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The Wooster Collective 11 Spring Street project finally opens its doors tomorrow. It'll be open from 11-5 from Friday to Sunday, on the corner of Elizabeth and Spring. We've been spending a lot of time inside the building over the last few weeks, and speaking frankly, it's probably the best collection of international streetart and graffiti you'll ever see in one place. So if that's your bag, definitely stop by. But don't take it from us-- the mainstream media has begun to descend. Today, the New York Times puts up its piece:
Now, after nearly two months of work by 45 artists, the show is almost ready. The building’s doors will be unlocked tomorrow for an open house that will continue through Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. each day. On Monday work will begin that will eventually seal most of the interior artwork behind pipes, wires and drywall.“In a way the art is all going to disappear, but it’s also going to be sealed up in this incredible time capsule,” said Mr. Schiller, walking through the building Tuesday afternoon as more than a dozen artists continued to work on their pieces in a haze of aerosol fumes and sawdust.
Several of the artists involved in the project are still little known outside the street art world, but others have become highly successful designers, marketers and gallery darlings. Many converged on short notice from around the world to create artwork, some flown in and housed at the developers’ expense.
Tomorrow we'll begin putting up some shots of the interior of the building-- we've been asked not to share them until the exhibit is open to the public. Until then, enjoy these tasty 11 Spring links:
Wooster on Spring-- How The Project Came Together
Streetsy 11 Spring Pictures
11 Spring Group on Flickr
GammaBlog's 11 Spring Street Video
Cheekz at Work at 11 Spring
Our Previous 11 Spring Posts
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Yawn.
street art = eyesore
Holy crap that thing's a damned eyesore.
"Yay! We can paint on walls! We're artists now!"
Anony said it best.
I think the problem with people who idolize street artists (a/k/a vandals) is that they - by and large - don't actually own any property. So it is "cool" when someone else's property is "tagged." Wow, "Art!"
When these "kids" grow up and finally own a condo, brownstone, or business... we will see if they still appreciate someone signing their initials on the side of it..
i think its beautiful, and i can't wait to see it!
Wow that giant white smiley face is such amazing art.
That Honda appears to "change colors." Cool. Someone should clean up that wall.
no way the new owners are able to keep those walls untagged once they clean it up. i dont see it happening. they are fooling themselves if they think so.. it's too inviting a target.
I read a article about guys on the grafitti task force:
They came upon some vandals working at night in the Bronx and did not disturb them. This occurred for several nights as the vandals were working on a large surface. When the vandals were finally done, they arrested them and then, while they were watching, painted over their art. Apparantly, the vandals cried.
If I owned this building I would paint over any new graffiti every day.
Right on Stewart! You sound like a badass to me.
You know, so many of these comments are a reminder of the number of arrogant jackasses who read the gothamist.
Re:
-Yawn.
-street art = eyesore
-I think the problem with people who idolize street artists (a/k/a vandals) is that they - by and large - don't actually own any property. So it is "cool" when someone else's property is "tagged." Wow, "Art!"
When these "kids" grow up and finally own a condo, brownstone, or business... we will see if they still appreciate someone signing their initials on the side of it..
I rarely read the comments, but when I do, I am usually pretty shocked at how close-minded, spoiled and "hip" (but with nothing real to offer) some of these readers are.
And Michael, most people in this city will never be able to afford a brownstone or a condo, esp artists. Way to be so out of touch!
ellen = irrelevant
she sounds poor and boring too
I wonder if they would think that crap would look good on the side of their parents house.
Can i please go to their homes and write my name on their walls? Surely they wouldn't mind, being that I too am an "artist".
This is cool and all...but why so much coverage about this building.
Because it's about graffiti and Gothamist has a hard-on for everything spray painted*
*everything = everyone else's stuff (buildings, etc)
Hey Ellen...
