December 2016

Annie Nocenti: Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 19, 2016 Artists

As we near the new year we’ve asked a special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2016 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s an assortment of treats for you to enjoy and contemplate as we all reflect on the year that has passed and conjure our hopes and wishes for the new year to come. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Ann “Annie” Nocenti is an American journalist, writer, teacher, editor, and filmmaker. She is best known for her work in comic books and while at Marvel Comics she edited New Mutants and The Uncanny X-Men and Annie has collaborated artistically to create Marvel characters like Typhoid Mary, Blackheart, Mojo, and Spiral. A whip-smart firecracker with a fiendishly good sense of humor, we like Annie because she has outspoken political views and often kicks butt with a rhetorical bit of flair. Today Annie tells us about a skull on her rural estate that has taken on dastardly characteristics in her writers’ mind this year.

Bulls head on a tree somewhere in Upstate New York
May 2016
Photo by Annie Nocenti

“Donald Trump” is staked to a tree along the creek I live on. He’s got long devil horns, an empty skull, and the infamous hair hangs windblown between hollowed eye sockets. Where did this bit of accidental political art come from? A year ago a farmer friend dumped a bull’s head in my yard and I buried it.

When I dug it up a year later, the bugs had done their stealth job and cleaned the skull. It still had one flop of dirty blond hair, and resembled Trump. When a chipmunk peeked out one of the Trump skull’s eyeholes, or a woodpecker nattered away at the bugs in his belfry, I was getting all the savvy, grassroots election commentary I need.

This past summer the skull became especially beloved by visiting children, who tumbled out of cars and rushed over to say hello to Trump. He seemed content to sneer down at them from his high perch on the tree. Kids were fascinated by the skull’s resemblance to Trump, especially the young ones, who, like receptive little tuning forks, feel the cloud of giddy anxiety and hilarity that emanates from adults when they speak of him.

Now, months later, my Trump effigy, with its hollow eyes and thousand yard stare, is no longer a joke.

Marcelo Pimentel & Marina Bortoluzzi at Instagrafite : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 18, 2016 Artists

Marcelo Pimentel and Marina Bortoluzzi are the couple behind the wildly successful Instagram account called Instagrafite where they post events and artworks sent to them by Street Artists, curators and festivals around the world as well as their own photos. With an omnibus collection of skills and experiences in effect during the last five years that touch on marketing, branding, curating and urban-cultural revitalization, Marina and Marcelo have a unique perspective that very few can claim on the Street Art scene today.

Location: Ilha do Combu, Belém, Pará, Brasil during #StreetRiver project
January 2016
Photo by @instagrafite

We love this picture by two reasons:

First, it reminds us that mural festivals are much more than walls. They impact and transform, we hope positively, cities and most of all, people. So for us the community is what really matters; the community of a local village or our community of art.

Secondly, the picture represents what we believe at Instagrafite and what we want still for our years to come, including 2017:

To always see the world through the eyes of a child where nothing is impossible and everything can come true!

Ethel Seno : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 17, 2016 Artists

Author, editor, curator, and cultivated corraler of unruly Street Artists for exhibitions like “Art in the Streets”, Wynwood Walls, Coney Art Walls, and this falls’ “Magic City” in Dresden, which she co-curated with Carlo McCormick, Ethel Seno is the sage point person for many Street Art, graffiti, and contemporary art heads. Endlessly curious and steeped in the geo-political influences and activist roots of Street Art, Seno shares with us this powerful image that shook her conscience this year.

Ieshia Evans in a Black Lives Matter protest
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Date: July, 2016.
Photograph by Max Becherer / AP

I love this photo by Max Becherer, which went viral this summer, because it is an inspiring example of peaceful resistance against state violence. The photo is of a nurse named Ieshia Evans in a Black Lives Matter protest in Baton Rouge, Louisiana in July 2016 after the fatal shooting of Alton Sterling.

Unfortunately the November presidential election marks 2016 like a historical turning point, and makes it more urgent to act on what we believe in; to stand up against any unprovoked aggression, bullying, or terror being inflicted on innocent people, and against the destruction of our social and natural environments.

I am planning to go to the Women’s March on Washington on January 21st because so much is at stake. As a good friend said, we must never normalize rhetoric rooted in fear, hate, greed, and ignorance. My wish for the new year is that we are braver and more empowered to move forward together.

Photograph by Max Becherer / AP

Pedro H. Alonzo : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 16, 2016 Artists

Pedro Alonzo is a Boston-based independent curator, writer, art advisor and recognized authority on Street Art who has worked with museums, private collections, and such artists as Banksy, Shepard Fairey, JR, Swoon, and Os Gemeos among others. This year Pedro looks at images from his travels and tells us that the simplest joys are sometimes the best ones.

Guarulhos, Estado de Sao Paulo, Brazil
February 3, 2016

Photo by Pedro H. Alonzo

I stumbled upon this mural while looking for parking in Guarhulos, Brazil, the home of Sao Paulo’s international airport. Due to difficulty finding parking and traffic congestion, I was able to take the photo on our fourth trip around the block.

In a city that boasts kilometer after kilometer of roadside murals, it was refreshing to find this image painted on the side of a laundromat. It is direct, funny and simple. I often think about how much I enjoyed being surprised by superheroes in their underwear.

I love coming across informal forms of expression such as this. No permits, no copyright, just do it.

Fernando Alcalá Losa : Wishes & Hopes for 2017

December 15, 2016 Artists

Fernando Alcalá Losa is a talented photographer from Barcelona who has been shooting artists as they create their work on the street for some time. His momentary glimpses into an artists world, or of our world from their viewpoint, are a poignant gift that Fernando captures in a way that few other photographers can.

L’Hospitalet de Llobregat
Barcelona, Spain.
Date: September, 2016.
Photograph by Fernando Alcalá Losa

How important is it to show street art pieces when you are taking pics of street art? Of course, it’s important. All of us love it, don’t we?

But after years of hitting the streets, lots of walking, climbing walls, being on rooftops and sneaking into other people’s houses in order to get the best possible shot of the final result, I’m starting to think that this is not the most important issue for me.

Everyone can go for a walk and shoot a wall. Everyone. But not everyone has the chance of being there during the creative process. And this is what this shot is about.

It’s about being there, right there, feeling the energy of creation. It’s about intimacy, about detail, about the personal connection with the artist, because you were able to be that close. And not everyone can be that close, that’s for sure…

I’m grateful for having the chance of living these moments of proximity, knowing that those artists that you’re shooting at trust you and allow you to be there, right there. And this is what really matters to me as a street art photographer right now.

Artists: Reskate and Cinta Vidal. Cinta is not shown in the pic. Assistant to the artists: Chea

Project: 12+1 by Contorno Urbano

BSA “Images Of The Year” for 2016 (VIDEO)

December 14, 2016 Artists

Of the thousands of images he took this year in places like New York, Berlin, Dresden, Moscow, Marrakesh, Detroit and Miami, photographer Jaime Rojo found that the figurative image still stands prominently in the Street Art scene – along with text-based, abstract and animal world themes.

