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Saddleshoe Tours, one of Time Out 's recommended street art tours

Street art tours: See graffiti on these New York walking tours

Join a tour guide to explore the best street art and graffiti in Manhattan and Brooklyn, and learn about the craft itself.

Take one of these five walking tours to explore graffiti and street art in neighborhoods like the Lower East Side , Chelsea and Williamsburg . Options range from affordable two-hour walks to private, customized tours that include stops in galleries and bars.

RECOMMENDED: Street art and graffiti guide 5 Pointz NYC Graffiti Tour Explore this warehouse turned renowned graffiti attraction with founder and curator Meres One as he pulls back the curtains on colorful murals by international artists from Brazil to Japan. Meres points out a stunning Pointillistic spray-painted portrait of a young kid wearing a hoodie by Australian artist James Cochran and the familiar face of murdered rapper the Notorious B.I.G. by New Zealand artist OD. This behind-the-scenes tour includes a spray-painting demonstration, in which Meres creates a detailed mural in less than ten minutes, and a visit to the roof to view the juxtaposition of colorful graffiti against the concrete Manhattan skyline. 45-46 Davis St at Jackson Ave, Long Island City, Queens ( sidetour.com ). Next tour May 5 2–2:30pm; $35. Advance purchase required. Graff Tours Discover the graffiti work of well-known artists on the Lower East Side and in the Village with this two-and-a-half-year-old company that also offers tours in Philadelphia and Los Angeles. Highlights include a four-story-tall stencil mural of a tattooed woman in a whimsical forest by Mike Owen, stencil work by Shepard Fairey (best known for his Obama “Hope” poster) and a mural featuring Popeye by John Matos (Crash One) on the Bowery Graffiti Wall, one of New York’s most famous downtown spots. The company provides similar tours in Williamsburg and Bushwick, and 90-minute graffiti workshops in Brooklyn, where you spray-paint on a wall with the guidance of local artists ($45). Meet at Bleecker St and Bowery ( grafftours.com ). Sun 1—2:30pm; $25. Reservations required. Levys’ Unique New York For a customized tour, opt for Levy’s graffiti and gallery tours in Brooklyn and Manhattan. On the Brooklyn tour, expect to see tags, throw-ups, stencils, murals and wheatpastes in neighborhoods like Williamsburg, Bushwick, Dumbo and Bed-Stuy, accompanied by a visit to English Kills Gallery (114 Forrest St at Flushing Ave, Bushwick, Brooklyn; 718-366-7323, englishkillsartgallery.com ) and artisanal chocolate factory Fine + Raw (288 Seigel St at Bogart St, Bushwick, Brooklyn; 718-366-3633, fineandraw.com ) . The guide also discusses the history of gentrification in the area, explaining how cheap rent attracted artists to industrial Williamsburg and Bushwick, which transformed the neighborhoods into creative hotbeds. These private group tours are personalized, so meeting points, times and prices will change accordingly. Two-hour walking tour rates range from $150 for one person to $400 for eight. Visit levysuniqueny.com for details. Saddleshoe Tours View painted murals, mosaic installations, sculptures and art embedded in the pavement on two different walking tours, in Chelsea and on the Lower East Side. Founder and guide Lia Buffa rocks her signature saddle shoes as she points out illegal street art in Chelsea from Michael De Feo, best known for his iconic, large-scale flower images (you’ll see one that’s six-foot-tall on this tour), and on the Lower East Side from Stikman, an unidentified artist who creates little men in different shapes and sizes. The Lower East Side tour also includes a zany cartoon galaxy spray-painted on a roll-down security gate, part of a (legal) 2011 project by Kenny Scharf. Lower East Side to Soho: Meet at Second Ave and 2nd St • Chelsea to Meatpacking District: Meet at Ninth Ave and 14th St • saddleshoetours.com . Weekends, by appointment; group of four $100, each additional person $20. Street Art Walk Join this two-hour jaunt around Bushwick and Williamsburg to see some of the area’s best pieces, such as Belgium artist ROA’s two-story-high wall mural of a giant squirrel, raccoon and fox with their tails wrapped around windows, or the work of French stencilist Christian Guémy, known as C215, who creates portraits of orphans, the homeless and refugees. Guide David Meade, an ex-graffer born and raised in the Bronx, also teaches participants the difference between paste-ups, stencils, murals, stickers and graffiti. Williamsburg tour: Meet at North 7th St between Bedford and Driggs Aves; Sat 2:30–4:30pm • Bushwick tour: Meet at Harrison Pl between Bogart St and Morgan Ave; Sun 2:30—4:30pm • streetartwalk.com . $20. Reservations required, e-mail [email protected] . Private tours available.

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Graff Tours

The street art experience.

Over 3,000 5 Star Reviews & 10 years of Experiences

We purchased the private tour and studio art lesson, and I was very impressed. Our Artist, Leaf, did an outstanding job walking us through how to create our masterpiece, while discussing the graffiti art progression over the years. Then Leaf took us around the neighborhood and showed us some very interesting art walls. He was very knowledgeable and great with the kids. My children are already asking to book again!!!

I can’t recommend this class enough. My 11 year-old nephew visited me in Brooklyn and we did tons of cool stuff, but this was easily a major highlight for him. I grew up with graffiti writers and worried it would be some watered-down thing, but it was legit and super fun—my nephew had no experience but learned how to wield a can, got a lot of personal attention from a great, experienced, funny artist/instructor and left with a large piece he is SOOOOO proud of.

I had no idea what to expect, but certainly did not expect the tour to be this informational. Byte, our guide, was a wealth of knowledge and gave a true appreciation for the history and stories of street art. There's plenty of talent in this field and you can certainly understand why we need to encourage street art in order to discourage "tagging". I really enjoyed it and considered it one of the best things I have done in my four different trips to NYC.

We did the tour and studio session as a celebration for our son's 18th birthday... our 2 other kids are in their 30's and we all loved the experience. Our son will take the graffiti mural off to college in the fall... it will be quite the conversation piece! The tour guide Ed was a wealth of knowledge and shared personal insight and experience which made it even more interesting. Leaf, the artist was patient and had the right balance between showing us what to do and doing parts himself.

Where To See the Best Graffiti and Street Art in NYC

New York is home to some of the world’s best street artists. In fact, New York’s graffiti has not only had local influence, but also national, and even international. The New York subway system was the perfect breeding ground for street art, stretching over 6,450 miles of dark, dense passageways. This allowed the early graffiti suspects to vandalize in secret, as they spread their naming conventions all over the city.

You'll also love this:

• Our GUIDE to Williamsburg in Brooklyn
• Our GUIDE to Bushwick in Brooklyn

Something which at the time was considered a nuisance crime has now blossomed into modern-day art. People will now go out of their way to see and photograph graffiti as it lights up cities and brings each one a sense of uniqueness. NYC streets have it all when it comes to street art, but just in case you don’t know where to search, here is the rundown.

Table of Contents

The history of graffiti in NYC

It is thought that graffiti started with a high school student in Philadelphia, 1967. The boy was attempting to impress a girl, so he decided to write his name all over the city with spray paint. He went by the pseudonym of ‘Cornbread’, but little did he know at the time, he had started an art revolution.

After Cornbread’s mission of innovation, graffiti quickly spread in popularity. Reaching out to other major American cities, including New York. By 1970 there were local graffiti artists in at least 5 different boroughs, where artists wrote their pseudonym names on the interior or the sides of subway cars. It wasn’t until 1973 that graffiti evolved into complex, colorful scripts.

Subway graffiti went rampant for 20 years, which called for extreme control measures on what at the time was considered vandalism. Now in the modern-day, graffiti is more controlled. It’s seen as a thing of beauty and creation for many by standing people to enjoy.

Where to find the best street art in NYC

If you like street art, you should definitely go to these neighborhoods:

Best Street Art in Bushwick

Bushwick, Brooklyn has the largest collection of murals in all of NYC and includes almost 100 blocks of street art. People travel from all over the world to visit the Bushwick Collective, with some paintings the size of full-scale buildings. Each year the Bushwick Collective holds a party, where artists from all walks of life attend to paint new murals, along with many pints of beer. There is also a local canvas for Bushwick artists at JMS Walls.

Best Murals in Williamsburg

A second Brooklyn location, Williamsburg, is home to another extensive display of graffiti. Murals are spread along Bedford avenue by many international artists including Brolga and Eduardo Kobra. In the new Domino Park , there is the Groundswell mural that depicts the history of the Domino Sugar Factory and the local people who work there.

Best Street Art in Manhattan

The Lower East Side and East Village have some of the most prominent street art murals in Manhattan. This includes the Bowery Graffiti Wall, which became famed after being graffitied by artist Keith Haring, and First Street Green Art Park, the only legal graffiti park in all of NYC. Several famous street artists have since painted this area including Banksy, Queen Andrea, Triton Eaton, and Tats Cru.

Local artists display their work in East Village in The New Allen and 100 Gates Project.

Best Street Art in Queens

Known as the most ethnically diverse urban area in the world, Queens unsurprisingly was once home to the legendary ‘5 Pointz’, which signified the five boroughs coming together as one. Unfortunately, this graffiti site has since been destroyed.

Nonetheless, Queens still houses the Welling Court Mural Project in Astoria . This stunning street art location has just celebrated its 10th year, and every June is visited by artists all around the world to update the walls with strong community murals.

