The walls in the vicinity of McGuinness Boulevard and Clay Street in Greenpoint continue to showcase a diverse range of vibrant graffiti. Here are a few captured this past week:
Wolf 1 AOK
Photos by Lois Stavsky
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graffiti
We’ve been noticing more and more subway trains on walls down in Brooklyn and up in the Bronx. Here’s a sampling:
Damien Mitchell for the Bushwick Collective
Downer Jones in Bushwick
Bella Amaral in Bushwick for JMZ Walls
Danielle Mastrion in Bushwick for the Dodworth Street Mural art project
Dek 2DX in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx
Shiro in Bushwick for JMZ Walls
Cern in Williamsburg
Photos: 1, 2, 4 and 6 by Lois Stavsky; 3 by Tara Murray; 5 by City-as-School intern Zachariah Messaoud and 7 by Dani Reyes Mozeson
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While visiting the Free Radicals graffiti exhibit at ALL CITY this past Friday, I had the opportunity to speak to noted Martinez Gallery director Hugo Martinez who — together with Dr. Juan Tapia — envisioned and helped realize this wonderful space that serves as a graffiti art gallery, arts center and pediatric clinic.
What an amazing venture this is! A pediatric clinic, a dynamic art gallery and lounge all sharing the same space. Whose concept was this?
It was Einstein’s. “After a certain high level of technical skill is achieved, science and art tend to coalesce in esthetics, plasticity and form,” he once stated. There is a natural synthesis between art and medicine, and a health clinic is an ideal setting to realize it.
What made this extraordinary space possible?
2.5 million dollars and seven years.
Who were the main forces behind it?
I work with Dr. Juan Tapia, a pediatrician and former graffiti artist known as C.A.T. 87. We were inspired to observe and measure evidence-based results of fusing two seemingly antithetical concepts.
How did you two come to collaborate?
I met Juan over 40 years ago when I was a student at City College and he was a Warlord for the neighborhood division of the Young Savage Nomads gang. In 1972, we co-founded the United Graffiti Artists (UGA) as an alternative community to the established art world. Juan then went on to earn his GED and attend college and medical school. We have since collaborated on many community-based art and health projects. And in 2008, we established the ALL CITY Foundation.
Can you tell us something about the ALL CITY Foundation?
It is a community-based health and arts collaborative that has brought together a network of medical practitioners, artists and designers to create and run coordinated health and art programs for youth in New York City.
Your current exhibit, Free Radicals, is a remarkable representation of various works in different media by a range of prolific artists.
Yes. All of the artists in this exhibit have established all-city reputations, most in NYC and a few in other large cities.
Why did you choose this particular space on the corner of 135th Street and Broadway? It is quite impressive.
It is close to City College, where UGA was first established. And the lay-out of the building, the former Claremont Theater – a 22,500-square-foot landmark that was the first theater to show photoplays — is perfectly designed for our purposes.
What’s ahead?
A range of programs, activities and revolving art exhibits.
Note: Free Radicals continues through March 31 at 3332 Broadway at 135th Street in Harlem. All artworks are for sale. You can follow the Martinez Gallery online at martinezgallery.com and on Instagram at instagram.com/martinezgallery. You can also visit the space with NY1 and check out this recent story in the New York Times.
Photos
2. Noxer
4. Navy8
5. Soviet, close-up
6. Various artists, as seen from the outside looking inside
Interview and photos by Lois Stavsky
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This is the eighth post in an occasional series featuring artwork on NYC shutters:
Sweet Toof on the Bowery for the LISA Project
With Darkclouds
Ben Eine in the Mott Haven section of the Bronx
Ramiro Davaro in the Bronx for the Tag Public Arts Project
Kashink in Bushwick
The Drif on the Lower East Side for the LISA Project
Buff Monster on the Bowery
Photos 1, 2, and 7 by Tara Murray; 3 and 4 by Lois Stavsky; 5 and 6 by Dani Reyes Mozeson
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Nic 707‘s InstaFame Phantom Art continues to share a range of art — from tags by legendary writers to works by global artists — with NYC subway riders. Here are some images captured on a recent ride from East Tremont in the Bronx to Brighton Beach in Brooklyn.
Veteran UK graffiti writer, Pulse
Bogota native Praxis
The legendary TAKI 183
Graffiti pioneer Skeme of Style Wars fame
Mulit-media artist Michael Cuomo
Photos by Lois Stavsky
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With Sheryo and the Yok completing the missing letter — S — , the B-U-S-H-W-I-C-K mural at the Bushwick Collective is now complete. Here are some images:
Sexer at work after completing the letter ‘B.’ Letter ‘U’ by David Louf aka June1 to its right
Sheryo and the Yok, the letter ‘S’
Dasic Fernandez at work on the letter ‘H’
Billy Mode at work on the letter ‘W’
Eelco ’Virus’ Van den Berg, the letter ‘I’, with Bushwick Collective founder and curator Joe Ficalora to its right
John Matos aka Crash, the letter ‘C’
Zimad at work on the final letter, ‘K’
With some additions
Photo credits: 1, 4 & 7 by Dani Reyes Mozeson; 2, 3, 5, 6 & 8 by Lois Stavsky
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Back in September, a huge orange carrot surfaced on the streets of Williamsburg. We soon discovered it was the work of the Italian artist Nemo Tibi Amat, whose distinctly curious aesthetic was on view at Exit Room NYC at the time. Eager to find out more about it all, we posed some questions to her.
