Similar to the icon of Ron English’s Temper Tot, this week’s lead image by street artist Kreau is a stencil of a maladjusted, rambunctious cowboy, a schoolyard bully perhaps; with no emotional maturity, only an insidious unchecked rage. Armchair psychologists might assess that this boy’s behavior stems from excessive criticism and harsh punishment from his father, leading to low self-esteem, anger, and rebellion. This lack of positive reinforcement and emotional neglect, where the father is physically present but emotionally absent, can result in feelings of abandonment and acting out for attention and validation.
Take it a step further, and you may overlay this assessment with America’s rebellion and ultimate declaration of independence from its paternal figure, King George III. That father, who famously battled mental illness and was known for his strained relationship with George IV, is described by some historians as being “heavily critical of his son”. This mirroring of historical relationships might be reflected in these petulant street art characters, perhaps subconsciously commenting on the role of the US on the world stage as voiced by international critics. A cowboy with a high-powered automatic in each hand. If street art reflects the society it is in, and we state unequivocally that it does, how does one interpret the stance and emotional/psychological standing of the various characters on today’s public walls? (see references at end)
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring El Hase, Carnivorous Flora, Kreau, AIC, Kalcium Fortified, Surf Video, Buke One, Win Slow, Necios, Angela Alonso, TOKE, Vnice World, Sensational, and DE$.
Remember the heyday of street art lists? People are still compiling them. From top 10 cities in the US for Street Art, to tourist-tilted lists of Street Art Destinations, to the Best street art experiences for 2024. The muscle behind most of the big events these days is a value-driven investment by city councils, branding opportunities for corporations or thinly-veiled vehicles for private gallerists to champion artists on their roster.
The more organic works, the less decorative murals can be found in community-organized campaigns. The free-form, unbridled, un-bossed, and un-bought spirit of organic street art survives, and it often takes chances politically or stylistically. Presented without handlers, communicating directly to you, it may be vexing, thrilling, educational, inspirational, or miss the mark. It’s all there and probably in your city – if you keep your eyes and ears open.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring City Kitty, Homesick, Sara Lynne-Leo, Muebon, Miki Mu, Cody James, Humble, Underhill Walls, Manuel Alejandro, Mihfofa, Brittney Sprice, Cuadrosa, Felipe Umbral, and Hello the Mushroom.
It’s a long hot, steamy, jungle-like holiday weekend in New York. The city marked Independence Day with fireworks on the Hudson River, barbecues in the park, speeches to honor the day, and tanning on Brighton Beach and screaming on the rollercoaster at Coney Island. New York, no matter where you go on the street, always feels full of possibilities.
Possible robberies, that is! “New York is back, baby,” says a commenter on Reddit, discussing people getting robbed of luxury watches while sitting outside on the sidewalk and having cocktails in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At least the New York Times didn’t say ‘eatery’ in their latest article provoking class hatred; we hate it when they do that. It’s called a restaurant.
In addition, Williamsburg did not just suddenly sprout some crime. Ask graffiti writers like KET who grew up there in the 1970s and gangs ran the streets. When the artists moved into Williamsburg at the turn of the century, a serial killer was living under the bridge. Danger may be a matter of one’s perception, we opine. Ask the folks chased out of the neighborhood by the violence of sky-high, unreachable rents, $40 entrees at restaurants, and women in sports bras jogging behind Dior baby strollers. Inquire about feelings of danger to the senior citizens joining the long food line on South 4th Street at Los Sures Food Pantry. It’s about a block away from the new MOXY hotel with the rooftop restaurant and bar and the enormous D*Face mural on the side.
In the category of BEEF, can we please stop the Kendrick/Drake beef? The “They Not Like Us” video dropped on Friday is compelling, true, and Kendrick is one of the best right now but beef is never good, in graffiti or rap or on TikTok or in the Middle East. We need voices of calm and reason and efforts to de-escalate. In other role model news elsewhere on the music spectrum, Ozzy Osborne delivers “Crack Cocaine” in his new video with Paris Jackson, featuring famed graffiti writer Kelly “RISK” Graval prominently wielding the cans on a street wall.