3 Amazing Street Art Tours in NYC

Private graffiti & street art walking tour.

The Bushwick district is probably the most famous part of New York when it comes to street art and graffiti. Here there are many colorful, very elaborately designed and creative murals. You will see the different techniques that the artists have to master and learn a lot about this own culture and art. 

For many artists, this is their main profession and their graffiti just look awesome! For this reason, take a look at this Start Art Walking Tour!

Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour

Brooklyn is famous for its bold and bright street art, but it’s not easy to know where to find these creative works. With this walking tour of the Bushwick neighborhood, take in the diversity and culture of the neighborhood’s urban street artists. Check out massive murals and intricate designs as you take to the streets to learn how Brooklyn’s best can turn anything with a surface into a stunning work of public art.

Sidewalks and Skyscrapers: Street Art Is This Way

This walking tour shows that there is also street art and graffiti worth seeing in Manhattan. You start your exploration in Soho , and then in two hours learn the stories behind the large and small works of art. Some of the graffiti is an impressive 20 meters high, so always have your cameras ready!

The most famous street art in NYC

Banksy – hammer boy.

Although Banksy is English, he famously loves NYC. To show this, he staged a month-long street art project called ‘Better Out Than In’. Unfortunately, since then most of his work has been covered over or defaced. Luckily, his well-known Hammer Boy was preserved by the building owner who installed a Plexiglas shield in an act of protection.

• Address:  233 W 79th St
• Subway:  1 2 to “79 Street” or  A B C  to “81 Street – Museum of Natural History”

Big Pun Memorial

Created by Tats Cru as a tribute to the beloved rapper ‘Big Pun’ from Puerto Rico, who sadly passed away in 2000, this mural is a fitting reminder to the community that Pun was the first Latino rapper ever certified as a platinum solo act. Each year on Pun’s birthday, November 10th, the mural is repainted.

• Address:  910 Rogers Pl, Bronx
• Subway: 2 5  to “Intervale Av”

Crack is Wack

Possibly Kieth Haring’s most popular mural, Crack is Wack, is based on a studio assistant he had in the mid-1880s called Benny. Benny became addicted to crack cocaine, and Haring and his crew had a hard time trying to wean him off of it. Around the same time, his attention was brought to a deserted handball court, where he based his mural. Soon afterward he was arrested as he didn’t have permission to graffiti here.

News of his arrests broke out within the ‘War on Drugs’ campaign, and eventually, he was released and fined only $100. His original mural was defaced by pro-crack groups, so the authorities stepped in and asked him to legally make a new mural with the same message.

• Address:  E. 127 St., 2 Ave., and, Harlem River Dr (Crack Is Wack Playground)
• Subway: 4 5 6 to “125 St”

The artists associated with Audubon Mural Project have come up with a creative way to raise awareness of global warming, trying to encourage people to act. Scattered along Broadway there is an untold number of beautiful birds, each one representing one of the 300 native American bird species and are at threat of global warming.

Some of the best New York graffiti artists

Fernando Carl, better known by his moniker Cope2, is one of the most renowned graffiti artists NYC has to offer. Originating from the Bronx , he has actively been creating street art for over 4 decades. He acclaimed international recognition with his bubble lettering and wildstyle uniqueness. Since then Cope2 has gone on to do commissioned work for big labels such as Adidas, Footlocker, and Converse.

Sandra Fabara was originally born in Ecuador, but after making her home in Queens she gathered street art credit through expressing her grief. After the loss of a love in the 1970s, she took to the streets painting her lost lover’s name across NYC. For a long period of time, Lady Pink was the only prominent female graffiti artist on the New York scene, but her work was largely recognised for its camouflage and playfulness.

Zephyr, otherwise known as Andrew Witten, was one of the first street artists to kickstart the freight train graffiti movement, and is often credited as the inventor of several graffiti styles. Beginning his work in 1977, the majority of his early murals were painted on subways, therefore it has all since been lost. Nonetheless, he quickly rose as one of the first graffiti artists to transition to galleries and make commercial success.

Proudly holding the title of ‘King of Graffiti’, Blade chose subway trains as his canvas back in 1972, where he painted original characters. During these years, he painted over 5,000 creations. His decision to turn to actual canvases led to worldwide recognition, and he has maintained active work in the contemporary art world ever since.

Best Things to do in Williamsburg Brooklyn

Things to do in Bushwick

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Graffiti Art NYC: Tour The Best Of The City's Street Art

Visitors to New York City won't know where to look for the city's best street art without a guided tour, and you can start with these.

Graffiti has been around for a very long time - we know the ancient Romans did it (and not just "Romans Go Home" (" Romanes eunt domus ") from Monty Python's Life of Brian ). Graffiti has become an important form of art and there is certainly plenty of it to see and explore in the Big Apple. With the street art tours of New York City, one can discover the vibrant history of the city's urban culture.

Bushwick is world-famous for having some of the best street art in the United States while the Lower East Side is home to street art's humble beginnings. The tours will delve into the stories being the murals and even discuss the question of whether graffiti is a crime or a cultural creation. NYC is one of the places to see some of the many beautiful murals in the world .

Tour Of Brooklyn's Best Street Art In Bushwick

The tour of Bushwick's street art in Brooklyn offers an unforgettable tour of the region and one can discover over 50 multicolored murals in the area. This is where the artwork comes and goes on a daily basis making the streets of Bushwick an ephemeral outdoor museum.

The streets are lined with massive warehouses that provide the ideal canvas for street artists to practice their trade. There are works by famous street artists like Ramiro, Iena Cruz, Nepo, Don Rimx, Dasic, and more.

• Duration: 1.5 Hours
• Start Times: 1 p.m.

The tours are led by guides with an intimate knowledge of the street art and graffiti world. The guides are street artists themselves and may have even contributed to the mix themselves. One will gain a better understanding of the difference between tagging, graffiti, and street art. The guides will also describe the backstory and techniques used in the creation of the pieces that adorn the buildings.

• Meeting Location: 282 Meserole St. Bushwick Brooklyn 11237
• Cost: Adults $25.00, Children and Students $20.00

Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour in Brooklyn

View this post on Instagram A post shared by Grafftours (@grafftours)

• Duration: 2 Hours
• When: At 10.30 am Daily
• Cost: $32.00 Per Person or $180.00 For A Private Tour of Up to 4 People
• Location: Bushwick, NYC

Lower East Side Street Art Tour

This tour of the street art of Manhattan's Lower East Side is a 2-hour walking tour that shows off the coolest street art in the area. The Lower East Side is an area that is rapidly changing, it was once the heart of Manhattan's immigrant communities and tenements. Today it is massive on the art scene and boasts street art to murals to galleries.

• Duration: 2-Hours
• Location: Lower East Side, Manhattan

The tour goes from the East Village to Nolita to Little Italy and SoHo. On the tour, one will be able to see the history and evolution of graffiti art and some of the most legendary NYC spots.

• Private Tour Cost: $250.00 (This Tour is Available as a Private Tour Only)

One will see dozens of unique and colorful pieces - these range from all sizes with traditional graffiti, massive murals, wheatpaste, and much more. Some of the better-known pieces include Space Invader, Eduardo Kobra, Shepard Fairey, Tristan Eaton, Cost, Hektad, Solus, Buff Monster, and countless others.

In a way, street art is one of the lesser-known NYC museums worth visiting and it is free for everyone to enjoy. Some of the works really speak to the artist's imagination and talent and are something all can enjoy.

Next: Following The Christchurch Street Art Trail: Amazing Artwork You'll See Along The Way

Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour in Brooklyn, New York City

This walking tour takes place every day at 10:30am. The length is 2 hours and the cost is $32.

A private tour is $180 for up to 4 people and $10 for each additional person up to 10. Starting time is customizable. Please contact us to arrange it.

We can also provide a Virtual Experience. Please contact us for details.

Graffiti: crime or cultural creation?

Discover an exciting world of graffiti taggers and street artists on this walking tour while viewing some of the most visually incredible murals in New York City and Brooklyn.

Today there is more awareness than ever about the imaginative artists who bring walls, buildings and even entire neighborhoods alive with their vibrant creations. Join this walking tour in Bushwick, Brooklyn to experience fascinating works by these globetrotting innovators. Prepare to view artistic murals large and small while exploring streets pulsating with creative energy. Eyewitness for yourself why the Bushwick district is rapidly becoming a world-renown center of street art, as well as New York City's premiere place of graffiti culture. The murals are concentrated around an exhibition called the Bushwick Collective (NYC's premier place of aerosol culture).

As we walk, expect to be immersed in the culture and lifestyle of today's urban artists, who hail from as far away as Europe, South America and even Asia. Learn about the top contemporary artists, their quirky personalities, and find out just how much people have been willing to pay for their work!

Discover the different styles and forms of the trade - which include murals, wheatpaste posters, tags and stencils. Learn about the techniques and varying nuances between them, and how they have developed and evolved over time.

Join this walking tour in Bushwick, Brooklyn if you desire to learn more about this exploding phenomenon, or if you simply seek to see for yourself the very best murals New York City has to offer!

Here are some of the things we learn about on the tour:

Styles and common types of street art.

Tags are words written in spray paint on a surface of any sort: including walls, storefronts, signs or doors. The words are usually the name of the person who wrote it; or their crew. They are generally just one color, a few inches in size or a couple of feet.

