Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Faile, Stikman, Elle, Queen Andrea, CRKSHNK, Shiro, Espo, Homesick, DeGrupo, Michael Alan, Dark Clouds, Gats, Manik, Drones, ICU463, El Chalvo Del Ocho, Saxgraf, Smart RIS, Bianca Does New York, Uloang, and Chespirito.
Welcome to Memorial Day Weekend in NYC, when New Yorkers remember those who died in wars, and we have parades, barbecues, smoke reefer on the stoop, ride the Circle Line, go to the Met Museum, hit Ellis Island, stroll through the park, play kickball with your neighbors, see fireworks, ride your bike across the bridge, blast loud music out of car windows, spray paint on walls, bring food to the elderly, and head to the beaches, which are officially open now.
Each year we try new foods too, because there are so many dishes you have heard of but haven’t tried – one venue with live music here in Brooklyn is touting a menu that Smash Burgers, Lobster Rolls, Snow Cones, and Fresh Coconuts. Haven’t tried all of those before, but that does sound like a recipe for summer. It’s Fleet Week so welcome Sailors! Welcome immigrants! Welcome trans folk! Welcome summer. Welcome Jews, Muslims, Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Atheists. Get in here! Celebrate us all ya’ll. This is worth fighting for.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: City Kitty, CRKSHNK, Jet, Eternal Possessions, Manik, Gent, SKAM, BEOR, Natadee, Ivan J. Rogue, Phaser, Goders, Peso Neto, Liz Christy, Danana Tree, Mini Mantis, Peto, Budar, Geps, Riotk, void, Mung, Dats, and Kalypso Manu.
Where is the mafia news? Have you noticed how there is no news anymore about the mafia in the US? No sting operations, uncovered networks, perp walks, or wagging tongues? The New York tabloids used to go for days about Don this and Don that, accompanied by blurry surveillance photos in black and white. Did the mafia disappear? All our companies and industries and institutions are relatively free of corruption now, right?
Now our gripping concerns across the country are wokeism, racism, transphobia, ableism, ageism, pronouns, immigrants on the border, the government itself, abortion, and gun control. There are two teams, two sides; One is patently evil, and the other clearly is virtuous. Patriot vs Terrorist. Your solemn, weighty decision is to pick which team you are on and to join in the great debate as we head into election season, evidence of our thriving democracy! Go Team Good!
This week we wander through the seemingly emptier streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, The Village, and Soho to discover what street artists are bringing to their audience with earnest amor de primavera. The results are bracing, racing, effete, mysterious, hip hop, heady, graphic, and subversive: even as the flowering trees and ground vegetation is abloom, and the April rains have been prodigious.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis, CRKSHNK, VOZ, Lexi Bella, Pear, Zexor, CP Won, Ollin, Phetus88, Eternal Possessions, Humble, Font147, and Whatifier.
Here’s to New York, which we love more than ever – Especially when yahoos come to our fair city and try to trash us and spread lazy untruths about crime and smear us in a hundred ways. Look, my cousin Harold may pick on his younger sister Jicama because of her braids or her attempt to dance with her dumb friends on TikTok, but if you say an unkind word about her he will smack you right into next week. That’s how we feel about New York.
Oddly inarticulate dumbos like Margerine Blather Green and Mike “Mother” Pence might better stay back in Walmart, or wherever they were born. Do they have schools out there? Or were those burned down when they were burning books? When you are ready to tell the truth about our crime rate and quit dog-whistling about all the Jews and blacks and queers we have here, maybe we’ll give you tickets to see “Wicked”. Right after that you can hit the Olive Garden and the M&Ms store – and then you have to leave.
“In the Spring a young man’s fancy lightly turns to thoughts of love,” said Tennyson. You’re welcome. Also, his fancy turns to thoughts of sex. The same applies to young women, of course, but Tennyson was obviously sexist. This also applies to pigeons, two of whom are currently making awkward, chaotic, scuffling, fluttering overtures toward one another and cooing softly on the scaffolding outside my apartment window right now.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: CRKSHNK, Below Key, Degrupo, Homesick, Calicho Art, Habibi, Le Crue, Lasak, Cloudy is Here, Gina Minichino, They It Forward, Channin Fulton, Dragon Fly, Gert Robijns, Jozzy Camacho, Nandos, Mini Mantis Art, and Pablo West.
