All posts tagged: Faile

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.04.24

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.04.24

Oh, You Flatter Us.

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

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.

Albertus Joseph. OTM Graff Crew. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Albertus Joseph. OTM Graff Crew. MeresOne. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
MeresOne (photo © Jaime Rojo)
MeresOne. Welling Court Mural Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dirty Bandits / Your Are Not Alone Murals. Welling Court Mural Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NYC Hooker. Welling Court Mural Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rari Grafix. Welling Court Mural Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rari Grafix. Welling Court Mural Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
BG183 / Tats Cru. Welling Court Mural Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fear (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Fear (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Below Key (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NOTICE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
QZAR. LOVE. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DEGRUPO. VISION. HOMESICK and friends. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Degrupo. Pear. Lare. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
TONEY. HORN. UNO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
TONEY. HORN. UNO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Winter 2024. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 11.12.23

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.12.23

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

A Chagall painting is stolen from a midtown gallery, Fab Five Freddy is in Vanity Fair, Carlo McCormick opened his curated “Wild Style” show at Deitch, the Christmas tree is going up in Rockefeller Center, the mayor’s phones have been seized in a mystery investigation, students are walking out of class and people are hitting the streets at Columbus Circle, Grand Central, and the Brooklyn Bridge to demand a ceasefire in Israel/Gaza. The frenetic muse is you, trying to make it make sense.

Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Faile, Stikman, Elle, Queen Andrea, CRKSHNK, Shiro, Espo, Homesick, DeGrupo, Michael Alan, Dark Clouds, Gats, Manik, Drones, ICU463, El Chalvo Del Ocho, Saxgraf, Smart RIS, Bianca Does New York, Uloang, and Chespirito.

Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CRKSHNK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ULOANG’s portrait of Chespirito as El Chavo del 8. A beloved character from one of the most popular shows on Latin American television ever. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Drones (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Saxgraf and Shiro collaboration. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SMART RIS (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bianca Does New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Elle and Queen Andrea collaboration (photo © Jaime Rojo)
GATS for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dark Clouds (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HOMESICK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HOMESICK, Degrupo, Manik and KimSHT. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ICU453 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ICU453 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ICU453 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist’s portrait of David Bowie. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Last Sunday’s edition of BSA Images Of The Week included a WIP photo of Michael Alan’s new mural. Here’s the completed version. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 07.23.23

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.23.23

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! A great week, minus the loss of Queens-born singer Tony Bennett Friday at 96, the sweeping of new immigrants out from under the BQE without regard for their few belongings and papers, and our general awareness of increased poverty on the streets, the introduction of the CBDC FedNow program with no fanfare in the press, and the gruesome news of the alleged serial killer suspect Rex Heuermann. On the other hand, we had some bright sunny days with lower humidity that pushed New Yorkers out in the streets and our parks to play games and read books and sashay in short shorts and strike up conversations with one another.

In street art and graffiti news, we appear to have entered an era of low-brow nouveau naive hand styling that has taken over characters and letters. Perhaps it is an attraction to the guileless or a need for clarity amidst the clutter – or that Gen Z doesn’t buy the bulls**t. Whatever it is, our art in the streets has a childlike quality that charms without being charming. So, drop the pretense, Pasqual. We all somehow know we are living in the eye of the hurricane so reach out and re-connect. And our street art is dazzling, entertaining, and has a sense of humor forged through sheer determination.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Chris RWK, Smells, Captain Eyeliner, JJ Veronis, Homesick, Neckface, Panic, Timothy Goodman, OH!, Aidz, Toe Flop, Wizard Skull, Emilio Florentine, Jakee, Tiny Hands Big Heart, RH Doaz, TobBob, Lucky Bubby, She Posse, Eww Gross Ok Fine, Carlton, Skiti, Five Gold Stars, Ekem 132, Rah Artz, 3Modes, Mdot Season, Luce Bokes, Words on the Street, Okina Cosmo, Alex Itin, and TomBob NYC.

Tom Bob NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
RH Doaz. Emilio Florentine. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Okina Cosmo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Neckface (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SMOE. SMELLS. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Luce Bokes (photo © Jaime Rojo)
AKEM 132 (photo © Jaime Rojo)
3Modes (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JJ Veronis (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Skitl. NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
She Posse. Tiny Hands, Big Heart. Captain Eyeliner. Eww Gross Ok Fine. Carlton. NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gloria Steinam and Angela Davis provide inspiration for She Posse, who remind us of the power Of revolutionary movements throughout history and encourage us to value solidarity. NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lucky Bubby. NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Chris RWK. OH! NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Wizard Skull. NYC PasteUp Polooza (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Words On The Street. Alex Itin. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
An advertisement for an exhibition by artist Timothy Goodman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Timothy Goodman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jakee (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HOMESICK. AIDZ. PANIC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
TOEFLOP (photo © Jaime Rojo)
MDOT SEASON (photo © Jaime Rojo)
RAH ARTZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)
FIVE GOLD STARS (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Williamsburg Bridge. East River, NYC. Summer 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 06.18.23

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.18.23

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! These are our longest days of the year. Savor them, luxuriate in them, celebrate the light. The trees, the grass, the plants, all richly green. The breezes are smooth against your cheek, the sound of kids screaming as they play in the park is like music.

The ebb and flow of humanity washes across the pavement daily here in our gritty city – forlorn, inquisitive, raucous, opinionated, gentle, buoyant, clever, blunt, wonderous, rarely neutral. Our murals are mighty, our styles can be wild, illustrative, fantastic, inertly corporate, romantically impressionist, electric and eclectic. Unlike many downtowns, this collection is organic and unmediated – perfectly imperfect. As inhospitable as this city can feel to a newcomer, remember this; You are welcome. Do your thing.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Joe Iurato, Queen Andrea, Dasic Fernandez, Optimo NYC, CES, Hef, Spot, KMS Crew, Ange, Bekah Bad, Logan Hicks, Hiraku, Agud, Lexi bella, and Jeff Hernandez.

Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Queen Andrea (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jeff Henriquez (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Agud (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Agud (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dasic Fernandez and a portrait of DJ Kool Herc (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dasic Fernandez (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dasic Fernandez (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dasic Fernandez (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hiraku. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lexi Bella. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Looks like Joe’s son is getting bigger. Joe Iurato & Logan Hicks. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Joe Iurato & Logan Hicks. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo NYC and friends smashing the Houston Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile dipping back to one of their early images, updated with hand rendered “1986” (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CES. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Bekah Bad for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ANGE. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEF & SPOT. KMS CREW. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEF & SPOT. KMS CREW. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEF & SPOT. KMS CREW. Detail. The Bushwick Collective Block Party 2023. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Summer 2023. Hot Pink Hollyhock. New York City. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 12.11.22

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.11.22

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. We begin with a series of shots from an outdoor exhibition on Governors Island right now. Timely, political, educational, and powerful; “Eyes on Iran” is an excellent opportunity to contemplate the values we say that we honor and are willing to fight for. It is also an opportunity for Iranians in New York to speak up regarding the ongoing protests in their home country to clarify what the issues are.

