Street artist Shepard Fairey was in New York last week and hit the streets, pasting up an Obama poster on the corner of Houston and Bowery, among other spots. Unfortunately, he sacrilegiously pasted right over the work of graffiti writer MARTY, who has been holding down that corner for years. We expected he would take it back, but were surprised he’d do it in broad daylight. Razor Apple reader, Vincent Ng from the LES, caught some photos as MARTY of Smart Crew painted a fill-in over the Obama poster on Saturday afternoon, cleverly using orange paint to match the new Keith Haring mural next to it. Reached for comment by email, Shepard was apologetic for pasting over MARTY, saying, “I don’t like to go over people ever, however, I feel Obama being elected is very important to everyone’s future including MARTY’s. It was not intended to be disrespectful of him, but if he chooses to be that small minded and petty about it I can’t control that. I certainly would expect him to justly re-claim the spot after the election.”

Oddly enough, just a few hours after MARTY finished painting, a trio of Obama-loving graffiti-haters was cleaning off the poster that they mistakenly believed was legal. Who was this pro-Obama buff squad? Shepard doesn’t know, but guesses that, “people [just] feel strongly about Obama.” Obama is certainly hoping people feel strongly in support during the West Virginia primary today.

Below are some photos of MARTY in action, and the the pro-Obama buff squad at work.

Continue reading: Obama in the Buff

Through May, The Threat of Chance, featuring the work of Josh MacPhee, Billy Mode, Chris Stain and The Polaroid Kidd, will be on display at Ad Hoc Art (49 Bogart Street, Brooklyn). The gallery is built out into a railroad shanty town full of paintings, stencils, photographs and signs. A handful of photos are here, but you can’t fully appreciate it unless you explore it in person.

Click here for more photos of the The Threat of Chance.

Photo by Supertouch.

To the disappointment of all the would-be street art entrepreneurs with dollar-signs in their eyes, a Banksy stencil on East 12th Street and Avenue A was painted over recently. At a time when some stencils and paintings by Banksy are being protected and auctioned off (building included), Supertouch gleefully photographs someone painting over the Little Bo Peep stencil that went up last November. If it makes you feel better, the piece was already covered by a concrete repair job on top of the wall. That means the buff job was more of a prep service for the next artist or vandal to come along, in this case, whoever spray painted a neighborly reminder that “You are under surveillance.”

May 1, 2008

Daily Photo: Momo