Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
News
The Splasher Hits the NY Times
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 1, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
By
Jen Chung
Published Mar 1, 2007
Modified Mar 7, 2008
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
We wrote about someone we called "The Splasher" splattering - and essentially damaging - street art back in January. Since then, we've been following the Splasher's activities, as well as how street artists are reacting. Now the NY Times enters the Splasher fray again, this time with an article, "Defacer With Mystery Agenda Is Attacking Street Art" and a big front-of-Metro-section photograph of one of the Splasher's attacks in the Lower East Side. Sorry, we couldn't resist!
Update: Question from Gideon Fink Shapiro - Is there any irony in this guerilla [anti-]artist's receiving prominent recognition from the city's most respected, "bourgeois-liberal" newspaper? Pointedly, the article appears not in the Arts Section, but Metro / NY region. In its first mention of the Splasher (in late January), the Times referred to the Splasher as a vandal. Now, it's the "unknown protagonist."
In more recent Splasher news, it looks like he hit the Neckface ad at Bleecker and Lafayette Street.
See more Splasher pictures on Streetsy. And is it weird that when we found out the green paint on a building at Wooster and Grand was from Katsu, not the Splasher, we suddenly had a craving for katsudon?
Tagged
art
arts
east side
Gideon Fink Shapiro
lafayette street
Lower East
Lower East Side
metro
mystery
News: NYC
ny times
photos
pictures
street art
the city
The Splasher
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE news
Deer are all over New Jersey roads looking for sex, state officials warn
Mid-October through mid-December is deer mating season, which can be a danger to drivers as the sex-seeking creatures cross roadways throughout the Garden State.
By
Rosemary Misdary
Published Oct 16, 2026 at 4:22 p.m. ET
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
News
Man messaged 'I got straight poison' before giving NYC college students fentanyl, feds say
A transcript from an April court hearing sheds new light on what transpired at Fashion Institute of Technology.
By
Samantha Max
Inside the plan to fix the nearly collapsed Pfizer Building, 1/64th of an inch at a time
By
David Brand
School bus carrying autistic students got lost in Brooklyn for 4 hours last year
By
Jessica Gould
NYC’s bridges can last 'forever,' if we take care of them
By
Clayton Guse
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .