Several artists — whose works I had discovered on plywood in Soho — recently shared their visions and talents in Harlem, as they painted portraits inspired by the wondrous photography of Barron Claiborne
The image featured above — a portrait of the photographer — was fashioned by the wonderfully talented Brendan T Mcnally. Additional images follow from several artists, who collectively identify as the Soho Renaissance Factory.
Artist/activist Amir Diop
Glass & light artist Light Noise
Multimedia artist Sule
And joining the artists representing the Soho Renaissance Factory — producer and DJ Xtassy Beats
Konstance Patton aka KonArtStudio
Photos by Lois Stavsky
When I visited Soho last Monday, it was hardly the rich wonderland it was several weeks ago. Yet, several new pieces greeted me, and I enjoyed revisiting some of my favorite murals that have, somehow, survived. The image featured above is the work of the delightfully talented artists Adam Fu and Duel RIS. Several more images — a few captured earlier — follow:
The legendary Duel RIS
NYC-based multimedia artist Nick C. Kirk
The prolific NYC graffiti pioneer Hektad — captured 6.29
NYC-based multimedia artist Fabio Esteban
NYC-based multidisciplinary artist Ilina Mustafina
Photos by Lois Stavsky
While revisiting Underhill Walls in Prospect Park, Brooklyn this past week, I was greeted by several delightfully intriguing murals that I hadn’t captured on my earlier visit in May. The image featured above was fashioned by Queens-native Jeff Rose, Colombian artist Calicho Arevalo, and Brooklyn-based krassness. Several more artworks from this model community arts-based project, curated and managed by Jeff Beler, follow:
Local artist Justin Winslow’s magical world
Gowanus-based Dylan Bauver‘s geometric Cosmos
Dylon Thomas Burns offers a glimpse of heaven
Manhattan-based Marivel Mejia pays homage to our health care workers
Stem YNN and Aloe Adventures take on — in comic book-style — our surreal times as we are “dodgin’ more than corona”
Underhill Walls is located at the corner of St. Johns Place and Underhill Avenue in Prospect Heights, Brooklyn.
Photo credits: 1 -4 & 6, Lois Stavsky and 5 Sara Ching Mozeson
While many of the original artworks that had surfaced on the boarded-up stores in Soho are no longer on view, others continue to emerge. Featured above are works by NYC-based politically-conscious artist Sule and Brooklyn-based artist Manuel Alejandro Pulla. What follows are several more artworks I came upon earlier this week, along with a few captured within the past month.
Also by Sule, “My Color Is Not a Crime”
Artist/activist Amir Diop in collaboration with Eyes That Love Art, “Take Me to a Place Where I Won’t Be Judged by My Weight, I Won’t Be Labeled as a Nerd– Where Black Lives Matter”
NYC-based multidisciplinary artist DVNNY, “Let Us Live,” — a plea from the transgender community
Jordanian-American multidisciplinary artist Ridikkuluz pays homage to the 30–year-old Egyptian LGBTQ activist Sarah Hegazi — arrested and tortured in Cairo for raising the LGBT flag at a concert — who died last month by suicide while living in exile in Canada — to the left of LEXXX‘s plea to “Free the Ninos”
Isabelle with Vincent Van Gogh quote: “Art is to Console Those Who Are Broken by Life”
Brooklyn-based Czech artist Irena Kenny, “We are the change that we seek.”
To be continued next week!
Photo credits: 1, 3 – 7 Lois Stavsky; 2 Sara Ching Mozeson
When I returned to Soho earlier this week, I was thrilled to discover several pieces — including a few collaborations — new to me. The image featured above, “Our Nation’s Claim to Justice,” was fashioned by Colombian artist Calicho Arevalo and Queens-native Jeff Rose. Several more artworks that have recently surfaced on Soho’s boarded-up stores follow:
Multidisciplinary artists Alice Mackay (center) and Marco Villard
The legendary NYC writer/artist Duel RIS
Venezuelan artist Alberto Barreto and multimedia artist AV
Ukrainian-born, NYC-based multidisciplinary artist Si Golraine at work
Brooklyn-based multidisciplinary artist Konstance Patton
Amir Diop, Brendan T Mcnally and Light Noise collaborate on mural in memory of graffiti writer Michael Stewart who died at the hands of the NYPD in 1983
To be continued next week!
