The Wooster Collective recently featured video of a piece of street scultpure by Joshua Allen Harris. It could be describe as kinetic pneumatic art, and features an inanimate pile of material attached to a subway grate. When a train passes in the tunnel beneath the grate, the upward flow of displaced air fills the material and produces a medium-sized bear. The continued flow of air makes it appear as if the bear is actually animated, like it's shaking off some arctic water. When the train is gone, the bear retreats to its former state of hibernation, waiting for the next train so it can rise again. more ›

At around 11pm we got a text message from a friend at the Shepard Fairey opening in DUMBO, saying that the "Splasher got caught at the show tonight". So far the information we're hearing is that two guys attempted to set off a stink bomb at the show, but were stopped by security. It remains to be seen if the stink-bombers are the same guys who set off a stink bomb at the Faile show last week (and then called 911 reporting a gas leak, which got the show shut down), or if they were indeed the ones splashing streetart pieces all over town a few months back. more ›

The Wooster Collective has photographs of wheatpastes from Columbia's Student Coalition on the Expansion and Gentrification that call attention, "in tongue and cheek fashion, Columbia's condemnation of Manhattanville as a 'blighted' neighborhood." Benign animals, explaining eminent domain in street art? That's gold! more ›

Follow the Bouncing Ball 1987, by Urban Photos. more ›

Click for full-size timelapse shot. more ›

The opening of the 11 Spring Street Wooster Collective project is still a couple of weeks away, but the building has already been transformed by artists from all over the world. Check out some of the stuff going up on the outside walls: more ›

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We're been covering the streetart renaissance at 11 Spring Street for the last couple of weeks-- new pieces are going up every day, and the new owners of the building seemed to be endorsing the work. Last night, we had a chance to catch up with Wooster Collective, the preeminent streetart website, and asked them what was going on. They told us that the new owners have asked them to curate the decoration of the building-- both inside and out-- through the end of the year, with a huge party on December 16th to celebrate the building, the art, and the end of the project. The Villager has some more details: more ›

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: more ›

When walking the streets of New York, Gothamist is always aware of where we're stepping as we never know when we're going to ruin our sneakers with a step into a nice batch of dog feces. One fellow New Yorker doesn't avoid the fecal matter like we do - she actually stops to photograph and write about it on her blog New York Shitty. We can unequivocally say that there's now a blog for everything. Not only does she take a picture of Mr. Poop Head (pictured here), but the author even makes handy pie charts showing where in Greenpoint the dog logs were found. more ›

Whoa-- apparently the prolific and insanely talented NYC street artist Swoon has three pieces up at the Museum of Modern Art! Wooster Collective alerted us to the "Printmaking Now" show, which runs until September 18th: more ›

If you're in the West Village or Chelsea today, swing by one of these happenings: more ›

Wooster Collective spotted this amazing exterior on 4th Street, between Avenue C and Avenue D. It was painted by Cern and Cekis from Chile. Check out more of their painting at ArtCrimes. Their style is similar to Os Gemeos from Brazil-- you might remember them from when they were in New York last year. more ›

The city council has recently passed a new graffiti law-- it goes into effect on March 29th. If you haven't heard about it yet, here are the important details: more ›

A couple of weeks ago, we published a fairly controversial editorial ("Corporate Graffiti Sucks Balls"), calling out the Sony Corporation for dirtying up our city with their PlayStationPortable graffiti advertising campaign. A few days later, Secondary Screening picked up the story-- and their story got Digg'd a few thousand times. Wired noticed, and wrote an article about the controversy yesterday. And of course, our friends over at Wooster Collective have been covering the story the whole time-- and have begun collecting hilarious pictures of people vandalizing the fake Sony pieces. Even the AM Papers have done an article (with a small quote from us.) more ›

Picture of a live turkey in Battery Park courtesy of Gothamist Contribute user. more ›

Animal Magazine's 6th Issue comes out this week-- and Bucky was nice enough to messenger us over a copy, since we unfortunately missed Animal's "Save Krucoff" themed party at BLVD on Wednesday night. The magazine is beatuiful and glossy and filled with pictures of scantily clad girls-- but we were interested in one feature in particular: a series of interviews with some of our NYC blog colleagues. Our favorite quotes: more ›