On a cold but sunny December day, it is also gratifying to see such visual eloquence in the public space. From the description: “Amplifying the critical movement of Woman, Life, Freedom, the exhibition ‘Eyes on Iran’ seeks to hold the world’s gaze on the unfolding revolution and human rights abuses in Iran, while continuing to demand effective action. With the installation facing the United Nations, the location of the installation calls for direct accountability required from the U.N and their respective global leaders.”

Artists include Sheida Soleimani, Aphrodite Désirée Navab, Z, Icy and Sot, Shirin Neshat, Mahvash Mostala, Sepideh Mehraban, Shirin Towfiq, JR, and conceptual artist and co-founder of For Freedoms Hank Willis Thomas. We share a few of them here with you.

And following those images we give you a few others from our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Glare, Short, Bumer, Randy, and Sidk.

Shirin Neshat. Offered Eyes, 1993. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Shirin Neshat.
A stark black and white photograph of the artist’s eye inscribed with farsi calligraphy with an excerpt from the Iranian female poet Forugh Farrokhzad’s poem “I Pity the Garden”.

Shirin Neshat. Offered Eyes, 1993. Detail. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Icy & Sot. Bricks of Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Icy and Sot created “Bricks of Revolution” to “represent the strength of
the activists who are currently risking their lives, inside and outside prisons, to fight oppression. This installation is an homage to political prisoners and all those paving the way to revolution in Iran.”

Icy & Sot. Bricks of Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Icy & Sot. Bricks of Revolution, 2022. Detail. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sheida Soleimani. Mahsa, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Uproot the Roots, Rise Up: Woman/Zan/2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Aphrodite Desiree Navab’s installation is appropriately timed with the Winter Solstice. On this night, Shab-e-Yalda, meaning “Night of Birth” in Farsi, Iranian girls tie colorful ribbons to trees, making wishes. As an Iranian-born, NYC-based artist and activist protesting in solidarity with Iranian women, my one wish is for women to live life in freedom. The bandanas are the colors of the Iranian flag -green, white, and red. However, they do not have symbols of either theocracy or monarchy at their center, but instead have one word in Farsi: meaning woman.

Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Uproot the Roots, Rise Up: Woman/Zan/2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Uproot the Roots, Rise Up: Woman/Zan/2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Aphrodite Desiree Navab. Uproot the Roots, Rise Up: Woman/Zan/2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Z. Baraye Your, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Z. Baraye Your, 2022. Detail. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sepideh Mehraban. Thread of Stories. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sepideh Mehraban. Thread of Stories. Detail. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shirin Towfiq. Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shirin Towfiq. Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shirin Towfiq. Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shirin Towfiq. Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shirin Towfiq. Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Shirin Towfiq. Revolution, 2022. The exhibition Eyes on Iran on view until December 31st at the Franklin D. Roosevelt Four Freedoms State Park. Roosevelt Island, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SHORT (photo © Jaime Rojo)
GLARE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
REM. BUMER. RANDY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Sidk (photo © Jaime Rojo)sidk
Untitled. Fall 2022, NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 12.04.22

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.04.22

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

A splendid selection this week of very entertaining pieces across the city. As we enter December, you can see that graffiti and street artists are going full-steam ahead into the new year – with personal, political, philosophical, and even romantic sentiments.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, SRKSHNK, Modomatic, Sara Lynne-Leo, Molly Crabaple, Cope, Riisa Boogie, Ollin, Short, Rezones, Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Kojo Hilton, Rad Bio, Duster, My Name is Annie, and The Jolly.

… but we appreciate the thought. Sara Lynne-Leo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Molly Crabapple love letter to Tbilisi via Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Molly Crabapple love letter to Tbilisi via Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Molly Crabapple love letter to Tbilisi via Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Molly Crabapple love letter to Tbilisi via Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Molly Crabapple love letter to Tbilisi via Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Coloring your hair is such a big job. The Jolly (photo © Jaime Rojo)
As the festivities in Wynwood are ablaze, the Bowery/Houston Wall is similarly ablaze with a holiday assortment of delicious organic home-made graffiti. Ollin, Duster For Mayor, My Name is Anna, Cope. The Houston-Bowery Wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Short (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Now available on CD-ROM! Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist…what’s with the mushrooms…we’ve noticed an uptick in mushrooms imaginary on the streets both in ads and in art. The National Mushroom Association must have contacted all the street artists to do a campaign or something. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Modomatic (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rad Bio (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Koho Hilton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Koho Hilton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Kojo Hilton. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Riiisa Boggie. Rezones (photo © Jaime Rojo)
CRKSHNK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Love. Brooklyn, NY. fall 2022. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 07.31.22

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.31.22

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is BSA-Animated-Banner_Images-Week-Jan-2021-V2.gif

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

The city is now under a Monkeypox state of emergency thanks to a declaration by our state governor as of yesterday. Also jujitsu triumphs over random public punching, New York City children would still want to play Nintendo and Gameboy in the event of a nuclear attack, and we actually have a lower crime rate than the 80s/90s – contrary to narratives of bedlam and hoopla in the streets of Gotham.

However, there do appear to be more sharks around this summer – and not just your cousin Melvin and his buddies at the pool hall. Ah, New York, your grizzled, gritty exterior hides such a fascinating crushed-velvet heart beating inside…

We’re mainly happy that it’s not a thousand degrees on the streets this weekend, a welcome relief to the heatwave. Ice cream, anyone?

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Stikman, Sticker Maul, Degrupo, Homesick, Cone, and Ked.

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Homesick (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Houston/Bowery Wall continues its organic summer show… definitely not on a hiatus folks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stikman (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Beavis Trump with a little splash of self-tanner by Degrupo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rapper Birdman is transforming into the superhero by Degrupo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Degrupo goes geometric. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Degrupo (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cone (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Met and the Ked (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ked (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ked (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ked (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stickermaul (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Stop All Wars ~please! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Summer 2022. NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 06.05.22

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.05.22

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is BSA-Animated-Banner_Images-Week-Jan-2021-V2.gif

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

A great beginning to summer with the Bushwick Collective Block Party this weekend – an enduring event that features ever larger hip hop names performing right on the street amidst a sea of street art and graffiti that still characterizes this Brooklyn neighborhood. Long gone are the naysayers and those who thought this international democratic people’s art movement was in the purview of a few tastemakers and gatekeepers. Joe showed that this form of creative expression was meant by the people to be for the people, and every year thousands traipse through to enjoy it.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Cycle, Faile, Lexi Bella, HOACS, Roachi, Duel, Trace, Zaone, Ligama, Carrasco, Minus, Foursome Crew, Feroz, Gerik Duenas, Rich Vagos, Loste, and HEFS.

