Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Congratulations to our Muslim neighbors in NYC on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, and we wish them peace, joy, and blessings as they mark the end of Ramadan.
The popping rumble of customized mufflers is back on the streets, a rite of spring as familiar as purple crocuses and snowdrops pushing through browned grass, old 40 bottles, crumpled chip bags, and cigarette butts. The warming weather softens the ground and lets loose the mingled scents of hydrangea and dog pee. And once again, Saturday night Romeos are rolling down their windows, cruising slow, and blasting tracks like Jack Harlow and Doja Cat’s new banger “Just Us”—hoping someone’s paying attention.
On the street art tip, you’ll see Faile has come back with some of their new and old icons remixed, Trump and Elon are widely critiqued in caricature, and vertical graffiti is the new horizontal.
We continue with our interviews with the street, this week including Faile, John Ahearn, CRKSHNK, Modomatic, Qzar, EXR, Ollin, Sto, REW X, Want Pear, Batola, Ooh Baby, Thug Life, and Jayo.
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.
It’s a long hot, steamy, jungle-like holiday weekend in New York. The city marked Independence Day with fireworks on the Hudson River, barbecues in the park, speeches to honor the day, and tanning on Brighton Beach and screaming on the rollercoaster at Coney Island. New York, no matter where you go on the street, always feels full of possibilities.
Possible robberies, that is! “New York is back, baby,” says a commenter on Reddit, discussing people getting robbed of luxury watches while sitting outside on the sidewalk and having cocktails in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. At least the New York Times didn’t say ‘eatery’ in their latest article provoking class hatred; we hate it when they do that. It’s called a restaurant.
In addition, Williamsburg did not just suddenly sprout some crime. Ask graffiti writers like KET who grew up there in the 1970s and gangs ran the streets. When the artists moved into Williamsburg at the turn of the century, a serial killer was living under the bridge. Danger may be a matter of one’s perception, we opine. Ask the folks chased out of the neighborhood by the violence of sky-high, unreachable rents, $40 entrees at restaurants, and women in sports bras jogging behind Dior baby strollers. Inquire about feelings of danger to the senior citizens joining the long food line on South 4th Street at Los Sures Food Pantry. It’s about a block away from the new MOXY hotel with the rooftop restaurant and bar and the enormous D*Face mural on the side.
In the category of BEEF, can we please stop the Kendrick/Drake beef? The “They Not Like Us” video dropped on Friday is compelling, true, and Kendrick is one of the best right now but beef is never good, in graffiti or rap or on TikTok or in the Middle East. We need voices of calm and reason and efforts to de-escalate. In other role model news elsewhere on the music spectrum, Ozzy Osborne delivers “Crack Cocaine” in his new video with Paris Jackson, featuring famed graffiti writer Kelly “RISK” Graval prominently wielding the cans on a street wall.
New York graffiti and street art persist and sometimes surprise, and occasionally, they have the last word. As usual, we’re keeping our eyes open.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Dain, Toofly, Praxis, Mike Makatron, Eternal Possessions, Qzar, Timothy Goodman, Miki Mu, Warz, Tom Boy NYC, Red Half Tone, and Preacher Art.
There is so much more to say, but gotta run. New York streets are full of art to see.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Pear, Qzar, XSM, Max Grax, HOPES, Zoot, Gen Molloy, Ana Fish, SYE5, Miss 17, Kerrie Hanna, Shlumper, Batola, Crespo, KM9, ELNO, WOM Collective, LOURS, VANE MG, and Lucie Flyn.
New Yorkers are having a grand celebration this weekend as the Year of the Dragon begins, and traditional lion and dragon dances wend their way through Chinatowns in Manhattan and Queens. You’ll be seeing lots of red, hopefully getting some money in red envelopes (hongbao), and eating dumplings (symbolizing wealth), fish (representing surplus and abundance), and sticky rice cakes. To all our neighbors celebrating, “恭喜发财” (Gōngxǐ fācái), which means “Wishing you wealth and prosperity.”
Later this week, we’ll all profess love for one another on Valentine’s Day. Looks like red is the color for New York this week.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Homesick, Toxicomano, ERRE, CP Won, Qzar, Hektad, Jappy Agoncillo, ToastOro, Senk, Stesi, CASH RFC Crew, OSK OSK, NAY, and Kosuke James.
It’s always a fun week when The New York Times quotes Brooklyn Street Art, like today’s riveting analyses of one New York celebrity outlaw everyone can agree upon, Flaco the Owl. So this week, we will not insult the corporate legacy press because we are in league with them, obviously.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Faile, Homesick, Below Key, Degrupo, UNO, Dirty Bandits, Pear, MeresOne, Qzar, BG183, NYC Hooker, Tats Crew, Albertus Joseph, Rari Grafix, Notice, Toney, Fear, Horn, Lare, and OTM Crew.
64% of Americans are living paycheck-to-paycheck, China and Russia are buddying up, BRICs countries are looking for new members, and the Bankers in your life are again looking toward their gilded escape bunkers.
We are transfixed by the first indicted US president, and gloating about having a system of democracy and justice. Now he is positioning himself as an “outsider,” a martyr. A billionaire outsider. We’re just waiting for these crowds outside Trump Tower to materialize. Where are they? Honestly, Fifth Avenue is more interested in the Easter Bonnet Parade that is coming.
