100 Pieces of (Street) Art

Summary

All Of It: Episode Summary – "100 Pieces of (Street) Art"

Host: Alison Stewart
Guests: Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo, Co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art
Release Date: February 13, 2025
Duration: Approximately 33 minutes

---

Introduction

In the centennial episode of WNYC's All Of It, host Alison Stewart delves into the vibrant world of New York City's street art. Celebrating the city's rich cultural tapestry, Alison introduces listeners to "100 Pieces of Art to See in the City," a heartfelt compilation curated with insights from experts like Jackson Arne from The New Yorker and renowned artist Glenn Ligon. This episode focuses specifically on outdoor art, encouraging listeners to lace up their walking shoes and explore the city's hidden and prominent artistic gems.

Guests Introduced

Steve Harrington (00:36): "We wanted to make sure, hopefully, it's still up because the nature of street art and graffiti is that it gets destroyed by the weather or by your peers or by the owner of a building if it is against the law."

Jaime Rojo (00:36): "Placement is key. If it's placed in the context within the community, within the neighborhood, within the culture, and also place specifically on a wall, I think it makes the art pop."

Brooklyn Street Art Project

Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo, co-founders of Brooklyn Street Art, share their journey in promoting street artists since 2008. Having published over 6,000 articles, their project has expanded from Brooklyn to five continents, highlighting the global impact and diversity of street art.

Steve Harrington (02:25): "Brooklyn Street Art is an artist project. We're both artists. We both lived in New York since the 80s and we've both worked in many creative industries and we began Brooklyn Street Art as a way to help street artists who we knew how to promote themselves."

Highlighted Art Pieces

1. Big Apple Invader (04:19)

Located at 322 W. 14th St., this piece features Invader, a French street artist known for his pixelated, tile-based mosaics inspired by 8-bit video games.

Jaime Rojo (04:33): "He had this project in Paris where he wanted to do 1,000 pieces. And he did it in 2011. And we like this piece because he's giving homage to New York."

Steve Harrington (05:07): "City with the Big Apple and Milton Glazier. It seems like a meta version of I love New York. It's Invader loves the Big Apple."

2. Tom Otterness Sculptures (06:04 - 07:02)

Listener Peter from Jersey City praises the whimsical sculptures by Tom Otterness, scattered across various locations like the 8th Avenue and 14th Street subway station. Despite Otterness's controversial reputation, his brass works remain enduring public fixtures.

Peter (06:11): "I love the tiny sculptures by I think his name is Otterness... They're tiny whimsical figures interacting. There's a whole civilization in the subway station."

Steve Harrington (07:03): "He is a controversial figure, but the art, you know, is made of brass. I think it's going to stay for a long time."

3. Nick Cave Mosaics (07:34)

TJ from Brooklyn highlights the vibrant mosaics by Nick Cave along the 42nd Street corridor.

TJ (07:34): "I love mosaic in general, but the Nick Cave mosaics... I was blown away by how beautiful, how much energy and life they had in them."

4. Bird Mural by Roy (08:42)

A detailed discussion unfolds around Roy's monochromatic bird mural at 16 E. 2nd St., emphasizing its placement on razor wire, symbolizing the intersection of nature and urban decay.

Jaime Rojo (09:04): "He's known for his large scale monochromatic murals depicting animals, often in states of decay or dissection."

Steve Harrington (09:18): "He's trying to figure out whether that is a starling or a crackle, if anyone in that neighborhood has an opinion."

5. Bed Stuy Walls (10:54)

Deborah from Brooklyn shares her admiration for the annual murals at Lexington between Lewis Avenue and Stuyvesant Avenue, showcasing global and local artists.

Deborah (10:54): "It's street art and murals... Artists come in from all over the world... It's one of the different sites you could find street art in Brooklyn."

6. The Cube on West Fourth Street (12:05)

Deborah also mentions the interactive cube at West Fourth Street and Lafayette, a symbol of individual impact within the vast cityscape.

Deborah (12:05): "I always bring my guests to see it because... you make an impact and change the face of New York right now."

7. Dogs on a Wire by Skewville (13:03)

Steve introduces the playful installations by Skewville, consisting of sneaker-shaped dogs perched on wires across Brooklyn, particularly in Bushwick.

Steve Harrington (13:03): "They are echoing something that already is a normal sight in many neighborhoods... it's a mixture of humor, nostalgia, and mischief altogether."

Jaime Rojo (14:09): "What's interesting about these pieces is that sometimes you see a singular pair, sometimes you see multiples."

