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Brooklyn Unplugged Tours & Graffiti Art - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (2024)

Brooklyn Unplugged Tours & Graffiti Art

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Great tour with a knowledgeable guide - Brooklyn Unplugged Tours & Graffiti Art

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Great tour with a knowledgeable guide

The tour was great, the guide is passionate and knowledgeable about the community and the wonderful street art/artists. Would def recommend to others visiting NYC.

We had a fun tour with John. Such a load of knowledge he has. Slow and breezy pace. Enough time to take pictures. Love love it!

Nick was very well prepared and really made everyone feel like he was taking them on an individual tour! We had a great time and he answered all our questions about the Brooklyn Bridge as well as other questions we had. 100% recommended!!

I highly recommend this tour. The guide has provided so many interesting info. We met several street art artists. That was so nice.

Nick was informative, friendly and funny. We learned a great deal about the art, the neighborhood and the development of street art and the hip hop movement in NYC.

Our tour guide Nick was a blast. He was so knowledgeable and friendly, it was such a pleasure to spend the 2 hours with him. We learned so much about the history of the art form and the future of it. It’s a good feeling that I can now recognize street art pieces and names!

Brooklyn Unplugged Tours & Graffiti Art

• See all photos

Brooklyn Street Art Walking Tour

Best of Brooklyn Walking Tour in Williamsburg

NYC: Private Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour

Brooklyn Bridge and Dumbo Walking Tour

Brooklyn Christmas Lights Walking Tour at Dyker Heights

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BROOKLYN UNPLUGGED TOURS & GRAFFITI ART - All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go

Brooklyn Unplugged Tours & Graffiti Art

• See all photos

Brooklyn Street Art Walking Tour

Best of Brooklyn Walking Tour in Williamsburg

NYC: Private Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour

Brooklyn Bridge and Dumbo Walking Tour

Brooklyn Christmas Lights Walking Tour at Dyker Heights

Most Recent: Reviews ordered by most recent publish date in descending order.

Detailed Reviews: Reviews ordered by recency and descriptiveness of user-identified themes such as waiting time, length of visit, general tips, and location information.

BROOKLYN UNPLUGGED TOURS & GRAFFITI ART: All You Need to Know BEFORE You Go (with Photos)

All posts tagged: Moscow

IV Biennale Of Street Art ARTMOSSPHERE Moves Ahead in Moscow

In the last week, we’ve marked the first anniversary of the war now taking place in Ukraine with an installation by exiled Ukrainian street artist/muralist Waone in New York and exiled Russian artist Kuril CHTO in Lisbon . Today we bring news of a reorganized urban art-related biennale being mounted in Moscow this May.

“According to the Chinese curse, may we live in interesting times,” says Andrey Parshikov, curator of the IV Biennale of street art ARTMOSSPHERE on the website for this newest iteration of a festival mounted in public space and gallery space that is at least partially funded by the government. Selections of artists were made with consultation of a ten-member international committee of advisors from the commercial, publishing, institutional and intellectual world who have expertise in graffiti, street art, and its various expressions more broadly referred to as Urban Contemporary. The fourth edition of the international event, this year more than 70% are nationals; 38 Russian and 15 international artists.

The expert committee, according to organizers, have allowed for a diverse range of artistic formats and techniques to be employed by the participants, resulting in something that sounds like it will be more of an experimental exhibition than previous editions; featuring murals, graffiti, public art, installations, performances, and theatrical actions that will be open to the public.

“This season we are bringing back the original idea of the show – street art should live in the urban environment, in the open space,” says Sabina Chagina, one of the co-founders of the biennale in 2014 who is now the Art Director of the Winzavod Contemporary Art Center and Artistic Director of the Biennale. Winzavod has provided a varied artists compound of creative spaces for a decade and a half in Moscow that many credit as a laboratory for cultivating opportunities for experimentation and support for artists working in the public realm.

“Two years ago, ARTMOSSPHERE received permanent institutional support from the Winzavod Contemporary Art Center and became part of it,” says the press release about the collective exhibition that has launched parallel programs and special projects in public space in the last decade.

A difficult exhibition program to pull off during peacetime, this one is mounted during a hotly debated war that is being watched by most of the world. Like all arts programming, people will be measuring it at least in part to see how it responds to the times and political realities.

International artists include: ARIS ONER (Germany), Matteo Ceretto Castigliano (CT) (Italy), Amaro (Brazil), Pablo Harymbat (Argentina), IHAR (Belarus), Varenje Organism (Israel), GAYA SOFO (Armenia), Maria Bokovnia (Germany), Daria Goffman (Armenia), Filip Radonjic (USA/Serbia), Neon Spidertag (Spain), Hakob Balayan (Armenian Center of Experimental and Contemporary Art (NPAK) (Armenia).

