When we asked you how you would tag the blank Mad Men posters currently gracing subway platforms across the city we expected a couple submissions. Instead we got dozens of quick mock-ups from aspiring taggers and ad men around town. Good work everybody! Here are some of our favorites, from Breakdancing Don to Daredevil Draper! more ›

AMC's beloved (if not highly rated) advertising soap opera Mad Men returns March 25. But you probably already knew that, since the cable network has plastered our subway system with almost entirely blank ads for the show—the perfect canvas for aspiring subway ad men to work on, right? more ›

Retired NYPD patrolman Steven Weinberg (a.k.a. tagger "Neo") will not be doing any hard time for his extracurricular graffiti. But the cane-wielding former-cop will be on probation for three years, owes $700 in fines, has to participate in the "Paint Straight" program, will never own a gun in NY again, and had to suffer through a lecture on values from a Queens judge. So he isn't exactly scot-free. "Its time for you to put your family in front of those friends you talk to," Justice Salvatore Modica told Weinberg in court today. more ›

For much of the past year, the face of Tom Hanks—inarguably America's Most Beloved Thespian—has been plastered around the Lower East Side by the mysterious Hanksy, a street artist (or collective, it's unknown) who mimics the iconic work of the even more mysterious Banksy. And now, Hanksy is going legit: the artist/collective will have its first gallery show at Krause Gallery starting this Friday. more ›

Steve "ESPO" Powers, who recently wrote a very public love letter to Brooklyn, is back to work, and just unveiled this latest creation. Arrested Motion notes that the piece is called "Train To Always," and is located in Downtown Brooklyn. The stops have names like "Meh," "Lonely," and "So So," which sort of makes us think we need a new name for this type of adorable street art. Tweeffiti, perhaps? If that's not your cup of twee, leave your idea below... more ›

Along with "Peru Ana Ana Peru," one of the most omnipresent taggers in Lower Manhattan and Northern Brooklyn is easily the mysterious "Jim Joe," who seems to have put his chicken scratch on nearly every thing in town from wood sticks to trucks, plywood to fire hydrants. So of course somebody has finally made a website, Cult of Joe, devoted to monitoring his prolific pen. more ›

Barely a week after anti-semitic vandalism hit Midwood on the anniversary of the end of Kristallnacht, it seems there has been yet another vandalism incident in Brooklyn. An Avenue J subway sign in Midwood was found vandalized earlier today with the words "Avenue Jew," according to local Assemblyman Dov Hikind. Transit Police have since removed the sign and are investigating this incident as a bias crime. Hopefully this wasn't someone misguided attempt at Avenue Q humor: more ›

A former NYPD officer injured in the line of duty...who is also a graffiti artist?! Cops are still trying to wrap their heads around the secret life of retired officer Steven Weinberg, a patrolman who retired in 2001 after hurting his leg on the job. It seems Weinberg had an exciting life outside of work as a prolific graffiti artist with the handle "Neo," tagging subways throughout the 1980s with the Nation of Graffiti (NOG) crew. Weinberg claims he gave up tagging in 1995 when he joined the force at the age of 27. But the Post reports that investigators say the "Neo" tag has started popping up again, and think his idle hands are to blame. more ›

Moustache Man, you have met your marker-wielding match. Say hello to our favorite site of the day, Teenage Mutant Ninja Noses a tumblr devoted to finding turtles in a half shell in the oddest of places and then putting them online. And by places we mean the faces of models and actors on subway posters and magazine ads. more ›

As we mentioned in our Fall TV guide, Two Broke Girls is based in NYC, but it's filmed in LA, making it perfect to pick apart. The show premiered last night, and hopefully someone called the Vandal Squad, because the 1980s are back! Click through for some cringe-worthy Faux York moments... and let's all try to figure out where in Brooklyn they live and work. more ›

Earlier this year Macy's announced they were giving their ugly garage in Downtown Brooklyn a makeover. They brought on graffiti artist ESPO (aka Steve Powers of the Waterboard Thrill Ride) to create a love letter to the borough, which he's just about done with. Yesterday Gothamist's Jake Dobkin photographed the piece, still in progress, and sprawling around Hoyt, Livingston, and Fulton Streets. This isn't the first love letter he's written though, so don't feel too special. more ›

