Graffiti Tour

Recently I had the pleasure of hosting a private graffiti and street art tour of New York City. My guest was Raphaela Platow, Director and Chief Curator of the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. I tried to pack as much as I could into a few hours of cold weather.

We started off in the East Village, taking in SERF, ADEK, Shepard Fairy, Kenny Sharf, and FAUST and an abundance of others.

We also dropped by the Dorian Grey Gallery on East 9th street to see Angel Ortiz aka LA2's exhibition. We almost did not get in,. We caught Owner, Christopher Pusey on his way out, but he was kind enough to postpone what was doing and allow us to view the work.

The paintings tied in closely to the visual language Ortiz developed along side Keith Haring during an extensive period of collaboration between the two in the early 1980s.

The gallery, a new hot spot East Village also recently featured an extensive collection of drawings by John CRASH Matos.

Next we hit the streets of Brooklyn and peeped works by WANE ONE, EWOK, KEO , TATU XMEN, OS GEMEOS and others.

The highlight of the tour was a visit to LEE Quinones' studio where he was in the midst of painting work that will feature prominently in Jeffrey Deitch's "Art in the Streets" exhibition at MOCA in Los Angeles.

It was a real privilege to be among the first to set eyes on the work. IT'S OFF THE METER KID!! but sorry I cannot post photos until LEE gives the green light, which perhaps will be after it is unveiled at MOCA later this month.

Finally we stepped off to Queens and checked in at the 5 Pointz. For those that don't know it factory building situated on a full square city block that is covered entirely with graffiti art. It is billed as the largest outdoor exhibition of graffiti art in the world.

Unfortunately 5 Pointz's existence is under threat. It was recently announced that there plans underway to develop the location into hi-rise luxury housing.

5 Pointz artistic director Jonathan MERES Cohen is currently engaging support to save the location.

Peace!