Artists from inside the Russian Federation include: Anastasia Litvinova (Moscow), Sasha Braulov (St. Petersburg), Wearing Tail and artist Eldar Ganeyev (ZIP Group) (Moscow-Krasnodar), Lubov Vink (Krasnoyarsk), Philip Kitsenko (Moscow), Masha Smorodina (Moscow), Alena Troitskaya and Ksenia Sharapova (Moscow-Cyprus), Fork (Moscow), Alexander Gushchin (Yekaterinburg), Out Band Mucha (Samara), KTK (Moscow-Spb-Ekb), Anya, come! (Khabarovsk), Anna Tararova (Moscow), Elena Kholodova (Moscow), Alexandra Kuznetsova (Moscow), Ozerki, Andrey Shkarin and Maria Yefimova (Moscow), Galina Andreeva (Moscow), Krasil Makar (Ekaterinburg), Twenty Two (Moscow), New City Artists, Ivan Volkov (Protvino), Frukty Vrukty (Perm).

Sabina Chagina : Wishes And Hopes For 2019

As we draw closer to the new year we’ve asked a very special guest every day to take a moment to reflect on 2018 and to tell us about one photograph that best captures the year for them. It’s a box of treats to surprise you with every day – and conjure our hopes and wishes for 2019. This is our way of sharing the sweetness of the season and of saying ‘Thank You’ to you for inspiring us throughout the year.

Today’s special guest: Sabina Chagina, Co-Founder of the Artmossphere Biennale in Moscow, Russia

Dear BSA readers!

Happy New Year!

I want to wish you a pure art in your daily life, because art is actually a very important thing to start with. It’s not a dessert or a hobby.

That is why I chose this photo as one of the recent works by Shepard Fairey, whom I worked with this year during his participation in the 3rd Artmossphere Biennale in Moscow. The work called “Tunnel vision” was inspired by the aesthetics of Russian constructivism and made in his signature OBEY style.

In the center you can see the inscription in cyrillic “Art must be spread everywhere”.

Be happy, be with art.

Artist: Shepard Fairey

Title: “Tunnel Vision”

Location: Moscow

Date: September 2018

Photographer Vasiliy Kudryavtsev

Shepard Fairey’s “Tunnel Vision” : Interconnected Networks of Art and Propaganda in Moscow for ARTMOSSPHERE Biennale 2018

New exclusive images today from Moscow as Shepard Fairey joined the 3 rd ARTMOSSPHERE Street Art Biennale where BSA were co-curators this August and September.

In conjunction with ARTMOSSPHERE and his personal exhibition at the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, an expansive collection that Fairey told us totaled 400 or so pieces and a huge crowd (see Zane Meyers video below), he created his first large-scale street work in the Russian Federation.

Shepard Fairey. “ Tunnel Vision”. Artmossphere Biennale Moscow 2018 . (photo © Vasiliy Kudryavtsev)

Entitled Tunnel Vision , the mural is derived from a recent fine art piece he did for his DAMAGED exhibition that incorporates his deep appreciation for Russian Constructivism and his own unique geometric studies in design. At the center, placed hypnotically and in a typically humorously ironic way, is his own meta icon, Andre the Giant framed inside the gear star symbol, flanked by icons of the machinery of messaging and distribution. A frequent critic of the mediated, manipulated techniques of global dis-information today, Fairey intrinsically loads his own imagery with the flair of a seasoned elocutionist on a world stage.

The significance of the more structural geometry of a tunnel is magnified by the location of the mural on the façade of a tram depot. Moscow’s impressive metro system dates back to 1935, a time period that parallels the powerful Soviet posters and artworks that communicated with the population and promoted the might of train systems as a point of national identity and pride.

That this form of messaging and image-making inspired many artists and designers around the world for decades afterward, it adds layers of significance to this photo (below) of Fairey on the Moscow Metro train with ARTMOSSPHERE co-founder Sabina Chagina and previous biennale curator Christian Omodeo. Add this to the references of the modern graffiti tradition of painting messages and images on trains throughout cities globally and the painted Soviet Agit-Trains of the 1920s, and the thematic interconnectedness here will require a map.

Christian Omodeo, Sabina Chagina, and Shepard Fairey on the Moscow Metro. Artmossphere Biennale Moscow 2018 . (photo © Vasiliy Kudryavtsev)

The inscription on the mural reads: “Art should be distributed everywhere” and while trains and planes still distribute the goods and the people everywhere, it is a new set of electronic and computer engines that can distribute the information and aesthetics everywhere today. Perhaps Fairey is reminding us that if this communication freedom of expression becomes limited we can risk the creation of a narrow form of tunnel vision.

“I believe that the mural in a public space is just as powerful a means of influencing minds and spreading artistic ideas as the replication of my posters. Therefore, in the work there is a printing press, it symbolizes, relatively speaking, the monumental propaganda in the modern sense. The work is named in an ironic way: after all, art expands, rather than narrows, our view of the world,” Fairey says of the new mural.

Shepard Fairey photogrpahed here with Artmossphere co-founder, the lovley Sabina Chagina. “ Tunnel Vision”. Artmossphere Biennale Moscow 2018 . (photo © Vasiliy Kudryavtsev)

Force Majeure: The Art of Shepard Fairey by Zane Meyers and Chop ‘Em Down Films

The project is launched with the collaboration of the creative group ARTMOSPHERE, the Moscow Museum of Modern Art, the RuArts Foundation with the support of the Italian gallery Wunderkammern.

With the participation of the Moscow Department of Transport, the show continues outside the museum venue in the urban space. The building is located at 12, Mytnaya Street.

