All posts tagged: Atomik

Box Trucks – Some of the Best Graffiti On Wheels

February 1, 2024 Artists

Jaime Rojo has built an impressive collection of photographs of these, capturing the essence of New York’s streets through his lens with an array of box trucks that weave and jolt their way through traffic, often seen opening their gates to load and unload amidst the noise of city life. These trucks, adorned with cryptic and crazily painted graffiti, have become pivotal platforms for urban expression, succeeding subway cars as the canvas of choice after the MTA’s crackdown on trains. Rojo’s vast archive features hundreds, perhaps thousands, of these nomadic art pieces, transforming ordinary vehicles into a main showcase for artists’ narratives and tributes to urban royalty, with eclectic themes and styles that span all five boroughs.

These mobile galleries, nestled on private property and often commissioned by the owners, navigate a legal grey zone, untouched by state or city regulations. They offer a transient exhibition space, constantly in flux, moving across bridges, navigating the FDR, or idly sitting in traffic, right beside you. Each truck is a fleeting installation, a snapshot of the city’s dynamic art scene that you may know or not.

Back in the wild days of 2014, we published a small survey of the ubiquitous box trucks roaring through the streets of NYC. Most commonly used by movers helping residents move in or out of their homes, these trucks obviously serve a more lofty purpose. You can see HERE our article from 2014.

As we present a new installation of this collection once more, we delve into the latest series of box truck artworks that continue to serenade New York’s streets. This ever-evolving display captures the spirit of the city, revealing stories and visions that are as mobile as they are momentary, reflecting the vibrant, shifting nature of urban life through the eyes of famed photographer Jaime Rojo. Step outside and enjoy a moving art fest on the street just for you.

CURVE MEMORIAL TO KYRO (photo © Jaime Rojo)

UNIDENTIFIED WRITER (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 03.19.23

March 19, 2023 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Binho, Patch Whisky, Atomik, Mr. Blob, Ouch, Ghost Beard, Habibi, Mona Dash, John Pierre, WHKBT, Giulio Rosk, Weerdo, and Chica Dania.

OUCH. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Chica Dania. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho. Weerdo Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Habibi. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Giulo Rosk. Mr. Blob. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WH KBT. Mr. Blob. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

John Pierre. Mr. Blob. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Patch Whisky. Ghost Beard. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mona Dash. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Queens, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.10.21 / Wynwood Teaser

October 10, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

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“Gurl, I Just Came For the Sunburn” is the cleverly worded T-shirt design we just conjured, but didn’t see in any of the many stores selling “Miami”-emblazoned memorabilia this weekend. New Yorkers are from a colder climate where sexy college girls are already wearing tight turtleneck sweaters and leggings and handsome boys are sporting corduroy and blazers. Not here in Miami Beach or Wynwood, where less is more, and naked is a matter of opinion.

It’s Carnivale weekend so the streets and hotels are bursting with Brazilian and Trinidadian and otherwise Caribbean influences, including phenomenal costumes, dancing, trap music, and raucous peels of laughter. After some time on Miami Beach surrounded by bathing beauties and dodging freelance vendors selling Pina Coladas, margaritas, marijuana edibles, and other drugs from their backpacks, we caught an energetic and sexy floor show featuring earth-shaking amounts of bouncing beauty and a lip-synching rendition of Megan Thee Stallion’s “Girls in the Hood” that served so much twerking abandon that the fishnet stockings industry ran out of inventory by 3 am Sunday.

Here on the streets this quick sample of shots gives you an idea of the messages and palettes now greeting visitors all over this neighborhood of Wynwood– with some faces lifted from posters so you see how you’re supposed to be stylin’. Call it a survey of local color to ease you into the Miamian week BSA will be sharing with our readers. Bienvenidos!

Our interview with the street today includes Askew One, Atomik, Binho, Claudia La Bianca, Krayzie Bone, Guillermo Zanches, Irene Lopez Leon, Marina Capdevilla, Milu Correch, MSG Crew, Osorno, Pixel Pancho, and Rodo.