Shades of Grace Jones come to mind here in this new mural by Lexi Bella for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party this weekend. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEFS three-dimensional tag. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEFS three-dimensional tag. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HEFS (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cycle (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Loste and Ligama for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ligama painting for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ligama for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rich Vagos in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Duel (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Gerik Duenas in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Feroz in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Trace / Foursome Crew for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Hoacs / Foursome Crew for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Roachi / Foursome Crew for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist in San Luis Potosi, Mexico. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ZaOne for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ZaOne for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Vintage Faile somewhere in Queens (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Carrasco for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Minus for The Bushwick Collective 11th Annual Block Party. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.24.22

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.24.22

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is BSA-Animated-Banner_Images-Week-Jan-2021-V2.gif

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

Colors wash over the city again, the greys now fading to the background. Even now, we stand in the shadow of war and all those who profit from it. Nevertheless, thanks to artists the streets are popping with promises, warnings, aspirations, exhortations, codes, and proclamation.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, Adam Fujita, Jason Naylor, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Lauren Asta, Chris Soria, DEK@DX, SidkaOne, Misha Tyutyunik, TDM2DX, Ergot, Flye Lyfe, YoYo Cam, Let It Out, and Suizid.

Jason Naylor (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Chris Soria and Misha Tyutyunik (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Chris Soria and Misha Tyutyunik (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentifed artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Almost over, keep smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Adam Fujita (photo © Jaime Rojo)
2DX TDM (photo © Jaime Rojo)
A three-dimensional tag on a sidewalk in NYC. It made our day:-) (photo © Jaime Rojo)
SidkaOne (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ergot (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Flye Lyfe (photo © Jaime Rojo)
YoYo Cam (photo © Jaime Rojo)
YoYo Cam (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Let It Out! (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Suizid (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lauren Asta (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Spring 2022. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Read more
History On View and On Sale: “1970s / Graffiti / Today” at Phillips, New York

History On View and On Sale: “1970s / Graffiti / Today” at Phillips, New York

It may be a challenge to identify the through-line when it comes to curation of artworks at an auction house exhibition. Selections are predicated on the availability of artworks at the moment and the exigencies of the market. And 30 additional variables.

You will however see a warm confirmation of greater themes in the new exhibition at Phillips auction house that opened last week entitled 1970s / Graffiti / Today, and you’ll leave enriched by the experience. With the works of 30 or so artists on display for approximately a month, it is not intended to be a comprehensive survey, yet it manages to spread a wide net over a number of scenes, practices, and personalities working on US streets during the previous five decades.

1970 S / Graffiti / Today sign with two canvasses by Eric Haze beneath. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)

There is a vastness to this scene, its people, its practices, its histories, its quality variations. As evidenced by a show like this, there is now a general acceptance of the street-born form of visual expression called graffiti, its various hybrids expressed broadly as street art, and the onward march of certain forms of both toward acceptance as contemporary art. As suggested by the title, you’ll probably see a good representation of each here, and one or two will strike you as quite impressive.

Swoon. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Curator Arnold Lehman is a recognized champion of that march forward, most notably for when he shepherded the “Graffiti” exhibition as Director of the Brooklyn Museum in 2006. That show, one of the first museum shows dedicated to the movement, featured 20 large-scale canvasses by graffiti artists that were donated by the estate of famous mid-century New York gallerist Sidney Janis, who had shown a number of them in the early 1980s.

A native New Yorker, Lehman grew up with graffiti on the trains and easily recognized the contributions it was making to his city and the culture. When he had an opportunity to introduce the works as an exhibition, he says he faced much opposition, despite the fact that it came from the collection of a gallery owner who was celebrated for introducing most of the emerging leaders of abstract expressionism, the Fauves, the Futurists – and later the proponents of Pop.

“He began showing graffiti in his gallery in 1981 or 1982,” Lehman says of Janis when speaking of the canvasses he organized in the Graffiti show at the Brooklyn Museum. “A number of my colleagues were quick to write and say, ‘Have you lost your mind?’ “

Arnold Lehman gestures toward canvasses by “TKid 170” and King Saladeen as the show’s curator gives a tour of the exhibition. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)

Five of those same canvasses provide an anchor in the timeline here, supported with early photos and light ephemeral documentation of the burgeoning graffiti scene on subway trains and elsewhere in New York. This city and its streets and culture figure prominently into this collection of about 150 pieces, with Mr. Lehman estimating for us during a recent tour that the mostly US-focused show is divided into two-thirds New York and one-third Los Angeles.

“The artists we are showing really deserve a presentation like this,” he says as we walk through an exhibition of individual expressions that are as varied as the kind of people who’ll typically ride a subway car; drawings from sketchbooks (Al Diaz), stenciled canvas (Chaz Bjorquez), photographs (Martha Cooper, Gusmano Cesariti, Steve Grody, Cheryl Dunn), elaborate “wood paintings” on welded steel sculpture (Faile), canvasses by early generation graffiti pioneers (Fab 5 Freddy, NOC, Daze, Lady Pink, Toxic, Haze), repurposed metal subway signs (Julius “T. Kid” Cavero), a slickly painted motorcycle (Crash), mixed media collage (Augustine Kofie) a refurbished ice cream truck (Mr. Cartoon), a repurposed bus stop poster (KAWS), an acrylic painting on scrap metal (Margaret Kilgallen), a mounted neon sculpture (Risk), paper cutouts pasted on found wooden doors (Swoon) and a heavily tagged Fun Gallery refrigerator hit up in the early 1980s by people like Basquiat, Haring, and Futura.

Mr. Cartoon. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)

The newly completed Phillips gallery is ironically and literally underground. Its thousands of square feet lie just below the Park Avenue street level, lending a hidden secretive quality to it. Nevertheless, the massive venue sports triple-height ceilings and a vast marble spaciousness that allows for mounting and lighting a variety of gallery sizes, shapes, and volumes. It’s also free.

