Welcome to the new/updated site! The Archives and search function may look a bit different, but it is still the same good time. Since 2002, your old-school website for all things stencils. Please consider donating what you can to support the much-needed upgrade. Photo submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.

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Other ways to support this site (beyond submitting pics, videos, exhibit info, etc.):

Full Moon Feb Uploads

Amanda Colab
Amanda Marie setting up a cut out at Colab Gallery.

Thanks to: @graffitiradical; @Emily_Lykos; @mensch_huis; CiMi; Novy; Brooklyn Street Art; XLTs; Colab Gallery; Daryl H

Spinning: Bad Brains

Amanda Marie

One in Miami

Buffalo and NYC

Pro Ukraine in South Carolina

France (just one)

A batch from Berlin

One in Geneva

On in London

One by Banksy

Blek in 1983!

NeSpoon in NJ

One in Argentina

One in Brazil

One in Mexico

One from Melbourne

TXMX Goes All Hamburg - Pt. 1

FPT nurse
F.P.T. continues to entertain (ph: TXMX)

Stencil Archive always looks forward to January, because that is when TXMX sends over his zipped photos surprise. Now a yearly tradition, what better way to welcome the new year with stencil photos from Hamburg and beyond. This year, TXMX goes all Hamburg, but we have zero complaints! 

>NEW< DROPIX

>NEW< Yüxel

Hamburg

F.P.T.

A Homesick SF Uploads Batch

techdestroys
What's on yer tongue, mang?!

This is possibly the final round of new photos for 2022, so ending the year with another batch from San Francisco. This week, Tech Destroys gets his own archive (and I have requested that he paints more stencils around the City), lots or random pics from around SF (The Embarcadero, Van Ness, Nob Hill, etc.) and lots of general goodness.

Here's to 2023 and all the upcoming painted negative space!

Spinning: 04.05.1991 GD at the Omni - ATL GA (Set II) via cassette

>NEW< Tech Destroys

Upgraded pic of Misstencil palmreading paste ups

Upper Haight and on Divisadero

In the Mission

In and around the Financial District

Utilitarian in Japantown

Out in the Richmond District

On Van Ness St.

On Valencia St. (thanks Josiah)

One up in Nob Hill

Mid-Holidaze Photo Uploads

Messi
Messi FTW! (ph: Amanda)

Thanks to: Amanda, @graffitiradical; @streetartutopia; @Emily_Lykos; @journo_cam; @lilith2u; @mango_lacroix69; Brooklyn Street Art

Spinning: Dead bootleg cassettes

Visiting with Xavi in the Mission

Paint drying on this World Cup pic in Argentina

Bike power Brazil

Massive Statement in Mexico

First stencil from Thailand

Another one on Iranian walls

A new stack from New York

Opinions in Ohio

Serious in Seattle

C215 Reminds Us to Fall in Love With Stencils All Over Again

Keeping up with street art and stencil books gets a bit overwhelming, especially when a search on Amazon for "stencil graffiti books" gets a few direct hits, along with books about tattoos, comic art, and yet another book trying to make money off of Banksy.

Today, an upcoming book by C215 (here is his Stencil Archive) caught our eye on social media, mostly because it is a how-to book that appears to be made with love and full of tips, encouragement, artist stories, and all that other funs stuff Stencil Archive loves to share and spread around.

We did it with our own book "Stencil Nation", and we have had a "Make Stencils" category on this site since 2004. Searching around the web today, we saw that Tristan Manco (who may have written the first modern book about street art stencils in 2002) did it again in 2020 with his latest book "The Stencil Graffiti Handbook" (Though this is the UK publisher's link, I'm sure it's available on Amazon, etc.).

Manco
Tristan Manco's "The Stencil Graffiti Handbook" (2020)

Christian Guémy has created a similarly-titled book, "The Stencil Graffiti Manual" for 2023. Brooklyn Street Art's Jaime Rojo got an advanced copy and teased the book here

According to the BSA post, "'The book that you are holding in your hands is therefore, a manual, an inventory of techniques to be appropriated in order to get yourself started in the art, or to help you develop stenciling’s potential. Stencils have no limits and can be adapted to all styles,' says the author in his introduction."

Cyber Monday Artists Uploads

xavi in sf
Xavi's cut outs for a wall refresh on Cypress Alley in SF's Mission Dist.

Move along now if you want to buy anything! Just some free stencil pics if you dare to continue!

Spinning: WFMU

Banksy in Ukraine

M-city at the Colab Gallery

Amanda Marie at the Colab Gallery

Xavi back in San Francisco

a 2000 Faile stencil (thanks, Brooklyn Street Art)

Praxis in NYC (thanks, BSA)

Eclair in SF

Misstencil in Chinatown, SF