“Tap on it with your teeth, that’s how you know if it’s real solid gold,” says Pernell on 47th street in the diamond district as he holds out a handful of necklaces. In the Chelsea art gallery district, it’s harder to tell what is the real solid thing and what’s just for show – especially now that Katsu took a fire extinguisher full of gold paint to the facade of Eyebeam this week to promote their new show.

KATSU (photo © Jaime Rojo)

He’s good at catching your eye; combining the unbridled outlaw qualities of a graff aerosol/sticker artist with the on-point sizzle and repetition of an advertising campaign – or subvertising as the case may be. And while a variety of graff peeps have climbed on and ridden the unwieldy extinguisher horse on big walls in Brooklyn and elsewhere for a handful of years now, nobody has done a façade with such a staged splash of glimmering aurelian while many photographers looked on, capturing the action in broad daylight.

As we were looking at the new stuff we thought we’d take a minute to dig through some recent pics to familiarize BSA readers with some of Katsu’s stuff on the street in the last couple of years.

KATSU. Phone booth take over a few years ago to promote his show with Destroy and Rebuild at Powerhouse put on by Mighty Tanaka Gallery. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KATSU. Phone booth take over (shown here with Destroy and Rebuild) enlists the unwilling co-branding of MoMA and Guggenheim. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KATSU multiples on a hydrant. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KATSU and the skull reprised via extinguisher. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KATSU. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KATSU. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KATSU (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A new campaign of posters by KATSU features multiples of Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg – something he calls “Status Update”. In interviews he is quoted saying he is concerned about data security and personal privacy issues. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The new Eyebeam facade by KATSU (photo © Jaime Rojo)

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA

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!

<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA<<>>><><<>BSA<<>>><<<>><><BSA