A large backdrop cloth with tags by Futura, Dondi, Fab 5 Freddy, Phase2 and others. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)

One piece caught our eye and the eye of our companion, the photographer Martha Cooper, whose photos of 1970s-80s graffiti on subway trains places her squarely at the center of the scene. It’s the large fabric canvas/backdrop that commands one of the walls in the gallery – not only for its dynamism of placed elements and handstyle-vibrance but because of the history of the piece and the cross-section of writers and performers who intersect on it. Attributed to Futura 2000, it also contains work by Dondi and a tag by Phase2, at least. It also pays tribute to the musician and performer Afrika Bambaataa, the Rock Steady Crew, a number of possibly British graffiti writers and crews.

When posted on social media by people like Futura and Ms. Cooper this week, discussion of this piece lit up like a fire – with people surmising different venues where it may have been displayed, arguing about the propriety of selling such an item, conjecturing about who owns it, and spotting it in the background of photographs by Janette Beckman and David Corio.

The backdrop cloth shown above appears in this photo taken in London in 1982 with Afrika Bambaataa in the foreground. (photo © David Corio)

Mr. Corio allows us to show his images here of that event, which he identified as being part of the London stop of the NY City Rap tour, November 23rd, 1982. Assessing photos and the relic itself, one surmises that it was not signed by all the persons named necessarily since its function was a marquee naming of participants of the tour as well as a vehicle of visuals.

The backdrop cloth shown above appears in this photo taken in London in 1982 with Afrika Bambaataa in the foreground. (photo © David Corio)

Corio later posted images from the event on his Instagram with his current recounting, but we like this older one from his website, as it is lyrical.

“Welcome to the future. This was one of the first hip-hop shows in London and it was at my favourite place to shoot gigs. Bam had brought with him vibrant visions of the New York street in the form of graffiti legends Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000. While he played, they spray-painted the backdrop. Londoners had never experienced any gig like this before – with break-dancers from Bambaataa’s Zulu Nation and a team of skippers doing the double-dutch. ‘Planet Rock’ and ‘Looking For The Perfect Beat’, two singles of 1982, along with Grandmaster Flash’s ‘The Message’, gave notice of a new musical force breaking out of New York – hip-hop and electro – and it was all rising straight off the record decks. It was amazing to witness this revolution in person.”

This photo shows Dondi painting on the backdrop cloth in London in 1982. (photo © David Corio)

As you stand before the piece, you may better appreciate the human scale of some events that have stepped into a golden storied past. Without these antecedents, many would not have known the art, music, and dance world as it evolved – nor appreciate the components that Hip Hop grew and evolved from. Looking at this unnamed banner, you remember again that once in a while a piece of art transcends itself, and becomes a historical document.

1970s / Graffiti / Today is an opportunity for fans and historians to see some of these works before they disappear into private collections. That alone is worth the trip.

This photo shows Dondi painting on the backdrop cloth in London in 1982. (photo © David Corio)
This photo shows Dondi painting on the backdrop cloth in London in 1982. (photo © David Corio)
Fab 5 Freddy, whose tag also appears on the backdrop was part of the New York City Rap Tour at The Venue in Victoria, London in 1982. (photo © David Corio)
Al Diaz. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Steven P. Harrington takes a photo of Martha Cooper taking a photo of Al Diaz at 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)
1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)
Martha Cooper before her photos at 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)
Crash. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)
Faile. 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)
King Saladeen poses before his canvas at 1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)
1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)
1970 S / Graffiti / Today. Phillips, New York City. (photo © Martha Cooper)

1970s / Graffiti / Today at Phillips Auction House in Manhattan, NY is open to the public until February 20, 2022.

Our sincere thanks to photographer Martha Cooper for contributing her photos to this article. Her Instagram is @marthacoopergram

Thank you as well to the photographer David Corio for allowing us to use his historical photos here. To learn more about him and his work please go to www.davidcorio.com and his Instagram is @david.corio

Read more
BSA Greatest Hits of 2021

BSA Greatest Hits of 2021

When it comes to street art, murals, graffiti, and related events around the world last year, we were running to keep up.

You may have missed some of the people, thinkers, artists, projects, and community resources that we shared with BSA readers last year. We’re pleased to share with you some of those stories you may overlooked. Here are some of the greatest hits of 2021.

Barcelona Small Scale Street Works Popping Up in the Face of Development

Graffiti and street art are cyclical in many ways – reflective of society, urban planning, politics, current events, demographics… Currently the city of Barcelona is pushing hard on cleansing itself of the wild graffiti and street art that brought it so many tourists 15 years ago.


Capitol Trump Trials Through the Eyes of Political Cartoonists

Okay okay everybody settle down. We’ve got a lot of excited people yelling things and making huge pronouncements about things – most full of hysteria tinged with paranoiac visions. When it all gets to be too much for us, we like to see how cartoonists are capturing the current zeitgeist, and making something funny. It’s a talented group of artists who can condense complexity and extract the humorous essence of a situation. Also, so far our move toward the right, the far-right, and the fascist has not led us to have leaders that outlaw cartoons. Fingers crossed.


Swoon Gives Us All a Tour of “Seven Contemplations” at Albright Knox

It’s a pity that the pandemic has kept so many people away from seeing great exhibitions in museums and galleries, among other things. At the Albright Knox Gallery in Buffalo, street artist Swoon’s “Seven Contemplations” ran its course without nearly as many visitors as you would expect.

So we decided to show you the exhibition in a mini-tour. Who else could be your host today but the artist herself, Swoon.


Street Art Says “Happy Inauguration” to Biden and Harris

The streets have been anticipating the arrival of the new president and vice president for a few months now. Today it took place and the U.S. has a 46th President – Joe Biden and 49th Vice President – Kamala Harris.

Pure poetry.


Chip Thomas: “Pandemic Chronicles” in Phoenix, AZ

Sometimes art in the streets can be like that – a reflection of your intellectual musings and your heart’s leanings. Because he has often taken a path less traveled, photographer / doctor / activist / organizer / producer / teacher Chip Thomas (aka Jetsonorama) seamlessly slips into and out of all of his roles. In this way, he may also appear as poet.


Street Art Recorded Protest and Pandemic in Real Time.

No More Normal is a semi-regular newsletter written by Jeff Stone on his substack. He recently interviewed us on the topic of activist street art and we’d like to share his article here.

In May 2020, Todd Lawrence and Heather Shirey were taking pictures of graffiti focused on the coronavirus in Minneapolis when a police officer killed George Floyd just a few blocks away.

