Photo by Todd Bilius. Earlier this week Gossip Girl's new ad campaign was revealed, just begging to be reworked by the infamous subway ad artist (or anyone with scissors and a distaste for teen dramedies). It didn't take long, as a reader sent us the above photo, from the 23rd Street C and E station, taken this morning.......

Recently street artist Chris Stain has been pasting up his art around town with Swoon. He says that in 1984, he was one of the "kids who became infected by graffiti's bold colors, striking form, and independent nature." Decades later he looked at his own work, describing it as a direct reflection of his surroundings -- "the people, neighborhoods, and struggles, that are swept along with the every day lives of the common American." Still......

Street art is now available for a price at a Foot Locker store near you. amNewYork reports on Tatoot, a new NYC company selling bags "designed by well-known graffiti artists, including Sexer and Zimad, both of the South Bronx. The bags are marketed as works of art with labels that show the names of the artists and the titles of the pieces." The company owners claim they don't support vandalism, but do appreciate street art,......

digg_url = 'http://digg.com/arts_culture/More_Inflatable_Creatures_Around_New_York_City'; More creatures have, literally, popped up around town! Joshua Allen Harris has been making the inflatable street art and surprising passerby with it -- most recently there was a subway Loch Ness monster on 21st Street...and the latest look more like aliens. That's one creative way to recycle your plastic bags.........

Brooklyn street artist D.Billy has been adorning the town with impermanent art. The temporary "tags" have been spotted under and above ground, and his mediums have included balloons, streamers and artist tape. He says of his work:I have begun to add visual representations of sound effects to public spaces as a sort of dimensional graffiti. After embellishing the found scenes and photographing the results, I leave my additions in place to engage passers-by for as......

Street artist Clark Clark (fake name alert) has been urging New Yorkers to vote through his "VOTE" graffiti campaign. The design mimics that of Robert Indiana's famous LOVE sculpture circa the 1970s. The 25-year-old Clark told The Villager:“I’ve hit four boroughs now,” Clark said, sitting in his Flatbush, Brooklyn, apartment, surrounded by his own work. “I still want to do Staten Island. I had wanted to go and do all of Vito Fossella’s walls, but......

It didn't even take one month for the public to put an end to the wooden girl in Greenpoint. To recap: a street artist put up the piece as a birthday present for his girlfriend, who had moved to Connecticut and was pining for her old neighborhood. Friends and strangers alike were encouraged to pose with the painted lady; the photo project can be found here. By late June, however, she was painted grey......

The subway ad mash-up artist has been hard at work underground. Here's some of the latest creations, including a shot of a poster he was still working on when someone snapped a picture.......

A street artist named Ry (aka Olympia) emails in asking for a little help with his girlfriend's birthday present, seems he needs the community's participation to yield successful results.Here's the story: My girlfriend moved to Connecticut from Greenpoint last year. She misses it terribly, and constantly pines for the days spent with friends in the neighborhood. So, for her birthday this weekend, on Sunday night I installed a life-sized cutout of her at the......

Following her collaborative show opening at Honey Space, street artist Swoon adorned her hometown cityscape with some new pieces. Last year some of her work fell victim to the Splasher, which she responded to by redoing the pieces. Hopefully these new cutouts will stay unharmed for a while.......

Toronto street artist, Posterchild, sent us the above photo of a piece he recently installed with the help of Jason Eppink (he of the Pixelator). He'll be installing three more ("tonight or soon!"), which will say "Fast," "Sell" and "Out". (The pictured one may look like it says "Bold" but it actually says "Hold.") No word on whether or not they'll be in the vicinity of the 14th and 8th station. If you aren't......

Street artist Dan Witz has some entertaining pieces around town, mostly on condo walls in Brooklyn and the Lower East Side. Imagine buying the luxury condo of your dreams only to discover one of these alarming scenarios. Witz explains his series, Ugly New Buildings:In the past few years much of my neighborhood in Brooklyn has been torn down to make way for luxury housing. For better or worse it's a whole new street-scape out here.......

It seems Zipcar has its engines revved up for Shepard Fairey; their latest newsletter included a personal note to the street artist. Seems the company is smitten with his piece that resides on a wall in their new Hope Street and Marcy Avenue lot in Brooklyn (pictured), and hint at wanting to partner up. They write:Check out this latest from famed graffiti artist Shepard Fairey. Rumor has it, he's also a Zipcar member. This amazing......

Photos by Vincent Ng. This past Saturday, one of the Obama posters Shepard Fairey added to the cityscape was taken down by graffiti writer MARTY -- who Razor Apple reports "has been holding down that corner for years." The Obama poster is on the corner of Houston and Bowery, and reportedly Shepard was apologetic for pasting over another writers work, but added, “however, I feel Obama being elected is very important to everyone’s future......

Gawker is stoking the debate over whether street artist Nick Walker is in fact the mysterious millionaire street artist Banksy; we continue to disagree. Nick Walker and Banksy are definitely, positively two different people – although they are both English graffiti artists, and they are friends. Here in New York, Walker’s been a busy bee, branching out from last week’s work in the West Village to Williamsburg, where aptly-named blog Williamsburg is Dead documented......

