All posts tagged: Billy Barnacles

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.21.21

November 21, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

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Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Coming up Thursday is Thanksgiving. What are you thankful for? We’re thankful for you and the indomitable spirit of New York.

It looks like many New Yorkers who abandoned us last year are thankful to be moving back into our fabulous and gritty city. You see, we knew you would all come crawling back. Real New Yorkers, on the other hand, stayed right here and persevered alongside one another, showing solidarity in hard times, because we may be a little too loud or cantankerous, but we can handle shit. Also, for those of us who are poor or low income, we didn’t have the option of going anywhere else, frankly – we were just trying to get by day by day as we lost jobs, lost family members, lost our homes, listened to ambulances speeding past our windows every hour. We largely stayed indoors for months – except when we were marching for equal rights and justice for all. So, welcome back to the fair-weather New Yorkers. Sadly, a certain number of people in our real estate industry are taking advantage, jacking up rents – in some cases by 70%.

This week we saw Norwegian artist Dot Dot Dot putting up new work in a number of spots around the city – and we have some shots of his new work. One, in particular, seemed prescient in view of further polarization caused by the verdict in the Kyle Rittenhouse case on Thursday. He uses the power of words – lifted from the Pledge of Allegiance that school kids across the country say. It’s always great to see how artists evolve personally and develop their practice, skills, and vocabulary.

It was also great to go to celebrate the monograph book release of photographer Janette Beckman (Rebel: From Punk to Dior (Drago)) this week at Fotografiska New York. Celebrated for her excellent timing on the subcultural scenes of punk in the early 1980s and the burgeoning Hip Hop scene of the 1980s and 1990s, her photographs are the first images that spring to mind for many when you say names like LL Cool J, Salt N Pepa, Public Enemy, Andre 3000. Run DMC, Boy George, the Clash, the Sex Pistols. Celebrity-driven photography that also captured rebels before they mainstreamed, her images are sincerely stylish without preening, enormous stars before they exploded – a few shades closer to documentary work than strictly for the style pages. It was great to see her being celebrated by a room full of New York/London homies from music (Def Jam, Tommy Boy), publishing (Paper, The Face) – as well as graffiti specifically, Hip-Hop culture more generally. Fun times!

Our interview with the street today includes Adam Fujita, Billy Barnacles, DotDotDot, and Mok.

Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 09.19.21

September 19, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

For all the flooding of our street art consciousness by the mural movement during the last handful of years, we’re still impressed by the completely organic personality of New York’s scene. New York has the ability to absorb countless graffiti and street artists from around the world and still retain its own particular attitude regardless. Prickly, preening, pensive, or ready to throw a punch, you are never quite sure what you will end up with the art on the streets here. However, you are guaranteed to see something unique — and you’ll never have time to be bored.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Al Diaz, Alex Ferror, ATOMS, Billy Barnacles, Brooklsey Dark, Carlitos Skills, Don Rimx, Drecks, Duel1, Gane, Hiss, Jowl, Little Ricky, London Kaye, Lucky Rabbit, Praxis VGZ, Skewville, Smells, and UFO907 .

“Abolish ICE” by Praxis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.15.21

August 15, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

Here we are, precisely on the 50th anniversary of Nixon’s shocking removal of the dollar from the gold standard. Seems like everything is going well with fiat currency and the banking system, right?

Ah, never mind, there’s gold in these here streets.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 4sakn, Adrian Wilson, Against Dgrams, Billy Barnacles, Captain Eyeliner, Corn Queen, De Grupo, DLove, Eye Sticker, Goblin, Mister Alek, Moka, More Less Eveything, Plannedalism, Sara Lynne Leo, Stikman, Sule, The Art of Will Power, Trace1, Werd Smoker, and Winston Tseng .

