Brooklyn Street Art | …loves you more every day.

Roland Henry and Shark Toof : 15 For 2015

December 27, 2015 Artists

What are you celebrating this season? We’re celebrating BSA readers and fans with a holiday assorted chocolate box of 15 of the smartest and tastiest people we know. Each day until the new year we ask a guest to take a moment to reflect on 2015 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for him or her. It’s our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and saying ‘thank you’ for inspiring us throughout the year.

Roland Henry is the managing editor and a journalist for VNA (Very Nearly Almost), the UK-based independent magazine which features interviews with some of the world’s top artists, illustrators and photographers from the urban art scene since 2006. Mr. Henry’s in-depth studies and interviews with artists are warmly informative and revelatory, presenting fresh perspectives on a complex scene that is always in flux. Studied in Sociology and English Roland is multi-disciplinary—curator, producer, actor — building an expanding network of respect among artists and brands in cities like London, Sydney, New York, Los Angeles, and Detroit.

Detroit, MI, USA

September 2015

Title: “Shark Toof”
Photograph by Roland Henry

I love this image, not only because I didn’t fuck it up and it’s actually a cool shot, but because of what it represents. The 1xRUN guys brought me over to Detroit in September for their Murals in the Market festival, which embodied everything good about art for me right now – travel, meeting awesome new people, sharing stories, making new ones and creating an amazing international community. In these times of war, love, peace and understanding are the things that will bring us all together.

~ Roland Henry

Priscilla Frank and The Bunny Museum : 15 For 2015

December 26, 2015 Artists

Priscilla Frank is the Arts & Culture Editor of the Huffington Post. A student of Rhetoric at Berkley, and now based in Los Angeles, she favors Art Brut, feminist art, comic art and folk art. Some entertaining posts by Ms. Frank in 2015 include Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina On Her Plans For A Women’s-Only Museum , Stereoscopic Nudes Are The Sexy GIFs Of The 19th Century, Artist Lip-Syncs Entire GOP Debate While Dressed As A Clown, and ‘World’s Greatest Cat Painting’ Sells For $826,000. As hilariously engaging as those sound, most germane to BSA readers might be her 10 Women Artists Who Are Better Than Banksy.

USA, Pasadena (LA)
May 2015
Photograph by Micah Hauser

This is an outdoor view of The Bunny Museum located in the private home of Candace Frazee and Steve Lubanski. The couple, who call each other “honey bunny” as a term of endearment, have given each other a bunny-centric gift every day for quite a while now. They now have over 32,000.

brooklyn-street-art-priscilla-frank-Micah-Hauser-pasadena-la-12-2015-web

I visited the museum in the midst of the Marie Kondo frenzy, when I felt a paralyzing pressure to clean up and grow up in more ways than just home tidying. When I saw the surreal gaggle of stuffed bunnies smushed against the suburban home’s window panes, it was as reassuring as cuddling up with a long lost stuffed animal.

I turned to my boyfriend and said “I’m not Kondoing.” This might have been a key liberating moment in my life, or perhaps a damning one, I guess it remains to be seen. For now I’m content to embrace the chaos, the clutter, all the bunnies.

<<>>><><<>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<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

Merry Christmas from Your Friends at BSA!

December 25, 2015 Artists

To you and your family we send hugs and wishes for a very Merry Christmas. Also, a bed full of Christmas cookies! Don’t worry about the crumbs.

photo ©Steven P. Harrington

Yasha Young and Herakut : 15 for 2015

December 25, 2015 Artists

Yasha Young is the director and curator of Berlin’s Urban Nation, the first museum worldwide that will exclusively collect and exhibit contemporary graffiti and street art. She also is the director of UN’s sub-project named Project M, bringing 100 or so artists to the UN and Berlin streets in just the last couple of years. A former gallery director for 15 years focusing on LowBrow and Urban Contemporary Art, Young has curated, produced and been an enthusiastic catalyst and visionary for countless collaborative art initiatives in the public sphere; this year included projects in Berlin, Iceland, Rochester (NY), Hawaii, and Miami.

Berlin, Germany
May 2015
Herakut
Urban Nation One Wall Project
Photograph by Aurelio Schrey

“Wenn ich wüsste das die Welt morgen untergeht würde ich heute einen Apfelbaum pflanzen”

(translated) “If I knew that the world would end tomorrow I would plant an apple tree today” ~ Martin Luther 1483 – 1546

I would like to dedicate my image choice to Herakut and this particular piece. To me this is about hope and the belief that there is always more good left on this planet than the incredible evil and hardship we see around us every day no matter where in the world.

