We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family for your support in 2024. Picked by our followers, these photos are the heavily circulated and “liked” selections of the year – shot by our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo. We’re sharing a new one every day to celebrate all our good times together, our hope for the future, and our love for the street. Happy Holidays Everyone!
This floating plastic bag, like so many, appears mysteriously in the margins of a neighborhood, buffeted by warm, urine-soaked breezes and ice-cream truck melodies and small clouds of industrial pollution stirred by large trucks rumbling past. When artists transform everyday objects and elevate them, we reconsider them. In the case of plastic bags like these, they have been illegal for stores to use here for a few years, deemed bad for the environment. Perhaps the amorphous air-lifted ghost merits a twisted sense of nostalgia for the humble handle-bagged holder of three tins of cat food, a bright yellow bottle of dishwashing liquid, and a lottery card.
Roller-tagged above it are the Homesick boys, once residents of Williamsburg with their mom; now chased away by the surging powers of gentrification that herald luxury brands like Chanel to the neighborhood. Many who grew up in that Brooklyn neighborhood will never live in again because they can’t afford to, a displacement that makes one long for anything evocative of another era, homesick for a time that has past, often before your eyes.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Set your clocks back one hour today.
A chilly but warm NYC welcome to the 50,000+ marathon runners from around the globe as they journey through the dirty, potholed streets of all five boroughs in this rudely friendly, alluring, and romantically gritty city. We’ve already forgotten that we lost the World Series this week and are concentrating instead on welcoming our haplessly plodding runners on the street—with raucous cheers in Queens, impromptu bands in Brooklyn, and dancing in the Bronx, the city becomes a big block party today.
Make sure to check out our graffiti and street art on the way!
Also, early voting is in effect in NYC. The new president of the US will be selected, possibly by you.
Here’s our weekly conversation with the street, this week featuring: City Kitty, Homesick, CRKSHNK, Degrupo, Modomatic, Sticker Maul, Leon Keer, Dot Dot Dot, Raddington Falls, D7606, SacSix, Muebon, Werds, RX Skulls, C3, EXR, OSK, She Posse, Outersource, Semz, Silkmoth, Glenn Ligon, Isa De Prez, and All Over Grey.
“Although different views and opinions are important for a healthy society, we can experience a greater increase in polarization in recent decades, which severely limits bridging or interactions.
In this work I would like to express that we are all connected despite differences in opinion. I see communication with positive sentiment and respect as a good carrier for social connection.” -Leon Keer
“The idea for the original Statue of Liberty was conceived in 1865, when the French historian and abolitionist Édouard de Laboulaye proposed a monument to commemorate the upcoming centennial of U.S. independence (1876), the perseverance of American democracy and the liberation of the nation’s slaves
Liberty holds a torch above her head with her right hand, and in her left-hand carries a tabula ansata inscribed JULY IV MDCCLXXVI (July 4, 1776, in Roman numerals), the date of the U.S. Declaration of Independence. With her left foot, she steps on a broken chain and shackle commemorating the national abolition of slavery following the American Civil War. After its dedication, the statue became an icon of freedom being subsequently seen as a symbol of welcome to immigrants arriving by sea.
In Dotdotdot’s version, just a few days before the upcoming election, much of whose campaign has been marred by racist and anti-immigrant rhetoric, the torch is replaced by a distress flare. A warning to us all.” ~ Nuart Festival, Stavanger, Norway
The beat on the street is washed in autumn sunlight, cooler nights, and traffic jams. If you hear cars honking, you know its New York in the fall. Street artists and graffiti writers are still hard at work, or play, and we like to capture their work here, before it is gone.
And here we go boldly into the streets of New York to find new stuff from: Shepard Fairey, C215, Obey, Homesick, Queen Andrea, Steve the Bum, Boom, Pumpkin, Exiled, Stytte, Delude, Fader, and Aise.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week and to fall—officially here as of this morning in New York and the rest of the Northern Hemisphere. The leaves are starting to pop with yellows, people are breaking out the wool turtlenecks and corduroy way too early, and somewhere under the bleachers at football games, a few sneaky kisses are being stolen. Meanwhile, students are finally settling into the grind of the school year. But flip it for the folks south of the Equator, where spring’s about to bloom. In both hemispheres, whether it’s fall or spring, artists and vandals will continue to tag the overlooked corners and forgotten walls, staking their claim in public space.
