Two years ago, I paid my first visit to Brooklyn’s fast-growing Bushwick Collective outdoor street gallery. The brainchild of Joseph Ficalora, who’s father was knifed and killed for his wallet on these very streets back in 1991, The Bushwick Collective invites artists from all over the world to paint murals and transform aging tagged-up buildings into works of art.
Joseph Ficalora, who runs the family business, GCM Steel, started contacting street artists after his mother passed of a brain tumor in 2011. Ficalora, in a 2013 New York Times article: “You come down this block, you see graffiti on the walls, you remember all bad memories. I turn another corner, I see where my dad was murdered. I turn another corner, I have memories of my mom. There was nothing left for me to want.”
As Ficalora began contacting street artists and offering them walls, the artists began coming; and from all over the world. Ficalora, who has no background in art, secures the wall space and the permits – the artists, who are not paid and have to provide their own supplies, do the rest. And the gentrification of the area has begun as new bars and cafes begin opening in this new outdoor art gallery that once was one of the city’s most crime-ridden neighborhoods (it still isn’t the safest but it’s come a loooong way!).
I spent a few hours walking the area (with my Lumix GH4 in hand) on a recent trip to NYC last week and snapped a few photographs – enjoy…
Puerto Rican artist Don Rimx
My daughter appreciating the work of NYC street artist KLOPS
“Humpty Trumpty” by American “POPaganda” artist Ron English
“The Radiant Madonna” by New Zealand street artist Owen Dippie
Brazilian street artist Sipros
It ain’t all eye-candy around the streets of Bushwick but that’s quickly changing…
Toronto born and based artist Li-Hill
Came across this rather colorful means of transportation while walking the neighborhood…
Chilean, NYC-based street artist Dasic Fernandez
Philadelphia-based street artist NDA
Puerto Rican street artist Nepo
Collaborative piece by New Jersey based street artist Joe Iurato and NYC-based stencil artist Logan Hicks
English multimedia street artist D*Face
My daughter striking a pose in front of a collaboration piece by Miami’s own Aquarela Sabol and NYC based artist Claudia La Bianca (on the far right is atribute to The Notorious B.I.G. by Brooklyn artist Danielle Mastrion)
Another piece by a Miami-based artist, this one by Atomik
Impressive mixed media mural by artist Celso
Old-school throwback mural by OTM Graff Crew founded by graffiti veteran Jonathan Cohen aka Meres One
8 year-old(!) street artist LOLA the (ill)ustrator (read about her HERE)
A mother and her daughter enjoying the work of Brazilian street artist Sipros – now THAT’S what The Bushwick Collective is all about!
If you happen to find yourself in NYC, take a visit to this truly unique neighborhood. And (check out the pics from my first visit to the Bushwick Collective in 2014 HERE)