The two cultural historians from the University of St. Thomas had recently started taking pictures of the murals, graffiti, stickers and tags throughout the Twin Cities in an effort to preserve that work during a once-in-a-century pandemic. Their archiving, though, took on a new level of urgency when a police officer murdered Floyd and footage of the killing went viral, sparking anti-racist demonstrations in Minneapolis and throughout the world. 


Said Dokins Says “This is Not the End of the World” in Mexico City

Checking in with Panteón Cultural Center in Mexico City, where we first took you when it was inaugurated in 2017, we find street artist/ fine artist Said Dokins participating in a large exhibition and a new mural for the storied interior. It’s reassuring to see “This is not the end of the world,” the title of the collective show featuring many Mexican artists in this venue that is refined and raw and at least in some ways community based – Not such a typical scene these days.


A Mural Jam and Censorship: Fighting for Freedom Of Expression In Barcelona – Part I

Freedom of expression is foundational in a democracy. Without it, it is not difficult for a culture to descend into authoritarianism, fascism, and dictatorship. By many standards, Spain’s democracy is still young, with a Parliamentary Monarchy since 1978. So it is curious and alarming to hear that this EU country has been silencing free speech in the last few years.


HotTea Faces Critics With Magnets in Minnesota

External critics may never be as brutal as your internal one – but graffiti and street art sometimes reveals a specifically vicious world of criticism that greets artists and writers. Imagine making friends with those critics and validating their position, and then moving on unscathed or even healed.

“Overall, the project is meant to inspire those who may take criticism to heart,” says street artist HOTTEA, and he means it as a form of sweet liberation, not a bitter one.


Ceramic Faile: A New Collection With StudioCromie in Grottaglie, Italy

Angelo Milano, the founder of Studiocromie and FAME Festival, has been courting Brooklyn artist duo Faile for more than a decade, and they finally created a series of ceramics together for his studio art business in Grottaglie under the tutelage and traditional expertise of the centuries-old Ceramiche Nicola Fasano’s workshop.

“Closed (In) for Inventory”: FKDL Makes the Most of His Confinement, 10 Items at a Time

The world is slowly making movements toward the door as if to go outside and begin living again in a manner to which we had been accustomed before COVID made many of us become shut-ins. Parisian street artist FKDL was no exception, afraid for his health. However, he does have a very attractively feathered nest, so he made the best of his time creating.

Women’s Murals Vandalized in Madrid, Newly Created in Barcelona

International Women’s Day is only controversial for those who feel threatened by the idea of equality and freedom.

Perhaps that’s why, according to current statistics, women continue to fight and protest against the gender wage gap in Spain, as well as against violence against women. The national female unemployment rate is 17.4%, compared to 13.8% for men.

BSA Writer’s Bench : “Graffiti Documenting and Divinity” by Jim Prigoff

Graffiti Documenting and Divinity

A writer once shared with me the following observation concerning the early documentation of modern graffiti, if stated in religious terms.

He said:

Henry Chalfant would be God. Martha Cooper would be the Virgin Mary. Jim Prigoff would be Jesus Christ, Jack Stewart the Holy Ghost.

Subway Art would be the Bible. Spraycan Art the New Testament.

I’m no savior, but I’m proud to have saved some incredible and iconic images of this culture while they were painted and to have met so many talented artists.

The Big Tiny World According To Sara Lynne-Leo

Sara Lynn-Leo. Well-placed, well-rendered, witty, insightful, incisive.

These are hallmarks of the miniature pieces of street art that New Yorker Sara Lynn-Leo has been putting up in many neighborhoods in alleyways, doors, dirty corners, magnet walls, street furniture, and lamp posts. Finding these offerings can be difficult. They may be tiny in size and often placed out of eye view.

“Aliens, That’s What They Called Them”- Molly Crabapple on the Streets

“I left all my memories in Syria, so there’s nothing left to take”.

“Husband works in construction. Husband salary depends on luck, waits on side of the street to get picked”.

“Prefer by land, but by sea if there’s no choice”.

“I have no dreams in Europe. I just want my husband to get a proper job, a proper life for my children”.

“I will bring nothing with me”.

“For sure, I’m nervous”.

INDECLINE Creates QAnon Easter Egg Hunts in DC Parks for a Surreal Holiday Prank

The era of fractured attention spans, heightened emotions, and ravaged hierarchical systems for ordering institutions, beliefs, and the truth is ripe for examination and dissection – even if it takes a looking glass to see it.

The anonymous art-activist thinkers at INDECLINE have spawned many interventions in the last decade in public space – intricate and smartly storied at times, obvious and deliberately provocative at others.

BSA Writer’s Bench : “Why Monuments?” by Carlo McCormick

Why Monuments?


Perhaps, caught up in the energy of street art and graffiti, we do not pay quite so much attention as we should to it being something we might otherwise call public art. Consider that public art as a form goes back through centuries of municipal planning and myriad private and public interests that are concerned with how community identity may be constructed and represented. It is shortsighted not to acknowledge how much of public art has long been about monuments.

Monumental Ransom: Curious Case Of “The Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair” in Selma, AL

This Friday, the anonymous artivists said they were set to return their ransomed confederate chair monument, “The Jefferson Davis Memorial Chair.” It was first reported missing from Live Oak Cemetery in Selma last month – an ornately carved stone chair dedicated in 1893 to the Confederate president’s memory and estimated to be worth $500,000.

California’s Augustine Kofie is in a New York “State of Mind” at Hashimoto

It really is primarily about your State of Mind, says LA-based painter Augustine Kofie about his battle with art and quarantine during this last year.

“The pandemic was a stop, an interruption, a loss of control,” he says – and points to the incomplete cycle symbols that appear throughout his new collection of paintings. Normal life, in its circular wending, was interrupted time and again, along with all our typical expectations.

Andreco: “Aula Verde” For Earth Day 2021 in Rome

Together with citizens, environmentalists and researchers, he’s created a work of Land Art here in Rome, and he calls the project Aula Verde.

“The work is alive, and over the years it will take shape and as it grows it will return innumerable benefits to the territory,” Andreco says, “currently it is studied by the researchers who are involved in the project, both for the purification of the water and the redevelopment of the surrounding greenery.”

Shepard Fairey in Dubai: A Mosaic Future and a Solo Show at Opera

Shots today from last month’s Shepard Fairey “Future Mosaic” at Dubai’s Opera Gallery. With works on canvas, paper, wood, and metal, as well as examples of iconic images and repeated motifs from the breadth of his art and design history, Fairey was very much present for his first solo show here. In a grueling schedule of just 9 days he also managed to install two huge murals facing a skate park in a commercial district of the city, the d3 (Dubai Design District).

