All posts tagged: Wynwood Walls 2016

BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals Of 2016 – A “Social” Survey

December 11, 2016 Artists

Murals have captured so much of the popular imagination about what the Street Art scene is today and although they may be part of the definition, murals remain only a part of the entire scene; a visual conversation that includes legal, illegal, small, anonymous, massive, deliberately confounding, low-energy scrawl, stickers, tags, poetry, diatribes, culture jamming, ad takeovers, sculpture, installations. Every week we aim to present a varied selection of expressions currently represented on the street, and then it is your turn to respond.

During 2016 BSA readers responded to images via our website, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbr, and Facebook pages. In a thoroughly unscientific survey that calculates “likes” and “clicks” and “re-Tweets” and “impressions”, we tallied up which murals (or images) got the most interest from you all. Care to read into the results?

The top 3 really sum it all up for 2016 and shouldn’t surprise us, but they still do; Militarism, Mis-information, and the Man of the Year.

If you ever doubted how much art on the street reflects the psyche of a society back to itself, no need to wonder anymore. If only we could read these tea-leaves and tell the future…

No 15.
David Choe’s Portrait Of Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016.

David Choe. Detail. Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally appearing here:

No 14
Plotbot Ken’s car installation on the Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin.

Plotbot Ken’s post-apocolyptic installation on a car at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 13
Faust and Shantell Martin in Manhattan, NY.

Handstyle and all New York, baby. Faust. Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 12
Swoon in Brooklyn, NY.

One of Swoon’s new additions to the street in 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 11
ASTRO in East Harlem.

ASTRO in East Harlem for #NotACrime campaign in collaboration with Street Art Anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 10
Nychos in Manhattan, NY.

More than his multiple murals published here this year, this sculpture on 23rd Street in Manhattan in the spring captured the imagination and gave his work an added dimension. Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 9
MadC in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Mad C. MB6 Street Art. Marrakesh Biennale 6. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 8
Maya Hayuk in Brooklyn, NY.

Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 7
Invader in Jersey City, NJ.

Space Invader in Jersey City for Mana Urban Arts Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 6
Collin Van Der Sluijs. Super A in Berlin.

Collin Van Der Sluijs . Super A. Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 5
Kurar in Berlin

Kurar for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 4
Biggie Smalls in Brooklyn, NY.

Rocko & Zimer. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 3
Otto “Osch” Schade in Brooklyn, NY.

OSCH for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 2
Klops in Brooklyn, NY.

Klops for The Bushwick Collective illuminates the concentration of 90% of the media in the hands of 6 companies. In 1983 there were 50. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 1
Ron English in Brooklyn, NY.

Ron English brings Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty on a wall – in collaboration with The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

Miami Basel/Wynwood 2016 Wrap: Parade of Eye-Popping Beauty at a Portentous Time

December 7, 2016 Artists

An embarrassment of riches in so many ways, the Wynwood Street Art and mural scene is outrageously sexy, flashy, ugly, posey, pretty, proliferate and quizzically content-free. The annual outdoor urban art visual carnival that accompanies Art Basel in Miami is full of hi/low expectation and spectacle, and it confidently delivers on both.

1010. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Long-limbed and shimmery sleek women are often working the sidewalks like runways, the men are carefully posing/not posing/posing with open shirts and genial braggadocio, and there are thousands, more likely millions of selfies taken in front of painted walls.

International art fans are mixing with skater kids and hip hop heads and egg-headed social scientists and teenage marching bands and they are all gawking and interacting with loquacious mamacitas and bearded lumbersexuals; this is not your average clambake.

Sometimes it is just weird; flourescence mixed with plaid, shot-callers and violins, strollers and stillettos, an undertone of aggression and sexual tension, salt-of-the-earth with self-admiring clubbers, perfect skin and aerosol painted hands, a whiff of weed and a sense of wonder waiting to be discovered.

Audrey Kawasaki at The Hotel. Goldman Global Arts. South Beach. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

While there was a parade of 40 or so citizens and activists carrying signs and handing out flyers down the street to protest the oil pipelines taking sacred lands from native tribes and polluting natural water supplies, the thousands of art fans flooding the Wynwood neighborhood of Miami would have been hard pressed to find any Street Art talking about those topics.