Midnight Cowboy’s Jon Voight and Dustin Hoffman. Goblin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The beloved Biz Markie, who passed in July. The Art of Will Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Biz Markie gets his wings. The Art of Will Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Against Dgrams. Mister Alek. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Adrian Wilson in collaboration with The LISA Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

More Less Everything (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Collaboration between Eye Sticker & Billy Barnacles. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Captain Eyeliner. Some rascal edited the text by adding and subtracting letters. The original text read: “Oh no I look incredible”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Still life with Queen Anne Lace & Sunflowers. Summer 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.11.21

April 11, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This week we received a note from a friend in the graff/street art community urging us to encourage street and graffiti artists to create artwork on the streets that beseeches GenZ to get the Covid-19 vaccine.

They needn’t worry.

Graffiti and street artists have continued to respond to the COVID mask and vaccine issues as much as they did with the rejection of Trump and everything that came with him. During the last few years, they also have strongly responded to the BLM movement, to the topic of police brutality, to structural inequality in our economy, to last fall’s election, to indigenous people’s rights, to Asian hate, LGBTQ rights, to drug use, to anxiety, to depression, to love, to hope, to our effect on the Earth’s environment, and many social/political issues. Not always high-minded, Street artists also like pop culture icons, cute animals, and emulating successful artists who came before them and whom they admire.

It’s all part of the gig.

When we hit the streets in the pursuit of arts, we never know what we’ll find and where we’ll find it. This week we were surprised by a certain uptick in the number of sculptures on the streets. The artists used different materials, from ceramic to resin, metal, cement, and techniques associated with papier-mâché. The sculptures were mostly affixed to traffic signposts but sometimes were placed on street construction barriers. We are always happy to see sculptures on the streets as they bring back the days when sanctioned murals were definitely not the norm, and illegal street art ruled the streets in myriad small formats.

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: A Cool 55, AJ Maldo, Billy Barnacles, Chris Protas, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, JJ Veronis, Mataruda, Miyok Madness, Mint & Serf, Mort Art, Mr. Triple Double, Patrick Picou Harrington, Phetus, Raddington Falls, Sibot, Spy33, Turtle Caps, Winston Tseng.

Oh Sailor boy! Seibot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

JJ Veronis. Mr. Triple Double (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A portrait of Mr. Beyonce AKA Jay-Z by an unidentified artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty and Turtle Caps (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Miyok Madness. Rose time is almost here peeps!! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mataruda in Kingston, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Hey baby give me a kiss” JJ Veronis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Patrick Picou in Albany, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NY. April 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.04.21

April 4, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Happy Easter to all the Christians! Happy end of Passover to the Jews! – and welcome to a new spring of spiking daffodiles and spiking Covid cases in New York City even while the age for vaccinations drops to 16 this week. The graffiti and Street Art is blossoming under bridges and in empty lots, as are the much needed $1400 checks and PPP loans are blossoming as well. They are meant to keep us all barely above water, which is where many New Yorkers are financially.

Maybe the trillions that Biden and Yellen and the banksters are suddenly printing will lift us, or maybe instead they’ll just trigger hyperinflation so your savings will be worth ever less? Perhaps we could require corporations and the rich to pay their fair share of taxes – or any at all? Secular heresy to suggest such a thing!

Ahhhh, but the streets! They are still alive and well, and budding with small hand-made one-off pieces, multiples, and murals. Not quite a renaissance, but we are seeing a sincere march forward by all many of artistry in the shadows and in the broad daylight, even as Rome appears to languish.

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: Bastard Bot, Billy Barnacles, Captain Eyeliner, Cucker Tarlson, Jesse Kreuzer, Kiki the Fox, Lunge Box, Mort Art, Nicholai Kahn, Nite Owl, NY State of Mind, Praxis VGZ, Puke Punk, SacSix, Trades Only Bro, and Urban Russian Doll NYC.

