Ecko's Graffiti Fest Survives Protest
By: Alyssa Rashbaum

August 26, 2005

Marc Ecko has been making style-conscious men look good for years, but this week, he turned his attention to a minimalist Chelsea street.

Graffiti aficionados and gawkers alike gathered on Manhattan's 22nd Street between 10th and 11th Avenues on Wednesday, August 24 where, from noon to dusk, some of the greatest graffiti artists to tag up a subway car showed off their skills.


Twenty artists including Pink, Ket, Cycle, Smith, Crash and Tats Crew spent the sunny day spray-painting mock-ups of ten 48-foot-long by 8-food high replicas of New York City Transit blue-bird subway cars while onlookers stood behind metal barricades and watched the live art. When they were completed, the canvases ranged from the political (including one with slams at President Bush and a series of dollar signs), to the traditional (a car was covered only with tags).


When viewers weren't admiring the art or having books signed by the artists, they were getting trucker caps decorated with graffiti, picking up snacks at the food table, or testing their video game skills at the GameStop trailer. Ecko himself made the rounds, chatting with reporters and posing for pictures.


Contrary to the fears of some city officials, by dusk, the event hadn't gotten out of hand, and there were no renegade amateur graffiti artists tagging up the streets, which should soothe the mind of Mayor Michael Bloomberg who had earlier revoked Ecko's permit to hold the event. The mayor said the event would encourage illegal graffiti in New York, to which a U.S. District Judge responded: "By the same token, presumably, a street performance of 'Hamlet' would be tantamount to encouraging revenge murder."