Several outlets have reported the death by drug overdose of de Menil heir, Dash Snow, a 27-year-0ld artist who came to prominence in New York Magazine profile. Snow’s stature as an artist has always been connected to the publicity surrounding his life. Here’s Roberta Smith with the news of his death:

Dash Snow, a promising young New York artist, died Monday night at Lafayette House, a hotel in Lower Manhattan. He was 27 and lived in Manhattan. His death was confirmed by his grandmother, the art collector and philanthropist Christophe de Menil, who said that Mr. Snow had died of a drug overdose.

Ariel Levy’s profile “Warhol’s Children” suggested that Snow’s significance might have been more muse or subject of other artist’s work like his friends Ryan McGinley and Dan Colen:

If you want to find Snow, you have to find Colen, or Snow’s other best friend, the 29-year-old photographer Ryan McGinley, who four years ago became the youngest person ever to have a solo show at the Whitney. That show, “The Kids Are Alright,” depicted a downtown neverland where people are thrilled and naked, leaping in front of graffiti on the street, sacked out in heaps of flannel shirts—everything very debauched and drug-addled and decadent, like Nan Goldin hit with a happy wand. Part of what made McGinley so famous (like Goldin before him) was that he offered not just an artist’s vision of a free and rebellious alternative life but also the promise that he was actually living it, through photos that looked spontaneous, stolen, of an intimate cast of characters, a family of friends, and in McGinley’s case, of Snow in particular. In some ways, Snow has been his muse.

Bloomberg’s Katya Kazakina adds this:

His collectors included advertising mogul Charles Saatchi, hedge-fund manager Adam Sender and Greek industrialist Dakis Joannou, Peres said.

“He was a very talented and influential young artist,” said Sarah Aibel, curator of the Sender collection. “It’s very tragic.”

Sender, founder of Exis Capital Management Inc., owns Snow’s untitled piece comprising 20 New York Post covers with portraits of Saddam Hussein, covered with glitter and semen (said to be Snow’s). It was included in last year’s “Babylon: Myth and Truth” exhibition at the Pergamon Museum in Berlin.

Warhol’s Children (New York Magazine)

Dash Snow, Artist Linked to NYC Downtown Scene, Dies at 27 (Bloomberg)