The traditional motivation of a tag is to create exposure for oneself and broadcast the audacity of taking the risk to spray paint in a dangerous, inaccessible or openly public place. For a tag the main audience are other taggers. Larger productions known as "throw-ups" and "pieces" are more stylized and feature multiple colors - although they follow the same premise as tags and are also typically a name.

Murals are generally large and portray an image or scene. They often tell a story or express feelings of the artist. Many of them carry a social or political critique, satire or message. Murals are generally larger than tags but come in all sizes. Today artists are granted permission or even paid to produce murals for public display on businesses and public buildings.

Posters/Paste-ups

Poster art is usually created in private, then brought to a public place and affixed to a surface. It is attached using an adhesive called wheat paste . In addition to paint, poster art can also incorporate multiple layers, cutouts, collages or stickers. The down side to a poster is that it's more susceptible to weather conditions or destruction than spray paint. Therefore it tend to last less long than other graffiti mediums.

Modern street graffiti began in New York City in the early 1970's (although the person who is credited as the world's first graffiti writer was a student in Philadelphia named Cornbread). Young teenagers growing up in impoverished, marginalized communities started "tagging" their names on walls in public places. These 'writers' created alter egos, aliases that often combined a nickname with a number. Often the digits were based on the street the tagger lived on. Early leaders in the tagging world included people with street aliases like Fab5Freddy and Tracy168 . These graffiti pioneers experimented with new styles and began the fad of tagging New York City's subway trains. This historic era of graffiti was when the main widely-accepted customs and slang language developed.

Recognition

While locally in New York graffiti was seen and treated as vandalism, enthusiasts in Europe recognized artistic value in the "tagging" and brought these young writers to their continent to produce and exhibit work. Graffiti was an instant hit in Europe and by the mid 1980's the writers, who in America were looked upon as criminals, were treated as celebrities in countries like Italy and Germany. Over the 1980's there slowly began to be more recognition of graffiti artists in the US too. Some of the legendary pioneers were recruited to paint in music videos and on cable television.

Rise of "Street Art"

By the late 1980's the original historic graffiti era in New York had ended and local writers proceeded to carry on and repeat the traditions and culture of their predecessors . Meanwhile in Europe the urban art movement was just gaining traction. In the 1990's European artists experimented with new styles, which have become referred to as 'post-graffiti' or 'street art.' A French artist known as Blek Le Rat is attributed with introducing the stencil , a form of spray art which grew popular over the next decade. In recent years the stencil has been made famous by notorious British artist Banksy . Another noteworthy artist is Frenchman Space Invader who illegally installs ceramic tiles that portray pixelated old video game characters.

Mainstream Acceptance

By the 2000's, street art was followed around the world and top artists became household names. UK artist Banksy gained reverence and notoriety for his thought provoking images which appear in the unlikeliest of places. His work has subsequently commanded unheralded prices at top art auction houses. The rise of the internet and social media has allowed for fans to follow their favorite artists, and for writers to collaborate across continents, cultures and language barriers.

Controversy

The acceptance of street art into mainstream art circles has created social controversies. In late 2012 a Banksy piece disappeared from a London wall and resurfaced at a luxury art auction in Miami, Florida. Residents of its original London neighborhood expressed protest. They felt strongly that as a work of art it belonged to the community where it was created, and that it should be returned. The auction went ahead nonetheless and the piece was sold to a private collector for 1.1 million dollars!

Bushwick Collective

The murals we view on the tour are concentrated around an urban art exhibition called the Bushwick Collective . The Bushwick Collective was founded in 2012 by Joseph Ficalora - a neighborhood personality and businessperson - to beautify gritty industrial streets with vibrant art. Joe is inspired by his deceased father and mother - and the street art is dedicated to them. The Bushwick Collective brings together artists from around the world, legendary NYC graffiti artists, and local longtime Bushwick talent. In just a few years the Bushwick Collective has become the most famous street art exhibition in New York City, and one of the premier mural districts in the United States.

About Bushwick (neighborhood)

Bushwick is a dense post-industrial neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York City. It is currently becoming recognized for a blooming artist and creative scene. Also for new trendy restaurants and nightlife. The scene has blossomed over the last few years as nearby artsy Williamsburg has gotten more expensive. Aside from incoming artists and young professionals, Bushwick's primary population is Puerto Rican, Dominican-American and immigrants from Latin America. Bushwick is nearly 400 years old and was first founded by Dutch (on land taken over from Native Americans who lived there for centuries). In the 1800's the area filled with German immigrants and became a major place of manufacturing and beer brewing. There was also a large Italian and Sicilian immigrant community, before Bushwick's current Spanish-language residents began arriving in the 1970's. Unfortunately the area's gentrification has an ugly side - skyrocketing prices and people being dispossessed from their homes.

How the Tour Works

This is a public tour given every single day (7 days per week) at 10:30am in Bushwick, Brooklyn. It lasts approximately 2 hours and covers approximately 1.5 mile of walking distance.

The tour consists of a guided walk through the neighborhood (mainly by the Bushwick Collective ), and sometimes there is an indoor stop. The tour meets in a central location which is easily accessible by public transit or automobile.

Here is where the tour meets:

30 Wyckoff Avenue

Brooklyn NY 11237

New York City

(Between Starr Street & Troutman Street)

Meeting place is in front of Wyckoff-Starr coffee shop

Private and Group Tours

This tour is also available as a private or group tour. It is available any time.

We can accommodate 1 to 100+ people.

Rates: For individual private groups pricing begins at $180 for 1-4 people. Add $10 for each person up to 10. For 11 or more people is $24 per person.

We offer net rates and tiered pricing for professionals.

More about private and custom tours

PRIVATE: contact us or book your tour

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Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour of Brooklyn

Booking required

What you'll do.

Venture around the artistically expressive streets found within the vibrant neighborhood of Brooklyn - the open air gallery invites you into the exciting world of talented New York artists.

Take the Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour with The New York Pass®

• Discover the creative and vibrant Brooklyn neighborhood of Bushwick
• View classic elements of New York street art such as 'tagging' and 'bubble letters'.
• Get to know the techniques that real New York artists use when creating murals.

Brooklyn Street Art: A Dynamic Creative Canvas

Step into Brooklyn, New York's bustling center of artistic expression, where the urban landscape transforms into a vibrant open-air gallery. This borough is not just a backdrop, but an active participant in the culture, creativity, and community that is street art. The graffiti in Brooklyn is more than paint on walls - it's a powerful narrative of the city's history, a reflection of its diverse neighborhoods, and a representation of the voices that inhabit them.

Graffiti New York- Telling Urban Stories

Journey down the art-filled streets of New York, where every corner is a testament to the city's artistic heartbeat. Graffiti and street art in Brooklyn are the pulse of the city, an intricate record with striking colors and bold strokes. Each mural, each tag, is a unique piece of this urban narrative. From the large-scale installations that catch the eye from blocks away to the small, intricate stencils tucked away in unseen corners, this is street art at its finest - vivid, provocative, and simply captivating

Graffiti has long been a huge part of New York City's urban culture and that isn't going to change any time soon. On the Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour in NYC, you'll be exposed to some of New York's most creative and expressive blocks. New York artists have taken their talents to the streets of Brooklyn and provided an open gallery for you to view - the Bushwick Collective - in the neighborhood of Bushwick. On the tour, you'll be led by a guide who will be able to inform you of your surroundings as well as the history and techniques of the artists on display. Want to see more of Brooklyn? Check out our Brooklyn Bridge and DUMBO Neighborhood tour. Get access to over 100+ NYC attractions for one price with The New York Pass ®!

Know before you go

This attraction requires advanced booking.

Getting in:  be sure to bring your pass with you to the tour for check-in. Your pass must be valid on the day of the tour. You will receive an email confirmation with the tour’s departure location.

For more information, visit the Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour website.

Graffiti & Street Art Walking Tour in Brooklyn tickets help

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Where you'll be

Operating hours.

March – December: daily: 10:30am. January & February: Saturday & Sunday: 10:30am.

Tour operates year-round and generally run daily at 10:30am, but times will occasionally vary. Please check the tour website to confirm.

(866) 431-5393

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Manhattan Street Art & Pop Culture Tour

Tour Information

Manhattan street art & pop culture, manhattan street art & pop culture highlights.

Join us for a Manhattan Street Art Tour and experience the Lower East Side (LES) - SoHo, NoHo, Nolita and Little Italy. The Lower East Side of Manhattan is a playground for street artists, Soho is known to be one of NYC first permit Joint Live-Work Quarters for artists and the area received landmark designation in 1973. Noho and Nolita’s street art is either hidden in courtyards or on the more prominent street art facades. Learn about the history of the art of many famous and unknown artist.

Be sure to also check out our Bushwick Graffiti and Street Art Tour, Astoria Street Mural Walk , as well as our Williamsburg Street Art Tour .

Some of the sites we may encounter:

• Spring Street
• Lombardi's Pizza - 1st pizzeria in the United States
• Taim - rated Best Falafel in NYC
• Moma Design Store
• Germania Bank Building
• Liz Christie Garden
• Freeman Alley
• Mulberry Street

Some of the Artists’ work we may encounter:

• Shepard Fairey,
• Ron English, Gilf
• Jerkface, Fumero
• Triston Eaton, Solus
• Beau Stanton
• PyramidOracle
• Team Supreme Team Lowbrow
• and other local and international artists.

Tour information

Reservations: REQUIRED. Click here to reserve .  Groups of 6 or more must visit our groups page  before booking.