8. Hammer Boy by Banksy (14:34)

One of Banksy's rare and preserved pieces, "Hammer Boy," located near Zabar's on the Upper West Side, exemplifies Banksy's interactive and preservation-friendly approach.

Steve Harrington (16:19): "I love it because the boy is swinging a hammer... He's cleverly interacting with a piece of street furniture."

Jaime Rojo (16:19): "The focus is the way that he puts pieces and then he invites the public to interact with them."

9. Triangle Fire Memorial (17:34)

Listener Tom from Manhattan shares a personal connection to the memorial dedicated to the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire victims, featuring engraved names and contemporary quotes projected onto mirrored surfaces.

Tom (17:16): "It finally recognizes and memorializes the victims of that fire... one of the victims was my great aunt Fanny."

Steve Harrington (18:51): "Memorial murals have such an important role to play in communities and feelings of connectedness."

10. Yusuf Hawkins Tribute Mural (19:18)

A poignant mural recalling the tragic death of Yusuf Hawkins, a 16-year-old from East New York, emphasizing racial tensions and community healing.

Steve Harrington (19:18): "Yusuf Hawkins was surrounded and harassed... Floyd Sapp created this mural originally in 1989 and it was restored by Spector from Canada."

Jaime Rojo (20:27): "He restored it again in 2016 and last year, adding beautiful magnolia blossoms."

11. Love Me, Love Me Not by Fail (21:49)

Located in Transmitter Park, this mural by the duo Fail combines artistic influences from Lichtenstein and Warhol with environmental themes introduced during Climate Week 2016.

Jaime Rojo (22:24): "It was done in 2016 and it was done for Climate Week. And it has also a little frog next to the girl."

Steve Harrington (22:48): "Her socks have patterns from Polish lace as a nod to Greenpoint's immigrant population."

12. Radiant Madonna by Owen Dippie (22:59)

A striking hybrid of Renaissance art and pop culture, featuring a large-scale Madonna holding Keith Haring's Radiant Baby.

Steve Harrington (22:59): "Instead of holding the baby as she was in that painting, she has Haring's Radiant Baby. It's such an amazing hybrid."

13. Rock on the Break of Dawn by oshemiôs (23:54)

These murals, created by Brazilian twins oshemiôs, celebrate New York City's 1980s hip-hop culture with vibrant, dreamlike narratives.

Steve Harrington (24:23): "They are Brazilians, Octavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. They create dreamlike narrative, rich street art characterized by their signature yellow skin characters."

Jaime Rojo (25:13): "They have boom boxes, tracksuits, Converse sneakers... a tribute to Rocksteady Crew."

14. Chambers Humiliated Sound Art (25:49)

Musician Lee from Tribeca highlights an auditory installation at Chambers Street subway station, featuring a multi-tone drone that enriches the commuter experience.

Lee (25:49): "It's called Chambers Humiliated... it's a really vibrant, droning sound. Every time I'm in that station, I stop and listen for a while because it's so beautiful."

15. Duke Ellington Memorial by Robert Graham (26:54)

A recommendation to visit the Duke Ellington memorial at Fifth Avenue and 110th Street, a detailed granite carving celebrating the jazz legend.

Promoted Text (26:54): "Take a ride to Fifth Avenue and 110th street to see the sensational Duke Ellington memorial by Robert Graham. Bring binoculars to dwell on the many interesting details."

16. Wild Things by Fred Tomaselli (27:32)

Located at the 14th Street Subway Station, Fred Tomaselli's "Wild Things" features vibrant, multi-species bird imagery, contributing to the station's artistic ambiance.

Steve Harrington (27:37): "Fred Tomaselli uses compositions that incorporate painting, collage, resin, encased materials... they alter perception."

17. Cornerstone by Ken Hiratsuka (29:34)

Gloria from the Upper West Side introduces the "Cornerstone," a clandestine granite carving by Japanese artist Ken Hiratsuka, symbolizing the blend of traditional craftsmanship and street graffiti.

Gloria (29:34): "It's a carved granite stone at the corner of Prince and Broadway. Made by Ken Hiratsuka, a Japanese artist who carved it by hand with hammer and chisel in the stealth of night."

18. Circulating Yarn Slaves by Dan Waits and Olek (31:24)

The duo's installations feature haunting imagery of trapped individuals interacting with urban structures, blending traditional painting with contemporary street art techniques.

Steve Harrington (31:24): "These are gratings and windows that will normally occur in a cityscape, usually with some hands poking through them or a trapped person."

Jaime Rojo (31:24): "Olek is from Poland, and Dan Waits focuses on the placement of his pieces to seamlessly integrate with the urban environment."