Surprisingly the scene does not appear to be addressing the troubled and contentious matters of the political and social realms in a large way, but the D.I.Y. scene keeps alive and defies the forces of homogeneity with one-of-a-kind small wheat-pastes, stencils, sculptures, and aerosol sprayed pieces alongside the enormous and detailed paintings that take days to complete.

Every Sunday on BrooklynStreetArt.com, we present “Images Of The Week”, our regular interview with the street. Primarily New York based, BSA interviewed, shot, and displayed images from Street Artists from more than 100 cities over the last year, making the site a truly global resource for artists, fans, collectors, gallerists, museums, curators, academics, and others in the creative ecosystem. We are proud of the help we have given and thankful to the community for what you give back to us and we hope you enjoy this collection – some of the best from 2016.

Brooklyn Street Art 2016 Images of the Year by Jaime Rojo includes the following artists;

1Up, Above, Adele Renault, Alaniz, Amy Smalls, George Vidas, GEN2, Apexer, BordaloII, Buff Monster, C215, Collin Van Der Sluijs, Super A, David Choe, D*Face, Duke Riley, El Sol 25, Sean 9 Lugo, EQC, Faile, Faith47, Faust, Shantell Martin, Felipe Pantone, Hueman, Droid907, Icy & Sot, InDecline, Invader, JJ Veronis, Jilly Ballistic, John Ahearn, JR, London Kaye, Louis Masai, MadC, Marshal Arts, Mongolz, MSK, Rime, Myth, Nina Chanel, Optic Ninja, Otto Osch Schade, Panmela Castro, Plastic Jesus, QRST, Reed b More, Remi Rough, REVS, Self Made, Sharon Dela Cruz, Maripussy, Specter, Stikman, Strok, Swoon, Ted Pim, Thievin’ Stephen, Farin Purth, Thomas Allen, Tobo, Uriginal, Vermibus, Vhils, Wing, Yes Two, Zola.

The artist featured on the main graphic is D*Face as shot by Jaime Rojo in New York.

BSA Top Stories 2016 – As Picked by You

December 13, 2016 Artists

Museums, Festivals, and Activism – three of the themes that garnered the most traffic on our published stories on BSA and The Huffington Post this year.

From a scholarly Street Art related exhibition in St. Petersburg to the opening of the Mima Museum in Belgium to the Anti-Banksy exhibition with the Blu controversy in Bologna and the “Magic City” exhibition in Dresden, BSA readers were astutely studying the slow but steady move of Street Art from the street to the museum and the academic canons.

But you also liked the huge multi-player outside exhibitions as well – with stories from Sicily and Northern Spain to Northern Mexico, BSA readers were interested this year in seeing how eclectic locally-organized Street Art festivals and projects are done, and who is doing them.

Finally activism played a big role in what you were re-Tweeting and “liking” and sending to your friends – From Icy & Sot installing anti-radiation work in the Native American desert and then talking about oceans polluted with plastic, to a United Nations food program with kids and artists in El Salvador, to highlighting Indigenous peoples rights with Jetsonorama, to a US cross-country tour to save endangered species by one artist and a Greenpeace show in Barcelona addressing the same issue with 35 artists, it looks like BSA readers are engaged and concerned about socio-politico-environmental issues left and right.

On a side note, we were honored that our El Salvador article was picked up and published in spanish on the UN World Food program website – HERE.

Of course it was good to see that you liked the feature on the notorious graffiti crew 1UP and seeing Nychos slay New York as well. Tasty!

These are the TOP 15 articles on BSA for 2016 from the more than 365 postings we did this year – meaning they all beat at least 350 articles to get here. Congratulations to us all.

No. 15
Borders and Boundaries : A Multi-Disciplinary Exhibit at St. Petersburg’s Street Art Museum

SpY. Street Art Museum (SAM). St. Petersburg, Russia. May 2016. (photo © Evgeniy Belikov)

Rafael Schacter Takes a More Nuanced Approach to the Migration Crisis

Commerce and technology have been eroding traditional constructs of the borders and boundaries, especially in the age of the Internet, satellites, transnational banking and trade agreements that create governing bodies that openly dismiss national sovereignty, integrity, identity, aspirations. Borders and boundaries are contested, guarded, or disregarded at will; open to international capital, porous to immigration, hardened by armies.

Daily they are in the headlines: Trump’s plans to build a wall along the US-Mexican border, Syrian war refugees immigrating across European borders, Israel and Palestine’s ongoing land and settlement disputes, even maritime territorial claims of China and the Phillipines in the South China Sea that were ruled upon yesterday – all reveal clues to our historically complicated relationships and geo-political perspectives.

Art to the rescue! continue reading here

No. 14
Icy & Sot Stencil An Enormous Blue Whale in LA

Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

“The brothers spent two solid days hand cutting the multi-layer stencil here on Melrose Avenue. How many pieces? “19 pieces,” says Icy. “Its not that big but it has a lot of details” The composite image features an enormous whale emerging from the sea in full view of a coastline packed with industrial forms which presumably are dumping contaminants directly into the waters.

As ever, the brothers crash into each others sentences while talking to us. “Whatever happens in the ocean… it comes back to us,” says Sot. “Whether is trash or plastics or oil..”

Icy jumps in, “The fish eat them and then we eat the animals and we have the plastics inside of us.”

“Yeah, It’s a cycle. We are all making a lot of trash – we are affecting the world. Then it all comes back to us,” says Sot… Continue reading here

No. 13
MIMA Museum: City Lights with Swoon, MOMO, Hayuk, Faile

Maya Hayuk. MIMA Museum. Brussels, Belgium. April 2016. (photo © The Pickles – MIMA Museum)

What is it about Brooklyn Street Art that is so appealing that one would curate the opening exhibition of a museum with it?

Four pillars of the New York Street Art scene are welcoming the first guests of the new Millennium Iconoclast Museum of Art (MIMA), which opened days ago in Brussels. Attacking the cherished institutions that relegate grassroots people’s art movements into the margins, MIMA intends to elevate them all and let them play together. Graphic design, illustration, comic design, tattoo design, graffiti, street art, plastic arts, wheat pasting, sculpture, text, advertising, pop, story-telling, aerosol, brushwork, and naturally, dripping paint.

Obviously street culture has been mixing these influences together in a never-ending lust for experimentation; punk with hip-hop, skateboarding with tattoo, performance art with graffiti – for the past four decades at least. The folk tradition of cutting and pasting predates all our modern shape-shifting by centuries, but institutional/organizational curating often often has a preference for sorting street culture disciplines into separate piles.

With the inaugural exhibition “City Lights” MOMO, Swoon, Faile, and Maya Hayuk each bring what made their street practice unique, but with an added dimension of maturity and development. Without exception each of these artists have benefitted from the Internet and its ability to find audiences who respond strongly to the work with physical location a secondary consideration. Now as world travelers these four have evolved and refined their practice and MIMA gives them room to expand comfortably…Continue reading here

No. 12
San Salvador, Street Artists, Food Insecurity and “Conect-Arte”

Vexta.Workshop. Conect-Arte. San Salvador. April 2016. (photo © Yvette Vexta)

“Six street artists took their social engagement a step further in El Salvador last month and taught youth some serious skillz from the street.