A splendid selection this week of very entertaining pieces across the city. As we enter December, you can see that graffiti and street artists are going full-steam ahead into the new year – with personal, political, philosophical, and even romantic sentiments.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, SRKSHNK, Modomatic, Sara Lynne-Leo, Molly Crabaple, Cope, Riisa Boogie, Ollin, Short, Rezones, Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Kojo Hilton, Rad Bio, Duster, My Name is Annie, and The Jolly.
One of the hardest weeks of our lives. But we’re still here to give you another posting of new shots of street art and graffiti on the streets. Thank you for your support, and thank God for the creative spirit that keeps us inspired, our cities alive, informed, and in-touch with the common person.
The so-called ‘Red Wave’ (red tsunami, red hurricane, etc.) didn’t materialize in the mid-term elections Tuesday despite the drumbeat on corporate media. On the other hand, the Democratic party can’t be too proud of their “squeaker” win – or their incremental moves to the corporate right for four decades. Nothing to sing and dance about.
As the graffiti and street art high season draws to a close, we remark on the stunning array of new faces on the New York scene this year, as well as a large crop of maturing talents from the last decade or so. The length of the cycle for artists working on the street varies some, but we’ve been around enough to see many of the early 2000s stars fade away or move on to other things. The voice of this new generation is as challenging as ever and perhaps more savvy in many ways. Still, it’s good to see the re-appearance this month of folks like Hera in New York – a talent whose global and studio escapades have made her a revered street artist over about two decades.
Our thanks to all the artists of all persuasions and longevity for giving voice and character to our public spaces.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Queen Andrea, Praxis,CRKSHNK, Lexi Bella, Danielle Mastrion, Homesick, Hera, Panic, Seo, Insane 51, Habibi, Didi, Keops, OSK, AAA, EXR, RJG Rock, L.O.U.R.S., Nohemi, Hazard One, and Emesa.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Happy Fathers Day to all the fathers and those filling that role for families. We know it’s not easy work. We’re thankful to all the guys who are there to raise our kids, to provide guidance and love, and to model love and respect for their partners and wives.
Also today is Juneteenth, one of our country’s newest official holidays, recognizing the foundational earthquake of African emancipation from slavery in the US. Institutional slavery and all its effects – events in our history that continue to impact our laws, institutions, education, civil and economic justice, our relationships with one another – are yet to be addressed in many ways. For Juneteenth, this is a sweet and joyful celebration that is also deeply needed.
It doesn’t get any better with the weather than at this time of the summer in New York – and street art and graffiti are enjoying a very prolific crop this season. The politics of this moment are also showing up the street, with abortion and gun rights and vaccines surfacing as themes alongside what seems like ever-present LGBTQ+ rights. We keep seeing the graffiti/street art spots enlarge, contract, and scatter like a sneeze from one neighborhood to another, largely do to the rampant gentrification rate in some areas and the tendency for people to kill off the very arts culture that attracted them to the neighborhood in the first place. Right now street art in Manhattan is concentrated on the Lower East Side and Chinatown – Chelsea has a few remaining pockets left but it could be gone soon, and a little still remains in Soho and Noho. In Brooklyn, the neighborhoods Bushwick of going strong, Williamsburg Industrial park Williamsburg and Dumbo not so much. In Queens there is Welling Court, maybe Ridgewood, and of course Mott Haven and South Bronx are still popping
But let’s not get distracted by the city topography – lets look at some new stuff Jaime Rojo caught this week.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Sipros, Adam Fu, CRKSHNK, Below Key, Modomatic, Hijack, Homesick, BK Ackler, Sally Rumble, Real Art Daddy, Yosnier, JG, The Eyeknow, Fear Arte, and Natalie Robinson.
