Results tagged “michaeldefeo”

We stopped by 11 Spring yesterday for a quick visit. Lines around the block, but everyone was polite and things seemed to be moving pretty fast. If you come on Saturday, please try to be patient-- and if you're in a hurry, get there early! The doors open at 11am.

It's been a couple of months since we found out that the mysterious building at 11 Spring Street would be converted into condos. Graffiti fans around the world instantly went into mourning, as the walls of 11 Spring have long been considered one of the finest streetart galleries in the United States, and redevelopment indicated that they'd soon be erased. But not so fast! Wooster Collective seems to be sponsoring a new project at the building, and if the shots of the interior are any indication, they've got the cooperation of the new owners:

Annulla from Blather from Brooklyn asked us if we knew anything about this alphabet painted on a construction fence in Tribeca. We have no clue, but we love how the alphabet goes from basic to downright quirky. Do you know who did this and why?

Even though construction has been quietly progressing for the last month, today was the official groundbreaking for the High Line Park. Just about every local politician was there to make a little speech about the revitalization of the area, including Senators Clinton and Schumer, Mayor Bloomberg, and City Council Speaker Quinn. A requisite smatter of celebrities also showed up-- Barry Diller and his wife Diane Von Furstenberg, Kevin Bacon, and Ed Norton all stood on the dais during the speeches. Everyone was wearing green commemorative hard hats with the Michael Defeo flower on the front. The big moment was a ceremonial "rail lifting"-- although to tell the truth, the machine seemed to be doing most of the work while the politicos stood around for the cameras.

New York magazine has a chest-thumpingly sweet ode to New York, listing 124 Reasons to Love New York City; it remind Gothamist of how we react when people ask us why we live here - our eyes go glassy, we focus on a point in the distance, we develop a lump in our throat, as we do not understand why people would even question our living here - and then you can't shut us up for the next forty-five minutes ("The subways! The diversity! The food! The culture! The guy who fixes my shoes so they look new every single time!"). Anyway, while we question some of the reasons (there's a quote from Goldie Hawn - please, get a quote from a year-round New Yorker!), we do love that one of Michael DeFeo's flowers - and DeFeo himself - grace the cover and are reason #124 to love New York. PS - his book, Alphabet City, is a great gift idea for both kids and adults.

The Daily News has facts and figures from the NYPD's "war against graffiti". There's been a 93% jump in graffiti busts versus last year; might it be because police coordinators received digital cameras to document new tags? And did you know there's a computer program called "Graffitistat," much like Compstat which records major crimes? There's a quote from City Councilman Peter Vallone, the biggest graffiti hater in City Hall (this side of Mayor Bloomberg), and most of the apprehended seem to be young. One professional graffiti artist, Ki Soung, tells the Daily News, "They don't know how to get permission and they don't care. They do it overnight and they disappear. It's not right."

If you're a fan of street art, tonight's discussion at McNally Robinson (50 Prince St) in Soho might be of interest. Moderated by the husband and wife team behind the Wooster Collective, the online resource for street art around the world, The City as Collaborator: Documenting Contemporary Art on the Street panel will focus on how street art has grown and contributed to the city.

Look at Michael DeFeo's own site. And Bluejake's moblog is mainly about street art.

I'm in an alternative art collective sort of mood today. FAILE has a cool Flash site- their stencil and poster art feels like stuff I did with Amol back in 1997. RetardRiot also has a pretty cool site and does a lot of urban art projects... both studios are at the Big Group Show with Honest in DUMBO later this month... I also like some of the print work at ESM... my favorite underground art collective is still rtmark, which perpetrates an amazing array of anti-corporate performance and political art. Similar stuff can be found at stuffit and politicalgraphics... Thinking about this makes me want to look at some good stencil art: Berlin Stencils... Michael De Feo's graffiti flowers... Berlin Bananas... latin stencils... cleansurface... stencil graffiti archives... and last but never least, Obey Giant.