Coming from Brazil, Australia, Ecuador, Mexico, New York, and New Jersey, this international crew took the time to share and teach about painting, art, and how community can be built. The program Conect-Arte is a newly launched initiative by the United Nations World Food Programme, which as the name suggests, also is in the city to address a more core need to battle food insecurity. With Conect-Arte the goal is to also meet youth in some communities and help with positive role models an options with an eye on transforming lives through developing art and related creative skills that can provide income and channel energy in ways productive to community.

Together the artists worked on projects with 45 teens and younger kids over the course of the a week-long workshop in San Salvador, teaching street art techniques like stencil, lettering, mural painting, sculpture, even hot air balloon making. The goals are huge, like reducing violence, food insecurity, increasing access to economic opportunity. The tools here are art, the creative spirit, and strengthening relationships.

We bring you some images of the works that were made by the visiting artists and some of their observations and experiences during the Conect-Arte program…Continue reading here

No. 11
Discovering a “Magic City” in Dresden, Germany

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“A couple of weeks ago BSA was in Dresden, Germany to help lay plans for a new Street Art show opening there this fall called “Magic City” and naturally we hit the streets with bicycles three days in a row to see the city’s graffiti, Street Art, and murals whenever time would permit. The first day we had the honor of getting a tour from Jens Besser, an artist, author, lecturer, and producer of mural festivals in the city who sped ahead of us through a labyrinth of streets to show us a number of the impressive murals he and partners have brought to the city in the last decade or so…Continue reading here

No. 10

Louis Masai: “The Art Of Beeing” Tour Kicks Off in NYC to Save Endangered Species

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Bog Turtle. Endangered. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Activism and Street Art go hand in hand and some artists are skilled at activating public space for hearts and brains to spark and cogitate. During the last 15 years we’ve documented a number of seriously affecting artworks on the street that use text and/or imagery to address political, social, environmental, and economic issues and opinions by artists as varied as Shepard Fairey, Banksy, John Fekner, Ganzeer, LMNOPI, Myth, Gilf!, Gaia, LNY, Jetsonorama, and any number of one-shot authors. In this election year there are too many Trumps to count, and a few Hillary pieces as well.

Undaunted by commercial interests and able to deliver directly to the passerby, Street Artists know that their visual message isn’t guaranteed acceptance but they take a chance anyway. The ones that reflect the sentiments on the street tend to last longer, aesthetics count, and so does spelling, at least that is our inductive observation.

One London artist who seriously raises awareness about the Earths’ endangered species is Louis Masai, a painter, sculptor, illustrator and Street Artist. Starting this week in New York Masai is beginning a 20 mural tour across the United States to talk about the hard working, honey-making, pretty pollinating bee – and a number of our animals that are in danger of dying off completely…Continue reading here

No. 9
1UP in Berlin : “ ‘All City’ Doesn’t Even Begin to Cover It ”

1UP. Berlin 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“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 daring of their travails.

Primarily Berlin based, you’ll find their almost-commercial sounding name on roofs, walls, abandoned factories, and in tunnels in many cities around the globe. Without a clear idea of the exact number in their association nor precise membership these daredevils are most often described as white men in their twenties and early thirties reveling in the athleticism and sport of graffiti, in addition to style. The tag itself appears to be rather “open source” at times, with only insiders able to keep track of the distinct hand styles forming the ubiquitous name on thousands of surfaces…continue reading here

No. 8
A “Cathedral” of Characters in Northern Spain

RIM. Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

“It’s a cathedral of characters, this abandoned furniture factory forty kilometers outside of Barcelona. Cartoons, illustrations, portraits are everywhere; a curious collection of aerosol spray pieces that highlights the popularity of the animated and exaggerated personalities among graffiti and Street Artists in this region of the world.

The character may be a salty with a haggard stare, or reference a topic with a bit of satire. The scene may be serious, comical, ridiculous or purely sci-fi and horror. You discover the stories and allegories as you walk through the empty manufacturing rooms now flooded with natural light and dust. Expressions and situations here are full of drama that may trigger your empathy, startle your attention, elicit a shiver, or creepily fondle your funny bone…Continue reading here

No. 7
“Art Silos” Rise in the Harbor of Catania, Sicily

Interesni Kazki. Detail. (photo © VladyArt)

“They’ve been here since the 1950s, these silos for wheat and corn on the harbor of Catania on the east coast of the island of Sicily at the foot of Mount Etna. 28 meters tall and facing the Ionian Sea, they are now some of the largest canvasses in Italy by a small group of international and local Street Artists.

The “Art Silos” project includes works completed during an eight month installation begun in June 2015 as part of Festival “I-ART” organized by “Emergence”, thanks to Angelo Bacchelli, curated by Giuseppe Stagnitta. The artists taking part in the project were Okuda (Spain), ROSH333 (Spain), Microbo (Italy), BO130 (Italy), VladyArt (Italy), Danilo Bucchi (Italy) and the duo Interesni Kaxki (Ukraine), mostly all from the graffiti/Street Art world. A separately organized but related project on the harbor-facing row of eight silos was completed by one artist alone, the Lisbon-based Vhils…continue reading here

No. 6
BLU Allies : A Counter Exhibition to “Banksy & Co.” Launched in Bologna

Tadlock (photo © @around730)

“An anti-Banksy & Co. Street Art show opened in Bologna Italy the same night as its controversial bank-backed cousin with brand new works by 50 or so Italian and international Street Artists and open admission to their outdoor ‘museum’.

“It is free and spontaneous, as Street Art should be,” says an organizer and participant named About Ponny as he describes the exuberant and sometimes saucy toned exhibition on the grounds of the sprawling former headquarters of Zincaturificio Bolognese which is destined for future demolition.

“The message we want to convey is that true street art is found where it was born, in the street and not in the paid exhibits,” says Bibbito, who along with two other out-of-town street artists named Jamesboy and Enter/Exit found food and couches during their installations thanks to an association of artists called L’Associazione Serendippo. Together, these artists say, they and other organizers want to send a “strong signal” by creating “one of the largest museums of ephemeral street art ever made”. The new coalition named this project “R.U.S.Co” (Recupero Urbano Spazi Comuni) or (Urban Renewal Common spaces).

The new 16,000 m² open-air art show may appear as a rather curious development because its method of protest runs completely counter to that of the shows’ most vocal and high-profile critic, BLU, who last week protested the same show by defiantly destroying 20 years of his own public paintings, rather than making new ones…Continue reading here

No. 5
Raising Yellowcake in Grand Canyon: Icy & Sot, Jetsonorama in Arizona

Icy & Sot. “Nuclear Plant” Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2017. (photo © Icy & Sot)

“Yellow Cake: A simple sweet dessert confection that gets its signature color from 8 egg yolks and a cup of butter, and is great with either vanilla or chocolate icing.

