Narcotics officers discovered 61 lbs. of cocaine and almost a million dollars cash in an apartment in Williamsburg on Wednesday, leading to the arrest of three individuals and the collective cries of neighborhood residents. |NYP|
Posterchild’s Tree Grows in Brooklyn
The Christmas season is starting earlier and earlier, not only in store windows but also in street art displays. Following his series of foliage-filled flyer boxes, PosterChild installed an Alberta Dwarf in an old, abandoned newspaper box off Bedford Ave in Williamsburg. If the miniature Christmas tree survives long enough, the Toronto-based artist hopes someone will festively decorate it, but based on past experience that’s not likely.
Photos via Blade Diary
FAILE Sculpture Offers Clean Slate
After somebody cleaned the vandalism off FAILE’s illegal street installation, comes close-up photos of the prayer wheel’s naked wood. Take a good look now because, unless the third time’s the charm, this sculpture will be gone in a matter of days.
Photos by SMKjr
FAILE’s Prayer Wheel Gets Buffed Clean
When it comes to vandalism, the NYPD recommends a rapid response. In the department’s brochure, “Combating Graffiti,” they write, “Experience has shown that prompt clean-up is an effective deterrent to the re-occurrence of the graffiti.” Putting this police plan into action, somebody made an attempt at washing the paint splatter and tags off FAILE’s recently reinstalled prayer wheel sculpture, but not without taking the piece’s original color off too.
Photos by Zoltan and disconotdisco
FAILE Prayer Wheel Returns, Gets Baptized With Paint
Months after disappearing off the street without a trace, FAILE’s second spinning prayer wheel installation returns to Williamsburg. The sculpture is now bolted down on North 6th Street, blocks away from its original location on Bedford Avenue. It’s not clear what happened to the piece since it was last publicly seen, but it’s already been hit with paint and tags over the last few days. Meanwhile, ifoundfaile, the anonymous street art scavenger who swiped FAILE’s first prayer wheel in Williamsburg, still can’t sell the piece, telling prospective buyers, “Hurry ’sale’ ends soon.”
McCaig-Welles Gallery has announced that it is shutting its doors for good. Since its Williamsburg opening in late 2000, the gallery has stayed on the forefront of contemporary art, exhibiting both established as well as up and coming artists from the neighborhood and far beyond. In recent months the gallery has featured surrealist public painters, graffiti writers, renowned female urban artists, and a very sexy group show. Impacted by the depressed art market and economy, owner Melissa McCaig-Welles announced her decision in this email: Read more »
On top of declining allowances, melancholy graffiti, plunging condo prices, and “heroin-addict hobos,” comes more evidence of Williamsburg’s descent into despair: a barefoot old man with no respect for authority, sipping his Sparks-knock off on top of a police car.
Photo by Becki Fuller
Things are getting very rough for residents of the once lovely Williamsburg. What used to be a shining beacon of gentrification has descended into a pit of vacant buildings, plunging condo prices, and now: “Heroin-addict hobos.” The urban foraging dope fiends are making many of the locals upset by subjecting them to horrific public displays like panhandling.
Parting Shot: A Sorry Sight
Someone is a little broken up over the condos and other constructions springing up around Williamsburg, sharing their sadness with the masses on a wall at North 4th and Kent Avenue.
Photo by Luna Park
Editor-in-Chief:
