By Charles Sweeney
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
JAY STREET — A Manhattan-based artist made an appearance in a Brooklyn courtroom yesterday to enter a guilty plea as part of a plea deal with prosecutors for practicing his art form — subway graffiti. Dressed in a smoky-gray suit and sporting thick-framed black-rimmed glasses, notorious graffiti “writer� Alain Mariduena, 36, stood before state Supreme Court Justice Danny Chun and in a clear, strong voice admitted to “painting a train� in Brooklyn last March.

Mariduena’s guilty plea, to a single felony count of second-degree criminal mischief, satisfies a host of charges brought against him after police conducted a search of his upper Manhattan apartment and discovered the tools of his trade — dozens of cans of spray paint and other graffiti materials.

As part of his sentence, Mariduena has agreed to paint a mural, within a three-year period, “the content and details of which you will have to agree to with the DA’s office,� according to Judge Chun. Not wishing to put his client in the position of executing a commission for a DA’s Office not known for its appreciation of certain urban art forms, Mariduena’s attorney had one caveat to add to the agreement, before his client accepted the terms.

“There will be a mutual agreement with the DA,� added Mariduena’s defense attorney, Daniel Perez, “as long as the DA doesn’t insist on a mural condemning graffiti as an art form.�

Chun announced that the court would grant Mariduena a conditional discharge, provided he stays out of trouble for a three-year period. Chun also ordered Mariduena to pay $3,000 in restitution.

In a terse warning, Chun explained the consequences, should Mariduena get arrested again within the three-year period.

“You can face up to 2 1/3 to seven years in jail for violating the conditional discharge,� he said.

Ghost Writer
When the tag “Ket� began appearing on subway trains and across building facades throughout the city over the past two years, local politicians began pressuring the NYPD to crack down on the problem. Fearing a return to the lawless New York of the 1970s and ’80s, when subway graffiti was at the height of its popularity, a citywide effort was launched to nab the “Ket.�

Eventually, the NYPD’s Special Investigations Unit executed a search warrant on Mariduena’s apartment, where they discovered dozens of spray paint cans, special nozzles, magic markers, an undisclosed amount of marijuana and a pair of brass knuckles.

Mariduena was arraigned on misdemeanor charges of graffiti writing, drug and weapons possession, and felony criminal mischief charges. Mariduena faces additional charges in Manhattan and Queens, charges Perez said yesterday in court that his client would address in the coming days.

Old School Revivalist
A Manhattan-based professional artist, Mariduena is a revivalist of sorts, resurrecting a mode of artistic expression formed in the crucible of economic hardship that characterized the city’s poorest precincts during the turbulent 1980s.

Graffiti writing soon became a central mode of expression in the early years of the hip-hop movement, whose genesis in the late 1970s and early 1980s encompassed an urban culture that featured new forms of expression in music, dance, fashion, poetry and rap. Back in the 1980s, graffiti writers competed for space on trains crammed with colorful, detailed murals executed with an increasing degree of complexity.

Toward the close of the 1980s, as downtown art galleries began to recognize graffiti art, the medium gained some commercial acceptance. By the end of the decade, Brooklyn artist Jean Michel Basquiat (who began as a graffiti artist) regularly sold his graffiti-inspired paintings for prices in the high six-figure range. After his untimely death, an original Basquiat could fetch upwards of a million dollars at art auctions. A recent one-man career retrospective of his work was one of the most successful exhibitions at the Brooklyn Museum on Eastern Parkway.

In Mariduena’s updated style of subway graffiti, “Ket� became ubiquitous. However, the reaction of the community was something entirely different from the apathy of the 1980s. Mariduena soon became notorious, and the resulting furor meant he and his “artistic expression� became a target for a law enforcement agency eager to squelch any sign of the pre-Giuliani years.

While far from the walls of the city’s great museums, Mariduena’s legitimate artwork has caught the eye of at least one entrepreneur, designer/artist/businessman Mark Ecko, who hired him as a consultant on a video game where players write graffiti across an urban landscape not unlike 1980s New York.

Councilman Peter Vallone Jr. criticized Ecko, charging he was merely capitalizing on criminal behavior in an effort to turn a profit. In a publicity effort designed to promote the game in 2005, Mariduena gained headlines for holding a block party at which Ecko invited people to spray paint graffiti on cardboard recreations of MTA subway car façades.

Mariduena will be officially sentenced at Brooklyn Supreme Court on Oct. 10.

© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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