Hope is the foundation of change. It is universal and knows no restriction, no prejudice. Hope is what we need across the world at the moment and what we can give and spread at no cost and abundance – just like love.

This mural, with the Martin Luther quote written in several different languages, unites the thought of hope and the possibility of change via generations to come across the globe even in the face of a world on fire and displaced cultures — hope remains always.

<<>>><><<>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<<>>><<<>><><<>>><>

Mark Rigney and Ad Busting : 15 for 2015

December 24, 2015 Artists

Mark Rigney is a photographer, curator, designer, blogger and art zine maker originally from Ireland and now running UKs Hookedblog for its 10^th year in East London. His photos have appeared in numerous books including Untitled III: This is Street Art and The Art of Rebellion and quite a few times in VNA (Very Nearly Almost) as well as multiple illustrious Street Art sites like BSA.

London, UK
November 1, 2015
Artist: Jordan Seiler
Photograph by Mark Rigney

This has been a year filled with art, travel, good company and food for me, catching up with old friends across the globe and meeting new ones. It has also been a year filled with ad takeovers.

Through our friend Vermibus we first met New York artist Jordan Seiler in Berlin on a trip that coincided with the opening of Open Walls Berlin, a new gallery space where the two artists had a joint exhibition together. I was invited to accompany them both to capture them hitting up the bus shelters in the neighbourhood, removing the advertising and replacing the posters with their art.

A month later I joined Vermibus again to document his month long ‘Unveiling Beauty’ project which saw him travelling to New York, London, Milan and Paris, installing works in each city. My documenting of ad busters continued last month with Jordan Seiler visiting London and installing a number of works across the city including this piece in East London.

~ Mark Rigney

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

Evan Pricco and Banksy : 15 for 2015

December 23, 2015 Artists

Evan Pricco is the Editor-In-Chief and Web Editor of the leading international contemporary art magazine Juxtapoz, based in San Francisco. Now shooting straight out of Sausalito, Evan found that part of his job this year entailed traveling to Street Art festivals and art fairs, doing studio visits, interviewing people like Banksy and Takashi Murakami, and being a desk clerk at a Times Square newsstand that sold limited edition prints and books by artists – and of course inviting graffiti writers to tag it – while police chased after painted ladies and groping Cookie Monsters.

Weston-super-Mare, UK
October, 2015
Artist: Banksy
Photograph by Evan Pricco

It’s sort of an obvious pick, but I knew the moment I walked up on this installation/game/project at Dismaland that Banksy had really created something significant. It’s fitting of the world we live in right now, and months later, the way that many Americans and Grand Old Party have positioned themselves in regards to the refugee crisis.

And so you have these boats that float around a pool where you can drive them around for a few pence, with absolutely no goal in mind or place to land. All just an inevitable shit storm.

~ Evan Pricco

Katherine Brooks and EVER in El Barrio : 15 For 2015

December 22, 2015 Artists

Katherine Brooks is the Senior Arts & Culture Editor at the Huffington Post flagship in New York and is insatiably curious about daily developments inside and outside the art world. This inquisitive mind helps her to countenance diverse topics that fly across her desk with regularity from Burning Man to Bansky to Guerilla Girls to the New Whitney, Kim Gordan, Peaches and of course, Cats Taking Over Famous Western Artworks. One of our favorite pieces by Brooks this year is an extensive examination of gender and the fossilized academic and institutional thinking patterns that keep women marginalized in the art world in 2015 called Let’s Talk About ‘Women Artists’ And What This Term Means.

El Barrio, East Harlem, New York
October 2015
Artist: Ever in collaboration with Martha Cooper for Monument Art 2015
Photograph by Jaime Rojo

Not only did I feel captivated by the image painted on the side of this East Harlem building, I was struck by the way Jaime framed this photograph. The young man and kids in the mural peer up and over a seemingly endless landscape, while the boys playing basketball — highlighted in the foreground — appear protected by the art.

It’s always interesting to see the context within which a mural is constructed. This particular meeting of art and athletics seems to echo a greater aspect of public art: a desire to capture attention in unexpected places.

~ Katherine Brooks

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

Butterfly and 100Taur at a French Monastary : 15 For 2015

December 21, 2015 Artists

Butterfly is the editor and founder of the French Street Art site called ButterflyArtNews and she is also an occasional contributor of photographs and observations on BSA. A voracious documenter of the Street Art scene around the world whose work has been published in books, magazines, and blogs, this year Butterfly co-curated a London show with two French artists, 100Taur and Hisham Echafaki. A highlight for 2015 was her comprehensive and personal coverage of Banksy’s Dismaland on her site, on BSA, and in a 30 minute documentary with Lars Pederson for the French / German TV Channel ARTE

Dominican Monastery, district of Toulouse Rangueil, France.
July 2015
Artist: 100Taur
Photograph by Butterfly

I selected this picture because of the unlikely collaboration between the two worlds – religion and street art – and they share a message of open mindedness and peace and it also recognizes street art as being as sacred as other art movements throughout history.