Our sincere thanks to Vasiliy Kudryavtsev for sharing these exclusive photos for BSA readers. Click on the link below to see more of Vasya’s work:

https://www.facebook.com/vasiliy.kudryavtsev

BSA Images Of The Week: 10.28.18

Happy Halloween Ya’ll! More than your average number of freeks, misfits, and naughty school girls with fangs on the subway this week, did you notice?

As if any of us need to conjure more scary scenarios than the daily horrors we face – bomb threats, traffic on the FDR, Meghan Kelly.

Anyway, stay safe out their this week peeps.

So here is our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 1UP Crew, A Cool55, Bla Bla Meow, Clint Mario, El Cekis, Harlem Picasso, Javier Barriga, Kobra, Lin Logic, Phoebe NY, Stikman, and XO Homeless.

Top Image: Javier Barriga . El Cekis. The Bushwick Collective. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

1up crew . moscow. (photo © jaime rojo), stikman (photo © jaime rojo), kobra. the bushwick collective. (photo © jaime rojo), unidentified artist (photo © jaime rojo), harlem picaso (photo © jaime rojo), unidentified artist. moscow. (photo © jaime rojo), bla bla meow (photo © jaime rojo), lin logic – the bushwick collective. (photo © jaime rojo), xo xo, homeless (photo © jaime rojo), a cool 55 (photo © jaime rojo), clint mario (photo © jaime rojo), phoebe ny (photo © jaime rojo), untitled. union square, nyc. october 2018. (photo © jaime rojo).

1UP Crew on a Wall in Moscow / Artmossphere Biennale 2018

Berlin’s 1UP Crew was in Moscow to participate in this year’s Artmossphere Biennale. We caught up with the guys for an impromptu action on the walls of the Winzavod Art Center while the installations in the gallery were taking place.

It was good to see them in action without having to climb through holes in fences or dodge the third rail! Here they are in the company of other writers and we’re guessing this spot will become a future Hall of Fame.

1UP Crew. Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

More from Artmossphere 2018:

Canemorto and the Master “Txakurra” Rise in Moscow For Artmossphere

Hyland mather. street assemblage and his scupture at artmossphere 2018, moscow.

BSA Images Of The Week 09.02.18 – Artmossphere Biennale 2018

Lucy McLauchlan / Pablo Harymbat. “OFFLINE” Process At Artmossphere 2018, Moscow

Banksy Genius Or Vandal? It’s Up To You! Currently Playing In Moscow

Faith XLVII and “The Sacred Feminine” in Moscow

Hiding right out in the open is the spiritual journey that is FAITH XLVII playing an opus interlude in sepia across the Artrium in Moscow, Russia this month – just after completing her installation of overlapping electronic ideas with Lyall Strong for Artmossphere 2018.

Faith XLVII. Artrium Project. Moscow. September 2018. (photo © Vasiliy Kudryatsev)

This ‘Sacred Feminine’ mural pulled the spirit to the surface in stellar fashion surrounded by the rotation of the moon. It was completed over the course of “an exhausting, unforgettable week”, she says, and thanks the team who made it happen, including @esha_ega, @tylerbmurphy @the_spirit_boy.

BSA Images Of The Week 09.02.18 – Artmossphere Biennale 2018

It’s been a packed couple of weeks between traveling to Moscow for the Artmossphere Biennale 2018 and immediately hopping to Leipzig, Germany for the magnificent Monumenta opening. Our heads are full of stories and conversations and images in two distinctly different scenes that somehow are still completely connected. Can’t tell if its euphoria or relief or jetlag but this Sunday is a dizzying day of taking account and being really thankful to be involved with an astounding amount of talent and camaraderie in the Graffiti/Street Art/Urban Art community that is connecting people around the world.

Here are our images of the week this time around; some selections from the Thursday night Artmossphere Biennale 2018 in Moscow, featuring 108, 1UP, Adele Renault, Bill Posters, BLOT, Canemorto, CT, the DOMA Collective, Egs, Faith XLVII, Faust, Finsta, Hyland Mather, LOT, Lucy McLauchlan, Lyall Sprong, Martha Cooper, Pablo Harymbat, and Pink Power.

Canemorto. Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Faust. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), faith xlvii . lyall sprong. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), finsta. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), martha cooper . adele renault. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), pablo harymbat. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), hyland mather. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), 108. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), ct . 108. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), doma collective. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), lucy mclauchlan. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), egs. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), blot. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), pink power. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), bill posters. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo), sabina chagina. artmossphere biennale 2018. moscow. august 2018. (photo © jaime rojo).

Martha Cooper And Adele Renault: Pigeon Fanciers In Moscow

BSA is in Moscow as curators of 50+ international artists in the Artmossphere Biennale 2018 for its 3 rd edition called Street Art Wave. Till the end of the month we’ll working with a stellar cross section of people involved with Urban Art/Street Art/Graffiti at curious and fascinating intersections. We’re meeting with Street Artists, academics, collectors, gallerists, museum curators, organizers, and thoughtful pontificators of all sorts in studio, on the street, behind the scenes, and on display. Come with us!

