All posts tagged: 1UP Crew

1UP Crew Magnum Opus In Wynwood, Miami

1UP Crew Magnum Opus In Wynwood, Miami

It was sunny that particular day in Wynwood, Miami in November of last year. The air was fresh and the humidity mercifully low. The sun rays weren’t piercing one’s shoulders. It was what winter in Miami is supposed to feel like. Dreamy.

That’s how we were feeling; dreamy – when we turned the corner and saw them. A motley crew of five or six men taking on a gargantuan wall in the less noisy part of Wynwood. The congenial 1UP Crew is the Berlin-based masters of the mixed message – here to vandalize, but politely. In this case of course the wall is completely legal, but associates of this notorious crew have been credited/blamed for leaving their marks on walls, trains, water tanks, elevators – anything that strikes their fancy in multiple cities across many continents.

1UP Crew. Detail. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The wall was still in progress that day with many more aerosol cans to go. We chatted, took photos, and reported on the encounter HERE. By the time we had to return to NYC, the wall wasn’t completed yet – so we returned to the winter paradise weeks later.

We were glad we pulled ourselves away from the ocean to see this in all its glory. Judging from the description below from one of the 1UP Crew members we think that this wall has it all.

“So it is kind of a movie planet, we don’t know which planet it is,” says one of the 1UP guys, “But it is a planet of the future – and there are all these Metro’s coming up out of the sand along with pyramids and street signs and figures… It’s growing now. I think that we have three more days to paint.”

Up to 13 artists joined in to complete it including members of 1UP Crew and members of the MSG Crew as well as Vlok, Giz, and Fuzi UV TPK crew from Paris.

1UP Crew. Detail. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew. Detail. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew. Detail. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA HOT LIST 2021: Books For Your Gift Giving

BSA HOT LIST 2021: Books For Your Gift Giving

It’s that time of the year again! BSA has been publishing our “Hot Lists” and best-of collections for more than 11 years every December.

Our interests and understanding and network of connections continued to spread far afield this year, and you probably can tell it just by the books we featured: stickers, illustration, murals, copyright law, a cross-country spraycation, anamorphic street installation, Hip-Hop photography, graffiti writers community, and a lockdown project that kept an artists sanity.

So here is a short list from 2021 that you may enjoy as well – just in case you would like to give them as gifts to family, friends, or even to yourself.

Leon Keer: “Break Glass In Case Of Lost Childhood”

From BSA:

One of the challenges in creating a book about anamorphic art is presenting images that tell the viewer that they are being tricked by perspective yet hold onto the magic that this unique art conjures in people who walk by it on the street.

In a way, that brass skeleton key that allows entry into another world is precisely what Dutch pop-surrealist artist Leon Keer has been seeking for decades to evoke in viewers’ heads and hearts. Some would argue he is preeminently such; certainly, he is the wizard whose work on walls and streets has triggered memories for thousands of children and ex-children of the fantastic worlds they have visited.

“You develop your senses all your life. Through what you experience, you involve affinities and aversions,” he says in his first comprehensive bound collection of gorgeous plates entitled In Case of Lost Childhood Break Glass. “Your memories shape the way you look at the world. When it comes to reflecting my thoughts, my memories are key. I needed to feel some kind of affection or remorse towards the object or situation I want to paint.”

Leon Keer. “Break Glass In Case Of Lost Childhood”. Published by Lannoo Publishers, Belgium, 2020

Street Art Today 2 by Bjorn Van Poucke: An Update on 50 “Most Relevant” Artists

From BSA:

A worthy companion to the original tome, Bjørn Van Poucke and Lanoo publishers extend the hitlist of favored muralists that he & Elise Luong began in Street art/ Today 1 – and the collection is updated perhaps with the perceived cultural capital many of these artists have garnered since then.

Replete with full-color plates from the artists’ own collections and garnished with brief overviews of their histories, creative background, and philosophies, the well-designed and modern layout functions as an introduction for those unfamiliar with the wide variety of artworks that are currently spread across city walls as large scale opus artworks in public space. As organizer and curator of The Crystal Ship mural festival in Oostende, Belgium, Mr. Van Poucke has had his pick of the litter and has showcased them during the late twenty-teens.

Street Art Today 2: The 50 most influential street artists working today. By Bjorn Van Poucke. Published by Lannoo Publishers, Belgium.