Yellowcake: A type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Also, its radioactive. Also, Colin Powell showed off a vial of it at the United Nations to sell the Iraq invasion in 2003 to that body and the world.

Being more knowledgeable about the dessert variety of yellow cake than the desert variety of uranium contamination, we turn to Street Artists Jetsonorama and Icy & Sot to educate us about the active uranium mines that are at the North Rim of The Grand Canyon. The three worked jointly in June to create new public works addressing the topic and we have each of them here for you to see.

“The issue of uranium contamination and nuclear waste is timely as there is an active uranium mine at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon presently and a proposal to start mining at the South Rim,” explains Jetsonorama (Chip Thomas), who is a local artist, a practicing doctor, and a social activist advocating for the people who live on the reservation and the natural environment in general…Continue reading here

No. 4
Nychos Slays in New York : IKONS Revealed as Never Before

Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Scientists, psychologists, surgeons…in the end we’re all driven by a similar curiosity.”

This month has been a whirlwind in New York for Austrian Street Artist /fine artist /illustrator named Nychos and he’s made quite the iconic impression. Anchored by a show that opened last weekend of canvasses and illustrations at Jonathan Levine Gallery in Chelsea named “IKON” and assisted by a co-branded sculptural event with the Vienna Tourist Board, the surreal dissectionist didn’t rest there.

In the weeks leading up to and after these events he also managed to hit a number of walls in Coney Island, Bushwick, and Jersey City…oh and he knocked out a box truck as well.

In addition to pulling out an astounding sculpture of Sigmund Freud looming over a couch that drew a crowd to the foot of the (also iconic) Flatiron Building at 23rd and 6th, the afterparty and reception featured Dominic Freud, the great grandson of the founder of psychoanalysis, who surmised that if he were alive today he would definitely have wanted to put Nychos on his couch…Continue reading here

No 3
35 Artists in Barcelona Trying To Save The Arctic with Greenpeace

La Castillo. Save The Arctic. Barcelona, Spain. April 2016. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

“Yesterday our posting was about artists in London creating works about endangered species and today we go to Barcelona where 35 artists joined with Greenpeace and a local group named RebobinArt on April 9^th to create works centered on environmental issues, especially the quickly disappearing polar ice cap.

Only three days later scientists announced that the Greenland “Melt” has happened one month earlier than usual this year, smashing records and causing scientists to reexamine their measuring instruments to make sure they were working correctly.

The art-platform model of RebobinArt is interesting because they are a community organization that manages spaces and issues permits for painting for competitions, festivals, exhibitions, educational programs, and cause-based events like this one.

Under the guidance of Director Marc Garcia, RobobinArt promotes and facilitates a different sort of public painting that is not strictly commercial and yet it is clearly not the freewheeling graffiti/street art based stuff that made Barcelona such a magnet for artists in the early-mid 2000s…Continue reading here

No. 2
Chip Thomas’ New Mural, Indigenous People, and #NoDAPL

Chip Thomas. The original photograph of JC Morningstar holding her dog on a swing. Indigenous People’s Day at Fort Lewis College. Durango, CO. (photo © Chip Thomas)

“Street Artist and activist Jetsonorama (Chip Thomas) saw his work pull together a number of people in Durango, Colorado on October 10th as the city and the college celebrated their first ever “Indigenous People’s Day”. His photograph of an indigenous youth named JC Morningstar swinging and kissing her dog was chosen by a group of students from Fort Lewis College, where 24% of the population is indigenous.

The unveiling ceremony for the mural began with a traditional pow wow prayer by a drum circle and Chip says “the highlight of the day for me was having JC, her dog and her family travel 4 hours to Durango to attend the unveiling before going to the Tribe Called Red show that evening.”…Continue reading here

No 1
Chihuahua, a Mexican Desert City with a Few “Street Art” Blooms

Paola Delfin. Chihuahua, Mexico. Centropolis Art Festival 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Chihuahua is like one big ranch,” says a local reporter who guides you around this desert city known for beef, cheese, sotol, cowboy boots… and a growing middle class – thanks to the hundred plus multinational maquiladoras operating here with a focus on aerospace, medical equipment, and automobile manufacturing.

The “ranch” metaphor is meant to be welcoming, but it also lets you know that this city of nearly a million can still feel like a small town. This is the capital of Mexico’s largest state, which goes by the same name. And yes, the diminutive and scrappy dog originated here – as did Pancho Villa, and you can visit his homestead if you like.

It’s not the typical city where you might expect to find Street Art, yet only a few blocks from the government palace downtown that holds two stories of wall paintings by Mexican muralist Aarón Piña Mora, you will find new paintings in the dusty side streets that indicate a more international flavor is present…Continue reading here

Top 15 Videos on BSA Film Friday From 2016

In Memory: Giulio Vesprini

From BSA Film Friday: 07.15.16

“Murals have an entirely different function in the urban environment than Street Art and graffiti, although some folks use the terms interchangeably. One of the time-honored functions of a public mural in many cities has been the “memorial mural,” the one that recalls a person or people or a significant event that has impacted a neighborhood, even a nation. Because it is artwork mounted publicly, it can be used as a meeting point for people in a community to gather and talk about it, trading stories and impressions and gaining understanding. At its’ worst, a memorial mural can be superficial or overwrought, moralizing, even stunningly unartful.

Sometimes however, it can provide to a community a sense of pride or history, and it can be empowering. Other times there is a mental, emotional catharsis that takes place with the artwork providing a forum, a safe space to discuss the undiscussible in a public forum or simply to share in a common sense of loss, or experience some sense of healing.

‘It’s not mere decoration, but deals with ethics,’ says Giulio Vesprini as he paints this mural remembering Camp No.70 Monte Urano, a WWII prison camp a mile or two from the sea and Porto San Georgio, in Italy. ‘So it has been very important to me that I could give my contribution.’ “

We dedicate this compilation to the filmmakers who bring so much joy, knowledge and awareness with their artistry and technical wizardry every day and especially every Friday from BSA Film Friday to all of us here at BSA and to our readers. Cheers for a wonderful 2017…

BSA’s 15 Most Popular Murals Of 2016 – A “Social” Survey

December 11, 2016 Artists

Murals have captured so much of the popular imagination about what the Street Art scene is today and although they may be part of the definition, murals remain only a part of the entire scene; a visual conversation that includes legal, illegal, small, anonymous, massive, deliberately confounding, low-energy scrawl, stickers, tags, poetry, diatribes, culture jamming, ad takeovers, sculpture, installations. Every week we aim to present a varied selection of expressions currently represented on the street, and then it is your turn to respond.

During 2016 BSA readers responded to images via our website, Instagram, Twitter, Tumbr, and Facebook pages. In a thoroughly unscientific survey that calculates “likes” and “clicks” and “re-Tweets” and “impressions”, we tallied up which murals (or images) got the most interest from you all. Care to read into the results?

The top 3 really sum it all up for 2016 and shouldn’t surprise us, but they still do; Militarism, Mis-information, and the Man of the Year.

