They appeared in January—swarms of mantis-like creatures with serrated incisors and onion-bulb-shaped heads. Williamsburg was hit first, the exquisite images painted on walls, doors, train lines, and even a cement mixer, marked with the number "27" or the signature "Deuce Seven." Then the figures turned up in Bushwick and the Lower East Side. A few people started photographing them, posting the pictures on Flickr—which has become a digital archive/water cooler for the ephemeral medium of street art—and speculating about who this new artist could be. Then a posse of these bug-like beings—with their quizzically alien expressions, like they'd come to abduct your children—appeared on a frequently tagged plaque along the Williamsburg Bridge. Spray-painted in deep hues of orange, pink, blue, and red, this elaborate frieze was like a Rorschach test: One blogger saw flowers, another a vulva. Either way,... More >>>