Trees are turning, politicians are jamming your phone texts with election slogans, Comic Con 20 is celebrating Coney Island, and hundreds of murals are in full effect this fall in every borough of New York City. We’ve been riding bikes through the streets to find new stuff and give you some of the best that makes this NYC.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, legal and otherwise, this week featuring Cram, Ejek98, El Cekis, Hektad, Jappy Agoncillo, Jim Power, MCY, Minhafofa, Mosaic Man, Motomichi Nakamura, OG King 157, Optimo NYC, and WC.
Mr. Power is a well known ceramic tiles artist whose work can be found primarily in the East Village neighborhood in Manhattan, NY. The Mosaic Man as he’s better known has been working on his installations in the East Village since the early 1980s creating a trail of tiles installations on urban furniture and the bases of street lamp posts. We were surprised that some of his work has been vandalized and in some cases completely destroyed. We can’t make any sense of why and who is responsible for the destruction of public art that contains an oral and visual history of the city and contributes to the dynamism of the city.
Congratulations to HAZE for his opening of Eric Haze & Matt Weber — Vanishing City at Atelier Jolie, 57 Great Jones Street this week. The show runs through December 30 and it connects Haze’s graffiti-rooted practice with Weber’s New York street photography and their shared history in the city’s 1970s scene.
Our late summer has been blessed by the methodical beast that is Kiwi artist Owen Dippie, who still doesn’t get enough love from New York considering his photorealistic chops and appetite for blockbusters. Catch him in action on the southwest corner of Bowery and Great Jones Street, where he’s building a mammoth, nearly six-story Jean-Michel Basquiat mural just around the corner from Atelier Jolie. It’s still in progress.
…and don’t forget Charlie Ahearn’s New Paintings at WHAAM! on Elizabeth Street, still on view through October 23, or Vandals to Vanguard at BronxArtSpace, up through October 24 — both keeping the city’s graffiti and hip-hop histories in active circulation rather than treating them as finished chapters.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring AAron Wrinkle, Billy Barnacles, City Kitty, DARA, Filthy Freak, Free Humanity, Fumero, Hektad, Jappy Agoncillo, JerkFace, Lexi Bella, Minhafofa, My Dog Signs, OGKING157, Richard Hoffman, RIOT, SEKHMET, UNEG, and Welder Underground.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Happy Mother’s Day – to all the mothers and caretakers who have watched over us. Today, we honor thank you for your love, care, determination, sacrifice, guidance, creativity, patience, and sleepless nights. For those who are no longer here with us, we remember you with love and gratitude. Everyone is doing the best we can with the light we have to live by.
We start this new collection of images by photographer Jaime Rojo: a bash of color and expression from Dae Law.
The mural feels like right now, with its tangled ribbons snaking across the wall, sprayed and brushed without hierarchy, crude symbols that emerge and disappear, drips and imperfections left visible, and clashing colors of acidic yellow, gritty white, flat reds, blues, muddy greys, and blushing pinks. This is contained chaos, with a Basquiat-style text interruption, brutish application, overlapping expressionism, you think of notebook doodling and low-volume excitement and urban anxiety at one time.
When the narratives and data are delivered by firehose, this is what we get: an information landscape nearly impossible to bring into focus. Headlines, propaganda, advertising, strangely personal appeals, subtle invective, outrage, and corn syrup – its all layered so densely that meaning begins to shift and reshape into jittery loops and disjointed slogans and artifacts of imagery.
On a different note, it looks like Instagram continues its purge, or rather, algorithm anarchy, as overnight we just lost 2K followers. We have lost more than 50K followers since the introduction of a new algorithm, years ago, that was designed to drive content to followers. It makes no sense at all, as BSA continues to travel around the world, bringing stories to tens of thousands of people every week. The new followers are not enough to offset the lost ones. Just sayin’.
Here is our interview with the street, this week featuring 1440, AIC Mosaic, Bukus One, Dae law, Dirty Bandits, HASH, Jappy Agoncillo, Jodi Da Real, Merck, Miss 17, Muck Rock, NOVA, Ragae, and Wigs.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. This fall in New York institutional museum offerings, people are checking out “Sixties Surreal” at the Whitney, “Robert Rauschenberg: Life Can’t Be Stopped” at the Guggenheim, “Coco Fusco: Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island” at El Museo del Barrio, Yvette Mayorga’s “PLEA$URE GARDEN$” Midnight Moment in Times Square, “Monet and Venice” and “Seydou Keïta: A Tactile Lens” at the Brooklyn Museum.
