Results tagged “streetart”

The Cooper Square Hotel is draping itself in glamorously gritty graffiti. They've commissioned artists Joyce Pensato, Nick 1, Vizie and Shinique to deck the walls of an adjacent building it recently bought, according to the NY Post. Vizie told the paper, "The only real unifying theme is the colors, black and white," but his section is "a tribute to a friend who died over the summer."

The street artist Blu was commissioned to paint a mural on the Deitch Studios in Long Island City (44th drive at the water's edge)—and now he's got a timelapse video showing how he completed the work.

Take a gander at this new Specter piece that went up on Park Avenue in Bed-Stuy yesterday. Specter tells us that "its basically about the under appreciated workforce that runs the city anyone from some guy collecting bottles and cans to someone who works in a warehouse moving boxes. This series and my latest piece also touch on the idea of disappearing industrial spaces when you see the piece it will drive the concept home."

    

Toronto street artist Specter, who has been working out of Bed-Stuy for the past few months, has recently installed a three-sided mural in collaboration with the Department of Transportation and ISCP NYC. The mural illustrates "stories and memories from senior citizens in Flatbush Brooklyn," and you can find it at the corner of Ocean and Parkside, outside of the Parkside Avenue Station.

Today the Wooster Collective posted a few photos of Judith Supine way at the tippy top of the Williamsburg Bridge, hanging his piece titled: "Above the City in a Summer Night Dream." This one seemed like a much more dangerous project than previous pieces (for example the fifty-foot-tall piece he hung over the side of the very same bridge, and two years ago he lowered one off the Manhattan Bridge). Again, we challenge Supine to bring his next piece into the Gowanus Canal.

       

There's a new outdoor exhibition sitting pretty atop the Gawker HQ rooftop called MOM & POPism that you can go check out today. (In fact, it's only open today through 4 p.m., but if you miss out on this public viewing you can make an appointment throughout the month.) We headed to 210 Elizabeth Street yesterday to see the installation for ourselves; it's like a colorful old New York up there! The show was curated by Billi Kid and reinterprets James and Karla Murray's latest book, Store Front: The Disappearing Face of New York ("a breathtaking visual guide to New York City’s cultural heritage, with special emphasis on the historic streets and ethnic shops that have defined its many neighborhoods").

Earlier this month we noticed that the Conor Harrington piece at the corner of 13th and Washington was covered up by an illegal and unpermitted NPA advertising panel. Yesterday the Public Ad Campaign, who targeted the company's billboards during a takeover in April, uncovered the colorful piece of artwork and reclaimed the space... for now.

The Conor Harrington piece that's been up on the corner of 13th and Washington has been covered with a brand new NPA City Outdoor advertising frame and some sweet ads for Steely Dan, and major motion pictures District 9 and 2012. Street artists be warned: when you mess with The Man, you get The Dan!

The graffiti mecca of Queens is getting... buffed! liQcity has images of 5Pointz in LIC getting a fresh coat of yellow paint. The site says they are "merely getting a free canvas reset, as the owners of the building were required to repaint as part of the necessary renovations after the recent stairwell collapse." It was recently divulged that the artist studios housed inside will be vacated, following the stairway collapse earlier this year that injured one renter. But "5pointz will still exist on the exterior walls" and new pieces go up every night as artists try "to keep up with the yellow paint machines." An image of the very yellow front of the building is after the jump.

Say what you will about street art, or whatever this might be categorized under, but this should make even the most soulless grump in town crack a smile. Urban Prankster posted this image today, but it was actually taken at an unnamed NYC pizza joint back in January. Making us wonder why the Tom Hanks sticker movement hasn't taken over every trash can in the city by now.

It was just last week that the Keith Haring memorial mural was getting buffed on Houston Street. Soon after Os Gemeos showed up to begin work on their mural, which is replacing the old Haring one. So obviously the next step is for an attention-hungry tagger to come in and vandalize the work-in-progress. One blogger reports that, "Like the Haring mural before it, Os Gemos' Houston street piece has been 'souped-up' by the locals. Not sure if the Times will be able to spin this one into a feel good tale as with the Haring 'collaboration.'" While it shouldn't be too difficult to cover up, the tag reads: "Blog about it," which people are, so looks like it'll live on digitally. [via Animal]

So the Keith Haring tribute mural has been buffed, and currently the Brazilian street art duo (and twin brothers) Os Gemeos (real names Gustavo and Otavio Pandolfo) are creating their own mural in its place (Animal has photos of the work in progress).

