PART I of a three part series on Wooster Collective's big street art show that's going down in NYC.
by Jesse Pollock
Photos: David Gonzalez
If you have ever been in New York's Little Italy, chances are you probably walked by the former horse stable on 11 Spring Street.
The outside wall has long accumulated layer upon layer of graffiti and posters, earning it a worldwide reputation among muralist and street artists.
After 2 property sales starting with the building's eccentric long-time owner, it's being torn down and replaced with condos. Luckily, The Wooster Collective stepped
and negotiated with the building's Project construcion manager to have one final art event. A sort 'closing reception' as it were. Wooster Collective said that more than
twenty artists are flying in from all over the world, and they are painting the interior of the building top to bottom with new pieces. Artists involved in the show
include: D*Face, Shepard Fairey, Judith Supine, Maya Hayuk, WK, Above, Blek Le Rat, JACE, Bo and Microbo, Lister, Prune, JR, RIPO, Thundercut, Skewville, Elboe-Toe,
Jasmine Zimmerman, You Are Beautiful, Dan Witz, Rekal, Gore-B, FAILE, The London Police and many other special guests. The building will be open to the public from December 15, 16 and 17 for those three days only. Sadly, at the end of the project,
all of the art will be removed from inside the building, and the exterior walls will be completely buffed. Wooster Collective pointed out that cleaning the exterior
was inevitable, and that it's generous of the new owners to give the space over to the art before that happens. This type of thing has a grand tradition of happening in Europe and other parts
of the world, but very rarely in America (let alone downtown New York). This is definitely one of the greatest things that we have heard happen in quite some time and an enormous amount
of respect has to go to the Wooster Collective for making it happen
New York artist David Gonzalez has been covering the progress for us and sent over these recent images of the project.
A lot of the artists working inside would like to facilitate a certain amount of surprise, so Wooster Collective
has asked that people not post any images of the artwork until after the opening. Check back after the December 15th opening date for more
Spring Street updates and if you think you have some great shots of the event you can send them to jesse(at)fecalface.com
Spring Street
More information on The Spring Street Project can be found here:
///////// Really wish I could be there for the show... to bad it's only open for three days. Written by DSNTONE on 2006-12-08 18:33:50
///////// sad to see this place go! Its always been such a beautiful building in that neighborhood. fucking condos. what a drag... Written by oliver Rosenberg on 2006-12-08 21:15:53
///////// messy and ugly! ladies and gentlemen, street art is officially over Written by NY on 2006-12-08 23:30:38
///////// The art and everything is too awesome. I would want it to stay if I lived there... Written by James Alby on 2006-12-09 00:54:19
///////// Got to be honest, I'd rather see this place covered in fill-ins. All this street art looks the same these days-pink bubbles, wheat pastes, lame characters, blah-blah. This place looked better when dudes like IRAK, 718, and Katsu had it smashed out. Either way, I agree it's too bad the building's time has come. Peace!!!!!!! Written by BoobTuber on 2006-12-09 07:26:46
///////// Wait till you see the inside.. much less chaotic and messy. Written by jesse on 2006-12-09 14:32:56
///////// obey reminds me a little bit of banksy, though it tells a whole other story, cant wait too see the big surprise! Written by rob on 2006-12-09 18:02:43
///////// why is fecal always full of haters? Written by on 2006-12-09 22:31:58
///////// i'm so sick of buffmonster. that dude is such a bitch. the epitome of a sellout. fake ass homo Written by buff monster is a fag on 2006-12-10 01:26:58
///////// This wall is really hot. So much to look at!