As curators we were asked to write a text about Martha Cooper and Adele Renault and their collaborative project for the Artmossphere Biennale 2018 in Moscow. We think it is equally appropriate for the work in process photos here and the interviews BSA had with both:

Pigeons were the original Internet, email, messenger. As carriers they were the quickest and most efficient way for people across cultures to communicate. Cooper and Renault have created the ultimate exhibit that ties together the themes of OFFLINE in a very local and global way. With Martha’s photographs of pigeons from over forty years and Adele’s uncanny ability to faithfully create the plumage and character of the bird over the last decade on city walls everywhere, the original message carriers are more than getting their due in Moscow.

BSA: Yesterday at the round table discussion someone made the connection between this show being “Offline” and pigeons carrying messages. Can you talk about that a bit? Martha: That was a brilliant connection because neither of us had thought about it. Yes there were lots of pigeons that used to carry messages, specially during wartime. The messages were secret and written in code stuffed in little capsules and attached to the pigeon’s legs. The pigeons were able to fly across enemy lines. So here we have the Internet and the name of this exhibition is “Offline” so what can be more offline than a pigeon carrying a message.

Martha Cooper / Adele Renault work in progress at Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

BSA: About this project in Moscow. What was the most surprising element? Adele: When I travel I try not to have expectations but for this project the most surprising thing was the location. The space is so beautiful and it’s inspiring being here. And the people of course. Sabina, I knew she was going to be nice because Martha has been telling me great things about her but she and her team are wonderful. It is very nice to work with nice people. The most important thing is the people.

BSA: Where were the photos being shown here taken? Martha: Africa, Asia, North America and Europe.

BSA: Adele, what’s your fascination with pigeons? Was it from childhood? Adele: No, I grew up on a farm but we had more chickens than pigeons. The first time I saw a lot of pigeons was in Venice in the Piazza San Marco. My parents had a hard time pulling me away from them. I just wanted to stay with the pigeons. The fascination is mostly that they are everywhere, in every city and they look the same everywhere and I never run out of subjects. They are like a metaphor for people. In 2007 or 2008 I painted the first oil close-up painting of a pigeon and my first mural of a pigeon was in 2010.

BSA: You found an Icon at the flea market in Moscow. Martha: We did! And it has a pigeon painted on it.

BSA: So was the found icon the inspiration to make the display wall in the shape of an icon? Adele: No it was the other way around. I knew that in Russia there are a lot of religious triptychs with Madonna and other religious imagery in gold leaf and inside the churches. When we came in and saw the exhibition space with all of these arches we thought that we wanted to have an arch and actually paint the arch directly on the wall but because the building is a landmark we were not permitted to paint directly on it.

So we asked if the temporary wall could be a triptych instead of a simple long panel. So then at the flea market we found the triptych with the Madonna and two pigeons painted on it. So everything about this installation makes so much sense and the process has been entirely organic. We also wanted to have real pigeons inside the coop but we found that that wasn’t permitted. So we then thought about having a porcelain pigeon or something like that inside the coop. Today a Russian girl who I gave a book to a couple of days ago came back to visit and told me that she had a present for me; a souvenir from Russia and she proceeds to pull out this porcelain pigeon!

So we are going to hang it in the coop.

BSA: What was the genesis of this collaboration with Martha? Adele: Every time we see each other we talk about our attraction to pigeons and she tells me that she has been taking photos of pigeons for a long time. We were together in Los Angeles for “Beyond The Streets” and she mentioned to me the Moscow Biennale and how in Moscow artists paint the pigeon’s coops on the outside. So she encouraged me to send an application for us to participate in this year’s biennale in collaboration and I did.

BSA: Can you tell us about the small pigeon on the front of the pigeon coop? Adele: The small one on the front is the last passenger pigeon who died in 1914. The original passenger pigeons are extinct. And this pigeon’s name was ironically Martha – and it resides in taxidermy in the Smithsonian Museum in Washington DC. So we named this coop “Coop’s Coop” because Martha’s friends call her Coop. So it really is Martha Cooper’s coop. But passenger pigeons were used in the two big wars to bring messages in code and they were rewarded with medals for their service.

BSA: So what about the old, paint peeling off frames you are using to display the photos? Martha: When we first thought about putting photos up we wanted rough looking frames and I had this idea, based on my previous visits to Moscow and the flea market that we would be able to find them at the flea market and we found tons of frames actually. We got them cheaply and it was a lot of fun going around collecting them.

BSA: Martha our eyes gravitated to the B & W photo of the boy holding two pigeons. What’s his name and who is he? Martha: His name is Edwin but his writer’s name is HE3 and he introduced me to Dondi. I was working on a project on the Lower East Side and I was interested in his pigeons and he asked me why didn’t I take pictures of graffiti and proceeded to show me his notebook with his drawings in it.

He said “I can introduce you to a King”. And the King was Dondi. So I said “OK let’s go”. We drove to East New York in my car and directed me to Dondi’s house.

We knock on his door and Dondi was there. He recognized my name because when he opened his black book on the first page he had a clipping from The New York Post with a photo of a very simple throw up and I was amazed that anybody would identify it and it said CIA, Crazy Inside Artists. That was his crew and I didn’t know anything about crews. When he saw me he knew I wasn’t a cop but instead he saw me as someone that could help him get fame. Boom!

