All posts tagged: Gabriel Specter

“Money Talks” on Frost Street – With Gabriel Specter

“Money Talks” on Frost Street – With Gabriel Specter

BSA Interview, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, May 2025


If you’ve ever wandered down Frost Street and caught a whiff of turpentine, weed, and burned toast, you may have walked right past the unmarked doorway where Williamsburg still quietly seethes and happily bubbles with creative resistance.

A community center, performance space, art gallery, flea market hybrid, the space welcomes you to the latest show, “Money Talks,” which doesn’t need an opening reception flier. It has its gravity and pull — the kind that draws a packed audience into a labyrinth of rooms, exhibition spaces, and performances. A sign of success, it spills onto the spring Friday night sidewalk, where smokers and sharp talkers hold court between sets by a shaggy 70s rock band that might or might not be ironic.

Inside, four artists — Specter, Rene, CASH4, and ITIN — served up a visual demolition of American currency and its cultural metaphors. It wasn’t bitter, but it wasn’t sweet. Like the Williamsburg of old, before the glass condos, this was salty, smart, funny, blunt. No manifestos on the wall, just wry, sharp-tongued critique told in paper pulp, paint, and political memory.

The anchor piece? Gabriel Specter’s massive currency-redesigned The State of America. A redux of the reverse of a dollar bill — if it had lived through January 6. The Capitol dome smokes like a symbol under siege, while foregrounded rioters pose in shades of government green. It’s beautifully executed, deeply personal, and visibly furious — a portrait of patriotism cracked in half. The loft is loud, the floor sticky, the ideas sharp. Money Talks doesn’t have a social media campaign, instead you feel like it has conviction. It doesn’t need a QR code. The rent may be high, but the spirit here is still gloriously low-rent — and unbought.

Specter, a visual bard of the 2000s and 2010s Brooklyn scene, known for work that didn’t just decorate the streets but spoke to social realities, talked to us about this piece — and about the spirit of a space that still knows how to host shows that mean something.


Gabriel Specter. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: How would you characterize the space where “Money Talks” took place — not just physically, but in terms of its function as a creative platform? Is it more of a cultural incubator, a performance venue, or a kind of underground laboratory for dissent?

GS: The best way to describe the space is talking about the people who occupy it. Each person coming in and out of the studio, the workshop, performance and gallery space shapes it into a one-of-a-kind arts venue. To answer whether it is a cultural incubator, performance venue, or underground laboratory of dissent, I would say all three apply. We’re inclusive of all forms of expression but we have an anti-establishment edge. Respect and kindness overrides difference of opinion.

Gabriel Specter. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: Your painting The State of America, featuring figures from the January 6th Capitol riot, was a powerful centerpiece. What emotional or psychological space were you in while creating it, and how did the act of painting become a way to process or confront that moment in history?

GS: Because of the amount of detail required to execute the work, I had to focus on the rendering of each figure in the painting. I was physically trying to individualize them, an accurate representation of what was happening. My brain was not focused on anything other than the actual painting of it. It put me in a meditative state creating it.

As I would take breaks from the laborious rendering, I would take a step and look at what I’d completed so far. Because I was trying to be so accurate about representing each individual, the stepping back and seeing them altogether, it honestly brought up a lot of hatred. For what they represented, and what they did on that day. In doing this painting, I was painting a lot of patriotic things and my version of patriotism is a lot different than what the scene depicts.


BSA: The exhibition seems to grapple with money not just as currency, but as a symbol of power, manipulation, and social fracture. Was the show intended as a direct critique of American capitalism, or are you also exploring more personal or ambiguous relationships to money and value?

GS: Each artist in the exhibition has their own take and I can only speak to my own. So yes, my work was a critique of money as a tool for manipulation, and how this has seeped into societal values. But as I said, every artist contributing took Money Talks as a way to take back power with money.

Gabriel Specter. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: You’ve been making work since the 2000s, including street pieces that captured daily city life and the people who live here. How has your perspective — and your medium — evolved in response to the widening economic divide and the political climate of recent years?

GS: I think my work has evolved to the times we are living in. I feel more than ever that my work needs to draw a line in the sand and represent my values as a human. I don’t try to take sides but I express what I think is right and I feel there is a sickness in our society at the moment.


