Welcome to the new/updated site, with revisions happening daily! Since 2002, your old-school website for all things stencils. Please consider donating what you can to support the much-needed upgrade. Photo, video, links, and exhibit info submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.
Other ways to support this site:
- Visit the Stencil Archive Support page to purchase a copy of Stencil Nation or take a tour.
- Find the Stencil Archives' best original photos on Instagram and flickr.
Peak Leo August Uploads
Thanks to: Josiah, @only_stencil_archive
Music: Dian, Phish, Euforquestra, Bombino
Photo: Steve McQueen mural on Fillmore St., SF by Luinova
>NEW< Roadsworth (Montreal)
>NEW< fiddlethief (SF)
In the Upper Haight, SF
On Fillmore St., SF
Just one on Valencia St., SF
Black Lives Matter on Mission St., SF
02 August Stencil Uploads
Thanks to: Aiden, Quinn, Arno and son, Brooklyn Street Art, and u/badwolf_tco
Music: Dinner and a Movie 17 (wined and dined in Hampton)
Photo: John Fekner cut outs from his "A Change" show (photos: Icy and Sot for Brooklyn Street Art)
Icy and Sot visit John Fekner’s “A Change” show in NYC, share with Brooklyn Street Art
Just one from Petaluma, CA
Just one in Lower Haight, SF
Just one in Western Addition, SF
Just one in Glen Park, SF
Just one from Almost Over Keep Smiling (NYC)
Just one in NYC
1970 Grateful Dead stencil in Wisconsin
Dark humor in Estonia
Just one from Portugal
Your Summer Sunday Uploads
Thanks to: r/stencils, r/streetart, @only_stencil_archive
Photo: Found after a nature bath at Bodega Bay
>NEW< Puerto Rico
>NEW< Sr.X (UK)
One from Ecto in Wash. state
One in the Financial District, SF
One from fnnch
More from X-Sacto
One in Northern California
Black Lives Matter in Oakland
One in Pittsburgh
2 OCT: Martha Cooper: Taking Pictures (Berlin)
The URBAN NATION MUSEUM FOR URBAN CONTEMPORARY ART
presents a six-decade retrospective of Martha Cooper's photographs.
MARTHA COOPER: TAKING PICTURES (LINK)
October 2nd 2020 – August 1st 2021
Curated by Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo
Combining photographs and personal artifacts, MARTHA COOPER: TAKING PICTURES traces her life from her first camera in nursery school in 1946 to her reputation today as a world-renowned photographer.
This retrospective is the first documentary exhibition to be presented at the URBAN NATION Museum and it ushers in a new era for the museum under its new director Mr. Jan Sauerwald.
MARTHA COOPER: TAKING PICTURES presents the photographer's versatile vision of the world, with creativity found on every corner. The exhibition opens with the images from Subway Art, her landmark 1984 book with Henry Chalfant, now credited with jump-starting the worldwide urban art movement. Martha's photographs documented the secret subculture of writers and the coded artworks they created illegally on thousands of New York City trains.
Martha's photographs are distinguished by their frank human vitality, with an eye to preserving details and traditions of cultural significance. Many of her photographs have become iconic representations of a time, place or culture. The exhibition will offer a rare insight into Martha’s archives through previously unpublished photographs, drawings, journals, articles, letters, and artifacts. As a lifelong and avid collector, her private trove of black books, stickers, Kodak film wallets and child-made toys will also be on display. Emphasis is placed on Martha’s extensive travels and the artistic friendships that she has fostered internationally.
Sr.X (UK)
Sr. X is a Spanish street artist based in London. His work in the streets is mainly done mixing stencils with brushes and more traditional techniques, some of his inspirational themes are pop culture, films, publicity and urban legends, which he normally gives expression to through stencils, paste-ups or installations. His creations are often wrapped in a distinct tone of irony and social criticism, frequently shrouded by a veil of sharp humour.
Today's Uploads, 2004-2020
Submission thanks to: Skot, Tiago, Amanda, Russell S., Jaime and Brooklyn Street Art, r/stencils, r/streetart, @only_stencil_archive, r/gratefuldead
Today’s Music: Miles, Talking Heads, XTC, Scott Joplin
Photo: video screengrab of Banksy spraying a stencil in London
Banksy hits up a Tube train
>NEW< Almost Over Keep Smiling (NYC)
From the Vaults! Over 200 photos from Klutch’s Vinyl Killers 2 (Portland, OR 2004)
From the Vaults! A 2005 article about stencils.
Joe Iurato with some cut outs
Garage Pillars in PDX, by Voxx Romana
Portraits from Cartoonneros
Just one from San Francisco
Just one from John Fekner, with Leicht and Albert
Just one from Praxis in NYC
Just one from RNST
Two from New York
Two from Portland, OR
Just one from Utah
Just one from Montreal
New Uploads for a Better Monday
Thanks to: Esmeralda, Lynn Ray, Raven, Jonelle, Amanda, Jeremy Novy, and @only_stencil_archive
Supporting sound track: Tom Waits, Headhunters, Zappa
Photo: J Herran in the Castro District, from Paint the Void
>NEW< FR Arts (DE)
Xsacto strikes again
Clarion Alley’s AROC/Art Forces “Will to Live” mural
Jeremy Novy in the Castro
One in Alamo Square
A few elsewhere in SF
One on Valencia St.