BSA: So the B & W photo above is 40 years old? Martha: Yes

BSA: Can you talk about the large painting of the pigeon in the center of the triptych? Martha: This is a painting of a pigeon that we actually met in Moscow in a pigeon coop. One of the pigeon fanciers showed this magnificent pigeon and Adele took a photo of it with her phone so this is the portrait of the pigeon and I took a photo of Adele taking a photo of the pigeon and that photo is included in this exhibition.

Click on the link below for more details about the opening of this exhibition: OFFLINE: The 3rd Artmossphere Biennale Of Street Wave opens this Thursday August 30th at Vinzavod in Moscow.

Belgium-based Italian-born three-headed monster Canemorto have been laboring in a tunnel underground to create their installation at Artmossphere this week. The final result will be their analog oracle “Txakurra”, a molten gold god that occurs in their paintings and figures prominently in their full length Street Art road movie Amo-Te Lisboa where this trash-talking deity taunts and harangues them for not being authentically “street” enough, among other failings.

Canemorto at work at Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The vision of this glowing golden dog-god at the end of the tunnel perfectly melds the anarchic anti-conventional aesthetic of Canemorto on the street as well as the humorous, almost magical aura that envelopes these artists who have respect for their Italian art history and who are openly mocking of the consumer-culture hypocrisies that shape our present. Ernest and disrespectfully respectful behind their ripped t-shirt and plastic bag masks, Canemorto are nearly everything you need in a post-graffitti world; Graff writers, Street Artists, actors, rappers, and pizza makers.

The interactive piece made of wood, wire, and paper mache follows the “OFFLINE” theme of this years exhibition by returning our communications to an analog form that is all but obsolete today: the written note on a card that is dropped in the mail. Instead of instant communication, guests will write a question, include their return mailing address on the card, and drop it in the mouth of the dog-shaped spirit that represents the key figure of their visual and narrative imagination.

“So then we liked the idea of people sending and receiving postcards” says one of the guys, who are all staying anonymous at this stage of their career. “We were also thinking about the time involved with communication because it is obvious with the Internet now everything is immediate – you want to know something and you have 100 options to choose from.” The three friends who met in art school as teens in the early 2000’s develop ideas and concepts slowly and make their final determination after a lot of debate.

“For us it was also about communications between public and the people,” one of them says,” relating a story about letters that passed between artists and fans, between artists and artists in the past.

“Years ago you would have to look somewhere for the artists’ work and then try to find his address and once you found the address you would have to take time to write in the best way that you could. So we were thinking about all of these things together when we were planning for the exhibition and how to communicate with the people. This is also about hope and faith. You write this letter and then you hope to hear back from them.”

Visitors to the exhibition will be assured of a response – effectively an original piece of art from Canemorto – and it sounds like it will be at least partially related to how thoughtful their question is.

“So if you take your time to write a nice interesting question,” one of them says, “Maybe if you really want a good answer you should ask a big question like ‘Who’s the best street artist in the world?’ or ‘Who is one of the flashiest motherfuckers in the game?’ ”

Click on the link below for more details about the opening of this exhibition:

OFFLINE: The 3rd Artmossphere Biennale Of Street Wave opens this Thursday August 30th at Vinzavod in Moscow.

Amsterdam resident Hyland Mather (street name X-O) is a hybrid of outside artist, Street Artist, muralist, sculptor, exhibition curator and gallery owner. Recently he also become owner of an apple orchard in Portugal, so perhaps you’ll add “farmer” to the list. This unique cobbling together of interests and art practices is often emblematic of the eccentric art practices that can be found on the street today, somehow tangentially related to the mark-making of graffiti and fine art studio practice at the same time – yet rather unclassifiable.

Hyland Mather at work at Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Mather’s drilled, stacked and strung 3-D works on the street tend to be monochromatic in palette with geometric patches of white paint. Part assemblage, part outsider art, possibly art brut, elements of craft maker, some Louise Nevelson, a dollop of Caldor.

For his sculpture at Artmossphere’s OFFLINE exhibition he collected pieces of discarded wood, metal, glass, even string from Moscow streets and refuse bins and began to lay them out to find their commonalities and begin the process of assembly.

Hyland Mather. Process detail. Vinzavod for Artmossphere Biennale 2018. Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

“I’m the kind of guy that mothers move their strollers across the street to avoid when they see me,” he says only half-joking when describing the practice of salvaging refuse for his painting-sculptures. “I look like a fucking crazy person when I’m collecting the materials and dragging the stuff through the street,” he says.

“But when the neighborhood people see you working and your earnest attempt to turn their trash into something great they are more supportive.”

Here the work has turned into something more fulsome and possibly interactive, an elevated stage and  block of wood pieces and screws and string and rusted metal that may look like an invitation to enter.

“I think habitually I kind of make things that are sort of fort,” he says, and you can certainly envision this new piece cradled in the limbs of a tree with a ladder hanging down to the ground. Although there are a lot of holes in the walls…

BSA: Well, it doesn’t look like it would be very protective. Hyland Mather: Yeah, even in a shantytown this would not be a desirable dwelling, right? Any kind of exposure to the weather would be a disaster here – including mosquitoes.

