Ben Morea, an American painter and anarchist activist, died on May 2, 2026, at age 84–85.
Born in Brooklyn in 1941 and raised in poverty, he became addicted to heroin and discovered painting while incarcerated and in drug rehabilitation. In the 1960s, he adopted abstract expressionism and befriended the co-founders of the Living Theatre.
In 1966, he co-founded Black Mask with Dan Georgakas and a semi-monthly newspaper of the same name. In 1968, the group was renamed Up Against the Wall Motherfucker and operated in the Lower East Side. After the group dissolved, Morea and his wife moved to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness.
Ben Morea, 84–85, American artist and anarchist activist.