Ironically the political shockwaves this year in Miami seemed to emanate from behind doors at the fair with Sam Durant’s “End White Supremacy” piece that many interpreted as a direct response to the election of a president whose followers include radical organizations that champion white supremacy. Alas, the piece was made in 2008, and although its hand-style emulates the hit and run scrawl of some graffiti on the street, it was a thoughtfully executed piece constructed as an illuminated sign.

David Choe. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

With one very notable exception, the enormous and frightful mural featuring Donald Trump as Heath Ledger’s Joker wielding a knife at the neck of the Statue of Liberty with the screaming headline “Come On… What the Hell Do You Have to Lose?” by 12 artists for The Bushwick Collective/Mana Urban Arts Project, the professionalization of Street Artists and their murals may be steering the paintings in Wynwood away from in-your-face activism.

Granted, no one is thinking that commercially branded ventures that actually pay artists to paint will encourage the outright expression of social or political opinions – that may challenge or frighten potential customers and investors. Hotel lobbies need murals, sport cars need decorative painting, beer cans need labels. A number of liquor and lifestyle companies have invited artists here over the last few years and paid them to make their special events and products visually appealing, but little else.

David Choe portrait of Martha Cooper and her cat Mélia. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The newly refurbished Hard Rock stadium a few miles north of Miami features huge mural installations by international Street Artists that are curated by Goldman Global Arts, a division of Goldman Properties, the same real estate organization that has brought artists from around the world to the Wynwood Walls compound and featured their fine art canvasses in gallery expositions since the late 2000s. The pieces are opus works in an unusual setting and now sports fans are going to be up close and personal with some of the bigger names in Street Art right now.

It would be hypocritical for anyone to expect that these artists should accept commercial work and yet disrespect guidelines about the content. Similarly, expecting artists not to seek commercial opportunities for fear of “selling out” is arrogant and unrealistic and often the convenient provenance of privileged youth who dabble in “slumming” as a rebellious lifestyle. Later they are bankers.

David Choe. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Even so, where’s the anger right now? Why didn’t you see a lot of furious diatribes, challenges to power, and mockery of small-minded thinking on the street in Wynwood – and what would it take for Street Art to embrace its power to affect social and political change?

Just posing the question here now, again – as the topics of impending fascism, the increasing acts of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia, corruption, oligarchy, state-corporatism, and a systematic eroding of respect for our institutions – all came up in conversations at bars, art openings, panel discussions, and roof parties.

Okuda. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The murals you see here are often technically superb and their themes, while muted, may address some of the larger themes affecting society, but one wonders if there is an internalized censorship that we have accepted.

These images are admittedly of a modest percentage of the hundreds of legal murals and illegally dashed-off pieces we saw this week, but that’s only because we have edited for our individual aesthetics, not because of content. Also admittedly, as people in the arts, we are exhausted from the recent election and all it portends, and we were happy for some glorious eye candy to salve the psychic wounds – so maybe we were selectively seeing what we wanted to.

Probably not too much though.

For an art practice with some serious and proud roots in activism, the walls in Miami are curiously quiet. But they definitely look amazing.

Pixel Pancho. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Findac. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith 47. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martin Whatson. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood / Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. June. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

INO. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

INO. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © INO)

Shepard Fairey. Mana Urban Arts Projects. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vhils. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The London Police. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hueman. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jen Stark. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AVAF. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bordalo II. Uninhibited Festival 2016. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peeta. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Knarf. Work in progress. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our week’s coverage on BSA:

Wynwood Awakes: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 1

Police Arrest in Miami: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 2

You’ll Need Good Shoes: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 3

Clubhouse Chemistry in a Warehouse : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 4

Paint, Protest, Party : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 5

Urban Contemporary Inside the Fair : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 6

This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Paint, Protest, Party : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 5

December 2, 2016 Artists

Scope! The verb, not the art fair.

We will be hitting SCOPE shortly but in the interim we’ve been scoping for action or trouble; trolling around the streets of Wynwood and other selected odd locations to find Street Artists actively brush-painting, aerosol painting, markering, stenciling, wheat-pasting, even tying some wires and ribbons around fences. The walls and murals and the scene are all transforming in front of your eyes here, with photographers, videographers, and drones all flying around to capture the action as it progresses.

