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!
The polarity of positions is popular for simple journals today, a shamefully reductive assessment of the world and our complex interactions. If you were to fall for such easy explanations about politics and power, your only responsibility would be to pick a team. Sadly, that is the formula that takes hold right now, making citizens believe that life is just so black and white, left and right, wrong and right.
In truth it is a thin line, and many of those lines are blurred, leaving many vacillating between love and hate. And they feed off one another. Shakespeare’s famous depiction of love and hate comes in Romeo and Juliet, which is the most famous love story bought and sold. The young lovers’ intense and pure love contrasts sharply with the hatred between their families, the Capulets and Montagues.
“My only love sprung from my only hate!” encapsulates this tension. Love exists in a world filled with hatred.
Right out of the gate, Pres-elect Trump is telling us that one must destroy the government to save it, just like the towns in Vietnam in the 70s. His candidate for a brand new Department of Government Ethics, Elon Musk, says they have a ‘Mandate to Delete” cumbersome rules and regulations. Trump’s selections to head various arms of government this week also include RFK Jr. and Matt Gaetz . Next week, rumors are that Ex-Subway Sandwich Spokesman Jared Fogle will be nominated to Childcare Secretary, and the Hamburgler will be nominated to head the Commerce Department. Meanwhile VP Harris could be polishing up her resume to get some speaking gigs at Cantor Fitzgerald and the Carlyle Group once she leaves office. Oops, sorry, that was Obama’s reported move in 2017 when he left the White House.
In New York, the weather has been so dry that we have been warned about more fires like the one in Prospect Park recently. Up along the Hudson River, the fall foliage is still putting on a show, though many leaves have turned brown due to the lack of rain. Meanwhile, if you venture north for a weekend escape, don’t miss the career retrospective of Brooklyn artist Deborah Masters at the farm she shares with her husband, Geoff. The exhibit has been a popular destination this autumn, drawing hundreds of visitors on weekends who are eager to see her impressive outdoor works and many smaller sketches, drawing, and painting spanning 50 years. Masters’ large-scale figurative sculptures grace numerous parks and private collections. Still, she is perhaps best known for “Walking New York,” a monumental 350-foot-long relief in JFK Airport’s Terminal 4, which won the Municipal Arts Society Award for Best Public Art. The show, Deborah Masters: A Life in Art, is still on view, making it the perfect excuse for a scenic country drive.
The city feels like it is resting now between holidays, a rare 10 days or so when we are not absolutely overtaken by tourists clamoring for tickets to Broadway and entry into sexy burlesque entertainment clubs like The Slipper Room, Duane Park, and House of Yes. Sure, the ice skating in Bryant Park has begun and we know Thanksgiving is around the corner, but we just passed Veterans Day, Election Day, the World Series, Halloween, and the New York Marathon – and we’re all taking one big breath before the holiday vortex begins.
Naturally, Street Artists and graffiti writers are here to accompany us on the way, surprises in tow.
Here’s our weekly conversation with the street, this week featuring; Jason Naylor, Jappy Agoncillo, IMK, Deborah Masters, Dais, ScoJo, HOP Krew, Kenji Chai, Szel, The Girl with the Brushes, Skwerm, and Loose Tea.
New York is slamming, as ever, when it comes to new street art and graffiti popping up in expected and unexpected places. Here’s our weekly conversation with the street, this week featuring: The Yok, Sheryo, Lexi Bella, Calicho Art, Humble, IMK, Manuel Alejandro, EXR, Zoot, Great Boxers, Thobekk, Aaron Wrinkle, OTOM, Poor Rupert, Paige Bowman, Elena Ohlander, MUSKA, Motomichi Nakamura, and TABBY.
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring City Kitty, Degrupo, Eternal Possessions, Dirt Cobain, RX Skulls, Le Crue, IMK, Outer Source, Sluto, ICU463, Manuel Alejando, Sule Cant Cook, Cheer Up, Jacob Thomas, Urban Ninja, 613 Hawk, and LeCrue Eyebrows.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! It’s our Labor Day weekend special for you this week featuring some fresh old school styles popping up again in a bid for capturing your nostalgic feelings for early graffiti and hip hop. And of course, we have some of the new stuff as well. Keep keeping it real and F-R-E-S-H!
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: NohJColey, Modomatic, Tomokazu Matsuyama, IMK, WRDSMTH, Ottograph, POEM, The Postman, Nandos Art, Atelier Jolie, Fat Cap Sprays, Fuck with Love, Ester, 1984.YO, and Mattaya Fitts.
The 66th Annual Puerto Rican Parade will loudly, buoyantly, exuberantly traverse and sway along the iconic 5th Avenue in Manhattan today. Subsequently, numerous Brooklyn neighborhoods will burst into a party with lively street festivities and impromptu fiestas adorning sidewalks, sitting on stoops, and hanging out on window ledges. A collective joy and relief are in our hearts across the city this weekend, stemming from the restoration of clear air in the city; after a disheartening episode of a Dystopian Orange haze that tainted our skies for days this week.
Forest fires in Canada had blown smoke down the Hudson River to surprise everyone, and flummox many. The consequences forced people to illuminate their homes during daylight hours and drive their car with headlights on. This extraordinary event posed a threat to both the well-being and livelihoods of countless individuals, with people working outside at great danger. However, for those who turned to our local National Public Radio (NPR) station for insight, rather than talking about construction workers, municipal employees, or street food vendors, their primary concerns were remote work arrangements, ordering from Doordash, and worrying about the smoke’s effect on dogs during their daily walks. The poor and working class are routinely erased from public discourse, which is why unmediated street art often does the work.
Currently, the cityscape is adorned with captivating street art and mesmerizing murals, offering a wide array of entertainment, education, and aesthetic gratification. We hope you take pleasure in exploring photographer Jaime Rojo’s compilation.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Maya Hayuk, Below Key, Little Ricky, Mint & Serf, Billy Barnacles, Homesick, David Puck, Panic, IMK, Aidz, Robert Vargas, Salo Panto. Artistcjg89, Herman, Gabe, Tank, FLWR, and Sasha Colby.
The rain hasn’t been coming around much this summer, so we begin the postings with a dreamy sequence from Dan Kitchener and his muse walking with an umbrella. Good to see so much quality art in the streets this summer. Things may be difficult in many ways when it comes to life in this city, but the vibe on the streets is still rockin’ it.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: SacSix, Degrupo, Sara Lynne-Leo, Dan Kitchener, Doves, IMK, @2easae, GanoWon, Your Camera is a Weapon, and Habibi.
Unless you’re talking about the seismic Supreme Court decision to take away people’s right to have a legal abortion in the United States. The topic immediately appeared in street art. Abortions will still continue in the US of course. Rich women will pay for them, and go back to church the following week. Senators and congressmen will pay for their girlfriends abortions, with a crocodile tear and a wad of cash. Poor women? Not a consideration.
Clarence Thomas took a swing at other Americans by hinting that same-sex marriage may be in jeopardy. He didn’t mention interracial marriage.
One street art text piece we caught yesterday just as the abortion decision was being announced is appropriately in Spanish. Que voy hacer con llorar? or “What good does crying do?”.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Captain Eyeliner, JJ Veronis, Modomatic, Voxx Romana, Hijack, Fear Arte, IMK, 3784, Jaw1, Smoe, JC3, Mayd1, Spot KMS Crew, Heavylox, and Bongggblue.
The curator/owner of this wall, Jessica Goldman, posted recently on social media that the famed graff/street art/mural wall is “on pause.” The street has its own ideas of course and the wall has been very active for the last weeks in an organic manner. As usual, beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
