Dash Snow Remembered By New York

It may be easy to judge someone like Dash Snow. His pedigree, his art, his drug abuse, his lifestyle. But when the artist joined the 27 Club and departed for the big "hamster nest" in the sky, he left behind many Polaroids, many tags, many works of art, and many grieving friends. Gavin McInnes, who you know from Vice, wrote a tribute to his friend and his relation to New York City.

The best part of living in New York is the feeling that you’re in the center of everything. This feeling is like heroin and soon you want more. Eventually, Brooklyn isn’t enough. Then, certain parts of Manhattan aren’t enough. You feel like you’re visiting your parents when you’re in Soho or you’re on a road trip when you’re in Chelsea. St. Marks is a mini mall and even the East Village feels like a pale imitation of the Lower East Side. You never felt like that when you were partying with Dash Snow. You felt like you were in the center of New York. He was the kind of thing people move to New York for.

Snow's friend Carol Lee at Paper Magazine described him as a "young and talented artist, downtown fixture, bad boy, SACER, member of IRAK, etc.—but more than anything, he was a friend." Meanwhile, the NY Post wrongfully uses him as a posthumous posterboy for their rag, and the NY Times labels him an "East Village Artistic Rebel" in their obituary, pinpointing his art as being driven by "Sexuality, violence and life’s fragility... also an air of exuberant misbehavior." With all the sudden attention and fawning, Gawker believes this is the beginning of a "Basquiat-esque art world canonization" of the artist.

P.S. Image #5 is very NSFW!

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By Jen Carlson in Arts & Entertainment on July 15, 2009 1:54 PM

Comments [rss]

tandl71

Just because someone has the means to subsume themselves into degeneracy doesn't mean they're an artist. I can get high on heroin and take a shit on Cindy Adam's Page Six face--as long as someone buys the product, I can be known as a genius artist.

Get clean, and sell high.

for the love of god

Have some respect for the fallen. Is it art or not? Who the fuck cares!!! The discussion of whether or not Graffiti is art is going to go on until the end of time. This man left behind a family and more friends than you will ever know. You are just upset no one is going to write an article about you when you die. Do you people want to know why? Because you are boring insignificant assholes. Buck owens I hope your entire family burns in Hell in front of you oh and your art sucks.

valeriob

no idea what's going on here

Buck Owens

As an artist myself, I can attest to the fact that I am not jealous in anyway, shape or form of his bedbug infested subsistence, the deplorable Polaroids, the filthy friends, and that grubby Allman Brothers look.

He was at best a poor man’s GG Allin through and through, the aforementioned statement of which is far wittier than any utterance that the now decomposing scrub Dash Snow ever made whilst alive.

nyorker555

Sorry but once someone actively chooses to be in the public media as an "artist" he's fair game for criticism, dead or alive. I wish his photos were great, but unfortunately they are not. I hope he had a good time before the heroin did him in.

camera_club

and I sense a few of you are a bit jealous of his lifestyle

huffingpaint

Word!

camera_club

he undoubtedly has a far better Polaroid collection than you.

nicc

I feel badly about my previous comment. Surely his loved ones are experiencing tremendous loss, and it's insensitive to make light of anyone's passing. Also, as a drug addict, he may have been battling personal demons (hence the self-medication)...and that is not funny either.

My comment, really, was targeted toward the "downtown art scene" in general. Which defines pretense. So regardless of whether he was an 'artist' or a 'caricature,' he was arguably a 'product' of that scene.

nicc

Pretense, in extremis.

Nuff said...

Swede

Dash Snow: artist, or caricature? Discuss...

butterbutter

I did see a painting of his in a group show at Deitch Projects. It was OK. A giant pigeon poop painting. It was kinda clever.

But my hunch is Mr. Snow is more about 'being the artist', than actually creating the art.... sort of like Joaquin Phoenix now with his beard. What a joker.

But the drug thing and the body fluids... it's so late 80s - early 90s. He's about 20 years too late.

McFister

Exactly - it's largely been done before. Most of it is only of interest to an insular group of unschooled yes men.

Spirit of 76

Fascinating. 37 comments and I don't think I saw one compliment for his artwork. That's got to mean something.

McFister

Clearly he's an artistic genius.

inoyourider

Uh. Sorry for people's loss, but doesn't seem that he did contributed anything to the human species.

Art?

Let me take a picture of my vomit after nachos and a bottle of tequila. I'll bet you would hang it in the middle of your living room.

sexisicilian

I guess it is a myth that black dicks are bigger :)

NannyState

It was shrinking in anticipation...

matty

I was looking for an honest summation of the senseless tragedy here and I could only find this via gawker:

07/14/09

×

I didn't know Dash, but I know the scene he hung out in and I know the type of people, and actually know some of the people he hung out with. What sucks is that these super-cool people can do nothing but give each other endless handjobs. Everything and everyone is always great. It's all cool. It's all good. The worst thing you can do in these circles of "friends" is to interject a little criticism or point out that someone is fucking up... if you do you are shunned. So here's to all Dashes friends that didn't have the guts to tell him he was fucking his life away on junk! "

In sum, if there is anything to learn from this is that being a good friend is speaking up when your friend is out of control...and it doesn't seem like Dash had that many good friends.

I know you can't save people from themselves, but you can say something.