LAMAMIMET

Benjamin Anthony Morea was born into poverty in Brooklyn, New York, on October 8, 1941. He struggled with heroin addiction in his youth and discovered painting while incarcerated and during drug rehabilitation, developing an abstract‑expressionist style.

In the mid‑1960s, Morea became a central figure in New York’s anarchist scene. He co‑founded the radical group Black Mask with Dan Georgakas in 1966 and launched a semi‑monthly newspaper of the same name, which later became a valuable collector’s item. The group participated in the Angry Arts Week protests, aligning itself with broader countercultural movements.

The organization was renamed Up Against the Wall Motherfucker in 1968, operating as a street‑level collective that supported the May 1968 uprisings and other anti‑authoritarian actions on the Lower East Side. After the group dissolved, Morea and his wife withdrew to the Sangre de Cristo Wilderness, though he remained engaged in activist circles, attending events such as the 2023 St. Imier Anti‑Authoritarian International Gathering.

Benjamin Morea died in Colorado on May 2, 2026, at the age of 84, leaving a legacy as a provocative artist and a key participant in the radical politics of the 1960s.