Freeman alley: the Postman, Sacsix, and pasteups

It’s been nearly a month since the last post, as this year I found myself bogged down between playing catch-up after a short trip to NYC, wrapping up two new university courses, and taking on some extra Cambridge examining. The images from this entry are from just that trip, which has become an annual pre- or post- Memorial day trip to New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania.

These pasteups all come from Freeman alley, a very easy-to-miss hidden gem, just off lower Manhattan’s Bowery.

The pasteups themselves come mostly from well-known artists The Postman (Warhol and Basquiat) and Sacsix (Danny Devito). I’m not sure of the artist of the partially-gone Kurt Cobain, but I’ll be sure to provide an update.

Next time you find yourself in lower Manhattan, I’d recommend you swing by the alley, as it’s always full of some interesting art.

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First street green, an art park in the East Village

For this month’s second entry, I’ve decided to once again cross the pond, and highlight one of my favourite stops when in NYC. These photos are from the First Street Green Art Park, which as the name suggests is on East first street, near Houston (pronounced HOWS-ton), just on the border with the Lower East Side. It’s a community effort, and features new art nearly every time I visit. I enjoy this space, because many of the murals, in addition to being quite beautiful, also convey positive, optimistic messages. Something in short supply these days. There aren’t too many concentrated spots for street art in this part of the city; it is plentiful, but scattered. Here is the space’s twitter account, so you can keep up with any goings-on.

A “Kobra” strikes in NYC

After an absence of six years, from 2005-2011, I now make twice yearly pilgrimages back to the east coast of the US, mostly to visit family and friends, but also to reconnect with NYC. During these visits I generally stay in Airbnb flats in the East Village or Lower East Side. I do this mainly because I enjoy the atmosphere of those two neighborhoods, but also because they are both areas in which I am guaranteed to find a few hidden gems of street art.

Just near my Airbnb, on East 12th street, I found a mural that I had seen a few times on my Instagram feed, a huge portrait of young and older Michael Jackson. Doing a bit of research, I discovered that the artist was Brazilian Eduardo Kobra, and that he had made a trip to NYC and left 18 murals, some of them several stories in height all around the city. Here is a link to an article which also has a map showing the locations of all 18 murals.

I didn’t make it to all 18 sites, and most of the photos here are of murals in lower Manhattan. However the one of the firefighter and Einstein on a bike required me to make a trip (and no, my nose didn’t bleed) all the way up to East 50th St. But it was definitely worth the trek, as these two murals are immense, perhaps the biggest I’ve seen. The firefighter mural seems to attract the most attention from tourists. In fact, I was able to play tour guide to a group of Portuguese travellers, to whom I explained that the number “343” on the firefighter’s helmet was a tribute to the number of firefighters lost on the day of the 9/11 attacks. Of course I also encouraged them to head down to the East Village instead of Times Square, as the former is much more NYC than dirty Elmos and the M&M store will ever be. I wonder if they heeded my advice.

 

June in Manhattan

These shots come from my (now) annual trip to the US just before and after Memorial Day, in which I spend about 7 of those days roaming NYC in search of anything interesting that may have popped up since my last visit during the subzero cold snap at the end of December. New York never disappoints, and I found some fantastic street art. In fact, I’ll have to divide the post into three parts: Manhattan, Jersey City, and Brooklyn.

The photos in this entry come mostly from the Lower East Side and East Village, though there are a few shots from Harlem as well.

Winter in NYC, below freezing on the LES

The photos here come from my twice-yearly pilgrimage to the US, this one just around the Christmas holiday. Almost all of these shots come from the Lower East Side and East Village, and were taken, as the title indicates, during one of the coldest cold snaps in recent history. I found myself having to wear three or four layers just to spend an hour or two walking the streets of lower Manhattan. I wasn’t able to make it out to Brooklyn, as my time in NYC was less than 24 hours, but I certainly wasn’t disappointed. My favorites would be the double vision Mickey mouse, the mailbox Basquiat, and the Debbie Harry mural. I also tried to get various shots of large scale work, mostly on Allen Street on the Lower East Side.