But it’s a circus on the national tabloid news, which is unfortunately all of the news now. Our best minds are being entertained by 24 hour sports channels, Netflix and Tic Toc, and it’s not an accident. People are chided into fighting each other over trans-woke-snowflake-abortion-race-laptop-AR15-centered-drag-readings. Look! A squirrel!
Meanwhile, the daffodils are blooming everywhere in anticipation of Easter Week. People were cramming subways, buses, and sidewalks yesterday because of the warm sunny spring weather – and Smorgasborg opened this weekend in Brooklyn. NYTimes calls it “the Woodstock of eating,” due to its variety of incredible food choices – but of course, you can have just as much fun with a bag of chips or a slice of pizza sitting on a stoop watching the parade of New Yorkers march/sashay/stride by.
We had a great time at the Bronx Museum yesterday, catching the John Ahearn/ Rigoberto Torres retrospective and seeing both the artists in person during a panel discussion with artist Abigail DeVille – with fans rushing the stage for an autographed exhibition book afterward. These guys have championed everyday New Yorkers through their painted sculptures for four decades. It is revelatory and heartwarming to see this very large collection of works never shown together before. Make sure to check out “Swagger and Tenderness: The South Bronx Portraits” until April 30.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Stikman, Zimer, Subway Doodle, A Lucky Rabbit, Qzar, Optimo NYC, Sekt, AMMO, CEYNYC, Toeflop, Early Riser NYC, Julia Cocuzza, and Miki Mu.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! New York is coming alive as spring approaches – and there is a lot of new graffiti and street art suddenly. We are also awash in news that keeps everyone jumping! The international-soon-to-be-national-bank crisis that is underway, the possible (likely) imposition of CBDC’s in its wake, the BRICs alliances building and de-dollarization of the world economy, the US funding of war in Ukraine, the attacks on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid by the same actors, the pending candidacy and/or arrest of NYC native Donald Trump, the non-transitory inflation rate that is outpacing our wages, creeping facial recognition software and cameras into every part of our culture without our permission, the total capture of our news outlets… .
On the good news side, our crime rate has been dropping a lot – even though dunderheads like Mike Mother Pence says we’re having a “crime wave.” Ya’ll just better educate yourselves – New Yorkers are a pain in the arse and are quick to argue about stupid things, but we also like credit for our crime rate dropping, please. Also, we like our new tulips and daffodils and pretty birds singing in the trees. Thank you.
And now, onto our new selections of fabulous graffiti and street art for your pleasure.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Louis Masai, Praxis VGZ, Degrupo, Jorit, Phetus88, Hektad, Qzar, Hugo Gyrl, Jim Tozzi, Toe Flop, Jappy Agoncillo, Tukios Art, BlackStar, Rocking Bones, and Dana van Vueren.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! We’re in the middle of a long weekend thanks to tomorrow’s President’s Day. Usually, its a good weekend for some people to get out of the city to go skiing, but seriously there has been no snow here this year, which is troubling. We might as well stay at home and get to know our friend ChatGPT. Maybe make some comfort food and play board games with it. What? Why did you make a face?
Big things are happening in the Bronx right now, thanks to Tats Cru and the cultural ecosystem surrounding them and the community of Hunts Point in the Boogie Down. See some new images below and look out for some new serious Hip Hop & graffiti collaborations this year.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis, Tats Cru, Dmote, Bio, Ribs, Andaluz the Artist, BG183, Qzar, Anahu, R. Flores, XSM, OTL, Skemes, Sheek Louch, The Lox, and YesOne.
One of the hardest weeks of our lives. But we’re still here to give you another posting of new shots of street art and graffiti on the streets. Thank you for your support, and thank God for the creative spirit that keeps us inspired, our cities alive, informed, and in-touch with the common person.
The so-called ‘Red Wave’ (red tsunami, red hurricane, etc.) didn’t materialize in the mid-term elections Tuesday despite the drumbeat on corporate media. On the other hand, the Democratic party can’t be too proud of their “squeaker” win – or their incremental moves to the corporate right for four decades. Nothing to sing and dance about.
In other NYC news, do you ever feel like a slowly boiling frog? NYPD is talking about partnering with Amazon’s Ring network; the New York Times explains that all those 5G network towers going up on the streets around the city are really just upgraded cell phone equipment, the police will begin a “Drone Unit” to fight crime– “said to be equipped with night vision technology,” this article says, they “won’t be weaponized,” and the NYPD digi-dog program from Boston Dynamics has been discontinued for right now and drones patrolling streets soon, right? Also on Friday the New York Federal Reserve announced plans for a new Fed digital dollar – a CBDC (Central Bank Digital Currency) and the new UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is all in favor of completely digitized money. Meanwhile, it looks like NYC schools are going to be a lot safer with new initiatives to put biometric screening in them including maybe facial recognition. Nothing to worry about, right?
The city pays tributes to its heroes in different ways, and NYC street art loves Biggie Smalls more than anyone, along with folks like Spike Lee and Jean Michel Basquiat. This week we spotted a few new ones among the bevy of new street art beauties we discovered below.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Jason Naylor, Homesick, Savior El Mundo, King Baby, Mutz, Glare, Banksy Hates Me, Ashley Hodder, Raisa Nosova, Qzar, Spin, INU, Cheatz, Ultraboyz, Humble, Carlos RMK, and Yuzly Mathurin.
Before “street art” became a globally recognized genre, Barry McGee and Margaret Kilgallen were charting their course—one rooted in graffiti, …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
