Welcome to BSA’s Images of the Week – our selection of art on the streets that collectively document the evolution of the scene from our perspective.
It’s a rainy Memorial Day weekend in New York and many picnics, war memorial events, camping trips, hikes in the Catskills, shares on Long Island, and strolls to the park are impacted, with the dreary cold weather canceling many plans. We start our collection of photos by Jaime Rojo with a series of heroes and villains on the street – if only real life decoded the world so simply. Commemorations on Memorial Day often present a narrowed definition of loss – focusing primarily on people who fought wars in the military in defense of liberty, god, country, laudable ideals, or a mix of these. We also think of the so-called civilians who get killed during war, including those who are defenseless.
Here is our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring: Anna Frants, DARA, EXR, Frankie Botz, Fumero, Georgi Collagi, H Kubed, Ian Cinco, INFOE, Iris Van Harpen, Jeff Beler, Joseph Iroshi, Kams S Art, Katya Goltseva, Laser Cats, Lenna Art, Loretoh, Man in the Box, Manuel Alejandro, Nandos Art, Natural Eyes, Pressto, Sebastion Campnario, Trades Only Bro, and Zimer NYC.
Great to see everyone last night at the Museum of Graffiti for the book launch of Mana Public Arts. Somehow, the guest list ballooned, and suddenly, we needed half a football field to fit everyone in. Right next door, the Hip Hop 50 museum had a breaking (break-dancing) expo, and the museum was broadcasting a live podcast in their glass booth for passersby to watch, and @0h10mike was walking through the museum doing one-line portraits so the streets on the periphery were very crowded. The energy at Art Basel this year waxes and wanes; rather excited, subdued, and tense, perhaps because everyone is talking about the wars, the economy, plastic surgery, the soulless co-branding of the grassroots graffiti/street art movement, the persistence of the man bun, and the political polarization that grips the country and much of the world. Nonetheless, the wide variety of artists and artworks on the street in Miami is still exceptional, the party scene at night is still pumping, and Martha still loves her margaritas.
Here is our weekly interview with the street – a collection from New York, LA, and a little Miami- more Miami to follow: this week featuring Homesick, HOACS, Eternal Possessions, Such, Stanley Donwood, XSM, Tom Boy NYC, Trades only Bro, Slasher, Skeam, Kanos, Vokles, Tinta Rosa, Michael Relave, Las Chicas Que Pintan, and Indo 093.
Happy Easter to all the Christians! Happy end of Passover to the Jews! – and welcome to a new spring of spiking daffodiles and spiking Covid cases in New York City even while the age for vaccinations drops to 16 this week. The graffiti and Street Art is blossoming under bridges and in empty lots, as are the much needed $1400 checks and PPP loans are blossoming as well. They are meant to keep us all barely above water, which is where many New Yorkers are financially.
Maybe the trillions that Biden and Yellen and the banksters are suddenly printing will lift us, or maybe instead they’ll just trigger hyperinflation so your savings will be worth ever less? Perhaps we could require corporations and the rich to pay their fair share of taxes – or any at all? Secular heresy to suggest such a thing!
Ahhhh, but the streets! They are still alive and well, and budding with small hand-made one-off pieces, multiples, and murals. Not quite a renaissance, but we are seeing a sincere march forward by all many of artistry in the shadows and in the broad daylight, even as Rome appears to languish.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: Bastard Bot, Billy Barnacles, Captain Eyeliner, Cucker Tarlson, Jesse Kreuzer, Kiki the Fox, Lunge Box, Mort Art, Nicholai Kahn, Nite Owl, NY State of Mind, Praxis VGZ, Puke Punk, SacSix, Trades Only Bro, and Urban Russian Doll NYC.
For decades, graffiti, street art, and contemporary art have spoken with one another, exchanging ideas, aesthetics, techniques, and attitudes along …Read More »
Italian graffiti and conceptual artist Elfo, whose cryptic unpainterly interventions often employ language, irony, appropriation, and deliberately rudimentary aesthetics to …Read More »
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