All posts tagged: Dee Dee

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.15.16

May 15, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Coney Art Walls is back for 2016 and the artists have already begun painting, Duke Riley is on week two of performance with pigeons in The Brooklyn Navy Yard , the #notacrimecampaign is happening in Harlem to support a free press in Iran, Newark has started a huge public mural program called “Gateways to Newark: Portraits”, Urban Nation in Berlin promises a huge announcement this week, and Vladimir Putin is in a lip-lock with Donald Trump on the street in Lithuania. There is also a lot of new free-range, unsanctioned art on the streets.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring bunny M, Cdre, Crash, Dain, Dee Dee, Etnik, finDAC, Futura, Icy & Sot, Mister Cartoon, Myth, Pegasus, and Rone.

Our top image: CRASH and the first wall completed for the 2016 edition of Coney Art Walls, courtesy of Jeffrey Deitch and his amazing crew, especially Ethel Seno. BSA will bring you all the details, works in progress and behind-the-scenes juiciness for the entire duration of the project until all the walls are completed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

DAIN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Etnik for fallOutWalls fest in Torino, Italy. (photo © Etnik)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pegasus in London interprets The Beckhams from his series “Gods and Monsters” (photo © Urban Art International)

An unidentified artist creates “Urban Paleontology” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RONE in East Harlem for #notacrimecampaign (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RONE. Detail. East Harlem for #notacrimecampaing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CDRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FUTURA does something new and organic for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FUTURA. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FinDac in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mister Cartoon’s is pugilistic for Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We are hoping that one of you dear readers will help us ID this artist, whose signature we can’t figure out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth says “Sayonara Dana P” and reaches for the Bowie phone. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. The Last Picture. F Train. Brooklyn, NYC. April 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 04.24.16

April 24, 2016 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

If you are a New Yorker feeling the burn it could be the Hasidim who lit fires every two blocks in parts of Brooklyn Friday to mark Passover (see our final image). The smoke and ash were staining sidewalks and wafting through neighborhoods until being washed away with the Purple Rain Friday night, or maybe those were just the collective tears of so many who were mourning the sudden death of a loved one, Prince.

“Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today, to get through this thing called life,” he inveighed to us in the beginning of one of his songs, and we’re going to have to find a way to celebrate his life when this heaviness passes, but for now a black lacey veil seems more appropo. Yes, Street Artists have begun to put up their tributes, and we hope to have some fine examples to show you next week. The one featured here by Pussy Power was actually up before he passed away.

So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Balu, Bast, Christina Angelina, Dain, Dee Dee, FTW, Icy & Sot, Irwin Bakx, Kid Super, Kuma, Purge, Pussy Power, ROA, Star Fightera, Thomas Allen and Wall Play.

Our top image: Icy & Sot “let Her Be Free” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thomas Allen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pussy Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kid Super . Wall Play (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Feel The Bern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Did She? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kuma Purge (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Star Fightera for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. Wynwood District. Miami. (photo © Irwin Bakx)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FTW (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Passover ritual. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. April 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 12.13.15

December 13, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

As the snow birds flew back to NYC this week from their Miami art debauchery with dark circles under their eyes and paint under their nails we tossed them right back in the roiling red & white mash of SantaCon in the streets, 2 more politicians going to jail, and the alleged hunk-hiring Bronx priest resigning from his parish. You can really feel the spirit of Christmas and Hannukah all around.

BSA was proud to co-sponsor the talk with DAZE, LEE Quinones, and Jane Dickson for the special reception at DAZE’s “The City is My Muse” show currently on exhibit at the Museum of the City of New York, hosted by Sean Corcoran. The three are vital to the historical thread that reaches back to NY’s earliest graff days and it was evident from seeing their newest works as they each presented them on screen that they refuse to be nostalgic about the city – but prefer to be on top of it. Case in point was Lee’s opening the following night that showcased his new mural on the ceiling at the Indigo Hotel – his Sistine Chapel if you will.

P.S. We’ll be at MCNY with DAZE March 2 – mark your calendar.

Invader finished his 42 piece wave of tile installations in New York, according to reports, Banksy struck out with political pieces addressing immigration and xenophobia (videos at end of this posting), and Gilf! wrapped the façade of a Williamsburg bar with “gentrification in progress” tape to mark its death by market forces. As artists continue to grapple with socio/political events, the art of the street keeps mutating forward.