WAONE Opens Monochrome “Worlds Of Phantasmagoria”

From BSA:

A new illustrated tome capturing the black and white work of one-half of Ukraine’s mural painting duo Interesni Kazki welcomes you into the past wonders and future imaginings of a world framed in “Phantasmagoria.”

Full of monochromatic fantasies at least partially inspired by the worlds unleashed by Belgian inventor and physicist Étienne-Gaspard “Robertson” Robert, Waone’s own interior expanding fantascope of miss-appended demons, dragon slayers, riddle-speaking botanicals, and mythological heroes may borrow as deeply from his father’s Soviet natural science magazines that brimmed with hand-painted illustrations – which served as his education and entertainment as a child.

This book, the first of two volumes of graphic works, explores Waone’s move from the street into the studio, from full color into black and white, from aerosol and brush to etching, lithography, augmented reality, and sculpting.

“Worlds Of Phantasmagoria” By WAONE Interesni Kazki. Vol. 1. Graphic Works 2013-2020. Wawe Publishers.

“Closed (In) for Inventory”: FKDL Makes the Most of His Confinement, 10 Items at a Time

From BSA:

The world is slowly making movements toward the door as if to go outside and begin living again in a manner to which we had been accustomed before COVID made many of us become shut-ins. Parisian street artist FKDL was no exception, afraid for his health. However, he does have a very attractively feathered nest, so he made the best of his time creating.

“March 17, 2020, the unprecedented experience of confinement begins in France,” writes Camille Berthelot in the introduction to Closed (in) for Inventory, “Time that usually goes so fast turns into a space of freedom, and everyone has the leisure or the obligation to devote himself to the unexpected.”

FKDL quickly began a project daily, sorting and assembling 10 items and photographing them. He posted them to his Instagram by mid-day. Eventually, he saved the photographed compositions together and created this book.  

“My duty of tidying up and sorting out turned into a daily challenge. I dove like a child into the big toybox my apartment is to select and share my strange objects, my banalities, my memories, my creations, and those of others,” he writes. “I gather these treasures, valuables or not, in search of harmony of subject, forms, materials, and nuances.”

(EN)FERME POUR INVENTAIRE by Les Editions Franck Duval. Paris, France.

“Unsmashed” A Street Art Sticker “Field Guide”

From BSA:

The street sticker, be it ever so humble and diminutive, is profligate and sometimes even inspiring. An amalgamated scene that is anonymous, yet curiously stuck together, the organizers and sponsors of so-called sticker jams have been overwhelmed in recent years by thousands of participants.

Artist and organizer IWILLNOT has compiled, organized, archived, and preserved this collection as a ‘field guide,’ he says, and another artist named Cheer Up has laid out page after page. It is a global cross-sample from 60 countries and a thousand artists – a treasure trove of the witty, insightful, snotty, and sometimes antisocial street bards of the moment, seizing their moment to speak and mark territory.

UNSMASHED: A Street Art Sticker Field Guide. Compiled by IWILLNOT, Designed by Cheer Up. A Collection of 1,229 full color sticker designs by 1,000 artists from more than 60 countries. Published by IWLLNOT and Cheer Up. December 2020.

MOMO Leaves His “Parting Line”

From BSA:

A year after its close, we open the book on American street artist MOMO’s new book chronicling the exhibition “Parting Line.” Writing about and covering his work for 15 years or so, we’re always pleased to see where his path has led – never surprised but always pleased with his evolution of decoding the lines, textures, practices, serendipity of discoveries unearthed by this wandering interrogator.

Here, along the river Seine banks, we see his exhibition for the still young Hangar 107, the recently inaugurated Center For Contemporary Art in Rouen, France. While we think of his work in New York in the 2000s, we see the steady progression here – his cloud washes, raking patterns, his experimental, experiential zeal. This is the spirit of DIY that we first fell in love with, the lust for uncovering and the desire for making marks unlike others across the cityscape, quizzically folding and unfolding, pulling the string, drawing the line.

MOMO “Parting Line”. Hangar 107. Edited by Christian Omodeo – Le Grand Ju. Published by Hangar 107. Rouen, France. 2020.