The first FAILE wheel has been found! Someone posted a photo (more here) on the Brooklyn collective's message board stating they found it in a dumpster. Of course, this was followed up by asking the other posters how much it is worth and mentioning it may be landing on eBay soon. The thief seems to give himself away a few times, changing his story around and mentioning he would gladly issue a public apology if FAILE contacted him. Because, you know, people apologize for finding stuff all the time.

The last FAILE prayer wheel was stolen shortly after people discovered it, but today AnimalNY spotted a new one by the Brooklyn-based collective, again in Williamsburg. How long will this expensive piece of street art last? Perhaps a few more hours than the original, as it's on the more populated Bedford Avenue. For those who won't get to see it in person, here's a video that catches the spinning action.

Street artist Judith Supine installed this piece in Central Park yesterday, telling Wooster Collective, "I sank in the mud up to my waist." Two years ago a Supine creation briefly hung off the Manhattan Bridge over the East River. Perhaps a Superfund-themed Supine will visit the Gowanus?

              

Last night Magda Sayeg gathered up the knitting troops to bring these colorful knit "tags" to Brooklyn. 69 Meters is a public art installation commissioned by the Montague Street Business Improvement District and created by Knitta Please (the group which Sayeg is the founder). They've tagged everything from city buses to the Great Wall of China, so why not Brooklyn Heights? Let's hope the rain this morning didn't make the crafty pieces as soggy as that puppy did.

The De-Fence Project that recently added some flavor to the drab scaffolding lining Water Street in DUMBO has been taken down by state officials. It hadn't even been up for one week, and now the Brooklyn Paper reports that the Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation removed the artwork on Monday. John Jeffreys, who funded the project through Exhibitology Inc., told the paper, “I can’t say I’m surprised. We didn’t really get permission to do it. Their reaction is one they have to take, but a bit of an over-reaction, I think.” He also claims to have not asked permission because there wasn't enough time in order to get it up to coincide with the BKLYN Designs event in the neighborhood last weekend. Without permission, the wooden cutouts were viewed as vandalism. Rachel Gordon, regional director of state Parks, said, “Nobody ever called. We have lots and lots of art events, but you just have to ask for permission." And while locals may have loved the piece, Gordon also states that, "it was so unsafe."

The sun is out and shadows are popping up all over the city. Katie Sokoler, who often lends her photography skills to this very website, recently put together a fun project in the same vein as her thought bubbles. She explains that she cut out human forms from black paper "and taped them onto the walls and sidewalks all around Brooklyn. I then waited for people to walk by and took a picture at the exact moment they matched up with their silly shadow." Check out all of the secret shadows here.

Over this past weekend Jordan Seiler, who runs the Public Ad Campaign, organized a billboard takeover in New York. Artists and those who just wanted to help came together, many of them as strangers, to create something new where there were once illegal advertisements. Though many of those spots were reclaimed by ads the next day, the project was still successful on some scale. This week he told us about that day, and the overall goal for projects like these.

       

Over the weekend the Public Ad Campaign organized a massive takeover of some billboard space around Manhattan, where only one whitewashing team was arrested. While the new non-commercial public canvases looked vibrant throughout the day, by the next they were reclaimed by The Man. Luckily it was all well documented. You can check out further images at AnimalNY, Wooster Collective, cronicasbarbaras and Flickr.

     

Ellis G is a native New Yorker who may be best known for his shadow etchings with chalk. Also involved in other street projects, not too long ago he got into the less temporary and more dangerous game of fire tagging. He recently told us what else he has going on, and it certainly doesn't end at chalkdust and flames.

With the opening of the first section of the High Line park oh so achingly close (June, the say!), there's been an increasing flurry of activity up on the section between Gansevoort Street and 20th Street. We last checked in on the progress in December, and today comes word that workers have been "cleaning" the High Line of graffiti, or "destroying" long-lived street art, depending on your point of view.

