Tag: USA

1195. Little Italy, New York (2)

Deep in the heart of Little Italy, in amongst all those wonderful restaurants is this incredible piece by Tristan Eaton. It is of course a portrait of the gorgeous Audrey Hepburn, disguised in a patchwork of colours and patterns, a little like the work Louis Masai produces.

Tristan Eaton, Little Italy, New York, October 2017
Tristan Eaton, Little Italy, New York, October 2017

Tristan Eaton has a wonderful website which is well worth a click or two. His description of this piece is as follows:

This piece was painted in August or 2013, for The Little Italy Street Project and The Little Italy Merchants Association. Located at the corner of Broome & Mulberry at the entrance of Little Italy.

This was one of the outstanding street art pieces from my recent short trip the New York.

1194. Bowery, New York (1)

Wandering around the East Village and SoHo districts of New York was such a pleasure. I had no destination in mind and just went where my instincts led me. How exciting then to come across this magnificent Blondie tribute piece by Shepard Fairey.

Shepard Fairey, Bowery, New York, October 2017
Shepard Fairey, Bowery, New York, October 2017

In have not seen a Shepard Fairey street art piece before and the style and colours of this one are captivating. I am aware of his ultra famous ‘HOPE’ portrait of Barack Obama. I understand that the piece was created to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Blondie’s first album which was debuted at the CBGB’s club opposite. The wall was curated by the LISA project.

Many thanks to Sarah Sansom, street art hunter and contributor to Street Art Cities.

1193. East Village, New York.

One of the things I was most hoping to see during my trip in October to New York was some wheatpastes by Phoebe New York, and I was not disappointed. There were plenty to find in the area around our hotel in Rivington Street.

Phoebe New York, East Village, New York, October 2017
Phoebe New York, East Village, New York, October 2017

I first came across her work at Upfest 2016, when I found two or three of her pasteups carefully placed in strategic positions along North Street. After that, I found some of her characters in London during my six month spell when I worked two days a week there. I have followed her on Instagram, and strongly recommend her original and quirky feed.

Phoebe New York, East Village, New York, October 2017
Phoebe New York, East Village, New York, October 2017

The two pieces shown here are the first of several that I found during our four-day excursion to the Big Apple. The first is on a plain white wall and picks out the little Phoebe perfectly – have a beautiful day.

Phoebe New York, East Village, New York, October 2017
Phoebe New York, East Village, New York, October 2017

The second pasteup is on an altogether different background with loads of flaking pieces of paper from previous wheatpastes and an interesting face for company. I love the placement of the piece, and especially love the dress. Perfect.

1130. Stanton Street, New York (1)

I was so glad to have found this piece because I have seen it so many times on digital social media. As it turns out, it was about a one minute walk from our hotel, but because of its orientation I only saw it on the last day of our trip.

Gumshoe, Stanton Street, New York, October 2017
Gumshoe, Stanton Street, New York, October 2017

Somewhat iconic, Gumshoe’s (Angela China) art is so very eyecatching and original. The piece of course has some chewing gum sticking to footwear, in this instance a high-heeled boot. Her art is overtly erotic, which makes it intereting to be so exposed on the street. A piece like this in the UK would probably be dogged or sabotaged by those who might be offended. We rarely see work like this in Bristol, which in my view is a pity.

Gumshoe, Stanton Street, New York, October 2017
Gumshoe, Stanton Street, New York, October 2017

A superb piece and one I will remember from the trip.

1129. SoHo, New York (2)

Walking with my family on the obligatory clothes shopping trip in SoHo, we came across this magnificent tiger by Sonny. It is difficult to convey just how spectacular this piece is. Furthermore the piece is actually raising awareness for the global campaign ‘Project Cat‘ which aims to protect wild tigers and their habitat.

Sonny, SoHo, New York, October 2017
Sonny, SoHo, New York, October 2017

Looking at his website, it seems that Sonny is a specialist in painting large wildlife pieces, and has a special talent for this. I love the way he incorporates patterns into the face of the tiger and how cleverly the colours dribble down from the face to create a pool of blue and yellow.

Sonny, SoHo, New York, October 2017
Sonny, SoHo, New York, October 2017

This is a spectacular piece.

1128. Mott Street, New York (1)

I have the most enormous backlog of images to post, and can see that the only way to share as many of them as I can is to have slightly shorter written descriptions of the artists and their work, particularly with the non-Bristol street art, which takes me a lot longer to research.

Jerkface, Mott Street, New York, October 2017
Jerkface, Mott Street, New York, October 2017

On my recent trip to New York I was lucky enough to be staying in the lower East Side where there are amazing street/graffiti art surprises literally around every corner. This clever Mickey Mouse piece is by Jerkface who produces some amazing works in this grand cartoon style. Unfortunately his beautiful website reveals little about the artist.

Jerkface, Mott Street, New York, October 2017
Jerkface, Mott Street, New York, October 2017

This was one of my landmark finds from my trip, and I think it had only recently been sprayed.

1109. First Street Garden, New York (1)

Each morning when visiting NYC, I took a stroll for about an hour before the rest of the family got up, and went on the hunt to find some graffiti/street art. I didn’t think for one minute I would find so much. This piece was one of several in a little alleyway off East First Street.

Stem, First Street Garden, New York, October 2017
Stem, First Street Garden, New York, October 2017

This piece is by an old school New York graffiti artist called Stem. It is just possible to make out his name from the wildstyle writing. This is a really lovely piece that oozes a New York style one is so accustomed to seeing in books, documentaries etc.

Stem, First Street Garden, New York, October 2017
Stem, First Street Garden, New York, October 2017

There was a nice man who chatted with me about this piece and some of the others in this little lane. He seemed to know a lot about them. He also suggested I visit the ‘wall of fame’ in Harlem, which I did with limited success.

 

 

1108. SoHo, New York (1)

Another wonderful surprise waiting for me in SoHo was this beautiful collaboration between Stik and LA, which was part of the L.I.S.A project (Little Italy Street Art), sprayed in 2016.

Stik, SoHo, New York, October 2017
Stik, SoHo, New York, October 2017

The vibrancy of this piece works brilliantly, with all the brightly coloured swirls from LA contrasting with the elegant simplicity of the Stik figures serenely holding hands. A perfect match. I know little about LA, but I believe he is a local artist and he certainly seems to like his squiggles. Stik is of course simply one of the best there is.

Little Italy, New York (1)

The afternoon we arrived in New York, my children were very hungry, and we had to hunt down somewhere to eat pretty quickly, because you know what hungry teenagers can be like. The first restaurant we stumbled across was this nice ‘shabby chic’ place called Osteria in Mott Street (311), Little Italy.

Nick Walker, Little Italy, New York, October 2017
Nick Walker, Little Italy, New York, October 2017

Distracted by the children’s needs, I hadn’t properly looked at the piece on the side of the building. Once they had ordered their food, I nipped out to take a look and snap these shots. Of course I recognised the work immediately as being that of Bristol artist Nick Walker. Strange that I should cross the pond, and the first artwork I should see would be someone I have written about extensively. The international nature of street art.

Nick Walker, Little Italy, New York, October 2017
Nick Walker, Little Italy, New York, October 2017

This piece incorporates the pin-striped gentleman creating a heart made up of a mist, but take a closer look and the mist is actually numbers in a font Nick Walker has used before in other works. This was a great start to what turned out to be a wonderful trip.

 

Dusk

 

Daylight turns to dusk

an orange glow hugs the earth

spiritual calm.

 

by Scooj