“Born In The Bronx” Expanded: Joe Conzo’s Intuitive Eye on Early Hip Hop

From BSA:

Born in the Bronx: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop

Yes, Yes, Y’all, it’s been a decade since this volume, “Born in the Bronx,” was released. The images here by photographer Joe Conzo seem even more deeply soaked in the amber light of early Hip Hop culture from the late 1970s and early 80s, now taking on a deepened sense of the historical.

As the city and the original players of this story have evolved through the decades that followed the nascent Hip Hop era, it’s clearer than ever that this was nothing less than a full-force eruption, a revelation that cracked and shook and rocket-fueled an entire culture. Thanks to Conzo it was captured and preserved, not likely to be repeated.

Born in the Bronx is full of gems, insider observations, interviews, and personal hand-drawn artworks. One critical cornerstone is a timeline from Jeff Chang that begins in 1963 as the boastful but failed Urban Planner Robert Moses constructed the Cross Bronx Expressway – painfully destroying and displacing people and families, severing culturally significant, vibrant areas of the borough and producing a dangerous malaise.

BORN IN THE BRONX: A Visual Record of the Early Days of Hip Hop. Expanded edition published in 2020 by 1xRUN with support from ROCK THE BELLS & BEYOND THE STREETS. Detroit, MI. 2020.

Enrico Bonadio: Protecting Art in the Street

From BSA:

Enrico Bonadio is a contributor to BSA Writer’s Bench OpEd column, he is a Reader in Intellectual Property Law at City, University of London, and a street and graffiti art aficionado. His current research agenda focuses on the legal protection of non-conventional forms of creativity. He recently edited the Cambridge Handbook of Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti (Cambridge University Press 2019) and Non-Conventional Copyright – Do New and Atypical Works Deserve Protection? (Elgar 2018). He is currently working on his monograph Penetration of Copyright into Street Art and Graffiti Sub-Cultures (Brill, expected 2022).

Enrico is a Member of the Editorial Board of the NUART Journal, which publishes provocative and critical writings on a range of topics relating to street art practice and urban art cultures.

His academic research has been covered by CNN, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, BBC, Washington Post, The New York Times, Financial Times. Reuters, The Guardian, The Times, Independent, and The Conversation, amongst other media outlets.

Enrico’s current title is Protecting Art in the Street: A Guide to Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti (Dokument Press), with a foreword by Zephyr

A “Gentle People” Aussie Tour: Paint, Fun, and Run with 1UP & Olf

From BSA:

It’s almost sublimely subversive to publish your illegal graffiti escapades in a handsomely bound photo book with creamy paper stock and gauzy, professional photos. Positioned as a travelogue across the great Australian continent (complete with a hand-drawn map), the international troupe of sprayers named 1UP from Germany provides a genteel accounting of their expansive itinerary in a diary here for you, dear reader.

The stories are not without surprise and carefully touch on all the necessary road trip tropes you may wish for but cannot be assured of in a cross-country graffiti tale of skylarking and aesthetic destruction: angry rural police, security cameras, sleeping in rolled-up carpets, fancy receptions with Aperol Spritz, climbing over fences, sudden fire extinguisher tags, exploding paint cans, smoky wildfires, beaches, wallabies, long never-ending-stretches of road, the Sydney Harbor, an emergency-brake whole-car in Melbourne, and yes, a large kangaroo smashing into your car on a darkened country path.

PAINT, FUN, RUN, 1UP & OLF: GENTLE PEOPLE TOUR. 1UP CREW BERLIN. PRINTED AND BOUND IN GERMANY

“Nation Of Graffiti Artists” Opens Another Chapter of NYC Writer History

From BSA:

SCORPIO, BLOOD TEA, ALI, STAN 153, SAL 161, CLIFF 159. It was the mid to late 70s in New York and train writing was in its foundational stages, later to be referred to as legendary. For a modest crew of teenagers, it was the hypest stage you could be on, and going all city constructed many dreams of fame and recognition on the street.

Jack Pelsinger wanted to help shepherd these talents and energies into something they could develop into a future, maybe a profession. With a lease on a storefront from the city for a dollar in 1974, he made way for the Nation of Graffiti Artists (NOGA). An artists workshop and haven for a creative community that was regularly sidelined or overlooked, the author of this new volume, Chris Pape (acclaimed OG Freedom), says “Like moths drawn to a light, the kids showed up, hundreds of them.”

With extraordinary photos shot by Michael Lawrence, the book serves as a true document for the New York of that moment and opens doors to a chapter of graffiti history you may not even have known of until now.