The Whitney offers all Fridays free from 5–10 p.m., every second Sunday free, and if you’re 25 or under, it’s always free. The Museum of Modern Art welcomes New York State residents free of charge every Friday from 5:30–8:30 p.m. (proof of residency required). The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum invites visitors to pay what they wish on Mondays and Saturdays from 4–5:30 p.m., with a suggested minimum of one dollar. The New-York Historical Society follows suit with pay-as-you-wish admission on Fridays from 5–8 p.m. And for those who prefer art in the Bronx, the Bronx Museum of the Arts remains free every day of the week. And right here in Brooklyn, the Brooklyn Museum opens its doors every First Saturday of the month from 5–11 p.m. for free admission with registration, and visitors are always welcome to pay what they can at the desk.
Meanwhile, much of our street art is busy with cats, pop icons, ambient dread, and general sweetness. For anyone assuming the scene remains activist or subversive, evidence is not plentiful. Still, it photographs beautifully.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Chloe, I Am Frankie Botz, Jappy Agoncillo, Jeff Rose King, Kam S. Art, Lucia Dutazaka, Mad Villian, Man in the Box, Manuel Alejandro, Nandos Art, Rommer White, Sonni, Sophia Messore, and Tone Wash.
When discovering a series of currency-themed street art in the city this week, we were reminded of the relentless daily pressure there is today to make ends meet—and of the regular headlines showing how the big players run their own schemes to squeeze the public. It also calls to mind the 1980s hip hop track “What People Do for Money” by Divine Sounds, with its sly reminder: “They’ll sell their soul to the devil, just to make a dime.” (See video at end of posting)
Whether it’s war profiteering, scamming public programs, turning charities into piggy banks, buying up public goods to squeeze ratepayers, or preaching salvation from the cabin of a private jet, corporations, banks, and street hustlers only differ in scale, not intent.
From the street perspective, this may look like the same hustle that they do – but with a press release accompanying it.
Here’s a survey of our weekly interview with the street, featuring Atomiko, Cash4, Drones, Grouchy, Jappy Agoncillo, Rene Lerude, Skewville, TFP Crew, and Zexor.
This week’s collection leans toward graffiti—city writers rekindling a romance with old styles, tracing our urban aesthetic lineage with fresh hands, new eyes, and scribes. Beyond that, the crime stats continue their long downward drift, despite some corporate outlets insisting our city is in daily chaos, as if Bedlam had moved in. Immigrants are valued members of New York’s sense of community and multi-culture, as ever, but a strangely well-funded machine would have you think differently- if they could. NYC is far more youthful, open-hearted, and innovative than that kind of thinking can imagine.
National heaviness seeps into the local air: relentless headlines, instability abroad, inhumanity and warmaking, higher costs, service cuts to some of the most in need, attacks on institutions—and on your search for sanity. You can feel it rumbling like the subway underneath: a slow, grinding disquiet, the weight of evident inequalities, the steady drip of absurdity and distraction.
Maybe that’s why the streets speak in heightened tones: sometimes glorious, other times surreal, opaque, saccharine, macabre. Rage simmers alongside wistful nostalgia. Escapism too. As old certainties dissolve, strange new forms begin to emerge. The atmosphere feels charged—thick with tension, possibility, change.
Everyone agrees New York is hot this summer—oppressively so—until, suddenly, there’s a breeze, a clear sky, and you exhale. Let’s go for a walk. How much of what is seen is real? How much is perception? How much is projection? Hard to say. Maybe it doesn’t matter. Maybe it’s all part of the picture.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week including Couch, D30, Dopamine, Homesick, Jappy Agoncillo, Kam S. Art, KEG, Nekst (tribute), RatchiNYC, Sefu, SMLZ, Sower Kerd, Wild West, and Zoot.
NYC’s 55th annual Pride March down 5th Avenue kicks off today, themed “Rise Up: Pride in Protest,” taking on a decidedly defiant stance on equality for all. Suppose you are in the subway, dance club, or park in Bushwick, Chinatown, or midtown. Like every June, it’s a lavender parade all weekend, with all members of the LGBTQUA+ communities from around the country and the world laughing, dancing, fighting, posing, and canoodling.
Democratic Socialist Zohran Mamdani clinched the Democratic nomination here this week after defeating former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, possibly igniting a polarized reaction across NYC politics. Hm, wonder if anyone will mention his religion in the next few months. What do you think? But, de facto, he’s going to be the next mayor – unless Bloomberg wants to blow more money before the November election.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Andre Trenier, Dirt Cobain, Drones, Dzel, Fear Art, Jappy Agoncillo, Jason Naylor, Jeff Rose, Kam S. Art, Manik, Modomatic, Par, Riot, Senisa, Tom Bob, Werds, and Zimer.
