First day of spring in the Northern Hemisphere, and what better sign of renewal than a fresh Urban Nation bloom—sprouting defiantly among the dried leaves, cigarette butts, and abandoned Berliner Pilsner bottles?
As part of an ongoing conversation with curator Michelle Houston about the latest show at Urban Nation, LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY, we find ourselves drawn to the echoes of the Situationists, those restless wanderers who believed the city wasn’t just a place but an experience—one that tugs at your emotions, plays with your psychology, and sometimes leads you straight to an impromptu picnic on Görlitzer Park’s slightly suspect grass.
The show isn’t just a tribute to urban spaces; it’s a love note, a protest, and a collection of insights into the streets that shape us and our experience.
Video credits: Commissioned by Stiftung Berliner Leben. Shot by Alexander Lichtner & Ilja Braun. Post-production, additional footage, graphics, and a final version by Michelle Nimpsch for YAP Studio/YES, AND… productions GmbH & Co. KG
From the earliest graffiti writers to the street artists of today, creatives have long turned to public space, short-circuiting the existing system and taking their work to the streets. The billboards in this exhibition honor that history, bypassing traditional gatekeepers and giving artists a direct line to the city itself. No red tape, no VIP lists—just the raw, immediate impact of art in the urban landscape.
SaveArtSpace co-founder Travis Rix has been a driving force behind this direction in the last decade, ensuring that artists—regardless of background or formal representation—have access to some of the most visible walls in the world. This year’s exhibition continues that mission, giving up to 50 artists the chance to showcase their work across New York.
We invite artists of all ages and talents to submit their artwork between March 3, 2024, and April 14, 2025. A $10 donation per image submission helps fund the project and is tax-deductible. Selected artists will be announced after April 28, 2025, and their work will go up on billboards starting May 30, 2025, staying on view for at least a month. The celebration doesn’t stop there—chosen works will also be exhibited at Satellite Gallery (279 Broome St, NYC) with an opening night anniversary party on May 30, 2025, from 6-9 PM.
This is a street-wise event, a New York tradition, and a tribute to the artists who take their work straight to the public. Below, we look at a few past billboards that turned the city into a gallery—proof that art in the commons isn’t just possible, it’s necessary.
SaveArtSpace is proud to present our 10th Anniversary celebration The People’s Art, a group public art exhibition on billboard ad space in New York, NY, opening May 30, 2025, curated by Anne-Laure Lemaitre, RJ Rushmore, Zahra Sherzad, Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo, & Travis Rix.
The selected artists will also be exhibited at Satellite Gallery, 279 Broome St, NYC, with a one-night opening reception anniversary party on May 30, 2025.
Purim has wrapped up in Brooklyn after three days and two nights of exuberant revelry in Hasidic neighborhoods—a celebration that, at first glance, might seem like a fusion of Halloween and New Year’s, complete with thousands of costumed kids and exuberant teens, many of whom are noticeably inebriated, blasting music into the night from roaming RVs. Of course, this being New York, the city takes it all in stride—because if there’s one place that can handle a rolling, Yiddish-speaking Mardi Gras in March, it’s Brooklyn.
In NYC news, a new exhibition celebrates the 20th anniversary of those orange fluttering “gates” one winter in Central Park. Christo and Jeanne-Claude: The Gates and Unrealized Projects for New York City at The Shed is an immersive exhibition that includes an augmented reality component and rekindles memories for those who witnessed The Gates and unveils hidden stories for new audiences. Also, a shout out to the artist duo Zorawar Sidhu and Rob Swainston and their new show Flash Point at Petzel. In visually arresting large-scale woodcut and silkscreen prints that echo the chaotic energy of city streets, they examinethe Anthropocene, forced migrations, and American civil unrest through layered compositions that slow down the rapid circulation of news imagery.
And we continue with our interview with the street, this week including Degrupo, Below Key, JerkFace, Roachi, BK Ackler, Denis Ouch, Manuel Alejandro NYC, ATOMS, Wild West, Helch, Sport, Zore64, Obek, and Soul.
