Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, and the question is always the same: where to walk. Allow us to make a case for DUMBO. The neighborhood squeezed under the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges has been New York’s most concentrated outdoor gallery since 2012, when Team Dumbo, Two Trees Management, NYC DOT Art, the Jonathan Levine Gallery, and the Wooster Collective launched the DUMBO Walls series. Fourteen years on, the collection has grown to a dozen-plus murals stitched into the underpasses, plazas, and rooftops of one of the most photographed zip codes in the country.
Here’s how to see eleven of them in a single afternoon — a roughly 1.2-mile loop that starts at the Dumbo Archway and ends with sunset at Brooklyn Bridge Park. You’ll walk past at least four of these on any DUMBO Sunday whether you mean to or not. Now you’ll know what you’re looking at.
Don’t Miss: Tom Fruin’s Watertower at 20 Jay Street
The single mural — er, sculpture — you HAVE to see: Tom Fruin’s stained-glass Watertower on the roof of 20 Jay Street, viewable from the corner of Adams and Plymouth. A colorful plexiglass watertower that lights up at night and turns into Brooklyn’s most-Instagrammed silhouette. Free, always there, and you cannot mistake it for anything else in the skyline.
Stop 1: The Dumbo Archway
Start at the Dumbo Archway under the Manhattan Bridge — the most concentrated piece of public art in the neighborhood and the spiritual front door of the DUMBO Walls. The Dumbo Reflector, by David Crumley (2016), anchors the plaza. Watergate, by Casey Opstad (2013), is a hand-painted mural of 100,000 half-inch squares laid out in an eight-color East River-inspired schema — a pixelated nod to the digital designers who built DUMBO into a creative neighborhood. Stretched end to end, those squares would run more than a mile.
If you’re in DUMBO on a Wednesday through Sunday evening, this is also the perch for The Dumbo Projection Project, a neighborhood-wide outdoor video art series projected onto the Manhattan Bridge and the BQE wall in Dr. Susan Smith McKinney Steward Park. New artists rotate in throughout the year. Show up at dusk.
Stop 2: MOMO’s Rainbow Wall
Walk west on York Street to York at Washington. Look up. MOMO‘s 2012 rainbow mural — one of the original DUMBO Walls — runs the length of the underpass in a single sweeping color-field gesture. It’s been there longer than most of the apartment leases in the neighborhood and it still photographs better than any new restaurant on the block.
Stop 3: Sagmeister + Yuko Shimizu’s YES Murals
Continue down to the Jay Street underpass between York and Prospect. The YES murals, painted in 2012 by Stefan Sagmeister and Yuko Shimizu, are part of the original DUMBO Walls series. Sagmeister’s text-based design is layered with Shimizu’s intricate Japanese-inspired illustration. The yes is meant to be read as both affirmation and question — appropriate, given the underpass is also where most pedestrians get their first DUMBO photo.
Stop 4: CAM’s ‘Always Be Mindful of Your Ability to Fly’
Cross to Bar and Grill Park, York Street at Pearl Street. Brooklyn-based artist Craig Anthony Miller — known to the neighborhood as CAM — painted this mural in 2012 as part of the original DUMBO Walls series. The signature elephant-and-bird motif has become CAM’s calling card across the borough.
Stop 5: Apolo Torres’ ‘Heritage I & II’
Walk through the Pearl Street Underpass between York and Prospect. Brazilian muralist Apolo Torres came to DUMBO in 2019 in partnership with Brasil Summerfest and produced two paired murals fusing his Brooklyn experiences with hometown São Paulo inspiration. The two walls speak to each other across the underpass — slow down and look at both.
Stop 6: CAM’s ‘Massive Stampede’
Just up the block on Adams Street between York and Prospect, CAM’s second DUMBO Walls contribution — Massive Stampede, painted in 2018 — features his elephant-and-bird motif at full scale. If you’re keeping count, that’s two CAM murals in a four-block walk.
Stop 7: Cey Adams’ ‘Love Mural’
At Prospect Street at Adams Street, you’ll find the two-walled Love Mural by Cey Adams, painted in 2021. Adams — a legendary graphic designer and visual director who helped shape the look of Def Jam Recordings — keeps a studio in DUMBO. The mural is part of the Murals for the Movement trio, produced by Street Theory Gallery, funded through New York State’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative with support from NYC DOT Art and the Downtown Brooklyn + Dumbo Art Fund.