One of the first graffiti writers to name themselves after a laptop, ACER got up big on the front of the New Museum this week, which may be one of the most relevant shows they have presented in recent years. Just kidding, he’s not named after a laptop. Police will certainly be after him for this high-profile crossing of the legal line that got more press than Putin for a New York minute, but in terms of graffiti parlance, this got him major fame among peers.
Speaking of crossing the line, national embarrassment Ginni Thomas was accused this week of using her husbands’ influential seat on the Supreme Court as leverage to overturn the 2020 election. But competition for most embarrassing US citizens was very stiff this week. Did you see all those frustrated white guys grandstanding and preening before a black woman, presumably prosecuting a culture war while disrespecting her office and person? These Supreme Court hearings were especially painful for what they revealed. Ted, Josh, Dick,… Lindsay Darling, did you know the cameras were rolling? You know people can watch those for years, right?
Here in New York we have daffodils, shag mullets, and a man nesting in a tree. In street art news, its all about Ukraine and Zelensky, baby.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: CRKSHNK, Sticker Maul, Sara Lynne-Leo, Stickman, David F Barthold, Savior El Mundo, Manuel Alejandro NYC, Home Sick, Georgi Collagi, The Bloom Project, and ACER.
Just as we were starting to feel a sense of relief that Covid is letting go of us….
Russia has invaded Ukraine. Not only is this a horror for Ukraine, this elective aggression may spread, resulting in retaliation.
If you want to help, we found this list from Fortune magazine:
Voices of Children Voices of Children is a charitable foundation that focuses on addressing the psychological effect of armed conflict on children. Founded in 2015 in response to the conflict in eastern Ukraine, Voices of Children provides art therapy, mobile psychologists, and individualized support to traumatized children. Individuals can donate through bank transfer, credit/debit card, or Apple Pay via its website.
The International Rescue Committee The International Rescue Committee has a long history of providing resources to refugees fleeing countries facing humanitarian crisis. Its leaders have responded to the situation in Ukraine by meeting with organizations in Poland and Ukraine to gauge the potential number of refugees and their needs so it can quickly mobilize and provide whatever assistance is needed. You can make a donation via its website.
CARE International humanitarian organization CARE has set up an emergency Ukrainian Crisis Fund with the goal of providing immediate support for 4 million people. Donations will go toward providing Ukrainians with water, food, supplies, hygiene kits, immediate support and aid, and cash. CARE notes that its prioritizing supporting women, girls, families, and elderly.CARE makes it easy to donate via its website using PayPal or a credit card.
International Medical Corps This nonprofit is focused on providing health-care services, psychosocial support, and care to citizens of countries dealing with disaster, disease, and conflict. It’s currently accepting monetary gifts that will go toward providing Ukrainians with better access to medical and mental health resources. You can make a donation via the website using a credit/debit card, bank transfer, or PayPal.
Project Hope It’s currently sending medical supplies to Ukrainians. You can make donations via its website using a credit/debit card, bank transfer, or PayPal.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Captain Eyeliner, Sonni, CRKSHNK, Kobra, Robert Janz, Goog, Degrupo, Suso33, Leviticus, Niagra, Homesick, Allan Molho, YNWA, Divock Okoth Origi, Emune, Lancelot, and Outersource.
And now we don’t know what other topic can follow that one, so…
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Abby Goodman, BLAZE, Captain Eyeline, Chill, Chris RWK, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, Fake Hambleton, Faust, Invader, JJ Veronsis, Konart Studio, Lunge Box, Mad Town, Matt Siren, Modomatic, Royce Bannon, The Velvet Bandit, and Who is Ponzi.
The series of #fakehambleton “Shadow Man” that have been appearing on the street of Manhattan (and in London) are attributed to a guy who goes by the name of Pablo who runs a mystery Hambleton “foundation”. He’s admitted to painting the fake Hambleton iconic figures on the streets of NYC. We believe this to be a marketing campaing. More on this @bkstreetart on Instagram.
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.
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
