Philadephia born New York Street Artist Stephen Powers AKA ESPO has been covering walls in Brooklyn since last summer with puns, phrases, and messages that hide in plain sight. Borrowing from a visual vocabulary of mid 20th century commercial signage and injecting his low-brow sarcasm and a knack for wordplay, the former graffiti writer perfected this kind of lettering more than a decade ago doing non-commissioned street art work in broad daylight on storefront grates in dilapidated New York neighborhoods.
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Like his barking carney signage for famous Coney Island, the work has all the subtlety of a cannonball. But you may be bamboozled. The sharply sweet uptown fonts and punchy retro palette could look like he’s giving you the straight dope, but a second glance reveals the winking eye of a court jester. With an advertisers sensibility, his recent expansive public art installations – “Love Letters” to Philadelphia, Syracuse, and now Brooklyn – have a tough-as-nails enamel gloss while the soft center swirls a sentiment more gooey, even maudlin.
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Using phrases snatched directly from Brooklyn folks conversations on the street as well as his penchant for the parlance of snake oil salesmen, Powers yells boldly these non-sequitur and illusory missives across a parking garage, regularly looking back to see if “yah heard?”. It’s what emotional signage this size demands and gets, if only for a second.
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Steve ESPO Powers (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Looks like Biancoshock is feeling a little nostalgic for his wall-hopping days with this simple ladder made of aerosol paint cans. When talking about the graffiti and Street Art scene it is ...
An amorphous shape-shifting consortium of Berlin-based aerosol hooligans named 1UP is one of those graffiti crews who eventually make the entry into graffiti street lore because of the scope and darin...
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. Stick to It, Episode 1 : Sticky Community 2. Ella & Pitr / Frappés Pinpins 3. Herakut. Nu...
Congratulations to all the runners in yesterdays BK Half Marathon - you all make us proud. Yo! NYC mayor says he wants to be president, but he got a rocky start with many protests in the streets ...
f Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. INTI / "PRIMAVERA INSURRECTA", Spring Insurrection2. Sofles VS Rasko / Graffiti Kings 2019...