Listener Contributions and Interactive Segment

Throughout the episode, Alison Stewart encourages listeners to share their favorite pieces of street art via calls and texts, fostering a community-driven exploration of New York City's artistic landscape. Listeners like Peter, TJ, Deborah, and others contribute personal anecdotes and recommendations, enriching the conversation with diverse perspectives.

Conclusion

As the episode wraps up, Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo express their gratitude for participating in All Of It, emphasizing the continual evolution and preservation of street art in New York City. Alison Stewart closes by acknowledging the vast array of art pieces still waiting to be discovered, encouraging listeners to remain engaged with their city's cultural offerings.

---

Notable Quotes:

• Steve Harrington (04:19): "We tried to choose things from a wide range. Really small things, hidden things, and enormous things."

• Jaime Rojo (03:05): "Placement is key. It makes the art pop, it makes the art interesting and it cuts. Gets the attention of the public."

• Tom (17:16): "I always glad now to be able to see her name there and to take friends and family to look at this new memorial."

• Jaime Rojo (27:25): "The art actually brightens your day... It just brings so much color and vibrancy and life into our daily experiences using the public transportation."

---

This episode of All Of It serves as a comprehensive guide to New York City's street art, blending expert insights with community voices to celebrate the ever-evolving cultural mosaic of the city. Whether you're a local or a visitor, "100 Pieces of (Street) Art" offers an enriching itinerary to experience the dynamic artistic expressions that adorn the city's streets.

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance]

All of it is supported by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game? Well, with the Name youe Price Tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates Price and coverage match Limited by state law not available in all states. Listener Supported WNYC Studios.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of it. I'm Alison Stewart live from the WNYC Studios in soho. Thank you for sharing part of your day with us. I'm really grateful you are here. Actor and Oscar nominee Monica Barbaro will be here in studio. She's playing Joan Baez in the new film A Complete Unknown. We'll speak with another Oscar nominee, Pierre Olivier Purcell, the makeup artist behind the special effects in the film the Substance. And we'll talk to the author and the illustrator of a new book called what to do when youn Get Dumped. That's the plan. So let's get this started with some really great art that you do not need to go into a museum to see. We are celebrating WNYC's centennial celebration with 100 pieces of art to see in the city. It is a completely unscientific yet heartfelt list of works you can experience in NYC. We've had experts on the show giving us their 10 takes from the New Yorker's Jackson Arne to our's Glenn Ligon. Today we have a list that requires you to put on your walking shoes. It's a list of outdoor art that you can see in New York. Joining us now from Brooklyn Street Art are co founders Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo. Nice to meet you.

[Steve Harrington]

Thank you so much. We're glad to be here.

[Jaime Rojo]

Thank you Alison.

[Alison Stewart]

Nice meeting you listeners. We want to know, do you have a favorite piece of street art or public art? What Burr is in? What do you like about it? We want to hear about it. 2124-3396-9221-2433-WNYC. You can call in and join us on air or you can text to us at that number. 212-433-WNYC. While we wait for our phone lines to fill on up. Steve, tell us what Brooklyn Street Art is.

[Steve Harrington]

Brooklyn Street Art is an artist project. We're both artists. We both lived in New York since the 80s and we've both worked in many creative industries and we began Brooklyn Street Art as a way to help street artists who we knew how to promote themselves. And we began that in 2008 and we've published more than 6,000 articles since then. We started in Brooklyn and it went around the world. We went to five continents to cover street art.

[Alison Stewart]

Jaime, what makes street art good art?

[Jaime Rojo]

There's such a thing, well, that is accessible, that is free, that is unexpected. And in my opinion, one particular observation that I make when I am photographing a specific piece of street art is placement. I think placement is key. If it's placed in the context within the community, within the neighborhood, within the culture, and also place specifically on a wall, I think it makes the art pop, it makes the art interesting and it cuts. Gets the attention of the public.

[Alison Stewart]

Steve, what were your criteria for the list that you gave us?

[Steve Harrington]

We wanted to make sure, hopefully it's still up because the nature of street art and graffiti is that it gets destroyed by the weather or by your peers or by the owner of a building if it is against the law. So we tried to choose things from a wide range. Really small things, hidden things, and enormous things.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's go into your list. You have the Big apple invader at 322 W. 14th St. I've seen this a million times. It's a sort of alien or like this space invader icon climbing up the wall. When did this go up?

[Jaime Rojo]

2015.

[Alison Stewart]

2015. Who's the artist?

[Jaime Rojo]

Invader. He's a French street artist and he's known for his pixelated tile based mosaics that are inspired by the 8 bit video games. He had this project in Paris where he wanted to do 1,000 pieces.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, wow.

