In the week before Bonham’s NY auctioned off his work, British stencil artist Nick Walker was busy painting a number of legal walls around lower Manhattan and Williamsburg. He painted a radio controlled giraffe on Roebling Tea House, some suited umbrella holders on Thunder Jackson and Restaurant PT, and a pair of sparring splashers on Nike iD Design Boutique. For the enjoyment of queued up club-goers, Walker stenciled a pin-striped rat killer on Cielo in the Meatpacking District. And inside the club’s smoker’s garden, Walker painted a few smaller pieces, which we photographed below. It’s hard to say what effect, if any, these pieces had on auction results but many of Walker’s pieces were sold off for triple the estimated price at Wednesday’s Contemporary Art auction.

Continue reading: Cielo’s the Limit For Nick Walker

While focused on MORAL’s fire extinguisher tag on Lafayette Street, we forgot to mention the giant spray painted cock underneath. AUTO GANG declares, “If we got something, we got the balls,” in case it was unclear.

Update: From a commenter, another photo of an AUTO GANG cock.

Daily Photo: FARO

Artist Steve MacDonald, who we once had the pleasure of interviewing, has teamed up with Matthew Davis to start a new company called Little Zero. They’ve already designed a rad t-shirt for the San Francisco track bike collective, MASH, and now have a summer line out. Since it’severy month is bike month here in NYC, we’re thinking this bike shirt is most appropriate but would honestly like them all, especially “Create & Burrow“.

If you happen to be in Milwaukee in May, you can check out Steve’s embroidered art at Paper Boat Boutique, where he’s exhibiting with Rachel Budde of Brooklyn.

Daily Photo: Untitled - How is She Doing That?

Street artist Shepard Fairey was in New York last week and hit the streets, pasting up an Obama poster on the corner of Houston and Bowery, among other spots. Unfortunately, he sacrilegiously pasted right over the work of graffiti writer MARTY, who has been holding down that corner for years. We expected he would take it back, but were surprised he’d do it in broad daylight. Razor Apple reader, Vincent Ng from the LES, caught some photos as MARTY of Smart Crew painted a fill-in over the Obama poster on Saturday afternoon, cleverly using orange paint to match the new Keith Haring mural next to it. Reached for comment by email, Shepard was apologetic for pasting over MARTY, saying, “I don’t like to go over people ever, however, I feel Obama being elected is very important to everyone’s future including MARTY’s. It was not intended to be disrespectful of him, but if he chooses to be that small minded and petty about it I can’t control that. I certainly would expect him to justly re-claim the spot after the election.”

Oddly enough, just a few hours after MARTY finished painting, a trio of Obama-loving graffiti-haters was cleaning off the poster that they mistakenly believed was legal. Who was this pro-Obama buff squad? Shepard doesn’t know, but guesses that, “people [just] feel strongly about Obama.” Obama is certainly hoping people feel strongly in support during the West Virginia primary today.

Below are some photos of MARTY in action, and the the pro-Obama buff squad at work.

Continue reading: Obama in the Buff

Chari & Co (175 Stanton Street, NY, NY), the new track bike boutique on the Lower East Side, opened with a party last night. The store specializes in high-end Japanese track frames, components and accoutrements, which are even nicer to look at with a cold beer in one hand and some sushi in the other. Keirin track frames line the gallery-like space (which was previously an art gallery), while fancy components, track bike jewelry, and a Supreme charm bracelet fill the display cases. The super friendly owners, Ken and Yuki, have a good-looking store with some really nice bikes in stock. They don’t build or repair bikes, but if you’re looking for a fancy Japanese track bike, it would be a good place to start.

You can check out more photos of Chari & Co in the gallery.