‘Whitewashed: Destroying The Graffiti Mecca’ by Richie Siegel


Just want to take a second to highlight this brilliant piece of journalism from Richie Siegel, founder of online mag Seersucker and overall artistic don.

The 5 Pointz complex was considered the graffiti mecca of the world. Located in Queens, it’s name represented the five boroughs of New York coming together over art. Curated by Meres One aka Jonathan Cohen since 2002, the dream for the 200,000 square foot factory building was to turn it in to a living graffiti museum. Even for the city itself this would’ve been a win, as the tours for our demographic were frequently in the top five recommended things to do while in New York.

Last November, the owner of the building (who claims to be an art fan) ordered the outsides to be whitewashed in the middle of the night, under police protection. It was a brutal attack on the artists and volunteers of 5 Pointz, ending their campaign to keep the building from being torn down.

Through an extensive list of interviews, Spiegel’s created reading that seems to capture some degree of the loss. It’s accompanied by some great photos, use the link below to jump to the post.

On November 18, 2013, from midnight until dusk, the owners of 5Pointz, the internationally acclaimed graffiti Mecca, ordered workers to paint over more than a decade of street art. The whitewash effectively put an end to the community’s ballooning campaign to stop a plan to build two high-rise luxury condos where 5Pointz currently stands. These are the stories of a handful of artists, locals and tourists who went back to see what was lost.

Read the full thing here: http://seersuckermag.com/whitewashed/