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Justin Bua was raised in the urban jungle of New York. He navigated this world not by fighting, but my dancing, acting, and painting a way out. When I arrive at Bua's studio, nestled above a coffee ship in the industrial district of Downtown, L.A., he immediately give me a tour. (more) |
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Justin Bua is an artist making a mark on popular culture with his unique style of distorted urban realism, single-handedly spearheading a new genre of art. (more) |
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People are going to see stuff my mom has never even seen," said Justin Bua, the painter whose representations of urban life and hip hoparchetypes have made him the No. 1 selling artist on college campuses in the United States. (more) |
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THE musician in the painting ''The Bass Player'' has long, languid arms wrapped around his instrument, his eyes half-closed. He seems lost in his own world. So at times does the portrait's artist, Justin Bua, whose characters are from a world far away in place and time: the pregentrified streets of the Upper West Side of Manhattan in the 1970s and '80s. (more) |
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Justin Bua is a top selling poster artist in the United States and Canada with his urban, graffiti-esque style. He has worked commercially with Atlantic Records, New Deal skateboards, Sony Music and The Nike Corporation. (more) |
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When people meet Justin Bua, the artist behind paintings and psters celebrating New York hip-hop culture of the '70s and '80s, they usually get around to asking this questions: "What are you?" Bua's answer? "New Yorker." (more) |
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By painting hip-hop period pieces, he has effectively become one of the culture's primary historians. He's captured hip-hop like Walker Evans or Norman Rockwell captured their generation. Bua calls his style "distorted urban realism." (more) |
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Some things - like peanut butter and jelly - just go tegether. But what's the result of combining a street kid with raw, artistic talent and classical techniques in drawing and oainting? Popular poster artist, Justin BUA. (more) |
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From getting his start as a b-boy (break dancing boy) in the rugged streets of New York to becoming a renowned artist and USC art teacher, Justin Bua has made his style known to the world, using urban elements and blunt realism to reveal a unique, multicultural interpretation of life. (more) |
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Bubbling up from the street-smart subcultures of surfing, hip-hop and hot-rodding, a new art form has emerged whose practitioners are as familiar with skateboard icon Tony Hawk and Krylon cans as they are with Picasso and paintbrushes. (more) |
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Justin BUA was born in New York when hip-hop was just a "burgeoning culture", but he didn't become a rapper, DJ or producer growing up. Instead he took hold of the culture in a unique way. Through art he created his own time capsules for future generations to learn about the historical birth of hip-hop and the New York street culture.(more) |
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Bua, who was in town to promote his new book, "The Beat of Urban Art," explained the parallels between hip-hop and jazz thusly: "straight up, they're both cool ... they're both movements birthed on the street, they're both very improvisational arts, and they're both really from the people who don't have the money. (more) |
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"The underground culture of New York City is what I was influenced by," Bua says. "The B-boys and the DJs and the MCs… I was there at the inception of the culture. And I knew I was in the middle of something special." (more) |
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If you look at Justin Bua maybe there's a familiarity. Maybe there's something in his face that looks quiet and mysterious. Maybe he looks a little magician David Blaine. He could, however, just be another guy you wouldn't stop twice to look at or even really think about. (more) |
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His Stylized images have meaning and focus. They're funky, visceral and reflect the underlying energy of the culture he grew up in. These were chaotic, vital times and Bua's art captures the emotions, the flavor, the mood of the crazy, frenzied world of murderers, pimps and social misfits – complicated people who were nice to him and he could see both sides – the dark and the light. (more) |
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crowded setting of "The Subway" is undeniably characteristic of the city's most notorious mode of transportation. The nostalgia present in Bua's work is not only in celebration of happy memories from the streets, but it also recognizes the more eccentric parts of his childhood. (more) |
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Justin Bua was in the middle of it all...the birth of hip-hop in NY. The bonafide bboy's experiences as a youth during the 80s uprise of hip-hop coupled with his classical education in drawing built the foundation of his urban steez. (more) |
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Bua grew up in Manhattan during the so-called "hip-hop renaissance," where break-dancers, graffiti artists and poets were the most celebrated people on the streets.(more) |
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BUA: The city undulated with greys of towering cement, while the traffic grumbled with its own beat. The streets seemed to have a life of their own. There was almost a rhythm of Hip Hop that echoed throughout the architecture. Goethe said that architecture is "frozen music." (more) |
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