If you’ve been meaning to enjoy more of the art the city has to offer, Brooklyn makes it easy for you. Step one: step outside. Throughout the borough, artists have lent their visions to the broad canvases of huge, otherwise unadorned walls. Below is an informal tour of the gallery that is Brooklyn.
The Bushwick Collective (Bushwick) is an outdoor gallery that starts on Jefferson Street and continues on Troutman Street toward Saint Nicholas. This colorful outdoor non-profit art project is the brainchild of native son Joe Ficalora, who has wrangled the street permits necessary to display the works of hundreds of street artists.
Trek Six mural photograph courtesy of the Bushwick Collective via Facebook; Artist: TREK6 painted for The Bushwick Collective x Mana Urban Arts Project in Miami / Photo Credit : Sandro Abate
Yuko Shimizu mural at Jay Street and the BQE | Art in DUMBO via Facebook
Dumbo Walls (Dumbo)
Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass, specifically along the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway, is the place to see a series of hauntingly beautiful murals by world renowned street artists and designers, including CAM, DALeast, Eltono, Faith47, MOMO, Shepard Fairey, Stefan Sagmeister, and Yuko Shimizu.
MÖTUG Collective | Wally Gobetz via Flickr
MÖTUG Collective (Williamsburg)
The prolific Monsters of the Unda-Ground collective displays its bold murals at the intersection of Keap and Hope Streets in East Williamsburg. The themes the group explores are decidedly urban, featuring rappers and taggers as the protagonists in its otherworldly scenes.
Os Gemeos mural | Street Art NYC via Facebook
Os Gemeos Mural (Coney Island)
Since 2005, subway visitors to Coney Island have been treated to the eye feast that is this mural created by Brazilian twins (Os Gemeos is Portuguese for “the twins”) Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo. Painted for Creative Time’s Dreamland Artists Club, the mural is a shrine to street artists—and art lovers—the world over.
Past Present Prediction | via Brownstoner
Kent Avenue + Grand Street (Williamsburg)
Near the waterfront, the block of Kent Avenue from Grand Street to North 1st Street features a panoramic wall that was used in 2014 to explain the relationship between the local Latin American community and the nearby Domino Sugar factory.
Wythe Avenue + North 15th Street | Harry Duranville via Facebook
Wythe Avenue + North 15th Street (Williamsburg)
Elsewhere in Williamsburg, stop by Wythe Avenue and North 15th Street to see an al fresco gallery of more classic examples of graffiti.