Why a carrot? What does the carrot represent?
Because it makes me smile, and it makes other people smile. I think of it as a kind of Carrot Therapy. Also, the carrot fits wonderfully into our urban architecture. It can be vertical or horizontal; it can be whole or chopped. There will always be a place for it.
When was your carrot first born?
Everything was born some years ago. At the beginning, I used to paint a fat radish instead of the letter O when I wrote my name. Then when I began doing rollers, I replaced the letters with the carrot. Even a child who can’t read can recognize a carrot.
What about the carrot on a cross that I saw over at Exit Room? What does that represent?
It’s the sacrifice. Anyone who aims to change the world by fighting against the system — with his or her own powers — is a Jesus on Earth. He wasn’t the only one crossed, as so many were, are and continue to be in many other ways. He’s just the most famous, because apparently his father was a god! The real crucified carrots that I use represent the inevitable decay of the body. After death, there is no resurrection.
And your burqa? It’s such an intriguing, powerful image. What does it represent?
Since I began painting — back in 1995 — I’ve had to deal with hiding and covering myself. I’m fascinated by the relationship between one’s interior self and the exterior world. And I love playing with the concept of protecting your body by hiding it. Covering your face can be a choice, but sometimes it is a necessity — a rule that others impose on you. Through my burqas, masks and balaclavas, I also tell stories that range from personal experiences I’ve had with real people to secret urban legends. If you scratch away the plasticine on my scratch card artworks, you can win my face.
What about your characters? Can you tell us something about them?
The characters themselves tell me how to draw them. You would have to ask them.
What is like being a female in a male-dominated world?
I don’t think about it. If you know who you are and where you are, you can manage just about everything going on around you. Most of the time, I paint on my own, and most of my friends are guys. I think I’m lucky, as I feel free from those mental prisons that a lot of girls feel enclosed in. I don’t, though, support the feminist way of thinking as it only increases the separation between us.
What is your impression of NYC?
Everything is really messed up, and I do love it.
Interview by Lois Stavsky with assistance by Daniela Croci aka Zoe; Photos 1, 2, and 5 courtesy of the artist; 3 and 4 by Lois Stavsky
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A visit to the South Bronx neighborhood of Hunts Point this past Monday led to the discovery of some of its recently-surfaced graffiti murals. Here is a sampling:
All photos by Tara Murray
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Co-owned by artists Sarah Wang and Shaina Yang, City Bird is a creative space recently launched on the Lower East Side. While visiting its current exhibit Natural High yesterday, I had the opportunity to speak to Shaina Yang and find out a bit about the gallery and its mission.
I love the eclectic mix of art in this exhibit. Can you tell us something about City Bird’s mission?
We see ourselves as a unique space in which we are free to unleash our creativity in a playful manner. There is no one to tell us what to create or how to create it. It is up to us — the artists!
When was City Bird born?
Our inaugural exhibit opened on November 7. It was curated by the Under1roof Project.
Many of the artists on exhibit – such as Kingbee, Wizard Skull and Dek 2DX— are also active on the streets. How did you meet each other?
Many of us know each other from the collective, Con Artist, and many of Con Artist’s members also get up on the streets. Lady Millard’s Under1roof Project also brought us together in a collaborative manner. Basically, it was friends and friends of friends!
I’d imagine that renting and maintaining a space like this on the Lower East Side could be expensive. How do you raise the money to do this?
When there are no exhibits here, we rent out the space to pop-up shows, poetry readings and a range of creative events.
What’s ahead?
A mix of imaginative exhibits featuring work by a range of artists, including street artists. We are already booked through the spring. You are in for some surprises!
City Bird is located at 191 Henry Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side.
Images:
1. Pablo Power
2. Chris Mendoza, close-up
3. Lady Millard, close-up
4. Kingbee
5. Wizard Skull
6, Dek 2DX
First image courtesy of the gallery; all others photographed by Lois Stavsky
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This is the tenth in a series of occasional posts featuring the diverse range of trucks and vans that strike our streets.
Photos: 1 by Dani Reyes Mozeson; 2-4, 6 & 7 by Lois Stavsky; 5 by Lenny Collado aka BK Lenny and 8 by Tara Murray
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