Duration: Approximately 2 hours. Tour distance is approximately 1.5 miles (2k)

When: @2pm Fridays. View Our Full Calendar

Where: In front of the REI store on the corner of E. Houston and Lafayette. ( map ).  The tour ends at 109 Mulberry Street near Canal Street ( map ).

Cost: The Manhattan Street Art Tour is free to take, and you get to decide what, if anything, the tour was worth when it's done.  A name-your-own-price tour is a tour for anyone's budget.

And much, much more

North america, united kingdom & ireland, middle east & india, asia & oceania.

A Local’s Free, Self-Guided NYC Street Art Tour

By: Author Girl with the Passport

Posted on Last updated: December 6, 2023

Categories New York City

A Local’s Free, Self Guided NYC Street Art Tour

We all know that New York City street art is some of the most vibrant, dynamic, and exciting urban art in the entire world.

Where is the best street art in New York City so that you can take some of the amazing street art walks?

A valid question since New York City is enormous and wandering around aimlessly will get you absolutely nowhere, unless of course, you’re into doing an impromptu New York City marathon (I’m not if that wasn’t blatantly obvious).

That’s Where this Street Art, New York City guide comes in.

See, I’m one of those locals who is enchanted by street art; an artistic genre that has transformed graffiti, a classic sign of urban decay, into a worldwide movement that has made the beauty of art available to the masses.

I’ll sometimes spend my weekends hunting down some of the coolest street art in the city since graffiti art can be beautifully thought-provoking (and one of the best free things to do in New York City ).

I created this free, street art walking tour of New York City to help you easily see some of the best New York street art in only twenty-four hours.

I practically had kittens when I heard Banksy was back in New York City, so trust me, I do know where some of the best NYC street art spots are.

So Read On:

And find out how to create a free and super easy, self-guided street art tour of New York City .

This post may contain affiliate links. Please see my  disclosure  for more information. As an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission from qualifying purchases.

If you’re booking a trip right now then I IMPLORE you to get travel insurance – even if it’s not from me.

After all, this past year has been a wild ride and I don’t want you to lose money because government regulations have changed. 

Truth be told though, I’ve never traveled without travel insurance and don’t think you should either – especially since I think we’ve all had plans drastically change because of the pandemic. 

Therefore, find an insurance agency that covers travel changes related to COVID-19, like my two all-time faves World Nomads and  Safety Wing . You can also read more about which policy is right for you in  my full review here .

1.The Highline

So I’m Guessing:

You’ve probably heard of the Highline in New York City.

If Not Then:

The short version is that it’s an old railway track that was expertly converted into an above ground park that gives you one hell of a view of NYC as you walk through Chelsea.

Pretty Cool Huh?

Minus the times when there are ten thousand people there and you feel like you’re strolling along in a herd of cattle (go during the week or super early to avoid the crowds).

But Besides the Gorgeous Views and the Charming Scenery:

There are amazing pieces of street art that are scattered all along the Highline Walk.

Well, the Friends of the High Line association invited some of the best New York City street artists (and street artists from around the world) to create innovative pieces of street art all along the buildings that line the Highline.

The Best Part?

The art pieces here are forever changing so you’ll always have some new art to discover.

***Take the 7 line to the 34th Street and Hudson Yards station. From here, you can walk downtown along the Highline. Once you hit 24th street, you can stop for breakfast at either Sullivan Street Bakery (try the Bombolini aka an Italian doughnut) or at Johny’s Luncheonette (get the peanut butter and banana pancakes). 

2. The Bowery Mural (76 E Houston Street)

***To get here from the Highline just take the L from the 14th Street/8th Avenue Station and transfer to the 6 at Union Square. From here, get off at the Bleecker Street station and it’s an easy walk to the mural. 

It all started with Keith Haring.

He was the first artist to use this wall as a canvas for his iconic form of art (if you have time, you can also check out his Crack is Whack mural at E. 128th St. along Harlem River Drive. There’s even a park named after this mural. #lifegoals and weeds are for whacking. Get it? Lol).

Now at the time:

His work wasn’t really jazz hand worthy, at least to the public, so other artists quickly destroyed his piece with tags of their own.

He did start a movement towards using this wall to display iconic works of street art, in a rather economically depressed part of the city (Not so much anymore but there are still a ton of homeless people asking for money along the Bowery. They even asked me for a banana! True story).

Art Enthusiasts Liked this Idea So Much:

That, Jeffrey Deitch (a super fancy art curator who is a super big deal and that I had to look up because I had no idea who he was) partnered with Goldman Global Arts (aka the company that owns this wall) to hire world-renowned street artists to paint murals on this now immortal wall.

Bansky actually did some iconic Bansky street art NYC here (see below), so obviously, this spot is a pretty big deal.

if you are looking for some pretty rad street art, then the Bowery Mural is where it’s at since this wall is forever changing and always has some stellar street art on display.

WORD…

Right, I’ll stop pretending to be cool.

***If you have some time, stop by the New Museum on our way to our next street art hotspot (literally right on the way to Freeman’s Alley). Trust me, the New Museum is an amazing place to discover the latest contemporary art and to catch a glimpse of the city from the museum’s top floor. 

***If you want to take a food break, head over to Super Moon Bake House for some great desserts. Everything is amazing but their CROISSANT BUTTER SOFT SERVE is divine. They also make a red, Bi-Color Croissant filled with Raspberry and tarragon jam.

Yum! If you want something a little more savory, head over to Lombardi’s (the earlier the better since it’s usually packed) and get an iconic slice of New York style pizza. 

3. Freeman’s Alley

What I love about Freeman’s Alley is that it is one of the great hidden gems in New York City!

Unless you know it’s here, obvi. 

Tourists will typically walk right by this alley and take no notice of this quirky, Lower East Side New York City street art sanctuary that local street artists have created.

But You’re Reading this Post.

So now you know all about Freeman’s Allery and how to use this self-guided street art tour NYC to fully appreciate the innovative jewels of art that are plastered along this little New York City alley.

Just Walking Through this Tiny Corner of NYC:

You’ll be overwhelmed by the beauty and creativity of one of my favorite street art NYC locations.

Freeman’s Restaurant  is a foodie mecca of sorts and has a quaint, restaurant storefront at the end of this alley.

The front of this restaurant will be major Instagram goals for any traveler in New York City.

But this Restaurant Isn’t Just a Pretty Face.

The food here is some of the best food in New York City.

Between the quinoa bowl (if you’re trying to be moderately healthy) and the pea and goat cheese tortellini (if you don’t give a fig about calories), you’ll probably end up licking your plate clean.

And no, I won’t judge you for it.

Just Make Reservations.

This place gets packed, especially on the weekends.

And while the street art here is nice, it loses it’s appeal when you’re starving after waiting two hours for a table.

Yup, even street art can’t stop a serious case of HANGRY

***If you’re looking for a dining experience that is a bit more casual, check out the Egg Shop . Seriously some of the best egg sandwiches of my life.

Morgenstern’s finest ice cream is also right down the street and serves divine raspberry cheesecake ice cream (add this little gem to your very own NYC foodie tour) , with a great street art mural right across the street. 

4. L.I.S.A. Project (Mulberry Street in Little Italy)

***To get to Mulberry Street, just walk down Chrystie Street and turn right at Broome Street (if you hit Grand Street subway station then you’ve gone too far).

Walk along Broome Street until you hit Mulberry Street. You’ll see a Cha Cha Matcha (a great place to sit, relax, get some Instagram photos, and enjoy a nice cup of Matcha or coffee) on your left as you reach Mulberry Street. 

I love how NYC is now paying artists from around the world to create street art within certain neighborhoods in the city; a spray paint, street art practice NYC that used to be considered vandalism as opposed to any actual form of art.

I support it since these works of art are downright j aw-dropping.

But it cracks me up that the L.I.S.A. project in NYC teams up with the Merchants Association of Little Italy to create street art that adds to the charm and appeal of this lovely neighborhood.

My Personal Favorite?

The Audrey Hepburn portrait that is displayed with a colorfully quirky New York City twist.

But There are a Ton of Other Amazing Street Art Pieces Here Too. 

So relax, stroll through this iconic New York City neighborhood, and see what you can find. Part of the fun is walking down the street and being surprised by what you find next on a mini NYC street art tour of Little Italy.

  So I have been talking a lot about my mom but there are so many women in this world that inspire me to be strong and fierce and follow my dreams. One is Audrey Hepburn. She was so classy and beautiful and overcame so much in her life. So who inspires you and why? Can’t wait to find out and get inspired for Monday. #girlwiththepassport A post shared by Kelly • Solo Travel Blogger (@girlwitthepassport) on Feb 4, 2018 at 7:58pm PST

***DO NOT eat in Little Italy. Except if it’s Da Nico’s which has pretty amazing pizza. Oh, and they send out a free plate of zeppole for dessert so no need to order any sweets. The rest of Little Italy is rather overpriced and devoid of any great food.

***It’s also acceptable to grab a cannoli from Cafe Palermo. Actually, you can also stop by Aunt Jake’s for some amazing pasta. 

5. Centre-Fuge Public Art Project (East 1st Street)

***To get to this next art space, walk back towards Broome street and make a right. Walk until you hit Sara D. Roosevelt Park and make a left onto Chrystie Street. Continue straight ahead until you hit East Houston Street and the park will be across the road and to your right. 