Side note: “Images of the Week” takes a hiatus for the next few weeks thanks to special Holiday programming. It returns in 2016.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Banksy, Bunny M, City Kitty, Cost, Daze, Dee Dee, Gilf!, Invader, Jaye Moon, Jordan Seiler, KET, Labrona, Lee Quinones, Lex56, Mint&Serf, Never, Pet Bird, Read, Sipros, Specter, Wing, and WK Interact.

Top Image: Sipros and a father of surrealism for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter in Paris. (photo © Specter)

Specter was in France last month with FKDL and Upian, among others. Here are some examples of paintings and ad takeovers in Paris as well as an abandoned factory called La Rodia in Besancon. The Brooklyn based artist tells us that “It was a trying time to be there but supporting my friends and creating some colorful distractions was more important.”

Specter in Besancon. (photo © Specter)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inva…sions are Cost…ly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lex56. Noted. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jordan Seiler (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For Dotty & Pearl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The company you keep… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Labrona and Ket in Montreal. (photo © Labrona)

Labrona and Ket in Montreal. Detail. (photo © Labrona)

Labrona in Montreal. (photo © Labrona)

Mint & Serf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Detail of Lee Quinones’ inventive ode to New York at a newly opened hotel in the LES. The artist, who grew up in the hood was commissioned to paint on the ceiling of the hotel’s reception room a map of the neighborhood to which he attached painted “poloroid” portraits (sourced from previously existing photographs) who lived and played on those streets “Between Two Bridges”. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Daze standing in front of a portrait of him taken decades ago. This piece is currently being exhibited at Chris “Daze” Ellis: The City is My Muse at the Museum Of The City of New York. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Tom Warren with Christopher “Daze” Ellis
Portrait of Daze with Tags, 1983, Acrylic on Gelatin silver print

Jaye Moon has a sense of “awe” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never created this memorial to Peter Caroll AKA Pet Bird, who passed away suddenly in September. We love you Peter…and you too Never. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Balloons. Manhattan, NYC. November 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

From The Guardian:
“Street artist Banksy has painted a depiction of Apple founder Steve Jobs on a wall in a migrant and refugee camp in France known as the Calais ‘Jungle’. The artist, who has never revealed his identity, released a rare public statement challenging the perception that migrants and refugees from Syria are a drain on Western economies, UK media reported”

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.29.15

November 29, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Rounding out the Thanksgiving week here as people think back on what they have to be thankful for in New York and across the US. Despite the class war on the poor, near-weekly proof of systematic racism and extremism, gun violence that feels out of control, and 3 songs on the top ten by Justin Beiber, we have to admit that all is not lost – and we still have a pretty strong union of cool people who actually love our neighbors and multi-cultures and are willing to show it every day.

The art we see in the streets continues to evolve; People like Gilf! are combining experimentation and activism in the public sphere while others are looking for ways to address a variety of social/political ills, – meanwhile many artists now seek and secure legal spots to put up their work, use hash tags and Instagram as marketing directly to collectors, advertisers are mimicking street art to promote brands, and Wynwood in Miami is preparing to showcase some of the flashiest displays of sponsored murals and participants yet during Basel next week.

There is a rising chorus of horrified detractors who say an organic grassroots art form is being commodified. It’s not political enough! It’s narcissistic! It’s all privileged white kids who don’t appreciate the true roots of graff culture! Calm down everybody, we can handle this. There is room for all ya’ll, like they say down south.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Ai Wei Wei, Dee Dee, Ernest Zacharevic, Gilf!, Gum Shoe, Himbad, Invader, Isaac Cordal, Jilly Ballistic, Le Diamantaire, Osch aka Otto Schade, Ouizi, Sipros, and Swoon.

