BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Feeling that Valentine’s chocolate buzz? Gearing up for President’s Day? Thank goodness for holidays—little pauses in the relentless, whiplash-inducing news cycle we’re all riding.
First, some street art news:
San Francisco street artist Rabi Torres taps into ad culture subversion with his new “We Buy Souls” campaign, echoing the tactics of Cash For Your Warhol artist Hargo—right down to the cryptic answering machine message and documentation website. This kind of remixing of commercial signage also has historical roots in Ed Ruscha’s experiments with text, Barbara Kruger’s billboard-style commands, Jenny Holzer’s wheat pasted provocations, Corita Kent’s screen prints, and the bold aesthetics of the Colby Poster Printing Co. Certainly Rabi is getting people’s attention in a San Francisco cityscape that some may describe as hammered with advertising. Call the number on the signs, and you might get pulled into an existential rabbit hole—if you’re up for the game. SF Gate breaks it down here.
It looks like the card company using Banksy-style artwork for its designs may soon put the anonymous street artist in the public eye, as its trademark case with Full Color Black continues to progress in court. Depending on the twists and turns of this legal case, you may see Banksy making a public appearance.
In the news chaos generated from DC: Federal worker layoffs, Justice Department resignations, talks of ‘reciprocal’ tariffs, Trump doesn’t know China is in BRICS, or why Musk met with India’s Modi, swears in RFK Jr. to HHS and Gabbard to National Security, Macron calls Trump’s return “electroshock”, Trump tries a U.S.-Russia-Ukraine reset, JD Vance critiques democracy in the EU, all kinds of drama swirls around NYC Mayor Eric Adams, and on Valentine’s Day Tom Homan of ICE said he’ll be up the mayor’s butt if he doesn’t get his way on New York’s immigrants. Also, the White House has just renamed The Gulf of Mexico to The Bank of America. Just kidding. Somewhere, a screenwriter is getting really annoyed that reality keeps stealing their ideas.
Meanwhile, here’s our interview with the streets this week, including Nick Walker, Clown Soldier, IMK, EXR, W3RC, Sluto, Short, Zaver, Katie Merz, Geraluz, Helch, HVC, TOD, Peter Daverington, Carve, and Kee:
