Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! New York’s streets are in overdrive—diplomats and protesters jostle around the UN, teens climb a tree outside a storefront to chase FakeMink’s latest haircut on the Bowery, fans mob Cardi B as she perches on an SUV outside a deli in the Bronx, throngs pour through the 99th San Gennaro Festival in Little Italy, and a sudden storm of black-windowed SUVs swarms with cameras at the Soho Grand—just as a double-decker tour bus lumbers onto the block, because of course it does. You skip the spectacle, grab a sour pickle from the Pickle Guys on Grand Street, and pedal home on your e-bike to the cat.
Re: the latest sniper shooting in the US that tears hearts and inflames passions; Fox News says, ‘America is divided and headed for civil war.’ What they should admit is, ‘We’ve spent 25 years programming division—and now we’re congratulating ourselves for the results. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.’
The sun is warm and bright, like that fateful New York day 24 years ago. It’s a shame that a generation of New Yorkers has grown up since then, and there is more war than ever.
At least we still have bodegas open at 3 a.m., subway preachers who bark and yelp, and the Mets breaking our hearts! Aaron Judge and the Yankees are still keeping the World Series on the perennial wish-list.
Oh yes, and Anna Wintour is leaving Vogue. For some, that will feel like the end of an era. Others will ask, “Anna who?”
On our weekly interview with the street, we feature new stuff from De Grupo, Divock Okoth Origi, Eternal Possessions, Faile, Fumero, ICU463, IMK, Neko, Ollin, Turtle Caps, and ZamArt.
Spring is in full swing, and so are the artists. We’re expecting a few international names to pass through New York this week, including Saype, who’s creating something extraordinary at the UN.
It’s also New York Art Week — a citywide celebration of contemporary art that brings together fairs, gallery openings, and museum shows across all five boroughs. Among the marquee events are Frieze New York at The Shed, Independent at Spring Studios, and NADA at the Starrett-Lehigh Building.
In fact, this week New York hosts Frieze New York, Independent Art Fair, The Other Art Fair Brooklyn, NADA New York, TEFAF New York, SPRING/BREAK Art Show, Future Fair, 1-54 Contemporary African Art Fair, The American Art Fair, and Clio Art Fair.
With so much happening against the backdrop of a turbulent political and economic climate, we’ll be keeping our eyes open for artists and artworks that speak with clarity, urgency, and heart.
So here’s some of this week’s visual conversation from the street, including works from City Kitty, Degrupo, Qzar, Ollin, Stu, Smile, Erotica, Son, H Kubed, VEW X, The Splasher, Never Satisfied, Salem, 1992 Crew, Brady Scott, Chris Bohlin, Frozen Feathers, and Monk.
“People have the Power” from musician and poet Patti Smith.
“Where there were deserts I saw fountains like cream the waters rise and we strolled there together with none to laugh or criticize and the leopard and the lamb lay together truly bound I was hoping in my hoping to recall what I had found I was dreaming in my dreaming God knows a purer view as I surrender to my sleeping I commit my dream to you
The people have the power The people have the power The people have the power The people have the power”
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. Congratulations to our Muslim neighbors in NYC on the occasion of Eid al-Fitr, and we wish them peace, joy, and blessings as they mark the end of Ramadan.
The popping rumble of customized mufflers is back on the streets, a rite of spring as familiar as purple crocuses and snowdrops pushing through browned grass, old 40 bottles, crumpled chip bags, and cigarette butts. The warming weather softens the ground and lets loose the mingled scents of hydrangea and dog pee. And once again, Saturday night Romeos are rolling down their windows, cruising slow, and blasting tracks like Jack Harlow and Doja Cat’s new banger “Just Us”—hoping someone’s paying attention.
On the street art tip, you’ll see Faile has come back with some of their new and old icons remixed, Trump and Elon are widely critiqued in caricature, and vertical graffiti is the new horizontal.
We continue with our interviews with the street, this week including Faile, John Ahearn, CRKSHNK, Modomatic, Qzar, EXR, Ollin, Sto, REW X, Want Pear, Batola, Ooh Baby, Thug Life, and Jayo.
Where is the mafia news? Have you noticed how there is no news anymore about the mafia in the US? No sting operations, uncovered networks, perp walks, or wagging tongues? The New York tabloids used to go for days about Don this and Don that, accompanied by blurry surveillance photos in black and white. Did the mafia disappear? All our companies and industries and institutions are relatively free of corruption now, right?