Pixel Pancho. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Flyer on the sidewalk for Carnivale. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

Milu Correch. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

AskewOne Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Claudia La Bianca. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Poster image. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

RODO. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Binho. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Irene Lopez Leon. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Osorno. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Marina Capdevilla. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Waiting for the valet outside brunch in Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

MSG. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomiko. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Krayzie Bone. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Carnevale participants all dressed and ready to go. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.26.20

January 26, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

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The city is in mid-winter “blah” mode. We suffered a fire at the New York City’s Museum of Chinese in America this week, and the Brooklyn Borough President Eric Adams used his Martin Luther King Day speech to tell recent arrivals to ‘Go back to Iowa,’ Things can be tough out here people.

In Street Art and graffiti news, New York has had some “whole car” pieces on the subway line recently, including one that looked like a whole train! Old timers were rubbing their eyes. According to a local media outlet, legendary graffiti artist Chris “Freedom” Pape gave his assessment; “..based on the artist’s philosophy, he gives it an “A” but based on the quality of the graffiti on old subways, he gives it a “C”. Also a new film about New York octogenarian Street Artist Robert Janz opened this week at the Anthology Film Archives. Janz in the Moment is the passion project of Filmmaker Joanna Kiernan that features many corners and crazy details of New York’s streets that are familiar to us – and probably to you.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week from Miami, and this time featuring Add Fuel, Atomik, Bisco Smith, CRKSHNK, Dal East, Feik, Hysterical Men, Jilly Ballistic, Kai, Mr. June, Pure Genius, Rick Azevedo, WCKT, What Will You Leave Behind, Will Power, and Winston Tseng.

London Kaye gives a shout out to the Australian’s wildlife, and of course to the people as well. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Feik. Wynwood. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bisco Smith. Wynwood. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Add Fuel. Wynwood. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kai. Wynwood. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Will You Leave Behind (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mr. June. Wynwood. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ric Azevedo. Wynwood. Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. NYC Subway. January 2020. Manhattan, NY.(photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.03.19

February 3, 2019 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week, Graffiti, Mural Art, Street Art, Urban Art

“Man, what’s with this cough that never goes away?” you ask your boy Tre, who’s laying on the moss green living room rug by the radiator drawing in his black book with an extra fine tip paint pen, listening to Wu Tang. “Could be January,” he offers. “Or maybe its asbestos from that work they’re doing in the elevator shaft.”

Right. “Never mind, lets watch some Beer Bowl!”

Meanwhile on the streets the ideas never stop. We were pretty excited to get up to 167th Street station to see the new mosaics by Brooklyn artist Rico Gatson, who does painting, video, sculpture and installation. These portraits of important contributors to the culture make us all proud. Here are just a handful but there are more and you should go and see them yourself.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring Atomik, Captain Eyeliner, Deih XLF, finDAC, Go Vegan, Hoxxoh, Kai, Kevin Ledo, Lefty Out There, Mastrocola, My Dog Sighs, Pez, Rico Gaston, The Revolution Artists, Uninhibited, and What is Adam.

Supreme Justice Sonia Sotomayor immortalized by Rico Gatson in the NYC Subway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Poet Laureate Maya Angelou immortalized by Rico Gatson in the NYC Subway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Singer Celia Cruz immortalized by Rico Gatson in the NYC Subway. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lefty Out There in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik and friends in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

What Is Adam in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collaboration between FinDAC and Kevin Ledo in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Uninhibited in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Revolution Artists in Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A collaboration among different artists in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mastrocola in Miami (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Wynwood, Miami. December 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week:02.18.18

February 18, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to Images of the Week! Great stuff this week from Portugal, Spain and good old NYC to flip your Aunt Betty’s wig.

The big news this week of course was that the 5 Points graffiti compound case was awarded to the 21 plaintiffs. But its not just local: it may have national implications when building owners will be insisting on contracts with anyone who paints their property. It may also confuse and scare off many opportunities for artists, where building owners will simply say no to the proposal.