These days Fascism is often described as the merger of state and corporate power, and is sighted in a growing number of countries and cities. It’s also used as a way to attack in political discourse. The term “fascist” has been used as a pejorative in U.S. politics for decades. For instance, during the 1980s, critics labeled President Ronald Reagan as a fascist, and later the term has been applied to figures like George W. Bush and Donald Trump, reflecting its persistent use as a political insult, including last fall when Kamala Harris referred to Donald Trump as a ‘fascist’.
ELFO. Somewhere in Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
“Nowadays it’s a popular reflex to call someone with authoritarian impulses a fascist,” says the Churchhill Project at Hillsdale College. Truthfully, they seem to be popping up all around like cats in a canned tuna factory. So, it is a great comfort that the Italian graffiti humorist plunges into the heated melee to clarify where he stands with his “Artista Antifascista” piece on dilapidated remains of architectural ruins. He tells us, “Usually my art works do not have an explicit political message but the global situation requires a clear position.”
ELFO. Somewhere in Italy. (photo courtesy of the artist)
Interpreting Warmia’s Hidden Patterns from Above and Within
Bartek Swiatecki’s latest book, Warmioptikum, is a striking fusion of abstract painting and aerial photography, capturing the landscapes of Warmia, Poland, from a new perspective. Featuring Swiatecki’s expressive, in-the-moment paintings set against Arek Stankiewicz’s breathtaking drone photography, the book transforms familiar rural scenes into an evolving conversation between art and nature.
Swiatecki, known for his roots in graffiti and urban abstraction, takes his practice beyond the cityscape and into open fields, painting directly within the environment. Stankiewicz’s aerial lens frames these artistic moments, emphasizing their relationship with the land’s patterns, textures, and rhythms. As noted in the book’s foreword by Mateusz Swiatecki, Warmioptikum is a documentation and an exploration of how we perceive and engage with landscape, helping the reader see Warmia through “extraordinary perspectives and new, nonobvious contexts.”
The book is an invitation to slow down and look closely. Stankiewicz’s photography captures the shifting light, subtle variations in color, and natural formations that seem to echo Swiatecki’s brushstrokes. As described in the foreword, the process is intimate and universal. Where nature offers a near-boundless source of inspiration, the artist’s hand responds in a personal and deeply connected way to the land. The artist emerges from the context; his abstract forms divine hidden landscape structures, reminding you how street art transforms overlooked corners of a city. Therein lies a harmony, each informing and amplifying the other.
For those familiar with Swiatecki’s past work, this project marks a compelling evolution that expands his dialogue beyond walls and into the vast openness of Warmia’s fields, redefining both place and perception.
This week, we have new stuff from New York and Miami, in our visual interview with the streets, featuring Homesick, Smells, SRKSHNK, Crisp, Dr. Revolt, TBanbox, Urwont, OSK OSK, ASIK107, Man in the Box, Dam Crew, Stef Skills, COF Crew, Danny Doya, JAYDEE, Cinco, and WKS Crew.
Bordalo II is back in Paris, and—spoiler alert—so is our garbage. The Portuguese artist, known for sculpting animals from our collective waste, is launching IRRÉVERSIBLE. This new exhibition hits like a manifesto against overconsumption, environmental destruction, and humanity’s inability to pick up after itself. From May 24 to June 28, 2025, in the 13th arrondissement, the artist will transform a raw 300 m² space into a shrine of ecological reckoning, complete with his signature endangered species portraits made from salvaged plastic. If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to be judged by a looming panda constructed from discarded bottle caps, now’s your chance.
Bordalo II. Plastic Monkey Junior. São Paulo, Brazil. (photo courtesy of the gallery)
Bordalo II has made a career out of reminding us that the garbage belongs to us and we’re all complicit. “Bordalo II has created a spectacular practice of creating street works from it that shock passersby with his ingenuity – while raising our collective consciousness about our responsibility to the earth,” we once noted. The shock factor is real—his oversized trash animals are both majestic and damning, forcing us to see the wreckage of our habits in 3D.
