Bitter is right! The city’s temperature has been below freezing every day this week, and the sentiments coming out of the new White House appear to be bitterly subzero. We will be looking for artists to respond to the raft of new declarations, announcements, and aspirations spread across the political landscape. You can’t simply ban and deport everyone who you despise – it doesn’t work. When you see powerful people punching down with such hostility… – even a half-asleep school counselor with a coffee-stained clipboard would ask if everything is okay at home. The behavior on display this week might bring to mind something Grandma Arlene used to say when you were a mouthy teenager: ‘Maybe it’s time to take a good look in the mirror, mister!”
When it comes to graffiti and street art, we’ll keep an eye on the streets; In times of crisis and uncertainty, the artist’s voice emerges strongest, as adversity is the canvas on which creativity thrives.
Here’s our weekly conversation with the street, this week featuring City Kitty, Below Key, Huetek, Muebon, Rheo, Roachi, Such, Humble, Le Crue, Denis Ouch, Notic, Stu, Toney, Jay Diggz, EST, The Slasher, Soren, HELCH, Louie167, and Wanted.
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
Who’s in town this week? New York is no stranger to visiting street artists, but the thrill never fades. Right now, we’ve got Kiwi sensation Owen Dippie here to blow minds with his latest piece, plus the wild Italian trio Canemorto. These graffiti-street artist-fishermen from Brianza, up North of Milan, are kicking off a three-day performance at Matta. Come by to see what is the catch of the day, and they might be speaking their own brand of “Canemortish”. The three-day event will be fresh Thursday through Saturday – let’s see what they’ve reeled in for you!
Shout out to the Brooklyn Museum, which hosted hundreds of guests at the gala opening of a new show featuring 200+ Brooklyn artists Friday night. A celebration of the museum’s bicentennial, the collection gives a stunning overview, a diverse array, and an appreciative stage for many artists working here today. The Brooklyn Artists Exhibitionis organized by Jeffrey Gibson, Vik Muniz, Mickalene Thomas, and Fred Tomaselli and coordinated by Sharon Matt Atkins, Deputy Director for Art. If you can’t get to NYC, take a virtual tour of the exhibition.
Also congratulations to Museum of Graffitti for their first show in Shanghai. Co-founders Allison Freidin and Brooklyn native Alan Ket have mounted MOG’s very first exhibition on mainland China, “Street Echos”, right in the heart of the Changning District of Shanghai. A year in the making, the show combines an explanation of graffiti’s humble roots with the current status of the art form.
And here we go boldly into the streets of New York to find new stuff from: Jeremy Deller, Joe Iurato, Veng RWK, Jason Naylor, Stikki Peaches, Muebon, CP Won, Never Satisfied, Mena Ceresa, and Brozilla.
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.
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 Memorial Day Weekend in New York and there are many commemorations, celebrations and family picnics in the parks. In Brooklyn the Memorial Day Parade kicks off in Bay Ridge at 11 am on Monday, from 78th Street and Third Avenue. The springtime fresh weather continues as we enter the unofficial first weekend of Summer, with lifeguards on our beaches and Fleet Week bringing 2,300 U.S. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard members to New York to see, hear, and taste all that the city has to offer. Also in Brooklyn, you can listen to a concert by high-school musicians of the ISO Symphonic Band at Third Street near Greenwood Cemetary. The musical selections commemorate those who served in the armed forces, and will feature music by some of Green-Wood’s permanent residents, including James Weldon Johnson, Fred Ebb, and Leonard Bernstein. And, of course, there is new Street Art and graffiti to bring commentary and character to many neighborhoods.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Modomatic, Mike Makatron, Muebon, Mike King, Frank Ape, Naito Oru. COSA V, Sen1, Cram, Senkoe, Kreau, No Snitch, Ali Baba, GLAD, Merk 26, Snik, and Ron Muralist.
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.
“Art is not a mirror held up to reality, but a hammer with which to shape it.”
– Bertolt Brecht
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!
Our current reality appears quite bent, and maybe art has the power to straighten it out, but you won’t see a lot of political stuff on the streets right now ironically. Here and there, yes, but as the US stirs the embers of resentment into a third world war in the Middle East that will possibly metastasize with other warring regions, it appears that we collectively look again at our belly buttons.
Brooklyn is booming with some fresh work this week, with a winter snowstorm that left us with a white blanket to augment the freshest street art and graffiti. This week, Barcelona’s KRAM shows up in BK with their eclectic styles interplaying. Sice is nice, QUAZAR climbs up, and Toney crosses, and Parisian/Londoner/Brooklyn-based Oscar Nett is hyperrealistic and geometrically dramatic, giving us some Li-Hill vibes, no?
