The Top 13 New York Graffiti Moments of 2013

A gallery exhibition featuring New York's Smart Crew was part of the artist series for the Fool's Gold Records shop in Brooklyn. It featured artwork with a "gold theme" from Smart Crew artists including Action Bronson, Dceve, Despot, Elmo, Hso, Jeffrey Gamblero, Marty, Meyhem Lauren, Nick Gallo, Pierre Hefner, Snoeman, Tom Gould, Toper, and Work925.

You can't walk down a street in downtown Manhattan or parts of Brooklyn and not notice the presence of COST and ENX. COST started up again in 2012 after being off the radar for well over a decade, and he continued to go bigger in 2013. While doing the art scene thing on the side, being put on the cover of the Village Voice, and collabing with international artists such as Space Invader, COST was very busy in 2013. Additionally, it was cool to see REVS make a quick appearance and leave new tags in the streets during 2013 in various parts of the city.

During the same week of their debut show at the Jonathan LeVine gallery, POSE and REVOK, with assistance from Rime, Omens, Trav, and Vizie, painted the famous Houston Street Wall. The wall took seven days to complete and was extremely detailed and precisley executed to meet everyone's expectations. The wall acknowledged a lot of New York graffiti history and was a tribute to crew friends and family that have passed on such as NEKST, Sace, and Nace.

The only thing as exciting as seeing a clean subway train painted would have to be coming across full-color pieces or fill-ins along the major highways in New York City. Writers such as DSR, Nezo, Bler, Vor, Dead, Cuba, Colo, VFR, JA, Kez5, Nes, Jest, ZA One, DG, and Soe did some big spots in 2013 on some of the busiest highways that thousands of people drive on everyday.

As far as Brooklyn/Queens graffiti history goes, FTR Crew is arguably one of the most notable to ever do it. With the passing of VE ONE in the 90s, members of the FTR Crew have been working hard to keep his name alive. In 2013, brand new pieces popped up in a vacant lot in Williamsburg, Brooklyn by Queens legends Amuze, Cees, Pace, Slash, Jerms, Los, RF, Poet, Poem, Such, and Lae. There was also a very rare appearance by Giz, who hasn't done a piece in over 10 years.

With an already big presence in numerous major cities, PEAR NSF and GREY PVC took New York by storm in 2013 with some big spots.

Original TATS CRU member CRACK aka Fat Joe made a surprise visit over the summer to hang out, paint, and barbecue at the TATS CRU private yard in the Bronx. Fat Joe posted action shots of him painting the TATS CRU mockup subway car alongside the legendary BRIM TAT and SHAME125 on his Instagram.

One of the more rare occurrences of 2013 was witnessing brand new pieces by graffiti legend style masters SENTO, STAK, PURE, MILK, NOAH, MONE, and friends go down at a legendary bridge in the Bronx. The pieces only ran for a very short period of time since the location gets buffed regularly.

Curated by Sacha Jenkins of Mass Appeal, "Write of Passage" explored the impact of American graffiti art on global culture. The first event was held in upstate New York, where a select number of writers were invited to paint a real NYC Subway car donated by a train museum. The second event was a month-long exhibition located in the Red Bull space in downtown Manhattan. It contained a rare mix of canvases, vintage apparel, subway artifacts, graffiti writer mementos, photography, artwork, and four interactive installations.

Sneaker and streetwear forefathers STASH and WANE helped curate the 30th anniversary City Classics collection for Reebok. The following artists were also invited to have their own sneaker design produced: Wane (NYC), Eklips (LA), Pose (Chicago), Mad (Philadelphia), Tati (Miami), Totem (Atlanta), DA Flow (Mexico City), Sick Systems (Moscow), Rae Martini (Milan), Rimo (Tokyo), Monster (Paris), and Swifty (London).

In the summer of 2013, friends and family of NEKST got together to paint tribute pieces in Bushwick, Brooklyn on a wall wrapping around an entire block. Writers that came out included Vizie, REVOK, POSE, Owns, Dmote, Omens, Trav, Skrew, Fasr, Rime, Wane, Stoner, Acne, Navy8, Harsh, ElKamino, and Ceaze.

The graffiti landmark 5 Pointz in Queens finally met its fate. 5 Pointz organizers had been fighting to save the the building from demolition for years through endless court battles with the landlord. On November 19, 2013, everyone was shocked to find out that the landlord white-washed the entire building, making the era of 5 Pointz officially over.