Allen Street
Hardware Cafe Outdoor Murals
245 Allen St., Buffalo, NY
Artists: Allen Street Street
Artists Collective
Completed: 2013
On this page, murals below:
 West elevation - "The Revolution Begins Now" ... By Chow Monstro ... Photo taken June 2014  West elevation - "The Revolution Begins Now" ... Photo taken June 2014 ... "The Revolution Begins Now" is a quote from Mark Goldman that refers to the mural project explained above. Each of the three hands holds a different type of painting tools. "Johnny Chow
is a musician and artist, using his music touring as a vehicle to allow
himself to plaster his art on walls and streets across the world. His
trademark Mickey
Skull
makes it into all of his artwork, and his Allen St. mural was no
exception (it can also be found in Allentown Burger Venture, and at
least one other place around Buffalo), having it as the backdrop for
his Soviet-era Communist Propaganda themed poster. Outstretched red
fists, instead of holding sieves or hammers, are seen holding street
art tools and materials. “The Revolution Begins Now,” another quote
from Mark Goldman, is seen at the bottom of the mural in Russian
typography." - Ben Allen, "The Revolution Begins Now” – Johnny Chow
& “a poor man’s Ruscha” – Ian de Beer – Hardware, 245 Allen"
- Scout,
February 18, 2016 (online February 2018)
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| South
elevation - "It's About Time" 2014 Photos  South elevation - "It's About Time" ... Quote from Mark Goldman ... Photo taken August 2014 |
| East elevation - Tribute to Tony Goldman 2014 Photos  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ... Photo taken June 2014 Details below:  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ... Photo taken June 2014  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman" ... Photo taken June 2014 ...  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ," by Patrick Gallo ... Photo taken June 2014 ... Note "Videos de Mexico, indicating that the photos are video covers. "See also: Making Freestyle Faces of Main Street video featuring Max Collins, et. al. (online June 2014)  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ... Photo taken June 2014  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ... Photo taken June 2014  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ... Photo taken June 2014 ... Quote from Tony Goldman  East elevation - "Tribute to Tony Goldman ... Photo taken June 2014 ... The quote is from Tony Goldman: "The work we do is not for the faint of heart" |
| East
elevation 2019 Photos See Buffalo Rising article below  Jan. 2019 photo  Jan. 2019 photo "Julian
Montague, part of the ASSA Collective, had a project where he made
books into “fake books” that looked like they were from the 50’s and
60’s. One of these books he named “Secondary Occupants”. He made this
piece into a mural on Hardware of which he gave the same name.
“ 'The graphic, in the context of the cover, is made to sort of represent the animals that live among us. I knew the other artists were much more oriented towards detail. I kinda wanted to do something that was set apart from that. This very simple illustration of these vague creatures that cut the building in half, that kind of changed the way you saw the side of the building, playing with sort of special elements. I thought that would kind of that would sort of break up everything else that was happening.' – Montague, in 'Streets of Art' " - Thomas Rogers, The Murals of Allen Street, 2016 (online July 1029)  Jan. 2019 photo ... Note artist signature in lower right (detailed below:)  Jan. 2019 photo ... N[icholas] Delfino  Jan. 2019 photo  Jan. 2019 photo  Jan. 2019 photo  Jan. 2019 photo |
North elevation - Iron Fireman 2014 Photos  North elevation: "Iron Fireman," by Chino ... Photo taken June 2014 ... The "Iron Fireman" mural was completed in honor of the Iron Fireman Co. of Milwaukee, WI. Many of the rust belt region's factories (historic and modern) are outfitted with Iron Fireman machinery. ... "The
concept of his work was based on a company called “The Iron Firemen,”
who install heaters and coolers and boilers in large industrial
buildings and factories. He wanted to capture the working class pride
of rust belt workers, and, in turn, Buffalo." - Ben Allen, Scout,
February 18, 2016 (online February 2018)
...
Details below: North elevation: "Iron Fireman," by Chino ... Photo taken June 2014 ... Chino: David Chino, from New York (trained at UB), member of the Allen Street Street Artists Collective  North elevation: "Iron Fireman," by Chino ... Photo taken June 2014  North elevation: "Iron Fireman," by Chino ... Photo taken June 2014 |
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Allen Street Street Artists Collective: David Chino, from New York (trained at UB); Septerhed, a leading street artist from Los Angeles; Patrick Gallo, Brooklyn-based, Buffalo-bred; Johnny Chow; Max Collins and Meg Corcoran. In addition, as a special tribute to the late, great Buffalo-born street artist Spain Rodriguez, Ian De Beer has been commissioned to paint a 2000+sq ft mural in honor of our home-grown street art pioneer. Dedicated to the work of Spain Rodriguez & Tony Goldman, The Allen St. Street Art Collective is an exposition of street artists from LA, NYC and Buffalo. The newly formed Allen St. Street Artists Collective is a project organized by Buffalo arts supporter, author and developer Mark Goldman to help transform the neighborhood and provide more opportunities for street artists to work legally. |
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Reprint The Murals of Allen Street By Ben Allen, Scout, February 18, 2016 (online February 2018) ... Allen Street, the heart of Allentown, Buffalo, NY, is conceivably the art and music capital of Buffalo. A vibrant and diverse community, it is home to many small art galleries, niche restaurants, live music, its own art festival, and even its own street art collective. This perfect cocoon of arts and culture grew colorful wings in the form of the Allentown murals. Many internationally well-known musicians can trace their success to playing at Allentown venues like Nietzsche’s, which also boasts hosting Buffalo’s longest running open mic night. It is only fitting that many nationally well-known street artists (including many talented local ones) painted the expressions of this microcosm of Buffalo culture. No blog about the Allen Street murals would be accurate without a mention of the Allen St. Street Art Collective (#ASSACollective), a group of street artists brought together by arts supporter, developer and curator Mark Goldman in 2013. Goldman wanted to “save” Allentown in a period just before the Buffalo Renaissance, where many empty storefronts reflected the economy and the exodus of young residents from Buffalo. Their handiwork can be found all over Allen St. Hardware Café, stretching well into College St., as well as the recognizable comic mural “Tribute to Spain Rodriguez” on the side of Holley Farm Market. While they weren’t the first or only street artists to paint murals in Allentown, they painted a good portion of them, and put a spotlight on Allen Street once again, a result of and adding to the Buffalo Renaissance, and inspiring more art and murals to come. |
| Buffalo historian, social
advocate and businessman Mark Goldmana
is planning to create a series of murals in Allentown, while dedicating
the effort to his late brother and public art visionary Tony Goldman.