The idea behind this street art collective is simple yet brilliant.

Lower East Side residents Jonathan Neville and Pebbles Russell (any relation to Bam Bam? Sorry, I had to go there) got tired of constantly looking out at gross construction sites.

The noise, the cranes, the rubble…

They all fused together to create one giant eyesore that no one wanted to look at

The Solution?

Transform hideous construction sites into stunning street art exhibits by painting vibrant, artistic masterpieces on the exterior of construction trailers, work trucks, etc.

Talk about going from Drab to Fab.

Started in 2011, this art project has grown in size and scope to become one of the best places to find street art murals in Manhattan.

***Hungry? Can you tell that I think with my stomach? Well, if you actually are hungry, walk down Ludlow Street (which has amazing street art and Instagram spots anyway) and stop by Black Tap . I have heard their burgers are amazing but I always come here for the Birthday cake specialty shake. Yum!

6. First Street Green Art Park (33 East First Street)

I’m not gonna go to in depth with this next spot on our street art walking tour NYC.

Well, it’s literally right on top of the Centre-Fuge Public Art Project so they both kind of meld together to form this giant buffet of ridiculously awesome street art.

What I will Say Is:

When I was here, there was a tremendous amount of politically charged art that didn’t fall into the category of, “pretty street art that you can just rush through after you get your selfie swerve on”.

Take your time strolling through this street art collective.

There are some amazing, gut-wrenching, powerful, and truly thought-provoking street art pieces that deserve your consideration.

So stop, relax, and take in the true meaning of the beauty all around you (think of it as an unofficial street art exhibit NYC)

Not that I’m Some Pro Art Critic Who Understands the True Meaning Behind these Pieces.

Maybe the important thing is that all these pieces can mean different things to different people.

***To get to our final stop in Brooklyn (woot, woot), I would walk four minutes to the second avenue station of the F train. Take this train towards Coney Island and take it three stops to York Street Subway Station. 

7. DUMBO (20 Jay Street, Brooklyn)

DUMBO (aka not the flying elephant):

Is probably one of the best neighborhoods in all of New York City (and a place you can to your Brooklyn street art map)!

Between the cobblestone streets, the delicious Juliana’s Pizza (some of the best pizza in NYC), the delectable NYC coffee from Brooklyn Roasting Company, the ultra-cool shops for hipster wannabes like me, and the iconic views of the Brooklyn Bridge and the Manhattan skyline, it’s a miracle that I ever leave at all.

Actually, Wait

I could NEVER afford to live in DUMBO.

So unless I wanna be homeless, I kind of have to leave.

It’s no surprise that this cultural hotspot is also home to some amazing Brooklyn street art spots, all of which lie within a four-block block radius of the BQE.

Now Bare in Mind:

These eight murals were created back in 2013 when various neighborhood improvement groups invited world-famous street artists to beautify the streets of DUMBO.

Many of these pieces, while impressive and meaningful, are somewhat faded and less pronounced than they once were.

So just keep that in mind when you visit because I don’t want you to get all disappointed because these street art murals aren’t as glam as you thought they’d be.

These murals are great street art NYC pieces,  but they are just not as amazing as they once were.

8. World Trade Mural Project

Have you seen the brand-new street art murals at the WTC? Simply awesome They are in the Financial District all around The Oculus Plaza, so be sure to stroll on all those streets (and crossing streets) where the Oculus and 9/11 Memorial Plaza are.

They are bright and highly uplifting, embodying the atmosphere of New York with kind words to the city and the globe.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey collaborated with Silverstein Properties to plan these WTC Murals. They understood that in order to avoid giving off the impression that the area was under construction, vibrant, upbeat energy was required.

Including artwork by artists including Todd Gray, Hektad, BoogieRez, Stickymonger, BoogieRez, and the husband-and-wife collaboration of Chinon Maria and Sebastian Mitre.

Ground Zero served as a perpetual construction site that served as a memorial to the September 11th attacks for locals and tourists alike.

However, if you go to the World Trade Centers’ Oculus, you may view some of our favorite street artists’ creations that were ordered by 2WTC.

Don’t miss these striking walls, which have revived optimism in downtown Manhattan.

As co-curators of the 69th floor of 4WTC, Mar and Izzy, street art tour guides with Free Tours by Foot, are pleased to have advised on the World Trade Mural Street Art Project.

They are the tour guides for Free Trips by Foot’s street art and graffiti tours.

Additionally, you may visit this artwork during Lower Manhattan Tours.

This Concludes This Episode of Girl With the Passport, Street Art NYC Locations Edition

I’m Gonna Try and Be SUPER Honest for a Moment.

Are these all of the absolute best street art locations in New York City?

Nope, not a chance.

Between Coney Island Art Walls, the Big Pun Memorial in the Bronx, the Bushwick Collective.

(There is a whole Bushwick street art map that you can check out), the Freedom Tunnel, Graffiti Hall of Fame in East Harlem, Tuff City in the Bronx, the Welling Court Project in Queens, etc. there are simply too many amazing graffiti street art, NYC locations to see them all in twenty four hours in New York City .

You’d Probably Need a Solid Week to see all those street art locations during some great street art tours in NYC. 

That’s Why:

I intentionally shortened this list of stellar NYC graffiti art locations.

The majority of these iconic street art pieces, like the Audrey Hepburn street art NYC, are located in lower Manhattan and DUMBO since these are the areas in New York City that most visitors frequent.

So embrace your inner NYC abstract art critic and take a street art walk to visit some of the best spots for street art NYC. 

And if you want to pay for a tour, Graff Tours has some great artist led street art tours and workshops.

Graff Tours is based in Brooklyn and will show you some of the best Brooklyn street art locations.

Samara Vaiuso

Tuesday 6th of August 2019

This is an amazing article. I felt like you were having a private conversation with me. You covered all my questions and more! I wish I had read it before I visited yesterday! I’m in love with the Highline and lower Manhattan I will definitely be visiting again soon. I plan to take you up on many of your offerings. You are absolutely one of my people; possibly my soul sister :)

girlwiththepassport

Friday 9th of August 2019

Aww! This makes my heart so happy! I love finding new soul sisters!

Enara Castro

Wednesday 8th of May 2019

Thanks a lot for your guide.I´M from Rio de Janeiro/Brazil,and going to NYC soon. I really enjoy Street Art,and your guide will enhance the fun ! Also, the food tips are great !

Oh so glad to hear that! I hope that you have an amazing time!

michael norton

Wednesday 2nd of January 2019

Thank you for this post! Much love and happy 2019!

Happy new year to you too and thanks for reading!

Zaneta P Baran

Saturday 4th of August 2018

I love street arts! Thank you for sharing, I will use this post when I come to NYC again.

Sunday 5th of August 2018

Oh good! I am so glad to hear it. New York City has some amazing street art.

Natasha Lequepeys

Ohh, love street art, I'll have to hit up all these places and get some interesting street photography. If you haven't visited Toronto yet we've got tons of cool street art there too you'd probably enjoy. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks so much and yes! I still need to visit Toronto. It's on my ever growing list of amazing cities to visit.

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Where to Experience the Arts Outdoors in New York State

Credit: @icantbelieveitsnotbrooklyn on instagram.

Experience the colorful world of art beyond the traditional gallery walls. Discover the canvas that is New York State when you immerse yourself in outdoor sculpture parks , public art installations, and scenic performances set against the backdrop of picturesque landscapes. Celebrate creativity under the open sky, from the bustling streets of New York City to the tranquil beauty of parks in the Hudson Valley.

Stroll through Sculptures in Scenery

Credit: @amanda_tiberio on instagram.

Opt outside and immerse yourself in larger-than-life sculpture parks throughout New York State. No matter the season, stunning natural landscapes set the scene as you marvel at one-of-a-kind masterpieces. In the Hudson Valley you’ll find Art Omi , Storm King Art Center , and Opus 40 . Art Omi is open year-round for strolling and bicycling across its 120 acres of fields and forest. Wander through 6.5 acres of hand-constructed terraces, ramps, and steps at Opus 40, an environmental bluestone sculpture built from an abandoned quarry, enveloped by 63 acres of meadows. Home to more than 100 contemporary sculptures from acclaimed visionaries of the 20th century, Storm King Art Center comprises 500 acres overlooking rolling hills, mountainscapes, and the Hudson River.

Credit: @rosie_bonamico on Instagram

One of America’s oldest and largest sculpture parks, Griffis Sculpture Park , features 250 structures of steel and other materials nestled in 450 acres of wooded wonderland. Walk along the East River or catch views of the Manhattan skyline when you stroll along Socrates Sculpture Park , once an abandoned landfill, now a five-acre contemporary art exhibition space. On Long Island, Parrish Art Museum fills 14 acres of grassy meadowland with the unique creations of esteemed sculptors. Discover even more sculpture parks across New York State to experience art in nature.

Marvel at Murals

Credit: @chopan585 on instagram.

The world is your canvas! Bold, thought-provoking illustrations that decorate buildings, fences, pillars, electrical boxes, parking garages, and more are proof of that. At the corner of Michigan Avenue and East Ferry Street in Buffalo , The Freedom Wall , features portraits of 28 notable civil rights leaders from America’s past and present.

