Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Happy 4th of July Weekend.
The smoke from forest fires revisited our fair dirty city again this week, causing the air to smell like a summer campfire wherever you rode your bike or walked, or scootered. In some neighborhoods, it was a new smell that almost overcame the smell of urine and garbage, so that was a silver lining. Also it served as a trigger for people who have gone camping to buy marshmallows, graham crackers, and chocolate to make s’mores in the kitchen. Or maybe we are just talking about ourselves.
Also, the results of having a right wing leaning Supreme Court came in this week; Rulings striking regarding affirmative action, GLBTQ+ rights, limitations on student loan forgiveness, and domestic abusers and guns – all took serious hits. Welcome to the increasingly conservative US courts, even as annual polls conclude that a majority of US citizens hold more liberal and progressive views every year.
This week we have an assortment of murals, street art, and graffiti for you. Enjoy!
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Skewville, Matt Siren, Praxis, Lexi Bella, Eternal Possessions, Didi, BK Ackler, Enivo, Smile Boulder, Mena Ceresa, Jeff Rose King, Eye Know, Girlly, MS Chainker, Green Villian, XIK Art, and BustArt.
Remember last summer when you realized it was already August, and you didn’t go to the beach or for a hike yet? I vow not to let that happen this summer. New York is full of summer fun opportunities; getting outside the city, even for a day is revelatory. If you want to catch street art, step outside in many neighborhoods across the five boroughs. If you want your art viewing experience to be accompanied by live Hip Hop performances and plenty of places to grab a drink amongst the live aerosol painting on the street, just go to the Bushwick Collective’s annual block party, which is happening right now.
Similarly, we shudder to see campaigns to humanize the robot “dogs”, like this puff piece in the New York Post featuring an office visit to normalize them – in fact using one to create a painting.
“The robots march across canvasses with paint-covered paws.
Pilat’s works have become a favorite of Silicon Valley’s tech arrivistes.”
Uh, it’s not a dog, and it will probably be weaponized against you in the future. C’mon Sport! Let’s play catch!
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Skewville, Matt Siren, David Puck, Martin Whatson, Loose, Anso, Rham Bow, Narol, Forever Up, Fuckz, 156 CRU, Ebony, Aims Pukers, Feye, and Sper.
This time of the year, many people become nostalgic, remembering earlier times that seemed simpler, bathed in sepia tones. Walking into the Pop International Gallery a couple of weekends ago – fresh from a Swoon talk with Jeffrey Deitch and on the way to the opening of Graffiti Kings at HOWL – it was a surprise trip to the mid-2000s of New York streets when the graffiti scene was adjusting to a fleet of new street art kids on the block.
Fernando “SKI” Romero was one half of a graphic team called UR New York at the time with co-writer 2Easae, and they were making their own transition from the street to the studio. In the new show at Pop called WON FOR ALL!, Mr. Romero takes us back to see a cluster of youth who were in his orbit, and if you were walking on the streets of Brooklyn and Manhattan, probably yours.
“I’ve known these artists for years,” he says, “Many of us came up together in the art world. They are my friends and family.”
Born and raised in New York, Romero is very familiar with the graffiti scene that made the city famous, even recently curating a show of some graffiti-writers-turned-artists who originally inspired him, like CRASH, DAZE and Tats Cru. After attending Parsons School of Design and selling his own stuff on the street in SoHo for six years, he took a decade to dedicate himself to developing his own deconstructed letter style for the gallery.
Now SKI is reflecting on a golden age for his own development as an artist with WON FOR ALL and shows solidarity with a small cluster of talents who have pursued their professional careers that were supercharged by their experiences on the street and around the culture. Here’s Dark Clouds with his patterned and swooping pockets of rain, alongside the graphic output of Matt Siren that hints at superheroes and graphic novels.