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph of Lil’ Crazy Legs. This is their final piece in this collaborative series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy playing with a makeshift gun from the leg of a baby’s crib. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy playing with a makeshift gun from the leg of a baby’s crib. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy trapping flies in glass bottles. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic. Adam De Coster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tongue in cheek, Ernest Zacharevic’s ironic blend of brandalism and vandalism. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal staged a scene of drowning businessmen in this Manhattan puddle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! continues to influence the conversations around rampant inequality and with her “gentrification in progress” tape project, now outside the museum, someday in the museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ai Wei Wei (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . Ouizi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . Ouizi. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gum Shoe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Non-controversial lampooning cast as tough political stance, The Peralta Project is a commercial lifestyle brand that is using the street to advertise their product line, cashing in on a very popular dislike for this reality TV star. Like a mezcal company did this summer these posters are popping up to emasculate – and possible help move product. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Himbad for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Osch aka Otto Schade in London’s Brick Lane (photo © Urban Art International)

Invader’s tribute to Andy Warhol with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s tribute to Woody Allen with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s tribute to Bugs Bunny with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader’s with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Le Diamantaire (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Blue is the warmest color. Manhattan, NYC. November 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 10.25.15

October 25, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

This is the harvest season when all the fruits of Street Artists labor are on display for everyone to admire – and just before the frost transforms all the leaves and turns the grass brown and your cheeks red, it is time for you to go outside with your camera. There is a new talented crop of artists on the street that has been maturing these last few seasons and of course there are the perennials on display as well. New York in the autumn is always dramatic; the perfect stage to unveil new productions, new art shows, new movies, new musical compositions, and new standards being set. If the pickings for this weeks BSA Images of the Week are an indication, Autumn is at full peak right now, pure splendor.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Billi Kid, City Kitty, City Rabbit, Danielle Mastrion, Dee Dee, Elbow-Toe, Ernest Zacharevic, Hiss, Kai, Myth, Olek, Phoebe New York, Pixote, Sean9Lugo, Spider Tag, Tom Fruin, Tony De Pew, WK Interact, and You Go Girl!

Top image above >>> Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Danielle Mastrion (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hiss (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sean9Lugo (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tony DePew (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A Haring motif on vinyl sheets was applied to this doors apparently for a themed party inside the building. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic’s third collaboration with Martha Cooper. Mr. Zacharevic used one of Ms. Cooper’s photos as an inspiration for this piece, which includes a real paint brush. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Rabbit (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Billi Kid (photo © Jaime Rojo)

You Go Girl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OLEK says “Rule #1 Never be #2. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

I hear that! Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

KAI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Elbow Toe brings an old favorite back to the streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Homer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

PIXOTE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Phoebe New York (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Spider Tag in Athens, Greece. October 2015. (photo © Spider Tag)

Spider Tag. Detail from the piece above. (photo © Spider Tag)

Tom Fruin (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Manhattan, NYC. October 2015 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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!

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.23.15

August 23, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Such a pleasure and honor to give a tour to Brooklyn Museum members yesterday – mainly because of the mixture of people who traipsed through Brooklyn streets with us: older, younger, academic, street smart, curiosity seeking, students, teachers. The questions and observations helped push our perspectives wider.

Good to be schooled by someone who knew a lot about REVS & Cost, and to learn that LMNOP may have chosen her name with QRST’s in mind. Who knew? It was also great to describe the linotype process as it pertains to Swoons’ practice – and only a block later to discover an original carved plywood version of a linotype drilled to a wall by TipToe!

It was especially refreshing was talking with the woman who had not heard of Banksy or Faile or JR but thought she had heard of Swoon – and to see her write these names in a small book for further research. Sometimes we think all this Street Art stuff is such a big deal, then that “perspective” thing kicks in.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Dain, DeeDee, Don Rimx, Elbow Toe, Faile, Gilf!, Klone, LMNOPI, London Kaye, Myth, Os Gemeos, QRST, Rae, Royce Bannon, She Wolf, and TipToe.

Top image above >>> QRST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Artist Unknown with Bast on top. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tip Toe didn’t just put a printed poster up. He put the actual printing device with which you make the posters. This could indicate that he wants you to bring your own paper and ink! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth had his text crossed out -originally it said “Bovine lives matter! Go Vegan”. The cartoon image stayed. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth quotes Lenin here: “Freedom in capitalist society always remains about the same as it was in ancient Greek republics: Freedom for slave owners.”(photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth has the Venom character quoting the feminist Lucy Parsons, “Never be deceived that the rich will allow you to vote away their wealth.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Klone (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Don Rimx “La Rumba” in Little Havana, Miami. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Rae is back on the street sculpture tip, a little bit pop this time (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Looks like Elbow Toe gave Royce Bannon some flowers. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile does a piece from their series about native peoples coming to reclaim lands. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! going for a conceptual timepiece that recalls names of Americans shot by police, with reference to how often it occurs. This is one of two recent time pieces. The other contains high profile nationally known names that have sparked protests – this one has names that are more recent but we didn’t recognize them or understand their significance till we started Googling. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI depicts Indira, a child who works in a marble quarry with her parents near Katmandu. The same image was also featured in her Welling Court mural this year. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

