Whether by design or organically grown, we have always gravitated to what we call “Magnet Walls” – those graffiti/Street Art gardens in a town or city that are an open canvas for artists to get up, try out new ideas, experiment with materials, implement a strategy. These walls play an important role in the ecosystem of what we call Street Art or Urban Art. They’re not always explicitly illegal because their reputation draws 10s or 100s of artists to pile on year after year without interruption. The building owners could be allowing the expressions to take place for charitable reasons, more likely just neglect.

The role of these magnet walls is important …and so we are happy to see that while some walls have ceased to exist in some New York neighborhoods in recent years, mostly due to the voracious appetite of developers and the dulling effects of gentrification – “the shack” in Bushwick, the candy factory in Soho to mention just two of them – others are flourishing elsewhere. Today we have many images from a block known as the Great Wall of Savas in Queens.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring: Aito Katazaki, A Cool55, Amanda Marie, bunnyM, Dirt Cobain, Hektad, JerkFace, Key Detail, Martian Code Art, Pat Perry, Stikman, Thrashbird, What Will You Leave Behind, and WhisBe.

Top image: Thrashbird at The Great Wall of Savas. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thrashbird at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thrashbird at The Great Wall of Savas. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thrashbird at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thrashbird & WhisBe collab at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pat Perry for Art in Ad Places. “Drop Bones Not Bombs”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jerkface (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Amanda Marie (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Saint Francis reaching out to an Angry Bird – as he would, because he’s a saint. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Cool55 at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Cool55 at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The artist’s name is What Will You Leave Behind. “Email me your heart”(photo © Jaime Rojo)

A small poem in the corner reads, “Email me your heart. Then in the morning while we watch the sun rise, kneeling down by the river, the blood drips freely as we wash our hands clean”

bunnyM (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aito Kitazaki at The Great Wall of Favas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aito Kitazaki for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Key Detail for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martian Code Art and Hektad at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dirt Cobain at The Great Wall of Savas. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Queens, NYC. April 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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