Monthly Archives: March 2013

Custo Graffiti Sticker at the Wren … New York City

We recently went to the Wren, a bar and restaurant on New York’s Bowery, where we stumbled upon this Custo graffiti-tag sticker in the bathroom. A nice surprise.

Boy at Bowery Ballroom … New York

Rag & Bone Wall … New York

Japanese Street Art Logo … Tokyo

This graphic on a wall in Shibuya, in Tokyo, looks and feels like a piece of street art and could have been created by stencil, paint-print, heat transfer or painted by hand. It may be graphical logo for a restaurant or company brand mark. Whatever it is, we think it’s frackin’ awesome. The image itself looks like a super-simplified rendering of a mythological Buddha-like character from Japanese historical iconography.

(Hey readers! If you can identify what this is, send us an email.)

Vintage Dutch School Map of the World … Amsterdam

We stumbled upon these beautiful old-school world maps at the Sunday flea market held at Westerpark in Amsterdam. The vintage 20th-century maps are in Dutch and of the type you find hanging on the walls of school rooms and libraries.

Iconic Steve Jobs Photo by Albert Watson at Deichtorhallen … Hamburg

This iconic photograph of late Apple Computer founder and CEO Steve Jobs was shot by New York-based Scottish photographer Albert Watson. The image was used in the book cover design of Walter Isaacson’s best-selling 2011 biography of Jobs. The photo was part of a recent retrospective exhibition of Watson’s photography career at the Deichtorhallen museum’s Haus Der Photographie in Hamburg, Germany.

Airplane Stencil Street Art … Amsterdam

It’s a bit crudely rendered and droll, but we like stumbling upon this stencil street art of an airplane in Amsterdam. The silhouette is positioned relative to a pair of yellow spray-paint strokes on a utility box, such that the lines appear like contrails off each wing.

Fur-Covered Hand Grenades by Kata Legrady

These fur-covered hand grenades by Hungarian artist Kata Legrady are part of a series of works where ordnance and weapons are covered with the materials of luxury. The grenades were recently on show in New York by the Pekin Fine Arts gallery at the Armory Show. The artist is based in Hannover, Germany.

Nights at the Cheung Wong Kitchen … New York City

It may not look like much. It may look divey. But Cheung Wong Kitchen on Hester Street is one of the better kept dining secrets of New York’s Lower East Side. It’s a go-to for the LES neighborhood regulars and Chinatown locals seeking cheap, yummy Chinese food in the late evening.

Lower East Side Street Art … New York

Some fresh wheat-paste street art in the recessed doorway of an old abandoned building on Ludlow Street in the Lower East Side of New York City.

Sign at Opening Ceremony’s Shibuya Store … Tokyo

The big, bold illuminated sign at the massive Opening Ceremony store in Shibuya, in Tokyo. Compared to the SoHo loft spaces Opening Ceremony occupies at its flagship store on Howard Street in SoHo, New York, the Tokyo branch of OC is so large and spacious it’s practically a department store in and of itself. We’ll be posting more pictures of the store soon.

Graffiti Door … Berlin

Energetic graffiti art on a roller-shutter door on Kastanienallee street in the Prenzlauer-Berg neighborhood of Berlin. We’re not huge fans of most graffiti art, but we like this piece.

The Four “M” Words of Espresso-Making in Neon at La Colombe

The four “M” words of espresso brewing written in beautiful neon light on the wall at La Colombe Torrefaction, the cafe and espresso bar on Lafayette Street, near Prince Street, in SoHo, in downtown New York City. The 4 “M’s” are the Italian words miscela, macinazione, macchina, and mano, which with regards to making espresso coffee mean “blend,” “grinding,” “machine,” and “hand” (i.e., human skill) respectively.

Dylan Egon “Regeneration” Exhibition Poster … New York

Beautiful, fading poster on Crosby Street in SoHo, New York, promoting artist-designer Dylan Egon‘s “Art as Lifestyle” exhibition and furniture collection this past December at reGeneration in New York

What’s Outside the Window – Vol. 26

The view from a second-floor loft space at the corner of Prince Street and Broadway in SoHo, New York City. The massive loft is is home to one of several floors occupied by a private Equinox fitness club. In this picture, at right, you can see the black storefront flag of the Armani Exchange shop that occupies the ground floor of the cast-iron loft building. Across the street on the right is the building occupied at ground- and basement-level by the Prada store, which was designed noted Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas. In the distance is Prince Street as it runs westward.

Work in Progress at the Kenmare Wall

Photos of work-in-progress mural by a paint crew at the “Kenmare Wall,” on Kenmare Street between Bowery and Elizabeth Street in Nolita, New York City.

“Play Dead; Real Time” … Or That Massive Elephant Video Installation at MoMA

“Play Dead; Real Time” by Scottish artist Douglas Gordon is a massive video installation currently at MoMA in New York. The artwork is made of two huge projection screens and a small TV monitor that show video (see below at bottom of post) of a single circus elephant that had been transported to the Gagosian gallery in New York City. The trained pachyderm was filmed at the gallery obeying a series of commands. The footage was made from multiple cameras as tracking shots. The work is fascinating, mesmerizing, and sublime if not a wee bit unsettling.