A child soldier forced into conscription in Myanmar by LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Os Gemeos (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Times Square, Manhattan. August, 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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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!
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BSA Images Of The Week: 07.19.15

July 19, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Chomp chomp, slurp slurp, spraaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyy spray sp sp sp spraaayyyyyyyyyy. The sounds of a sidewalk barbecue and painting a new piece on a wall on a hot July day in Brooklyn. Also honking, screeching, sirens, and Action Bronson, Hot Chip, or Major Lazer pumping out the windows of a passing car. Want a cherry popsicle?

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring $howta, Barlo, BD White, Brad Robson, DAIN, Dee Dee, Denton Burrows, Faith47, Fin DAC, Jack Fox, Jorit Agoch, LOMNOPI, JPO, London Kaye, Marina Capdevila, Skirl, Sosta, and Zimer.

Top image above >>> Marina Capdevila (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Findac does a B-Girl in BK (photo © Jaime Rojo)

LMNOPI (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faith47 for The L.I.S.A. Project (photo © Jaime Rojo)

$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Zimer (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Skirl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BD White collab with JPO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jack Fox for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Including traffic. Denton Burrows (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee. We think the stache came later… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Brad Robson at Woodward Project Space. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Peace (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I never go outside unless I look like Joan Crawford the movie star. If you want to see the girl next door, go next door.” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Barlo and Sosta collaborate in Hong Kong. (photo © Barlo)

Dain is ripping things up. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jorit Agoch for The Bushwick Collective. Last Sunday we published a process shot. Here is the completed mural. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. New York City. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 07.12.15

July 12, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring ASVP, Dain, D. Hollier, Dee Dee, Free Humanity, Homo Riot, Hunt, Jorit Agoch, Myth, Old Broads, Philippe Herard, Solus, The Electric Tattoo, Oji and Wing.

Top image above >>> Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain with a later addition of KORN 40. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Philippe Herard in Paris, France. (photo © Aline Mairet)

Homo Riot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Hunt. And who’s watching the watchers as they watch? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Electric Tattoo and Oji for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Old Broads (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Solus for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Free Humanity and Pooh comment on the connection many continue to make between the chemical industry and the collapse of 40% of bee colonies. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jorit Agoch over this barely 2 month old Cyrcle piece (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jorit Agoch (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Positions are being taken on the street politically in the upcoming presidential election. Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

D. Hollier and a new portrait of Nelson Mandela, whose birthday is coming up this week. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ASVP knocks out a new one for Sugarlift. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. July 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.21.15

June 21, 2015 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Summertiiiiiiiiiiimmme, and the living is eaaaaassssssyyyyy. Yessir, today is the first day of Summer here in New York and the longest day of the year – which means you can take a nap under a tree in the park or on your towel at the beach and still have plenty of time to play when you wake up. There are abandoned buildings to explore, murals to paint, wheat-pastes to stick, interventions to engineer, stencils to cut, selfies to snapchat, potato chips to eat, beer to swig. That couch by the window is calling me even now, the big temptress, as she does so often on these languorous days, induced by the heat. But I will not heed her siren song.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bezt, Buff Monster, Dain, Dee Dee, Faile, Fra. Biancoshock, Free Humanity, Gold Loxe, Li-Hill, Natalia Rak, Okuda, Old Broads, Phoebe, Sophia Hirsch and Johannes Mundinger, and Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine.

