Welcome to BSA Images of the Week. We’re happy to see you.
Labor Day Weekend in New York—traditionally the last exhale of summer before school begins, the Art World and the art world start throwing open their doors, and the “important” fall movies, plays, and exhibitions begin arriving on cue.
This year, though, there’s another frequency running underneath it all. Markets shudder, political alliances rearrange themselves, wars grind on, corruption becomes ordinary, rights are being trampled, and the vibrations travel all the way down to the sidewalk. The stories you hear on the street can be alarming. Everyone, it seems, is waiting for something to give—for some kind of collapse, correction, rupture, reckoning.
Street art may or may not reflect any of this. But it catches the refractions: images and messages bouncing through the blinking, flickering, blinding light of a city trying to see what comes next.
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Camaleon, IMK, OG King 157, REVS, Sever She Posse, Stikman, Timothy Goodman, Tom Bob, and Turtle Caps.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week – and the end of the summer is closing in on us, as we linger here on this spot for one hour more. Street Artist TV BOY is in town and has done some personal tributes to iconic figures familiar to street art, with the exception of the inclusion of the current New York Mayor, Zohran Mamdani, whose image does not show up as often as you may think. The beaches on Coney Island are still packed, the frisbees are still flying in Prospect Park, and dogs are still off the leash everywhere, because why not. The skirts are skimpy and the tennis bods are buff at the US Open in Queens this week – which you can follow up with a big bowl at Yunnan Rice Noodle House – open 24 hours, yo!
Allen Ginsberg fans can celebrate all week with Allen Ginsberg at 100, featuring a Thomas Bartlett-curated program at Little Island with Rufus Wainwright on Sept. 2, Bill Frisell on Sept. 3, Taylor Mac on Sept. 5, and Marc Ribot on Sept. 6, with Laurie Anderson appearing on several nights throughout the run — a fitting occasion to remember Ginsberg’s enduring invocation: “Holy! Holy! Holy!”
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 4EZZKA, Bulldog, IMK, JMB, NACE, Peter Paid, Question Marks, Sara Lynne Leo, Skegs, Turtle Caps, and TV Boy.
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Love you to the moon, June!
In New York yesterday, gamers marked the launch of the city’s first annual Video Game Festival, where esports battles, indie demos, and retro arcades spilled into real life like the final boss stage. With its mashup of pixel nostalgia and future-forward tech, the festival echoed the spirit of underground subcultures — not unlike street art — where DIY worlds are built, rules are rewritten, and creativity levels up with every move.
You may prefer experiences in the actual physical world, so Bushwick Collective had a flood of in-person opportunities for visitors to their 14th block party this weekend. Thousands of people from around the city and many parts of the world were there to see hundreds of murals, live artists painting, and a showcase of rapping firebrands of the underground scene – ending with a performance by hip-hop architect Rakim, who was, of course, paid in full.
At BEYOND THE STREETS, curator and publisher Roger Gastman sat down with graffiti artist RIME for an intimate conversation and book signing highlighting RIME’s raw, unfiltered sketchbook—a personal and psychedelic blend of graffiti, visual journaling, and spiritual reflection created entirely in pen during his travels across the U.S.
And here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring Below Key, Blanco, Bisser, Danilo Parrales, Detor, Gouch NKC, Gregos, Kosuke James, MSG Crew, Nite Owl, Nito, Skewville, Tom Bob, Turtle Caps, Zero Productivity, Zoot, and ZUI.
Back home in NYC, there’s a heavier police presence—more beat cops on the sidewalks, more boots on subway platforms, or at least it feels that way. Some say it’s about safety; others say it’s panic. And let’s be real: it often appears that this city still has no idea what to do with our mentally ill neighbors except push them outside and act shocked when they behave like they’re… mentally ill.
But hope blooms in strange places. Like the number 1 train, where Miguel “Mike Plants” Andrade—aka The Plant Man—has been selling succulents and orchids to passengers, leading us to; A. We’ve always liked the word ‘succulent’ and are happy to use it in a sentence, and B. Mr. Andrade proves that one human doing their thing with a heart can shift the whole mood, reframe your current situation.
And in street art and graffiti? The walls are still talking—shouting, whispering, reflecting us back at ourselves with a sometimes banal, sometimes beguiling presentation. If the overall message feels messy, it’s because the world is messy. But often there’s clarity in the chaos if you squint at it in the right manner.
We continue with our interviews with the street, this week including Faile, Judith Supine, City Kitty, Lexi Bella, Werds, Turtle Caps, Zoot, Corn Queen, Klonism, Zero Productivity, Muska, Nice, Badlucao, LYFR, and Barb Tropolis.
Spring officially arrived this week, along with torrential rains and sometimes flooding. Happy Nowruz to all our Persian friends, and Happy Purim to the youngsters in costumes going to parties this weekend. The city’s walls reflect a new blossoming of talents joining with those more established in the visual arts, a usual mismatch of styles, coded messages, and obvious imagery. If you love New York, it is with the ongoing expectation of eclecticism mixed with the expected, and as it pertains to graffiti and street art, its a crowded party of all sorts of guests all speaking at once, each hoping to be heard in the din.
And now, here are images from our ongoing conversation with the street, this week, including: Turtle Caps, She Posse, Kosuke James, IAC, Ratrockster, Solo, Merg, Erat, SenOne Original, COSA.V, and Sen1.
Last week we brought you the first annual Jersey City Mural Festival with generously scaled murals and unbridled color. Muralism isn’t new but mural festivals are now a dominant vehicle or platform of expression on the streets where artists get up and create community. We have always championed the cause of the artist and cheer when they are given the opportunity to work – better even if they get properly paid for the work that they do.
