New York at the End of the Line

From the bustling intersection of 14th and 8th to the depths of Brighton Beach, Taylor Chapman immersed himself in everything that could have enticed him to leave his hometown. With the aim of forging a deep connection with this enigmatic and ever-changing city, Chapman spent a decade photographing and engaging with locals in these distinct communities. His ten-year project serves as a testament that experiencing a Guyanese goat curry competition, visiting the last Irish bar in the Bronx, or witnessing an exotic pigeon coop does not require extensive travel; all one needs to do is stay onboard until the end of the line.

Art

THUNDER GIRL

December 11, 2025

Marika and I first met through my girlfriend, Sasha Fierce, on our first official date. We were sitting at the fancy/sexy Corner Bar in the LES with a couple of overpriced hot toddies (I wanted her to think I had money). It was December, and the 2024 Spotify Wrapped had just dropped, so we pulled ours up. My list consisted of Joeyy, Chief Keef, Marlon Dubois, Xaviersobased… and Marika’s lineup mirrored mine. Sasha lit up as she compared our top artists and insisted we hang out that night.

A few hours later, we were climbing the stairs to Danny Cole’s colorful studio and apartment, swapping music and stories. Marika has a rare kind of gravity. She’s as kind as she is cool, and she talks to everyone like an equal. I’ve brought all types of people around her: Older people, younger people, jocks, art people, graff heads, corporate folks, gamers, and family etc... they all find a way to connect with her. That’s part of why our friendship formed so naturally. Not long after meeting, we started talking about making a book.

Production and Words: Mike Brewer
Artist: Marika Thunder
Publication: Canned Planet

For the next nine months, we met regularly at her mother’s sunlit studio in Williamsburg. "Thunder Girl" grew out of those visits. It pulls from both old and new work: paintings, photos, memes, stray sketches, and scribbles from rehab. Together they form an honest, messy (in the best way) portrait of her life. The book has range. Some pages are serious and revealing, others are unhinged and fully fried. That push and pull became the heart of the project.

Our sessions were full of tangents. Marika’s archive is massive, and we’re both easily distracted. We ended up creating a kind of assembly line. She’d slide something across the table, and I would photograph or scan it. Every piece had a story, and we had fun figuring out how they spoke to one another. Once everything lived in InDesign, we spent weeks moving spreads around, searching for the right rhythm, the right order, the right chaos.

We hope you enjoy checking this project out. We’re having a release party on December 11th from 6-9 at Reena Spaulings Gallery, 165 E Broadway, NYC. Come hang out, chat with us, and flip through a copy. <3

Art

Miami Art Week with Instagram and Slawn

Art

Akeem Smith Rebuilds Memory at Art Basel Miami Beach 2025

The effect is a kind of visual anthropology: memory as debris field, architecture as witness. Smith toys with the instability of images, how they circulate, who controls them, and what happens when the artist becomes archivist, caretaker, and cultural mediator all at once.

Born in Brooklyn and raised in Kingston’s Waterhouse district, Smith has long dissolved the boundaries between conceptual art, fashion, and vernacular storytelling. His practice examines the politics and economies of image-making while preserving the stories that mainstream cultural iconography often overlooks.

At Art Basel Miami Beach, these new works feel like a homecoming: not nostalgic, but defiantly present. They anchor Caribbean social worlds in physical form, holding space for a community whose histories are too often unrecorded. In Smith’s hands, transformation isn’t just metaphor; it’s material.