[Jaime Rojo]

And he did it. He did it in 2011. And we like this piece. There are other pieces by him around the city, but we like this piece because he's giving homage to New York.

[Steve Harrington]

City with the Big Apple and Milton Glazier. It seems like a meta version of I love New York. It's Invader loves the Big Apple.

[Alison Stewart]

It's sort of interesting because at first you don't really notice that and you wonder when you look up there, you're like, wait, wait, that's a piece of art as you're walking down 14th Street? I wondered. You said 2015? Yes, I wondered. This is a dumb question. I know.

[Jaime Rojo]

It's a little bit of a dumb nothing.

[Steve Harrington]

There are no dumb questions.

[Alison Stewart]

Does it have anything to do with the Apple Store?

[Steve Harrington]

No, I doubt it.

[Alison Stewart]

Just wondered. It's right on the end, at the end of that street.

[Jaime Rojo]

No, it doesn't. But I want to add a little bit of a little backstory about this artist. In 2012, he wanted to send one of his aliens he called some of his characters on a weather balloon into space.

[Alison Stewart]

Wow.

[Jaime Rojo]

And he did make a movie about it called Art for Space and he launched it and I don't know, maybe Crash, but he wanted to do that.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's take some calls. Let's talk to Peter in Jersey City. Hi, Peter, you are on the air.

[Progressive Insurance]

Hi. I love the tiny sculptures by I think his name is Ottendorfer, which I first saw in the 8th Avenue 14th street subway station, the Acel. And then I found his chess game at the north end of Battery Park. And then there's one solitary figure outside the public school on Chambers street across from Borough of Manhattan Community College. And there are probably more elsewhere. They're tiny whimsical figures interacting. There's a whole civilization in the subway station.

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, that's Tom.

[Steve Harrington]

Tom Otterness. Yes. And those were all legal. So they were commissioned pieces. And he is a controversial figure, if.

[Alison Stewart]

One thank you for saying that.

[Steve Harrington]

Would like to do some Googling. Unfortunately for him, I think he may have damaged his own reputation. But the art, you know, is made of brass. I think it's going to stay for a long time.

[Alison Stewart]

This text says the Five Continents at the Customs House at Bowling Green by Daniel Chester French. I've been to his workshops in Pittsfield, Massachusetts. Thanks for calling in. Let's talk to TJ who's calling in from Brooklyn. Hi, tj you're on the air.

[Progressive Insurance]

Hello. Thank you for taking my call. My favorite newly kind of discovered piece are the Nick Cave mosaics. I love mosaic in general, but the Nick Cave mosaics on the 42nd street corridor between, I think it's the ACE and the F trains. I discovered them recently because I was coming back from a very disappointing art show happening the Corridor and was blown away by how beautiful, how much energy and life they had in them.

[Steve Harrington]

So the night wasn't lost, was it.

[Progressive Insurance]

T.J. no, it was a great, great evening. In the end, it turned out well.

[Alison Stewart]

Thanks so much for calling, listeners. Do you have a favorite piece of art or street art? Where is it? What do you like about it? We want to hear from you. 2124-3396-9221-2433. WNYC we're celebrating WNYC centennial celebration with a hundred pieces of art to see in New York City. Today we're looking at outdoor art. Our guests are the co founders of Brooklyn Street Art, Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo. All right. Our next up is the bird mural at 16 E. 2nd St. What is the bird doing in this mural in the urban jungle.

[Jaime Rojo]

Well, that bird is done by Roy. He is a Belgium artist and he was originally a graffiti writer and now he's known for his large scale monochromatic murals depicting animals, often in states of decay or dissection. You want to talk about that, Steve?

[Steve Harrington]

Yes. So what's interesting about this is that it's in a public space, but he didn't do it with permission, which we found out through some sleuthing because we thought it had been commissioned and it just appeared overnight. He tends to focus on animals that are in the margins of society. Again, he's traveled five continents and he has done. He picks the animals that people least.

[Jaime Rojo]

Like usually, or they are in danger of extinction.

[Steve Harrington]

And so we're trying to figure out whether that is a starling or a crackle, if anyone in that neighborhood has an opinion, because Roa didn't give any clues and it's hard to identify what kind of bird he is. Maybe there's some orange ornithologists listening on nyc. I bet there are.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, yes, there are. I wonder when you pass by this bird mural at 16 East 2nd street, what is something that you notice about the bird?

[Jaime Rojo]

There is a perch on that wire that. It's razor wire. Razor wire. And I know from a good search that originally they didn't like it. The people that tend to the garden because they want to keep the garden just purely as a garden, they don't want to keep it as an art garden, but the public likes it and they are keeping it. But you see the bird and it's bird. But then you follow the contours of the bird and you see that it's on a razor wire. And that is what caught my attention.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's talk to Jeffrey, who is calling in. Hi, Jeffrey calling in from Brooklyn.

