inflatable bear

as much as i've been generally unimpressed with the current state of street art here in nyc, sometimes something comes along that's just too good not to mention. as is the case of joshua allen harris and his inflatable trash bag art. creating animals and people out of old bags, he then affixes them to the grates above the subway. when train passes underneath, the rush of exiting air causes the bags to inflate and come to life.

- via the always interesting woostercollective.com

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"it's like going to a museum to look at pictures of food"

the times is running a bit on street art today - i really didn't need the nyt to tell me to look around and notice things but maybe some people do. anyway - check it out here and definitely make sure to check out the sideshow gallery for the full experience.

this makes two days in a row that the nyt has been riding the street art train - check out yesterdays (much better, imo) article on street culture in berlin. and for even more berlin awesomeness check out my pics from a trip last spring

a couple more pics after the jump

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banksy

the british prankster was in new york earlier this month, while he was here he did a couple of stencils around town. looks like he's been studying the works of kara walker or perhaps arthur rackham. compared to the ones in la - i think we got the short end of the stick, although the bronco boy one is quite clever and bo peep was pretty cool before she lost her phone.

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street art

hadn't been shooting as much street art these past couple of months. the danish artist armsrock recently opened a show in williamsburg in collaboration with the folks over at wooster collective. i had wanted to go to the opening but it was right in the middle of cmj which didn't allow for a trip across the river.

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soho

yesterday i had to go into the city to pick up my newly sharpened knives at broadway panhandler. they did a very nice job, much better then that old guy who drives around brownstone brooklyn. instead of heading straight back to brooklyn with a bag of knives, i took a walk through the west village and soho. the way in which the mid-summer late afternoon/early evening light filters down through the trees and between the buildings is unusually pretty. at this point, you may be thinking to yourself, well that must have led to some good pictures? well, actually no. despite walking around with the camera out, nothing was catching my eye. i've been feeling lately like i might be slipping into a bit of a photographic slump. i've been shooting lots of pictures, mostly of shows - but as far as personal stuff goes, i don't think i've taken a good shot in a month. so, i mostly just walked the streets, enjoying the light and shooting some street art that i came across.







a few more shots after the expansion

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street art

finally the heat and humidity broke after wednesday evenings severe thunderstorms. i decided to take advantage to the beautiful weather by taking the bike for a spin around williamsburg to shoot some street art.


r.robot


obey


revs

a few more after the expansion

knitta, please


faro


imminent disaster

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hello, brown.

the gowanus has always been one of my favorite neighborhoods, it's a nice mix of industrial and residential spaces. old and new, tucked away in the no mans land between park slope, carroll gardens and red hook. it has also been, these past few years, a great spot to check out some really great street art. on sunday i decided to take the bike out for a spin and as there were a couple of revs pieces that i wanted to shoot, i headed in the direction of gowanus. i was across the 3rd street bridge and about to make a right on bond street when i noticed that someone had come along with some brown spray paint and painted over an old elbow-toe . curious, i decided to look around the corner and check out another spot that had been appropriated. this one had also been sprayed with the same brown spray paint-- as had a gore b below it. continuing down bond, i decided to have a look at first street (which was a pretty busy street for street art last summer when the empty vessel project was parked at the end of the block). to my disgust, the same person had come along and hit the remains of a swoon, three elbow-toe's, a cheekz, teo and a clever stencil. they also defaced a small sign which read "toll ahead" in reference to the new toll brothers construction project going up at the end of the block. oopps. lastly, as i was riding off, i noticed that our friend "mr. brown" had hit up another swoon, the remains of an armsrock, an elbow-toe stencil and the elbow-toe pasteup that has graced the abandoned building on union, at bond, for almost a year.

after the splasher nonsense it's hard to get too upset about street art getting defaced, after all it (for the most part) is pretty temporary stuff that is put up without the property owners permission. but still, it's kind of upsetting that someone would go out of their way (and over a 10 block radius) to sloppily spray a can of brown paint for a few seconds on each piece. some people love street art and some don't, but personally i would rather see something interesting and thought provoking on the wall then a brown scrawl.

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