People’s Street Art preferences can be very hard to predict. On social media we can reliably tell you that opinions are unreliable. Murals that we are sure you’ll love fall flatter than a one-sided pancake. Conversely, that piece we were tepid about? – Up the charts faster than a Kardashian in search of a camera.
With that in mind we thought you might like to see how the top social platforms sorted out the shots of 2015 by our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo.
We surveyed the number of “Likes” and shares his images received on Instagram, and Facebook in 2015 and based purely on the numbers, here are the Top 15.
No. 15 : Os Gemeos in Manhattan
Brazilian twin brothers Octavio and Gustavo are Os Gemeos and this year they began popping out of walls – and that’s not all! See the original posting here :
OS Gemeos Pop Through Walls Downtown NYC, Screens in Times Square
Os Gemeos in Manhattan. August 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 14 : Icy and Sot in Berlin
Looks like we picked a winner when BSA curated Iranian brothers ICY and SOT onto this Berlin facade of the Urban Nation. Following the theme of our “Persons of Interest” show there in March with some of Brooklyn’s finest Street Artists, the brothers reflected the fall of the Berlin Wall in the face of this Brooklyn-based woman. Look for a release of their book by Lebowski Publishers with an essay by BSA telling the story of the Tabriz-now-Brookyn-based ICY and SOT to be released in Spring 2016.
See more about our Persons of Interest show and ICY and SOT’s mural here : Complete “Persons of Interest”: Brooklyn in Berlin
Icy & Sot in Berlin for Urban Nation. March 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 13 : Alexis Diaz in NYC
Surreal illustrationist Alexis Diaz has been making brains stretch and stand up and clap with his murals from Miami to Hawaii to Lodz, Poland this year, continually impressing with his meticulous and tight cross-hatching skills, wildly wide imagination, and his uncanny ability to collaborate stylistically with other artists. This relatively small piece by him in Manhattan turned heads for months and earned this pic lots of attention via BSA.
Alexis Diaz in Manhattan. May 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 12 : Dian in Brooklyn
Essentially a live shot of the last frame for a stop -action mural video (featured on BSA Film Friday: 11.06.15) this image got a lot of traffic probably because of it’s perceived political critique of the Republican Party – but the artists say that they weren’t even familiar with US politics when they made it.
“Dian is a street artist from European art label Life is Porno. In 2015, he decided to do a series of stop-frame stop frame animations around Europe and the world. This time he turned a building in Brooklyn, NYC into his animated reality. And grew an elephant from his mushrooms…
(The) whole animation was spray-painted, without any computer animation. The Bullshit sign was installed by a legendary fusion artist Shalom Neuman.”
Dian in Brooklyn, NY. November, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 11 : Pichi & Avo in Sweden
“The Spanish Street Art duo Pichiavo brought the antiquities and modern day graffiti together last week on a soaring multi-story wall in Borås, Sweden,” we wrote of this multi-story mural that appealed to many readers this September. It’s the sort of formula that works again and again for these guys, most recently in Miami last week.
Pichi & Avo in Boras, Sweden for No Limits. September 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 10 : Dal East in Sweden
Participating in the same small festival (Borås “No Limit)” as PichiAvo above, the artist Dal East captured the imagination of BSA readers with this soaring wingspan painted high upon a five stepped modern facade building across from a textile university campus.
Dal East in Boras, Sweden for No Limits. September 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 9 : Owen Dippie “Radiant Madonna” in Brooklyn
The first of two entries by Kiwi Owen Dippie on our Top 15 list for 2015, this merging of Raphael’s Madonna with Haring’s radiant baby snapped people out of their stupor with the unconventional paring. A fan of both artists, Dippie’s mural reminded us of Haring’s flirtation with Christian “Born Again” fundamentalism before he decided to be an out gay man in the 1980s – at a time when the so-called Moral Majority was ready to send gays to be quarantined because of the AIDS crisis. This three story mural by Dippie is still vibrating with the tensions he encompassed in this one powerful composition.
Owen Dippie in Brooklyn. July 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 8 : Ernest Zacharevic in Brooklyn
Outside of this Lithuanian Street Artists’ typical wheelhouse, its the irony of this piece that contains his DNA. Capturing the same commercial advertising linguistic that Street Artists typically lampoon, the text based riff clearly draws the connection to the appreciation for hand-style that originally marked a “style” revolution in graffiti. Maybe it was this timeless “instant classic” quality that drew so many fans on Instagram and Facebook.
Ernest Zacharevic. Brooklyn, NY November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 7 : Ella & Pitr in Norway
The French couple were in the town of Stavanger to create the World’s Largest Mural so comparatively this was just doodle on the back of an envelope for Ella & Pitr, but something about it struck a chord with you this September.
Ella & Pitr in Stavanger, Norway for NUART 2015. September, 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 6 : ECB in Brooklyn
His pensive and looming old men and women from Morroco have been made into a book recently, but ECB made this guy in dirty old Brooklyn this year and photographer Jaime Rojo caught it a day after heavy rains provide this reflective moment. Read more about ECB’s portraits of working folks in : The Trades: Street Artist ECB Traces Morocco’s Faces
ECB in Brooklyn. May 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 5 : Okuda in Manhattan
Nearing 20 years in the game, the Spanish Street Artist Okuda is always a pleaser with his rich-hued pop surrealism and geometrics that mimic the man-made urban environment. Here his organic forms in a New York doorway pop out from the dim grayness of the streetscape.
Okuda in Manhattan. June 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 4 : Case Ma’Claim in Berlin
One of the current crop of photo-realists that are drawing so much attention, Ma’Claims’ meditation is often on hands. This one may have had additional appeal on Social platforms because of it’s combination of skin colors and its appearance during the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” marches in cities across the US.
Case Ma’Claim in Berlin. March 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 3 : Nick Walker
The Bristol-born Mr. Walker has a soft spot for New York and this placement outside a pizza parlor of his iconic bowler-hatted avatar made a lot of connections for viewers on Facebook who shared this image like crazy last winter.
Nick Walker. Manhattan, NY. January 30 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 2 : JR in Manhattan
A commercial wheatpaste project with The New York City Ballet, their principal dancer the ballerina Lauren Lovette, a documentary called LES BOSQUETS, and a real estate developer, this image of a woman flying through the air to kiss Manhattan’s sky was so riveting that it continued to ricochet JR’s image across digital devices for months after we posted it.
JR in Manhattan. August 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
No. 1 : Owen Dippie “Ninja Renaissance Masters” in Brooklyn
With 1.1 million shares across our Facebook page, this merging of four Renaissance master visages and the 1990s Ninja Turtles masks leap-frogged every other image we posted this year, and busted peoples’ brains open. The New Zealand based Dippie was killing it this summer in Brooklyn before heading out to the West Coast, but this trackside trick continued to draw visitors long after he headed back to his homeland, and his pic wins 2015 decisively. See the original posting here : Leonardo, Raphael, Michelangelo and Donatello Spotted in BKLN : Owen Dippie Lies in Wait
Owen Dippie in Brooklyn. July 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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This article is also published on The Huffington Post
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