BSA: How do you decide on the shapes and the forms? Is it about geometry? Hyland Mather: Obviously it depends on what I find in the streets. Some times it becomes more organic just because these are the shapes I have to begin with. Between organic or geometric I don’t know if I have a real preference but I do like simple geometries.

BSA: Are the works that you leave on the street meant to stand the test of time? Hyland Mather: They are meant to interact with time. It is a collaborative effort between myself and nature over time.

Lucy McLauchlan / Pablo Harymbat. “OFFLINE” Process At Artmossphere 2018, Moscow

This year’s biennale is directly inspired by our collective reactions of dissatisfaction to our daily experience of being invaded by digital content and all the artists have been charged with reclaiming a creative life “OFFLINE”. Two of the Street Artists invited to exhibit here in Moscow, Pablo Harymbat of Buenos Aires, Argentina and Lucy McLauchlan of Birmingham, UK, return to hand making tools and techniques that are distinctly separate from the digital.

Naturally, a self-imagined and eclectic DIY practice like graffiti and Street Art is born from such ingenuity and both artists showed us their custom created wooden/hardware tools with a definite degree of pride and delight.

Lucy McLauchlan at the studio. Artmossphere 2018 “Offline” Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Typically associated with a fluid curvilinear geometric formation of her expression on huge murals and canvasses, McLaughlin comes to Artmossphere with a true-to-nature technique by literally printing canvasses with trees. Using local Moscow trees on the street and in the 1,000-hectare Khimki Forest that lies within the city (said the third largest in-city forest and ecosystem in the world), Lucy and her small team used a custom-made trough on wheels to cart her acrylic paint around to reach the trees.

“It was such a good trolley that the great team of Artmossphere built for me! It went off the road on the dirt track,” she says as she shows us the multi-brush contraption she used to add the paint across a film on the surface of the bark before wrapping the tree with her linen canvasses. The resulting patterns and masking with white echo her usual geometric interpretations of rhythm and energy, but being so close to natural systems has had a strong effect on her and in comes across in this temporary studio in an architectural art university.

“I think I’m always following the abstract way from the direct form,” she says. “Here literally I’m stealing the organic form directly instead of letting it try to go through me and come out in my own way. Here I am putting it directly into the work – which I feel like I’ve been trying to do for quite a long time. I feel this kind of fits for the theme of OFFLINE.”

Similarly, Mr. Harymbat is known for his interpretations of energetic impulses and electricity-like tubes of banded color that course quickly across his murals and canvasses in organically, optically challenging and pleasing ways.

Pablo Harymbat at Vinzavod. Artmossphere 2018 “Offline” Moscow. August 2018. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Here Pablo is using the handful of days that are leading up to Thursday’s opening of the exhibition to illustrate a process of creation and recreation with a wheel-shaped multi-brush tool that has a handle in the center like a warriors’ shield. Sweeping across the freestanding arch shaped wall in a full-body fluid gestural way, he captures the outlines for his multi-colored liquid energy tubes and fills the new shapes with paint capturing the evolution for a future stop-action video.

We have the opportunity to see the creative process as it plays out, each swing and swoop recorded by eye and hand, flooded with energetic hue with the warmth of humanly attentive intimacy. Absent is the rumbling of the street here deep in the earth where this exhibition space once sheltered perhaps hundreds of thousands of bottles of wine. Using these custom handmade wooden tools Harymbat is continuously in a tactile relationship with his materials as well as their resulting artworks.

BSA Images Of The Week: 08.26.18 / Moscow Special

It’s part of the fascinating world that you inhabit when you follow street art – you have no idea what you will discover in any city at any time because of it’s LIVE daily evolutionary personality. Here in Moscow we don’t see so much of the improvisational extra-legal type of works that characterize cities like Rio or Berlin or Paris, but we have been seeing a bunch of familiar international names in the last few days. Here are some shots of stuff we’ve found – much of it that you will also recognize – along with some great local Moscow stuff.

We’ll bring you more of the scene at the Artmossphere Biennale this week as artists and curators like us are arriving right now at the Winzavod Center for Contemporary Art.  We’ve already seen Faith XLVII, FAUST, Adele, Martha Cooper, CaneMorto, Cedar Lewisohn … As the lounge singers say, “We’ll be here all week folks”. Don’t forget to tip your waitress.

Here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week featuring 0331c, Ben Eine, C215, Felipe Pantone, Haculla, Interenzni Kazki, Jan & JS, Losaer, N888K, Neue, Stasdobry, The RUS Crew, Theo Lopez, Tristan Eaton, Vasya, and WK Interact.

Our top image: Interezni Kazki (photo © Jaime Rojo)

C215 (photo © jaime rojo), jana & js (photo © jaime rojo), wk interact (photo © jaime rojo), the rus crew (photo © jaime rojo), n888k (photo © jaime rojo), ben eine (photo © jaime rojo), haculla (photo © jaime rojo), theo lopez (photo © jaime rojo), neue (photo © jaime rojo), stasdobry (photo © jaime rojo), 0331c (photo © jaime rojo), vasya (photo © jaime rojo), felipe pantone (photo © jaime rojo), loser (photo © jaime rojo), tristan eaton (photo © jaime rojo).