“White people can’t be trusted with power,” from Dread Scott on the Street in Manhattan

Trust artist Dread Scott to perfect the provocative phrase that can raise the prickly ire of certain street passersby, simply and succinctly. And trust the self-elected censorious social media platforms like Instagram to actually ban it.

Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Scott says, “White people can’t be trusted with power” in this new public artwork at 42nd near 10th Avenue in Manhattan. It may remind you of a Jenny Holzer “Truism” that she may have wheat-pasted on the street in the past, a pertinent pique that strikes at the heart of the matter, minus the sense of irony. But in the current context of white people’s reluctant awakening, Mr. Scott writes, “When this was originally posted, Instagram banned it as ‘hate speech.’ ”

“KAWS: What Party”. Need a Companion?

Highbrow art institutions have coalesced behind a small recurring collection of well-known graffiti/street artists in recent years, granting them a lot of space and a powerful entrée to blue-check media parties, blue-chip platforms, and blue blood collectors. The bigger (and frequently well-funded) names are often the easiest to explain to an unfamiliar general audience of art viewers and, of course, will appeal to that younger demographic everyone is after. It shouldn’t surprise anyone when even the New York City Ballet spawned a series of collaborations with street artists in the last five years to bolster flagging attendance due to aging and, well, dying fans.

BSA Writer’s Bench : “Street Art and Graffiti: The Role of Copyright” by Enrico Bonadio

Street Art and Graffiti:
The Role of Copyright


Artists are getting robbed. It is time to give them the legal tools they need. With this spirit, a few years ago, I started researching copyright aspects of street art and graffiti.

These artistic movements have been intriguing me for a while. Living for several years in the East London area of Shoreditch, where creativity has exploded and developed after the new millennium’s arrival, has certainly nurtured my curiosity towards these forms of art.

VERMIBUS: A Full “IMMERSION” into his Berlin UBahn NFTs, Complete with Glossary of Blockchain Terms

This project represents an innovative attempt to solve one of the biggest problems when exhibiting street art,” says Berlin-based street artist Vermibus, “- the lack of its original context.”

True, something about our previous curated exhibitions of street art – even our current show of Martha Cooper’s photography work at Urban Nation Museum here – loses the feeling of the street once it enters the museum doors.

“I truly believe this way of experiencing and conserving Street Art will be the inevitable future.”

Vermibus

Concreate Festival 2021 Launches in Finland

Concreate Urban Art Festival, held now for the second time, has clearly taken over Keran Hallit in Espoo, Finland. Keran Hallit is a huge former logistics center currently operating as a space for art, culture, sport, and other free-time activities. During the next few years, the halls will be demolished to make space for a new neighborhood.

Portraiture by Case Maclaim and Helen Bur in Madrid for Urvanity 2021

Frankfurt-based ultra-talent Case Maclaim is with the Urvanity Art Fair this week, and he has created a new mural in Madrid’s old, historical city center. His work is being shown by Brussells Ruby Gallery, along with that of street artists EverSiempre and Wasted Rita. Still, he just wanted to go big with a tribute to children’s imagination.

BSA Writer’s Bench: Igor Ponosov with Poetry, Philosophy, & Manifestos in Russian Streets

Russian Urban Art: Poetry, Philosophy, and Manifestos in the Streets


In the interest of defining specific areas of the study of Russian Urban Art, I’ll highlight here three main periods that I think are important in the development of these forms of urban art: the 1910s–20s, the 1990s, and the current era. From my perspective, each period was usually born during crisis and revolution, went dead after a few years, and then came to life slowly again. It was this circular pattern that I am trying to define in my recent book Russian Urban Art: History and Conflicts, but here I want the focus to be more specific.

Urvanity 2021: Highlights. A Selection Of Works From The Galleries

Madrid’s Art Week – who would believe that it could actually happen? And to prove it, we have the 5th Anniversary of Urvanity defiantly strutting from one end of the COAM headquarter to the other. Taking its original inspiration from graffiti, post-graffiti, surrealism, pop, and that broadly applied “Urban Contemporary” tag, Sergio and the Urvanity team have persevered this year again.

Josh Katz is “Mighty Real” in San Francisco with Glamorous Sylvester Portrait

A Superstar of the disco era long before people even heard of telling you their pronouns, this queen crossed over and back and even had bonafide dancefloor hits. How fitting that queer muralist Josh Katz painted this glamorous portrait to lift spirits in this city where day socializing and nightlife has been hamstrung by the pandemic, even shuttering some gold-plated legends in LGBTQ+ club history.

Katz says he is happy to bring Sylvester out into the street-life, a response to “what I see as a lack of LGBTQ representation in street art.” He promises that he’ll continue painting portraits to honor legacies and increase visibility.

My Dog Sighs “Inside”: A Hidden, Staged Exhibition in Portsmouth, UK

According to his descriptions of the artist’s new “Inside” installation in the UK’s only island city of Portsmouth (pronounced PORT-smith), there will be tours in this secret location – ever so because the atmospheric and theatrical work is not officially sanctioned and is staged in an abandoned building.

A Land of Mirrors for Pener: Bartek Świątecki Paints Hometown in Poland

25 years in the game, Pener routinely lets his mind travel to encompass possibilities, then channels them abstractly through a series of echoing geometric forms with aerosol and brush. Here in his hometown of Olsztyn, Poland, he says he imagined the possibilities that young minds inside an elementary school could contemplate.

Winston Tseng: Money Fixes Everything

On a recent sunny May day, we followed street artist Winston Tseng to document his new series of posters installed on three locations in Manhattan. The series is titled “Money Fixes Everything.”

The flat and colorful 2-D illustration style of street artist/graphic artist Winston Tseng doesn’t scream social inequity and cultural insanity the way other graphic styles may. The graphic language is the 2-D, flat, icon-based vernacular familiar to phones and applications, a neutral and familiar reduction to precisely convey the visual elements necessary to infer more is there. Brilliantly pared and exacting in composition, a close look allows the viewer to unpack Tseng’s specific brand of critique – perhaps causing you to crack a smile, or roll your eyes, shake your head.

Leon Keer Triggers Childhood Nostalgia with “Kit de Secours” in Plougasnou, France

Leon Keers is subversive, if that is the way your mind works. His mind-bending plays on real and surreal perspectives may lead you down a path of suspicion, for it appears that he is adept and agile when playing with perspective.

Vanguard | Bristol Street Art: The Evolution of a Global Movement. Installation Shots

You saw our announcement for the new exhibit At the Vanguard: Bristol Opens Exhibition On Evolution of Global Movement of Street Art and now you get a chance to see the actual shoe newly installed. Dense and rich with original artwork, photography, and ephemera, Vanguard is a studious presentation that confidently lays claim to Bristols place in the history of graffiti and street art.