~ Butterfly

This mural was previously featured on BSA. More on this Mural HERE

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

Sharon Matt Atkins and Faile in Times Square : 15 for 2015

December 20, 2015 Artists

Sharon Matt Atkins is Vice Director, Exhibitions and Collections Management at the Brooklyn Museum and has been responsible for organizing some amazing Street Art related shows in the last few years that brought the work of Street Artists to throngs of museum audiences. Matt Atkins organized the richly engaging FAILE: Savage/Sacred Young Minds this summer and the Stephen Powers: Coney Island Is Still Dreamland (To a Seagull) installation currently on display. These two exhibitions with deep roots in graffiti and Street Art followed on the 2014 heralded successes of Dr. Atkins, who also organized Swoon: Submerged Motherlands and the Brooklyn presentation of Ai Weiwei: According to What?

Times Square, New York City
August 17, 2015
Artist: Faile
Photograph by Sharon Matt Atkins

My pick for 2015 has to be FAILE-related! I had the great pleasure working with them on their Brooklyn Museum exhibition, FAILE: Savage/Sacred Young Minds, which was on view July 10th – October 4th (big thanks to BSA for making the introduction years ago!).

FAILE’s exhibition featured their Temple along with their collaboration with BÄST, The FAILE and BÄST Deluxx Fluxx Arcade. They also created new paintings and sculptures for the exhibition. As if this wasn’t enough to keep them busy, they also worked with Times Square Arts on Wishing on You, a monumental, hand-carved, painted, and interactive prayer wheel situated in the heart of Times Square.

On view to coincide with the Brooklyn Museum exhibition, this project created the perfect synergy between their indoor installations and their ongoing commitment to creating surprising and captivating experiences in our urban environment.

~ Sharon Matt Atkins

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

Carlo McCormick, Lenin and Darth Vader : 15 For 2015

December 19, 2015 Artists

New York art juggernaut Carlo McCormick is a culture critic and curator at large, angling through the streets, galleries, museums, studios and vapor-filled back rooms of Gotham. He is the author of numerous books, monographs and catalogues on contemporary art and artists, and lectures and teaches at art symposia, festivals, universities and colleges. His writing has appeared in Effects : Magazine for New Art Theory, Aperture, Art in America, Art News, Artforum, Camera Austria, High Times, Spin , Tokion, Vice and other magazines. McCormick is Senior Editor of Paper magazine. He also is a cranky sage-like charmer whom we love and value for his insights and tirades.

Odessa, Ukraine
October 2015
Artist Oleksandr Milov
Photograph credit Dumskaya.net

As a culture of amnesiacs and liars we are always rewriting history to suit the present. This sculpture, by Oleksandr Milov, seems to capture the perversity and violence by which the past is continuously undone.

I don’t know much about this artist except that he does stuff that people who go to Burning Man think looks cool, and I have no idea who took the photographs, it was just one of those things that briefly became a meme in that screen of perpetual distraction we call the news. Though no doubt an intervention it would be hard to call this street art for it is really public sculpture- a radical defacement legitimized by the passing of a law in April by the Ukrainian Parliament banning Communist propaganda and symbols.

This becomes a rather ambitious and expensive program for a country that has already been looted by thugs and is currently fighting a war against Russian aggressions, especially considering that most things there are still named after some Soviet tyrant and most every public space seemingly has its own Lenin statue. Activists there have been addressing this unwanted Lenin population already, toppling statues, repainting them in the national colors of the Ukraine, and even covering them in a vyshyvanka, the traditional Ukrainian shirt.

Milov’s transformation however, a transference from one oppressor to another, merely trades one set of lies for another, those of the great American myth factory. Each is equally virulent, both before and after here are personifications of evil where their malevolent force must be measured not simply by might but by culture’s willingness to fully believe in their falsehood.

As the worst kind of public art we need to understand what monuments are: a kind of memorial, a way of representing memory in perpetuity. As we tend to this spectacle of public memory, Milov touches upon a rare strain that runs through this mundane legacy of forgotten heroes, a way of remembering the worst without the sentimentality of the lost (as in those monuments to wars and natural disasters) but with the epic monumentality of posterity by which the rich and powerful seek the eternal through bronze.