If you ever doubted how much art on the street reflects the psyche of a society back to itself, no need to wonder anymore. If only we could read these tea-leaves and tell the future…

No 15.
David Choe’s Portrait Of Martha Cooper for Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016.

David Choe. Detail. Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Originally appearing here:

No 14
Plotbot Ken’s car installation on the Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin.

Plotbot Ken’s post-apocolyptic installation on a car at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 13
Faust and Shantell Martin in Manhattan, NY.

Handstyle and all New York, baby. Faust. Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 12
Swoon in Brooklyn, NY.

One of Swoon’s new additions to the street in 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 11
ASTRO in East Harlem.

ASTRO in East Harlem for #NotACrime campaign in collaboration with Street Art Anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 10
Nychos in Manhattan, NY.

More than his multiple murals published here this year, this sculpture on 23rd Street in Manhattan in the spring captured the imagination and gave his work an added dimension. Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 9
MadC in Marrakesh, Morocco.

Mad C. MB6 Street Art. Marrakesh Biennale 6. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 8
Maya Hayuk in Brooklyn, NY.

Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 7
Invader in Jersey City, NJ.

Space Invader in Jersey City for Mana Urban Arts Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 6
Collin Van Der Sluijs. Super A in Berlin.

Collin Van Der Sluijs . Super A. Detail. Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. One Wall. Berlin, Germany. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 5
Kurar in Berlin

Kurar for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 4
Biggie Smalls in Brooklyn, NY.

Rocko & Zimer. NOTE: This piece was created late in 2015 but we got to it early in 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 3
Otto “Osch” Schade in Brooklyn, NY.

OSCH for JMZ Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 2
Klops in Brooklyn, NY.

Klops for The Bushwick Collective illuminates the concentration of 90% of the media in the hands of 6 companies. In 1983 there were 50. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

No 1
Ron English in Brooklyn, NY.

Ron English brings Donald Trump as Humpty Dumpty on a wall – in collaboration with The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Click here to see the original posting on BSA.

BSA HOT LIST : Books For Your Gift List from 2016

December 10, 2016 Artists

Nothing can replace the experience of reading a printed and bound collection of images and texts – and the number of Street Art and graffiti related books that come out every year continues to grow in quantity and quality. We don’t receive all of them, and we don’t get the chance to thoroughly review them sometimes, but many of them do pass our desk and we take time to highlight ones that strike a chord throughout the year.

Here is a BSA Hot List selection from 2016 – a cross section really – that impressed us for one reason or another. Full disclosure: we were fundamental to the design and structure of the Icy & Sot book and wrote the Afterword and worked closely with the artists for months, and Ella & Pitr drew us into one of their illustrations, so there is a little more than usual bias in those choices. But otherwise, we’re confident that you’re well served by choosing from these titles for Christmas presents or Hanukkah gifts or Solstice offerings …

“Tracing Morocco”, Hendrik Beikirch

From BSA:

Dignity in “Tracing Morrocco” gives pause, requests your consideration.

Last year we wrote about Hendrik Beikirch’s journey to Morocco, The Trades. With the support of the Foundation Montresso he embarked on a project to paint the portraits of people whose trades might be in danger of becoming obsolete and/or disappearing due to the complexities of the modern world. Tracing Morocco, the book about the project is now out…

Hendrik Beikirch’s Tracing Morocco published by and in collaboration with Montresso Art Foundation. November 2016.

Click HERE for more about this book.

Alan KET Brings You “Urban Art Legends”

From BSA:

“This book is about the artists who have pioneered, promoted and transformed this ‘other’ art world,” says the author, himself a graffiti writer, artist, curator, activist, advisor and entrepreneur. What is fresh about his approach is the egalitarian respect that is given to artists regardless of their genre or associated scene, something we have always tried to balance as well amid a sometimes turbulent volley of antagonism that can sometimes distinguish graffiti/street art discourse.

KET: “Urban Art Legends” Lom Art. London 2015

Click HERE for more about his book.

Ella & Pitr Draw You Their Diary of World Travels in “Baiser D’Encre”

From BSA:

Who knew that babies could use so many diapers! What to do when you are in a foreign city and both of you are sick as dogs? Also, we may need a crane to help us finish the world’s largest roof mural.

These considerations are things you draw into your travelogue diary when you are Ella & Pitr, the painters of enormous kings, pilots, and couples cuddled in bed on fields, rooftops, and beaches around the world.

Ella & Pitr. Les Editions Papiers Peintres. France. November 2015.

Click HERE for more about this book.

MIKE MAKATRON : In 10 Cities and Multiple Worlds

From BSA:

Wanderer Mike Makatron has been spending his young manhood traveling the globe and painting walls and experimenting with styles of art ranging from fantasy illustration to loose and leafy botanicals, with symbols of indigenous spirits, psychedelic mushrooms and plenty of the time honored ying/yang.

Mike Makatron – In Ten Cities published by Trojan Press. Melbourne, Australia 2015.

Click HERE for more about this book.

“Daze World”, the Artist and Book from City to Canvas and Back

From BSA:

“This is not an autobiography in the practical sense. I didn’t cover the day-to-day minutia of my childhood or formative teenage years all the way to the present. Rather, I have chosen to take the reader on a journey that covers some of the seminal moments in my life. Those moments shaped my art and allowed me to continue to evolve as an artist,” says graffiti/street/studio artist DAZE of the brand new collection of images and essays that make up “Daze World,” the new hardcover from Schiffer.

DAZE WORLD: The Artwork Of Chris DAZE Ellis available through Schiffer Publishing.

Click HERE for more about this book.

“The Art Of The Mural: Volume 01″ Captures a Moment

From BSA:

Murals hold their own place onstage in public space today for a variety of reasons that we discuss regularly on BSA. From grassroots and public, to private and corporate, we have watched the genre professionalize as Street Art festivals and other initiatives are often coupling artists with brands and are selling canvasses through the organizers’ galleries. Today we have the first of a promised four-part book series by Art Whino gallerist and organizer of the Richmond Mural Project in Virginia, Shane Pomajambo, that features many artists he has worked with in the brand new “The Art of the Mural”.

The Art of The Mural: Contemporary International Urban Art. Volume 01 by Shaen Pomajambo. Schiffer Publishing

Click HERE for more about this book.

Rubin: “Scandinavia / New York” Studio Works and Murals

From BSA:

An immigrant’s tale, Rubin’s, and a New York story as well. For his first artists monograph the Fin by way of Sweden brazenly tells you his story in a most deliberate and considered way. It’s brazen because it’s a truth that has taken him a long time to be ready to tell, ready to be vulnerable. It’s carefully considered because – that’s his style.

Rubin. Scandinavia / New York. Studio Works and Murals. Published by Dokument Press 2016. Sweden.

Click HERE for more about this book.

“Street Art / Today” features 50 of the Most Influential Street Artists

From BSA:

It’s nearly impossible to arrange the work of Street Artists into lists of “top” or “most popular” or “most influential”, but it happens all the time now particularly as the street art world morphs into a commercial and professional scene for some. But it’s a dodgy business when one tries to rank art and artists – and most people will disagree with your list no matter what.