Biancoshock’s Smashed Google “Street View” Car Sculpture in Corsica

For five years conceptual artists Biancoshock and Harmen de Hoop have been giving each other assignments as part of a common project that can range from titillating to amusing to incomprehensible.

As with so many works in public space by either of these two interpreters of societal nomenclature, these works field-test theories of the visual prank as much as they level observations or critiques of human behavior. With each installation, you are welcomed to examine one more of myriad modern idiosyncrasies – now placed in a new context. Your interpretation may vary.

Gola Hundun, Anthropic Space, Natural Space, and His Newest Installation in Milan

Italian land artist/street muralist Gola Hundun has divided his creative projects in the last few years into two distinct but related practices.

The first is to investigate buildings that are being reclaimed by nature and develop site-specific installations that work in harmony with the history of the relationship between architecture and nature. The second, of which we have an example for you today, is a mural installation on active buildings within cities, perhaps invoking a more integrated ecology of symbols and natural systems around it. These two lines of inquiry comprise his project “HABITAT”, a sincere stream of research that lies on the border between anthropic space and natural space

Motorefisico Bring Op, Kinetic, and Tape Art Stencilling to Santa Croce di Magliano

It’s impossible to imagine the contemporary built environment without considering the impact of street art and graffiti has had on not only city dwellers but our city’s designers and architects. While previous generations may have dismissed incorporating painting techniques beyond traditional frescoes or murals, the new generation considers it their birthright to bring modern art movement influences, including Optical Art, Kinetic Art, and straight-up tape art often used on the street.

Monkey Bird: “L’ouvreur de Chemins” Celebrates a Cathedral’s 800th in Spain

It’s not every day that you have an 800th anniversary.

Bringing monumental aesthetics, theologic references, and the language of classical architecture to this massive wall at Calle Fernán González, 52, the French duo MonkeyBird celebrates the Burgos Cathedral in grand style. Louis Boidron and Edouard Egea say they worked painstakingly to prepare their tribute to the original workers and artisans who first built the Gothic and Baroque-styled Cathedral, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1984.

Escif: “The Fences Must Fall”; A Provocative Ljubljana Street Art Festival

We’ve had the privilege to travel to many cities and cultures over the last decade and a half, from Russian to Chinese to North African to Tahitian and Norwegian, to witness the affecting power of street art on cities, communities, and everyday people. Regardless of the street author’s intent, however earnest or carefully considered, we’re often surprised by the variety of interpretations that can arise from a singular work of art or intervention.

MARUM Presents “MEXPANIA” and Miscegenation in Querétaro

Édgar Sánchez and Arcadi Poch may not simply be curators of the new initiative called Mexpania that merges the cultures of Mexico and Spain. They are social scientists, anthropologists, historians, and some may say, alchemists. With the inaugural installations of this auspicious project primarily created inside the entrance and with only 4 national/international artists, you may be curious how these foundational works will influence future curatorial choices for this ever-growing museum dedicated to urban art, or arte urbano.

Elfo’s Neo-Dada Butchering Diagram in Turin

Elfo’s furtive and artful wanderings can veer off into the neo-Dadaist fields at times, sometimes wittily so, and textually. The Italian graffiti writer and street artist uses the simplest of devices to capture attention, a reductive and deliberate strategy born of careful consideration girded by impulses to broadcast his view, to be seen and heard.

Bifido Quotes Keats for ArtAeroRap “Vaccine Edition 2021” in León, Spain

Italian street artist Bifido finishes this rough wall with the sweetest of sentiments here as summer draws ever nearer to its end. Quoting Keats, as romantics are wont to do, Bifido tells us his latest staged photo wheatpaste is transparent in its sentiment, opaque in his specific meaning.

“It is a hug, so it is something that can be shared,” he offers. “For this time I have nothing to say about this piece.”  Enough said.

Edoardo Tresoldi: A Reprise of “Sacral” for Ravenna

“An archetypal image”, Edoardo Tresoldi says, “is capable of creating a dialogue between past and present, using a language comprised of meanings that recur over time.”

M-City is Airborne with Szczecin Wars in Poland

“Szczecin before the Second World War was a German city,” says the street artist named M-City. Now it’s flying as a spaceship in his latest stencil mural here – in Poland.

NemO’s x Nicola Alessandrini Build a Grotesque, Stunning “Nest” in Italy

Ah, the feckless, sebaceous, inward-turned man; Bumbling through the world unaware and uncaring how his actions may impact the lives of others. Little does he know that the fire he starts will burn him as well.

Bifido: “Love Will Tear Us Apart” in Mostar, Bosnia Herzogovina

I am inhabited by a cry.
Nightly it flaps out
Looking, with its hooks, for something to love.

Sylvia Plath

Street poet and street artist Bifido doesn’t mean to be morose, but here in Mostar he can’t help himself as he creates mirrored expressions of a sullen, ill-tempered youth on city streets. Part of the Bosnian /Herzegovinian street art festival named after this city of 113,000 Croats (48.4%), Bosniaks (44.1%), and Serbs (4.1%), the annual meeting of international and local artists produces a broad variety of artworks for the city.

Graffiti, Stencils, and Quickie Weddings: Dispatch From Asheville N.C.

“Are you the minister?”

“I am not that, sir,” he answered, “I’m the vacuumer.” Our short tour ends abruptly as the loud whir of the cleaning machine rises to meet the southern-fried rock classic on the sound system here at Fleetwood’s in Asheville, North Carolina. Ours, and his, is a quick sweep through this small city of 90,000 in the Blue Ridge Mountains known for its progressive ideas, punk squats, Thomas Wolfe, and a harmonious alliance between sanctioned murals, organic street art, and graffiti.

Losing BLU in Ljubljana, Slovenia

The brilliant illustrator of fantasy and firey allegory, BLU, championed the cause of the Rog Factory squat in Ljubljana, Slovenia, in 2016 with a centrally framed handgun in pink and red. In that heated moment the community of artists and activists had fended off developers, construction thugs, and even some kind of fascists attacking them or trying to chase them from the property.

LADY AIKO Does Her “Martha Cooper Remix” on the Façade of Urban Nation (UN)

We have some special events taking place this month to celebrate one complete year of the career-spanning exhibition “Martha Cooper: TAKING PICTURES”, which we created with the team at Urban Nation Museum in Berlin.

