Image

Several walks the past few months have allowed stencil discoveries in the streets of San Francisco. Yesterday's walk to a Civic Center protest brought about 6 stenciled utility boxes onto the radar. Here is what we've gotten wandering around the City and from compatriots:

• From the 19 Jan protests
• A few on Western Addition's Fillmore Street
• One wall on Valencia St.
• One DIY billboard in Upper Haight
• Lynn Ray found this one in TL/Union Square
• A few folks sent some 1980s Scott Williams art
• >NEW< Oakland's Brandon Joseph Baker painted the Van Ness utility boxes

Image

Stencil Archive has had a good time cutting back the X content searches. Over on Bluesky, most of our sources are now on there as of this week. BeneRegoef, who we share mutual friends and passions with, just joined, so there is a good community on that site. Might as well drop all the handles: @stencilarchive.bsky.social, @regoef.bsky.social, @radicalgraffiti.bsky.social. Sadly, @louniki.bsky.social hasn't gotten too active on bsky yet. We understand the tactic of staying on the site that probably needs it the most. Stencil Archive was never on X, but we have started to post our own photos much like our Zuck-IG profile. IG will be hard to leave for many people that may be over the whims of oligarchs.

Today's images are from these sources, especially BeneRegoef, and more. Enjoy!

• Austria
• Greece
• Ireland
• Poland
• Slovenia
• United Kingdom

Image

Hamburg legend TXMX drops last year's stencil images every January. It is now a long tradition here at Stencil Archive to get the hits from Germany (and sometimes other countries). This year, TXMX sent over photos of works from:

• Taze
• seileise
• Rumo
• Marlix
• Marshal Arts (one added from the dreaded social media)

Hamburg never disappoints! And for TXMX: Ich kann dir gar nicht genug danken.

Image

2025 begins, and we roll into the hours come what may. January is the month to get excited about receiving an email of last year's stencil photos from TXMX in Hamburg. Adding to the new year submission are a batch of photos from Rome, Italy via Adam K's latest travels. Finally, dear friend Kathleen dropped off one from Asheville, NC. We were just in NC and have some more to add to this one. Those, and more Hamburg photos, coming soon!

Image

Trying not to get too comsumed today, but what can one do while wearing a red sweat shirt, with a terrorized gingerbread man that says "bite me" on it? Before the overwhelm begins, and the family arrives, what better way to sip your current beverage.... and cope.... than with non-holiday stencils? We're trying over here! The Stencil Archive backlog has been cleared out for the Q4 end of year. Gifts for you all.

Thanks to: Amanda, Jeremy Novy, Ben de Biel, Louniki, A Murray, BeneRegoef
Spinning: John Coltrane Quartet at the Village Gate

• Argentina
• Southern and Northern California
• Chicago, IL
• Portland, OR
• San Juan, PR
• Morocco
• Slovenia

San Francisco: 

• here and there
• The Mission
• The Tenderloin
• The Western Addition
• A 2011 SF protest stencil

Image

While updating all the European Stencil Archives, two artist archives needed to be updated with some newly discovered images in the country zones and not in their own archives. Here are a few other new image updates as well. Just a few.

Vinyl support for the moment: KGLW, Phish, Van Halen

• >NEW< DEMO (NZ)
• Peat EYEZ (just one)
• MonkeyBird (updated)
• Fake (updated)

Image

Here we go with the final round of updated Stencil Archives. Ready for it?

• SE Sweden
• SI Slovenia
• SK Slovakia
• UA Ukraine
• UK United Kingdom (updated earlier)

Up next: what's left? Time to really dive into European, USA, and SF artists. Also extra fun in San Francisco. Onwards to 2025!

Image

Stencils have been in the streets of Poland for decades. While researching art history for the "Stencil Nation" project, a man painted protest stencils in the streets during the communist era. His father also tagged the streets during the fascist occupation during World War 2: The Nazi occupiers painted German propaganda on the walls, and this vandal would make minor adjustments to the text to create Polish-language culture jams. Talk about détournement!

• PL Poland
• PT Portugal (updated earlier)
• PV Basque Country
• RO Romania
• RS Serbia
• RU Russia

Image

Here is your daily dose of good times and decades of stencils, brought to you from the following Eurozones:

• KZ Kazakhstan
• LV Latvia
• ME Montenegro
• MK Macedonia (just one!)
• NL Netherlands
• NO Norway