Gabriel Specter. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Itin. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Itin. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rene. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rene. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rene. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rene. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rene. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Itin. Rene. Specter. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Itin. Rene. Specter. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Itin. Rene. Specter. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
An ironic shot, perhaps recalling the fake image of “Photo Op” montage with Prime Minister Tony Blair taking a selfie with oil exploding behind him. Created in the mid-2000s by artists Peter Kennard and Cat Picton-Phillipps (known collectively as kennardphillipps). Rene. Specter. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)
Fake money looking just like real money on the floor. Itin. Rene. Specter. Cash4. Money Talks. (photo © Steven P. Harrington)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 05.11.24

BSA Images Of The Week: 05.11.24

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week.

This week, St. Patrick’s Cathedral on Fifth Avenue was suddenly flooded with pealing bells and congregants. In a historic moment for the Catholic Church, Pope Leo XIV, born in Chicago, was chosen, following in the footsteps of his predecessor Francis and his namesake Leo XIII, who was widely admired for his steadfast advocacy for migrants and laborers at the turn of the 20th century. Many observers have noted that the selection of an American pope may reflect a conscious decision by the College of Cardinals to offer a moral counterbalance to the growing tide of authoritarianism and exclusionary politics seen in some of today’s global leadership. With roots in a city shaped by immigration, industry, and social struggle, Leo XIV arrives at a time when such grounding may prove especially relevant. Best wishes to all of us.

So here’s some of this week’s visual conversation from the street, including works from Homesick, Gabriel Specter, Clint Mario, Werds, IMK, EXR, Jorit, Wild West, JEMZ, Ribs, Diva, Ellena Lourens, APE, NOEVE, ENEKKO, Rene, Happy, Disoh, Peuf, and Off Key.

Mr. Kenji (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Mr. Kenji (photo © Jaime Rojo)
RIBS (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Off Key (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Clint Mario (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JEMZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)
IMK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DIVA (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HOMESICK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HOMESICK (photo © Jaime Rojo)
WILD WEST (photo © Jaime Rojo)
PEUF (photo © Jaime Rojo)
DISOH (photo © Jaime Rojo)
HAPPY (photo © Jaime Rojo)
JORIT. This is a detail of a partially destroyed piece. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Specter and Rene collaboration. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Specter. Rene. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ENEKKO. WERDS. EXR. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
NOEVE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
APE (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Joey Lanz (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Ellena Lourens (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Freedom Tower. Manhattan, NY. Spring 2025. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.02.24

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.02.24

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

How’s your summer been so far? Many people say that Memorial Day unofficially begins Summer, so this week was the first one. Indeed! Baseball, soccer, and kickball are in the park, and movies or cocktails are on the roof. Lifeguards are on the beach, and kids are throwing up on the Cyclone at Coney Island or throwing frisbees on Central Park grass. The air in some neighborhoods smells like lilac bushes, urine, french fries, marijuana, or aerosol paint. Or all of it at once. When it all swirls around you, it is a heady mix. Cute girls in short shorts and cute boys on skateboards may not fall in love given these circumstances, but they might!

This week, 45 was found guilty on 34 counts in court. We New Yorkers, who have known him for years, are unsurprised.

Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Specter, Alice Pasquini, Degrupo, Optimo NYC, Enzo, Nite Owl, Miki Mu, NYC Kush Co., Klonism, Max Grax, Friz, KMG, Agent Decay, Jare, SYE5, Benny Cruz.

Specter. Yusuf Hawkins 1973-1989. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The first time artist Specter painted this memorial for Yusuf Hawkins in Brooklyn was in 2011. He’s restored it and added more to the environment of the mural, two times since then. This is the second restoration that he did in the past few weeks.

Specter. Yusuf Hawkins 1973-1989. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Specter. Yusuf Hawkins 1973-1989. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist with Jare and SYE5 tags. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Optimo NYC (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nite Owl (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nite Owl (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Nite Owl (photo © Jaime Rojo)
1984.YO (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Agent Decoy (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Klonism (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Klonism (photo © Jaime Rojo)
KMG. Hit The North Festival. 2018 Edition. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
ENZO (photo © Jaime Rojo)
KUSH. DEGRUPO. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artist (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Benny Cruz (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Miki Mu (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Alice Pasquini. Hit The North Festival. 2018 Edition. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Max Grax (photo © Jaime Rojo)
FRIZ. Hit The North Festival. 2023 Edition. Belfast, Northern Ireland. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Untitled. Tulip. Spring 2024. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 08.29.21

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.29.21

Welcome to BSA Images of the Week!

A new hurricane, a new school year, a new variant, a new governor, a new fall of Saigon, and a new anti-vaccination song from rock guitar god Eric Clapton, who doesn’t want you to put suspect chemicals into your body. Presumably, cocaine is still okay, however, if you want to get down, down on the ground.