The settlement, which we covered in Tell It to The Judge ; Graffiti Artists Win in 5 Pointz Case, has infuriated many and thrilled others expressing their opinion on social media. One of our 5 Ptz postings on Facebook this week garnered 1,300 comments, a nest of misunderstanding mediated by the occasional level head, offset by congratulations and victory laps. Naturally, folks from other parts of the country insulted us New Yorkers. Welcome to the world of graffiti and Street Art!

The Black Panther movie has many New Yorkers enthralled as it premiered on Tuesday night at the Museum of Modern Art. Theaters drew entire families and school groups many standing in line in costume as they waited to see powerful and positive black super-heroes and heroines. The Times Magazine says it is a defining moment for black America .

Nationally we are all still trying to grapple with another school shooting, producing more Thoughts and Prayers, and another round of Mueller indictments that continue to encircle the White House.

Finally, Brooklyn’s Kehinde Wiley pulled the curtain down with Barack Obama at the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery to reveal his official portrait – HERE. Just kidding, here are Barack and Michelle’s official portraits.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Atomik, Bigod, City Kitty, Daniel Eime, Desla, Exit.Enter.K, Fatal Fake, Free the Nipple, Gane, Gebraël, Kram, Little Ricky, Obey, Texas, We’kup, and Zest B.

Top Image: Daniel Eime in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Going out on a limb here to say you may see MOMO, Vhils, and James Bullough similarities merged here. Nonetheless, its a solid mural by Daniel Eime here in Bairro Padre Cruz, Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bigod. Bairro Padre Cruz. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (we couldn’t decipher the signature) Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gane . Texas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free Boobies. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Triple Nipple. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free The Nipple. Yeah! Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Little Ricky (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’kup . Exit. Enter. K. Obey. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Desla (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zest B. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gebraël. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smile. Bairro Padre Cruz, Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fatal Fake . Kram. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Fatal Fake . Kram. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Bill S. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Yawn. Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.28.18

January 28, 2018 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Stumbling and slipping and dancing through January here in New York requires dexterity and a tolerance for dry skin and flattened hat-hair and the occasional sore throat. Thankfully there are great indoor activities sometimes like the huge trippy balloon installations by suave art dynamo Jihan Zencirli at her opening exhibition inside the NYC Ballet atrium Friday night. Hundreds of thousands of balloons, free bourbon, and a DJ after a surprisingly post-post-modern program of envelope pushing dancing on the mainstage by amazing pros! Gurl, that ballet is ballin’.

Elsewhere in art news the Guggenheim’s Nancy Specter offered a gold-plated toilet to the White House after turning down their request to borrow a VanGogh, people lined up to see “One Basquiat” at the Brooklyn Museum this week while they streamed by many Basquiats on New York Streets without looking in the 80s, and New York magazine announced a “public art” campaign with 50 artists (Yoko Ono, Barbara Krueger, Marilyn Minter) this year that sounds a lot like it is borrowing heavily from Street Art techniques “throughout the five boroughs and in a variety of formats, such as on street lamps or “wild postings” on walls around the city.” Wild postings?

One more indoor exhibit totally worth your time is Ann Lewis’s installations at a no-name popup in Manhattatan. The conceptual Street/gallery activist artist continues to push her own boundaries, and many of ours, with her work addressing difficult social and political issues like police brutality, institutional bias against women, racism, the Resistance. At a time when we need women’s voices to rise, she collaborates with StudioSpaceNYC at a pop-up at 149 West 14th Street (shots from the installation below).

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Ann Lewis, Atomik, Jihan Zencirli, Obey, Pet-de-None, Shepard Fairey, Studio Space NYC and Tona.