NATION OF GRAFFITI ARTISTS, NYC. WRITTEN BY CHRIS PAPE WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY MICHAEL LAWRENCE. PUBLISHED BY BEYOND THE STREETS, 2021.

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A “Gentle People” Aussie Tour: Paint, Fun, and Run with 1UP & Olf

A “Gentle People” Aussie Tour: Paint, Fun, and Run with 1UP & Olf

It’s almost sublimely subversive to publish your illegal graffiti escapades in a handsomely bound photo book with creamy paper stock and gauzy, professional photos. Positioned as a travelogue across the great Australian continent (complete with a hand-drawn map), the international troupe of sprayers named 1UP from Germany provides a genteel accounting of their expansive itinerary in a diary here for you, dear reader.

They say they are embarking on what is cheekily described as the “Gentlemen’s Tour” in certain aerosol circles. The band of anonymous travelers accompanies their multi-city art exhibition tour at respectable art/café/gallery venues with a parallel expedition in mind: hitting all five commuter train systems of Australia – including Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane.

Jotted with aplomb, these adventures appear rather squirreled away between sometimes heroic, sometimes misty atmospheric photographs by OLF, – a gentle mix of storytelling that can be disarming in its dreamy aspirational quality. “Our imagination was running wild: what will happen in Australia? Kangaroos, parties, trains, bombing! What will the desert be like? How will we endure the many thousands of kilometers driving across the country?”

The stories are not without surprise and carefully touch on all the necessary road trip tropes you may wish for but cannot be assured of in a cross-country graffiti tale of skylarking and aesthetic destruction: angry rural police, security cameras, sleeping in rolled-up carpets, fancy receptions with Aperol Spritz, climbing over fences, sudden fire extinguisher tags, exploding paint cans, smoky wildfires, beaches, wallabies, long never-ending-stretches of road, the Sydney Harbor, an emergency-brake whole-car in Melbourne, and yes, a large kangaroo smashing into your car on a darkened country path.

One favorite tale includes the officer who grills them about painting a water tower and who protects the little lady from his swear words so he can awaken the slippery conscience inside these trapped vandals.

Then he told our female companion to put her hands over her ears and screamed at us two blokes, “Fucking grow up!”

By the end of the slim journal told in the voice of the royal “we”, you are satisfied that they have traveled further than they ever imagined, and you went with them. They may have indeed matured a little, you’ll tell yourself, but hopefully, they have not grown up. Thankfully, not enough to assure that there will not be a sequel adventure trip in another country sooner than later.

PAINT, FUN, RUN, 1UP & OLF: GENTLE PEOPLE TOUR. 1UP CREW BERLIN. PRINTED AND BOUND IN GERMANY

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1UP Crew Brings Discipline to Wynwood Wall in Miami

1UP Crew Brings Discipline to Wynwood Wall in Miami

“We tried this time to organize like really fucking German way,” says one of the 7 anonymous graffiti writers from Kreuzberg. Positions on this massive 10 x 60 meter wall in Wynwood are spread far and wide, and it is astounding that 1UP has accomplished this much in only two days.

1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti crews may typically work fast and furious if the painting is illegal, but when Mana Public Arts gives you one of their largest and somewhat infamous walls during Art Week Miami 2021, the level of discipline and planning ratchets up another level.

1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“The crew worked 14-15 hours a day,” one tells us. “We paint into the night. Actually we have really super good street lights here. We also have some tripod lights, ’ he says as he recounts the list of requirements for materials they submitted to organizers before they could start this moonscape of the future.  “Lights, three lifts, paints in organized colors, brushes, ladders.”

The massive letters are rising from the sand (a nod to the beach town locale), and within the next three days those letters will probably be filled with tags and tributes to crews abroad and local – “Like the MSG over there is from Abstrk, for example,” says one of the 1Uppers about the guests who are joining in to bring the full roster to about 13 artists.

1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Finok (VLOK), our friend from Brazil, is here,” he starts, “GIZ from New York, Fuzi UV TPK crew from Paris…” Naturally, some of these guys are in town for other events – Fuzi for example is in his own show opening this week at the Museum of Graffiti just a couple of blocks from here entitled “DEFACED” featuring a 360 degree fully painted immersive room with his signature figures and faces.