In an email sent out to local press, Mark made clear that the
initiative would be guided by a professional acumen that would greatly
enhance the spectrum of art in the city. From Mark: "What my brother Tony demonstrated by his visionary curatorial skills is that street art, done at its best and most sophisticated level, has the power to transform and empower communities. At his internationally known wall at Houston and Bowery (photos, online June 2014) and on his fantastic, dream-like productions at the walls of Wynwood in Miami (photos, online June 2014), Tony, by sponsoring and supporting the world’s leading street artists, gave voice to a new generation of artists while at the same time bringing unbelievable energy and art to the streets of long-forsaken parts of two major American cities. His work, though cut-short by his untimely death on September 11th, 2012, will live on, however, not only in Soho and in Miami but on the streets of Buffalo New York where I, by creating the Allen Street Street Artists Collective, will attempt to do for the streets of Allentown what Tony’s work did for New York and Miami. It is as a tribute to him and to the people of Buffalo that I have undertaken this most challenging and important project. As Tony himself said: “The work that we do us not for the faint of heart." - Queenseyes, Allen Street Art Collective Buffalo Rising, Aug 27, 2013 (online May 2014) |
| See also: Video - Making "Freestyle Faces of Main Street" Artvoice on 07/31/2012 (online June 2014) |
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Excerpts
Buffalo, long behind the curve on street art, is finally catching up By Colin Dabkowski The Buffalo News, August 31, 2013 What is the difference between street art and graffiti? That decades-old debate is already tired to the point of irrelevance in progressive communities across North America, from the colorful warehouse walls of the Wynwood Art District in Miami to the Bushwick section of Brooklyn, now an international destination for street artists from around the world. But it is just beginning to play out in Buffalo on the walls of several buildings owned by developer Mark Goldman near the intersection of Allen and College streets. And it’s about time. By the time Allentown’s monthly gallery walk gets going Friday afternoon, those walls will be covered with a riotous collection of new murals and wheatpasted photographs, courtesy of the newly established Allen Street Artists Collective. They range from Ian DeBeer’s wonderful and eye-popping tribute to the late comics artist Spain Rodriguez on the side of the Holly Farms convenience store to a striking image of a hulking gorilla by local artist Max Collins, directly across College Street. The legal project, quickly organized by Goldman as a tribute to his late brother Tony, who died nearly a year ago, has changed the visual landscape of the neighborhood in an extraordinarily short time. You might think that a project as inspired and quickly executed as this would draw immediate praise from across the community, as similar projects have done in so many places where street artists have paved the way for neighborhood revivals. You would be wrong. Judging by the initial comments on my story about the project, you could easily come away with the impression that urban art terrorists had descended on Allentown armed with spray-paint cans and Marxist attitudes in an attempt to destroy the neighborhood and offend as many people as possible in the process. Buffalo, so artistically and culturally progressive in other ways, has been far behind the ball on this. But thanks to Goldman and his new crew of gifted street artists, it may finally be starting to catch up. |
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Reprint, with permission
Mural Watch: Artist Nicholas Delfino @ Hardware by Queenseyes Buffalo Spree, August 23, 2017 (online Jan. 2019) Moments ago I stopped over to Allen Street Hardware, to check out the latest Allentown mural underway. Artist Nicholas Delfino was busy trying his hand on the wall of the building, patio side. Upon arrival, I stood there for a short while, watching him work on his piece. Eventually, I spoke up, saying that I was there to update BRO readers on his progress. It turns out that we had met some time ago, which is a scenario that any Buffalonian can appreciate – the city is like a giant couch, right? I asked Nicholas about the work, and he told me that it was in dedication to Hardware’s live music scene, with inspiration from some of the art greats such as Édouard Manet and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec. The influences were readily apparent, and so was the artistic expertise that Nicholas was infusing into his work. This mural might not be the largest in town, but it packs a colorful punch that hangs with the best of them.   |
