My favorite graffiti artist, REVS.
Some years ago I was dating a girl from NYC and she pointed out these fliers posted on a wall that read REVS SUICIDE HOTLINE 212 592 4133. She tried to tell me it was a new form of graffiti. I was not convinced at all.
She wrote down the number and when we got back to her loft she showed me that there was a REVS piece on her building. It was a simple roll up piece done in large, yellow block letters.
I didn't view it as graffiti. We called the number and got an answering machine message with a thick Brooklyn accent talking about the Major League Baseball strike that was going on at that time. The message said that the players needed to understand that they were killing the little guys, the hot dog vendors at the park, the honest working people. I still didn't see how this was graffiti. It just seemed weird.
One afternoon I stopped into a pizza place in NYC and as I walked in I noticed out of the corner of my eye on the wall across the street ZVER. It was in those same block letters in bold yellow. Of course I didn't think much more about it until I sat down and was facing it and chuckled at the obvious rip off of the REVS style, that was until I realized next to me in the pizza place was a mirrored wall and turning to my left clear as can be it read REVS. It was at this point that I started to give his work more credence. He was very clever.
From then on I started noticing his work everywhere I looked. It was like there wasn't a building, a street light, a bridge or tunnel in Manhattan that he hadn't hit. It was huge and it was all over the city.
Eventually, what changed my mind and solidified him as my favorite graffiti artist was seeing a REVS piece on Bowery. This was no ordinary piece of graffiti. Welded onto the top of a fence was an iron cut out with the REVS logo. It was amazing. Completely unlike any other style of graffiti I had ever seen. It blew me away to think that very few people might even notice it, much less have any idea what it was.
Now I do quite a bit of traveling by train and I can tell you REVS must as well. I have seen his work as far north as Poughkeepsie, NY and as far south as Philadelphia; in Jersey City and in Brooklyn.
I even remember seeing him on TV once on the Ricki Lake show talking about graffiti. He had on a bandanna over his face to hide his identity. How does someone become so famous for doing street art? By being a pioneer. While it may be common now a days to see roll ups and fliers glued to mailboxes and lamp posts REVS was doing it way before them all. Always one step ahead of the pack his iron work has now become his signature style.
Some years ago I was dating a girl from NYC and she pointed out these fliers posted on a wall that read REVS SUICIDE HOTLINE 212 592 4133. She tried to tell me it was a new form of graffiti. I was not convinced at all.
She wrote down the number and when we got back to her loft she showed me that there was a REVS piece on her building. It was a simple roll up piece done in large, yellow block letters.
I didn't view it as graffiti. We called the number and got an answering machine message with a thick Brooklyn accent talking about the Major League Baseball strike that was going on at that time. The message said that the players needed to understand that they were killing the little guys, the hot dog vendors at the park, the honest working people. I still didn't see how this was graffiti. It just seemed weird.
One afternoon I stopped into a pizza place in NYC and as I walked in I noticed out of the corner of my eye on the wall across the street ZVER. It was in those same block letters in bold yellow. Of course I didn't think much more about it until I sat down and was facing it and chuckled at the obvious rip off of the REVS style, that was until I realized next to me in the pizza place was a mirrored wall and turning to my left clear as can be it read REVS. It was at this point that I started to give his work more credence. He was very clever.
From then on I started noticing his work everywhere I looked. It was like there wasn't a building, a street light, a bridge or tunnel in Manhattan that he hadn't hit. It was huge and it was all over the city.
Eventually, what changed my mind and solidified him as my favorite graffiti artist was seeing a REVS piece on Bowery. This was no ordinary piece of graffiti. Welded onto the top of a fence was an iron cut out with the REVS logo. It was amazing. Completely unlike any other style of graffiti I had ever seen. It blew me away to think that very few people might even notice it, much less have any idea what it was.
Now I do quite a bit of traveling by train and I can tell you REVS must as well. I have seen his work as far north as Poughkeepsie, NY and as far south as Philadelphia; in Jersey City and in Brooklyn.
I even remember seeing him on TV once on the Ricki Lake show talking about graffiti. He had on a bandanna over his face to hide his identity. How does someone become so famous for doing street art? By being a pioneer. While it may be common now a days to see roll ups and fliers glued to mailboxes and lamp posts REVS was doing it way before them all. Always one step ahead of the pack his iron work has now become his signature style.
REVS is the reigning champ/grand poo-bah/emperor of N.Y.C. graffiti. His roller pieces dominate spots, there could be fifty fill-ins on a wall but the huge R, E, V, and S will crush them all. He uses bucket paint and a roller with a long stick so his name is always bigger and shines brighter than the others. He also has amazing work in the subway tunnels, on all of the lines. I would wonder how much time he had spent underground, and how he was able to do that much without getting caught. Then I'd be out in Jersey and see a roller under a bridge and think, "Damn! Dude was here too!"
-Peter Sutherland, author of Autograf
VIEW 25 of 37 COMMENTS
Graffiti nostalgia, esp as a NYer as you know, is just awesome. Cost and Revs were totally amazing. I'll check out your article soon. Getting my drink on right now.