http://fotolog.com/artwar Written by artwar on 2006-12-10 07:15:43
///////// It is beautiful. Wishing for such to last a little while longer. Let it go. I hope I can make it. Thank you. Written by We gave into this dream so lon on 2006-12-10 10:13:19
///////// Some nice work, some not. London Police please move on! Written by Gravytrain on 2006-12-10 11:34:07
///////// i didn't see any pink bubbles Written by on 2006-12-10 11:43:21
///////// i'm almost surprised of the lack of neckface. Written by republoc on 2006-12-10 20:27:38
///////// i just got such an art boner Written by b on 2006-12-10 23:24:04
///////// anyone heard of a female artist in SF named America? If so do you know where to check out her art? Written by America on 2006-12-11 11:45:54
///////// ....cant stop a bomber intent upon a bomb....but yeah, Streetart is 5 feet over a shark tank and Wooster built the ramp. Yesterday I saw Obey for sale in Nordstrom's. Blech. IN MY HUMBLE OPINION (really) Illegal work has so much more innate beauty. So sick of (some)people's 'Characters' printed at Kinkos and pasted up like it means anything beyond advertising oneself. 1selfish. I do like Judith Supine tho. Give me a furious handstyle (technnically proficient or crappy and real alike) anyday. Props however to Wooster for insinuating yourselves into what used to be underground and documenting it. Not unlike National Geographic filming the lost tribes in the Amazon basin, pretty soon they're all wearing Nike and Obey. Written by on 2006-12-11 16:38:17
///////// street art isnt over untill my town is messy and ugly..(.in the Global NY style) what a showcase! Written by on 2006-12-11 20:55:25
///////// oh and before its sandblasted, take some xray samples, maybe you can see some oldschool underneath! layers layers Written by on 2006-12-11 20:57:51
///////// WK Interact is a king among men. highfives all around. Maybe what really makes street art beautiful is a lack there of. If thats a lick of sense. Written by Bo on 2006-12-11 22:32:56
///////// buff monster, banksy, and every other old white man and graphic design major with an urge to self promote are takin street art down the fuckin drain. ugh. not necesarily a bad thing tho. could be cathartic. overexposure means all the bandwagon hoppers will be on to next and the streets will be left to be bombed by bored kids with too much testosterone and nothing to gain as god intended. Written by is it over yet? on 2006-12-12 00:50:46
///////// Fuck yeah lister! Brisbane(australia) represent! listerart.com.au Written by matthew on 2006-12-12 06:54:53
///////// If people like you are so hardcore are shopping at Nordstrom's why wouldn't they carry Obey? Or maybe you were just in their to use their potty. Written by re: Nordstroms comment on 2006-12-12 09:04:42
///////// that is my little girl up there in the daddy... how funny is that...........
My Little West Coast Girl on the East Side...
Chele
Written by Chele In LA on 2006-12-12 11:39:42
///////// thats fucking fresh. Big up to everyone who hit that spot. Written by LA Scumbag on 2006-12-12 12:41:49
///////// Cheers for posting the pics bro! Nice Chele BKB collab feature too! Written by Billi Kid Brand on 2006-12-12 12:57:17
///////// got a peek at the inside last weekend less caotic than the outside, and absolutely breathtaking for any graf/street art lover, there isn't just big names in there either, wooster did a solid to some new fuckin amazing artists', saw a guys "suicide bomber" piece that involved spray paint, fuckin insane liquid paint, and wheat paste, someone i never knew of, rene gagnon, saw his site and was fucking blown away, i think we'll see more of him.... he has a cool video of his trip to spring street. renegagnonfineart.com found him on google. Written by nobody on 2006-12-13 08:42:12
///////// thank you so much for showing this. these pictures are so incredible. i love this wall. very beautiful work. keep up the good work. Written by mildred on 2006-12-13 13:34:47
///////// Looks like a good time.
Written by SMEAR--RTH-- on 2006-12-13 17:19:08
///////// i'm surprised there isn't more of neckface's lame ass, no talent, cracked out, pickachu's all over the place. Written by tim on 2006-12-14 09:07:37
///////// i wonder if bitch ass shepard farey will sell his bullshit posters to some jack off 16 yr old to put them up for the show. And some idiot above compared shepard with banksy...youre a fool...banksy is bad ass and does his own shit...shepard, well... Written by on 2006-12-14 14:48:15
///////// Shepard actually is part of the show he flew in from LA and did a wall inside, while he was in NY he also hit up some spots (http://www.woostercollective.com/2006/12/05/shepwk1.jpg) (http://www.woostercollective.com/2006/12/05/shepwk4.jpg) and there will be no selling of any posters or art at the show, its completely art for art sake. According to shepard he knows banksy and they go bombing together: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mSbpt694Tco&mode=related&search= Written by on 2006-12-14 19:15:39
///////// I have, from time to time, made a nice bowel movement at Nordstrom's. Written by someone who won't Obey a FUCT on 2006-12-15 09:02:41
///////// The art folks wheatpasted over some tagsfrom the 80's and 90's. So the writers came and took it back over. BOOOYAKA!!!!!!!!