Street art / today: The 50 most influential street artists today by Bjørn Van Poucke & Elise Luong published by Lannoo. Belgium.

Click HERE for more about this book.

Graffiti Murals: Exploring The Impacts Of Street Art

From BSA:

New Book by Patrick Verel Attempts to Untangle the Graffiti Mural Discussion

In Graffiti Murals: Exploring The Impacts Of Street Art, a methodical study of graffiti and murals in Manhattan, Brooklyn, The Bronx, Staten Island, Jersey City, Philadelphia, and Trenton (New Jersey), author Patrick Verel talks to all of the stakeholders he can find, revealing much in the telling of his findings. The author says he created this book from a paper he was researching for while completing his masters degree in urban studies, and you can tell his intention was to turn over as many stones as possible to study the impact this grassroots art movement is having on the communities that murals appear in.

Graffiti Murals: Exploring the Impact of Street Art. Patrick Verel. Schiffer Publishing. 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Stik : His First Collected Volume of Work

From BSA:

An unusual little tall man, this Stik man.

Deceptively simple, he expresses profound truths that are anything but. Since the turn of this century in his hometown of Hackney, the formerly homeless Stik has been bringing his unassuming line drawn character out to the streets of northeast London, often Shoreditch. With few details and is as uncluttered as a logo, Stik towers above on the side of a housing behemoth, or a water tower, or a doorway.

STIK. Published by Penguin Books – Random House. New York City. 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Shepard Fairey: Earth Crisis

From BSA:

Artist and activist Shepard Fairey this week releases a 2 volume “Earth Crisis” set that commemorates a recent public environmental project and doubles as a collection of plates to jumpstart your collection which you could easily frame and hang. With it comes powerful socio-political messages common to his wheelhouse delivered with the artists often iconic sense of design.

Shepard Fairey / OBEY. Earth Crisis. Albin Michel Publishers . Galerie Itenerrance. Paris. July 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Icy & Sot “Let Her Be Free”

From BSA:

“We first met Icy and Sot the summer they arrived in New York. Their name was already preceding them on the Internet because even while still in Iran, they had developed a network of friends and collectors who had helped them to show their art in Europe. Images of their work had already caught our eye. We were lucky to be the first to interview them here.” – Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, Co-founders, Brooklyn Street Art

BSA is proud to tell you of this new book, the first monograph of Iranian Street Art brothers ICY & SOT, which we dedicated many hours of design, editing, interviewing, and writing to, in addition to contributing photographs by Jaime Rojo. Along with the brothers and book designer Cassandra Brinen, we spent many hours in New York meetings in each others apartments and Brooklyn cafes sorting through images and stories to find the narrative and the flow of the pages and chapters (even laying all the pages across a living room floor), all the time wondering if we could finish it in time and to the quality level and taste level everyone was looking for.

Icy & Sot “Let Her Be Free” Lebowski Publishers. Amsterdam 2016

Click HERE for more about this book.

Luna Park’s “(Un)Sanctioned” Book

From BSA:

The memory of the joy and the excitement of discovery of graffiti and Street Art is something we never take for granted, and we have always given voice to as many artists and photographers as possible on BSA for that reason. Luna, whose real name is Katherine Lorimer, this month introduces her first book-bound collection of many of her most electrifying moments of capture and documentation.

Heavy on New York artists, particularly her favorites and dear friends, the collection captures a splendid offering of the spine tingling pieces of ephemera one could stumble upon here in the last 11 years – if they did the hard work. Expertly collected and selected, this above all is a reflection of one personal journey.

Katherine ‘Luna Park’ Lorimer’s book (UN)SANCTIONED The Art On New York Streets from Carpet Bombing Culture

Click HERE for more about this book.

BSA Film Friday 12.09.16

December 9, 2016 Artists

Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening :
1. Mni Wiconi: The Stand At Standing Rock
2. Just Kids x Life Is Beautiful
3. “Nemco, Three Stages”: Primaticcio
4. RFK Mural Festival 2016 from Chop Em Down Films

Mni Wiconi: The Stand At Standing Rock

“The Mother Earth is the grandmother of everything and the water is her blood. And it is through this blood we live.”

That seems simple enough. The Native Americans who have been fighting an oil pipeline running through their sacred lands, passed graves, near fresh water; they have gained a lot of attention, although not as much as one might expect. Here is a quick overview of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and allies trying to stop the 1,100-mile Dakota Access Pipeline – DAPL. With their quiet and firm determination and reasoned arguments they have gained respect from many – which may explain why so many US Veterans have joined with these people to fight.

Tangentially, as is the case of most protests that are grassroots, their signage is handmade, so we thought we’d feature this political art as analogous to political street art.

Just Kids x Life Is Beautiful

A montage by Raymesh Cintron of the murals for the “Life is Beautiful” festival presented by Just Kids in downtown Las Vegas. Their 4th edition under the guidance and vision of Charlotte Dutoit, there have been 40 new street pieces in that time. This year featured installations and murals – with some of them showing true originality in concepts that faithfully reflect and update the candyflash razzle dazzle of the Las Vegas aesthetic.

Artists include Fafi, Felipe Pantone, Shepard Fairey, Tristan Eaton, Crystal Wagner, Mark Drew, Bezt (Etam Cru), Dulk, Martin Whatson, Amanda Parer, Mike Ross and Justin Favela.

“Nemco, Three Stages”: Primaticcio

Italian writer Nemco has an acrobatic flexibility that stretches and bounces back in his crisp lettering and unique ornamentation. Check him out in three open spaces this autumn knocking out a few ideas in Milan.

RFK Mural Festival 2016 from Chop Em Down Films

“There is a discrimination in this world and slavery and slaughter and starvation. Governments repress their people; and millions are trapped in poverty while the nation grows rich; and wealth is lavished on armaments everywhere.

These are differing evils, but they are common works of man. They reflect the imperfection of human justice, the inadequacy of human compassion, our lack of sensibility toward the sufferings of our fellows.

But we can perhaps remember – even if only for a time – that those who live with us are our brothers; that they share with us the same short moment of life; that they seek – as we do – nothing but the chance to live out their lives in purpose and happiness, winning what satisfaction and fulfillment they can.”

– Bobby Kennedy, 1966

Murals at the RFK Community Schools in May 2016 by:
Shepard Fairey, Kenny Scharf, Jeff Soto, Sam Flores, Hueman, David Flores, Greg Mike, Curiot, Mad Steez, Cyrcle, Andrew Hem, Mear One, Risk, Yoskay Yamamoto. James Bullough, Beau Stanton, Hebru Brantley, Hush, Charlie Edmiston, Colette Miller, Rob Hill, Dallas Clayton, Clinton Bopp, James Haunt, Jonas Never, Josh Everhorn, Baker’s Son, Jose Maradiaga-Andrade, Paige Smith

Flying Squirrels and Houston Toads : Louis Masai in Texas and Tennessee

December 8, 2016 Artists

Austin, Texas

Austin is proud to plead, “Keep Austin Weird.” Street Artist Louis Masai felt like his recent visit to that Texas city was not the only part of the US that one could call weird – it was actually a place to seek refuge.