Credit: @jeanboileau on Instagram

Walk or cycle around Albany and check out the Capital Walls , a collection of 22 (and counting) captivating public works of art painted across various structures throughout the city. Pose for a picture alongside the 150-foot tribute mural “Welcome to Coney Island” in Brooklyn, highlighting imagery from Coney Island’s past and present. Also, hit the streets of Bushwick for a Brooklyn Street Art Tour, where you’ll explore over 25 multicolored murals decorating warehouses that line the popular neighborhood streets. 200,000 meticulously placed tiles make up large-scale mosaics in North Creek, depicting the native wildlife and landscape of the Adirondacks. Down the road in Glens Falls, you’ll find electrical boxes and Adirondack chairs disguised as colorful murals as you make your way through the Glens Falls Art Trail . 

Delight in Theatrical Tales

Credit: @skadadal on instagram.

Free, family-friendly theater can be enjoyed throughout the state in accessible, scenic outdoor settings. Pick a picture-perfect spot on the grass to enjoy star-quality performances under the stars. Step into a musical time machine and join "The Marvelous Wonderettes" on a nostalgic journey through the 1950’s and 1960’s at Park Playhouse , nestled in Albany’s beautiful Washington Park . 

Credit: @roshtoms on Instagram

 “To be, or not to be: that is the question” and the answer is that you need to be at these stellar showcases of Shakespeare. The Public Theater: Mobile Unit’s The Comedy of Errors takes over all five boroughs of New York City this summer with English and Spanish performances at venues including Bryant Park and Prospect Park . “Twelfth Night” lights the night in Congress Park in Saratoga Springs, presented by the Saratoga Shakespeare Company . The stage is set for “The Winter’s Tale” and “The Comedy of Errors” at Shakespeare in Delaware Park in Buffalo. And in Garrison, Hudson Valley Shakespeare Festival presents By The Queen, while Catskill Mountain Shakespeare in Mount Tremper acts out Julius Caesar (ticket based).

Attend a Fresh-air Festival

Warm weather brings new life to art festivals in New York. Whether its visual arts, performing arts, or vendor arts, the vistas of the Empire state offer a festivity-filled backdrop for everyone. For a taste of outdoor summer fun, check out these headline events happening throughout New York State. And for even more events, take a peek at the full calendar .

SummerStage (June 1 - October 20, NYC) LARAC June Arts Festival (June 8-9, Adirondacks) Summer for the City (June 12 - August 10, NYC) Porchfest (June 15, Central NY) Hudson Valley International Festival of the Voice (June 28-30, Catskills) Art Show on the Green (June 28-30 & August 16-18, Long Island) Lockport Outdoor Arts & Crafts Festival (June 29-30, Greater Niagara) Finger Lakes GrassRoots Festival (July 18-21, Finger Lakes) Glimmerglass Festival (July 22-August 20, Central NY) Ithaca Artists Market (August 9, Finger Lakes) Lewiston Art Festival (August 10-11, Greater Niagara) Battery Dance Festival (August 11-17, NYC) 60th Annual Craft Festival (September 7-8, Central NY) Cazenovia Art Trail (September 28-29, Central NY)

Move to Live Music

Let your favorite musicians serenade you under the canopy of lush landscapes and the sights and sounds of summer. New York is chock-full of renowned amphitheaters and outdoor venues that draw in the biggest names in music. This summer Bonnie Raitt and Norah Jones will entertain thousands at ArtPark , while SPAC welcomes back Dave Matthews Band and Earth, Wind, and Fire. At Bethel Woods Center for the Arts you can groove to Hootie & The Blowfish and James Taylor.

Bob Dylan, Willie Nelson, and Santana will be rocking out at the Empower Amphitheater . CMAC is hosting country legends Carrie Underwood and Zac Brown Band, as Darien Lake Performing Arts Center brings back boy band charm with New Kids On The Block and Niall Horan. Cozy up on the lawn of Bearsville Theater and jam out to Guster and The Dirty Dozen Brass Band. Melodic tunes fill downtowns across New York State all summer long with free weekly festivals. Albany’s Alive at Five is back with concerts on Thursday evenings, June 6-August 1. In Elmira, you can move and groove on Monday evenings , July 8-August 19. And what better place to enjoy free music than on the beach? Long Beach hosts a concert series Wednesday evenings, July 3-August 28.

Don't forget to post photos of your New York adventures on  Instagram  and  Twitter  with #iSpyNY and tag us on  Facebook !

Author: Rachel Dymond

Rachel Dymond is the Editorial Project Manager of ILOVENY.com.

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What to See in N.Y.C. Galleries in June

By Holland Cotter

In a New York art world fueled by a clamorous quest for new talent, it can be a refreshment to seek out exhibitions of artists with long, continuing and startlingly fruitful careers. The late-spring-into-summer season offers a prime chance to savor some:

‘Byzantine Bembé: New York by Manny Vega’

Through Dec. 8. Museum of the City of New York, 1220 Fifth Avenue, Manhattan; 212-534-1672, mcny.or g.

In celebration of its centennial year, the Museum of the City of New York invited Manny Vega to be its first artist in residence. Fabulous choice. Vega is a native New Yorker and a treasure, with a nearly four-decade track record of visual scintillation behind him. The essence of that career is distilled in a 24-karat nugget of a survey, “Byzantine Bembé: New York by Manny Vega,” assembled by Monxo López, the museum’s curator of community histories.

Puerto Rican by descent, Vega was born in 1956 in the Bronx, raised there and in Manhattan, and an immersion in art came early. One of his first jobs after graduating from the High School of Art and Design was as a guard at the Cloisters, the Met’s branch in Upper Manhattan devoted to European medieval art. In 1979 he joined El Taller Boricua (Puerto Rican Workshop), the street-active artist collective and graphics workshop in the East Harlem neighborhood known as El Barrio.

In the early 1980s, he began traveling to Brazil, where he was initiated into Candomblé, an Afro-Atlantic religion that fuses West African Yoruba and Roman Catholic beliefs and has a vivid tradition of ceremonial art, including beaded banners and ritual utensils, both of which Vega has produced. Given these entwined influences, conventional distinctions between “high art,” “popular art” and “spiritual art” have never made sense to him, which explains the title of his show, “Byzantine” suggesting intricate formal polish; and “Bembé” evoking drum-driven religious worship that is also a party.

The mix is there in four small paintings he made in 1997 as studies for a set of mosaics commissioned by the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for the subway station at East 110th Street and Lexington Avenue. Brightly colored and packed with figures, the images depict El Barrio street life — neighbors jostling, vendors selling, bands playing — and give it a charge of devotional fervor, aural exultation. (A tour of other Vega commissions in East Harlem, all within walking distance of the museum, is well worth making, a highlight being his tender homage to the poet Julia de Burgos (1914-1953) on a building at East 106th Street and Lexington Avenue.)

Sound and movement are major components in Vega’s visual universe. Icon-like images of Ochun, the Yoruba goddess of dance, and St. Cecilia, the Roman Catholic patron saint of music, appear in the show as tutelary spirits. And there are others. One is the Barrio-born jazz musician Tito Puente, whose album covers Vega has reproduced as glass mosaics. And in a large ink drawing, as crisp as a woodcut, we find the assembled performers of Los Pleneros de la 21, a local dance and music troupe promoting traditional bomba and plena.

Maybe inevitably in the case of an artist coming from an immigrant background, and from a culture long, and still, devalued if not demonized in mainstream America, politics runs, like a bass note, throughout Vega’s art. In his case, though, it’s far less a politics of overt protest than of positive assertion.

In the work of this profoundly devotional artist, the presiding deity is also an immigrant. It’s Changó, the Afro-Atlantic spirit of justice and balance, and also of dancing and drumming. A watercolor painting of him closes the show, and it’s a classic Vega creation: formally precise, imaginatively stimulating, instantly accessible. And it has found just the right home. It’s on loan to the show from Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor who, a wall text tells us, displays it in her chambers in Washington.

‘Xenobia Bailey: Paradise Under Reconstruction in the Aesthetic of Funk: The Second Coming’

Through June 15. Venus Over Manhattan, 39 Great Jones Street, Manhattan; 212-980-0700, venusovermanhattan.com .

As in the case of Manny Vega’s work, the art of Xenobia Bailey has a prominent public presence in New York City. Her gleaming glass mosaic “Funktional Vibrations,” a 2015 Metropolitan Transportation Authority commission, arches, like a sky of shooting stars, over the entrance to the Hudson Yards subway station on 34th Street. Yet her current exhibition at the gallery Venus Over Manhattan is her first solo show here in some 20 years.

And like Vega, with his murals and beadwork, Bailey — born in Seattle in 1955 — has chosen to work primarily in a crafts-associated medium, namely fiber crochet. She came to it via a roundabout route, through the study of painting (Jacob Lawrence was one of her teachers), ethnomusicology, millinery and costume design. She learn hand crochet from the master needleworker Bernadette Sonona, and ended up putting this low-technology technique to extravagant use.

Bailey’s initial crochet pieces were body-scaled, based on African headpieces and hairstyles. (Some of her early designs can be spotted in Spike Lee’s 1989 movie, “Do the Right Thing.” An “Afrocentricity” hat, of the kind worn by Samuel L. Jackson in the film, is in the show.) The direction she was headed was Afrofuturistic, and her focus soon lifted off from wearables to producing the equivalent of fabric murals, which seemed to exist in spiritual realms proposed by performers like George Clinton and Sun Ra.