404 Error On The Wall (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Cucker Tarlson U.S.A. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

This isn’t graffiti, the tags are. But the logo is vintage. Jolt Cola was introduced in the USA market in 1985. It was the first highly-caffeinated/carbonated soft drink at the time. Their demo was all individuals that needed to stay up late at night like students, young professionals and the likes. The drink is no longer in production. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“Jesse Kreuzer is a lifelong artist (he received an MFA from Cornell in 2016). In addition to painting, he makes videos, sculpture and performance pieces, and yet, “I usually feel like an outsider to the art world.” In fact, during this year’s Black Lives Matter demonstrations, one of his Diego Rivera–inspired murals painted on plywood used to protect the Whitney Museum of Art was summarily removed. “There is a certain irony here,” he wrote in *New Politics*, “since the current exhibit is about the Mexican muralists and their influence on American painters.” – PRINT – Jesse Kreuzer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Russian Doll and Kiki The Fox for East Village Walls (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Magnolia tree in bloom. Spring 2021. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.28.21

February 28, 2021 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Happy Purim! Streets in Brooklyn were wild with Hasidic Jews in funny costumes the last couple of days, accompanied by loud music and seemingly drunk men weaving through the streets.

“The efforts of underpaid artists and arts professionals have always powered NYC, but in an ongoing crisis, NYC is turning its back on them,” Nuyorican Poets Cafe Executive Director Daniel Gallant told the Daily News this week, referencing job losses that have affected 2/3rds of New York’s creative community. We are in crisis. And national leaders have been quibbling over a $1,400 check – which is only the third check for poor and middle-class people in a 1 year period. One month’s rent can be that much.

Thanks to the hate speech of many, including Donald Trump during the last year, there has been an increase in violence against members of the Asian community on the streets in New York and across the country. Yesterday hundreds rallied in NYC to protest attacks on Asian Americans. Clearly, it’s time for us to stand up and protect our brothers and sisters and to shame those who would harm them in any way. “We will not allow them to thrive. We will not allow them to succeed,” said Attorney General Letitia James.

Meanwhile on the street we have been seeing a boon of new creative displays by artists – with a broad sweep of themes and techniques.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Allie Kelley, Aya Brown, Billy Barnacles, Bobo, Elianel Clinton, Fells, George Ferrandi, George Collagi, Gianni Lee, Icebox, Megan Gabrielle Harris, Merch, Plan9, Sara Lynne-Leo, Sasha Lynn, Shoki San, and Swoon.

Sara Lynne-Leo has been incorporating spoons into her street pieces. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sara Lynne-Leo. Detail of a multi-figured installation, with figures pouring from a hole in the wall. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

In collaboration with SaveArtSpace.Org Swoon and Giani Lee curated a series of billboards in NYC and In Los Angeles asking the artists involved to focus on the themes of climate change, racial justice and the places where those concerns intersect. Below we share with you some of the billboards we found in NYC.

Elianel Clinton. In collaboration with Save Art Space Org. Curated by Swoon and Giani Lee. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

George Ferrandi. In collaboration with Save Art Space Org. Curated by Swoon and Giani Lee. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sasha Lynn. In collaboration with Save Art Space Org. Curated by Swoon and Giani Lee. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Megan Gabrielle Harris. In collaboration with Save Art Space Org. Curated by Swoon and Giani Lee. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist tribute to Wu-Tang Clan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Plan9, Merch and Fells (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.01.20

November 1, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

How was your blue moon, and your time switch, and your Beyloween? And your 6-3 Supreme Court?

Feeling dizzy? Not much to worry about should be a slow week coming up.

Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week including Billy Barnacles, Calicho Art, City Kitty, D7606, Fire Flower, GoInco, Lucky, Lunge Box, Phetus, Praxis, Ree Vilomar, Turtle Caps, Wayne, Zuliamiau.

City Kitty, Turtle Caps (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D7606 in collaboration with Lunge Box and City Kitty. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artists (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Eleanor Roosevelt does the right thing in NYC…and the person in the background follows a leader… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.23.20

August 23, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

What a week – as bad news is replaced by horrible news. But seriously, the summer has been beautiful in the streets of New York in so many ways, and we feel lucky here – even though there appears to be an exodus? Yeah we remember it from the 60s and 70s too but it was called “White Flight” then. Wonder who’s leaving now? Kitchen too hot? Please, gurl, go home. The rest of us will be just fine here because we’ve always loved New York in good times and in bad. These are the Golden Years.