Elsewhere the bright font-centric Queen Andrea evokes 1980s teen mag optimism, while Gigi Chen’s formal painting techniques venture into fantasy and photo-realism. In the main window on the Bowery is perhaps the most recognizable top-hatted character, Optimo, another true born and bred New Yorker whose love for the culture is evidenced by a prodigious mass of street stickers incorporated into one of his canvasses. Partnered perhaps in their historical reverence for graffiti writers are SKI, with his sideways blown layers of bright letterforms and gritty graphic cityscapes, and Cerns’ omnivorous forays across realities – anchored by colorful characters that may remind some of the train writers during the 1970s.
“I chose these people because of talent, skills, and dedication,” he says. “During the pandemic, these artists were the ones who kept me sane and motivated during a time when I felt alone. This show is a way to bring them all together to say ‘Thank You”.
WON FOR ALLI FEATURED ARTISTS include Queen Andrea Dark Cloud Gigi Chen Matt Siren Optimo NYC Victor Ving Emilio Martinez Cern Chris Boss
Just for fun, here’s a list of the artists we brought to that first auction in April 2008 – any of them sound familiar? Anera, Armsrock, Borf, Celso, C.Damage, DAIN, Dark Clouds, Deeks, DiRQuo, Elbowtoe, ELC, Fauxreel, Flower Face Killah, Gaia, GoreB, Haculla, Infinity, Judith Supine, Jp, McMutt, MOMO, Noah Sparkes, Royce Bannon, Skewville, Swoon, Dan Witz, and WK Interact.
How many of these names are still in the game? Some have faded, some have accelerated, and there are many new names bandied about on New York streets; It’s a constantly changing tableau.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Matt Siren, City Kitty, Hijack, Li-Hill, Raddington Falls, Rose Cory, HOACS, Voxx Romana, Jet, Nite Owl, HEFS, and HAVOC.
“Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before.” … The Raven. Edgar Allan Poe
Sometimes it is a talisman who is having adventures on the behalf of an artist, a part of him/herself who stays behind and watches the area.
At other times it is a character seen through a mirror, an alter-ego who represents a fictional part of their inner world who has been set free onto the street to interact. It may be a branding element, a logo, or signature that lays claim to the artwork it is attached to. By itself it is often a form of marking territory; a practice begun by graffiti writers decades ago.
Whether it is a symbol or a figure, it is undoubtedly a personification of some part of the artists id, one that is so individual that you can spot it from a distance and if you are a fan, you’ll smile in recognition.
Many street artists have a discernable style, that is true; a hand-style, a recurrent motif, color palette, a topic that reappears, a technique of application, even a likely location in the urban landscape where they are most likely to appear.
Of that number, fewer have developed a character or a motif so well defined in our minds that it can stand alone, but we have found a few over the decades. Each is imbued with memory, with place, with personality, with character.
And now we don’t know what other topic can follow that one, so…
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Abby Goodman, BLAZE, Captain Eyeline, Chill, Chris RWK, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, Fake Hambleton, Faust, Invader, JJ Veronsis, Konart Studio, Lunge Box, Mad Town, Matt Siren, Modomatic, Royce Bannon, The Velvet Bandit, and Who is Ponzi.
The series of #fakehambleton “Shadow Man” that have been appearing on the street of Manhattan (and in London) are attributed to a guy who goes by the name of Pablo who runs a mystery Hambleton “foundation”. He’s admitted to painting the fake Hambleton iconic figures on the streets of NYC. We believe this to be a marketing campaing. More on this @bkstreetart on Instagram.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Today is PRIDE DAY in NYC and Father’s Day in many parts of the world. Congratulations to us all, queer and/or fathers. We’re happy to show you what we’ve been finding as the spring now stretches into Officially Summer. At night in some neighborhoods, you’ll hear a smattering of fireworks as youthful hooligans are already lighting them – anticipate the 4th of July holiday. A sign of our crazy summer ahead; behold the bang-pop-ratatat-tat-bang-bang-swizzle-shizzle-pop now erupting regularly in empty lots and dead-end streets.