Top Image: TONA in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OBEY in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis and Studio Space NYC exhibition/collaboration “Unspoken”. Stay tuned for more on this exhibition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pet-de-None in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cinza in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hasta la vista B2B in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DON’T EAT ME in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We couldn’t read this tag…help anyone? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA Geronimo at the NYC Ballet installation. Detail. More to come shortly… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan and the East River from the Williamsburg Bridge. January 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mong Kok: Hong Kong and a Graffiti Hall Of Fame

May 3, 2017 Artists

There is a lot you can do in Mong Kok, one of the most commercial and bustling neighborhoods in the Kowloon section of Hong Kong. There’s the Ladies’ Market with more than 100 vendors offering bargains on clothing and accessories, Sneakers Street, which will have you swimming in pumped up kicks, and don’t forget the Bird market – where you find old guys “walking” their birds in cages and see someone feeding live crickets to others.

Kwiz. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Surprisingly left out of most tourist guides however is this hidden patch of organic graffiti that just grows wild in a relatively quiet haven that is actually within this chaotic neighborhood.

Wild Style. Tags. Throwups. Bubble tags. Burners. The occasional burnout.

Wais. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

All is here today gone tomorrow, regularly replenished, some seriously styled. Local names are here, but so are a lot of international names so you know its a go-to spot for traveling vandals. Hidden from the main hustle of the streets and underneath a major viaduct lies a secret alley bursting with color…and trash…and homeless people and art. Some furtive lovers come here to steal a kiss or two.

On the day we went the sweet smell of weed hung in the air as if being blown from some secret pipe to keep the residents of this monstrous city chilled…Some tags we recognize, many other we don’t or simply can’t read.

Wais. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ares. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hadrian. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti Joiners, MATY. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maty. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miami’s Atomik hosted by XEME. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CWD. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien de Casabianca/Outings Project. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ryck. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.06.16

November 6, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Today is Marathon Day in New York City and the leaves on the trees have turned to oranges and reds and yellows to welcome the 26,000 people running through all five boroughs. In two days right here in New York City both Donald J. Trump and Hillary Clinton will wait at their campaign headquarters to see the results of the longest and slimiest presidential campaigns most of us can remember, with many of us reporting that it made us sick.

There is plenty of blame to go around, and hopefully these are simply the fitful growing pains of a fighting, evolving society and not the stabbing spasms of a dissolute, dying republic.

So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Amanda Wong, Atomik, Boa Mistura, BK Foxx, Cash4, Giver, Kobra, Lexi Bella, Moter, Olek, Rambo, Reverend, Rocko, Ruben Sanchez, Sheryo, Sokar Uno, Wolftits, and You Go Girl.

OLEK on the roof of the Ice Factory in Jersey City, NJ in collaboration with Mana Urban Arts Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We asked Olek about this brand new crocheted billboard she and a small team installed this week in New Jersey. We publish her reflections and statement here for BSA readers.

“This crocheted billboard is my uncommissioned letter to Hillary Clinton, a letter from a woman, an artist, and a naturalized US citizen.

This election has been fueled by hate and negativity. Initially, I did not want to make overtly political art. But then I realized I must, as too much is at stake. I could either make a negative statement about the other candidate or a positive one about Hillary. When a piece of art has 1000 hours of hand labor invested in it, I’d rather it be a positive statement.

Hillary might not be cool, but she is qualified, experienced and competent. I don’t want to hang out with her. I don’t want to drink beer with her. I don’t want to go dancing all night with her. I want her to be our president. I want her to run this country!

This is history happening in front of you, incredible and groundbreaking. The first African-American president will pass the most important job in the USA to the first woman president. No one would have imagined this just 50 years ago. So yes, these are amazing times.

Look at what is happening in Europe. Countries are returning to a conservative stance and people’s rights are being trampled and revoked. Few believed Brexit could take place, but indeed it did. We should learn from this mistake. Hate crimes are escalating. Immigrants, and especially Polish citizens, are being beaten and even killed. We cannot let this happen here in USA. We cannot go down this path of destruction in The United States of America.

