On June 17th the legendary graffiti artist Iz the Wiz died, but just five days prior to that he was back in the Bronx tagging up a mock subway car. The work is at the Tuff City graffiti and tattoo studio and was meant to be endlessly repainted over by different artists, but it will now remain as Iz, if you will. Back in the day he would tag his name in bubble-letters all down a train, and he said: “You would have these pieces running like this 10 cars straight. When that hit the train station, bam! Impact. No doubt about it.” Tuff City employees aren't sure how they'll preserve Iz's last piece just yet, but they told CityRoom they are considering "donating them to a museum, making them part of a traveling exhibit or disassemble them for galleries." Check out some images from Iz's show, and from his memorial at Tuff City, here. more ›

Graffiti legend Iz the Wiz (real name Michael Martin) died at age 50 on June 17th, and has finally received an obituary from the Paper of Record. The artist tagged subway cars in the 1970s and 80s with his signature in "fat capital letters spray-painted on a door, below a window, across an entire car or even along the full length of a train." Throughout his career as a graffiti artist, he got his tag on every line in the subway system more times than any other, which means if you didn't ride in a car with his name, you probably saw one in a movie. He even did a two-car homage to John Lennon after he was killed in 1980, and was one of the first to work on the Phun Phactory building (now 5 Pointz). more ›