Now our gripping concerns across the country are wokeism, racism, transphobia, ableism, ageism, pronouns, immigrants on the border, the government itself, abortion, and gun control. There are two teams, two sides; One is patently evil, and the other clearly is virtuous. Patriot vs Terrorist. Your solemn, weighty decision is to pick which team you are on and to join in the great debate as we head into election season, evidence of our thriving democracy! Go Team Good!
This week we wander through the seemingly emptier streets of Manhattan’s Lower East Side, The Village, and Soho to discover what street artists are bringing to their audience with earnest amor de primavera. The results are bracing, racing, effete, mysterious, hip hop, heady, graphic, and subversive: even as the flowering trees and ground vegetation is abloom, and the April rains have been prodigious.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Praxis, CRKSHNK, VOZ, Lexi Bella, Pear, Zexor, CP Won, Ollin, Phetus88, Eternal Possessions, Humble, Font147, and Whatifier.
Some kind of big game today we guess. Happens every year about this time – the streets will be empty this afternoon as people will be inside their homes, gathered around their screens, eating buffalo wings, pigs-in-a-blanket and tater tots with family and friends. Happy World Series everybody!
New York street art is heavy with pop icons, pop psychology, and popular culture in this week’s collection.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: SacSix, Sara Lynne Leo, Degrupo, Eye Sticker, Stickman, Ollin, Jorit, Steve the Bum, and Kir One.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Happy Lunar New Year 2023! Year of the Rabbit.
新年快乐!
Collabos, crew tributes, nationalist heroes, laborious illustrators, truck pieces, raised reliefs, refined extinguisher tags, absurdist collages, and a range of evolving letter styles, New York is a juggernaut of graffiti and street art every week. It’s an embarrassment of riches from a wide variety of creative talents on our streets, and we’re thankful to catch just a part of it and share it here with you.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: City Kitty, Chris RWK, Smells, Rambo, BK Foxx, Gane, Trace, Ollin, Rold, BK Ackler, HOPS, GULA SOR, Clepto, Hof Crew, 2 Mycg Gane, Zas, BAG HAS, Faile, JG Toonation, Drones, Nails, and Sanije.
A splendid selection this week of very entertaining pieces across the city. As we enter December, you can see that graffiti and street artists are going full-steam ahead into the new year – with personal, political, philosophical, and even romantic sentiments.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Faile, SRKSHNK, Modomatic, Sara Lynne-Leo, Molly Crabaple, Cope, Riisa Boogie, Ollin, Short, Rezones, Asker Uno, Danielle BKNYC, McManiphes, Kojo Hilton, Rad Bio, Duster, My Name is Annie, and The Jolly.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Winston Tseng, Mike Makatron, Maker, MFK, Ollin, Slue, KEZ5, Big Ash, D30, 2Much, and Sekt.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! It’s Fall Y’all !
If you know us, it’s a Mexico-Brooklyn fusion. Just one of the endless combinations you discover when you truly explore New York, where we speak 700 languages and dialects.
It is no surprise that graffiti, its style and aesthetic, spanned many of the world’s cities and cultures over five decades – as does street art today. You’ll see similarities this week between pieces we just caught in Chihuahua, in the north of Mexico, and NYC, in the North of the USA. The styles recognize history, but there is definitely a youthful vibe out there and here.
Shout out to the Brooklyn (now LIC) street art duo Faile for opening Deluxx Fluxx in the underground of Manhattan’s Webster Hall this week. Thursday night’s opening was full of fans, admirers, friends, and collectors – with Patrick Miller walking the line outside on the sidewalk to greet patient guests who were waiting to get in. Wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling Faile, the new club is eye-popping with fluorescent image making and graphic design in the Faile vocabulary – and yes, there are new video games that are digital eye candy with a sense of irony and humor. Miller told us that the new version of their classic kiosks would hopefully also provide a platform to other artists – an open inclusive attitude that only comes from street artists who actually believe in community. With a stage for performances, a DJ HQ, smoke, and lasers – it is going to be an instant New York classic house to escape into.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Donut, Muck, Maze, Diez, Imok, Ollin, Griz, Tee, Derk, Bonk, Retos, Merck, and TCK.