Bob from The London Police working at their mural for the new Goldaman offices in Wynwood, Miami. Wynwood Walls 2016 /Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This neighborhood is an art fair, without the attitude. Well, maybe there is attitude occasionally on display as well.

Also, political speech was pushing through the carousing beer swilling, late-sipping, burrito chomping streets yesterday with a 50 person troop of protesters with home made signs addressing the massive oil pipeline that is routed through sacred land of Native Americans in North Dakota and a pipeline planned to go through Florida.

Oil pipelines protest in Wynwood. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

We followed them for a few blocks, listening to chants about water and hegemony and found that for many art/party fans it was a curiosity to see citizens demonstrating, and a few bystanders took the fluorescent green flyers offered and said thanks, while others took photos and naturally, selfies with the marchers.

Just one more element to add to your sense of cognitive dissonance.

Pichi & Avo. Work in progress. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Night time in the Wynwood District is a chaotic grimy glittery mix of high and low and middle in the neighborhood as well – where you are as likely to catch a whiff of a models’ perfume as she sashays past you in a backless silver mini dress with her 3 leggy friends flipping their long hair over their shoulders as you are to catch a whiff of sweet ganga smoke from the joint of an open-shirted, low-waisted Romeo in dreadlocks or one the acrid whiff of the rumpled grayish clothing worn by the guy who is sitting on a chair against a mural and is ready to spend another night laying on the sidewalk after you stumble back to your hotel.

Pichi & Avo. Detail. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An ongoing slothful and bloated and thumping network of car-minivan-limo-Escalade-motorcycle traffic is rolling into a mechanical Ambian lethargy, at times looking more like a parking lot or tailgating party, grid-locking and popping and actively cruising the options parading down the sidewalks, with windows open and music pumping.

With no police at intersections to ease the flow of this jamtastic scene, low-bubbling rage mixes with cologne and produces slick insults hurled at the guy whose car is blocking the traffic flow, or more importantly, your flow. The song of the night wafting through the air on one corner, perhaps because a bicycle would be a perfect solution here, is called Bicycleta.

Luckily for us, we are usually on foot and not afraid to walk to find the good stuff. That is the best way to experience the street and the various events and to catch artists at work. Enjoy a few scenes from the day and one from the evening in Wynwood in Miami.

Ron English touching up his mural from a previous edition of Wynwood Walls. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ken Hiratsuka. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Detail. Work in progress. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Work in progress for Mana Urban Arts Project. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insa and Drew Merritt. Work in progress. This will be an augmented reality wall which the public will be able to appreciate on Saturday with an app. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insa and Drew Merrit. Work in progress. This will be an augmented reality wall which the public will be able to appreciate on Saturday with an app. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Bros. Perfecting ones curtsy to the Queen comes in handy while painting on a wall. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obey, people! Or not, its up to you. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Talk at the new Goldman art gallery with Martha Cooper, Crash, Tristan Eaton, Faith47 and Pixel Pancho. Moderated by Steven P. Harrington of BSA. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo at the Hard Rock Stadium for Goldman Global Arts

This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

Clubhouse Chemistry in a Warehouse : BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 4

December 1, 2016 Artists

One of the fantastic parts of Miami’s Art Basel / Wynwood craziness, aside from the colorful drinks and hair sculptures and accidental tripping over almost every Street Artist you have heard of (and many whom you haven’t) is the sheer amount of madhouse chemistry that explodes in your face because of new partnerships and events – like the Juxtapoz Clubhouse in Wynwood opening today.

Olek. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The premier contemporaty and underground magazine and cultural stew from the west coast teams up with New Jersey’s Mana Urban Arts and others this year to take over one of those previously run-down and neglected parts of the neighborhood to create an “immersive retreat”.

Denis McNett. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We got a behind-the-scenes peek at the installations and artworks in advance of today’s opening and were pleased to see that the quality is slammin’ –with sufficiently large installations to create an environment and to stand on their own as fully realized concepts.

So many of these artists can work larger, and many have: Dennis McNett stages fully performances and parades of characters pounding like warriors through streets, for example. Dude, the energy is good.

