Destination Brooklyn for a stroll through the streets of Bushwick, one of the epicenters of New York Street Art. The neighborhood of Bushwick is an old industrial enclave undergoing gentrification, following a few years after its neighboring neighborhood of Williamsburg. Its configuration offers a privileged playground for street artists who have taken over the facades and iron gates of the warehouses and abandoned buildings.
The story of a neighborhood among the most disadvantaged in New York
A brief look at the unique history of the neighborhood, from its origins to the project that has made it famous among urban art enthusiasts today. The neighborhood was established when the first Dutch settlers settled in Brooklyn in the 17th century. It was then named Boswijck (meaning “small town in the woods”). In 1783, Bushwick was part of the 6 towns of The Kings County created by the Albany legislature. Subsequently, Brooklyn became a village in 1816 and then a city in 1834. In 1855, Brooklyn expanded by annexing Bushwick and Williamsburg. At that time, the Bushwick neighborhood specialized in brewing with European immigration, particularly from Germany. Successive waves of immigration populated a cosmopolitan neighborhood, with the arrival of Puerto Ricans and then Latinos. Bushwick is one of the most disadvantaged neighborhoods in New York. In the late 1970s, the Bronx and Bushwick were the scene of surrealistic scenes: thousands of tenants of social housing towers set fire to their homes to receive insurance premiums, unable to pay the rent due to a reduction in government subsidies. In 1977, a blackout cut Brooklyn off from electricity for 24 hours. Bushwick was then devastated by riots and looting by a rebellious population.
The history of the Bushwick Collective
In 2011, one of the residents of the neighborhood, Joseph Ficalora, had the idea of founding a collective to promote urban art, which was beginning to take off as artists were being chased out of Williamsburg due to rising prices and coming to set up their workshops in the old industrial buildings. In the 2000s, the city of New York invested in a rehabilitation program, the Bushwick initiative, to improve the quality of life of the residents and combat local crime. Joseph Ficalora thought that mural paintings could be a way to beautify an area that had previously been unattractive. Giving Bushwick some color was a vital project for this kid from the neighborhood who is 12 years old and saw his father murdered for a few dollars in his wallet and a gold chain in the unsafe streets of the 90s. The abandoned warehouses and garages had indeed become drug trafficking hubs, making Bushwick one of the hotspots of crime. Joseph Ficalora founded the Bushwick Collective, which invites artists from all over the world to graffiti the facades of the neighborhood, prompting local businesses to participate by making their walls and warehouses available. The only rule: no offensive messages or political propaganda. Monumental graffiti and murals have given the neighborhood a new face, turning it into an open-air museum. Doors, facades, letterboxes, sidewalks, iron curtains—everything is a canvas for colorful works of art. In a few years, Bushwick has become a must-visit platform for Street Art worldwide. Every first Saturday of June, the Bushwick collective organizes the Blockparty, a festive day with DJs, food trucks, and a festival during which the public can witness the creation of mural paintings by renowned artists from around the world, selected by curator Joseph Ficalora.
Bushwick or the underground culture
After the disappearance of 5PointZ building located in Queens, which for a long time served as the nerve center of Street Art (in late 2013, the owner covered the building in white paint before building residential towers), Bushwick has become the benchmark for New York’s underground culture. Around Jefferson Street, Troutman Street, Moore Street, White Street, Siegel Street, Bogard Street, there are about sixty works of art. The Rooftop of the family-run company Ficalora, GCM Steels, offers a panorama of the many facets of urban creation that have transformed the neighborhood into an open-air gallery. These works are ephemeral, as they are renewed every year, especially during the BlockParty festival. From Manhattan, the L line of the subway, which runs through Brooklyn passing through Williamsburg, makes it easy to access this promenade at the heart of the murals, starting from the Jefferson Street station. In addition to the Bushwick Collective, there are several «crews,» groups of graffiti artists who work in Bushwick. Artists who wish to invest in a mural in the neighborhood must either join the collective or one of its crews (which in a way regulate the territory regarding artistic creation).