Photo credits: 1, 2, 4 – 7 Lois Stavsky; 3 Sara Ching Mozeson
For over a decade Welling Court and its surrounding blocks in Astoria, Queens have been a mecca of street art and graffiti, engaging a widely diverse group of artists, the local community, as well as the the general public. On our recent visit to Astoria, we were delighted to discover several new murals — curated by Alison C. Wallis — that have surfaced in these trying times on the walls of one of our favorite street art destinations. The image featured above was fashioned by the legendary Chris “Daze” Ellis. Several more murals — painted over the past few weeks — follow:
Bronx-bred El Souls
Lady Pink‘s tribute to George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and many more whose lives should have never been cut short
Greg Lamarche aka SP ONE, “Lift Every Voice”
Fumero, “The Glariator” with his name in flames
Bronx-based BG 183, Tats Cru
Queen Andrea, Love Always Wins
John “Crash” Matos and Joe Iurato with a message of LOVE
Also among the new works is a mural fashioned by the legendary John Fekner, to be captured when the sun cooperates!
Photo credits: 1, 6 & 7 Sara Ching Mozeson; 2 – 5 & 8 Lois Stavsky
While many of the boards in Soho continue to be dismantled, the ones that remain continue to intrigue. And, happily, new ones surface — largely by artists who generally work in their studios — addressing a range of issues from systemic racism to transphobia. The socially-driven artworks featured above were fashioned a few weeks back by Brooklyn-based artist Jerardo Calixto in collaboration with Sofi ✍ Signs. Several more images captured earlier this week — several in progress — follow:
NYC-based Fabio Esteban with a message
NYC-based Brendan T Mcnally takes a brief break from “Break Free” in progress (check out Brendan’s Instagram to view the now completed mural and its moving backstory)
NYC-based, Moscow native Sofia Granovskaia aka Dr Antic to the right of artist/activist Amir Diop — with an important request and reproach re: his missing artwork
Multidisciplinary artist Matthew Mazur — dedicated to “our Black Trans Brothers and Sisters who were taken from us too soon.”
Native Belarus artist Mitya Pisliak at work
Brooklyn-based, Czechoslovak-born Kamila Zmrzla Otcasek
On racism — signed Scott Woods
To be continued next week!
Photo credits: 1, 3, 4, 6-8 Lois Stavsky; 2 & 5 Sara Ching Mozeson
Although dozens of boards that have served as canvases for a diverse range of artworks are no longer part of Soho’s visual landscape, the neighborhood remains my current favorite destination for street art. The image featured above was created by the talented, NYC-based writer and painter Gerry Vewer. Several more images — some discovered earlier this week and others captured within the last month — follow:
West Chester, PA-born, NYC-based Maeve Cahill’s homage to Black inventors, who’ve been largely “written out of history”
Documentarian Middlemen Doc and NY-based filmmaker and multidisciplinary artist Rochelle Leanne to the left of the widely-posted “Black Lives Matter” image
Artist and self-described cosmic anthropologist Loren Crea Abbate to the left of multidisciplinary artist Beatriz Ramos
Multidisciplinary artist and designer K O FF EE
Visual artist and poet Android Oi in collaboration with Brooklyn-based MaryKathryn Medlock — to the right of NYC-based UNLOK
To be continued next week!
Photos by Lois Stavsky
From the playful to the political, the artworks surfacing daily on Soho’s boarded-up doors and windows delight and provoke. Featured above — in the second of our series documenting Soho’s open-air museum — is Maeve Cahill‘s tribute to the late African-American journalist Ida B. Wells, alongside alluring images by an artist identified as A V. Several more artworks captured earlier this week follow:
NYC-based Nick C. Kirk, stencil of civil rights activist and football quarterback, Colin Kaepernick
NYC-based Urban Russian Doll, Portrait of Breonna Taylor, the black emergency medical technician who had been shot to death in her Louisville, Kentucky home
NYC-based Hektad
Athens, Greece-born, NYC-based Lydia Venieri, “Say Their Names,” Portraits of African-Americans murdered by the police
NYC-based artists Tiger Mackie (L.) and Beelzebaby (R.)
Newark, NJ-based Goomba at work
Photo credits: 1-6 Lois Stavsky and 7 Ana Candelaria
