow occupants of the bus looked on quietly, reverently

No one said a word,

Except for one old black woman……………………who said

“That’s a damn shame”

We looked on as the kids  fled running in a pack, and almost knocking over

A group of Old Portuguese ladies walking gingerly further down on Ferry Street

Man I thought that in their minds

This must be a land that time should have forgot

Onward bus, every where I looked

People were walking just a little slower

I got to school and was glad for the respite

Then I remembered the police lay off

And thought to myself that some thing is going on bigger than

Just that

This must be happening on a lot of corners in America

It isn’t just a Newark problem

But a national problem

And it started to snow a bit

And I said to myself

This might help

Folks don’t like the cold

Technorati Tags: kevin blythe sampson,city of newark,newark new jersey,ferry st,ironbond,crime,newark police,layoffs,cory booker,obama

Check out the Mural on News 12 New jersey. The Mural by Kevin Blythe Sampson and Crew “The Cut” Hawkins St. Newark, City Murals,

City Murals Newark New Jersey….Progress and Pictures

Yes the Mural is moving forward
By this weekend we will have all of the elements in and then for the next few weeks we will paint and repaint refine and add what ever is needed to make it pop.
Their are a lot of people that come by daily to watch and encourage me and mine.

 
First off don't be scared..... the writing on the figure will be removed, James just needs this to begin with . ................
So don't panic
Having said that, in our rush to work with young people in the school system.
I always feel like we forget those young people who have not only survived, but prospered while living in Newark.
James is from the garden Spires, he went on to graduate from the Fashion Institute of tech. after attending arts high school in Newark.
James was Newark first real skateboarder, he was skateboarding in Newark and new york when he was 10 years old. Back in those days, people would call him names and actually throw rocks at him. What is a Black and puerto Rica doing on a skateboard.
How the world has flipped, many of the kids that James skateboarded with went on to become quite famous, most were in that Movie that came out a few years ago "kids".
James has worked in many of the top art galleries in new york, has been in movies and can call more than a few of the rich and famous his friends.
He is still in Newark, working as a tattoo artist after the collapse of the economy and is still painting up a storm. So it is fitting that he would draw the skateboarder on the he wall.

This is a picture of the main body of my mural team, from the last mural

Pictured are Cesar,Rich, my son in law (foreman) , James and James Girlfriend Veronica.
Cesar is about to graduate from the Art institute of New York in Just two weeks. He has worked with me since he was about 15 and is invaluable.
He is the child of immigrants of Peruvian-Colombian origin and is one of the most talented young artist around. I count his parent as some of my best friends. the struggled to keep this kid in school and should be applauded.
I always feel like
in organization's quest for grants and kids, that they always tend to focus on kids in trouble. Now that's OK, but all kids growing up in a urban environment have their share of trouble. And inst it just as hard to become some thing than to be nothing. Young people like Cesar, who are making it, who struggle to have the money to go to school stay in school and to stay focused...... are often over looked by local organizations.
what is it about America that seems to have a problem with education, as much as we profess to aspire to achieve. All of our kids deserved support and encouragement..............not just the ones active in gangs, or more.
I am not saying that all kids don't deserve a shot, just that in the rush for grants, and to show that we are helping the poor....we miss so many kids who have had just as hard of time and still prospered.

 

Having said that these are two high risk kids(Omar and Jesus) from North Newark, who worked with me on the Mural at the Hawkins street school. They walk, bus do any thing to get down to the mural site, they love doing murals and tell me that they feel like when they are making murals that they are doing some thing good, Doing some thing that they can feel proud about……….you cant beat that

 
The crane, drawn by my son in law rich

a graduate of Fit and a previous employee of the Central park conservancy in new york...........is coming out grand.
Rich is marrying my daughter is less than a month.
My daughter by the way is a graduate of Arts high school, which she attended with James
She is now the annual funds manager at the cooper union in new york, one of the greatest engineering architecture and art schools in the world.
These are Newark story's too........why aren't they being told................

--
The Aztecs mask are forming

Full view Cesar did the mask and the lettering


James skateboarder, again don't panic their will be no writing on the figure and i do know better than to use red in the cript  gangs territory...........

Kevin's Blog: The Most well Connected Poor Man In America
http://senzala-senzala.blogspot.com/

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