That said, we still admire the small, uncommissioned, one-off pieces, and we’ve always documented that in whatever city we go to: In a way, that is what we actually consider to be street art. Unsanctioned and undercover, you’ll discover the most curious missives as you hike from mural to mural. Don’t miss them! Enjoy.
Here’s our weekly interview with the street, this week featuring 7 Souls Deep, Adrian Wilson, Below Key, Drecks, Early Riser NYC, Ghaston Art, Hiss, Lunge Box, Miyok, Modomatic, Mort Art, Night Owl, Outer Source, Timothy Goodman, Tyler Ives, and Turtle Caps.
This week we received a note from a friend in the graff/street art community urging us to encourage street and graffiti artists to create artwork on the streets that beseeches GenZ to get the Covid-19 vaccine.
They needn’t worry.
Graffiti and street artists have continued to respond to the COVID mask and vaccine issues as much as they did with the rejection of Trump and everything that came with him. During the last few years, they also have strongly responded to the BLM movement, to the topic of police brutality, to structural inequality in our economy, to last fall’s election, to indigenous people’s rights, to Asian hate, LGBTQ rights, to drug use, to anxiety, to depression, to love, to hope, to our effect on the Earth’s environment, and many social/political issues. Not always high-minded, Street artists also like pop culture icons, cute animals, and emulating successful artists who came before them and whom they admire.
It’s all part of the gig.
When we hit the streets in the pursuit of arts, we never know what we’ll find and where we’ll find it. This week we were surprised by a certain uptick in the number of sculptures on the streets. The artists used different materials, from ceramic to resin, metal, cement, and techniques associated with papier-mâché. The sculptures were mostly affixed to traffic signposts but sometimes were placed on street construction barriers. We are always happy to see sculptures on the streets as they bring back the days when sanctioned murals were definitely not the norm, and illegal street art ruled the streets in myriad small formats.
So here’s our weekly interview with the street, this time featuring: A Cool 55, AJ Maldo, Billy Barnacles, Chris Protas, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, JJ Veronis, Mataruda, Miyok Madness, Mint & Serf, Mort Art, Mr. Triple Double, Patrick Picou Harrington, Phetus, Raddington Falls, Sibot, Spy33, Turtle Caps, Winston Tseng.
Feeling dizzy? Not much to worry about should be a slow week coming up.
Here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week including Billy Barnacles, Calicho Art, City Kitty, D7606, Fire Flower, GoInco, Lucky, Lunge Box, Phetus, Praxis, Ree Vilomar, Turtle Caps, Wayne, Zuliamiau.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Almost Over Keep Smiling, Billy Barnacles, Gianni Lee, City Kitty, CRKSHNK, Early Riser NYC, Seven Line Arts Studio, M*Code, Ori Carino, Sticker Maul, Turtle Caps, Urban Russian Doll NYC, and You Go Girl!
Mexico, Norway, Brooklyn – a typical week of BSA Images.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Abraham Chaco, BustArt, Cost, Curve, El Xupet Negre, Gee Whiskers, JMZ, JPS, Juce, Raf Urban, The Reading Ninja, and Turtle Caps.
Art was popping up like crokuses and animated robots all week here in NYC with a plethora of art fairs gathered under Armory Week, a number of fresh green gallery openings, and the welcome sign of perturbed perennials appearing on the street.
Although it is not surprising in any way any more, Street Artists are represented across all three of those options today, like Pixote, Swoon, and Ian Strange (Kid Zoom) at Spring/Break. Also John Matos, aka Crash One, and Lady Aiko in conversation with cultural critic and curator Carlo McCormick moderated by Harrison Tenzer of Sotheby’s at Scope. And you can’t forget the gallery openings of Buff Monster with Dalek, and the first solo show of Brendan Fagen (the artist formerly known as Judith Supine).
You try to see as much as possible, and of course a number of non-Street Art installations caught our eye like the top image of Fernando Orellana‘s animated “Robot Protest”, which you can participate in HERE, and see a video of at the end of this post. For the actual street we’ll mention some new art in ad places from Abe Lincoln Jr and Swiss Miss as a dominatrix in pink latex and Trump as the submissive on bus shelters.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets (and elsewhere), this week featuring Anna Kustera, Annette Bragasuma, Danielle Mastrion, Demsky, DrscO, Eric Mistretta, Fernando Orellana, Ian Strange, Jonathatn Rosen, Laura O’Reilly, Abe Lincoln Jr. LMNOPI, Megzany, Pixote, Praxis VGZ, Sarah Walkco, Screw Tape, Stick N Twisted, Stylist of the Lambs, Swiss Miss NYC, and Turtle Caps.
As the US commemorates Veterans Day this weekend, we lead this weeks BSA Images of the Week with Ms. Ono’s latest public art piece, a white banner flag flapping in New Yorks’ wild winds atop Creative Time’s headquarters. Part of a multi-city installation by ONO and Creative Time’s Pledges of Allegianceprogram, this flag and others like it will fly at museums and other educational/cultural institutions across the country.
Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring Ai WeiWei, Buff Monster, Curb Your Ego, Damien Mitchell, Disordered, Don John, Ghost Beard, KLOPS, Mina Hamada, Sac Six, Patch Whisky, Squid Shop, Turtle Caps, Vinz Feel Free, VY, Yoko Ono, and Zosen.
For decades, graffiti, street art, and contemporary art have spoken with one another, exchanging ideas, aesthetics, techniques, and attitudes along …Read More »
BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