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Graffiti on Subway Surges as World Visits NYC for ‘Risky Game'

The deaths of two french artists last month highlight a recent spike in the number of subway graffiti reports as well as the enduring allure of tagging new york trains, by jose martinez, the city • published may 6, 2022 • updated on may 6, 2022 at 8:36 am.

This article was originally published on May 5 at 6:48pm EDT by THE CITY

On April 18, the French graffiti artist Julien Blanc posted photos to Instagram of his signature “JiBEONE” tag on a Manhattan rooftop where he was, he wrote, “waiting for the sunrise.”

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Days later, Blanc and graffiti partner Pierre Audebert were both struck and killed by a train at an elevated station along the No. 3 line in Brooklyn, in what sources described as the pursuit of a prized canvas sought by spray-paint Picassos around the world.

The deaths of Blanc, 34, and Audebert, 28, highlight the enduring — and growing — allure of tagging New York trains decades after the heyday of graffiti in the transit system. The MTA has documented a recent surge in the number of subway cars tagged, nearly double so far this year from the same time period in 2019.

“For the newer generation who are interested in the subway, it’s still a draw,” said Eric Felisbret, a graffiti historian who painted trains as ‘DEAL CIA’ in the late 1970s and early 80s. “It’s the Mecca, where they want to sort of get that feather in their cap that they’ve painted on a train in the birthplace of subway graffiti.”

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View this post on Instagram A post shared by JIBEONE (@jibeone.31)

The 209 graffiti markups from Jan. 1 through early May amount to a 95% year-to-date increase from 2019 , when there were 107, MTA statistics provided to THE CITY show. 

The spike comes after the number of tags per year had plummeted from 443 in 2018 to 297 a year later, a 33% decrease.

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But after that number fell again to 208 in 2020, according to the MTA, subway graffiti shot up in 2021 and is on pace to blow past the 300 total reports from last year — with 89% occurring in tunnels and tracks where out-of-service trains are stored.

The rise in underground artistry is evident on the MTA website, where the agency posts weekly updates for “incidents of vandalism” in the transit system.

For the week starting March 28, the MTA tallied 73 occurrences of subway graffiti, followed by 68 the next week — by far, the highest weekly totals since the MTA began posting the numbers in August 2020. There were 59 for the week starting April 25, days after the two deaths.

Among the graffiti showpieces last month was a B train subway car emblazoned with “Let’s Go Yankees” in Bomber colors and pinstripes.

“The MTA considers acts of vandalism to be unacceptable,” Sean Butler, a spokesperson for the agency, told THE CITY. “These acts are costly to the MTA and taxpayers, and often extremely dangerous.”

‘It’s a Pilgrimage’

An NYPD spokesperson said trains stored in so-called layup areas are primarily targeted “by individuals living overseas.”

“As restrictions on international travel have lifted, we have seen an increase in layup graffiti incidents,” said the spokesperson, Lt. Jessica McRorie.

The area near the elevated Sutter Avenue-Rutland Road station in Brownsville where Blanc and Audbert’s bodies were found early on April 20 is near an underground layup area, transit workers told THE CITY, and veteran graffiti artists said it has long attracted people who want to leave their mark on the subway.

“They go to places that were well known in the 70s and 80s,” said Louie Gasparro, an actor and artist whose graffiti tag was KR.ONE. “That folklore has gotten to the community in Europe, so for the European writers, it’s a pilgrimage.”

Fred Vilomar, who tagged trains as “REE” from 1973 to 1977, said the area in Brownsville has been “well known” in street-art circles for decades. 

“It was a hotspot when I was teenager, but getting into that location, you have to have timing and luck, you understand?” he said. “It’s a risky game to play and I’m sorry their lives were lost.”

Vilomar, who is in his 60s and remains active as a street artist, said he quit spray painting in the subway after a friend was fatally struck by a train in the 1970s.

“I’ve seen what it’s done to my friends and also the kids coming from overseas,” he said. “To them, it’s like the holy grail to come to New York City and paint a subway car — they take that glory with them and have that notch on their belt, but they have to understand it’s not as glorious as it seems.”

The short-lived sizzle driven by social-media photos and videos of spray-painted trains, which the MTA quickly removes from passenger service, has contributed to the subway graffiti resurgence, according to veterans of the scene.

“The MTA’s line of thinking was that if you remove the train from service instantly, you never let anyone see it and you take away the motivation immediately,” said Felisbret, the author of “Graffiti New York” and founder of at149st.com , which chronicles subway graffiti history. “But with the arrival of social media, they don’t really have that as a fighting tactic anymore.”

The Cost of Paint

The MTA said it expects to spend more than $1 million in 2022 on graffiti-related costs, as it has the previous two years. 

Hundreds of millions of dollars were spent targeting graffiti from 1972 until 1989, when the MTA took what it said was the last train covered by graffiti out of service to be scrubbed clean.

“It’s expensive to clean,” said Lisa Daglian, executive director of the Permanent Citizens Advisory Committee to the MTA. “And it causes delays and is a symptom of the larger issues that we’re facing as a society and as a system.” 