The DNC 2020 infomercial this week looked like the 1996 RNC one but with “diversity” – as we get pulled/pushed further and further toward the right. This weeks’ RNC infomercial broadcast from White House grounds will march us off a cliff, no doubt. Speech writers are searching now to set the reich tone. Austerity for all! War is Peace! Suburban Karens Will Crush You!

Let’s see what the streets are telling us.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 7 Line Art Studio, Adam Fu, Billy Barnacles, CB23, Cern, Gee Whiskers, One Rad Latina, and Rar Grafix.

A drama played out in two parts by Billy Barnacles (photo © Jaime Rojo)

7 Line Art Studio goes Wu-Tang for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

7 Line Art Studio for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

There’s a staaarrrrr cat waiting in the sky. Gee Whiskers (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rar Grafix for East Village Walls. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CB23 Smile / Don’t smile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, August, 2020 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.16.20

August 16, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Kamala and identity politics are IN, workers are OUT, and the US Postal Service is being dissembled before our eyes. Are we supposed to find a light-hearted rejoinder to this news?

Let’s see what the streets are telling us.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Almost Over Keep Smiling, Billy Barnacles, Gianni Lee, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, Early Riser NYC, Seven Line Arts Studio, M*Code, Ori Carino, Sticker Maul, Turtle Caps, Urban Russian Doll NYC, and You Go Girl!

Almost Over Keep Smiling (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ori Carino. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Early Riser NYC for East Village Walls (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty in collaboration with Turtle Caps. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Urban Russian Doll NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

M*Code in collaboration with crkshnk. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. August 2020. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.26.20

July 26, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

A painted portrait of Emmett Till, who would have turned 79 yesterday, leads the collection of images this week. A 14 year old sweet faced boy who was brutally mutilated and killed in Mississippi by white men in 1955 for allegedly flirting with a white woman. He was a year younger than representative John Lewis, who was eulogized rest yesterday in Alabama and will lay in state at the Capitol this week. Our legacy of racism haunts us just as abhorrently this summer as it did sixty-five years ago, two hundred years ago…

But in many ways, you have to suspect that these raucous cries are the dying wheezing of racists who have lost the argument and frankly demographics, and it frightens them. They know that the new generations don’t support them, actually resist against them, are determined to light a new path toward reconciliation and healing and equality.

Covid-19 is out of control in the United States thanks to the utter mis-management and lack of leadership in the country. Yesterday, “150 medical experts, scientists and other health professionals signed a letter organized by a prominent consumer group and delivered to government leaders Thursday calling for new shutdowns to bring case counts down and ‘hit the reset button’ to implement a more effective response.” They forecast that we are going to hit 200,000 deaths by November 1.”

Conversely, and indicative of how well Europe has been handling this virus, this week a Berlin court rules BDSM parlours can open as long as everyone wear masks.

As that showtune-singing satirist Randy Rainbow belted out this week, “We’re in Hell, We’re in Hell, We’re in Hell Hell Hell”.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Almost Over Keep Smiling, Billy Barnacles, Catt Caulley, Dyne Elis, Knor, Koffee Creative, Liza and the Clouds, Lorena Tabba, Maya Hayuk, Oliver Rios, One Rad Latina, Ron Haywood Jones, Siva Stardust, Snoe, and Zalv.

Liza And The Clouds, Catt Caulley #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist. #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Maya Hayuk, Snoe. #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

#blacktranslivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified artist on the left. #blacklivesmatter Poem on the right by Dyme Elis (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Is anyone else thinking about Pink Floyd right now? Lorena Tabba (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ron Haywood Jones brings his
American Urbanite to the street. #blacklivesmatter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.31.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 70

May 31, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

The streets are alive with street art and pointed political protest. NYC citizens are joining the cities and communities across the country who are demonstrating furiously over the newest examples of systemic, latent, and explicit racism and police brutality that have characterized our society for so long. Of course it’s just one fire that has been waiting to spark as economic conditions run parallel with social inequity. In the face of sky-high unemployment, unpaid rents, increasing food insecurity, a “rescue” program that gave the store to the rich, and the ever-growing gap between hyper-rich and the chronically poor/ newly poor, the summer here looks like it could be torrid.