But right now, all eyes are on 1UPs massive wall in Wynwood.

“So it is kind of a movie planet, we don’t know which planet it is,” says one of the 1UP guys, “But it is a planet of the future – and there are all these Metro’s coming up out of the sand along with pyramids and street signs and figures… It’s growing now. I think that we have three more days to paint.”

1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Collaboration with Mana Public Arts. Wynwood, Miami 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 01.31.21

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.31.21

A few weeks ago we saw a populist uprising invade one of this culture’s most sacrosanct public institutions out of anger and disillusionment, among other factors; generally a repudiation of what was perceived as a corrupt cabal who ignores the will of the people. Within days the news was full of stories of the State tracking down and cracking down on the dangerous insurgents and tracing their words and actions. Alliances were suddenly severed, fingers were wildly pointed, threats were issued, straw men swiftly collapsed. An historic quake, the tremulous ground is still shifting.

This week we witnessed another social-media-fueled populist uprising that is shaking the opaquely vexing market of stock trading. Again we hear that this is an unwelcome ambush – one that is fanning the class rift between self-styled ivy-league “elites” and everyday workers (or out-of-workers) who radically barge into a space they are not welcomed in. With access to the wheel, seemingly moments later, Robin Hood puts on the brakes for traders, stemming a hemorrhage for the wealthy. Wall Street warriors are at once calling for regulations on an industry they have steadily de-regulated for decades. The financial and rhetorical upheavals apply great strain to the very foundations again. Everyone is incredulous.

We’re don’t intend to oversimplify here, but you have to admit there appear to be parallels in these stories.

In the end, we see the ripples through street art. Actually, sometimes we see the antecedents to events like these as well – but we may not recognize them as such until later. One cryptic prophet and cultural critic from the street art world, Don Leicht, passed away this week after a very trying illness. His original use of the digitalized Invader predates the high profile street artist of the same name; his comic/cutting assessments of modern hypocrisy echoed across walls of New York as early as the inception of the video game itself. A long time trusted friend and creative collaborator with street artist John Fekner, Leicht was quickly memorialized with this new installation on the street (below).

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, Bastard Bot, Below Key, CRKSHNK, De Grupo, Don Leicht, Duke A. Barnstable, Ethan Minsker, Freedom, John Fekner, Maks Art World, Nick Walker, No Sleep, and Young Samo.

A tribute for artist Don Leicht, conceived by Adrian Wilson.
In a collaboration with John Fekner, Wilson used his original stencils. The project was coordinated by Wayne Rada and Ray Rosa at the L.I.S.A. Project in Manhattan.
John Fekner. In Memoriam. Don Leicht. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reposted from John Fekner:

“Don Leicht (October 12th, 1946-January 22nd, 2021)Don was my fierce older Libra brother, colleague and collaborator throughout almost fifty years of friendship. Don was a passionate and devout painter who played by his own Bronx cool rules; whether as a teacher in the public school system in the South Bronx, or in his hand-written personal writings or hand-cut metal, plastic or cardboard sculptural works, all visually charged with a deep meaning and social purpose. His imagery could spark a laugh or a smile; but were intended to cause a reaction within a viewer’s heart, mind and soul.

Don was a steadfast bridge to carry me through my sometimes unwieldy behavior. He would provide answers with care, understanding and positivity; whether it was in person or through a 10-minute or hour phone call. Within our conversation (and with many of his friends), he would always repeat the message as to be sure that you ‘got the message’ and would act accordingly. Don always had a simple soothing solution: ‘Get one thing done by the end of the day.’

Don was preceded in death by his wife Annie; and he will be deeply missed by his two sons, Anthony and Nicky, who helped their father throughout his overwhelming health issues, especially in this past year.

Walk on dear friend. We celebrate your life work!”