Top image above >>> Okuda (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Li-Hill for The Bushwick Collective. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bezt (from Etam Cru) in Providence, Rhode Island for Avenue Concept/Inoperable Gallery (photo © Bezt)

Dee Dee and Dain are BFF’s on the streets. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gold Loxe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faile (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Fra Biancoshock’s new installation in Vilnius, Lithuania features a speed checking camera refashioned in the fashion of an Instagram camera. He calls it #picoftheday (photo © Fra Biancoshock)

Sophia Hirsch and Johannes Mundinger installation at the former prison ‘JVA Magdeburg’ in Magdeburg, Germany. (photo © Johannes Mundinger)

Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine interventions in an abandoned hotel someplace in Northern Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Simon Vazquez and Sebastien Waknine interventions in an abandoned hotel somewhere in Northern Spain. (photo © Lluis Olive Bulbena)

Skulls, Death and “Memento Mori” on the Street Art Scene

May 20, 2015 Artists

Oh death, the world simply brims with it.

Naturally so do the streets.

We’ve been able to cheat it, cavort and dance with it, even bargain with it but so far we have been unable to win the fight. Everyone succumbs.

“Remember you shall die”, or Memento mori, is the medieval Latin theory that we come face to face with, or skull to skull.

Artists have been doing the danse macabre for centuries and one cerebral motif appears throughout every medium: the skull. From traditional African masks with skull faces to Shakespeare’s exhumed Yorick in Hamlet to 16th and 17th century European paintings featuring the skull as a motif in portraiture. The Mexicans make sugar candy with skulls, Warhol did multiples with them, Bowie sang to one, Tattoo culture covers skins with them, Damien Hirst encrusts them with diamonds, Game of Thrones has the Lord of Bones, they’re featured at the Museum of Morbid Anatomy, and Korean rapper Jay Park is styled as one on his video.

Even current Street Artists have a fascination with skulls, with Swoon in a show called Memento Mori and the Italian Street Artist Borondo’s named his new book after it. Today we wander out into the street with your hand in ours to look at death, as interpreted by artists of the street right now.

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This article is also published on The Huffington Post.

Happy New Year 2015 – BSA Readers Choice Top 10

January 1, 2015 Artists

Happy New Year to All! Thank you for inspiring us to do our best and to those of you who continue to support our personal art project / cultural examination, we extend our gratitude more than ever.

Begun as an enthusiastic discovery of what was happening in a few neighborhoods in New York, we continued to expand our view into more cities around the world last year and into the history and future of the scene. We also aimed to provide you with a critical platform for examination of the street art/ graffiti / public art/ contemporary art continuum with interviews with artists, curators, collectors, organizers, observers and thinkers in the street, studio, gallery, and museum – trouble makers and taste makers alike.

In the end, it’s your observations and the conversations on the street that are most important. As we begin the year with over 300K fans, friends, and followers on social media platforms and 225 articles on the Huffington Post (thanks HuffPost team!), we feel like we get a valuable good survey of current opinions heading our way daily.

With in-depth interviews, investigative articles, opinion infused examinations, plain celebratory reverie, occasionally silly non-sequitors, and public appearances where we get to meet you, we get a good analytical look at an ever-evolving movement, glittery polish and warts and all.

As the new year begins we take a look back at the top stories chosen by BSA Readers in the last 12 months. Among them are two takeover pop-up shows in soon-to-be demolished buildings, a story about commercial abuse of artist copyrights and the effort to fight back, a street art community’s response to the sudden death of an activist street artist, a Street Art tourist trip, and a few inspirational women, men, and Mexican muralists. Even though we published at least once a day for the last 365 days, these are the most popular pieces, as chosen by you, Dear BSA Reader.

10. Exploring Lisbon as a Street Art Tourist

9. Kara Walker and Her Sugar Sphinx at the Old Domino Factory

8. Women Rock Wynwood Walls at Miami Art Basel 2013

7. A Sudden Secret Street Art House Party in Manhattan

6. Niels Shoe Meulman Balancing “Unearthly” Paintings

5. It’s All the Rage, Street Artists Filing Lawsuits Left and Right

4. Shok-1 Street Art X-Rays Reveal a Unique Hand at the Can

3. 12 Mexican Street Artists Stray Far from Muralism Tradition In NYC

2. Army Of One, Inspiration To Many : Jef Campion

1. Graffiti and Street Art Lock Up “21st Precinct” in New York

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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.02.14

November 2, 2014 Artists, BSA Images Of The Week

Marathon Day in NYC today with people running in the streets more than usual, the time clock moved back an hour today, mid-term elections are this Tuesday, and New York’s first ebola patient is feeling a little better.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 2Face, Aine, Bifido, Caratoes, Cleon Peterson, Dal East, Dee Dee, Esteban Del Valle, Faring Purth, June, Kai June, Sean9Lugo, and Tara McPherson.