New York graffiti and street art persist and sometimes surprise, and occasionally, they have the last word. As usual, we’re keeping our eyes open.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Dain, Toofly, Praxis, Mike Makatron, Eternal Possessions, Qzar, Timothy Goodman, Miki Mu, Warz, Tom Boy NYC, Red Half Tone, and Preacher Art.
There is so much more to say, but gotta run. New York streets are full of art to see.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Pear, Qzar, XSM, Max Grax, HOPES, Zoot, Gen Molloy, Ana Fish, SYE5, Miss 17, Kerrie Hanna, Shlumper, Batola, Crespo, KM9, ELNO, WOM Collective, LOURS, VANE MG, and Lucie Flyn.
We were looking at the description and lineup of this new Punk exhibit and thinking about how it extends to the early and current mural/street art scene at play today… Opine, as one may, about the roots of this scene and our rigorous academic attempts at qualitative mastery, but the average street artists cares nary a whit what you think, for the most part. It isn’t just our anti-intellectual age; it may simply be antithetical to what street art was ever intended to be. There are those who construct gates to enclose a favored few to make pronouncements about what street art is or isn’t, but the artists who produce work on the streets may not bother climbing the fence to get in their club.
It’s the ironic, rebellious, spirit of D.I.Y. that makes street art and graffiti most attractive for us —not its ability to make money for some nor burnish the reputation of another but to draw us together. The open access to self-expression is so alluring, and it is a testament to how truly innovative artists know how to seize a moment, transform a space, begin a dialogue, or weigh in on one. Create camps? Attempt to consolidate power? It is a folly. Why reject a corrupted and unfair pecking order only to reconstruct one? As we see more anniversary shows heralding punk and its origins, we recall that it was the liberty promised that was so appealing and the destruction of corrupt institutions that was most needed. The aesthetics may have become commodified. It’s spirit, never.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Alice Pasquini, Homesick, Judith Supine, Mike King, WERC, Pussy Power, Kane, Kone, Chris Haven, 6147, SLASH FTR, Geraluz, Coes Sneakers, AIC, and Skribblz.
There is a lot of activity on the street right now, and despite the rain in Florida and the upcoming Heat Dome we’re promised here in the Northeast, the graffiti and Street Art never stop. Here, we mix some pieces from Belfast with Brooklyn. See if you can tell regional differences in style.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Veng RWK, Praxia VGZ, Below Key, Fanakapan, Christina Angelina, Reme821, BK Ackler, WRDSMTH, KVLR, Staylo, CHAZ, Visual Graficalia, NEVOC, Voyder, REGOR, AMC, ESTEME, and Rob Hilken.
When surveying the current crop of street art here and in other cities around the world, we wonder where the political will has gone – the one that seemed much more confrontational and conflicted in earlier years of the modern movement. The once fiery, in-your-face spirit seems to have mellowed and become pleasant and pleasing. One theory that pops up regularly when surmising why there is a lack of conviction in street messaging, even as wars break out and the wealth gap widens everywhere you look, is that there is no such thing as anonymity as there once was. Privacy has almost completely been allowed by the citizenry to be eroded.
With a default Digital ID following your every movement and transaction, the means for someone to triangulate a particular data point are so sophisticated that if you speak out or actually challenge the status quo, you will probably be traced. Hell, any Twitter storm can produce an army of motivated detective volunteers to doxx someone who has offended social media “norms,” and we use that term loosely.
Your 13-year-old nephew Lucas can easily unearth someone’s personal details without breaking a sweat, and he doesn’t even have a laptop. 20 years ago, a graffiti or street artist could assume some modicum of anonymity, but in practice, the current crop uses the streets as a marketing extension of their Instagram account, an expression of their online personas, studiously and clearly spraying @ tags and websites on their street pieces to make sure you can find them.