Here we visit that realm. Big, jazzily patterned crochet circles, crosses between mandalas and domestic throw rugs, predominate. Some hang alone on the wall, or, in “Sun Birthing” (1999), are joined together in a galactic cluster. Here and there, perfect circularity is varied. In “C-Trane Express Track” (circa 2000), a circle is stretched into propulsive ellipsis. In “Shooting Star” (2008), a kaleidoscopic grouping is given an arching comet tail. And in the early “She Bop-She Boom” (1996/1999), a grouping of connected circles serves as a bed of repose for a small, solid indigo female figure.

The dates of this last work indicate that it took three years to reach its finished state, and the show’s centerpiece, “Sistah Paradise’s Great Walls of Fire Revival Tent” took fully 16 years, from 1993 to 2009. You can see why. It’s a complex thing. Positioned in the center of the gallery, suspended over a flaming sun-shaped carpet, and ornamented with cowrie shells, its form is that of African royalty and priestly crown; its apparent function is as a meditative room-for-one-person shelter in which enchantments are cast and futures foretold. The words “Mystic Seer” are stitched over the entrance to this hand-sewn tour de force. Add “Artistic” to “Mystic” and you get Bailey’s identity exactly right.

Finally, there are two other mid-to-late-career shows you won’t want to miss. One is “Norberto Roldan: How Not to Win a Revolution,” the first New York solo exhibition of a veteran artist born in 1953 in the Philippines, where he is a major cultural presence and, with his material-rich textile art-based work incorporating religious and political imagery, an intensely interesting one. ( Silverlens , 505 West 24th Street, Chelsea, through June 15.)

The other, at Venus Over Manhattan’s second space, a few doors away from the Bailey show, is the first local solo exhibition since 1991 of the celebrated painter Chéri Samba , who lives and works in the Democratic Republic of Congo. There, at 67, he is still going strong, like the international market for contemporary African figure painting that his career helped start. ( Venus Over Manhattan , 55 Great Jones Street, through June 15).

Last Chance

Richard ayodeji ikhide.

Through June 15. Candice Madey, 1 Freeman Alley, Manhattan; 917-415-8655; candicemadey.com.

Among the Edo people of Nigeria’s Benin Kingdom, the art of forging mythologies is highly regarded. These myths permeate everything: language, festivals, stories told to children, as well as the famous Benin sculptures that are now scattered across museums around the world. In “Ties That Bind With Time,” Richard Ayodeji Ikhide is fashioning his own mythology, complete with Emiomo, the recurring protagonist who functions as an emissary or messenger in his paintings.

The large-scale watercolor, gouache and collage paintings here depict Emiomo’s journey through a kind of private universe. The figures are fluid and almost wobbly, as if they were pouring out of the canvas. Spots, dots and circles form repeated patterns, and all the figures are naked except for Emiomo, who occasionally has a red ribbon around his neck. The many activities in the frames almost make the fantastical creatures (like a goat with two eyes on each side of its face) believable.

Although most people consider the Benin sculptures ancient, they were largely intended to be contemporary, incorporating the events of the day such as the arrival of Portuguese missionaries and traders. Myths were therefore not just history-making but an enactment of the present. Ikhide’s era is obviously different from those of the Benin bronzes, yet he follows this tradition of recording the zeitgeist by including references to Japanese manga, virtual reality and video games in his own mythology. There are also more characters making a collective present here, unlike in “Emiomo,” the 2021 show at the same gallery where Ikhide had first introduced the character, mostly in solitary settings. Ikhide, born in Nigeria in 1991 and trained in textile design at the University of the Arts London, is navigating a community in his personal life, having just become a father. This is how in “Ties That Bind With Time,” the artist’s universe is fuller and Emiomo is no longer alone. YINKA ELUJOBA

Lucas Arruda

Through June 15. David Zwirner, 537 West 20th Street, Manhattan; (212) 517-8677, davidzwirner.com .

The Brazilian artist Lucas Arruda’s recent paintings at David Zwirner recall an aspect of the collective wonder we experienced with the solar eclipse last month, which, for a moment, seemed to stop time so people could gather merely to look up and perceive how our humble planet fits into the greater celestial order.

Arruda evokes a similarly profound feeling of lightness and dark. This big and impressive show features 42 works from the last five years, all paintings ranging from monochrome abstractions to landscapes of jungles, deserts, clouds and sky. The most elemental works are included in a site-specific installation of three pairs of stacked rectangles: in each pair, one is painted directly on the wall, the other created via the projection of light. (Stare closely to see if you can tell which is which, before approaching and letting your shadow reveal the answer.)

Arruda manages transcendence at a modest scale: Most individual works are as small as a sheet of letter-size paper. His painterly appeal triangulates characteristics of Mark Rothko, the late works by J.M.W. Turner and most notably Vija Celmins. His scratchy treatment of starry skies are the rare misstep, with this expansive subject (mastered by Celmins) depicted by Arruda as claustrophobic and deadened.

This weak spot only makes more apparent the small miracle Arruda performs in rendering the complex sprawl of jungle on his diminutive canvases. As in “Untitled (from the Deserto-Modelo series)” (2019/2020), where the mist of the horizon invades the scene, overtaking the tangles of foliage in a sublime dance of textures. A narrow band of horizontal strokes delineates the bottom of the composition before the trees begin. This helps organize the picture while suggesting clear cutting and nodding to man-made environmental destruction. Unmissable. JOHN VINCLER

Lubaina Himid

Through June 15. Greene Naftali, 508 West 26th Street, Ground Floor, Manhattan; (212) 463-7770, greenenaftaligallery.com .

Walking through Chinatown before heading to Chelsea, I passed a man standing on the sidewalk beside a sheet of cardboard on which three large fish were resting, so fresh their gills seemed still gasping for air. A few paces away, another man used a pair of tongs to keep live blue crabs from pinching one another in the plastic tray he presented in his other outstretched hand to passers-by.

“Street Sellers” like these feature in Lubaina Himid’s oversized portraits and provide the name for the show, which renders the space of the gallery as a surreal street scene. Before each of the 10 portraits that tower at eight feet tall, a cardboard sign presents a phonetic rendering of words that the merchants might shout out to sell their wares. The effect is whimsical without being cloying, and most importantly the paintings are all lively.

The 69-year-old artist is having a well-deserved American moment. Born in Zanzibar, off the east coast of Africa and based in Preston, England, Himid has a solo show concurrently at the Contemporary Austin in Texas through July, having received the 2024 Suzanne Deal Booth / FLAG Art Foundation Prize.

The best works here incorporate collections of depicted small objects, making whole universes out of the scenes, with numerous details to focus on. Take for example, the pale prosthetic hand stretching out from the “Talisman Seller” who is holding a ribbon while presenting a box containing various shells. The exhibition also includes two works of ceramics — a plate and serving dish — embellished with paintings of a molar and a tongue (both 2024), as well as two portraits painted in profile within two otherwise empty drawers affixed to the wall. A scavenger hunt of looking. JOHN VINCLER

More to See

East Village

Through June 22. Karma, 22, 172, and 188 East Second Street, Manhattan; 212-390-8290, karmakarma.org.

In the late 1960s and early ’70s, Alan Saret’s delicately chaotic sculptures and drawings — sensuous tangles of wire and whorls of colored pencil — were part of the cerebral work promoted at Bykert , the short-lived but influential gallery that provided wide latitude to post-Minimalist artists like Brice Marden and Lynda Benglis. Yet even that laxity proved too constraining for Saret, who chafed at being hemmed in, often to the point of self-sabotage. (He supposedly pulled out of a Whitney showcase in 1969 because he didn’t like the title.)

Saret’s allergy to gallery systems led him to search out alternatives. After contributing to the 1971 India Triennial, he hung around for nearly three years, immersing himself in spiritual self-inquiry. He took to exhibiting out of his studio, and later constructed Ghosthouse, an outdoor mesh shelter in upstate New York that he inhabited for several months.

So it’s a small miracle that a survey of Saret’s works from 1975 to the present currently stretches across Karma’s three galleries. Oracular, kaleidoscopic works on paper combine Saret’s mathematical studies with what appears like religious sacred geometry redolent of the I Ching and the Kabbalah’s Sefirot — intricate compositions thick with color, language, and visual information that spirals and stellates, like schematics for achieving transcendence.

The most disarmingly sublime though are Saret’s “dharanis,” calligraphic gossamer ink drawings of lyrical, gnomic koans — what were once called mantras but are referred to now, in wellness culture, as daily affirmations. For Saret this mode of thinking was not faddish but a deeply felt way of organizing his being. They’re less text art than devotional objects, a reminder that the real art is being alive. MAX LAKIN

Midtown and Chelsea

Jamie Nares

Through June 22. Kasmin, 297 10th Avenue, Manhattan; 212-563 4474, kasmingallery.com .

Through June 2. MoMA, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan; 212-708-9400, moma.org .

For nearly 50 years the artist Jamie Nares has sped up time and slowed it down, lingering on it or folding it back in on itself. This two-venue retrospective — at MoMA, 40 of Nares’s No Wave and post-Minimalist films from the mid-1970s; and at Kasmin, 100 works on paper made after she traded her Super 8 for a paintbrush — suggest that her concerns have remained constant even as their expression changes.

The most thrilling remains “Pendulum” (1976). Nares suspends a heavy metal sphere on a wire and shoots it from multiple angles — at street level and above, and with the camera duct-taped to it — as it slices through a deserted TriBeCa street for 17 minutes. The sphere flirts with walls and threatens to obliterate fire escapes, a wrecking ball presaging the neighborhood’s impending redevelopment. It is the exact kind of a film a painter would make, the pendulum tracing out its elegant line in the air, a metronome ticking out a visible pulse.

