Global Graphica

Artist Shepard Fairey appeared on local New York City news station NY1 for an in-studio live interview segment. Among several topics discussed were the iconic Obama “Hope” poster, graffiti, copyright and fair-use issues, and his new work, which will show at the Deitch Projects gallery, in New York, in May.

More street-art freshness in the form of large, colorful letters by A.S.V.P. on the “Jay Meisel” building at Spring and Bowery streets in the Nolita-Lower East Side border area., downtown New York City.

Wheat-paste street art of a classic Americana-style Coney Island picture postcard on the Jay Meisel building (on Spring street at Bowery) in Nolita, New York City.

Oh, so this is what a time machine looks like. Who knew it was parked on Broome Street in Chinatown, in downtown New York City. We wonder where they put the flux-capacitor.

This van parked on Wooster Street in SoHo has been given the graffiti treatment by Smort Crew.

An A.S.V.P. wheat-paste poster at the vacant lot at the corner of Prince and Mulberry streets, across the way from the McNally-Jackson Bookstore, in Nolita, New York City. Notice how the A.S.V.P. neatly covers a sneaker paste-up (see previous post).

Another one of the sneakers wheat-paste posters. This street art work series uses bright DayGlo-type colors over a black-and-white image of a high-top shoe. Usually the kicks are shown in profile or 3/4-angle view. In this piece, the shoe image is full-frontal.

You could find this poster next to the vacant lot at the corner of Prince and Mulberry streets in Nolita, near SoHo, in downtown New York City.  But the very next day after this photo was taken, fresh work by A.S.V.P. was wheat pasted over the sneaker. (See the next post.) And even that has since been covered, ripped, and covered again several times over.

The personal Facebook profile picture has become the source material for artist Matt Held and his series of of oil-on-canvas “Facebook Portraits.” We want want one (or two or three.) Held chronicles his experience at The Portrait Painted Blog.

Foursquare badges have a distinct (mostly) flat info-graphic design aesthetic we like. The designs have thick round borders and cheery colors. But it’s the sense of humor of these icons we like best. Foursquare recently activated a badge for Banksy, which incorporates the artist’s signature rat wearing starry-eyed sunglasses.

Gorgeous signage and architectural design at Meet, a beautiful loft space  at “The Apartment” in SoHo that can be rented for corporate meetings and event.

Fresh art work from Haculla at the usual spot near Cafe Select on Lafayette Street in SoHo / Nolita.  IHere the artist  uses imagery from the Statue of Liberty and celebrates New York City  (and state) under the heading “Empire State.” The standard fanged and mustachioed  Haculla character is superimposed on Lady Liberty herself.

These directional “Walk” signs on a building hoarding in SoHo are amusing. Love ‘em. Aside from stating the obvious, the signs imply that walking in the opposite directions is not an option, when clearly it is. There’s a nice “R.I.P.” stencil below it. (Sadly, the battery in our digital camera died before we could get a close-up shot.)

The side of this building at Canal and Mercer streets on the Soho-Tribeca border in New York City has for years been a giant outdoor billboard space for Rockstar Games, the videogame unit of Take Two Interactive that gave us the Grand Theft Auto series. Here we see an ad for one of there new titles, “Red Dead Redemption,” which comes out in May 2010.

Artist and Lower East Side fixture Marco painted these massive hoardings on the stretch of Orchard Street between Houston and Stanton streets, where for a couple of years several major condo, hotel and retail property-development projects have simultaneously been in progress.

Marco’s aesthetic is not exactly our style, but he’s playfully brightened up a block that for too long has been blighted by construction. We took these pictures a couple of months ago during a terribly grim patch of winter weather in New York City. These paintings brought some cheer on a gray day, on a gray road. Thanks, Marco!

Here’s an amusing short animated video of a birds-eye view car chase on Google Maps. The locale is Brooklyn, New York City. (The chase starts in front of the Brooklyn Museum of Art in Prospect Park.) There are so many possibilities with this idea. It seems that the creators could have taken this a lot further, but it’s great proof of concept.

Satellite Car Chase from Honest Directors on Vimeo.

A massive and ripped-up Obey-Andre (“Giant has a Posse”) wheat-paste poster in SoHo, in downtown New York City. Looks kinda cool this way, actually, like abstract artwork.

The beautiful and beautifully rendered large logo on the wall at La Colombe Torrefaction cafe in Tribeca, New York City.The espresso here is some seriously good and seriously strong stuff.

Revisit is a beautiful real-time and dynamic visualization of Twitter users and their tweets for a select set of keywords over time. Kind of like Twittervision, but cooler.

Website: http://moritz.stefaner.eu/projects/revisit/

This is “five kinds of awesome” awesome! Love it.