The works of the last BlockParty festival, the annual event of the Bushwick Collective
The photos that we are presenting here are those of the frescoes created during the last festival in 2011 (which was postponed from June to August due to the pandemic), which marked the 10th anniversary of the collective. These ephemeral creations will be replaced in June 2022 during the next edition of the BlockParty. The mural performances are sometimes performed in duo, involving street artists who blend their graphic and chromatic universes to create unique encounters, thanks to the inspiration of Joseph Ficalora. For the record, Lola, 9 years old, was the youngest artist of the collective. Coming from Lille, she was discovered by Joseph Ficalora in 2004 when she was starting to graffiti on a wall during a family trip to Brooklyn.
Artists who have already worked in Bushwick
Local artists as well as others from all over the world have left their graphic mark on the walls of Bushwick. To name just a few: Al Diaz, Shepard Fairey, Banksy, Roa, Cost, Revs, Enx, Mast, Never, Nekst, Sticks, Icy & Sot, Buff Monster, Solus, Sipros, Li-Hill, Frank Duval, Oji, Raf urban, Rejac, Monks‘ Art, Adam Fu, Daisey Freedman, JR, Topaz, Yes One, Damien Mitchell, Prvt, Nychos, Smithe, Zimad, Blek the rat, Beau Stanton, Pixel Pancho, Case Mc Claim, Chris Stan, Joe Lurato, Chris Sona, Loomit and Kay, Fkdl, Cabaio Spirito, Sara Erenthal, Dina Saadi, Dede Bandaid, Sonny sundancer, Gemma Gené, Dasic Fernandez, Daek One, Jef Aérosol, Danielle Mashan, Dan Witz, Veng, Reka, Rocky’s art, Joel Artista, Huetak, D*Face…
With Quai 36, our partner, we share a commitment to putting urban art at the heart of urban planning issues.
The Bushwick Collective project shares a similar commitment to our partner for exhibitions of artists who work both on urban surfaces and in their studios, Quai 36. Indeed, Quai 36 is an art production house whose mission is to promote the contribution of artistic creation to social cohesion and to integrate it into the issues of urban planning. Quai 36 develops projects that integrate art into collective spaces transformed into platforms for creation. Democratizing art by introducing it into the urban landscape and spreading aesthetic interest beyond institutions are constant concerns that animate Quai 36’s mobilizing energy. The structure was founded in 2015 by Jonas Ramuz on a quay at Gare du Nord. The idea was to create within the station, a place of passage and encounter, bringing together a population from all walks of life; these graffiti were relegated to the fringes of the tracks and to be welcomed not as acts of vandalism but as the witnesses of remarkable and often avant-garde creativity. The original project of Quai 36 was to invite 22 artists to take ownership of the station, transforming Quai 36 into a veritable artistic residence. Since then, nearly 500 artists, emerging talents or established figures, French and international, have been invited to intervene in different types of places: ruins, buildings in a transitional phase, walls, urban furniture, trains, as well as unique architectural supports whose brutality offers a unique field of creative exploration. Communities, businesses, and actors in urban and cultural policies are mobilized by Quai 36, which works with various partners to develop large-scale projects that spark unexpected encounters fueled by artistic vibrations. Quai 36 works to give scope to what, in the other, can bring us together by breaking down the barriers that separate the places of artistic experimentation. We are pleased to work in collaboration with Quai 36: this partnership Hatchikian Gallery X Quai 36 is designed to give unprecedented visibility to artists by breaking down the exhibition space to expand it beyond the walls, making art accessible to all audiences—novices, amateurs, collectors—in order to foster a strong collective bond woven of aesthetic marvels. The elaborate scenographies developed in partnership allow the visitor to explore the artist’s journey through the expanded channels of creation and the questions he/she faces in order to better contextualize the unfolding of his/her work.