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Obey, Cost, Jason Naylor, Degrupo, Optimo NYC, Kram, Hek Tad, Muebon, Slomo, Oscar Lett, Konozco, Toney, Mishka Bobisha, Rack, Klash, QUAZAR, Trip, Sice.
The war rages again in Gaza, and the street art in New York reflects the cultural response with more pieces every week. New York’s Fifth Avenue will be closed on three Sundays this month to allow more foot traffic to enjoy the holidays and avert car deaths now that the tree and skating rink are open at Rockefeller Center. Our esteemed New York politicians keep doing us proud this week, with George Santos getting expelled from Congress, and Trump being forced to face criminal charges like everyone else. We say goodbye to the first female Supreme Court Judge Sandra O’Connor, and to a person whom most of the world’s press contend was one of the biggest international war criminals responsible for millions of deaths, Henry Kissinger. Remarkable for some that Jimmy Carter outlived him.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Optimo NYC, Kram, Gats, Eternal Possessions, Muebon, El Hase, Stay Busy, Words on the Street, Alex Itin, Madison Storm, Jocelyn Tsajh, Homer, Siomo, Clams, Celeb, and Under Control.
How are feeling? Did you have a good Thanksgiving day, and did you see the crowds and balloons and marching bands along the parade route and the still intact orange and yellow leaves on the trees on Central Park West? Did you see Dolly Parton dressed as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader singing at the halftime game, and did you see your girl Ava from up the block with her vintage vest and platform boots when grandma sent you out for a can of whipped cream for the pumpkin pies?
“Have you kept pace with the latest revelation in the art world? A remarkable BBC interview with Banksy, dating back two decades, has recently surfaced, sparking renewed excitement. These are indeed vibrant times for art enthusiasts and creators alike. Take, for instance, the Brooklyn Museum’s current showcase. It features an engaging Spike Lee exhibition alongside the innovative ‘Copy Machine Manifesto.’ This zine exhibition is a deep dive into five or six decades of subcultural and counter-cultural movements. It highlights a diverse range of self-published works, including gossip magazines, graffiti newspapers (a nod to David Schmidlapp and Phase 2), and expressions from queercore to hardcore. The exhibit is an eclectic mix of self-aware conceptual art, original fashion, explorations of sexual desire and confusion, comix, handmade collage, and expressions of nihilism, ennui, satire, humor, and lamentation. It’s a vivid reflection of art and expression – and inspirational to any artist who wants to have a voice.
We’re going back for a second helping.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Stikman, Cosbe, Below Key, No Sleep, Huetek, Optimo NYC, Jay Shells, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, OH!, Muebon, Humble, Jappy Agoncillo, Jeff Roseking, Hu, Manual Alejando, Deter, Jason Shelowitz, and KIR.
With 700 languages spoken in these five boroughs, New York is a nerve center with a vast network of connections to the rest of the world. So, if you are feeling it, we’re probably feeling it too. This week, the Middle East conflict, more radioactive than ever, it would seem, is sending people into the streets in Manhattan and Brooklyn – with heightened emotions stoked by a media machine that loves to see us fight. Now, as we see continued bombings by Isreal outside of their country, as surrounding countries begin banging their war drums, and as the US sits in the sea nearby, more than one commentator on the news and in your local deli, laundromat, bookstore or bar are wondering aloud if a hot war can spread across the region, or further.
Closer to home, we see that street art has not reflected the events directly, but somehow, the anxiety that has been raised will be invariably internalized and aerosolized. We’ll keep an eye out for the messages and sentiments, which are far from unanimous.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Shepard Fairey, Mike Makatron, A Lucky Rabbit, Phetus88, Muebon, Ideal, Jurse, Skitl, Thobekk, Go4art, Polar Bear, Mr. ENT, ICU463, and Where’s the Water.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Abe Lincoln Jr., Adam Fujita, Alexcia Panay, Anthony Lister, Below Key, BK Foxx, Bobby Hundreds, Downer Jones, Dragon Art, Hops Art, Maia Lorian, Mastro NYC, Muebon, Pricey Alex, Shiro, Sinclair the Vandal, VKrone, and Want.
Graffitecture: Typographic Blueprints, on view at STRAAT Museum from February 14 to May 18, 2025, explores the evolving relationship between …Read More »