“After the introduction to Chump and his band of merry men for the next 4 years we definitely saw a massive change in the energy of the areas we were driving through,” he says of his post-election leg of a cross-country trip.

brooklyn-street-art-louis-masai-emil-walker-austin-11-2016-web-1

He’s probably just feeling that brotherly hate that spiked across the US when the primarily white supporters of Donald Trump asserted their vindictiveness and power across the country, registering in a rise of hate crimes, according to this chart from Forbes magazine by the Southern Poverty Law Center.

But here in Austin his “Art of Beeing” tour brought this topic of Houston Toads and their shrinking numbers to the wall in this city that is rich in arts and music and a bit more of that “live and let live” mentality.

The Amphibians Survival Alliance (www.amphibians.org) says that the decreasing population of these toads is only at 3-4,000 in Houston and Bastrop County and if these are killed off by drought, fire ants, disappearing habitat – they will become extinct.

And on his wall, Louis says about his Austin experience, “I guess the attraction is the abundance of frats and bar culture in the area. I got to know a handful of these homeless folks over the five days this mural took to complete and I can definitely see that the new mural in their neighborhood gave them some new color and appreciation in their lives. Several vowed to protect its longevity, bless them.”

Will he come back to all this weirdness?

Yes, he tells us. “This wall was painted in conjunction with Global Wildlife Conservation. These guys were amazing and I look forward to working with them again soon.”

Nashville, Tennessee

Later the “Art of Beeing” tour travelled to Tennessee and Louis continued to experience some of that southern hospitality, and a few questions about the Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel. He also was surprised to endure some cold temperatures.

brooklyn-street-art-louis-masai-emil-walker-nashville-11-2016-web-3

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Northern Flying Squirrel. Endangered. Nashville, TN. November 2016. (photo © Emil Walker)

“I don’t think I have ever experienced such a difference in temperature. from 26 degrees (79 F) in Austin to 2 degrees (36 F) in Nashville. Thank you Ecoalf for those jackets, for without them our team surely would have not made this wall happen,” he says.

The Nashville Walls Project has brought artists like Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulman, Above, Herakut, and Rone to the city and now Louis added his work to the collection

“I have joined a roster of some of the worlds’ best mural artists and I feel humbled to be a part of this project.,” he says. “Nashville is an up and coming city, experiencing a boom in new residents, again more gentrification is weeping into the city and prices are soaring, apparently about 85 new residents move in a week.”

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Northern Flying Squirrel. Endangered. Nashville, TN. November 2016. (photo © Emil Walker)

“The wall that I painted shadows a section of the city that I am sure will get pushed out. Men hang out on the street not doing much; we met a cowboy inspired gentleman that was proud to admit to eating gopher tortoise – a federally protected species. He said he had three in his freezer…he grew up eating what they hunted, from squirrels to rabbits and tortoise. Hopefully my line of work can help to steer people away from eating these species.”

Did Louis change this fellers’ mind? “I think this guy might be too late to inspire.”

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Northern Flying Squirrel. Endangered. Nashville, TN. November 2016. (photo © Emil Walker)

But you can help to save one of the rarest species – the Carolina Northern Flying Squirrel, which has been found in North Carolina, east Tennessee, and southwest Virginia. There doesn’t appear to be a specific species trust but you can support the Tennessee Wildlife Federation to protect all local wildlife.

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Northern Flying Squirrel. Endangered. Nashville, TN. November 2016. (photo © Emil Walker)

Click http://louismasai.com/projects/the-art-of-beeing/ to learn more about the project.

Johannes Mundinger: “La Bella Confusione”
April 25, 2024
You are inundated with information, disinformation, propaganda, images, videos, entreaties, siren calls, threats, promises, summaries, conjecture, stunning beauty, deliberate obfuscations, …Read More »
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 »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.21.24
April 21, 2024
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! “It’s the only time of the year when New York City smells good,” …Read More »
Barcelona Tributes for The Amazing SKE
April 18, 2024
Today, we pay tribute to an iconic figure from the Puerto Rican graffiti scene, Eliezer “SKE” Pagán Torres. Born on …Read More »
Elfo Declares “I’m a Figurative Painter”… and I’m the Queen of England!
April 16, 2024
Elfo, the ever-witty Italian street artist, strikes again with his latest work scrawled across an abandoned building in Italy. Known …Read More »
BSA Images Of The Week: 04.14.24 / “Return2Burn” in Hunts Point, Bronx
April 14, 2024
Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week. We decided to dedicate this weekly survey to the artists of “Return 2 …Read More »
Martha Cooper and Seth in Kibera. Kenya: Part 2 / “We Are One”
April 11, 2024
Nestled within the bustling city of Nairobi, Kenya, Kibera is a testament to its inhabitants’ challenges and its collective indomitable …Read More »

Now, months later, my Trump effigy, with its hollow eyes and thousand yard stare, is no longer a joke.

We love this picture by two reasons:

First, it reminds us that mural festivals are much more than walls. They impact and transform, we hope positively, cities and most of all, people. So for us the community is what really matters; the community of a local village or our community of art.

Secondly, the picture represents what we believe at Instagrafite and what we want still for our years to come, including 2017:

To always see the world through the eyes of a child where nothing is impossible and everything can come true!

I stumbled upon this mural while looking for parking in Guarhulos, Brazil, the home of Sao Paulo’s international airport. Due to difficulty finding parking and traffic congestion, I was able to take the photo on our fourth trip around the block.

In a city that boasts kilometer after kilometer of roadside murals, it was refreshing to find this image painted on the side of a laundromat. It is direct, funny and simple. I often think about how much I enjoyed being surprised by superheroes in their underwear.

I love coming across informal forms of expression such as this. No permits, no copyright, just do it.

How important is it to show street art pieces when you are taking pics of street art? Of course, it’s important. All of us love it, don’t we?

But after years of hitting the streets, lots of walking, climbing walls, being on rooftops and sneaking into other people’s houses in order to get the best possible shot of the final result, I’m starting to think that this is not the most important issue for me.

Everyone can go for a walk and shoot a wall. Everyone. But not everyone has the chance of being there during the creative process. And this is what this shot is about.

It’s about being there, right there, feeling the energy of creation. It’s about intimacy, about detail, about the personal connection with the artist, because you were able to be that close. And not everyone can be that close, that’s for sure…

SpY. Street Art Museum (SAM). St. Petersburg, Russia. May 2016. (photo © Evgeniy Belikov)

Icy & Sot. Endangered Species Mural Project. Los Angeles, CA. January 2016 (photo © Jess X. Chen)

As ever, the brothers crash into each others sentences while talking to us. “Whatever happens in the ocean… it comes back to us,” says Sot. “Whether is trash or plastics or oil..”