Denis McNett. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The mix of producers/collaborators at the Clubhouse is contemporary, theatrical, and somehow darkly comic –Jonathan Levine Gallery, Chandran Gallery, MILK Studios, ThinkSpace, and the 1xRun crew – a smartly flipped trip of heavy hitters that relies on the strangely symbiotic and the serendipitous to succeed.

Check out some of the work here and if you are in Miami go to 2400 NW 5th Avenue from December 1-4.

Laurence Vallieres. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ever at work on his installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern at work on his painting. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Scott Campbell. This is is an interactive piece which will involve the public. Mr. Campbell is a tattoo artist and through a raffle willing participants will have the opportunity to have their arm tattooed but they will not know what the tattoo will be until completed. The participants will stick his or her arm, trough the hole in the middle of the installation and Mr. Campbell will be unseen, working on the tattoo on the other side of the wall. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail of her installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Wallacavage. Jonathan LeVine Gallery x Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz. Jonathan LeVine Gallery x Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai. The Art of Beeing. Mana Urban Arts Projects x The Bushwick Collective/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You’ll Need Good Shoes: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 3

November 30, 2016 Artists

You’ll Need Good Shoes.

That’s what most people will tell you in the Wynwood District of Miami if you want to see everything, especially now that the murals go further north up the grid.

Street Artists are participating in singular and group gallery shows, mural shows, special events, DJ parties, installations, dinners, openings, and the occasional garbage can fire with a plastic bag full of beers.

The crowds are going to start hitting these sidewalks and clogging the streets in the next day or two but until then, aaaaaahhh summer!

Wait, tomorrow’s December. Technically not summer in the Northern Hemisphere.

Brooklyn clearly doesn’t know what to do when he gets to visit these palm treed parts of the country with his southern cousins.

Enjoy some of the action on the street from today.

This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

Police Arrest in Miami: BSA x UN BERLIN ART BASEL 2016: Dispatch 2

November 29, 2016 Artists

The police here in Miami have taken over the Goldman family offices in the Wynwood district.

Correction: Those would be the artists named The London Police and they are painting a new wall inside the just-opened offices of Goldman Properties – which is a different situation entirely.

However there was at least one arrest.

Hoisted overhead and hauled down to the station, Martha Cooper still manages to throw a gang sign as she is carted away by The London Police. Wynwood Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The real estate company has a new compound in Wynwood after years of supporting the famed Wynwood Walls compound where perhaps 100 or so international Street Art and graffiti names have brought their skillz since its inception as a living, breathing art project by family visionary Tony Goldman in the late 2000s.

David Choe. Detail. Portrait of Martha Cooper with her cat Mélia. The figure on the left that appears as half human/half whale is a reference to David’s graffiti days when whales were his signature. Wynwood Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In a shaded, gardened area of Wynwood we found Ken Hiratsuka pounding away with hammer and chisel Monday on the large boulders that have distinguished this part of the compound for years. It may have been only for a minute, but we’re pretty sure we saw these boulders covered with paint by Anthony Lister at one point, and perhaps one of these was washed in color at the foreground of a Ron English wall not long after. Definitely they’ve been a foundation for the crocheted pink camouflage skin created for them by OLEK only a couple of years ago during one of Jeffrey Dietch’s curations.

A close friend of Tony, who passed away in 2012, Mr. Hiratsuka has chiseled his continuous line-work into the sidewalks of Manhattan many times over the years – especially the ones made of slate and granite. Keep your eyes peeled and you’ll find his distinctive carvings where you walk in Soho right now, making him a true New York Street Artist.

Since first bringing his hand-pounded mark-making into the nearly lawless lower Manhattan after arriving from Tokyo in 1982, Hiratsuka may have done as many as 50 large pieces in the pedestrian paths of New York. He didn’t stop there but created a full career of it; with sculpted environments and chiseled streets in 21 countries. In this particular context, these new pieces may call to mind the paintings of Haring (and LA2) and Basquiat. All considered, it is remarkable to find him here for Wynwood’s wall celebrations this year – kicking off with the huge ‘artists dinner’ tonight.