We won’t need or see a large number of street art festivals for a while. This show of politically/socially inspired artworks and text messages is probably just warming up on the streets and you can imagine that artists won’t find it appealing to be sitting on panels and pontificating about the genesis of mark-making, the original roots of punk anarchy, or how they are incorporating being woke or inter-sectionalism into their “street practice”. The creative class, however you define it, has suffered a huge blow and many are out of work, and patience. Based on what we have been witnessing here these past few weeks, you may predict that the more aesthetically inclined will seize the opportunity to make art for the city, on the city.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, Adam Fujita, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Billy Barnacles, Combo-CK, Denis Ouch, Indecline, Jason Naylor, Lunge Box, Matt Siren, Mr. Toll, and Woof Original.

A literal manifestation of conversations on the street. This campaign addressing the Hong Kong pro-democracy movement is answered with spray painted x’s and attempts to rip down the posters. Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A very pink Superman has a roll of toilet paper on his chest. Denis Ouch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Should patriarchy in the Catholic church be replaced by matriarchy? Is it a matter of empowerment for women to assume the highest positions of power in religious orders? Or have those establishments become discredited too much already? The French street artist Combo CK wheatpasted these holy women in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Who you lookin’ at? Mr. Toll, surely you aren’t saying that Brooklyn is ugly, are you? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Spring 2020. Queens, NY. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.17.20 / Dispatch From Isolation # 56

May 17, 2020 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Times are tough but so are you.

Such a New York sentiment and at the heart of it we believe in our fellow New Yorkers and people in general to pull through this series of cavalcading catastrophes that are befalling us as many of our would-be leaders stand by and watch.

“Times are tough..” – It’s also a new piece this week on BSA Images of the Week from Captain Eyeliner. Let’s look for common ground, fundamental fairness and a common dream – without being tricked into fighting each other.

Meanwhile here’s some of the genius and humorous works this week on New York streets (and one from Tel Aviv), as we nurse our wounds and mourn our dead, and praise our nurses – and so many others. Hang tough people!

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adam Fujita, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Billy Barnacles, Captain Eyeliner, CRKSNK, Lunge Box, Maya Hayuk, Merk, No Sleep, Praxis, Quasar, Sac Six, Tag, and You Go Girl!

SOHO, NYC. May 2020 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.05.21 / Wynwood Walls Special
December 5, 2021
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week – this week from Wynwood Walls in Miami, which each year Goldman Global …Read More »
“Apocalypse Trilogy” Begins in Milan : Biancoshock & Francesco Garbelli Skewer Fast Food and Industrial Farming
December 4, 2021
The word “apocalypse” has such a ring to it. “Late-stage capitalism”? Too heavy; sounds sort of industrial, like that Goth …Read More »
BSA Film Friday: 12-03-21
December 3, 2021
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening:1. DETOKS & GENOM, …Read More »
Faile at GGA with BSA – Miami Art Week Marches On
December 2, 2021
Get in, get out, no one gets hurt. Our few days in Miami were full of adventure on the street …Read More »
Wynwood Diary in Post-Covid Cautious Optimism
December 1, 2021
The street art can double as advertisements, the advertisements can double as street art, and all of it has been …Read More »
1UP Crew Brings Discipline to Wynwood Wall in Miami
November 30, 2021
“We tried this time to organize like really fucking German way,” says one of the 7 anonymous graffiti writers from …Read More »
Faile Debuts “Endless” Solo Show & Artists Talk w/ BSA at GGA in Miami
November 29, 2021
The opportunity to be inspired by visual culture is indeed endless on the street, which explains the 22-year career of …Read More »