Right out of the gate, Pres-elect Trump is telling us that one must destroy the government to save it, just like the towns in Vietnam in the 70s. His candidate for a brand new Department of Government Ethics, Elon Musk, says they have a ‘Mandate to Delete” cumbersome rules and regulations. Trump’s selections to head various arms of government this week also include RFK Jr. and Matt Gaetz . Next week, rumors are that Ex-Subway Sandwich Spokesman Jared Fogle will be nominated to Childcare Secretary, and the Hamburgler will be nominated to head the Commerce Department. Meanwhile VP Harris could be polishing up her resume to get some speaking gigs at Cantor Fitzgerald and the Carlyle Group once she leaves office. Oops, sorry, that was Obama’s reported move in 2017 when he left the White House.
In New York, the weather has been so dry that we have been warned about more fires like the one in Prospect Park recently. Up along the Hudson River, the fall foliage is still putting on a show, though many leaves have turned brown due to the lack of rain. Meanwhile, if you venture north for a weekend escape, don’t miss the career retrospective of Brooklyn artist Deborah Masters at the farm she shares with her husband, Geoff. The exhibit has been a popular destination this autumn, drawing hundreds of visitors on weekends who are eager to see her impressive outdoor works and many smaller sketches, drawing, and painting spanning 50 years. Masters’ large-scale figurative sculptures grace numerous parks and private collections. Still, she is perhaps best known for “Walking New York,” a monumental 350-foot-long relief in JFK Airport’s Terminal 4, which won the Municipal Arts Society Award for Best Public Art. The show, Deborah Masters: A Life in Art, is still on view, making it the perfect excuse for a scenic country drive.
The city feels like it is resting now between holidays, a rare 10 days or so when we are not absolutely overtaken by tourists clamoring for tickets to Broadway and entry into sexy burlesque entertainment clubs like The Slipper Room, Duane Park, and House of Yes. Sure, the ice skating in Bryant Park has begun and we know Thanksgiving is around the corner, but we just passed Veterans Day, Election Day, the World Series, Halloween, and the New York Marathon – and we’re all taking one big breath before the holiday vortex begins.
Naturally, Street Artists and graffiti writers are here to accompany us on the way, surprises in tow.
Here’s our weekly conversation with the street, this week featuring; Jason Naylor, Jappy Agoncillo, IMK, Deborah Masters, Dais, ScoJo, HOP Krew, Kenji Chai, Szel, The Girl with the Brushes, Skwerm, and Loose Tea.
“It’s the only time of the year when New York City smells good,” says your cranky Uncle Jaime about the flowers and blossoms everywhere as he stretches on the couch with his second cup of coffee and gazes out the window at the sky. Outside, there is a battle between the diverse vocal repertoires and mimicry of mockingbirds singing from branches, utility poles, and wires – and the little league fans squealing, exhorting, and shouting with joy from the bleachers every time a smartly uniformed child whacks a ball with the wooden bat and trundles up the path to first base.
We are constantly amazed by the new street art that is popping up in the boroughs – on construction fencing around empty lots, on doorways in industrial zones, on chain-link fences under bridges, on old telephone booths, lamp posts, crumbling brick facades, and the backs of street signs. With the New York spring, there are tulips popping up from the grassy patches everywhere – even those random 3-foot-long rectangles surrounded by concrete and piled with dog poop.
There are blooms on the trees – the Kwanzan and Yoshino cherry trees are in bloom at the Brooklyn and Bronx Botanical Gardens, in Central Park in Manhattan, in Flushing Meadows Park in Queens, in the New York Chinese Scholar’s Garden at Snug Harbor in Staten Island. Spring also brings us a new crop of fresh aerosol missives, wheat-pasted characters, stenciled witticisms, radical opinions, and secret yearnings. Together with the weathered and the worn street art from previous seasons, it’s an ongoing visual cacophony.
And now, here are images from our ongoing conversation with the street, this week, including: Captain Eyeliner, Tats Cru, Stikki Peaches, Eternal Possessions, Jappy Agoncillo, One Rad Latina, Tom Bob NYC, Travis, BBW.BUND.COP, Lunar YCP, NAY 381, and Kristian Boyum (visiting from Norway).
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Set your clocks forward an hour!
Guess you can’t bite a graffiti artist and expect to make bank – without getting bitten. This new Nekst campaign on the Manhattan streets appears to have Claudia Schiffer and Anna Nicole Smith putting their best face forward, aside from the streams of wrinkles caused by the wet wheat paste. Time is a cruel mistress, even as our nostalgic memories of the 90s are suddenly aflame when seeing these large-scale posters and images on the catwalk named New York.