Icy jumps in, “The fish eat them and then we eat the animals and we have the plastics inside of us.”

“Yeah, It’s a cycle. We are all making a lot of trash – we are affecting the world. Then it all comes back to us,” says Sot… Continue reading here No. 13 MIMA Museum: City Lights with Swoon, MOMO, Hayuk, Faile

Maya Hayuk. MIMA Museum. Brussels, Belgium. April 2016. (photo © The Pickles – MIMA Museum)

What is it about Brooklyn Street Art that is so appealing that one would curate the opening exhibition of a museum with it?

“Six street artists took their social engagement a step further in El Salvador last month and taught youth some serious skillz from the street.

We bring you some images of the works that were made by the visiting artists and some of their observations and experiences during the Conect-Arte program…Continue reading here No. 11 Discovering a “Magic City” in Dresden, Germany

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Louis Masai: The Art of Beeing USA Tour. Bog Turtle. Endangered. The Bushwick Collective, Brooklyn. NYC. October 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“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 daring of their travails.

Interesni Kazki. Detail. (photo © VladyArt)

Tadlock (photo © @around730)

“An anti-Banksy & Co. Street Art show opened in Bologna Italy the same night as its controversial bank-backed cousin with brand new works by 50 or so Italian and international Street Artists and open admission to their outdoor ‘museum’.

“It is free and spontaneous, as Street Art should be,” says an organizer and participant named About Ponny as he describes the exuberant and sometimes saucy toned exhibition on the grounds of the sprawling former headquarters of Zincaturificio Bolognese which is destined for future demolition.

Icy & Sot. “Nuclear Plant” Navajo Nation. Arizona. June 2017. (photo © Icy & Sot)

“Yellow Cake: A simple sweet dessert confection that gets its signature color from 8 egg yolks and a cup of butter, and is great with either vanilla or chocolate icing.

Yellowcake: A type of uranium concentrate powder obtained from leach solutions, in an intermediate step in the processing of uranium ores. Also, its radioactive. Also, Colin Powell showed off a vial of it at the United Nations to sell the Iraq invasion in 2003 to that body and the world.

Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Scientists, psychologists, surgeons…in the end we’re all driven by a similar curiosity.”

In the weeks leading up to and after these events he also managed to hit a number of walls in Coney Island, Bushwick, and Jersey City…oh and he knocked out a box truck as well.

La Castillo. Save The Arctic. Barcelona, Spain. April 2016. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Only three days later scientists announced that the Greenland “Melt” has happened one month earlier than usual this year, smashing records and causing scientists to reexamine their measuring instruments to make sure they were working correctly.

The art-platform model of RebobinArt is interesting because they are a community organization that manages spaces and issues permits for painting for competitions, festivals, exhibitions, educational programs, and cause-based events like this one.

Chip Thomas. The original photograph of JC Morningstar holding her dog on a swing. Indigenous People’s Day at Fort Lewis College. Durango, CO. (photo © Chip Thomas)

Paola Delfin. Chihuahua, Mexico. Centropolis Art Festival 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

No. 12 “Street Food” from Mathieu Roquigny

“Some simple stencil activism well placed can be very effective. Vulgar, absurd, playful. Call it what you want, but Mathieu Roquigny is the first one we have seen do it. Do not view during your morning donut and coffee.”

The combined passages allow you to slow down and contemplate the whirring city and a handful of its moments as sweet parenthesis in this run-on sentence called New York. Okay, that’s enough, move along now, no standing.”

No. 10 Ella & Pitr: Utsira Island

“It is funny to see this video stamped with the name “Street Art, Utsira ” because Utsira is an island with about 200 inhabitants off the coast of Norway, and there not many streets. Also, this piece is not on a street.

“HERA + AKUT=HERAKUT – a back-to-basics introduction to Herakut today, since new fans are joining the fold and need to become acquainted with a duo that has been on the street around the world for years and has been moving into galleries for a while also.

Here at the white box Corey Helford Gallery in Los Angeles for their “Masters of Wrong” show it is a different view entirely from the street surely, including paintings evenly spaced across white walls as well as an area for a more immersive environment.

Outside, “The wolf that wins is the one you feed” is the Cherokee wisdom they paint on the side of the local high school, and in the commercialization of the Street Art world, we see this enmeshed dichotomy more daily.

Let the softly kinetic paddling of the marimba escort you through their political and social commentary, now more overt and obvious and satirical than ever, as they show you their new show and their new works for exhibition and for sale.”

No. 8 “Watching My Name Go By”

“Directed by Julia Cave and originally shown on the BBC documentary series OMNIBUS in December of 1976, this was actually the second half of a program that followed a tour through the art gallery scene of Soho.

A hidden gem that surveys the variety of opinions held by citizens, historians, police and front stoop sociologists about the graffiti scene on trains and the streets, the story is measured and inquisitive. It’s without glamour, although there may be guile.”

No. 7 Os Gemeos Mural: Hangar Bicocca Building

“This looks like a trailer for a larger piece:

No. 5 The Restoration of Blu for “Street Art Banksy & Co”

“Part II of a behind the scenes look by Good Guy Boris at the controversial show in Bologna that features art works by BLU and others that were originally not intended to appear in a museum, like most things in museums.

Additionally, the performance artist Ariel Brickman on stage at the show opening is the personification of Lister’s fantasic/heroic/treacherous figures; a spot-on example of his work come to life.”

“Narcelio Grud has a track record of transforming public space in an unassuming manner that actually engages people directly. Here is his latest urban intervention – a music box for pedestrians to listen to while waiting for the light to change.”

In Memory: Giulio Vesprini

David Choe. Detail. Wynwood Walls / Art Basel 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plotbot Ken’s post-apocolyptic installation on a car at the abandoned NSA spy compound in Teufelsberg Hill in Berlin. Berlin, 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Handstyle and all New York, baby. Faust. Shantell Martin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

One of Swoon’s new additions to the street in 2016 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASTRO in East Harlem for #NotACrime campaign in collaboration with Street Art Anarchy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

More than his multiple murals published here this year, this sculpture on 23rd Street in Manhattan in the spring captured the imagination and gave his work an added dimension. Nychos. “Dissection of Sigmund Freud”. Vienna Therapy. Manhattan, NY. June 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mad C. MB6 Street Art. Marrakesh Biennale 6. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maya Hayuk. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Yeah, It’s a cycle. We are all making a lot of trash – we are affecting the world. Then it all comes back to us,” says Sot… Continue reading here

No. 13
MIMA Museum: City Lights with Swoon, MOMO, Hayuk, Faile

We bring you some images of the works that were made by the visiting artists and some of their observations and experiences during the Conect-Arte program…Continue reading here

No. 11
Discovering a “Magic City” in Dresden, Germany

No. 12
“Street Food” from Mathieu Roquigny

No. 10
Ella & Pitr: Utsira Island

No. 8
“Watching My Name Go By”

No. 7
Os Gemeos Mural: Hangar Bicocca Building

No. 5
The Restoration of Blu for “Street Art Banksy & Co”