It’s September! Or Septembeer, if you like. Followed by Octobeer, Novembeer….you get the joke.
As we slide into New York’s fall arts openings, shows, events, parties — we’re still blown away by the incredible works that are on the streets. Right?
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: No Sleep, Adam Dare, Werds, You Are Beautiful, Melski, George Collagi, Combo CK, Hek Tad, and Yo Like George.
These are topics/themes that street artists are addressing this week in New York – pretty much wherever you go. It looks like an uptick in activism, often with a sense of humor. Can we make a song with these words? Somebody please tie these topics together and make a tidy summary. Thank you.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Raddington Falls, Hek Tad, Degrupo, CP Won, Albertus Joeph, Madame Restell, Mike King, Jason Ackerman, Trippin Ape Tribe, Eternal Possessions, and Lask Art.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. The streets are reflecting this moment in New York this week as artists are showing their colors. Or Ukraine’s colors, rather. Hard to sleep through the night when you know that Gotham is on the hit list if this Russian invasion turns nuclear, hard to process the idea that a cold war is never far from a hot one, despite activists best efforts for all these decades. Hard to believe that sanctions won’t damage many more people than the intended targets. Hard to believe that money-printing is never discussed in the news as THE creator of this inflation and much more inflation to come.
Let’s do everything we can to de-escalate this war, this perpetual specter.
And thank you to the street artists who are keeping the conversations alive. Also this week, new works from F**kin REVS !
Remember to Set Your Clocks Ahead One Hour Today.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Adam Fujita, Fuckin REVS, Below Key, Sticker Maul, Sara Lynne-Leo, Hek Tad, Gold Loxe, Mike Raz, Smetsky Art, Hear Eye Am, Equalist, Liagam, and Mitya Pisliak.
We were battered like hell this week by the remnants of a hurricane – not the actual hurricane itself. Yet New York was unprepared for the onslaught of precipitation in such a short period of time – producing flooding like we haven’t seen in ages, or ever. Basement apartments were overtaken in hours, first floors soon after – and lives were lost. We mourn the victims and console their families.
Roads, tunnels, trains, streets, airports – all paralyzed. The seriousness of the damage makes many of us take a step back, take stock – and wonder how many more years the PR disinformation industry can cloud our minds with doubt about climate change. It worked for decades with cigarettes, has worked for decades with the war machine, the health industry, the financial industry, against voting rights, against labor unions….
Hmm… at this rate, it looks like we better buy some flippers and a snorkel.
And in the streets, we are comforted by images of our pop heroes, rock gods, and asundry archetypes.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Allison Dayka, Almost Over Keep Smiling, Came Moreno, DEK2DX, Foxito, Goblin, Hek Tad, HOACS, Lorenzo Masnah, Lucas Official, Psycho Love, Ramiro Davaro-Comas, Roio47, Smet Sky, Tomer Linaje, Trace1, Ultramarine Dream, Vitruvian Truth, and Voxx Romana.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week and Happy Pride NYC.
No pride parade today, not that New York needs a special day for LGBTQI parades – that’s simply called walking on the catwalk, err, sidewalk.
The US is officially a pariah on the world stage – banned to travel to Europe. Because, you know, masks. But dude, we’re like in totally good company with other countries like Brazil and Russia. It’s a race to be number 1.
A special shout-out and respect today goes to the creater of the I (heart) NY logo and campaign, Milton Glaser, who passed away this week at 91. Many artists on the street today are aware of his other contributions to graphic design and illustration in the last fifty years or so. Rest in Peace.
In street art news, downtown Manhattan is still largely boarded up, so artists are taking advantage of the new canvasses. You see, there is a silver lining to everything if you look for it. Or a plywood one.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Daze, DPF Studio, Dragon 77, Hek Tad, Sara Lynne Leo, and Stikman.
Inauguration week was just as bumpy as you could have expected with an incredibly divided country discussing the outgoing president, the incoming president, the foreign interference and weird circumstances around the actual election, the nearly all white all billionaire cabinet nominees, and the Women’s March‘s that vastly overwhelmed Trumps ceremony attendee numbers while “sister” marches took place in nearly 700 cities around the world. This president, more than any one in decades, is galvanizing people to take action and get involved, just not in the way he might have preferred and we’ve been seeing a steady dialogue on the street about him since last fall.
So here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Adline, City Kitty, D7606, Drsco, El Sol 25, Hek Tad, Homo Riot, Jerk Face, Jose Feliz Perez, Lunge Box, Meguru Yamaguchi, Michael Vasquez, Nimai Keston, Not Art, Shepard Fairey, Sheryo & the Yok, and Vicki Da Silva.
Yeah, we didn’t know what it meant either so we looked it up. Here’s what Wikipedia says: Kompromat (Russian: компромат; IPA: [kəmprɐˈmat], short for компрометирующий материал, literally “compromising material”) is the Russian term for compromising materials about a politician or other public figure. Such materials can be used to create negative publicity, for blackmail, or for ensuring loyalty.
In other words, light artist Vicki Da Silva is referencing the apparent influence of the Russian government over the presidential election by smearing Clinton publicly with information they had found. Luckily they didn’t find any information to influence Trump in any way.
People all over the world (everybody)
Join hands (join)
Start a love train, love train
People all over the world (all the world, now)
Join hands (love ride)
Start a love train (love ride), love train
Autumn in New York yo! Crisp cool, sunny days. Girls in tight sweaters. Boys in combat boots. Every cool air festival you can think of is all happening simultaneously – skateboarders closing down Kent Ave on BKs north side, Indian Larry’s block party with motorcycles of every stripe, and this years San Gennaro festival in Little Italy looks like it wants to reclaim this part of town before it is subsumed by the crushing wealth machine now chewing through Chinatown. Literally the festival looks like it spans the entire length of Mulberry from Canal to Houston – that’s longer than the line to get the new iPhone in Soho!
But neither one of those will compare to todays’ expected line of concerned citizens snaking through the streets in Manhattan to address the effect of climate change. Coordinated with marches in cities around the world it’s estimated to draw 100,000 people. We’ve had a sneak peek at what Street Artist Swoon has in store for an installation at the end of the march, including some of the very same materials she just used for her “Submerged Motherlands” at the Brooklyn Museum, but arranged entirely cleverly differently.
A few weeks ago at Nuart we were invite to speak about activism on the street around the world using Street Art as a form of expression, and we are surprised to see a rising wave of it that not many seem aware of – including some of our artworld peers. This week alone a few Street Artists have created new work to promote today’s march. It is not hard to get us into the street on a regular day so this is just one shiny bauble of grassroots creativity that you won’t want to miss. Also, technically, it’s still summer until Tuesday.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Bifido, Crash, Daze, Gilf!, Hek Tad, Jetsonorama, Karl Addison, LMNOPI, Misshab, Sean9Lugo, and Skount.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Acet, Bunny M, Damon, Hek Tad, Hyland Mather, Judith Supine, Kram, Kuma, Olek, and Red Grooms.