These photos were all taken in 1973 and 1974, documenting the graffiti-marked subway system of New York City. This was years before the Vandal Squad formed, in 1980, and was tasked with defending the subway system from defacement. By the end of that decade, over 15 years after these photos were taken, they "effectively solved the problem of graffiti in the subway system." Of course, there's still tagging happening today, but for the most part the inside of train cars are only filled with Dr. Zizmor ads. more ›

Artist Cy Twombly died in Rome yesterday at the age of 83, leaving behind a catalog of work spanning some fifty years. The Times has a full obituary today, but here are the highlights, and some pointers on where to go to see Twombly's transfixing, large-scale paintings and sculptures here in New York. more ›

Spotted in the once-feared Stabber Alley: a new tag that reads, "I have no money but I have heart" (which doesn't really apply to many of DUMBO's residents). more ›

Yesterday we learned that the Brooklyn Museum was cancelling plans to host "Art In The Streets," a graffiti and street art-themed exhibition currently at LA's Museum of Contemporary Design. The Museum says their reasons are purely economic, though the show had already raised some ire before it even opened, and has been tied to a spike in graffiti-related arrests in LA. We spoke to some prominent street artists and gallerists here about their thoughts on the move: more ›

Remember way back in April, when we heard about the Brooklyn Museum's plans to host "Art In The Streets," a graffiti and street art-themed exhibition? The one that got the Daily News all riled up about "giving the destruction of other people's property a hallowed place in high-art halls?" Well, looks like we won't be seeing works from Fab 5 Freddy and Swoon in the Museum's hallowed halls, after all—the Museum has canceled the exhibition. more ›

Osama bin Laden's death roused up strong feelings of patriotism and jingoistic drink recipes—and it also inspired someone to inform a proposed Brooklyn mosque of the Al Qaeda leader's death by way of graffiti. Sheepshead Bites reports that "He is dead" and smiley faces were spray painted onto the fence outside a controversial mosque site. The mosque's organizers called it a "hateful act." more ›

Usually the scales of justice tilt in favor of the wealthy. But when Keith Richards' daughter Theodora got busted last month for the trifecta of marijuana, oxycodone, and scrawling a cutesy love note on St. Anthony's Convent in SoHo, we thought that long arm of the law might deliver a judicial spanking. After all, this is the girl who once said "I'm not a big fan of drugs." But it seems, ahem, that Some Girls have all the luck. Luck, piles and piles of money: same thing. more ›

A few weeks back, arts nonprofit chashama launched an exhibit co-curated by Daniel Feral and Joyce Manalo called "Pantheon: A History of Art from the Streets of NYC," in the windows of the former Donnell Library in Midtown, situated, tellingly, just across the street from that other pantheon, MoMA. The exhibition brings together 33 graffiti writers and street artists— art blog Curbs and Stoops name-checks "work by John Ahearn and Rigoberto Torres, [plus] newer work by descendants like Ellis Gallagher and El Celso"— for a giant street-level window display of street art over the past 40 years. The brightly colored, Disneyland-on-acid collection is dedicated to "avant-rap and graffitti legend" Rammellzee, who died last year. more ›

Graffiti, we can safely say, can be controversial topic. But at what point does a neighborhood fighting back overreach and just make things worse? We ask because last weekend the Park Slope Civic Council hosted its annual Spring Civic Sweep, and that included a group going around the neighborhood painting over graffiti with heavy silver paint. They were supposed to be just cleaning up lamposts, but it appears they got more than a little over eager: more ›

Missing the days that every surface of every moving thing in New York City was covered with graffiti? There's a new collectible to help you get through these squeaky clean modern times: the graffiti truck! The creator of this thing tells us he's "dropping a new truck with NYC artists 2esae and Ski (these guys kill it around NYC)." But where's the Banksy and Shepard Fairey toys? more ›