This takes the fashion labels’ accused theft of Nekst’s tag to a new level – and back to the street, where the best fashion houses traditionally find creative inspiration. The deceased graffiti writer was bold in his command of high-profile spots, and his output was profligate, giving him a reputation that current writers still pay homage to a decade after his passing. With the fashion label Guess, Inc. publicly traded, one wonders if this restyling of their brand in a fashion capital will hit them in the ticker, especially when it appears they directly ripped their style from a self-made artist/vandal and took it to the cash register.
This act highlights the ongoing debate about the street’s raw, authentic creativity and the fashion industry’s appropriation tactics. The situation questions the consequences for a major brand like Guess, primarily when the originality in question stems from the underground art world.
As Daniel Cassady from ARTNEWS and Deborah Belgum from WWD illuminate, the recent uproar in the street art/graffiti community is not merely about the misuse of street credibility but a deeper infringement on street artists’ intellectual and cultural property. Cassady discusses the blatant replication of Nekst’s signature by Guess, bringing to the forefront the fashion industry’s recurrent pilferage from street art’s raw, unfiltered energy without due homage or consent. Meanwhile, Belgum adds a familial and emotional layer, highlighting the distress caused to Nekst’s family by the unauthorized commercialization of his legacy, an act they describe as “horrifying.”
In a city where the lines of art, fashion, and identity blur, these incidents prompt us to question the ethics of inspiration versus theft. As we showcase these charged visuals, we invite our readers to ponder the fine line between tribute and exploitation in the ever-evolving narrative of street art. This is not merely about images on a wall or polished cotton; it’s a testament to the indelible impact of artists like Nekst on the fabric of urban culture and the complexities of their posthumous relationships with the commercial world.
New Yorkers are having a grand celebration this weekend as the Year of the Dragon begins, and traditional lion and dragon dances wend their way through Chinatowns in Manhattan and Queens. You’ll be seeing lots of red, hopefully getting some money in red envelopes (hongbao), and eating dumplings (symbolizing wealth), fish (representing surplus and abundance), and sticky rice cakes. To all our neighbors celebrating, “恭喜发财” (Gōngxǐ fācái), which means “Wishing you wealth and prosperity.”
Later this week, we’ll all profess love for one another on Valentine’s Day. Looks like red is the color for New York this week.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Homesick, Toxicomano, ERRE, CP Won, Qzar, Hektad, Jappy Agoncillo, ToastOro, Senk, Stesi, CASH RFC Crew, OSK OSK, NAY, and Kosuke James.
How are feeling? Did you have a good Thanksgiving day, and did you see the crowds and balloons and marching bands along the parade route and the still intact orange and yellow leaves on the trees on Central Park West? Did you see Dolly Parton dressed as a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader singing at the halftime game, and did you see your girl Ava from up the block with her vintage vest and platform boots when grandma sent you out for a can of whipped cream for the pumpkin pies?
“Have you kept pace with the latest revelation in the art world? A remarkable BBC interview with Banksy, dating back two decades, has recently surfaced, sparking renewed excitement. These are indeed vibrant times for art enthusiasts and creators alike. Take, for instance, the Brooklyn Museum’s current showcase. It features an engaging Spike Lee exhibition alongside the innovative ‘Copy Machine Manifesto.’ This zine exhibition is a deep dive into five or six decades of subcultural and counter-cultural movements. It highlights a diverse range of self-published works, including gossip magazines, graffiti newspapers (a nod to David Schmidlapp and Phase 2), and expressions from queercore to hardcore. The exhibit is an eclectic mix of self-aware conceptual art, original fashion, explorations of sexual desire and confusion, comix, handmade collage, and expressions of nihilism, ennui, satire, humor, and lamentation. It’s a vivid reflection of art and expression – and inspirational to any artist who wants to have a voice.
We’re going back for a second helping.
Here is our weekly interview with the street: this week featuring Stikman, Cosbe, Below Key, No Sleep, Huetek, Optimo NYC, Jay Shells, Tatyana Fazlalizadeh, OH!, Muebon, Humble, Jappy Agoncillo, Jeff Roseking, Hu, Manual Alejando, Deter, Jason Shelowitz, and KIR.
G. James Daichendt. Robbie Conal: Streetwise: 35 Years of Politically Charged Guerrilla Art. Schiffer, 2020. Reprinted from the original review. …Read More »
A vast aquatic landscape painted on the pavement becomes a collective artwork and an open-air playground.Artistic direction by Andrea Conte …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