[Progressive Insurance]

Yeah, hi, good afternoon. I'm basically calling about Bed Stuy walls, like Bedford Stuyvesant walls. And basically it's street art and murals. You know, some call it graffiti, but it's really different murals. It's an entire Avenue, maybe 20 to 25 different pieces, the full sizes of the buildings. They do it every year, put the latest ones up in October. There are artists that come in from all over the world, you know, many in New York City, artists and so forth. I just looked up the exact address. It's on Lexington in between Lewis Avenue and Stuyvesant Avenue, but it's called Bed Stuy Walls. And again, if you just like looking at the street art, there are many, many murals. It's one of the different Sites you could find street art in Brooklyn, you know, and New York City, Manhattan as well.

[Alison Stewart]

Thanks so much for calling. Let's talk to Deborah. Hi, Deborah, thanks for calling, all of it. Yeah, you're on the air. Wait, wait, wait, wait.

[Progressive Insurance]

I'm Deborah. Deborah, I'm calling about the. I've always loved the cube on West Fourth street and Lafayette downtown. I lived there for about 20 years, and I always bring my guests to see it because I tell them that in New York, it's such a large city, and it's hard to feel like that you make an impact. But we can make an impact and change the face of New York right now. And we move the cube physically turns around. About a year or two ago, it was under construction and you couldn't move it. There were. There was a fence around it. But it's back to normal now, and you can actually move the cube.

[Steve Harrington]

I think it's been fully refurbished.

[Alison Stewart]

Yes, it has. Thank you so much for calling. Let's go back to your list. Dogs on a Wire by Skuville. Various locations, mostly in Bushwick. First of all, tell us who make up the duo Skewville.

[Steve Harrington]

Skewville are Ad and Drew. They are twin brothers from Woodside, and they have been throwing these dogs over wires since 1999. They screen print this image of a sneaker on wood and then cut it out into the shape of a sneaker, hook it together with wires, and throw it up over wires. And they have done thousands of them. And there are many in Brooklyn, Bushwick, Queensland, around the city. If you're looking for them. They're very humorous and rebellious guys. They give a lot back to the street art community.

[Alison Stewart]

Are they there to symbolize what normal sneakers over a wire symbolize?

[Steve Harrington]

Absolutely. They're an echo of something that already is a normal sight in many neighborhoods in New York. There's a lot of debate, though, whether what the true meaning of them are, whether it's a tribute or whether it's.

[Jaime Rojo]

Just mischief or marking a territory.

[Steve Harrington]

Or marking territory.

[Jaime Rojo]

But what's interesting about these pieces is that sometimes you see a singular pair, sometimes you see multiples, and sometimes you see them mixed with regular sneakers. And so it's like something really fun to see around the city. If you go to Bushwick, where the Bushwick Collective is, you can see hundreds of them hanging for wires.

[Steve Harrington]

So it's like a mixture of humor, nostalgia, and mischief altogether. When you see one of our set of their dogs, you always smile.

[Alison Stewart]

Hammer Boy, Banksy. This appeared on the Upper west side first of All. How do we know it's Banksy?

[Steve Harrington]

Good question.

[Jaime Rojo]

Good question. Well, that was done in 2013 during. During his New York residency, is the only lasting piece from that October, from 2013, he did multiple. Multiple pieces. He did one piece a day. And that's the one that has been kept. And it has been kept because the owners of. Do you say Savers or Savers? The Savers. Sabars or Sabers? How do you say it? I never know how to say.

[Alison Stewart]

Use it in a sentence. The.

[Steve Harrington]

The Zabar store.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, Zabar. Zabar, Zabars. Zabars, yes.

[Jaime Rojo]

Sabers.

[Alison Stewart]

Hi. Sandy. We know Sandy. Zabar.

[Steve Harrington]

Oh, okay, great.

[Jaime Rojo]

So Andy has been a keeper of the piece and he took ownership of it in the best way possible to preserve it for the public.

[Alison Stewart]

He's huge fans of art, by the way.

[Jaime Rojo]

Well, that's why it makes sense. But not only did they do that, like, they put a camera in front of it to make sure it doesn't get vandalized, they put a Plexiglas on top of it to make sure that it stays. And, you know, a lot of pieces get stolen or they get painted over, but this piece has been there, preserved by these people who love art, as you just said, but also love the fact that the public can enjoy it as well.