Another street memorial to radio and television talk show host Larry King by Maks Art World. Larry King 1933 – 2021 “Those who have succeeded at anything and don’t mention luck are kidding themselves. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Freedom is back! Actually Freedom never left. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bernie and friends…(photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bastard Bot combines the death of rapper MF Doom, who fashioned myriad masks, with the Bernie Inauguration meme. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Pandemic Twist! Bastard Bot (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ethan Minsker (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Urban Russian Doll NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Below Key (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Trump with a big black dot blotting his visage. McConnell peering out through the splatter to see a raging fire. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CRKSHNK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nick Walker (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No Sleep (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Young Samo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)
We wish Duke A. Barnstable good luck with his New Year Resolutions… (photo © Jaime Rojo)
De Grupo likes Pele. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Film Friday: 06.26.29

BSA Film Friday: 06.26.29

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. 1UP in Napoli “This is Not Art Anymore” Parts 1 & 2
2. FLW_IN – Open Letter

BSA Special Feature: 1UP in Napoli “This is Not Art Anymore” Parts 1 & 2

There is spraycation, and then there is the 1UP Family Reunion, which was recently in Napoli. Members came from far and wide to see one another and to spread the familial gospel in aerosol. There were rounds of cards, bowls of pasta, storytelling, backslapping, and some family fights about perceived slights, or girls. But as far as most dysfunctional families and their reunions go, this one was pretty tame. Yeah, right.

“The architecture is chaotic and in the midst of it we are just walking around. Roll ups, roll downs. Partying hard in the streets.”

“There would be a lot less love in my life without the graffiti, without One United Power.”

FLW_IN – Open Letter

Musician Joseph Gabriel Harris AKA FLW-IN speaks from the heart in an “Open Letter” about the issues of systemic racism and being a black man in a hostile society that is now openly talking and examining. An American now living in Barcelona, he has an inside/outside perspective that can help bridge gaps in understanding. Of note, he also leans on the talents of a number of street artists/ mural artists and the Black Walls Movement for background art in this piece.

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BSA Images Of The Week: 05.31.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 70

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.31.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 70

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

The streets are alive with street art and pointed political protest. NYC citizens are joining the cities and communities across the country who are demonstrating furiously over the newest examples of systemic, latent, and explicit racism and police brutality that have characterized our society for so long. Of course it’s just one fire that has been waiting to spark as economic conditions run parallel with social inequity. In the face of sky-high unemployment, unpaid rents, increasing food insecurity, a “rescue” program that gave the store to the rich, and the ever-growing gap between hyper-rich and the chronically poor/ newly poor, the summer here looks like it could be torrid.

We won’t need or see a large number of street art festivals for a while. This show of politically/socially inspired artworks and text messages is probably just warming up on the streets and you can imagine that artists won’t find it appealing to be sitting on panels and pontificating about the genesis of mark-making, the original roots of punk anarchy, or how they are incorporating being woke or inter-sectionalism into their “street practice”. The creative class, however you define it, has suffered a huge blow and many are out of work, and patience. Based on what we have been witnessing here these past few weeks, you may predict that the more aesthetically inclined will seize the opportunity to make art for the city, on the city.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, Adam Fujita, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Billy Barnacles, Combo-CK, Denis Ouch, Indecline, Jason Naylor, Lunge Box, Matt Siren, Mr. Toll, and Woof Original.

Adam Fujita (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Almost Over Keep Smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A literal manifestation of conversations on the street. This campaign addressing the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement is answered with spray painted x’s and attempts to rip down the posters. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Matt Siren (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Matt Siren (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A very pink Superman has a roll of toilet paper on his chest. Denis Ouch (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lunge Box (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HOPE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Indecline (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Billy Barnacles (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Billy Barnacles (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Should patriarchy in the Catholic church be replaced by matriarchy? Is it a matter of empowerment for women to assume the highest positions of power in religious orders? Or have those establishments become discredited too much already? The French street artist Combo CK wheatpasted these holy women in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Woof Original (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Who you lookin’ at? Mr. Toll, surely you aren’t saying that Brooklyn is ugly, are you? (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Spring 2020. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.29.20 / Dispatch From Isolation #7

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.29.20 / Dispatch From Isolation #7

Highest claims for unemployment in our history. The best day on the Stock Market since 1933. People won’t get relief from the government for weeks and many live paycheck to paycheck. Typically one might predict these are conditions for a domino effect that sets in motion a revolution, if you’ve read history books. Already there are talks about mass rent strikes for April.

Meanwhile, our neighborhood in Brooklyn is in the code red zone on the maps for Covid-19 outbreak in New York; so you’ll forgive us if we don’t go outside to capture fresh new Street Art for a while. We did have to leave once this week for a friend’s medical emergency (not the virus, thankfully) but we’re back on self-quarantine. Much respect to all medical personnel all across the world.