- The Village Voice gets director Victor Buhler (he did the documentary Rikers High) to do a feature about the kids getting their GEDs at Rikers more ›

We love finding little unique pieces of art hiding amongst the city streets where you least expect them. Tonight be part of an intimate conversation with two environmental artists who are responsible for some of these pieces, Darius + Downey. This conversation will directly follow a screening of the film, Public Discourse - a documentary about public installation art which features Darius + Downey along with dozens of other influential street artists. Marc and Sara Schiller, founders of The Wooster Collective, will host the conversation. more ›

Earlier this week, our own Jake Dobkin launched Streetsy, a street art website. Sponsored by the Wooster Collective (and with tech help from Eliot Shepard), the goal of Streetsy is create the largest curated archive of international street art available online. So, break out your digital cameras and cameraphones because you can contribute your pictures by joining the Streetsy group pool on Flickr.
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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. more ›

Just two weeks after Gothamist was wondering about graffiti artist Revs' steel sculptures, the NY Times has a great story that sheds a little more light on Revs and his attitude about art. Randy Kennedy's article gives more detail about the elusive Revs, such as how Revs has shunned the "worlds of conventional art and commerce" by not becoming a graphic designer or youth brand marketing consultant and what Revs was doing with his subway missives after returning from a stay in Alaska (which was after partner in crime Cost was arrested in 1994), without revealing too much of who he is ("windburned eyes and blackened fingernails of an ironworker, along with the vaguely feral intensity of someone on the lam"). more ›

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The Wooster Collective has the exclusive on Banksy's recent exploits in New York City. And by exploits we mean hanging his own art up in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Brooklyn Museum, and American Museum of Natural History in true counter-Thomas Crown Affair fashion. Amazing. And what Gothamist loves is that the each museum got its own different piece of art work (a Tesco soup can for the MoMA, a bug for for the AMNH). And it seems that the pieces in the Brooklyn Museum and AMNH pieces are still up there! more ›

Jose Serrano has made a hilarious 5-minute video entitled The Future Beautiful: Skewville, about a team of graffiti artists who throw fake wooden sneakers up on poles around the city. The guys spout on about graf, sneaker-bombing, and the art establishment- they've actually managed to create a whole philosophy based around chucking fake shoes! more ›

The Wooster Collective has a great podcast featuring Darius Jones, one of the great New York streetartists. He's been doing a series of pieces featuring lamp-posts and street lights leaning in to kiss each other- and apparently he has just installed a new one somewhere in North Brooklyn- write in if you spot it! more ›

The Mayor outlined his anti-graffiti plan yesterday, saying, "Graffiti is something for which our administration has zero tolerance...[it's] an invitation to criminal behavior." He formally announced that the antivandalism units of the NYPD and transit police would combine to form a graffiti-crime fighting unit, an idea mentioned and started last summer. The Times reported that since the formation of the new unit, there's been a 20% increase in arrests, contributing to a 78% increase in graffiti-related crimes for 2004. Tools that the police will be using: A database to track graffiti crime patterns (especially targetting repeat and the top 100 offenders), infrared cameras, and a reward program that offers $500 to anyone who reports a graffiti incident that results in an arrest and conviction. Gothamist understands why the mayor feels he needs to do that, as many neighborhood groups, especially in the Bronx, complain about graffiti, but in some instances, it can be a way for people to express themselves. And Gothamist wonders if graffiti and street art are one and the same to the Mayor. more ›

Street art gets the drill down from the NY Times today, with a look at the emergence of people who use paint, wheat paste, and more to create a version of art beyond grafitti. Reporter Kirk Semple speaks to Swoon and Obey Giant's Shepard Fairey, as well the Wooster Collective, about the lofty motivations, but the author of INY, Kelly Burns, sums it up well, "[Breaking the law is what] people really love about it: getting over on the man." But some other artists don't get over on the man: De La Vega was found guilty last month. more ›

Gothamist was glad to find out that no, we weren't crazy (this time) and in fact, it was the Modest Mouse song "Gravity Rides Everything" from The Moon & Antarctica that was on a Nissan minivan commercial. Deviated Septum confirmed this and alerted us to the fact that "Gravity Rides Everything" had also been used in a beer commercial. Well, you got to sell out some time... we'll check in again when Built to Spill is used in a commercial. more ›