Banksy may have stopped by New York City recently, but a Gawker tipster thought he saw the British street artist last night in the West Village. The tipster reported that Banksy was putting up a piece outside of Thunder Jacksons, saying, "He looks like a guy you would see in the cheap seats at a soccer game...He did come in and have a couple beers at Thunder Jackson's afterwards but he doesn't like to chat."......

The presence of oil in parts of Greenpoint is well documented, but it looks like someone wants the oil to be cleaned up. This morning there was artwork in the Queens-bound Nassau Avenue G stop asking for a stop to the oil spills. The artwork shows drops of oil on the walls of the station, pools of oil collected on the floors, and paper towels for straphangers to clean up the spill. Reader Shannan tells......

Last summer Shepard Fairey was in town installing his exhibit at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in DUMBO; new pieces also went up around the streets of Brooklyn during that time. This past week, after a report came in that Fairey was going blind as a result of his diabetes, a whole new slew of his pieces went up (check them out below); while some thought, "for a blind guy, he's sure getting up," others questioned......

Razor Apple has some photos of street artist MORAL's work. He's been bombing the city with fire extinguisher tags, one of a few taggers who uses that medium -- where the fire extinguisher is loaded up with paint. Just one of the many contributing to the rise of graffiti in town! Here's an instruction manual on how to make your own and use one; and check it out in action here.......

Seen on 9th Street between 2nd and 3rd Avenues: Pixel graffiti. The piece was tagged at little while later. [Via dpstyles, who got it from nickgraywfu]......

Photo by Jake Dobkin. New stats from the NYPD show an 81.5% rise in graffiti-related complaints from 2006 to 2007 (pre-Splasher!), a year that graffiti arrests also went up 28%. Queens council member Peter Vallone, Jr. notes that, "we did an excellent job turning the tide against graffiti in the '90s and the beginning part of this century. Unfortunately, because of the lack of police officers, the fact that they have to do double duty......

Barack Obama has popped up in the form of street art in Brooklyn, and AAVR Magazine points out the Grattan Street mural near the Morgan L stop. That's part of his More Perfect Union speech in the background, and yes, it looks a little bit more like Fred Armisen's Fauxbama than the real thing. Less detailed Obama murals can be found on Carlton Avenue at Dean Street in Prospect Heights (photos here and here). How......

Pictured: All City NRG designed by Vincent "Factone" Ficarra, urban artist in New York. Remember AriZona Iced Tea? Well, its made a cross-country image trip and landed in the heart of NYC with its new energy drink called All City NRG (you know, like the subway lines). As you can see, the cans are all tagged up, and their promo van is similarly decorated -- though it's sort of camouflaged when parked in the......

SFist worried over drugstore chain Walgreens celebration of Black History Month.Gothamist was surprised that apparently New York City is the fourth most miserable city in the country, after Detroit, Stockton, CA, and Flint, MI.Shanghaiist finds out what the Chinese think of Hilary and Obama.It was with a healthy amount of schadenfreude that Phillyist reported that former Eagle, and now Cowboy (ew), Terrell Owens owes the Eagles a significant wad of cash.Torontoist is two weeks......

Photograph of the Puck Building, where at least one 7th floor business supports Obama, by Tien Mao It's pretty safe to say many New Yorkers are aligned with the Democratic party, but it's unclear who NYC's registered Democrats will vote for on primary day - Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama. Though in the highly unscientific survey of sights around the city over the past week (and year), it seems the senator representing Illinois has......

SHOP: Still looking for that perfect gift? The Brooklyn Historical Society is holding the 4th Annual NY Creates Craft Fair, and they may have just what you're looking for. Check it out today and tomorrow, and it will be back the 22nd and 23rd for the real last-minute shoppers. Friday and Saturday // Noon to 6pm // BHS [128 Pierrepont St, Brooklyn] ART: Too much is going on the First Friday of every month, so......

Recently, legend became reality when a 10-story building in SoHo was being converted to a luxury condo. Unearthed in the walls was a large mural created by graffiti pioneers Fab Five Freddy and Futura 2000.The artwork contains a variety of images and writing executed in spray paint, grease pencil, magic marker and whatever else was on hand — in silver, gold, pink and red. There are cartoonlike pictures of a bomber airplane, images of a......

READING: Dave Eggers has delivered two (out of three) great novels, and tonight he reads from last one (which is just out on paperback), What is the What. He'll be at the Strand discussing the book and he'll also give a slideshow presentation from a recent trip he took to Sudan. More info here. Friday // 7pm // Strand Bookstore [828 Broadway] // Free EVENT: We love a good pillow fight, and tonight there's a......

Last week marked the five year anniversary of the murder of Jam Master Jay, who was shot and killed at his studio in Queens the night before Halloween 2002. The slaying was one of many that went unspoken about by witnesses, all of whom follow the "no snitching" rule. However, The Daily News has just talked to someone who is breaking this absurd code of silence.Randy Allen, the iconic turntablist's longtime business partner, told the......

Before November 24th we suggest heading over to the Storefront for Art and Architecture for this urban housing designs exhibit. The little gallery houses a New York City created from Legos! Not a completely new idea (this Sean fella did a good job of it previously), however these guys have taken it to the next level, including little details only locals could appreciate. Seriously, there's even street art...and Banksy no less! Watch the video......