:: BerDerp™ ::

Recently on a trip to NYC I took the 7 over to Queens, NY to visit the venerable 5Pointz Aerosol Art Center (aka the Institute of Higher Burnin). This outdoor exhibit space features over 300+ pieces and murals, from artists all over the world. The building itself is a 200,000 square foot warehouse situated in Long Island City & initially opened in 1993 under the name Phun Phactory. It’s current curator and “housekeeper” is Jonathan Cohen who helped re-open the space in 2001 after it was almost destroyed by vandals. I am hoping to cover more of this building in the future since part of the structure was inaccessible since earlier this year when a fire escape collapsed. I won’t be able to show all the pieces, obviously, so you can see the flickr set here.

last time we saw a morose take on Care Bears was with Mushroom Cloud Bear (or Nuclear Bomb bear.. whatever) .. today we stumble across Skull & Bones Bear:

kill your TV before it gets you

- 99% of households own @ least 1 TV

- number of commercials seen in an average lifetime: 2 million

- average American watches close to 2 months worth of non-stop TV a year – that’s 9 years worth of TV once you reach 65

dueling Musk’s in the mission

NART. I see this guy a lot everywhere.

just what is a NART?

I dig this guy’s stuff.

yup. After 9 years – still missing.

my buddy plug1 over @ whatimseeing invited me along for some fotosnappin’ tonight of a memorial mural recently done for “Iz the Wiz” aka Michael Martin, who passed away suddenly while in Florida at the young age of 51. I really enjoy graff (as any frequenter to Berderp knows) but I just hadn’t done enuff homework I suppose  & am just now stumbling across the legendary: Iz the Wiz. So here’s a short shout-out to a sorely missed figure in the graffiti culture.  [can any one identify who did this piece below?]

Iz began his career in the early 70′s, being a Queen’s native, and had a nascent rise to the creme de la creme as one of NYC’s prolific graff artist . Known for his popular “Iz” tag,  he was featured in the venerable Style Wars documentary, and also appeared in Wild Style. He held the title of “All-City” King for many, many years throughout the 70′s & 80′s.  But so many years of inhaling aerosol fumes without protective masks lead to kidney issues in the 90′s, and then finally his passing away last month.

12oz prophet has quite a bit of links on him

you can see more of IZ’s work here & here.

a few of my own Obey sightings