Few NYC street art spots are as reflective of our times as is Freeman’s Alley, located off Rivington Street on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. And in these challenging times, the nation’s precarious political state and its ongoing pandemic have been the major themes of the street art that has emerged there.
Pictured above is NYC-based artist SacSix‘s portrait of our vice president-elect, Kamala Harris — a representative of the change we so sorely need. Several more images captured this past Sunday follow:
NYC-based Raddington Falls‘ politically-conscious Lego-inspired characters
Crkshnk’s depicts former NYC mayor and current Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani as court jester
California-based Jeremy Novy laments the loss of “free hugs” in the time of Covid-19
NYC-based DeGrupo celebrates President-elect Joe Biden’s victory
NYC-based Eye Sticker — in this pre-election paste-up — asks us to vote out “Trumpkin Season”
Photo credits: 1, 2, 4-6 Ana Candelaria; 3 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
Even the pavement speaks here in NYC — with everything from intriguing images to poetic prose to political messages. Here’s a sampling:
Hunt Rodriguez in Bushwick
stikman in Chelsea
A political statement in Williamsburg
Chris and Veng RWK in the East Village
An excerpt from The Bell Jar, the only novel penned by the acclaimed American poet and writer Sylvia Plath
Anthony Lister in Bushwick
Unidentified stencil art on Chelsea sidewalk
A reference to Gaza on the Upper West Side
And a political statement in Bushwick
Photos — 1, 2, 6-9 by Lois Stavsky; 3 – 5 by Dani Reyes Mozeson