Graffiti – Tats Cru

I dragged a friend up to the South Bronx one sweltering Sunday afternoon to do a tour of the area and see some graffiti by Tats Cru. There weren’t many people about, and a couple of the places we wanted to go in were closed, but we ended up sitting in a leafy square watching the kids play out on their bicycles, thinking how you don’t often see children playing outside these days.

PS1

Originally uploaded by Alex Terzich.

PS1in Long Island City, Queens is the much cooler sibling of MOMA. Housed in a Victorian school, it’s worth going just to wander round the labyrinthine and atmospheric corridors.

Sit on the playground steps, hot chocolate or glass of wine in hand to watch  the Brooklyn hipster / downtown design types congregate at their cultural watering hole. There are no tourists here.  

The art is contemporary and varied, there’s usually something good, bad and ugly to make you smile/scratch your head/despair.

In the summer, Warm Up  (pictured) with DJs and dancing in the  tricked out school yard; young architects compete annually for the opportunity to design the space.

If you like graffiti, check out 5 Pointz, which is across the road. You can’t miss it.

5 Pointz

, originally uploaded by bluebirdiebird88.

5 Pointz is a massive warehouse building just across from PS1 art gallery in Long Island City, Queens. It’s covered in various and changing graffiti, some by kids who attend a project to teach them aerosol techniques, some by west coast and European artists.

You can get to the roof via a fire escape for great views of Manhattan.

Check out PS1 across the road.