This week in the BSA book review department, we’re diving into a new scholastic tome from one of the few brilliant graffiti scholars out there—Rafael Schacter. You might remember him from his global street art compendium, his curated show ‘Mapping the City’ at Somerset House in London (yes, the one that included people like Brad Downey, Swoon, and Eltono), or even his early work at the Tate back in ’08 with artists on the façade of the museum like Faile, Blu, and Os Gemeos. His latest book, Monumental Graffiti: Tracing Public Art and Resistance in the City (MIT Press), just landed on our doorstep. We’re eyeing it with both curiosity and caution as he’s making some bold connections between monuments and graffiti—connections that are peculiar on their face. He’s digging into a secondary or even third-tier definition of ‘monument,’ so who knows, it might all come together in the end. But this is the same guy who gave us ‘intramural’ graffiti about a decade ago… and, that term hasn’t hit the streets, as it were.
Re: intramural – In his curatorial work Schacter sometimes argues that street art occupies a unique space that is neither fully embraced by institutional frameworks (like museums and galleries, the “inside”) nor entirely outside them (like illegal, unsanctioned art in public spaces, the “outside”). Intramural, extramural. Makes total sense. But aside with the confusion caused by the word ‘mural’ buried inside it, there is perhaps a ‘branding’ problem with the word here in the US. It sounds too much like ‘intramural sports,’ which were always introduced at grade school for both boys and girls to play together to foster team-building skills – right around the age when girls typically think boys are ‘gross,’ and boys think girls are ‘weird.’ So it feels awkward and frightful! I feel like my voice is cracking and I’m growing a very light mustache when I hear it. Let’s see how this graffiti/monument thing works out. If anyone can do it, Rafael can!
And here we go boldly into the streets of New York and Berlin this week with new extramural stuff from: Judith Supine, Crash, 1UP Crew, Homesick, Nespoon, Hera, Phetus, Atomik, Qzar, Wild West, Drew Kane, and Seileise.
The city of New York is hot, clammy, steamy, and caked with grime. It smells like fish, marijuana, musty A/C exhaust, curry, piss, fresh-cut grass, melting pavement, aerosol spray, watermelon, cucumbers, mint, fried zeppole, Axe body spray, laundromat detergent, and pizza. With this oppressive heat, the ‘crazy’ dial seemed turned up – some people on the street appeared to be delusional with baked brains and insufficient hydration. In its chaotic way, the street never stops moving. People are herded onto our crowded, damp, and sticky subway system with its pumping kinetic energy and no coherent schedule, our new airy modern electric tandem buses with chilly automatic voices, our electric bikes and scooters of every design with big puffy tires or small bagel sized ones, our statement cars and bloated SUVs with dark windows, our swerving and sleek skateboards, and our white box trucks slaughtered with wild aerosol sprayed styles and family business-named signage like Dragon Good Luck Delight and Bayridge Appliance Repair.
Graffiti and street art keep popping up and accompany New Yorkers to their next stoop sale, pickle ball game, house party, dinner party, or dog’s birthday party. If this visual feast disappeared, we would all be confused, a piece of our cultural DNA excised. For us, this is the proper visual language of New York, certainly better than most of the new architecture popping up like middle fingers, a rash of uninspiring rectangles formed by mediocrity, their design potential sapped by greed and spreadsheets.
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring City Kitty, Chris RWK, Homesick, Degrupo, Kooky Spook, Muebon, Epic Uno, RX Skulls, MCA, EXR, CKONE, RZB, BILX, JEMZ, Joshua Montes, and Soupy.
Societal norms and entertainment ethics change, sometimes radically, as time progresses. It would be fantastic if you could determine which era is more shocking and if its behaviors indicate a golden age or a declining one. Just look at New York history at Coney Island, which may seem barbaric and beyond the pale by today’s standards, alongside oddly similar occurrences in contemporary Western society.
On Friday night, during the opening ceremonies of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, X was all atwitter with self-proclaimed Christians expressing outrage over a small segment of the three-and-a-half-hour show that featured a few well-known French drag performers doing a campy modern homage to The Last Supper paintings of the Renaissance. Decades of austerity budgets have starved our education system, and it shows, as many were scandalized by this portrayal of ‘Sodom and Gomorrah’ and other ‘disgusting’ scenes referencing French history, such as the French Revolution, the Enlightenment, World War I and II, the Industrial Revolution, and the Cultural Renaissance. And that depiction of Marie Antoinette holding her head under her arm? There’s a story behind that.
And here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Aiko, Adam Fujita, Homesick, Degrupo, Optimo NYC, Werds, DEK2DX, Lee Holin, Snoeman, NAY 281, Bogus, EXR, Uwont, Jacob Thomas, Chido, Smooth, Kasio, Wild West, JDI, and FAQ COP.
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.
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.
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.