Nares’s 2011 film, “Street” is another one: a continuous, linear gesture, three minutes of footage trawling the streets of the city slowed into a 61-minute tableau of kinetic humanism. It recalls the artist’s untitled 1988 oil on wax paper: an undulating gesture made without breaking contact, the brushstroke as tracking shot. Many of the paper works behave this way, Nares’s thick marks gliding along the surface, inducing, as in her films, a trance-like state. In both the films and drawings, there’s an attempt to locate a still point amid perpetual motion, and the recognition that that impulse is both impossible as it is inevitable. MAX LAKIN

The Word-Shimmering Sea: Diego Velázquez / Enrique Martínez Celaya

Through July 14. The Hispanic Society Museum & Library, 613 West 155th Street, Manhattan; 212-926-2234, hispanicsociety.org .

There are places you can’t easily return to, like childhood or, for many migrants and refugees, the country where they were born. This was true for Enrique Martínez Celaya , who was born in Cuba and relocated with his family to Madrid when he was a young boy. Martínez Celaya, now almost 60 , returned to Cuba only in 2019, but he has found a way of retrieving both childhood and homeland in this impressive exhibition at the Hispanic Society .

Large canvases by Martínez Celaya include blown-up snippets from his childhood notebook, surrounded by interpretations of waves and seascapes. In a stroke of kismet, the notebook from which these early drawings were copied was given to him by his mother and featured a reproduction of a painting on its cover: Diego Velázquez’s “Portrait of a Little Girl” circa 1638-42 , which is in the collection of the Hispanic Society. That painting is displayed at one end of the room.

Objects and their historical hierarchies are irreverently jumbled in the show: Velázquez, the great Spanish painter, sits alongside Martínez Celaya’s childish doodles. In another series of paintings by Martínez Celaya, the “Little Girl” holds objects that he coveted as a boy. The exhibition also includes work by other artists, like the 1971 notebook of Emilio Sánchez , an artist born in Cuba in 1921 who never went back to his homeland after 1960. In the end, the subject of the exhibition is really an immaterial poetic thread in which memory is fleeting but art, in its various forms, connects people, places and history. MARTHA SCHWENDENER

Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design

Through July 7. Museum of Modern Art, 11 West 53rd Street, Manhattan; 212-708-9400, moma.org .

My favorite clock of all time is a video: A camera looks down onto two skinny mounds of garbage, maybe 20 and 15 feet long, meeting at one end like the hour and minute hands on a watchface; for the 12 hours of the video, we see two men with brooms sweeping these “hands” into ever new positions, at a pace that keeps time.

The piece is by the Dutch designer Maarten Baas, and it’s among the 80 works in “Life Cycles: The Materials of Contemporary Design,” a group show now in MoMA’s street-level gallery, which has free admission.

The “materials” of today’s most compelling design turn out to be ideas, even ethics, not the chrome or bent wood that MoMA’s title would once have invoked. This show’s ethical ideas center on the environment and how we might manage not to abuse it.

Baas’s “Sweeper’s Clock,” is perfectly functional — could I view it on an Apple Watch? — but it also works as a meditation on the Sisyphean, 24/7 task of dealing with the trash we generate.

All-black dishes by Kosuke Araki look very like the minimalist “black basalt” china designed by Josiah Wedgwood way back in 1768 (it’s some of the oldest “modernism” claimed by MoMA) except that Araki’s versions are made with carbonized food waste.

Food not at all wasted, but consumed — by cattle — goes into making Adhi Nugraha’s lamps and speakers, as explained by the title of the series they’re from: “Cow Dung.” BLAKE GOPNIK

Christopher Wool

Through July 31. 101 Greenwich Street (entrance on Rector Street), Manhattan; seestoprun.com .

The dilapidated 19th-floor office space hosting Christopher Wool’s recent sculptures and paintings could not be more simpatico with them. In its state of abandoned tear-down, the venue offers melodious visual rhymes: electrical cords dangling from the ceiling ape Wool’s snarls of found-wire sculpture; crumbling plaster mirrors the attitudinal blotches of his oils and inks. Scrawls of crude graffiti or quickly penciled notes left by workmen emulate the tendril-like lines dragged through Wool’s globular masses of spray paint. The space is a horseshoe-shaped echo of Wool’s work — raw, agitated — and the restless elegance he wrenches from a feeling of decay.

Wool said he started to think about how environment affects the experience of looking at art when he began splitting his time between New York and Marfa, in West Texas. Photographic series he made there, like “Westtexaspsychosculpture,” depict forlorn whorls of fencing-wire debris that look like uncanny mimics of Wool’s own writhing scribbles, and which inspired scaled-up versions cast in bronze. (The Marfa landscape is fertile ground for New York artists. Rauschenberg made his scrap metal assemblages after witnessing the oil-ruined landscape of 1980s Texas, what he called “souvenirs without nostalgia,” a designation that’s appropriate here, too.)

Place has always seeped into Wool’s work. His photographs of the grime and trash-strewn streets of the Lower East Side in the 1990s — compiled as “East Broadway Breakdown” — aren’t included here, but “Incident on 9th Street” (1997), of his own burned-out studio, are. The chaos of those scenes repeat here, the wraparound floor plan and endless windows letting the city permeate the work, just as it did in their making. MAX LAKIN

Robert Irwin

Through Aug 31. Judd Foundation, 101 Spring Street, Manhattan; 212-219-2747, juddfoundation.org . Public hours: Friday–Saturday, 1:00–5 p.m., or by appointment.

In 1971 Robert Irwin installed a 12-foot acrylic column in the ground floor of Donald Judd’s SoHo studio, a prism positioned to pick up light from the building’s large southern and western windows. Since the early ’60s, Irwin had been pushing the definition of art beyond objecthood, gradually reducing his work of distractions until he stopped producing salable art works. By 1970, he had abandoned his studio in favor of what he called a conditional practice: making subtle, barely perceptible interventions in architecture to tease out the marvels of visual potential. He viewed his installations merely as tools to induce the real art, which was perception — “to make people conscious of their consciousness.”

A later iteration of that work, “Sculpture/Configuration 2T/3L,” first exhibited at Pace in 2018, is on view in roughly the same spot (the hole bored through the floor 53 years ago remains, never filled). More advanced, formed by two columns of stuttering panels of teal and smoky brown acrylic, it’s beautiful, but its beauty is beside the point. It melts into the background, both there and not there. Sunlight catches a corner or flutters over a faceted edge as you move around it, splicing and refracting SoHo’s thrum, making it new.

The installation’s long run means the quality of natural light will change and so too will the effect. It’s a slow, affecting distillation of Irwin’s philosophy, which remains generously contra the art world’s relentless demand for novelty. Irwin, who died last year , refined an expansive vision, making us aware of the transitory, letting us see what was always there, for as long as we can. MAX LAKIN

Huong Dodinh

Through Aug. 16. Pace Gallery, 540 West 25th Street, Manhattan; 212-421-3292; pacegallery.com .

Buoyed by a great sense of calm, and even silence, the paintings in Huong Dodinh’s “Transcendence” represent an artist’s triumph after decades of pursuing concision by adopting a minimalist vocabulary. It is this Paris-based artist’s first-ever solo exhibition in the United States in her close to 60 years of painting.

Beginning with a rare 1966 figurative painting, whose colors seem to recall Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s “Hunters in the Snow,” the show progresses to the ’90s and to the last couple of years. Figuration falls away as the decades pass, the artist’s hand becomes less pronounced, and by the 2000s Dodinh’s central concerns emerge: light, density, transparency and how these interact with lines, forms and space. These come together gracefully in works like “Sans Titre,” from 1990, in which three sensual curves depict what could be mountains in a desert, or layers of women’s breasts.

Dodinh’s soft palette — a quiet but delightsome range of carton browns, light blues, and off-whites — originated from her first experience with snow in Paris, where her family fled from Vietnam in 1953 during the First Indochina War. She was a child in boarding school when she first witnessed snow and marveled at how it revealed subtle colors underneath when it started to melt. Subtlety, a hallmark of Dodinh’s work, is something she goes to great lengths to attain: She has always worked alone, without assistants, makes her own pigments, ensuring that every inch of her canvas is filled with an energy that is wholly hers. It has been a long solitary journey and after all these years, even while Dodinh masters the art of austerity, her work feels adorned. YINKA ELUJOBA

See the May gallery shows here .

Holland Cotter is the co-chief art critic and a senior writer for the Culture section of The Times, where he has been on staff since 1998. More about Holland Cotter

Art and Museums in New York City

A guide to the shows, exhibitions and artists shaping the city’s cultural landscape..

The artist Ernie Barnes, who once played professional football, captured the anatomical and experiential details of bodies in motion  in an expansive survey at Ortuzar Projects.

Ray Johnson, the artist you meet in a small, revelatory show, is quite different from the one known for mail art  and his later gritty samplings of popular culture.

Work by the anonymous street artist Banksy is hard to find. At a museum devoted to him , which opened above a Bank of America on the lower lip of SoHo, it’s even harder.

At the Museum of Modern Art, the documentary photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier honors those who turn their energies to a social good .

Looking for more art in the city? Here are the gallery shows not to miss in June .