Global Graphica

The Global Graphica massive is back in the hizzy. We took some time out to celebrate the American Thanksgiving holiday and to max and relax in New York City with friends from Tokyo. Now that we’re rested … onward with the graphica!

Snarling-German shepherd wheat-paste by street artist extraordinaire Faile at 11 Spring St. in Nolita, downtown, New York City. Love it.

Fresh ups of those black-and-white, life-sized graf-writer wheat-pastes by WK Interact at 11 Spring Street in Nolita, New York City. Classic stuff. Part of the massive wave of new work put up at 11 Spring St. by various New York street artists this past week.

Lovin’ this stencil we found on 2nd Avenue in the East Village in New York City. When we saw this piece, we thought it looked like the work of U.K.-based Banksy, but on closer inspection it looks more like the work of seminal stencil artist Blek Le Rat. But could it easily be the work of another artist and likely is; the piece is signed at the bottom, but the moniker is illegible. (If any Global Graphica readers can identify the work, please drop us a line.)

Here’s a another, longer video clip showing the massive attack of fresh new street art at 11 Spring St. in Nolita, new York City. This video shows the full breadth of the new work on along Elizabeth Street side of the building and the around the entrance on Spring Street. The work shown include pieces by Faile, Bast, WK Interact, The London Police, Flower Guy, Above, Fake, Cheeky and many more. This clip shows the state of the building onthe evening of Wednesday November 15, 2006.

Here’s a clip showing “Cheeky” and crew sign a fresh piece at the building at 11 Spring St. (a.k.a. the “candle building”) in Nolita, New York City. The new piece was put up on Tuesday (Nov. 14, 2006) evening a couple of days after several of downtown New York’s most active street artists put up a ton of new work on the building. The video shows the breadth of these artists fresh work on the Elizabeth St. side of the buidling.
(Video footage by Supercore via YouTube)

And in this image is another part of the strip of street art works (including pieces by Faile, Bast, and Cheeky) that stretch along the Elizabeth Street side of the building at 11 Spring Street in downtown Manhattan, New York City. The work by Faile is epic in scale, cut along the building arches.

The picture below shows another part of the strip of street art works (including pieces by Faile, Bast, and Cheeky) that stretch along the Elizabeth Street side of the building at 11 Spring Street, in Nolita, NYC.

BACKGROUND

At some time this past weekend, several of the best-known and most active street artists in downtown New York City put up fresh work, some of it in the form of massive wheat-paste-ups, on the building at 11 Spring Street in the Nolita neighbrhood of downtown Manhattan. Among the works are pieces by WK Interact, Faile, Bast and Cheeky. Within the past two weeks new work by Flower Guy, Swoon, Above and The London Police has also gone up on the structure.

The building has been empty and seemingly uninhabited for years despite changes of ownership in recent years. For many years, each window of the tenement-style structure had a light in the form of a fake candle, hence the informal name “candle building.” Eleven Spring St. has been a bit of mystery until recently when the property was purchased for residential use. What appeared to be early renovation work began last week.

Some fear that the redevelopment of the building for actual habitation might spell the end of street art at the site. Over the years, 11 Spring has become a landmark of street art and a canvas and mecca for artists and lovers of street art. This massive attack of new work on the building almost seems like a way of saying “street art is here to stay no mattter what the future of the building.”