I involved people across the USA to help me with this project. It was about a community working together and making a statement. We had two main groups crocheting – one in Virginia Beach and one in NYC. The excitement was tangible as we worked together to realize this vision. Each day we gathered in my tiny studio, those outside of NYC would join via Skype, as we all crocheted around the clock, talking to each other about our commitment to this piece and to Hillary Clinton, listening to music, podcasts, and audiobooks. Everyone involved jumped on this project because they believed in it.

We are happy that we have achieved it.

I am an artist. I am a woman. As both I must make a statement. I cannot remain neutral or silent. I wish more people would find a way make positive statements. Unfortunately, negativity sells much better these days.

It is imperative for the future of our country that we succeed in electing Hillary Clinton as President of The United States of America this November 8^th.” – OLEK

The Bushwick Collective Turns 5

June 11, 2016 Artists

BSA has been promoting and supporting The Bushwick Collective and the artists who paint there from the very beginning.

Before The New York Times. Before Time Out. Before The Daily News and many other news or culture outlets. Before there were any videos of Joe Ficalora telling his story. Before Social Media turned every private act into an object for mass consumption. Before the street art tours. Before Street Art was a cottage industry in our borough.

As we celebrate five years of Bushwick Collective we have a question for you: Do you remember it’s original name before he changed it to Bushwick Collective? Joe contacted us out of the blue one day to ask us to curate some walls with him and to help him contact some artists and we immediately sensed a determination in Mr. Ficalora that was stellar. However, we never could have envisioned the huge daily festival it has become or how many people would celebrate or malign it.

Bushwick Open Studios was already in full effect by that time – another artists’ effort we were among the first to support – and Manhattan art fans were beginning to make the trek a little further out on the L train to Bushwick now that Williamsburg had been clobbered by consumers by the late 2000s.

The first Bushwick Collective party had a DJ and 10 muralists. Jim Avignon, KLUB 7, and Gabriel Spector among them. Unofficially included was the huge “return” of COST, who slammed an entire defunct garage shop with posters and paint – a site that he often returned to in the months that followed to revise and expand.

It’s been a rollicking and sometimes rocky ride with the Collective, with mostly the voices of fans and few detractors, including silly art-school gentrifiers who bemoaned the gentrification that these murals brought to the neighborhood. Also local graff writers felt disrespected or overlooked by what they perceived as an invasion, and you can’t blame them for feeling that way.

Mostly, it has been a celebration of the creative spirit in these twenty-teens in Brooklyn and we all know that this too is a temporary era, as New York is continually reinventing itself. Enjoy these murals smacked cheek-by-jowl for block after block by an international train of talents running through Bushwick today, because they are here for you to enjoy in this moment. Like David Bowie wisely told us, “These are the golden years.”

San Francisco Survey : Street Art and Graffiti

May 28, 2014 Artists

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness,” so says Charles Dickens in the opening paragraph of A Tale of Two Cities, and who can’t believe it is true that he was speaking of today? Whether you are Darnay or Carton, that books two protagonists, this is the prism through which you will see the twin beasts of wisdom and foolishness in all the writings on the walls in our cities.

Easily dismissed for decades by the classists as the uncouth scribblings of the unschooled, the graffiti that persisted throughout train yards and tunnels and cities globally also developed and deepened, expanded and metamorphosed. Once simply seen as outright rebellion, the language around the graffiti scene has transformed, and with reason. Today sometimes clumsily grouped under the moniker “street art” or “urban art” graffiti and its family gets a second view, and a third; while academia and theorists and philosophers grapple to come to terms with a language they didn’t create, cannot compose in, but endeavor to learn.

Meanwhile it is collected, traded, reproduced, emulated and imitated. For its part, new generations of freewheeling graffiti and its practitioners and celebrants continue unabated; uncommissioned, un-permissioned, and despite ever more apoplectic attempts by municipalities and technologies to silence it, it continues to speak. Further confounding, some of its denizens have taken up arms and laid in the same bed with that most benign and good-willed pillar of public art, the legal mural.

