Last December, a small group of artists installed an unauthorized holiday display to raise straphangers’ spirits and spruce up a neglected corner of the Columbus Circle Subway Station. The budding tradition continues after today’s extremely early morning opening of the second annual “Holiday Gift to NYC Show.” Around 1:30 AM, eleven artists convened to turn a 200-foot long pedestrian tunnel at the Lexington Avenue/53rd Street Station into a public gallery. Read more »

In a backwards burglary, an artist smuggled his work into the Brooklyn Museum over the weekend. During normal business hours, self-proclaimed “fine art graffiti artist” Mat Benote covertly hung his painting in the contemporary art section as the finale to an exhibition of illicit installations across the country. Benote’s original painting, titled “Life’s Puzzle,” was divided and distributed to a dozen museums in an attempt to give back to those deemed exceptional for their public service and access. In a statement, Benote explains: Read more »