 

Quick shot: Mr Robot mural in Chelsea NYC

For those of you who watch the series Mr Robot, you might remember the season 1 finale in parking lot. A friend of mine and I were strolling down 6th Avenue in Chelsea while catching up and happened upon this familiar sight. I managed to get a few shots, but I thought this rare shot of myself below the mural would be a nice way to kick off the summer, when hopefully I’ll be posting a bit more regularly.

Pilgrimage to NYC, 1: Williamsburg art tour

Last week, I made one of my twice-yearly trips to the US, with a focus on NYC and later heading to Westchester in order to attend my 20th university reunion. I stayed in my usual area, that is to say Chinatown/LES, but the walking tour I decided to try was the Williamsburg Street Art Tour, given by the great organization Free Tours by Foot. Due to the overcast, chilly weather, and the fact that the L train was unexpectedly out of service, our group was fairly small, less than 10, and usually-bustling streets of Williamsburg were relatively quiet. This made the tour better, as overcast days, in my opinion, make for better amateur picture-taking, and less activity on the streets meant we weren’t in everyone’s way as we listened to our guide.

The tour was also an interesting lesson in the history of the area, from its humble, industrial origins to the hip, gentrified neighbourhood that it is today. This is my second year in a row taking a tour with this company, and I would definitely recommend them, as the guide also gave us some pointers on other places to find interesting art Brooklyn, NYC’s biggest borough.

Manhattan street art tour: NYC trip post 2

Post number two of my NYC trip is dedicated to the street art tour I decided to take on a chilly Saturday morning. The tour was run by an outfit called Free Tours By Foot, and they run tours on all different types of themes in cities all over.

It definitely felt a bit odd, to be walking with a tour group in a city which I had called home for so many years. But considering that my interest in street art didn’t start until well after I had left NYC, it was a really great way see the city for the first time. The tour guide was a great source of information, being an artist himself, and put a lot of time and research to make the tour as educational as possible. I definitely learned a lot, and don’t feel quite so much as a layman as I did before.

The tour took us through SoHo, Little Italy, Chinatown, and scraped the Lower East Side, all areas which were a part of my regular stomping grounds when I lived there, so it was a great experience to see such familiar streets from a different point of view. The tour finishes off on Mulberry street in the slightly tacky heart of Little Italy, so I didn’t linger around for too long. Though I couldn’t resist grabbing a cannoli before moving on.

Needless to say, I definitely recommend this tour next time you’re in NYC. There are also tours of Bushwick, Astoria, and Williamsburg available. Here’s the link.

Star sightings and political passions: NYC trip, post 1

As a teacher here in Barcelona, I generally get holidays around the same time as schools and universities. One of the more important ones is the Holy Week break, which is basically spring break, culminating in Easter. This year I decided to take advantage of the opportunity and book a short trip to my old stomping ground, New York City. I had a few bureaucratic issues to take care of, but I was also quite interested in rediscovering and reconnecting with the place I had called home for so long. My departure from NYC predates my interest in street art, so exploring the streets of Gotham became one of my main objectives. I was able to snap nearly 800 shots, way too much to put into a single post.

Instead, I’ll be spreading it out over a series of posts.

This first one will be rather small, and just a small teaser.

These first shots of the late Amy Winehouse and the great Jerry Seinfeld were both found on the same East Village alleyway, while the larger than life mural in memory of David Bowie was found on Kenmare Street, on the Lower East Side.These photos are quite special to me as they highlight one of the peculiarities of living in New York: the possibility of seeing some of the most famous faces in the world going about their daily business. Any true New Yorker, outwardly, wouldn’t bat an eye at sharing an aisle at Whole Foods with Madonna, but of course we all notice, and tell our friends about it later. I suspect with the advent of mobile technology some will even dare a discreet photo.

The other three photos are also quite significant as they are two political figures which have managed to inspire more passion and engaged more people politically than I can remember. The figures are Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump. Both very different ideologically, but equally passion-inspiring to their followers (and detractors). Which one do I prefer? Shouldn’t be too difficult to guess…

PS: check the captions for locations

Artist credits:

Amy Winehouse and Jerry Seinfeld by SacSix

Trump the turd by hansky

David Bowie the graffiti room

Near Suffok and Rivington

Kenmare and Mott Sts

Freeman Alley, off Rivington

Freeman Alley off Rivington

Orchard off Canal