The summer storms keep coming, and yet somehow so does the incredible show of creativity on our streets; the celebration of murals and graffiti burners and painters and sculptors and characters and opinions and cogitations. However hot and steamy and hard New York can be sometimes, it also is positively ebullient and inspiring. We know our many differences are our greater asset, our combined aspirations a stunning new possibility.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring A. Smith, Captain Eyeliner, China, Cody James, CP Won, David Puck, Gabriel Specter, Huetek, Iquene, Jason Naylor, Jitr!, Amanda Valdes, Lorenzo Masnah, M.R.S.N., Not Your Muse, Peachee Blue, Sara Lynne Leo, Sasha Velour, Say No Sleep, Tyler Ives, and Winston Tseng.

CP Won (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Say No Sleep (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Say No Sleep (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Say No Sleep (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Winston Tseng (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Sara Lynne-Leo in collaboration with Tyler Ives. “Remedial Purge” (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Captain Eyeliner (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
A Smith (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Specter (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Huetek. Detail. Work in progress for The Bushwick Collective 10th Anniversary edition. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Cody James. Work in progress for The Bushwick Collective 10th Anniversary edition. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Jason Naylor. Work in progress for The Bushwick Collective 10th Anniversary edition. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
China (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Jitr! (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
David Puck (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Iquena (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Not Your Muse (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Peachee Blue (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Amanda Valdes (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Masnah (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
M.R.S.N. (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
Unidentified artists (photo @ Jaime Rojo)
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BSA Images Of The Week: 02.14.16

BSA Images Of The Week: 02.14.16

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It’s a February pile-on this week with dangerous sub-zero wind chills on the street, Valentine’s Day smashing into Presidents Day, a Brooklyn Jew winning the New Hampshire primary against a former female New York Senator, a sudden passing of a Supreme Court judge, a T-shirt to wear to El Chapo’s Brooklyn trial. Also Kanye West held a fashion show at MSG/dropped an album/played SNL and may need counseling, Swoon popped up in Forbes, large bus stop screens were taken over by Vermibus, Specter and Seiler, and Conde Nast announced that there’s an art scene in Brooklyn. Who knew?

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Air3, Bie MOG, City Kitty, Gabriel Specter, Jordan Seiler, London Kaye, Naomirag, Raul Ayala, and Traz.

Our top image: London Kaye is flooding the sidewalk with love crochet (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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London Kaye (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Raul Ayala in collaboration with Fernanda Espinosa for The Laundromat Project in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The above and below pieces are part of  Whose Street? Community Mural Project  for The Laundromat Project installed at the Know Waste Lands Garden in Bushwick.

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Raul Ayala in collaboration with Fernanda Espinosa for The Laundromat Project in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter ad takeover in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter ad takeover in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter ad takeover in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter ad takeover in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter ad takeover in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Abe Lincoln by Bie MOG. This is a detail of a larger mural. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Martin Luther King by Air3. This is a part of a larger mural in Brooklyn. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jordan Seiler ad take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jordan Seiler ad take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jordan Seiler ad take over. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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TRAZ (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Paper Whites in El Barrio by Naomirag. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Hibiscus in El Barrio by Naomirag. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NY. February 2016. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 06.07.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 06.07.15

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BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

Brooklyn is in full effect this weekend with Bushwick Open Studios, Coney Art Walls, and the prep for Welling Court and Northside Art Festival beginning already for next. Go out and stroll, get an egg and cheese on a roll, see a piece by Mr. Toll, and smoke a bowl.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring CB23, Forgive, Hellbent, JR, LMNOPI, One Tooth, Pablo Harymbat, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, She Wolf, Specter, Stray Ones, Thievin’ Stephen, Toaster, and Vexta.

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

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Stray Ones (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Thievin’ Stephen (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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

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

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

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Specter billboard take over in Manhattan. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Pablo Harymbat in Buenos Aires, Argentina. June 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LMNOPI tribute to the children of Nepal. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Ramiro Davaro-Comas (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Forgive (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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One Tooth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Vexta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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She Wolf (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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CB23 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JR (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Coney Island, Brooklyn. June 2015. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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BSA Images Of The Week: 01.04.15

BSA Images Of The Week: 01.04.15

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BSA-Images-Week-Jan2015

It’s our first Images of the Week of the new year and we’ve missed you! The city is recovering from disasters and triumphs and heartbreaks and infatuations as normal. The police union is attacking the Mayor in the sky and elsewhere, the NY Times is questioning their tactics, the city is grieving violence against two police with a memorial in the street, the protestors spurred by police brutality continue to demonstrate, the mayor marks his first year, a Staten Island congressman resigns in disgrace, a million people were in Times Square three days ago, the minimum wage is going up a little, and liberal lion and 3 time governor Mr. Cuomo passed away New Years Day.

