Tags Removed From Fishtown Shepard Fairey Mural

On Monday I shared some snapshots that showed the new Shepard Fairey mural in Fishtown tagged with white spray paint. Graffiti artists appeared to have climbed the scaffolding that was left on the building, unleashing their spray cans at nearly every tier.

Today I’m happy to report that the mural—called Lotus Diamond—has been restored. Mural Arts posted this Instagram of the freshly cleaned work with the caption, “Good news everyone! Our team was out today and repaired the @obeygiant on Frankford Ave. It looks good as new (which it practically is).”

A rep from Mural Arts tells me that the organization has on staff a crew that does things like build scaffoldings, repair murals. One guy on the crew, Nathaniel Lee, also happens to be a super-talented artist, and a master of color-matching. He actually went up and painted over the tagging, and did a damn good job of it.

As you can see, the scaffolding is still in place, which I’m told is necessary because construction crews are working on the front of the building. It’s still begging for someone to run up with a can of spray paint, but Mural Arts says, “There’s really not much we can do. It’s the nature of public art. In over 30 years, only a dozen have been defaced.”