Slap Happy: The Humble Sticker Gets The Job Done

Stickering Adheres to Some Graff/Street Art Rules Too

Today we’re sticking to the little pieces; those quickly appearing peeled objects that people smack up on just about every smooth surface around the city. Getting your name, your art, your product out there for people to see has blossomed into a genre of it’s own, fostering shows, mini-conventions, websites, magazines, books, and collectors trading clubs dedicated to the sticky-backed missives some people call ‘slaps”. From individually handmade to glossy mass-produced pieces, the city is a magnet for these adhesive miniature works of art, accumulating them quickly in some locations like snow piling up in a doorway corner during a Nor’easter.

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

Books have been documenting the world of sticker art of late. Most notable are Martha Cooper’s tomes “Going Postal” and  “Name Tagging” from Mark Batty Publishers and this fall Rizzoli released a new book on stickers called “Stickers From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art” by DB Burkemen in collaboration with Monica LoCascio.

The humble sticker is an art medium that does not require a big production and carries a very low risk when being put on the streets and gets the job done.  Doors are often the hot spots where the stickers live together in a seemingly harmonious life – and the rules applied to other forms of Street Art regarding space and real estate on a surface roughly apply here too; “Don’t overlap your sticker on mine or Imma bust you head, son.”  In addition, getting up in as many places as possible, preferably where your fellow sticker artists can see you, is a goal.

Here are some images of richly textured surfaces around town that are “wall-papered” with a myriad of stickers. Even if we knew all the artists, it’s impossible to note them all here.

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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Photo © Jaime Rojo

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