Bordalo II. Baby Rabbit. (photo courtesy of the gallery)
But this time, he’s taking it further. IRRÉVERSIBLE introduces Provocations, a more personal series that subverts everyday urban objects, stripping them from their usual context and throwing them back at us in a way that makes the familiar feel foreign. It may be an unsettling yet oddly satisfying confrontation—like seeing a McDonald’s sign in an art gallery and suddenly feeling existential about a Big Mac.
With IRRÉVERSIBLE, Bordalo II makes a case that we’ve pushed past the point of no return. And while his work has always blurred the line between activism and street spectacle, this exhibition leans even harder into the uncomfortable truths about how we live, consume, and discard. Mathgoth Gallery is hosting, but make no mistake—it’s a call-out, a last warning, and maybe, if we’re lucky, an invitation to change before it’s too late.
Books in the MCL: Jessica Nydia Pabón-Colón. Graffitti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora
Reprinted from the original review.
“Graffiti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora” by Jessica Nydia Pabón-Colón provides an insightful look into the world of women graffiti artists, challenging the perception that graffiti is a male-dominated subculture. This book highlights the contributions of over 100 women graffiti artists from 23 countries, showcasing how they navigate, challenge, and redefine the graffiti landscape.
From the streets of New York to the alleys of São Paulo, Pabón-Colón explores the lives and works of these women, presenting graffiti as a space for the performance of feminism. The book examines how these artists build communities, reshape the traditionally masculine spaces of hip hop, and create networks that lead to the formation of all-girl graffiti crews and painting sessions. This aspect is particularly useful in understanding how digital platforms have broadened the reach and impact of women graffiti artists, facilitating connections and collaborations worldwide.
MARTHA COOPER LIBRARY: BOOK RECOMMENDATION
? | Title: Graffitti Grrlz: Performing Feminism in the Hip Hop Diaspora ? | NYU Press. June 2018. Softcover. ? | Author: Jessica Nydia Pabón-Colón ? | Language: English
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week and to the madness of March. Also, we extend warm wishes to our Muslim brothers and sisters for a peaceful and blessed Ramadan.
Meanwhile, here’s our interview with the streets this week, including City Kitty, Homesick, Eye Sticker, Miki Mu, JEMZ, Steve the Bum, NYC Kush Co, Quaker Pirate, DARA, ROS, and Man in the Box.
Spanish artist Gonzalo Borondo is again blurring the lines between architecture and illusion, history and reinvention. With Chrysalis, his latest large-scale intervention, Borondo reskins the façade of Munich’s Villa Stuck into a luminous, multilayered vision of shadows and figures—tapping into a historical subconscious that reveals, conceals, and questions all at once. He covers over 600 square meters of mesh that are stretched across the museum’s scaffolding, his white and gold imagery a tattooed second skin, a veil that is both ephemeral and commanding.
Villa Stuck, once the home and studio of the German Symbolist painter Franz von Stuck, is in the midst of renovation. Rather than treating the construction as a disruption, Borondo makes it a canvas—an opportunity to engage with the site’s history. He draws selectively from von Stuck’s iconography, reinterpreting figures of fauns, centaurs, and Dionysian revelry with a contemporary eye. Here are the rigid dualities of von Stuck’s world, now proposed with a more fluid, layered masculinity reflective of contemporary conversations and study. The result is a work that shifts between past and present, tradition and transformation, and new narratives within an established visual language.
The title, Chrysalis, signals metamorphosis— with hints at something concealed yet in motion, a museum in flux, a city in transition. Borondo’s materials are chosen with purpose and maximize the possible options: paint applied to industrial netting, breathing with its environment, changing with light and weather, a living composition, shifting with each viewer’s angle.
Borondo’s practice has frequently sought and embraced the ephemeral. Known for his experiments with glass etching, shadow play, and interventions in urban spaces, his work defies easy categorization. Through monumental installations or delicate scratches in glass, he navigates the material and the immaterial, permanence and impermanence. In Munich, that approach finds a striking expression—an urban altar towering over Prinzregentenstrasse, honoring the Gesamtkunstwerk ethos that von Stuck championed while pushing its boundaries forward.