[Steve Harrington]

I love it because the boy is swinging a hammer. So he's cleverly interacting with a piece of street furniture that already exists and created an opportunity for people to take selfies. A lot of people like to put their heads down on that and get their picture taken as if they're gonna get bashed.

[Jaime Rojo]

Well, you know, one of the genius of Banksy, like, if you are going to talk about the craftsmanship of the work, very often it's not that good because a lot of the times the pieces are put illegally in the middle of the night. So that's not the focus of it. The focus of it is the way that he puts pieces and then he invites public to interact with them. And it is the concept behind it.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's take another call. Tom is calling in from Manhattan now. Hi, Tom, you're on the air.

[Progressive Insurance]

Hi. This is a great segment. I love wandering around the city and finding new piece of public art I haven't seen. One of the latest came up about two years ago, just October 2023. It's the memorial for the Triangle Fire of 1911. It was dedicated in October 23rd. It's at the site of the fire, which is now an NYU building on the corner of Green in Washington Washington Place in. In the Village. It's very interesting. Conceptual art has list 146 people who died in that terrible fire at the. At the garment factory shirtwaist factory fire. And the names of the victims is. Are. Is essentially projected through engravings cutouts onto a mirrored. A mirrored hips. What do you call a thing around the, around the bottom of the building with quotes about current of contemporary quotes of the depiction of the fire. I mean like every other. Much of the other art you've described was contentious. Some people hate it, a lot of people love it. But it is something which finally after over 100 years recognizes and memorializes the victims of that fire which set off a great social movement in the United States, as many of your listeners already know. And one of the victims was my great aunt Fanny. And I always glad now to be able to see her name there and to take friends and family to look at this new memorial.

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you Tom for calling in and for sharing that personal story.

[Steve Harrington]

I love memorial murals. They have such an important role to play in communities and feelings of connectedness in a neighborhood and in a city. And murals such as those add so much to your life because you become connected to your own history by reading the account.

[Jaime Rojo]

We have one of I don't know, at least maybe. Yeah, go for it.

[Steve Harrington]

Yeah. It's the Yusuf Hawkins Tribute mural. Yusuf Hawkins was a 16 year old teen from East New York who went to Bensonhurst on August 23rd, 1989 to look at a used Pontiac with a couple of friends. And within two or three blocks of leaving the subway, he and his friends were surrounded by 10 to 20 primarily Italian American youth who actively harassed them and one of them put two bullets in his chest. Talk about lighting the city on fire. It really set off a chain reaction of events in the city. And Floyd Sapp created this mural originally in 1989 and he was a Brooklyn based artist and teacher of art and African American History at CW Post. In 2011 one of the current street artists, Spector from Canada refurbished it, restored.

[Jaime Rojo]

It, he restored it and he restored it again in 2016 and he went back last year and did a new restoration and he keeps the portrait and he adds beautiful magnolia blossoms on the wall.

[Alison Stewart]

I want to tell people that's at Fulton and Verona Place in Bed Stuy. We are talking about great places to catch public art. My guests are Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo of the co founders of the Brooklyn Street Art. We'll have more recommendations and we'll take more of your calls after a quick break. This is all of It.

[Progressive Insurance]

NYC now delivers breaking news, top headlines and in depth coverage from WNYC and Gothamist every morning, midday and evening. By sponsoring our programming, you'll reach a community of passionate listeners in an uncluttered audio experience. Visit sponsorship.wnyc.org to learn more.

[Alison Stewart]

This is all of It on WNYC. I'm Alison Stewart in studio with. With me now, Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo. They are co founders of Brooklyn Street Art. We are taking a look at 10 pics that they've made of great street art. Doesn't mean that's it. There's tons of art out there.

[Steve Harrington]

There's so much.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's start with Love Me, Love Me Not. It's by a duo known as Fail who are Fail.

[Steve Harrington]

Fail is a Brooklyn based, now Queens based duo who started as wheat paste street artists with their own style of image based screen print, collage and stencils. Their style is sort of like Lichtenstein, Warhol, Jacques Wigli are all influences. They actually had a huge show at the Brooklyn Museum in 2014.

[Alison Stewart]

This giant mural is of a girl. It's in Transmitter Park. She's sort of girl looking. Love me, love me not with the daisies. Is that. Does that have like a political. It doesn't.

[Jaime Rojo]

Well, you might say it has political, but it was done in 2016 and it was done for Climate Week. And it has also a little frog next to the girl.

[Alison Stewart]

Oh, I didn't see the frog.

[Jaime Rojo]

There's a little frog. And the girl had some socks.

[Steve Harrington]

Yeah. Her socks have patterned from Polish lace as a nod to Greenpoint having such a large immigrant population from Poland.