///////// HA HA HA, fucking HA. Drove by the day after the DYM blockbusters. Thank fucking god somebody stood up to all these wack ass "street artists", half of which took plane flights to get here so they could put posters over downtown legends. I love reading all the posts in the link that catfish king posted-one dude even relates DYM crew's ideals to that of the current president. DYM was always a good crew, but they just went WAY up in my book. Savage shit, I love it. Written by BoobTuber on 2006-12-19 09:53:28
///////// Werd up wooster collective.. leave it to Marc to pull out the illest stops in street art and big ups the fecal for repin that NYC flava... And who is the dude cryin about shepard slapping up some poster... Yeah too bad you cant be shep. Some shit you just cant fuck with. Nice work to all involved, to bad nothing lasts forever! Written by Manuel Bello (aka disciplemaga on 2006-12-19 13:06:04
///////// I just had to respond when I read the last post. I'm one of the artists' that was bombing and wheatpasting both Saturday and Sunday on the exterior AFTER dym hit it. They did us a favor, or don't you get it. Bottomline TRUE artists have respect for anyones art no matter who did it, street or graf artists, if there is a beef then thats different, but there was no beef. I'm both street and graf, so what do you say about my work? Am I wack? Realize also that a TRUE artist doesn't give two shits about ANYONES opinion, a TRUE artist does it for the love of what they do. If dym hadn't hit it then us TRUE aritsts would have had some amount of discretion when bombing over the weekend. Do i respect what they did, I guess I used to bomb but I have to admit, that the wall was much more dynamic before they hit. but that didn't chage what went on it just made it easier for everyone to use their creative energy to fuckin kill shit... respect that.... Written by Rene Gagnon on 2006-12-20 15:41:28
///////// I love this type of art,i love the work i really love it guy good job .what type of art is? Written by Rodrigo Cayo on 2006-12-21 21:26:51
///////// very beautiful! i am a young french artist and my dream is to do all my ideas and my special art . you are lucky because you realise your ideas and you become an veritable artist.You are an artist ,your art is wonderful and i wish you a very good futur! congratulations and good luck ! Written by marie
on 2006-12-25 07:25:14
///////// Talking about streetart...isn't this SIMPLY a "gallery" with an outside "hall of fame"? Outside-"art" done easily on an inside wall...and vice versa? Completely out of context, so sorry, all streetart or graff-references both positive and negative are way off...except for stuff that was there before this carnival went over. And it looked damn fine as it was.
Streetart or not....graffiti or not...there is terrible streetart, as there is terrible graffiti...the name won't change that. If it's illegal, at least there is an attempt to justify it, but still...looking at "illegal" art done legally both graffiti or streetart-wise doesn't really do it. So what do we see here?
Perfect business-opportunities for Wooster's Marc's ad agency? Great way of making Shepard's branding even more sophisticated? Just people having a good time enjoying themselves ? Artschool-fags faking it? You name it.
good luck figuring it out. Written by E on 2006-12-28 03:39:06
///////// Sad to see this building go. It was such a great place. I hope another location will come together to express the vision of street art in such a way. Written by C-Poppa -San Francisco on 2007-01-10 11:05:36
///////// There's no culture whatsoever where i live. nobody gives a shit about anything artistic and original.
keep hope alive!!!! Written by FEEBLE on 2007-01-17 09:34:03
///////// Anyone know who did the patterned arrows? I seem to recall seeing them on a shop shutter in Amsterdam as well. (The "what if" shop, well thats what it said on the sign) Written by Gazified on 2007-01-21 14:28:49
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