Global Graphica

Cute spray-painted  grafitti heart on a door to an apartment building on Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, New York City.

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Mignon peint à la bombe coeur graffiti sur une porte pour un immeuble d’appartements sur Ludlow Street dans le Lower East Side de Manhattan, à New York.

Lindo pintadas corazón graffiti en una puerta de un edificio de apartamentos en Ludlow Street en el Lower East Side de Manhattan, Nueva York.

かわいいマンハッタン、ニューヨークのローワーイーストサイドのラドロー通りのアパートの建物のドアに落書き心臓スプレー塗装。

Classic graff truck parked on 3rd Avenue near 42nd Street in Midtown Manhattan.

“A Native American was Here” Graffiti in SoHo, in New York City.

Somebody wrote “Buttercup” with what seems like “white-out” liquid on the brick wall of the restroom at Bar Lolita in the Lower East Side of New York City.

A wonderful use of graffiti scrawl as signage and marketing on a roller shutter: “Not just another nail salon” references the small business behind the metal gate, which might be inferred is a nail salon, but is in fact an art gallery (and not just another nail salon). Clever.

“You Would” strikes again. This time on an orange street cone on the sidewalk on Ludlow Street near Hester Street in the Lower East Side of downtown Manhattan, New York City. Lots more examples of “You Would” on Flickr.

“I remember you from the …” graffiti message on a wall next to the Crosby Street Hotel in SoHo, in downtown New York City.

There’s little street art or even graffiti in Costa Rica’s beach towns, but here’s an uplifting graff by “Gussa” we found in Tamarindo, the popular Pacific coast surfing town.

Global Graphica is on a surfing trip in Costa Rica this week, so the posts may be fewer and farther between as we take a much needed vacay and struggle to find a reliable WiFi connection during our journey. You’ll be seeing some pix of the visual culture we find interesting or striking in this amazing Central American country.

Below is some graffiti art we found on a vacant billboard in the Pacific coast surf town of Jaco. The outdoor advertising space proclaims “Your Business Must be Here!” But some graffiti writers gave it some spray-can touches that make the board aesthetically striking and fun.

Surf’s up. Gotta run.

“You Would” strikes again. This time it’s written in silver Sharpie on the back of the bathroom door at Cafe Select, a Swiss coffee shop and bar in SoHo, in downtown New York City.

Graffiti on a Bowery hoarding: “CALM PASS ION ATE BAND IT SPIES HELL YES WHAT IS CRACK KING GUILD QUIET VICTOR LANKE ALOT.”

Graffiti-tag stickers repeated on road-works construction barriers on Lafayette Street in NoHo, in downtown New York City.

Colorful and well-executed “Grad” graffiti-art tag on an Econoline-type van parked on Prince Street, across from the Apple Store in SoHo, in downtown NYC. Super awesome and kind of rare these days.

UPDATE – There’s a South Park theme to the graffiti art on that van in Chinatown we posted about earlier this week. The designs of the letters in “GRAD” correspond to each of the four main characters from the show. Plus there’s a snow-and-trees strip behind the letters. We totally missed this and are a bit shocked since we’re big South Park fans. (Many thanks to the anonymous tipster — whoever you are — for pointing this out to us in the Comments section below!)

We were recently in wonderful San Francisco and took a few pics of some cool graffiti and street art. Here is a snap of some truck graff in SF’s bustling Chinatown.

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.

Lots of “Dickchicken” tags recently appearing in downtown New York City. This is in Nolita at the intersection of Kenmare and Elizabeth streets. Who is Dickchicken? And, really, who cares? These tags are absolute shite.