[Alison Stewart]

I love this one. Radiant Madonna. This is sort of part history, part pop history. It's a Renaissance Madonna holding Keith Haring's Radiant Baby.

[Jaime Rojo]

Yes. It was stolen by Oyen Dippi. He is from New Zealand. It was done in 2015.

[Steve Harrington]

And it's Raphael's Madonna del Granduca. It's a copy of her, except she was 33 inches high and this is 33ft high. So big it's enormous.

[Jaime Rojo]

It's actually very easy to spot from the street.

[Steve Harrington]

And instead of holding the baby as she was in that painting, she has Hering's Radiant Baby. It's such an amazing hybrid. It causes people to stop and stare and kind of just check their head like, what am I seeing here? And it's. He's a very talented realistic painter. Owen Dippie from New Zealand.

[Alison Stewart]

And that's at 362 Jefferson Ave. In Bushwick. All right. This one cracks me up because I saw this being made.

[Jaime Rojo]

Oh.

[Alison Stewart]

At 140 W. 14th St. I was on my way to the Y, on my way to McBurney y, and there was this guy on, like, a lift. And then it kept going, and it kept going. And this is Rock on the Break of Dawn, Part 1 and 2.

[Steve Harrington]

On and on till the break of.

[Alison Stewart]

Dawn on and on till the break of dawn. It's a pair of twins.

[Steve Harrington]

Yes.

[Alison Stewart]

All right.

[Jaime Rojo]

It's little twins.

[Alison Stewart]

All right. Who are they? What's their image?

[Steve Harrington]

So in Portuguese, the word for twins is oshemios, and that's their name.

[Jaime Rojo]

They're twins.

[Steve Harrington]

They're from Sao Paulo. They're twins. Octavio and Gustavo.

[Jaime Rojo]

They are Brazilian, and they are Ottavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. They create dreamlike narrative, rich street art characterized by their signature yellow skin characters.

[Steve Harrington]

And it's usually a dreamlike scene.

[Alison Stewart]

These are so fun. They've got, like, a hip hop vibe to it. And one of them, like, the chimneys are coming out of the top of the hat. It's really great.

[Steve Harrington]

Yeah, they're free. With their proportions of their characters. It is a tribute to New York City's 1980 hip hop culture. It's a double mural. Two murals facing each other. It took them more than a month to complete that.

[Alison Stewart]

And it's an abandoned lot in between them.

[Steve Harrington]

It is, yeah. I don't know how long that stays abandoned. I'm glad it does. But they have boom boxes, tracksuits, Converse sneakers. They have a tribute to Rocksteady Crew, Frosty Freeze, James Brown and Marta Cooper and Martha Cooper. The COVID of Subway Art is also on the guy's T shirt with Don D. The graphic artist. King. Yeah, well, the King Graffiti style master.

[Alison Stewart]

Let's take some calls. Lee is calling in from Tribeca. Hi, Lee.

[Progressive Insurance]

Hi. How are you doing?

[Alison Stewart]

Okay.

[Progressive Insurance]

I wanted to talk about a piece of art that's in the Chambers Street. A train station at Chamber Street. It's a sound art piece. I'm a musician, so maybe I'm more partial to something that's audio rather than visual. But it's called Chambers Humiliated. And it's in. I just looked it up. It's part of the MTA's program called Vacant Unit Activation Program. And it's a multi tone drone in, I guess, an unused closet underneath one of the stairwells in the A train. And it's just this really vibrant, droning sound. I guess a few different composers are involved in creating it. And the trains come and go, and when the trains are out of the station. You get to be surrounded by this just beautiful, humming, droning work there in the station. Every time I'm in that station, I stop and listen for a while because it's so beautiful.

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you so much. Let's see. Let's take some texts. Take a ride to Fifth Avenue and 110th street to see the sensational Duke Ellington memorial by Robert Graham. Bring binoculars to dwell on the many interesting details. This one says Frosty Meyer's the wall on Houston and Broadway was installed in 1973. This reminds me of my childhood. My dad was an art mover in Soho and downtown in the 60s and 70s. I used to drive around delivering with him. It hasn't changed a bit. And stained glass art in stations on elevated two line in the Bronx. Sorry, I don't recall the artist's names. These windows lift a rider's day.

[Jaime Rojo]

Nice. Yes.

[Steve Harrington]

Love those subway installations.

[Alison Stewart]

You got one on your list as.

[Steve Harrington]

A matter of fact.

[Alison Stewart]

14Th Station. Wild Things by Fred Tomaselli. Yes, tell us about Fred Tomaselli.