It’s great to see so many kids and youth and adults on bicycles now that the City has made myriad networks of safe pathways throughout the five boroughs. If we could get the police to hand out tickets to car drivers, even school bus drivers, sometimes using the bike lanes to circumvent others and put riders in danger.
The street art and graffiti scene are thick, and you don’t want to miss it here this time of year. While some complain that “vandalism” is reaching 1970s levels, many are happy to see a rotating display of artworks on the city skin at a time when so much of our local cultural and entertainment options have been killed or neutered. The institutional and commercial arts will all come back to New York, we have no doubt. Often, the renaissance begins in the streets.
Aliens, robots, skulls, femme Fatales, cats, cartoons, nationalism, existentialism – the new are runs the gamut and if it upsets the audience, it doesn’t run for long. Catch it while you can
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Acne, Adam Fujita, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Captain Eyeliner, City Kitty, Degrupo, Demure, Eugene Delacroix, Jeremy Novy, Lunge Box, Matt Siren, Modomatic, One Rad Latina, Plannedalism, Raddington Falls, Royce Bannon, Russian Doll NYC, SacSix, Sara Lynne-Leo, Save Art Space, Sticker Maul, The Creator, and Vy.
The volume of Street Art has picked up full steam with more graffiti on walls than many OG graff fans can remember were on the trains in the 80s. Competition for spots large and small is more fierce than a Saturday afternoon rush at the nail salon. The quantity of pieces and tags and stencils ebbs and flows, as does the quality and freshness. But looking at it as you walk makes you feel like New York street and cultural life is in full bloom. Large-scale and small, the works appear like mushrooms popping up in the urban forest after a late-spring rain storm.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Conse, D. Scribblings, Damien Mitchel, False, Fhake, Kest Gak, Lorenzo Masnah, Matt Siren, Menace Resa, Michael Zelehoski, Mint & Serf, Mort Art, Royce Bannon, Shiro, Smells, Swif, The Yit Foreward, Toxic, UFO 907, and Zexor.
This wooden sculpture installed in McCarren Park in Williamsburg is made from recycled wood from boarded-up windows. It will remain in place until October 2021.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Ramadan Kareem to Muslim brothers and sisters in New York and around the world. May you have an easy fast.
We’re bowled over by the beauty in the streets and parks and rooftops right now, with performances and painting and the blossoming of flowers underfoot and on branches overhead. Fires are alit in hearts everywhere.
“All the roofs are wet and underneath smoke that piles softly in streets, tongues are on top of each other mulling over the night.”
from Gamin ~ Frank O’Hara
Yes, there is a sort of battered nervousness in conversations on the streets and as we go about our quotidian duties; a discerned increase in agitation due to economic instability, surges of new Covid strains in our hospitals, and ongoing examples of police brutality toward black and brown people is met with resistance and sometimes violence as well.
Still, consider the robin. In your heart, may hope spring eternal. Also, we learn today that summer may be returning at least one exceedingly creative and participatory public art event as the Gothamist reports that “Coney Island’s Mermaid Parade May Return In The Flesh This Summer.”
And yo! Don’t sleep on the street artists who are putting up new work right now. They are addressing our ills, regaling us with visual puns, poking at our foibles, recontextualizing and performing feats of wonder under cover of night, or while heads are turned in broad daylight. Entertaining, bragging, dreaming… onward they go.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: Absconded Project, Atakbf, Bastard Bot, City Kitty, Clown Soldier, Degrupo, George Collagi, Lexi Bella, Manik, Marka27, Matt Siren, Peachee Blue, Royce Bannon, Sonni, Teens for Press Freedom, Vexta, and Zaver.
