Local Artist Killed in Valencia Hit-And-Run, Police Seek Leads

According to the Chronicle, Kurt Dalen, a local painter and graffiti writer, was struck and killed by a motorist at 2:45am Thursday morning outside a Valencia Street alleyway.  Police say “the driver and his [or her] whereabouts remained unknown” and are currently seeking information. 

As Wiggly Giggle, a friend of Dalen, wrote on Tumblr:

Out drinking in the Mission Thursday night? Maybe you witnessed the hit and run that killed our friend?

HIT BY A CAR at Valencia and Clinton Park (near Duboce) - car continued south down Valencia…

Described as a black or blue 4-door sedan, that will now have collision damage to the front-passenger side of the vehicle, and possibly a broken windshield.

SFPD asks that anyone with information about the incident call them at 415-575-4444.

Below, a 2009 documentary about Dalen and his time at the San Francisco Art Institute:

[Photo by Molly Oleson]

Comments (6)

RIP.

Wow. How fucked. RIP Vote 1810.
Destroy all hit and run cowards.

Since when does “a local painter and graffiti writer” mean “artist” . … to hell with whoever hit this guy, but frankly, it it means one less “graffiti” artist then how is this a bad thing?

A young human being who was part of your city and who happened to possibly do some graffiti in addition what was clearly ‘Art’ was killed - that’s how it’s a bad thing you callous, selfish, asshole. “To hell” with you, frankly.

R.I.P. Vote.
You will be missed.

Over the past several years I was going to the post office (3x a week) near Echo Park (on Alvarado/Glendale) in LA and each time I made sure to catch a glance at a nice, VOTE 1810 scribe inside the post office, on one of their ridiculous bullet-proof windows. After taking notice of that scribe, I remembered back to seeing it in Berkeley, SF, etc. I started to notice it more & more. Definitely took notice of Vote’s stuff…….This news sucks. Bummed to hear it……F*ck hit-n-run cowards. Heart goes out to his friends & family.