Coney Island Begins Summer With Controversial Street Art Exhibit

BROOKLYN, NY -- An exhibit at Coney Island could be a lesson to those wanting "street cred." Redevelopment firm Thor Equities teamed up with Jeffrey Deitch, a California-based curator and art dealer, to create street art in America's Playground. The result, according to several art critics, has been something less than successful. Called "Coney Art Walls," the exhibit features work by more than a dozen well-known graffiti and street artists, including Pink, Daze, Lee Quiñones, Swoon and Mister Cartoon, on 25 freestanding concrete walls.

In one scathing review at artnet news, critic Christian Viveros-Fauné is particularly harsh in his appraisal of the exhibition. "It's one thing for urban artists to seek opportunities with mainstream advertising, but quite another to shill for sketchy property owners in poor neighborhoods for negligible returns," he wrote.

However, what both the critics and the deep-pocketed patron of the new art have overlooked is that the exhibit is in Brooklyn, NY. And Brooklyn being Brooklyn, it's only a matter of a very short time until local critics render their verdicts on the exhibition with spray cans and brushes in hand. Whether their grassroots efforts will better suit the likes of Mr. Viveros-Fauné remains to be seen.