This past summer I came across a truly wonderful monument in Denmark put up in 1664 to a national traitor named Corfitz. It was a quite ugly large stone with the most remarkable inscription “To His Eternal Shame, Disgrace and Infamy.” This to me offers a viable path away from the morbid mediocrity of insipid monuments to historical irrelevance that seemingly choke town squares and parks around the world, a way to register our place on this planet as a kind of Monumental Shame.

~ Carlo McCormick

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

Jonathan LeVine and his Buddy Evan : 15 for 2015

December 18, 2015 Artists

Jonathan LeVine has been director since 2005 of Jonathan LeVine Gallery, an essential venue for Street Art and Pop Surrealism that brings a steady parade of mind-bending talent and shows to the heart of Manhattan’s Chelsea art district. Independently curating exhibitions at punk and alternative rock venues in the 1990s probably helped prepare Jonathan to deftly straddle the competing influences of counterculture, activism, and commercialism at play today; which he does with a frankly sharp wit and a still-marveling true appreciation for art and the artist.

Chelsea, Manhattan, NYC
October 16, 2015
Photograph by Jonathan LeVine

This is a photo I took of my good buddy Evan Pricco who also happens to be the editor of Juxtapoz. Evan and I were walking back to my gallery from the West Village where we had dinner when we stumbled across this little fellow.

I don’t often take photos of street art but I liked this one piece in particular because it was kind of inconspicuous. It reminded me of the old New York where I would run into some quick graffiti like doodle or street intervention that would kind of pop up and surprise me and make me laugh.

Nowadays with street art/mural art run amok all over the world I feel like it’s all a bit forced on me. This piece felt authentic and it was nice to discover it with Evan. For me this photo captures a meaningful moment in NYC and reminds me of a fun night of feeling connected through the exchange of interesting conversation and ideas. These types of moments don’t come as often as they used to in this constantly changing city.

~ Jonathan Levine

Alison Young and Vermibus : 15 For 2015

December 17, 2015 Artists

Alison Young is a Professor at the University of Melbourne, an expert in Cultural Criminology, winner of many academic awards, and author of a number of Street Art related books, including her most recent Street Art, Public City: Law, Crime and the Urban Imagination. In it she considers the ways in which street art has become an integral part of the identity of cities such as London, New York, Berlin, and Melbourne, at the same time as street art has become increasingly criminalized. Alison is also a simply indispensible source for many who are studying the intersections of art, culture, law, and urban space.

London, United Kingdom
20 September 2015.
Photograph by Mark Rigney

2015 was a year in which arguments about whether street art can still be considered in any way radical became ever more intense. At times, it seemed like the answer was obvious: when the sides of New York subway cars were used to advertise a ‘street art reality tv show’, many assumed that street art had lost any radical edge it might have had. Other examples were less clear cut. Some argued that muralism is making our streetscapes bland, as local neighbourhood character gets replaced by a uniform aesthetic in cities around the world; for others, the presence of a striking and skillful mural is a vast improvement and a source of community pride.

For me, one of the most exciting examples of street art’s radical potential is found in the work of ‘subvertisers’ like Jordan Seiler, or the various artists working with Brandalism, who used techniques of street art and subvertising to take over 600 advertising panels in Paris before the UN COP21 Climate Conference at the end of November.

Another such artist is the Berlin-based Vermibus, who travelled to various cities hosting a Fashion Week in September and October 2015. He replaced advertisements with his own hand-painted images of women designed to make people think critically about the fashion and cosmetics ads conventionally displayed in public space.

I was fortunate enough to meet Vermibus in London, and watched him install these two pieces in the bus shelter outside Harrods department store – in broad daylight, with hundreds of people walking back and forth along the street, in a clear demonstration of the ways in which ‘street art’ can still be deeply politicized.

~Alison Young

Photos of BSA 2025 # 5
December 30, 2025
We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 6
December 29, 2025
It's not all doom and gloom, but sometimes you may get that impression. In New York—like everywhere else—economic stress, global …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 7
December 28, 2025
Somewhere along the King’s Road, punk hardened into a classic ‘look’ - or dictionary of ‘looks’. Stripped of its insurgent …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 8
December 27, 2025
“When I watch people holding their smartphones, I often ask myself: are they holding their phones because they want to, …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 9
December 26, 2025
This was the year that rappelling from high places tipped the balance in New York graffiti. No matter the style …Read More »
Merry Christmas 2025 From BSA
December 25, 2025
We’re celebrating the end of one year and the beginning of the next by thanking BSA Readers, Friends, and Family …Read More »
Photos of BSA 2025 # 10
December 24, 2025
This one caught our eye for the merging of classic graffiti nerve, blunt style execution, sentimental velvety roses, inspirational verses, …Read More »