Post your address so we can all come and create art on your walls. I'm sure you won't mind, seeing as you love this garbage so much.
vinny and otomboy.... lol you two herbs don't have the stones to go out and tag someone's property, so stop fronting.
and i doubt you couldn deal with risking your life or freedom for something that has no material benefit.
and to everyone else. graff has existed in some form from the caves of france to the walls of the bronx. it is a primal human emotion, and because of that it will never be stopped.
your arguements are empty and many are said with a great deal of ignorance, but hey what else is new. the same people who talk tough would get they ass smacked down if they tried to step to a writer in the streets.
hey fartbomb,
my dog has a primal emotion when he smells a girl dog in heat; beings that act at the whim of their emotions are generally described as animals
sorry, guess we're all too too civilized and highly evolved to appreciate grafitti
here's hoping your knuckle dragging makes you gradually unable to use a can of spray paint
wait - do you even have opposable thumbs?
i think this thing looks absolutely fantastic, and all of your sneering, backhanded nasty comments really just drive home the fact that the full blown mall-ification of manhattan is well underway.
f*artbombeverything:
Sure thing dude. You're real brave. Maybe if you picked up a book instead of a spray can you'd write like something other than a 4 year old.
Trevor, I'm sure you'll be sharing your home address so we can come "beautify" your property.
So far no one would dare. Trevor and Ellen are so typical of the Graffiti loving dirtbags in this city. "We love it we love it we love it!" then they go home to their downtown Brooklyn or Park Slope apartment where if there's so much as a garbage bag on the street, they cry.
Hypocrites, the lot of you.
vinny-
your comments are indicative of the general ignorance plaguing this thread. i have a college degree from nyu and graduated an honor scholar... so really being highly evolved has nothing to do with it. but you sit there with your smug wisecracks and think that you've said something meritorious....
my point was that graf has been around as long as humans have. it is an extension of our need to communicate our experience. graff has become a huge cultural force, inflitrating all aspects of our media culture (commerce, art, politics, community) and if you think you can toss of a few funny lines degrading it and its importance, then your just trippin. cuz you can't stop it. it's impossible to stop, because it has never stopped. from cave art to the political graff that appeared all over rome to now... graff is here to stay.
and all you got it talk, son.... no history, no intellectual discourse.
speaking of addresses, post yours tough guy... hmm that's what i thought. lame rhetorical postering. yeah, let's post our address on the internet for any psycho on the planet to see. your a f*ing moron. lol
i challenge you to evolve and actually put down a coherent arguement that adresses specific points on a complex issue, but i doubt you have the mental faculties for such a task.
if any of your ignorant stoneheads bother to take a sec to look at the street arts here, you'd realize they'd fit perfectly in place in any modern museum. they are not just tags scrawled with permanent markers, not random gang tags. These "garbage" aren't spray-painted. They are filled with subliminal and political messages. These are done by creative artists from around the world. They did not come here for the money. They come here to send to the world messages that are told through their art.
All you trash talker don't even have the creativity and open-mindedness to accept them as art, so who's more evolved, you or me.
Vinny, or Mr. Stereotypical, Obese, and Mind Numbingly Boring: I'm glad you call your blog insignificant thoughts, because that's what they are. You sound like your brain is as clogged up as your arteries, and your walls are painted green. How can you be complaining about graffiti when you are surrounded by phlegm-colored walls everyday? Just keep your mouth shut, read your dilbert, ask god to forgive you for calling people dirtbags, and drink your slim-fast.
next time I go on the train and I see a faggot with a Canon SD800, I'll think "holy crap that's a damn eyesore."
Damn that's ugly.
Remember, they got borf and they'll get you too.
This event is incredible and unpresedented. To complain about it being an "eyesore" is to expose yourself as ignorant, close-minded, and unable to appreciate anything as art if it wasn't covered in your freshman year art-history seminar.
I think we should all appreciate work such as this, that reminds everyone of the freedom of expression that once made NYC a vibrant and important place for artists and visionaries, and is sadly lacking today.
WE'RE THE FUTURE
WE DO WHAT WE WANT
YOU HAD YOUR TIME
NOW IT S OURS