[Steve Harrington]

He is from Brooklyn, originally from Chicago. He had a mid career exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum in 2010. He uses compositions that incorporate painting, collage, resin, encased materials. They alter perception and they make me think that he has experimented with altered consciousness. Well, if you look at the depiction of the birds, that's more than just birds. They seem to reverberate. And there's an oriole, there's a falcon, there's a cardinal, there's a woodpecker. Gorgeous. And they all just went up in 2024.

[Alison Stewart]

That's really interesting because that subway line has been under construction, construction for ever.

[Steve Harrington]

For my.

[Jaime Rojo]

Well, you know, I want to give props to whoever is responsible for curating the art of the MTA because they've been doing a very good job at it. I mean, it's kind of sometimes overwhelming to, to. To navigate those halts, you know, and you get lost and you never know if you you going to into the right direction or not. But the art actually brightens your day. And I like to say thank you to them. But I also like to tell them it is great that they are keeping the new art in. With tiles, it's a material and ceramics, it's a material that is durable, that is very difficult to deface. And it just brings so much color and vibrancy and life into our daily experiences using the public transportation.

[Alison Stewart]

It's Sandra Bloodworth from the mta. We've had her on the show many times. So we'll give a Shout out to her. Yes, let's talk to Gloria from the Upper west side. Hi, Gloria. Thanks for calling, all of it. You're on the air.

[Progressive Insurance]

Hi, can you hear me?

[Alison Stewart]

Yeah, I can hear you.

[Progressive Insurance]

Okay, cool. Getting the call. But let me just say I wanted to just recommend taking a peek at the cornerstone. It's a granite. It's a carved granite stone at the corner of Prince and Broadway. And it's made by a guy named Ken Hiratsuka, a Japanese artist who made it almost as soon as he got over here in 1982, carving by hand with hammer and chisel and doing it in the stealth of night. So it really is a street graffiti in every way. And, you know, the cops would pass by, but I don't think they picked him up for it. But it did take quite a long time because he would have to just do it in small increments.

[Alison Stewart]

Thanks for your call. Let's talk to Dave in Kingston. Dave, you're our last caller.

[Progressive Insurance]

Hey.

[Steve Harrington]

Yeah.

[Progressive Insurance]

Oh, great. So I used to live on the Lower east side, and I would cross Houston and first all the time. And there were these linoleum cutouts that were somehow adhered to the crosswalk in the street. And what I later found out, there was an artist named. Who went by Toynybee that was going around to major cities applying these cutout tiles and different patterns and different words into the pavement. Somehow, and unfortunately, as New York City has been repaving the Lower east side in other areas, these works are disappearing. And they're very primitive, and no one knows exactly who the artist is. And many people have tried to figure out what the process for getting them to stick to the asphalt has been, but no one's been able to figure it out. And unfortunately, they're starting to disappear.

[Alison Stewart]

Thank you for your call.

[Steve Harrington]

Those are a mystery.

[Alison Stewart]

They are a mystery. Our last one. We've got one more minute for it. I'm gonna let you explain it. Yarn Slaves, Various locations.

[Steve Harrington]

This is Dan Witts and Olek. Olek is from Poland. Dan Witt is probably the oldest street artist here. He started when he was a student at Cooper Union in the 1970s, putting paintings of hummingbirds. He is on the level of Dutch masters painters, but he does this work that is easy to miss. He calls it in plain sight. So these are gratings and windows that will normally occur in a cityscape, usually with some hands poking through them or a trapped person.

[Alison Stewart]

A little scary.

[Steve Harrington]

It is a little scary.

[Jaime Rojo]

You might go every day a thousand times by that street by that particular wall and miss it. And one day you will look at it and see, oh, there's something strange in there and see that all this time you have seen something fake but real, you know, at the same time. Oleg she works, she's from Poland, she's Polish American. She's now in her in Poland she is mostly a yarn artist and they collaborated with these pieces and being having two different styles and mediums. And I was talking to you earlier about placement. This Dan Waits placement is key for him.

[Alison Stewart]

Steve Harrington and Jaime Rojo have been our guests. They are co founders of the Brooklyn Street Art. Thank you for your list today. We really appreciate it.

[Steve Harrington]

Thank you so much.

[Jaime Rojo]

Thank you for having us. It's been a pleasure.

[Progressive Insurance]

Since WNYC's first broadcast in 1924, we've been dedicated to creating the kind of content we know the world needs. In addition to this award winning reporting, your sponsorship also supports inspiring storytelling and extraordinary music that is free and accessible to all. To get in touch and find out more, visit sponsorship.wnyc.org.