So if you are pissed off at the system, you probably think twice before you put it on the streets these days unless it is a screed sprayed with a fire extinguisher that is largely untraceable – or something like that. In the case of whoever sprayed “Rishi Sunak is a Rat-Faced C*nt” on a wall, you may even inspire a punk ditty.* For many right now, activism is not even the point.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring David Puck, Shok1, Epic Uno, Par, Kitsune Jolene, Smug One, Trasher, V. Ballentine, Inker, P.T., King57, FUP One, and Cope Doz.
How’s your summer been so far? Many people say that Memorial Day unofficially begins Summer, so this week was the first one. Indeed! Baseball, soccer, and kickball are in the park, and movies or cocktails are on the roof. Lifeguards are on the beach, and kids are throwing up on the Cyclone at Coney Island or throwing frisbees on Central Park grass. The air in some neighborhoods smells like lilac bushes, urine, french fries, marijuana, or aerosol paint. Or all of it at once. When it all swirls around you, it is a heady mix. Cute girls in short shorts and cute boys on skateboards may not fall in love given these circumstances, but they might!
This week, 45 was found guilty on 34 counts in court. We New Yorkers, who have known him for years, are unsurprised.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Specter, Alice Pasquini, Degrupo, Optimo NYC, Enzo, Nite Owl, Miki Mu, NYC Kush Co., Klonism, Max Grax, Friz, KMG, Agent Decay, Jare, SYE5, Benny Cruz.
The first time artist Specter painted this memorial for Yusuf Hawkins in Brooklyn was in 2011. He’s restored it and added more to the environment of the mural, two times since then. This is the second restoration that he did in the past few weeks.
And welcome to Belfast, Northern Ireland, where history and modernity converge in its mural narratives and lively streets, telling stories of resilience, an evolving culture, and a pensive optimism. As street art observers, our journey through Belfast’s neighborhoods has been eye-opening. The murals here are not just art; they reflect the city’s tumultuous past, vibrant present, and hopeful future. Belfast’s predominantly Victorian architecture is a testament to the city’s industrious heritage, particularly its shipbuilding legacy linked to the RMS Titanic. Still, some of the kids are rocking new attitudes, and a sizeable multi-disciplinary artist community is making new spaces for exploration.
The punk movement, which provided a rebellious soundtrack during the Troubles, has left a lasting mark on the city’s sonic legacy. Today, local musicians, DJs, and electronic artists draw inspiration from traditional instrumentation and this era of lucid experimentation, performing live in clubs and bars. There is an unmistakable convivial, welcoming atmosphere in Belfast’s pubs and a raucous laughter that shakes your ribs in many a cluster of revelers out for the night. We also noticed a gentle generosity – from its bakeries and cheesemongers to checkout clerks and museum provosts and park bench poets.
For an old shipbuilding city wracked by civil strife, this feels like a young city, eager to move forward while honoring the sacrifices made during the Troubles. Some of the murals here encapsulate perhaps a different spirit, blending poignant tributes, more muted political statements, and a willful optimism amidst the general confusion that is now plaguing most of the Western world.
So here’s this week’s interview with the street, featuring ROA, Conor Harrington, BustArt, MTO, Asbestos, Dan Kitchener, Kitsune Jolene, Aches, Evoke, KFIVEMFU, Studio Giftig, and Annatomix.
This week, BSA visited Dublin to see the city, talk to people, and check out the local street art scene, and we’ve brought you a few images to share what we discovered. Dublin is a polished and technologically advanced city, home to the European headquarters of major corporations like Google, Meta, and LinkedIn. The Grand Canal Docks area, often referred to as “Silicon Docks,” is known for its concentration of multinational tech companies and financial institutions, and there appears to be a rapacious appetite for new buildings, with cranes gliding slowly above head in a silent skyline dance. Dublin also appears as fertile ground for political discourse, erudition, and civic engagement. It often hosts debates, protests, and rallies on issues from ‘The Troubles’, an influx of immigration, and greater global concerns. Upon our arrival from Belfast, we were immediately struck by a six-story-high banner along the canal proclaiming “Ceasefire now” on Liberty Hall in bold, clear lettering.
