With 700 languages spoken in these five boroughs, New York is a nerve center with a vast network of connections to the rest of the world. So, if you are feeling it, we’re probably feeling it too. This week, the Middle East conflict, more radioactive than ever, it would seem, is sending people into the streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn – with heightened emotions stoked by a media machine that loves to see us fight. Now, as we see continued bombings by Isreal outside of their country, as surrounding countries begin banging their war drums, and as the US sits in the sea nearby, more than one commentator on the news and in your local deli, laundromat, bookstore or bar are wondering aloud if a hot war can spread across the region, or further.
Closer to home, we see that street art has not reflected the events directly, but somehow, the anxiety that has been raised will be invariably internalized and aerosolized. We’ll keep an eye out for the messages and sentiments, which are far from unanimous.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Shepard Fairey, Mike Makatron, A Lucky Rabbit, Phetus88, Muebon, Ideal, Jurse, Skitl, Thobekk, Go4art, Polar Bear, Mr. ENT, ICU463, and Where’s the Water.
64% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, China and Russia are buddying up, BRICs countries are looking for new members, and the Bankers in your life are again looking toward their gilded escape bunkers.
We are transfixed by the first indicted US president, and gloating about having a system of democracy and justice. Now he is positioning himself as an “outsider,” a martyr. A billionaire outsider. We’re just waiting for these crowds outside Trump Tower to materialize. Where are they? Honestly, Fifth Avenue is more interested in the Easter Bonnet Parade that is coming.
But it’s a circus on the national tabloid news, which is unfortunately all of the news now. Our best minds are being entertained by 24 hour sports channels, Netflix and Tic Toc, and it’s not an accident. People are chided into fighting each other over trans-woke-snowflake-abortion-race-laptop-AR15-centered-drag-readings. Look! A squirrel!
Meanwhile, the daffodils are blooming everywhere in anticipation of Easter Week. People were cramming subways, buses, and sidewalks yesterday because of the warm sunny spring weather – and Smorgasborg opened this weekend in Brooklyn. NYTimes calls it “the Woodstock of eating,” due to its variety of incredible food choices – but of course, you can have just as much fun with a bag of chips or a slice of pizza sitting on a stoop watching the parade of New Yorkers march/sashay/stride by.
We had a great time at the Bronx Museum yesterday, catching the John Ahearn/ Rigoberto Torres retrospective and seeing both the artists in person during a panel discussion with artist Abigail DeVille – with fans rushing the stage for an autographed exhibition book afterward. These guys have championed everyday New Yorkers through their painted sculptures for four decades. It is revelatory and heartwarming to see this very large collection of works never shown together before. Make sure to check out “Swagger and Tenderness: The South Bronx Portraits” until April 30.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Stikman, Zimer, Subway Doodle, A Lucky Rabbit, Qzar, Optimo NYC, Sekt, AMMO, CEYNYC, Toeflop, Early Riser NYC, Julia Cocuzza, and Miki Mu.
We pause to thank Mother Nature and the graffiti gods for blessing New York with an embarrassment of riches this summer. Amidst the swirling skirts and thunder thighs and sins of youthful exuberance, we are counting the beat of the street and the creative spirit that runs wild with or without permission.
Movie recommendation: Summer of Soulis the inspirational movie of this season, placed in thecontext of 1969 and timeless in its cultural resonance to 2021.
It’s been a hammering of the psyche again this week, as national and international news fixates on unvaccinated Covid patients flooding hospitals everywhere. Few mention that the price of vaccinations is gently bumping upward; a new subscription you didn’t realize you bought into like Netflix. Need a booster?
The art on the streets is banging onward, though, with new kids bringing the jokes, and the feels. OGs are up as well, including some people who have been on the street since we went off the gold standard – 50 years ago this week.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A Lucky Rabbit, Acne, Bastard Bot, Cern, Chris RWK, David Puck, Jason Naylor, Michael De Feo, Sac Six, The Daffodil Project, We The People, Acne, Bastard Bot, M, Praxis, A Very Nice, Say No Sleep, Damien Mitchell, Sonni, Bisco Smith, NYCM2, BK Foxx, 2MUCH, Hink, Smile.
An unusual worldwide quarantine requires unusual solutions. Because the virus is preventing us all from going to a gallery show at the moment, it’s been fun to see artists, museums, galleries, gallerists and organizers devise new ways for us to interact with each other and art. One you can participate in Sunday is called “What’s In the Box?”.