So, as long as we’re able, we’re going to publish work from the street. But please do send us what you see, what you capture – maybe out the window. But don’t put yourself at risk, or others.

We have to flatten this curve and it will take us all to do it.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring DeGrupo, 1UP Crew, Gris, Hellon Wheels, Jeff Kowalsky, Laszlo, LOOK, Joan Aguilo, Seco, The Brujo, and Yiannis Bellis.

Joan Aguilo in Madrid, Spain. (photo © Ricardo Hernandez)
Vidom + Look in Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vidom + Look in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hellon Wheels (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Brujo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew in Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist at the marquee at the Magic Bag theater in Ferndale, MI.(photo © Jeff Kowalsky/AFP via Getty Images)
DeGrupo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gris in Berlin. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yiannis Bellis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SECO (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Laszlo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Shabat prayers in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. March 2020. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.22.20

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.22.20

We’re off the street now, the BSA team, as New York City goes into lock-down mode in the face of the global Covid19 virus pandemic.

We know that our medical infrastructure will be overwhelmed, because it was broken apart systematically into a thousand tiny pieces years ago. Unlike centralized medical care that many other countries have, it has been only available to some of us and usually at a great cost that outstrips our abilities to provide for our families.

Now, as New York faces the prospect of becoming completely overwhelmed for months, we see that even basic testing, medical supplies, beds, and personnel cannot be pulled together fast enough through a decentralized profit-based system. This isn’t political – this is life. Unfortunately this is also death.

So if we do get sick, we’re not even thinking of going to a hospital. If some of our older friends and relatives get sick, we’re hoping that there will be enough money and resources to serve their needs. But the signs are not good here in the country with the highest GDP in the world. Makes you wish there was Medicare for All right?

So, as long as we’re able, we’re going to publish work from the street. But for the first time since we began publishing 12 years ago, the new shots on the street will also need to come from you – since we are quarantined. Please send us what you see, what you capture – maybe out the window. But don’t put yourself at risk, or others.

We have to flatten this curve and it will take us all to do it.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, 907, Fours, Kuma, Pork, Pøbel, Poi Everywhere, Raf Mata Art, Smells, Stres, The Act of Love, The Postman Art, and Zexor.

We begin with this educational and artful animation by Juan Delcan & Valentina Izaguirre

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The power of social distancing
Stres (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Smells / Punk / 907 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pork (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zexor for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pøbel addition to an old existing piece in his hood in Bryne, Norway. (photo © Tor Staale Moen)
Pøbel addition to an old existing piece in his hood in Bryne, Norway. (photo © Tor Staale Moen)
1UP Crew (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Poi Everywhere (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Raf Mata (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fours (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Postman Art (photo © Jaime Rojo)
KUMA (photo © Jaime Rojo)
The Act Of Love (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. March 2020. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 03.01.20

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.01.20

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Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

The New York State Plastic Bag Ban is in effect March 1! That’s today.

This is troublesome because New Yorkers have started to use their single use plastic grocery bags to wrap their feet, hands, and entire heads before going outside to protect them from the Coronavirus.

Just kidding, of course. It’s not like people are freaking out about the Bag Ban or anything.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 1Up Crew, Blanca Romero, Captain Eyeliner, Flash, Frank Ape, M Quan, Makh21, Neon Savage, Neckface, Praxis, Pure Genius, RAW, Shiny, The Brujo, Theo, Yiannis Bellis.

The Brujo…loves NY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
…and Neckface will be back in 10 minutes… (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Makh21 in Berlin. Is this an homage to Rammellzee’s Garbage Gods? Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Speaking of garbage…RAW. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Pure Genius (photo © Jaime Rojo)
M Quan (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Neon Savage (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Theo in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Contemporary paleontology with an unidentified artist. It looks like a Shin Shin wheat-paste but the the colors are hand-painted. (photo Jaime Rojo)
YES STAND OUT!!! Frank Ape (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SHINY in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1UP Crew, Flash, Xrils, and other vandals in NYC… (photo © Jaime Rojo)
I’m a Scorpio. What’s your sign? Captain Eyeliner (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ad take over by an unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lucky 13 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bianca Romero (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Yiannis Bellis tribute to Syrian children. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. February 2020. Abobe the Atlantic Ocean. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images of the Week 02.23.20 – Berlin Special

BSA Images of the Week 02.23.20 – Berlin Special

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Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

People came together at Brandenburg Gate in Berlin to remember the victims of a racist attack in Hanau this week, vowing to stem the tide of right-wing movements in Germany and elsewhere. The more you see the remnants of the ugly past rearing their heads, the more determined we will all have to be to unify and celebrate our differences and similarities with equal enthusiasm.