Here’s to you and your family and a great tumultuous spectacular 2015 that is in store for all of us on the street, in boardrooms, behind cash registers, on walls, in galleries, museums – wherever you are. We’re celebrating the creative spirit wherever we find it and when it comes to Street Art and graffiti and public art you can be sure there will be plenty of new things to see.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring $howta, Clint Mario, Crummy Gummy, Dame Edna, Damien Mitchell, Don’t Fret, Eurotrash040, Fred63, Gordo Pelota, Jerkface, Jon Burgerman, Kashink, Korn, Myth, Smartcrew, Specter, Sweet Toof, and Yenta

Top Image >> Jon Burgerman (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Sweet Toof (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter reframes the environment. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter. A couple of anonymous collaborators engaging on the conversation of the streets… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kashink (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Yenta. Dame Edna, Australia’s National Treasure… (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crummy Gummy. Stick it…see what happens! (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crummy Gummy. Looks like ET scored a temp job during the holidays…he is still unemployed though. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Crummy Gummy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Myth (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dont Fret (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Kermit as interpreted by an unknown artist. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Damien Mitchell (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Eurotrash 040 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Gordo Pelota . Eurotrash 040 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Clint Mario (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Fred63 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Jerk Face for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Double Jesus (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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$howta (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Smart Crew tribute to the late Jeffrey Gamalero AKA Korn, who passed away in December. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. A mourner takes a photo at the site of the street memorial  in Brooklyn to honor police officers Wenjian Liu and Rafael Ramos. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

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BSA Images Of The Week: 11.30.14

BSA Images Of The Week: 11.30.14

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Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Aiko, City Kitty, Clet, Dain, Deekers, JB Rock, KCIN, LUC, Mr. One Teas, Obey, Peros, PX$H6XD, Shepard Fairey, Smells, Specter, Tank Petrol, and Tom Fruin.

Top Image >> Clet (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Clet (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tank Petrol new wall in Penang, Malaysia for Urban Exchange. (photo © Tank Petrol)

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Tom Fruin “Kolonihavehus” for Dumbo Arts Fest 2o14. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Tom Fruin “Kolonihavehus” for Dumbo Arts Fest 2o14. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Deekers and Sweet Toof from a few years ago has had some collaboration on the dental work. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Smells . Peros (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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LUC (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Dain beginning to show the full figure on the street – a new direction and a welcomed one. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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PX$H6XD (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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According to some conversations on social platforms about this issue, some NY ladies are not getting the full benefits in this arena. Artist Unknown (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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JB Rock . Aiko in Rome, Italy for Outdoor Urban Art Festival. (photo © JB Rock)

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City Kitty (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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OBEY (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Mr. OneTeas for The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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KCIN (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. November, 2014. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Abstract Specter at the Bus Stop

Abstract Specter at the Bus Stop

It’s been sort of rainy in New York recently so you may have to take shelter while you wait for the bus. While you do, would you rather be treated with a large illuminated ad for hair color, headache medicine, or hemorrhoid creme?

Or would you like to spend a few minutes gazing on a new piece by Street Artist Specter, whose new works have been  appearing in a few new locations in Brooklyn? Once better known for his large hand painted portraits of people who live on the streets or who collect recyclable materials and push them in shopping carts, Specter’s more recent work has been abstract and reliant upon texture, shape and composition.

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Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter (photo © Jaime Rojo)

 

 

 

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“Pintemos Mexico” with Specter, OverUnder, Shente and Libre in Ensanada

“Pintemos Mexico” with Specter, OverUnder, Shente and Libre in Ensanada

Irish Catholics like Specter always get romantic when they see the Virgin Mary being worked into a mural. The Brooklyn based Street Artist just got back from the heavily catholic country of Mexico (Ensenada) where the virgin Guadalupe is the local version that people revere and he says he was inspired by the “Tree of Life”. The metaphorical árbol in this case is the ceramic sculpture displayed at the Museo de Arte Popular in México City.

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Gabriel Specter. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

Joined by Street Artist OverUnder from Reno and Shente and Libre from the HEM crew out of Tijuana one of the oldest graffiti crews in Mexico, Specter worked on his mural for an art project called “Pintemos Mexico”. Each artist chose a more modern and public approach to popular icons and religious figures and storytelling, says Specter, and he liked finding a way to relate his own heritage to the folklore and religious fervor of Mexican culture. With many of the neighborhood kids pitching in to help, these are murals for a community that hopefully reflect the people back to themselves.