Today we go to San Francisco, one of our most pricey cities, to see what the aerosol writers are saying currently. With new shots that capture part of this moment by photographer Brock Brake, we see that the language of the street and even the row house have become as multitudinous as the dominant culture and as perplexing as it is sometimes powerful. Or not. Are these the best of times?

“..in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only,” says Dickens.

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Please note: All content including images and text are © BrooklynStreetArt.com, unless otherwise noted. We like sharing BSA content for non-commercial purposes as long as you credit the photographer(s) and BSA, include a link to the original article URL and do not remove the photographer’s name from the .jpg file. Otherwise, please refrain from re-posting. Thanks!

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This article was also published on The Huffington Post

BSA Hits The North! – See You Soon in Belfast, Northern Ireland
April 23, 2024
We are excited to announce that BSA will be part of the exhilarating ‘Hit the North’ 2024 festival in Belfast! …Read More »
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Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week. We decided to dedicate this weekly survey to the artists of “Return 2 …Read More »
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Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »
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“Idle Time has become that free moment we have between one task and another in the production process. Productive inertia …Read More »

Top Image: Daniel Eime in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Going out on a limb here to say you may see MOMO, Vhils, and James Bullough similarities merged here. Nonetheless, its a solid mural by Daniel Eime here in Bairro Padre Cruz, Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bigod. Bairro Padre Cruz. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist (we couldn’t decipher the signature) Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gane . Texas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free Boobies. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Triple Nipple. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free The Nipple. Yeah! Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Little Ricky (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We’kup . Exit. Enter. K. Obey. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Desla (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zest B. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gebraël. Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Smile. Bairro Padre Cruz, Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fatal Fake . Kram. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Fatal Fake . Kram. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Fatal Fake . Kram. Barcelona, Spain. (photo © Lluís Olivé Bulbena)

Bill S. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Yawn. Brooklyn, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Top Image: TONA in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OBEY in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis and Studio Space NYC exhibition/collaboration “Unspoken”. Stay tuned for more on this exhibition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ann Lewis and Studio Space NYC exhibition/collaboration “Unspoken”. Stay tuned for more on this exhibition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pet-de-None in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cinza in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hasta la vista B2B in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DON’T EAT ME in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We couldn’t read this tag…help anyone? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA Geronimo at the NYC Ballet installation. Detail. More to come shortly… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jihan Zencirli AKA Geronimo at the NYC Ballet installation. Detail. More to come shortly… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist in Lisbon. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan and the East River from the Williamsburg Bridge. January 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kwiz. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Surprisingly left out of most tourist guides however is this hidden patch of organic graffiti that just grows wild in a relatively quiet haven that is actually within this chaotic neighborhood. Wild Style. Tags. Throwups. Bubble tags. Burners. The occasional burnout.

Wais. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wais. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ares. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hadrian. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Graffiti Joiners, MATY. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maty. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miami’s Atomik hosted by XEME. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CWD. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien de Casabianca/Outings Project. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Julien de Casabianca/Outings Project. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ryck. Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mongkok: Hong Kong Graffiti Hall of Fame. March, 2017. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our top image: Kobra’s new monumental mural of David Bowie in Jersey City, NJ. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kobra at work on his mural of David Bowie. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lexi Bella portrait of Frida Kahlo for JMZ Murals. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OLEK on the roof of the Ice Factory in Jersey City, NJ in collaboration with Mana Urban Arts Project. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sokar Uno (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BK Foxx for JMZ Murals. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

An Amanda Wong Love Letter to her man in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boa Mistura spreadin’ some love. It’s the Brooklyn way. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Boa Mistura (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Atomik in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sheryo in Detroit Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

REVEREND at Lincoln Park in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Reverend . You Go Girl . Giver and a couple of tags we can’t ID in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wolf Tits in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RAMBO in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Class War…Cash4 in Detroit, Michigan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Surprisingly left out of most tourist guides however is this hidden patch of organic graffiti that just grows wild in a relatively quiet haven that is actually within this chaotic neighborhood.

Wild Style. Tags. Throwups. Bubble tags. Burners. The occasional burnout.