Speaking of artists, we caught a few on the street, somewhat feverish in this winter warmth, protected often by clouds. Trolling around this outdoor beehive with photographer Martha Cooper in the afternoon, we found that many murals have just been finished – like Pixel Pancho’s gilded and caged paradise, Faith 47s heroic poetry and Okuda’s blended portrait. Earlier in the day while touring the nearby new Hard Rock Stadium we found new pieces in progress, like those by Spanish duo Pichi and Avo and Australia’s Fintan Magee.

Fintan Magee at work on one of his two murals at the Hard Rock Stadium in Miami. Wynwood Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This article is the result of a collaborative partnership with BSA and Urban Nation (UN).

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David Choe. Detail. Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plotbot Ken’s post-apocolyptic installation on a car at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Handstyle and all New York, baby. Faust. Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One of Swoon’s new additions to the street in 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASTRO in East Harlem for #NotACrime campaign in collaboration with Street Art Anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

More than his multiple murals published here this year, this sculpture on 23rd Street in Manhattan in the spring captured the imagination and gave his work an added dimension. Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mad C. MB6 Street Art. Marrakesh Biennale 6. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Space Invader in Jersey City for Mana Urban Arts Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collin Van Der Sluijs . Super A. Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kurar for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rocko & Zimer. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OSCH for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klops for The Bushwick Collective illuminates the concentration of 90% of the media in the hands of 6 companies. In 1983 there were 50. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English brings Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty on a wall – in collaboration with The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1010. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Audrey Kawasaki at The Hotel. Goldman Global Arts. South Beach. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Choe. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Choe portrait of Martha Cooper and her cat Mélia. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

David Choe. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Okuda. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For an art practice with some serious and proud roots in activism, the walls in Miami are curiously quiet. But they definitely look amazing.

Pixel Pancho. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Findac. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith 47. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Felipe Pantone. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood Walls. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Martin Whatson. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood / Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. June. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

INO. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

INO. The Raw Project. Eneida M. Hartner Elementary School. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © INO)

Shepard Fairey. Mana Urban Arts Projects. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Vhils. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tristan Eaton. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The London Police. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hueman. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jen Stark. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Detail. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AVAF. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Goldman Global Arts. Hard Rock Stadium. Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bordalo II. Uninhibited Festival 2016. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peeta. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Knarf. Work in progress. Wynwood /Art Basel Miami 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bob from The London Police working at their mural for the new Goldaman offices in Wynwood, Miami. Wynwood Walls 2016 /Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Oil pipelines protest in Wynwood. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Pichi & Avo. Work in progress. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pichi & Avo. Detail. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron English touching up his mural from a previous edition of Wynwood Walls. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ken Hiratsuka. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim. Detail. Work in progress. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Work in progress for Mana Urban Arts Project. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Work in progress for Mana Urban Arts Project. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insa and Drew Merritt. Work in progress. This will be an augmented reality wall which the public will be able to appreciate on Saturday with an app. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Insa and Drew Merrit. Work in progress. This will be an augmented reality wall which the public will be able to appreciate on Saturday with an app. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Bros. Perfecting ones curtsy to the Queen comes in handy while painting on a wall. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Obey, people! Or not, its up to you. Wynwood / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Talk at the new Goldman art gallery with Martha Cooper, Crash, Tristan Eaton, Faith47 and Pixel Pancho. Moderated by Steven P. Harrington of BSA. Wynwood Walls 2016 / Art Basel. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Olek. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Denis McNett. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Denis McNett. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Laurence Vallieres. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ever at work on his installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ever. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fintan Magee. Detail. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cern at work on his painting. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cinta Vidal. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zio Ziegler. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Low Bros. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail of her installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon. Detail of her installation. Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adam Wallacavage. Jonathan LeVine Gallery x Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dan Witz. Jonathan LeVine Gallery x Juxtapoz Club House x Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shepard Fairey. Mana Urban Arts Projects/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai. The Art of Beeing. Mana Urban Arts Projects x The Bushwick Collective/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai. The Art of Beeing. Mana Urban Arts Projects x The Bushwick Collective/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Case Maclaim sketching his wall for Wynwood Walls/Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Please Do! Artist Unknown. Art Basel 2016. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)