Another promising sign of unity and community for us was the opening for the showcase of works donated by artists to benefit Daniel Weissbach aka DTAGNO aka COST88 in Berlin on Friday night. The musical/art-making performances were enervating and stirring – and there were so many people that the crowd on the sidewalk outnumbered the crowd in the gallery area. Please support – The online auction starts tonight and is refreshed with a new collection of art pieces donated by the old skool and new in a hybrid of genres. Please check out www.getwelldaniel.de

We also saw this incredibly well designed and curated show called WALLS at Urban Spree – with powerhouse names in graffiti, street art, contemporary art, and even a couple of pieces of antiquity, all examining the implications and ramifications of figurative and literal walls. The essays in the small catalogue further explore. More on this show later here but please go see it if you can.

One big find this week was this amazing collaboration of pieces on a wall with OS Gemeos and various other dignitaries atop an art supply store in a rapidly gentrifying neighborhood. Hope you enjoy the show here from our Director of Photography, Jaime Rojo.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 1Up Crew, Berlinsky, Black Land, Daze, ISE.THR, Kevle, Marina Zumi, Mira, Mode2, Os Gemeos, Shine, TFB, The Birds, VLK, WENU, and Zabou.

Os Gemeos, 1UP Crew, ISE.THR, WENU, The Birds The Birds. Detail. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Os Gemeos, 1UP Crew, ISE.THR, WENU, The Birds The Birds. Detail. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Os Gemeos, 1UP Crew, ISE.THR, WENU, The Birds The Birds. Detail. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Os Gemeos, 1UP Crew, ISE.THR, WENU, The Birds The Birds. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mira. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
TFB – VLK. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Marina Zumi. Urban Spree. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
BERLINSKY. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist. Detail. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SHINE. Urban Spree. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artists. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Kevle. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Zabou. Urban Spree. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mode2 collaboration with Daze. Urban Spree. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Black Land. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
We were told that there was a fox living in the gardens right outside of our hotel…we never saw her but we found one in the bathrooms at Urban Spree. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
We love this piece but can’t completely read it. Help, please. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Here’s the spirit in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A selection of artists that we don’t recognize in Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artists. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artists. Berlin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Film Friday: 02.07.20

BSA Film Friday: 02.07.20

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. 1Up X Hand Mixed – “Love is Love”
2. WK Interact x Kobe Bryant
3. Bordalo II in Studio

BSA Special Feature: 1Up X Hand Mixed – “Love is Love”

Many old school original graff dudes kicked gay guys onto the tracks in the 1970s and 80s and 90s and 00s and…. They may have been rebels against oppression, but they could still use their own power and prejudice to keep people down.

Somewhere during that time LGBTQ people began to vociferate for social and legal equality in Western democracies, and their braver straight allies also began to fight alongside of them, and begrudgingly the graff scene began to let these folks into the mix. But homophobia, like racism, is still present in places where the dominant culture embraces homo/transphobia and has held tight to its exclusionary claims to privilege and power – including in the subcultures of graffiti, hip-hop, tattoo, punk, skateboarding, and street art.

So it’s still remarkable when a graffiti crew stands in the face of all of it and says “Love is Love” and uses its One United Power to recognize the rights of everyone, regardless of their particular crush or kink. Granted, 1UP and Hand Mixed employee rebellion and vandalism to make the point, and no one is going to hire any of these guys/gals to work on the UN Security Council because of their diplomacy, but life is messy, yo. And viewer comments on this video on Instagram and Youtube prove that change is still incremental.

WK Interact x Kobe Bryant

In the wake of the unfortunate death of basketball star Kobe Bryant, we’re reminded of that campaign Street Artist WK Interact did with him for a brand a few years ago. It was a very good merging of styles, with their intersection at the corner of movement and strategically employed power. Our condolences to his family and extended network of friends.

Bordalo II in Studio

A full interview with street sculptor Bordalo II last fall on Camões TV. Also a great opportunity for you to practice Portuguese.

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