All photos: Erik Bergin
Brooklyn boasts an everyday art gallery on every street
Next time you come to New York, whatever you do, don't just stay on Manhattan. Across the East River, Brooklyn features some of New York's finest pieces of art. And it's all free to watch.
Beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder, they say. So perhaps it wasn’t strange that when Banksy, the British graffiti artist, came to show off his work in New York during October this year, some weren’t too thrilled. The mayor of New York, Mike Bloomberg, dubbed the artist a vandal who was destroying people’s property with his mural doodles.
“You running up to somebody’s property or public property and defacing it is not my definition of art,” the mayor said at a press conference in October 2013.
“Or it may be art, but it should not be permitted. And I think that’s exactly what the law says,” Bloomberg went on to say.
Many may argue the mayor right, some may say he’s just out of fashion. The best way to decide: Go to Brooklyn.
Graffiti in some form is everywhere in New York, but street art pieces of some quality is harder to come by. But at some places, you don’t even have to look for it, it’s everywhere. Brooklyn’s trendy neighborhood Williamsburg is one such place. Getting there couldn’t be easier. From Manhattan, Williamsburg is just one stop away on the L train going east. Or, a better option perhaps, take a walk on the Williamsburg Bridge, often shadowed by its mightier cousin to the south, the Brooklyn Bridge, and descend right in the middle of it.
The streets around the bridgehead on the Brooklyn side of East River is literally overflowing by high quality street art and graffiti. Some of these paintings can be found just beyond the old Domino sugar factory right on the riverbank, part of a nice neighborhood with cafés, boutiques and restaurants. Checking out this arty part of New York could easily occupy one whole day on your itinerary.
GALLERY THE GRAFFITI OF BROOKLYN
