Alyona Uvarova

In Loving Memory of the Metrocard

Scanning to order food, swiping to fall in love, and tapping to ride – the Covid-19 pandemic perpetuated a digital epidemic. New York City staples lost to it include numerous delis, paper menus, and the MetroCard, which is set to fade out by 2024. But there is one New York artist who is not ready to let the card go: Thomas McKean.

UP Magazine’s Event Recap 2022

This year we’ve compiled an event recap, to reflect on all the exhibitions, art battles, artists talks, and release parties we’ve helped produce. Though saying the pandemic is over will probably jinx it and ensure another season of doom-and-gloom, 2022 was the first year we’ve been able to focus more of our energy ramping up live painting and in-person events, as COVID-19 faded to the background of societal consciousness.

UP Magazine’s 10 Most Read Articles Of 2022

To close out 2022, UP Magazine is proud to share our 10 most read articles of the year, featuring a variety of artists, businesses, and creatives who made waves in this riptide of a year.

UP Magazine’s 2022 Editors’ Choice List

Here at UP, we chase the wildest, strangest, and most heart-filled stories out there, but there were a few that stuck out to us this year. Enjoy reading our Editor’s Choice Articles of 2022!

Infographic: Anatomy of a New York Mailbox

A visual exploration of the different stories that brought sticker artists from all over the world together on a USPS mailbox on a New York street corner.

How Smetsky’s Vividly Coloured Art Fights the Darkness of Reality

Russian-born, Brooklyn-raised artist Smetsky shares the inspiration behind his bright murals, drips, stars, and other street pieces. No stranger to poverty, hustle culture, and online criticism, he is still determined to spread positivity and unify people through art in the face of everyday darkness.

Alyona Uvarova is a freelance journalist and videographer from Russia. She has lived in China, Italy and is currently based in New York, USA. As an undergraduate, she is pursuing journalism and political science at NYU. Her passion is to share multicultural perspectives through writing and film in order to create a more unified world in which we acknowledge and accept our differences.