To BSA’s Muslim brothers and sisters, we hope your Ramadan has been fulfilling as it draws to a close this Tuesday. Amid the spiritual calm, Friday’s earthquake and its aftershocks have certainly rattled us in New York and across the Northeast—a rare tremor that would barely raise an eyebrow in LA, given their familiarity with the earth’s whims. But for us, a 4.8 is no small shake! Adding to our week of natural spectacles, Monday brings an eclipse, inviting us all to don those dope glasses and gaze skyward as a celestial dance sweeps across the continent. It’s been quite a lineup: an earthquake to kick off the weekend, a celestial blackout to start the week. What’s next on the cosmic agenda? A swarm of locusts? Let’s hope the universe has checked off its list of surprises for now.
We start this week’s collection with a new text piece of unknown origin but one that strikes at the heart of life here in 2024 for many. Could this be an advertisement for the new album by Future and Metro Boomin? A spectrum of emotions and styles, the new collection is from two guys whose collaborative efforts have been making significant waves in the music industry for a half decade. Debuting at number 1, as an album “We Don’t Trust You” has been described as a monumental success, showcasing the synergy between Future’s distinctive rap style and Metro Boomin’s innovative production. The out of context graffiti message, “We Don’t Trust You,” captures a poignant irony: while distrust might seem like a safeguard, history shows that a society where trust is deeply eroded becomes fertile ground for manipulation by autocrats and tyrants.
And now, here are images from our ongoing conversation with the street, this week, including: Praxis, Homesick, Lexi Bella, Modomatic, Danielle Mastrion, Mort Art, Claw Money, Jorit, Isabelle Ewing, Paolo Tolentino, JG, Marthalicia Matarrita, Gia, and 1RL.
Happy St. Patricks Day to all our Irish brethren and sisteren (?) — unless you are unlucky to be a gaylesbitrans Irish resident of Staten Island: their official Saint Patty parade bans all of those other types. Our 5th borough always complains that it doesn’t get enough attention because Manhattan, Brooklyn, Bronx and Queens hog the spotlight. So bigotry, because why not? But Manhattan shouldn’t bray too loudly; we’re old enough to remember the LGBT bans by The Ancient Order of Hibernians (AOH) at the beery 5th Avenue parades for decades.
And now images from our ongoing conversation Specter, Cern, Homesick, Peter Phobia, Dzel, REW, Folk, Appear 37, BRK. Nover NYC, GUS, Hand of Tess, 1krlOs, Pirdb!, Kool Hand, Croke, Regae, Nova44, and Spyee.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Set your clocks forward an hour!
Guess you can’t bite a graffiti artist and expect to make bank – without getting bitten. This new Nekst campaign on the Manhattan streets appears to have Claudia Schiffer and Anna Nicole Smith putting their best face forward, aside from the streams of wrinkles caused by the wet wheat paste. Time is a cruel mistress, even as our nostalgic memories of the 90s are suddenly aflame when seeing these large-scale posters and images on the catwalk named New York.
This takes the fashion labels’ accused theft of Nekst’s tag to a new level – and back to the street, where the best fashion houses traditionally find creative inspiration. The deceased graffiti writer was bold in his command of high-profile spots, and his output was profligate, giving him a reputation that current writers still pay homage to a decade after his passing. With the fashion label Guess, Inc. publicly traded, one wonders if this restyling of their brand in a fashion capital will hit them in the ticker, especially when it appears they directly ripped their style from a self-made artist/vandal and took it to the cash register.
This act highlights the ongoing debate about the street’s raw, authentic creativity and the fashion industry’s appropriation tactics. The situation questions the consequences for a major brand like Guess, primarily when the originality in question stems from the underground art world.
As Daniel Cassady from ARTNEWS and Deborah Belgum from WWD illuminate, the recent uproar in the street art/graffiti community is not merely about the misuse of street credibility but a deeper infringement on street artists’ intellectual and cultural property. Cassady discusses the blatant replication of Nekst’s signature by Guess, bringing to the forefront the fashion industry’s recurrent pilferage from street art’s raw, unfiltered energy without due homage or consent. Meanwhile, Belgum adds a familial and emotional layer, highlighting the distress caused to Nekst’s family by the unauthorized commercialization of his legacy, an act they describe as “horrifying.”
In a city where the lines of art, fashion, and identity blur, these incidents prompt us to question the ethics of inspiration versus theft. As we showcase these charged visuals, we invite our readers to ponder the fine line between tribute and exploitation in the ever-evolving narrative of street art. This is not merely about images on a wall or polished cotton; it’s a testament to the indelible impact of artists like Nekst on the fabric of urban culture and the complexities of their posthumous relationships with the commercial world.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