Stop 8: Sophia Dawson’s ‘Standing in the Gap’
Continue to Front Street between Pearl and Adams. Sophia Dawson’s Standing in the Gap is the fifth mural to occupy this DOT fence space — and arguably the most affecting. The second piece in the Murals for the Movement trio, Dawson’s portraiture work foregrounds Black women whose stories anchor American social-justice history. Stand back to take in the full wall; step in close to read the names.
Stop 9: Marka27’s ‘Back to the Essence’
Head east to 195 Gold Street. The third Murals for the Movement piece, by Victor “Marka27” Quinonez, anchors the eastern edge of the DUMBO Walls collection. The mural’s hip-hop iconography pays direct tribute to the foundational moment of the genre. Read all three Murals for the Movement walls — Adams, Dawson, Marka27 — as a single statement.
Stop 10: Masaki Hanahara’s ‘Water Game’
Loop back to 108 Adams Street for Water Game, designed by Japanese-born and DUMBO-based artist Masaki Hanahara, hand-painted by Colossal Media. Inspired by Tomy Group’s 1970s Japanese pocket water-toy game, the mural blends traditional Japanese aesthetics with Brooklyn’s bold dynamism. The newest addition to the DUMBO Walls series.
Stop 11: Tom Fruin’s Watertower
Close the loop at 20 Jay Street — corner of Adams and Plymouth — and look up. Tom Fruin’s plexiglass Watertower sits on the roof, glowing in any light. There’s a reason this is the closing image of half the DUMBO drone reels on Instagram. End the walk at sundown for the full effect, and walk five minutes east to Brooklyn Bridge Park to round it out with the actual Manhattan skyline.
Bushwick Coda for the Maximalists
If DUMBO whetted the appetite, the Bushwick Collective is a 30-minute L-train ride away. Centered at Troutman Street at Saint Nicholas Avenue, this open-air gallery — founded in 2012 by Joseph Ficalora to beautify the industrial blocks of his childhood neighborhood — refreshes 60% of its murals at its annual block party each June. New work appears every 6–10 weeks year-round, with most murals lasting roughly 12 months before being replaced. It’s a different scale and a different feel: tighter, denser, louder. Pair the two on the same Sunday and you’ve seen the two ends of the New York mural spectrum.
How to Walk the DUMBO Walls
Getting there: The F train to York Street drops you a block from the Archway. The A and C to High Street is also walkable. The NYC Ferry to DUMBO/Pier 6 is the prettiest entry on a clear day.
Time: 90 minutes for the full eleven-stop loop, plus a Brooklyn Flea or Brooklyn Bridge Park stop. Add an hour for the Bushwick coda.
Best light: Late afternoon. Many of the murals sit in underpasses and read better with the sun lower in the sky.
Cost: Free. Always.
For more public-art coverage, see our ongoing reporting on street art and murals across the five boroughs.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the DUMBO Walls? The DUMBO Walls are a curated collection of public murals across the DUMBO neighborhood of Brooklyn, launched in 2012 by Team Dumbo (the DUMBO Improvement District) and Two Trees Management in partnership with NYC DOT Art, the Jonathan Levine Gallery, and the Wooster Collective. The collection has grown to include works by Cey Adams, Sophia Dawson, MOMO, Stefan Sagmeister, Yuko Shimizu, Apolo Torres, Craig Anthony Miller (CAM), Victor “Marka27” Quinonez, and Masaki Hanahara, among others.
How long does the DUMBO Walls walking tour take? About 90 minutes for the full eleven-stop loop, walking at a leisurely pace. Add another 30–45 minutes if you stop for coffee or photos at each location.
Is the DUMBO Walls walking tour free? Yes. All eleven stops are public art viewable from the street. There is no admission, no ticket, no required guide.
What’s the best time of day to see the DUMBO Walls? Late afternoon. Many of the murals sit in bridge underpasses; lower-angle sunlight reads them best. The Dumbo Projection Project — a separate ongoing video art series projected onto the Manhattan Bridge and BQE wall — is viewable Wednesdays through Sundays at dusk.
Where is the Bushwick Collective? Centered at Troutman Street and Saint Nicholas Avenue in Bushwick, Brooklyn — about a 30-minute L-train ride from DUMBO. New murals appear every 6–10 weeks year-round.
