Art! Who goes there? We do, now. In the latest installment of our fortnightly art column, Kesley Keith handicaps who's going to be running New York's gallery scene, now that Jeffrey Deitch is going to LA. Bets: on the table!

Yea, we know the word "hipster" is played out. That's exactly why we need to pick a Hipster Champ of the past decade. So we can lay the whole damn thing to rest. Your candidates, below. Vote. If you want.

It's been a few weeks since downtown artist Dash Snow died of a heroin overdose. But photographer Ryan McGinley is now speaking out about the death of his close friend. In the new issue of Vice, he recounts some of the great times they shared over the years, like "sniffing coke off toilet seats [and] doing bumps off each other's fists" in "the bathroom of every bar below 14th Street." Oh, and how Snow and one of his other friends would get wasted and have fun at the expense of homeless people:

Downtown artist Dash Snow died of a heroin overdose last week. The formation of his legacy is well underway. Was he an authentic artist with a tortured soul, or a selfish jerk who left his daughter fatherless?

Fashion photographer Steven Klein opened up his Bridgehampton estate on Saturday evening to host the summer benefit for the AIDS Community Research Initiative of America (Acria), which funds HIV and AIDS-related research, treatment, and education. Sponsored by Calvin Klein Collection and Vanity Fair, the benefit attracted Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick, Francisco Costa, Italo Zucchelli, Rachel Zoe, Daphne Guinness, Lauren Santo Domingo, Euan Rellie and Lucy Sykes Rellie, Nacho Figueras, Olivia Chantecaille, Stefano Tonchi, Jane Holzer, and Royal Pains cast members Mark Feuerstein, Jill Flint, Paulo Costanzo and Reshma Shetty, among others. Cityfile correspondent Douglas Marshall took a few mintues to chat with famed artist—and longtime Acria supporter—Ross Bleckner about art, life, and Dash Snow.

The folks at Curbed bring word that a makeshift memorial has appeared outside the LES studio of Dash Snow, the downtown artist who died of an overdose earlier this week. But be warned! "Given the materials he was known to work with, we wouldn't get too close to this tribute." [Curbed]

Dash Snow is already being branded an "icon." The downtown sperm-and-whatever-else artist died Monday night of a heroin overdose at the age of 27. And you can already spot the outlines of a Basquiat-esque art world canonization starting to form.

Dash Snow, who died last night at the age of 27, took Polaroids, wrote graffiti, made collages and installations, and jacked off on newspapers (and was aware of how that was perceived). A dozen of his artworks, below.

Dash Snow's grandmother confirms he died by heroin overdose last night. [NYT]

Multiple sources tell us that Dash Snow—photographer, semen artist, graffiti writer, and embodiment of the downtown NYC scene—has apparently died of a heroin overdose, two years shy of his 30th birthday.

Gawker is reporting that hipster artist/photographer Dash Snow died of a heroin overdose last night, and messages posted to Twitter by some of Snow's friends seem to back it up. There hasn't been official confirmation yet. In the meantime, though, you can read more about Snow here, if you're interested. Update: The Times has confirmed Snow's death. [Gawker, photo via Mister Mort]

Filmmaker and Transcendental Meditation enthusiast David Lynch brought Paul McCartney and Ringo Starr together for the first time in years as part of the Change Begins Within benefit at Radio City Music Hall on Saturday night. A slew of celebrity performers and guests were on hand for the occasion, including Sheryl Crow, Laura Dern, and Ben Harper (with Ringo, left), as well as Jerry Seinfeld, Yoko Ono, John McEnroe, Martin Scorsese, Howard Stern and Beth Ostrosky, Matthew Broderick, Moby, Jennifer Aniston, Desiree Gruber and Kyle MacLachlan, Isabella Rossellini, David Arquette, Michael J. Fox, Robin Quivers, Eddie Vedder, Jason Bateman, Barbara Bach, Bettye LaVette, and Mike Love. [Wireimage, Getty, VF, NYO]

The headline of Joshua David Stein's dispatch from the shallower ends of New York life, "Hot Fuzz: Why Full Beards Are In," is a little misleading. Yes, he tells us that lots of hipsters—Taavo Somer, Dash Snow, Devendra Banhart, his good self—have been sporting overgrown whiskers, but he doesn't actually tell us why. Is it the economy? An epidemic of testosterone excess? A mysterious outbreak of razorphobia? Inquiring minds want to know. [NYP]

Happy 42nd, Christine Quinn! Other people around town celebrating today: Iman is 53, Mets pitcher Billy Wagner is 37, and restaurateur Geoffrey Zakarian is turning 49. Celebs celebrating this weekend: Kevin Spacey will be 49, Kate Beckinsale will turn 35, Mick Jagger will celebrate his 65th, and Sandra Bullock will be 44. Misshapes' Leigh Lezark will turn 24 tomorrow. Artist Tom Sachs will turn 42. Architect Hugh Hardy will be 76. On Sunday, Alex Rodriguez will turn 33. He shares his birthday with Taxi & Limousine commisioner Matthew Daus, hedge fund manager Timothy Barakett, and artist Dash Snow.

Remember Dash Snow, downtown it-boy artist who worked in the "Jizzing all over on NY Post headlines" motif? Yes well, he's been keeping busy making these: $62 limited edition t-shirts reading "LEFT ALL WASHED UP." Exactly as you would have guessed. [WeSoldOut via Animal]

An artist and photographer, Snow was the reigning bad boy of the downtown art scene until he died of a drug overdose in July 2009.

Last night in West Chelsea, at a gallery opening full of Pabst Blue Ribbon and those that enjoy it, collector and show curator Simon Cerigo found that one of his artists had gone missing, according to an attendee. Young Dash Snow, the semen-painter, New York mag art star and (inadvertent?) conceptual prankster of the downtown scene, never actually sent in any "art" for the show. Instead, someone from the gallery—Dinter Fine Art—hung up some doodled-on Village Voices that said "Dash Snow Peace." (On the price list, it was credited to Cerigo.) Jeez, Dash—even psych-folkie Devendra Banhart managed to get his work in on time for the show. And he doesn't even work in bodily fluids. Yet.

Seriously, who wants to bid on Britney Spears' nasty hair? Bid on a quite probably imaginary bag of "downtown" artist/heir Dash Snow's coke instead! If that isn't enough enticement, let's look at the pitch:

• We can't improve on Best Week Ever's analysis of this Sienna Miller photo from the Factory Girl after party, so we'll just repeat their Chorus Line joke: Dance 10, Looks 3. [BWE]
  

Ariel Levy's New York mag profile of the three rich white kids who are single-handedly keeping "downtown" alive got a lot of people roiled up this week — not least its elusive, controversial main subject, Dash "the Pollock of Peen-juice" Snow. On the Irak blog, Levy was called out as a "wacked reporter." Then, as so often happens, things got much harsher in the comments, and Levy was raked across the coals in the standard retarded playground-bully ways. Seriously, if you've ever kind of suspected in the back of your mind that some hipster dudes were thisclose to being skinhead thugs, but found skateboarding just in time, your suspicions will be confirmed by the scattershot misogyny and antisemitism on display here. So edgy.