The concrete wall, on Houston St and the intersection of the Bowery, had been a popular graffiti spot in the early 1980s, when street artist Keith Haring created a large mural on it in 1982.
Tony Goldman began using the wall for advertisements,[2] though they were regularly vandalized.
Since 2008, several street artists have had their works showcased on this famous wall,[3] including: Shepard Fairey, FAILE, Os Gêmeos, Logan Hicks, Kenny Scharf, Aiko Nakagawa, Ron English, TATS CRU, David Flores and his partner Olivia Bevilacqua,[4] and many others.
[1][5] The site is often reviewed as a significant part of the New York City art world.
[6] Many artists and institutions have used this famous spot to draw attention to global issues, such as a 2018 installation by JR in collaboration with Time magazine about guns in America,[7][8] a 2018 piece by Banksy highlighting the imprisonment of an artist by the Turkish government,[9][10] and a celebration of global culture in 2019 by Tomokazu Matsuyma.