Today graffiti/street artist AIKO talks about her striking new graphic mural for the façade of the museum that highlights and interprets a suite of recognizable elements from Martha’s iconic photographs – a perfect answer to the Martha Remix section of the exhibition inside featuring 70 or so artists “remixing” her photos in their individual styles.

Mantra in Miami to Open “Metamorphōsis” at GGA

Half biologist, half street artist, all gentleman. The French painter Youri Cansell AKA Mantra opens his very first US solo show tonight at Goldman Global Arts (GGA) in Miami. In preparation for “Metamorphōsis,” the artist has been painting non-stop all summer at a temporary studio in Cancun.

“Peoples Discontent” Debuts with Video Greeting from Shepard / Martha Cooper Signed New Print at UN

BSA X UN X MARTHA COOPER X SHEPARD FAIREY

When we asked Shepard Fairey if he would be up for a new remix of a Martha Cooper photo for our exhibition celebrating her career, he quickly said yes. Not only did he create a new original piece of art based on one of her classic “Street Play” images to hang in the gallery of our “Marth Remix” section, but he and his excellent team have also produced a new print – 250 of which sold out in 20 minutes on the Urban Nation website last night.

Whitewashed: Gonzalo Borondo Buffs His Painting Inside an Exhibition in Turin

Borondo buffed his own work. It happens occasionally, not often.

Rarely inside an exhibition.

SpY: “Earth / Tierra” at Plaza de Colón in Madrid

SpY describes his new public art project “Earth,” as “a luminous red sphere caged inside a structure.” You may wonder what this structure made from building-site scaffolding represents, especially when he says “the sphere is caged within it”. Gaseous fumes? Global Oligarchs? Free-trade agreements? K-Pop fans? We asked him:

BSA: Is the earth the color red because it is on fire, in pain, in a state of emergency, or perhaps in love?

SpY: The red earth in a cage has different meanings. 

Faile at GGA with BSA – Miami Art Week Marches On

Get in, get out, no one gets hurt. Our few days in Miami were full of adventure on the street and at parties and receptions for artists. The party rages on tonight and this weekend at the fairs and in the galleries and bars and streets of course, but our last events were interviewing Faile onstage at Wynwood Walls last night, going to the Museum of Graffiti 2nd Anniversary party/opening for FUZI, and, well there was this thing with Shepard Fairey and Major Lazer and a guy proposing marriage to his girl before the crowd…

Read more
Faile at GGA with BSA – Miami Art Week Marches On

Faile at GGA with BSA – Miami Art Week Marches On

Get in, get out, no one gets hurt. Our few days in Miami were full of adventure on the street and at parties and receptions for artists. The party rages on tonight and this weekend at the fairs and in the galleries and bars and streets of course, but our last events were interviewing Faile onstage at Wynwood Walls last night, going to the Museum of Graffiti 2nd Anniversary party/opening for FUZI, and, well there was this thing with Shepard Fairey and Major Lazer and a guy proposing marriage to his girl before the crowd…

Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)

But really, where else but Wynwood do you see Blade and his lovely wife Portia on the street, or sit with Ron English and his son Mars on folding chairs directly on the street in front of his new pop-up, or have a hug with ever-sunny Elle in front of her lift, or hide in the shade with seven 1UP dudes across the street from their massive new space piece, or talk with Ket in the back yard with “Style Wars” playing on a large screen behind him and the DJ while a florescent colored Okuda marches by, or chase Lamour Supreme while he tries a one-wheel skateboard around a parking lot, nearly crashing into Crash who is in his cherry picker with Abstrk painting a wall? The dinner at Goldman Properties Monday night? Dude.

Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (screengrab courtesy of Wynwood Walls)

We’re not really name-droppers, you know that, but honestly it was like a family reunion dinner with perfectly punctilious attention to detail over at Wynwood Walls this week – after two years of Covid fears killing everyone’s buzz. We saw Daze, Shoe, PichiAvo, Bordalo II, Jonone, Shepard Fairey, 1Up, Add Fuel, Case MacClaim, Nychos, Faile, Martha Cooper, Nika Kramer, Mantra, Ken Hiratsuka just to name a few – cavorting with collectors, cultural workers, fanboys, journalists, bloggers, academics, critics, bankers, gallerists, curators, museum people, real estate folks, photographers, dancers, silk climbing aerialists and hustlers of many flavors – and all the class of ’21 artists whom Jessica Goldman invited to paint this year. A Miami mélange, we’ll call it.

Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (screengrab courtesy of Charlotte Pyatt)

We were even having dinner with Martha when a local stencilist named Gregg Rivero sat in an empty chair at the table with us to offer an array of small stencil works featuring graphically pornographic scenes – to choose from as a memento of Miami indubitably. Naturally, we carefully perused his entire collection of 20 or so spread-eagles, doggie-styles, Shanghai-swans, Mississippi-missionaries, Dutch-doors, bobbing-for-sausages, and lord-knows-what-else. After careful consideration and we each selected a favorite stencil and he autographed it. Just not sure what room to hang it in…

Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (screengrab courtesy of Wynwood Walls)

Our treasured part of the Miami art vortex ’21 was meeting some BSA fans and Faile fans mixed together at the artist talk hosted by Peter Tunney at GGA Gallery last night. An action-packed hour of pictures covering their 35 year friendship was on offer for the assembled – focused mainly of course on their 22 year professional career. What an amazing career of image-making it is too – and even though we were prepared, there are always surprises with such dynamic dudes who have parlayed an illegal street art career into a well-respected and pretty high profile career with intense collectors and fans of their simplest silk screens and works on paper to their wood puzzle boxes, wood paintings, toys, ripped paintings, and their very new, completely radical approach that breaks their own mold for this “Endless” exhibition. And need we say it, Faile have already released a number of NFTs of course – which some in the audience didn’t know that Faile had – but could have guessed since Faile pioneered interactive digital games that accompanied their analog works as early as 2010 when most people still didn’t even have a smart phone.

But we digress. Back in New York now and it’s grey and cold and unwelcoming, and of course we love it. Thanks Miami! See you soon.

Faile. Artists Panel. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. December 1, 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The image below was taken in Wynwood, Miami. At the panel, with Faile, they talked about the process of making their art and one of the subjects was about ripping up posters from the street…. – and how their original name was Alife. Two blocks away we found these ripped posters advertising Alife.

Faile. Endless. Wynwood Walls/Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile. Endless. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile. Endless. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile. Endless. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile. Endless. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Faile. Endless. Goldman Global Arts. Wynwood, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FAILE: ENDLESS is currently on view at Goldman Global Arts Gallery at Wynwood Walls. Wynwood, Miami.

Read more