BROOKLYN STREET ART LOVES YOU MORE EVERY DAY
Welcome to BSA Images of the Week! Yes, the Trump war on Iran drags on, months after he declared victory. Unipolar has gone up in flames, and multipolar is the world reality when it comes to power, geopolitics, and solving problems, contributing to the news headlines feeling bi-polar from one day to the next.
Did you see the new graffiti-on-a-subway-car-themed Brooklyn lapel pin sported by Brooklyn Borough President Antonio Reynoso? 17-year-old born and raised Brooklynite Mellina Melezhik won the first-ever “Brooklyn Pin Design Competition”. Remember when political leaders upbraided and threatened teens for spray-painting the subway? Clearly, the lines between mural appreciation and illegal vandalism are unclear now.
We got down to the City of Brotherly Love this week to see the King and Queen of the Netherlands checking out a graffiti- and street art–inspired façade (more on that soon), and took the opportunity to photograph both the legal and illegal walls around Fishtown. This Philadelphia neighborhood is in the throes of gentrification, as street art and murals often arrive alongside the process—followed, as ever, by tech and hedge fund bros, designers, portfolio managers, and a steady wave of young, affluent transplants from New York and Boston looking for better real estate prices. Naturally, there is the violence of economic displacement of longtime resident families.
What we found was an amazing mix of styles and influences; this is a neighborhood where legacy graffiti culture, global street art aesthetics, and institutional muralism are all stacked on top of each other—sometimes in dialogue, sometimes in competition. Take a look below and decide who the winners are.
Artists and writers this week include 2DX, AESOP ONE. Angurria, Betsy Casana, Calor Rosa, Celso Gonzalez, DanOne, Edgardo Miranda-Rodriguez, Invurt, Jason Turner, Jes Paints, Mike Hawthorne, Sabrina Cintron, Symone Salib, Two Sisters, Vanessa Vega, and Vurt.