Top Image >> Chinese graffiti/Street Art due 2Face have been popping up around NYC and BK for the last few months, including this enormous portrait above of Ai Wei Wei looming large in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

2Face combines their trademark ski mask and pronounced mouth detail with this Van Gogh portrait in a Warholic repetition. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

OK here is what we don’t know about this billboard: The artist’s name. Here is what we know: The billboard is printed, not painted. The same artist who did this one put another one in the Summer with the legend “May The Bridges I Burn Light The Way”. Anyway who didn’t dream of running away at some point in their lives…either solo or with company? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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DAIN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Etnik for fallOutWalls fest in Torino, Italy. (photo © Etnik)

Icy & Sot (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pegasus in London interprets The Beckhams from his series “Gods and Monsters” (photo © Urban Art International)

An unidentified artist creates “Urban Paleontology” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RONE in East Harlem for #notacrimecampaign (photo © Jaime Rojo)

RONE. Detail. East Harlem for #notacrimecampaing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

CDRE (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FUTURA does something new and organic for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FUTURA. Detail. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FinDac in Berlin for Urban Nation Museum For Urban Contemporary Art. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mister Cartoon’s is pugilistic for Coney Art Walls 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

We are hoping that one of you dear readers will help us ID this artist, whose signature we can’t figure out. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Unidentified Artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Myth says “Sayonara Dana P” and reaches for the Bowie phone. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. The Last Picture. F Train. Brooklyn, NYC. April 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Our top image: Icy & Sot “let Her Be Free” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Thomas Allen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Pussy Power (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kid Super . Wall Play (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Feel The Bern (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Did She? (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Kuma Purge (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Star Fightera for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Star Fightera for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Bast (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Balu (photo © Jaime Rojo)

ROA. Wynwood District. Miami. (photo © Irwin Bakx)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dain (photo © Jaime Rojo)

FTW (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Passover ritual. Williamsburg, Brooklyn. April 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Top Image: Sipros and a father of surrealism for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Specter in Paris. (photo © Specter)

Specter in Paris. (photo © Specter)

Specter in Besancon. (photo © Specter)

Read More (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Invader (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Inva…sions are Cost…ly (photo © Jaime Rojo)

City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Lex56. Noted. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jordan Seiler (photo © Jaime Rojo)

WK Interact (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

For Dotty & Pearl (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Wing (photo © Jaime Rojo)

bunny M (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The company you keep… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Labrona and Ket in Montreal. (photo © Labrona)

Labrona and Ket in Montreal. Detail. (photo © Labrona)

Labrona in Montreal. (photo © Labrona)

Mint & Serf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jaye Moon has a sense of “awe” (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Never created this memorial to Peter Caroll AKA Pet Bird, who passed away suddenly in September. We love you Peter…and you too Never. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Untitled. Balloons. Manhattan, NYC. November 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph of Lil’ Crazy Legs. This is their final piece in this collaborative series. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy playing with a makeshift gun from the leg of a baby’s crib. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy playing with a makeshift gun from the leg of a baby’s crib. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic interprets Martha Cooper’s photograph from 1978 of this boy trapping flies in glass bottles. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ernest Zacharevic. Adam De Coster (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Tongue in cheek, Ernest Zacharevic’s ironic blend of brandalism and vandalism. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Isaac Cordal staged a scene of drowning businessmen in this Manhattan puddle. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Jilly Ballistic (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gilf! continues to influence the conversations around rampant inequality and with her “gentrification in progress” tape project, now outside the museum, someday in the museum. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Ai Wei Wei (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . Ouizi (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Swoon . Ouizi. Detail (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Sipros for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Gum Shoe (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Dee Dee (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Himbad for The Bushwick Collective and Mana Urban Projects. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Osch aka Otto Schade in London’s Brick Lane (photo © Urban Art International)

Invader’s tribute to Andy Warhol with The L.I.S.A Project NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)