Nowruz Mubarak! Happy Persian New Year to all the New York neighbors who celebrate it. Also, Happy Spring! Did you think it would never arrive? Already the birds are chirping in the trees, and the crocus is popping up from beneath the garbage and dog crap. That guy who lives downstairs named Manny and his brother are washing their car on the curb while blasting a mix from Marley Marl & Red Alert at top volume for the block to enjoy. All the while, there is a colorful parade of young bucks and shorties who are strutting around the neighborhood with big eyes and a burning flame of hope in their hearts.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: Almost Over Keep Smiling, City Kitty, D7606, Damien Mitchell, Ethan Minsker, Invader, LET, Matt Siren, Mort Art, NET, Rambo, Raw Raffle, Royce Bannon, SacSix, Sara Lynne Leo, Sticker Maul, Tram, Voxx Romana, and Winston Tseng.
Remember that time when your best friend’s boyfriend was installing a towel rack in the bathroom of their apartment, and he clumsily busted a hole through the wall, revealing a hidden room – which subsequently released a ghost who regularly appeared at the foot of their bed and slammed doors throughout their dwelling? We do. That’s why it was/was not shocking when a New York woman investigated the breeze emanating from her bathroom mirror. She took the mirror off the wall and discovered a portal to a three-room apartment.
Dude, if that happens to us, we’re not putting it on Tik Tok. We’re heading to Bed Bath and Beyond. In a space-starved city, newly discovered square footage is like finding gold bullion or bitcoin between couch cushions.
In other New York news, some street art neighborhoods are devoid of new works these days – perhaps because January and February are a frozen, mischievous purgatory that chases you inside in a normal year – doubly so when you’re on your 37th consecutive month of pajamas, Minecraft, and Chef Boyardee Beefaroni. Have faith; the next tumultuous 8 weeks of winter-spring-winter-spring weather will eventually coax the street artists and graffiti writers outside in a perennial sign of spring like the appearance of a robin on your windowsill.
Despite the paucity of prancing vandals at the moment, our Editor of Photography, Jaime Rojo, still managed to capture new art in the streets this week in Red Hook, Bushwick, Chelsea, and Bushwick – amongst the scores of closed restaurant huts that have besieged sidewalks citywide. Movie theaters will open for 25% capacity now, and perhaps the moribund restaurants will be coming back to life in this city that never quite sleeps.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adrian Wilson, Berkit, Binho, Blur, Captain Eyeliner, Colin Capernick, Comik, DYM Crew, Ethan Minsker, Know Your Rights Camp, Locs, Matt Siren, Paolo Tolentino, Sara Lynne Leo, Shark, Taboo, The Monks, and Tony De Pew.
Adrian Wilson in collaboration with The L.I.S.A. Project NYC draws our attention at the increase of hate speech and violent acts against the Asian Community – spearheaded by none other than our former Hateful-in-Chief. Why the GOP continues to make this pact with the Devil is a mystery, or is it? It alerts people’s darkest, most odious traits and keeps us fighting with each other. As a true melting pot, we believe New York is better than this. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Now, now, Sara Lynne-Leo. Remember what the minister’s wife/organist at church always says; “The Good Lord doesn’t make mistakes.” (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Unidentified artist (photo @ Jaime Rojo)The Monks for The Bushwick Collective (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Psychedelic reimaginings by Tony De Pew in collaboration with Matt Siren. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Comik. DYM Crew. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Blur (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Berkit, Locs and Binho (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Shark (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Captain Eyeliner (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Taboo, Host. DYM Crew. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Ethan Minsker (photo @ Jaime Rojo)Public service messages from Paolo Tolentino (photo @ Jaime Rojo)#knowyourrightscamp This is a form of advertisement, and we recognize it, despite its graffiti/street art vernacular. Even so, we admire Mr. Caepernick as one of the few brave sports figures of immense relevance and influence who was and still is willing to forgo fat checks in exchange for being free to speak his mind on social and racial justice issues that are close to his heart and to his home. Untitled. Manhattan. Winter 2021. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
