Jeffrey Deitch, the New York dealer and former director of the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art, is co-curating a new street art project called "Coney Art Walls" in Brooklyn with real-estate developer Joseph Sitt of Thor Equities. The project features murals by prominent graffiti and street artists including Crash, Daze, Lady Pink, How & Nosm, Lee Quinones, Futura, Kenny Scharf, Miss Van, Swoon, and Icy Signs, and will accompany a Smorgasburg Coney Island pop-up with 12 food vendors. Photos show the artists hard at work as the project rapidly takes shape.
This project matters because it marks Deitch's latest high-profile curatorial venture since returning to New York after his contentious tenure at MoCA Los Angeles, and it brings major street artists to a public space in Coney Island, blending art with commercial development. The collaboration with Thor Equities, whose head has been criticized by some, and the integration of a food market highlight ongoing tensions between art, gentrification, and community development in Brooklyn.