Global Graphica

We went to the International Center of Photography in New York City on Sunday to the “Dress Codes” exhibition. We love the entrance to the ICP School on Sixth Avenue  at 43rd Street in Midtown (BTW, 6th Ave. is officially called Avenue of the Americas, but nobody living in NYC calls it this).

The entrance is a small, elegant, glass-walled structure at the edge of a broad, marbled plaza adjacent to the a couple of tall office buildings. The ICP is essentially subterranean and the little building exists in the same way as a covered entrance to the subway, that is, as a means to be covered and protected by the elements and afford some beautiful space for reception.

Below is a pic we took using our cellphone camera.

Does anyone remember Patrick Nagel? He was an illustrator and graphic artist who created an sexy, iconic graphical style of female portraits and figures. His work was a staple of Playboy magazine and grace album covers and sold widely and commercially in the 1980′s. This awesome wheat-paste street-art poster-work on a building in Tokyo, Japan looks a little like Nagel’s style, though it’s obviously not Nagel’s work. He died in 1984.

Here’s an image of a massive graffiti tag on a shop’s roller-shade in Tokyo, Japan. We like the color combination of red and mustard-yellow hues.

We love the design of this branded signage for Lafuma Furniture in Harajuku, Tokyo.

“What” skull street-art in the Harajuku neighborhood, in Tokyo, Japan.

“YKRC” and X-Large brand stickers articulate the arrow symbol on this Tokyo street sign.

We thought we’d kick off a new series of Tokyo street-art postings with this a video of a 747 jumbo jet landing in Tokyo at Narita International Airport, which was also posted on the Pop Massive website.

747 Jumbo-Jet Touchdown at Tokyo Narita Airport from Super Core on Vimeo.

Clever street art in Athens, Greece.

The structures at the corner of Lafayette and Grand streets in SoHo, in downtown New York City, were recently torn down to make room for a new real estate development (probably another  luxury condo). Once the lot had been razed to the ground, some awesome graffiti and street art painting was exposed.

Lovely.

We love this wheat-paste street-art poster on Broome St. in SoHo. There’s a retro-Communist aesthetic evoked from this image of a cute baby astronaut in A.S.V.P.-branded helmet.

We love this street art painting of a cute, Greek goddess in Psyrri, in Athens, Greece.

From our City Life file: We stumbled upon this portable stage — a kind of bandshell on wheels — parked at Grand and Orchard streets on the Lower East Side.  An indie band was playing the stage at the time — we wish we could remember their name. The stage and concert were part of the Apples on Orchard street festival, an annual event to mark the start of autumn in New York City.

Here (and here, too) are some more kick-arse street art from our Iceland series …

A lovely set of stencils exploring the cute, furry animal motif along the Blue Wall off the main shopping drag of Hverfisgata street in central Reykjavik, Iceland.

From our Design and Cool Spaces file: The “Lower East Side Ping Pong Club” is a newly opended, temporary storefront table-tennis space in downtown New York City (on Grand Street, near Norfolk Street) that’s part of a collaboration with sneakers brand Puma and Grand Opening, an event-marketing agency that produces pop-ups stores. We love this!

Global Graphica is on Twitter. In fact, we have been providing regular updates via our tweets for  many months now. Check out our  Twitter page now and become a follower!

http://twitter.com/globalgraphica/

Super-fresh work from Shepard Fairey (of Obama poster, Obey / Giant Has a Posse, and Swindle Magazine fame) on Ludlow Street, practically across the street from Global Graphica HQ in the heart of the old Lower East Side of Manhattan.

We haven’t seen anything from Fairey for a long time in the “Bel-Del” area (below Delancey St.) — which is a relatively quiet stretch of the LES. It’s nice to see that it’s an original piece of first-rate artwork instead of just the usual “Andre” poster.

We might be wrong, but the object in this image looks like an old-style printing press or factory machine from the Industrial Revolution.

A man paints over graffiti ona storefront roller-shutter in the Psyrri neighborhood of Athens, Greece.

Awesome recent wheat-paste street-art work by Primo on Crosby Street in downtown New York City. This street — a narrow, cobblestoned, five-block stretch in SoHo — is a popular posting location for this artist.