Category: Art
Closing party of South Bronx Hall of Fame exhibition [Ahearn, bottom, second from right], Fashion Moda, October (1979) | Photo by Lisa Kahane Against the backdrop of landlord-sponsored arson that buildings to rubble and ash, South Bronx emerged at the vanguard of music, art, and culture during the 1970s. Graffiti writers bombed the trains inside […]
Whitney Houston Wembley Arena, London | 1988 “I first heard African drum rhythms and chants at the movies, and they weren’t too different from the old Negro spirituals I grew up with in the South. There was a relationship. Though I didn’t know anything much about Africa, it felt familiar,” Isaac Hayes writes in the […]
Cover of Lee Quiñones: Fifty Years of New York Graffiti Art and Beyond (Damiani Books, 2024). Photo by Chris Stein. It’s been said that you can’t judge a book by it’s cover, which may be true among those who trade only in words but, for an artist the cover is paramount. It is the single […]
CAINE ONE tribute by LADY PINK The life and death of Woodside writer Edward Growalski, more famously known as CAINE ONE, has captured the imagination of several generations of graffiti writers, be it from Queens or parts afar. His untimely passing in 1982, right at the cusp of mainstream acclaim and entry into the legitimate […]
Growing up in Yorkville during the early aughts, photographer Wes Knoll was crushingly bored by the homogenous scene on midtown Manhattan’s eastern shore. But once in high school, the world finally began to crack open. “I could have never imagined whether it just be like being able to hop on a train and be what […]
Charlotte St., The Bronx. Rubble in a vacant lot with four apartment buildings in the background. A large Puerto Rican flag hangs from the rightmost building. 1980 © Joe Conzo Jr. Set against the backdrop of landlord-sponsored arson and “benign neglect,” over 97% of seven census tracts in the South Bronx were left vacant or […]
Above: the two dicks as they appear in real life. “Life imitating art.” That’s how rabble rousing art collective INDECLINE describes the LA billboard they smartly-vandalized, so it looks like the one that recently appeared on HBO show Curb Your Enthusiasm. In the episode, character Susie Green promotes her new business Catch as Caftan with […]
Back in 1979, 19-year-old Peter Anderson decamped from his native Glasgow and set his sights on London to study at the Royal College of Art with the dream of becoming a fashion photographer. He arrived in the city just a post-punk era began to take root, radiating out from underground pubs where bands took the […]
For centuries the mythic landscape of the American frontier has captured the imagination of radicals, rebels, and free spirits drawn to the edge, casting their fortune against the elements. Seasoned with the blend of rugged individualism and American exceptionalism, the runaway is recast as the anti-hero of our times, blazing a path where few dare […]
Dancehall: The Rise of Jamaican Dancehall Culture cover With the arrival of the Windrush Generation in the decades following World War II, the style and sound of Jamaica made an indelible impact on generations to come. As the diaspora took root in London, Toronto, and Brooklyn, an international network was forged, bringing the music of […]
