The New York Times
June 30, 2007
Art

By MICHAEL KIMMELMAN

Until the pranks turned ugly, it was heartening to follow the dust-up between a bunch of street artists and their nemesis or nemeses, identity unknown. As The New York Times reported this week, for some time works of stenciled graffiti art and wheat-pasted posters slapped onto walls in Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan have been splashed with paint and scrawled with messages of protest.

From the NY Times article:

Two days after Mr. Cooper’s arrest, a group of people showed up at the Jonathan LeVine Gallery in Chelsea, where a reception was being held for Mr. Fairey. Without identifying themselves, they distributed copies of a 16-page tabloid with the title “If we did it this is how it would’ve happened,” with a cover photograph of an image created by Mr. Fairey defaced with paint.

Then in November, during a panel discussion on women and graffiti that included a street artist called Swoon, a figure wearing a hooded sweatshirt flung a sheaf of fliers using similar language from a balcony overlooking an auditorium at the Brooklyn Museum. Swoon was among those whose work had previously been struck by paint, and some couldn’t help wondering whether the person who threw the fliers was also the Splasher, as the perpetrator of the paint attacks had come to be known.

Art all Night

"Art all Night" is a blowout event in Trenton, running 24 hours straight. It is a chance for four-year-old refrigerator artists, spirited novices and seasoned professionals display one piece of art for public viewing.

Activities also include live music on two stages, poetry readings, art demonstrations, art cars, kids activities, and art films playing.

The event will be held from 3:00 pm on June 23, 2007 until 3:00 pm the following day. It is free to submit art and it is free to attend.

After being lost in an old mail folder, I finally found Steve Paynter's great dissertation "Subversion of Public Space." He gave me the paper in 2005, so I'm glad that I can put it up for you all to enjoy. Go here to download the PDF file, read, and discuss.

Apologies to Steve for waiting so long to post this.