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Sculpture by Oscar Soteno on display at Museo de Arte Popular in México City (image courtesy Wikipedia).

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Gabriel Specter. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

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Gabriel Specter. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

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OverUnder. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

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OverUnder. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © OverUnder)

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Libre. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

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Libre. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

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Shente. “Pintemos Mexico” Ensenada, BC. Mexico (photo © Gabriel Specter)

 

“Pintemos Mexico” is made possible by Infonavit and the Fundacion Hogares, with Mamutt as one of the collaborators.

 

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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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Images Of The Week: 10.06.13

Images Of The Week: 10.06.13

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New York was rattled by uncertainty and worry this week as all eyes turned to Washington to witness the forced governmental shutdown that was prompted by a undeniably deep resentment toward the governed. How dare the people try to protect their health and pocketbook against the vulturish free market – one that has left tens of millions of our neighbors without medical care? As a collective punishment we are now nervously marking one week without a working government.

Launched parallel with the shutdown was the startup of a new Street Art/digital campaign by a global patron saint of the 2000s repositioning on New York streets in the 2010s. Through a website about his own secret/public spraying, Banksy is creating a sort of funhouse reinvention; A winking campaign of digital manipulation of friends and detractors alike.  Circumspect humor and treasure hunts have triggered a bit of a circus – and we are willingly parlaying the details and conjecture across social media with hashtags and photos and exclamation points.  Reviews of the work itself range from tepid to thrilled  but the sugary buzz of near daily revelations have given these events a feeling of an October surprise. If the brand can sustain interest for the the entire announced “residency” of one month it will indeed be an accomplishment, as New Yorkers are voracious consumers of culture and attention spans mimic that of the tsetse fly.

Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring B.D. White, Banksy, Blind Eye Factory, Cost, Specter, Holymafia, Judith Supine, Knarf, Mike Shine, Nychos, and Zed1.

Top image > Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Judith Supine. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Judith Supine (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zed1 (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Zed1. Detail. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Specter in Rome.  (photo © Lorenzo Gallito/Blind Eye Factory)

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B.D. White (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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The Ghost of Banksy. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Banksy (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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COST (photo © Jaime Rojo)

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Nychos in San Francisco. (photo © Brock Brake)

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Mike Shine in San Francisco (photo © Brock Brake)

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Knarf and Holymafia in Vienna (photo © Knarf)

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Knarf  in Vienna. (photo © Knarf)

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Untitled. Brooklyn, NYC. (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 Film Friday: 10.04.13

BSA Film Friday: 10.04.13

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Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.

Now screening: Hot Tea “Rituals”, Gabriel Specter: “Structures” in Rome, Faith47, Omen, Ricardo Cavolo and Jasper Wong in Montreal, TOUR 13 in Paris, and Then One “Yard Work”.

BSA Special Feature: Hot Tea “Rituals”

In his second attempt at installing on the walkway leading up the Williamsburg Bridge, Street Artist Hot Tea and a few dedicated friends installed a high impact piece that redrew the public space. If you happened upon it, you were surprised by its simplicity and effectiveness. If you examined it, you realized the time and effort it took. This new video helps to appreciate the latter.

(Top image above © Jaime Rojo)

Specter Goes Geometric in Rome

Gabriel Specter just finished this monochromatic geometric piece under an overpass in Rome – working with the Blind Eye Factory. Where is that chalk snap line doohickey?  I just had it here. I hope I didn’t throw it away with my lunch bag and half eaten sandwich….

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Specter. Rome 2013. (photo © Lorenzo Gallitto – Blind Eye Factory)

 

Faith47, Omen, Ricardo Cavolo and Jasper Wong in Montreal

In a promotional program for a luxury real estate complex of penthouses and townhouses, Street Artists Faith 47, Omen, Ricardo Cavolo and Jasper Wong each did murals in downtown Montreal recently.

TOUR 13 in Paris

You will be hearing a lot more about this project that has just opened in Paris. Graffiti and Street Artists and just plain artists have been taking over abandoned or soon to be destroyed real estate for decades, and this is the newest example of a semi-curated show within one. It is great to see the range of talent and new directions that a project like this can take, and to see a centralized location for fans to visit – before it is all destroyed.


Tour Paris 13 by tourparis13

Then One “Yard Work”

A nicely paced piece by Then One is captured here and edited By SERRINGE. Watching this intimate relationship of the artist to the wall and thinking about fall – not too hot, air a little crisp; You might expect to see Then One collapse into a pile of leaves.

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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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