Chrysalis will remain in place through June 2025, a temporary presence that lingers in the mind long after it disappears.
The installation CHRYSALIS will be exhibited on the main façade of the Villa Stuck Museum of Munich (Prinzregentenstrasse 60) from February 8th until June 2025. Helena Pereña, Curator.
We are thrilled to once again announce the Martha Cooper Scholarship, in partnership with Urban Nation. This scholarship offers a promising photographer the chance to spend 10 months in Berlin in 2026—fully supported and immersed in the city’s dynamic creative environment.
This extraordinary opportunity provides not only free accommodation in an artist residence and full coverage of travel and living expenses but also regular mentorship, collaboration with artists across disciplines, and participation in Urban Nation’s projects and partnerships.
Now in its second year, this scholarship continues to celebrate the vision and legacy of Martha Cooper, who remains an integral part of the selection committee. Berlin is a global epicenter of urban contemporary art, where history, rebellion, and creative experimentation collide. Its streets are an open-air gallery, layered with decades of graffiti, murals, and artistic interventions that reflect the city’s ever-evolving identity. A magnet for artists, Berlin fosters a culture of artistic freedom, collaboration, and innovation, making it one of the most dynamic places for street art, photography, and contemporary expression. As the first recipient fo the Martha Cooper Scholarship embarks on their journey in Berlin right now, we are eager to welcome the next photographer ready to explore and capture the spirit of Berlin.
Applications for 2026 are now open—we look forward to seeing your work!
Read an excerpt from the official Call below:
The Martha Cooper Scholarship (MCS) offers a unique opportunity for an individual from Africa or Latin America to dedicate themselves for eleven months to an artistic project through the medium of photography. With the newly announced MCS, the Foundation Berliner Leben acknowledges the importance of documentary photography and purposefully offers a production scholarship for documentary photographers with an ethnographic focus to apply for this scholarship, seeking projects that critically and thoughtfully engage with the places, communities, and social realities they document. Prioritizing work that captures the context between people and their environments, we support projects that reflect everyday life, shifting cultural landscapes, and the ways communities adapt and change. The scholarship encourages applications from photographers whose work offers fresh, honest perspectives on lived experience, community, and identity with depth and optimism. The scholarship is based on the annual topic of Fresh A.I.R., the scholarship programme of Stiftung Berliner Leben. It addresses social and political developments that affect us in the present and highlights the diversity of human experience and perception of the world.
The scholarship is based on the annual topic of Fresh A.I.R., the scholarship programme of Stiftung Berliner Leben, which addresses social and political developments that affect us in the present, and highlights the diversity of human experience and perception of the world.
The chosen photographer will be invited to live and work in one of our Fresh A.I.R. residencies in Berlin Schöneberg.
The current call is for the 11th class starting in February 2026 and ending in November 2026.
Application for a scholarship in 2026
Application deadline: Sunday,16th March, 2025
Applications are only accepted via Email: FreshAIR-office@stiftung-berliner-leben.de
For a successful application please hand in the following documents:
• Curriculum vitae
• Project outline/description
• Budget plan
FOR MORE DETAILS, HOW TO APPLY AND IMPORTANT INFORMATION CLICK HERE
A pioneer of French graffiti from Guadaloupe, Shuck One, is presenting Regeneration at the Pompidou Center’s Black Paris exhibition (March 19–June 30), honoring Black figures who shaped France’s history through large-scale paintings and collages depicting key moments like the Tirailleurs Sénégalais, the 1967 Guadeloupe riots, and the BUMIDOM migration program, alongside portraits of pioneers such as Aimé Césaire, Angela Davis, and Joséphine Baker.
Meanwhile, here’s our interview with the streets this week, including City Kitty, Homesick, Modomatic, Muebon, Hearts NY, V. Ballentine, Nice Beats, Rams, Batola, PEAKS, Adze, Daniel Daz Carello, Andre Trainer, and Maniphes.
Street art welcomes all manner of materials and methods, typically deployed without permission and without apology. This hand-formed wire piece …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