Similarly, Ireland’s most prestigious university, Trinity College, has been the focus of intense and sustained protests by its student body over its financial ties with Israel. On Wednesday, the university announced its decision to divest fully in response to the ongoing decimation of Gaza. In the realm of street art and graffiti, these political sentiments often permeate the works displayed in street art pieces, although graffiti writers typically reserve their most impressive efforts to create sick burners of high quality – and you’ll want to check out places like Smithfield and Richmond Streets.
Dublin is clean, green, and cosmopolitan, albeit not unnecessarily flashy. Even so, there were some sketchy moments in a couple of neighborhoods that boasted casinos and more than average shares of people who appeared to struggle with addiction. The city boasts a strong café and pub culture and has a genuinely diverse population, with Spanish, Arabic, Hindi, Romanian, and Polish commonly heard on the streets and in the lush parks full of lovers, players, statues, and magpies. Literary giants like James Joyce, Samuel Beckett, and W.B. Yeats are frequently depicted on banners and backpacks on university campuses and outside museums. The music scene appears to lean toward the big names and sounds on the global stage, distinguished by a strong respect for traditional Irish music and folk music, no doubt shaped and formed in the storytelling by groups like the Chieftains and of course, the Dubliners.
We also had the opportunity to visit Francis Bacon’s studio, thanks to a tip from Hooked Blog’s Mark Rigney. This visit to see and listen to recordings of interviews with him at Hugh Lane Gallery reaffirmed that there is no unanimity in the holy space called the artists’ studio. While some artists thrive in chaos and clutter, others prefer a nearly clinical sense of order. Here, we got a greater sense of how Bacon’s Irish heritage and formative years in Dublin influenced his bold, emotionally raw imagery and unique embrace of distortion.
As a balancing act, while we explored the streets, we viewed impressive works by the Dublin-based street artist Asbestos, known for his sharp critiques of social policy and politics. Seeing Asbestos’s work firsthand underscored his art’s scale and emotional depth, reflecting his introspective approach during these times of widespread uncertainty and change.
Spring is astoundingly colorful on the street in New York this year, with many new graffiti writers and street artists joining the existing throng and bringing their skills to a wall near you. At times, it appears now that we have as many artists as tourists in New York, but if they roll a suitcase, it is probably full of cans.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ron English, Homesick, Basquiat, Huetek, Biggie Smalls, Hops Art, Akira Toriyama, Blanca Romero, 2DX, Nike Kasio, Gouch NKC, Theme KED, Maximilian Romero, EA EO, Browine, Sintez One, FSG Park, and Jaek El Diablo.
“It’s the only time of the year when New York City smells good,” says your cranky Uncle Jaime about the flowers and blossoms everywhere as he stretches on the couch with his second cup of coffee and gazes out the window at the sky. Outside, there is a battle between the diverse vocal repertoires and mimicry of mockingbirds singing from branches, utility poles, and wires – and the little league fans squealing, exhorting, and shouting with joy from the bleachers every time a smartly uniformed child whacks a ball with the wooden bat and trundles up the path to first base.
We are constantly amazed by the new street art that is popping up in the boroughs – on construction fencing around empty lots, on doorways in industrial zones, on chain-link fences under bridges, on old telephone booths, lamp posts, crumbling brick facades, and the backs of street signs. With the New York spring, there are tulips popping up from the grassy patches everywhere – even those random 3-foot-long rectangles surrounded by concrete and piled with dog poop.
There are blooms on the trees – the Kwanzan and Yoshino cherry trees are in bloom at the Brooklyn and Bronx Botanical Gardens, in Central Park in Manhattan, in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, in the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor in Staten Island. Spring also brings us a new crop of fresh aerosol missives, wheat-pasted characters, stenciled witticisms, radical opinions, and secret yearnings. Together with the weathered and the worn street art from previous seasons, it’s an ongoing visual cacophony.
And now, here are images from our ongoing conversation with the street, this week, including: Captain Eyeliner, Tats Cru, Stikki Peaches, Eternal Possessions, Jappy Agoncillo, One Rad Latina, Tom Bob NYC, Travis, BBW.BUND.COP, Lunar YCP, NAY 381, and Kristian Boyum (visiting from Norway).
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