You might also call it “Who’s On the Box.” Seriously, Duster? Al Diaz? Terrible TKID170? Zimad? That would make you sit up and pay attention.
Duster ua (photo courtesy of 3Alx)
Organized by Adam Levine (@3Alxnyc) this is a project whose central conceit is a secret – and you have to get inside a virtual space to find it out. In addition the works are all completed on a box which may contain an object of “precious metals and jewels”. We’re curious!
“I’ve assembled close to 30 artists – some old school legends, some NYC staples, West coast players and some fresh faces,” he tells us. “They have all come together and each artist created one unique and original design on a custom wooden box sent to them to decorate that will house something very special.”
Really?
Sacsix (photo courtesy of 3Alx)
“When I say ‘special’ I’m not kidding. This is something that you guys or anybody else on the planet for that matter has never ever seen before.” Those are big promises. Hell, you’re just stuck on this couch for the next forever, so text PIPEBOX to 31996 to get on the VIP list.
Show starts Sunday at 4:20pm in New York, so that’s 21:20 in London and 22:20 in Paris Sunday night. Have fun and support many artists whose work you know from serious well regarded old school writers to Street Art new kids on the scene.
Sf Grajales (photo courtesy of 3Alx)
Participants include Al Diaz, A Lucky Rabbit, AJ Lavilla, AngelOnce, Baston, Belowkey, Captain Eyeliner, City Kitty, Dirt Cobain, Duster ua, EASY, Free Humanity, GoopMassta, Stephanie Grajales, Jeff Henriquez, Nite Owl, Sara O’Connor, The Postman, Raddington Falls, Reggie Warlock, Renda Writer, Sacsix, Vincent Scala, Savior Elmundo, Terrible TKID170, TRAP.if, Turtlecaps, Uncutt, Zero Productivity, Zimad.
Goop Massta (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Raddington Falls (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Zimad Art (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Joz and Easy (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Free Humanity (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Vincent Scala (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Savior El Mundo (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Aj Lavilla (photo courtesy of 3Alx)A Lucky Rabbit (photo courtesy of 3Alx)The Postman Art (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Terrible Kid (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Captain Eyeliner (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Angel Once (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Naito Oru (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Baston714 (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Below Key (photo courtesy of 3Alx)Sara Connor (photo courtesy of 3Alx)
What’s in the Box? Tune in to the live stream Sunday, 4.19.20 at 4:20 P.M. EST. The only way in, is to text the word:“PIPEBOX” to 31996 to get on the V.I.P. launch list and receive the live link. Video production by Silvertuna Studios
The ebullient brilliance of the street is what lifts us up in this time of disarray and misdirection. Our collective cognitive dissonance, fed by hired mercenary disinformationists of the oligarchy and their corporate armies, tells us that truth is foggy, or even a lie. No wonder the preponderance of surrealists who are spraying the streets these days. They are merely a reflection of this war on our minds, a war by the way, that you and we are not winning.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week from Miami, and this time featuring A Lucky Rabbit, Bunny M, Caratoes, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, Insomniak Crew, Koalas of NYC, Lauren YS, The London Police, W3r3on3, and Zio Ziegler.
The fires of summer still burn, as do their romances. Yet September 1 brings news of the racing teams of muscular autumn artworld horses just beyond the next valley, thundering their way through the streets of New York to the galleries and museums. Among the cries, “Hail Henry!” “Hail JR!” “Hail Roger!”
And the streets! As inspiring and perplexing and exciting as ever, providing the ultimate exhibition.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Dee Dee, Hugh Brisman, Hysterical Men, Jazz Guetta, City Kitty, Steve The Bum, De Grupo, Frank Ape, Gianni Lee, Never, Kendra Yee, Ruo Han Wang, Jazz Guetta, Nicholas Di Constanzo, Myth, Terry Urban, A Lucky Rabbit, Molly Crabapple, Ms Saffaa, and Vy.
Back when we began this BSA journey we used to tell people we felt lucky to be in New York and to witness the birth of a new Street Art movement here and to walk the streets discovering people, fashion, architecture, and Street Art like Walt Whitman taking a walk through Leaves of Grass.
Happily we’re still saying it, with total conviction.
Serendipity happens again here as we discover a new painter, a new style of painting on the street. It recalls the illustrations on commercial greeting cards and children’s story books from the 1960s and 1970s perhaps; a blushing bashful blundering bushel of big-eyed bliss bisecting the blond head of a slumbering beauty. It’s all Bambi and Mary Poppins up in here.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
