Category: Features
Over a month’s time, graffiti-trained, NYC artist VEW painted nearly two dozen pieces in the historic Park Avenue Tunnel. The thoroughfare has been shut to traffic for a few years now, with the roadway undergoing renovations by the DOT. This closure created the perfect opportunity for VEW (and other writers) to get up, in broad […]
One day back in December 2012, artist Zun Lee happened upon a cache of Polaroids of the streets of Detroit. He scooped up the photographs and began going door to door, hoping to restore this lost treasure to its rightful owners, but the snapshots went unclaimed. Recognizing the immeasurable value of this extraordinary find, Lee […]
Exactly one week ago, a teenager riding on top of a NYC subway car died after falling off and coming into contact with the third rail. According to news reports, he was pronounced dead on the scene. His name was Ka’Von Wooden and the 15-year-old was reportedly “subway surfing” a Brooklyn-bound J train as it […]
Graffiti in NYC is not a static, monolithic entity in 2022. From the rudimentary beginnings of the pioneers to the golden era and its present day infusion of inroads into corporate, art world and commercial entities; what still matters the most is the street. Where, and just as important, how you get up is of […]
The art and marketing collective known as MSCHF opened an exhibit of new work at the Perrotin Gallery on the Lower East Side called “No More Tears, I’m Lovin’ It.” “Spot’s Revenge”According to MSCHF, @bostondynamicsofficial deactivated their Spot robo-dog using an “undisclosed backdoor,” after the collective armed it with a paintball gun, put in a […]
Union Square was the meeting grounds for New York City’s Halloween celebrations, as crowds gathered to smoke weed, vibe-out, and get sturdy. Not even rain could stop the constant stream of costume-wearing revelers from flooding the area. Here’s a small sample of who crossed our paths. […]
In our “Armageddon” issue—it was published in 2004 and featured an epic cover illustration by Steve Marcus—ANIMAL co-founder Matt “DSENSE” Trumino and I, decided to include a “questionnaire / workspace” to see how interactive our readership was and to gather some critical demographic information in our uphill battle to land advertisers. Our funding, derived mostly […]
📷: (L) Slick Rick by Sophie Bramly (R) Slick Rick by Janette Beckman | Courtesy of TASCHEN Picture it: Detroit, the late 1980s. High school student Vikki Tobak awaited her turn to speak as the teacher asked the class: “What do you want to do when you grow up?” The teen, who first arrived in […]
Graffiti made its entrée into the art world in 1972, when the United Graffiti Artists held their first group show, “Floor To Ceiling,” at City College. A year later, UGA made more history, with the first ever exhibition of their work at an established art space—the Razor Gallery in Soho. For the next twenty years, […]
📷: ART IS THE WORD by ALIVE 5 (1981) © Martha Cooper For some, the prestige of working at Yale’s Peabody Museum of Natural History might be a lifelong goal, but Martha Cooper felt cooped up working behind a desk cataloging artifacts day in, day out. She yearned for freedom, action, and adventure — the […]