The subway system has seen a nearly 20% increase since 2019 in the number of people on the tracks, most of whom are there voluntarily, according to the MTA, which is looking at ways to reduce intrusions into the path of trains.

The agency could not say how many track trespassing cases involved graffiti.

Ceet Fouad, a French-Algerian artist, told Gothamist last month he was not aware that Blanc and Audebert were planning to spray paint subway trains when he had dinner with them the night before they were found on the tracks.

“If I knew, I would tell them not to do it,” he said.

Felisbret, the veteran graffiti artist, told THE CITY this week he was “really horrified” by the two deaths, but said he doesn’t expect a long-term chilling effect on the number of artists from abroad who want to spray paint in the subway.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if we soon see tributes to them on trains, paintings that are posted to Instagram,” he said. “I think it will only briefly slow things down.”

THE CITY is an independent, nonprofit news outlet dedicated to hard-hitting reporting that serves the people of New York.

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Moscow's wacky street art, and where to find it (PHOTOS)

Two women passing Fintan Magee's 'Message'

Moscow is known for having very low tolerance for graffiti, and the city has always done its best to remove any unwanted creativity that spoiled the chaotic urban landscape, which itself looks as if designed by someone with a propensity for unpredictable mood swings. We take you around town to see some of the more impressive examples of graffiti that have survived the ‘purges’.

1. Various – Flacon Design Factory graffiti

Flacon Winzavod

When it comes to the abstract and eclectic, one place you can always count on is the Flacon Design Factory, which is known for facade art that seamlessly integrates into the brutal factory-style aesthetic, sometimes hinting at social commentary, and at other times, just randomness. The previous work – before it was removed – required 150 cans of spray paint. We suspect that a similar amount was used on this huge mural depicting dozens of smartphones.

2. Vostok – no name

One of the Vostok graffiti

This artwork by Vostok was part of the Best City on Earth festival. There is something enigmatic and sad about some of Moscow’s best street art being concealed behind garbage bins, in courtyards and cul-de-sacs. All one has to do usually is turn into an alley somewhere – in this case, one of the central streets, Tverskaya 8, near the Tverskaya/Chekhovskaya/Pushkinskaya metro stations. 

3. Fintan Magee – Message

'Message', by Fint Magee

Created as part of the Best City on Earth graphic art festival, which showcases the work of some of the world’s best street artists, this piece by Australian Fintan Magee is quite melancholic and very realistic. Depicting a young woman who sends a message in a bottle, it can be glimpsed near Trubnaya metro station, at Rozhdestvenka 23/5, building. 

4. Vova Kupalov (Nootk): The bourgeois-styled mural

Vova Kupalov's (Nootk) work

Winner of the Moscow Street Art Festival grand prix, Vova Gupalov is extraordinarily talented. He covered the entire wall of Astrakhansky Pereulok 8 in less than five days, working in seven-hour shifts. Some 200 cans of spray paint were used. The artwork is a satirical depiction of the various inhabitants that Vova envisioned had lived there over the years.

5. Unknown Artist – Dali’s Girl at a Window

Dali's 'Girl at a Window' reimagined by an unknown artist

We don’t know the true identity of this artist, but one thing’s for sure – he or she has a gift not only for graphics but also for lighthearted humor. Unlike Salvador Dali’s famous, “Girl at a Window,” this young lady wears sneakers, and has a stereo system next to her. In other ways, this is an exact replica. It can be seen on an electrical transformer booth on Staropimenovsky Pereulok 14/4, in the vicinity of Mayakovskaya metro station.

 6. Winzavod and ArtPlay

Artplay/Winzavod

Both spaces, located within walking distance of each other, are major venues for contemporary art, and attract anyone who wants to be inspired creatively - be it the plethora of exhibitions taking place there, or a night out. With its art spaces, shops and clubs (check out Rodnya), ArtPlay and Winzavod are popular among young people who have a flair for all things whimsical and cutting-edge. There's a lot to be seen there, so go check them out!

7. Dutch/Russian artists – Khruschev-era apartments at Babushkinskaya

Babushkinskaya apartment blocks

In 2007, an alliance of Russian and Dutch artists was invited to decorate 13 buildings on Izumrudnaya Street, near Babushkinskaya metro station. Since we all know that living in a khruschevka is a clear path to crippling depression, such fantastical street art is a welcome addition to the dreary Babushkinskaya landscape. The district now looks like a radiant contemporary art gallery. At the very least, people won’t get lost when you invite them over for drinks.

 8. Andrey Adno – the lonesome 13-story building at Bibirevskaya, 19

'Domiki' by Andrey Adno

This creation by Kaliningrad-born Andrey Adno is simply titled 'Domiki' (little houses), and it’s exactly what it says: a bunch of different houses, ranging from an izbushka (a shack in the woods) to apartments perched at the top. Located in the far-flung Bibirevo district (Bibirevo metro station), it symbolizes arrival in the big city from the hinterland, and then making one’s way to the top – only to once again dream of a little shack in the woods.

Andrey is a professional designer, and the owner of Art Family Group. He is also an avid graffiti artist, and his works can be seen in New York City and San Francisco, as well as Russia.

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