Have you learned to love the hipster grifter story yet? If not, we encourage you to scroll up or down to read another post, and remind you that you're also entitled to a full refund on your subscription fee. Still here? Check it out: This photoshopped movie poster featuring Kari Ferrell was just spotted in Williamsburg, home to her target demographic. This may be good news for Hipster Grifter haters, however; FreeWilliamsburg astutely points out that now this has reached the street art medium, it's officially over... At least until the inevitable Grifster Handbook hits the Urban Outfitters discount book table.

The international (and Brooklyn-based) artist collective Faile piece has put up a new piece on North 6th Street in Williamsburg. The carved wooden post has a spinning top, and chances are someone will try to steal it before long—after all, similar pieces were going for $100,000 at a show last year in London.

Looks like Ellis Gallagher, aka Ellis G, has made a giant leap from the fairly safe medium of chalk art, to the highly dangerous looking medium of fire art! Nylon Mag received a photo of the flammable tagging in progress, and their tipster noted that it's "a new obsession" of the artist's. Allegedly "the idea is to paint a tag and light it quickly before it dries," and we'd imagine a goal is to not set oneself or one's surroundings on fire. And people, let's keep a close eye on Natalie Shea, this chalk art thing could be a gateway to arson.

Last night the former Vandal Squad cops met up at powerHouse Arena to face off with some of the former graffiti artists they busted back in the day. Did sparks and spraypaint cans fly? Not really. One attendee reports back, "As would be expected the cops stuck to their script (literally in the case of the author who clearly had the questions in advance and read his answers each time). According to the cops there, there have never been any incidents of police brutality against the graf artists, ever." Hmm, well that sounds...inaccurate.

This Thursday powerHouse Arena in DUMBO will play host to an event that is bringing together some former graffiti artists with the NYPD officers who busted them back in the day. In one corner, Joseph Rivera, author of Vandal Squad: Inside the New York City Transit Police Department, 1984-2004, which documents his time with the NYPD Vandal Squad. In the other corner, street artists who have a bone to pick with the former cop for "using their names and art to put money in his bank account."

Another Friday night, another arrest for a famous street artist as cops in Boston locked up Sherpard Fairey, the man who made a name for himself with "Andre the Giant OBEY" images nationwide and this year gained even greater notoriety for his Obama HOPE posters that quickly took on an iconic status throughout the presidential campaign. Fairey was arrested before an ICA Museum event where he was set to DJ in celebration of the opening of his exhibit there. The charges stemmed from graffiti around town connected to the OBEY campaign from years ago. The warrant was issued two weeks ago, yet police seem to have allowed Fairey to make a public appearance with Boston Mayor Thomas Mennino to promote his opening. Fairey says the arrest is his 15th nationwide. Museum patrons at the event told the Boston Globe they only held the artist on a higher pedestal now saying "it shows he has integrity" and "he's even more of a hero to me now."

Following Poster Boy's arrest over the weekend, The NY Post sheds some more light on how things went down. First off, they identified the street artist as 27-year-old Henry Matyjewicz, and go on to report that he "was busted after an undercover officer overheard him bragging to a girl about his exploits at a party." That's so 21 Jump Street! Allegedly he was held on $750 bail and "charged with counts of criminal mischief, graffiti and possessing a tool to make graffiti. He was also held on a warrant for shoplifting in Manhattan last August, court records show." When we talked to him a week before this incident, we asked if he'd ever been arrested—he told us, "Yeah. Never for art related crimes though. What have I gotten away with? That's the real question." What happens now? Our sources tell us that things should settle down "in a couple of weeks."

Photographer Jim Kiernan tipped us off to the arrest. He arrived at event at Broadway and Howard Street to meet up with Poster Boy around 7 p.m., but police had already arrived after spotting the Poster Boy's name on the flyer. Kiernan says, "There was an undercover cop on the block and they came and picked him up. As far as I know, he's still in Central Booking right now and waiting to get in front of a judge...It's the second time they've gotten him."