Art is Trash Street Art New York
Another Man’s Treasure: The Urban Art Alchemy of “Art Is Trash” by Francisco de Pájaro
In the ever-evolving world of street art, where urban murals and graffiti command attention across major cities, one artist continues to defy convention by transforming trash into fleeting moments of brilliance. Meet Francisco de Pájaro, the Barcelona-based visionary known internationally by his pseudonym Art Is Trash (El Arte Es Basura), whose spontaneous and subversive sculptures have sparked laughter, reflection, and even political commentary in the streets of Barcelona, London, New York, and beyond.
Unlike artists who rely on blank walls and spray cans, Art Is Trash scavenges the overlooked and the discarded: garbage bags, broken furniture, used mattresses, abandoned boxes, and even old electronics. These elements become his tools, his canvas, and his collaborators. In a single breathless performance, he repurposes urban waste into expressive, comic, grotesque, or painfully honest figures. They’re born from the trash—and destined to return to it once the cleaning trucks roll through.
“It’s art that lives in the moment,” says de Pájaro. “Art that disappears with the street sweepers. That’s its power and its tragedy.”
This ephemeral art style challenges the permanence we often associate with traditional creativity. Francisco's approach is deeply performative. Onlookers might catch him mid-installation in a neighborhood alley, taping limbs made of bubble wrap to an old television torso, sketching eyes on a plastic bottle, or posing a garbage creature like a fallen hero from a forgotten play. His street creatures—wide-eyed monsters, cheeky jesters, and warriors with paint-roller lances—appear overnight, evoking themes of social decay, media fatigue, and political absurdity.
Often, Art Is Trash doesn’t work alone. His installations sometimes interact with leftover murals or stencil works from other street artists. These "forced collaborations" turn abandoned street corners into curated conversations between creators—unplanned but remarkably cohesive. The result is a form of collective, living urban art that evolves with time and space.
Notably, his work has graced the streets of New York City, where he left an impromptu trail of humorous, haunting figures that animated public spaces from Brooklyn to the Lower East Side. The city’s layered graffiti walls became his backdrop. Old couches became thrones. Trash bags turned into body parts. And yes—flies buzzed across the scenes, whether painted or real.
Despite the transient nature of his sculptures, de Pájaro’s message endures. His artistic statement—that "Art Is Trash"—is both a cynical provocation and a celebration of reclaiming what society deems worthless. In an era of consumerism and throwaway culture, his works call into question our habits of waste, our hunger for permanence, and our expectations of beauty.
Francisco de Pájaro has also garnered recognition in gallery settings. While he continues to build his reputation with international exhibitions, it’s his raw, uncensored street installations that truly embody the soul of his message. There is no studio safety net here—only the chaos of the street, and the ever-looming arrival of the sanitation crew.
Whether witnessed on the streets of Barcelona’s Poblenou district, hidden between graffiti walls in London’s Shoreditch, or popping up unexpectedly in Manhattan, the art of Francisco de Pájaro invites us to reconsider what art is, and who it's for. It is improvisation. It is rebellion. It is humor. It is critique. It is fleeting—and therefore, unforgettable.
