art crime

Frustrated by a proliferation of ugly, talentless graffiti in his San Francisco neighborhood Mission District, Brandon Baunach of DesignCrack, came up with a way to critique the art — giving praise to worthy pieces, and failing grades to lesser-quality art.

Inspired by a similar idea from Drew Heffron, a New York-based graphic designer, Baunach created a simple PDF form (shown above) and encourages visitors to his Web site to print it out and paste it up by graffiti they critque. He calls it “The Graffiti Report Card: Ugly Graffiti Haters Unite. Baunach even created a Flickr group for people to post photographs of the tags they critque.

According to the WebUrbanist blog, some graffiti artists are less than pleased to have their work reviewed. But, as the blog writer notes, if a graffiti artist can claim the right to decorate a public surface one way, how can they expect to deny the public the right to add to their public composition?

Street art has become so accepted by the mainstream that even The New York Times can write a story referring to illegal tags as art without so much as a mention of the darker side of graffiti.

Instead the paper calls graffiti “uncommissioned, uncommercial forms of expression,” and encourages readers to spend the weekend looking for street tags, rather than blocking them out as noise and New Yorkers become accustomed to doing on their busy streets.

In the “Weekend in New York” travel column this week, reporter Seth Kugel does a great job of explaining graffiti in the most common terms – what it is, where to find it and how (not) to judge it.

He writes, “Finally, judging street art is not like judging a coin collection: just about nothing is in mint condition. But that’s part of the charm. Pieces are supposed to decay over time, either naturally or sped along by human hands. A years-old image half torn down or covered with other images (often in homage) is part of the experience.”

The best part about the story is, unsurprisingly, photos taken around the city of NYC graffiti. The NYT presents them in a slideshow with captions so informational you don’t even need to read the story to understand and appreciate the art.

If you just knew a little bit about graffiti, it would be easy to think that there were some young punks who scribble and one talented artist named Banksy. Banksy’s book proliferate shelves, thank you Urban Outfitters, and his work has been catching major media attention as it auctions for hundreds of thousands of dollars. While I am not in any way discounting Banksy’s obvious talent and amazing artwork, it is frustrating that he is the only graffiti artist in the mainstream.

Graffiti art does not begin and end with one man.

However,  as this article on “the Banksy effect,” says, most people need entry points to become comfortable with things that are new. And for millions of people, Banksy is the entry point they need in not only seeing art in a new way, but in accepting art as a part of their daily lives.

So I guess many artists out there can thank Banksy for bringing graffiti art into the mainstream – but hopefully, with time, more artists will come to be appreciated in this way. Along this theme, this Web site compiled a list of some of New York City’s best graff artists, some very famous, like Swoon, and some lesser known or appreciated, like Goya. Some other artists of note: Claw (New York), Pose (Chicago) and Revs (New York).

— 

Additional info: There is also a great New York Times article from a few years ago on Swoon that features a slideshow of her work.

When most people think of graffiti taggers they might instinctively picture ‘young punk, gang members’ with nothing better to do. The typical stereotypes abound. And while these so-called ‘punks’ may be responsible for much of the graffiti tags spread around every country in the world, many taggers do not fit into these stereotypical descriptions.

Many are very talented artists, some classically trained at the best art schools in the world. Some are middle-aged, or at least in their 20s and 30s. Many do not support illegal activities, and instead, strive to make their work legally-marketable.

Here are a few examples of taggers who break the mold –

While this woman was arrested for posting illegal tags, she hardly fits the typical mold: 43-years-old and female. Despite what you might first believe, many graffiti artists are women — and very talented women at that.

A 36-year-old New York man, Craig Costello, tag name Krink, hasn’t painted graffiti illegally in years, but he has found a way to make his skills marketable. Under the Krink brand, he sells a line of quality inks and markers, his artwork and merchandise. Want more information or a peak at his work? See his Web site: krink.com.

Malcolm Mobutu Smith, now an associate professor of ceramic arts at Indiana University, began his interest in graffiti at age 12.

And, of course, no list of non-traditional graffiti artists would be complete without mentioning Banksy. His work often features politically or socially charged messages and he makes top dollar by auctioning his work.

When computer programmers look to express themselves artistically, this is the result. According to CNET.com’s Geek Gestalt blogger, geek graffiti is a small, but growing, trend where geeks — or people with geek-like tendencies — take traditional graffiti tagging and add in a tech-inspired message.

This one, posted on the West Bank side of the wall in Palestine, represents one tech-savvy take on the conflict. The Royal Pingdom blog, calls it “someone wishes for a reboot.” I also enjoyed this oneof the word “amor” (the Spanish word for love) written on a wall in Barcelona. And, finally, while this one is less than artistic, there’s just something inherently adorable about a drunken computer programmer.

A Brooklyn-based public artist created “living graffiti” — street art made from living, breathing plants. Edina Tokodi carves moss into figurines such as frolicking deer and rabbits and posts them on street lamps, unused walls and other public spaces around the art-savvy Williamsburg neighborhood. 

Tokodi is particularly interested in the interactions passersby have with her work. She said on the Web blog, Inhabit, that her art is meant to be touched, felt and in turn remind the viewers of a more familiar, environmentally-friendly state to contrast their barren urban existence.  

“I think that our distance from nature is already a cliché,” Tokodi said. “City dwellers often have no relationship with animals or greenery. As a public artist I feel a sense of duty to draw attention to deficiencies in our everyday life.”

Another blogger says Tokodi’s art is the product of the expansion of the green revolution into every possible industry.

Maybe so. But some commenters seem to think that moss-covered bunnies are more appealing (and less offensive) than spray paint.

See photos of Tokodi’s artwork on the Inhabit web blog.

A new exhibit at the Portrait Gallery in Washington D.C. marks an important step in the showcasing of graffiti art as fine art. Other museums and galleries have shown graffiti art in the past, but this particular show is hosted by none other than the Smithsonian Institute. And, it doesn’t get much more mainstream then the Smithsonian.

“Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture” exhibit features photography, paintings and videos influenced by hip-hop. Street artists Tim “Con” Conlon, 33, of Washington, D.C. and Dave “Arek” Hupp, 34, from Baltimore, were asked to paint four large panels tracing the history of graffiti from its roots in the 1970s until today.

“We are not glorifying the illegal activity, but we are acknowledging the larger impact this street tradition has had in contemporary art,” says Frank H. Goodyear III, one of the exhibition’s curators.

The exhibit marks an important step in the artists’ careers as well – it is the first time either of them have been featured in a major gallery, according to Smithsonian Magazine’s article on the exhibit. For Arek, who in the height of his career painted about 400 trains a year, having his work showcased in the museum is a chance to change people’s perceptions.

“People who think it is just vandalism are amazed when they see what we can do with spray paint,” he said.

This blogger’s post on the exhibit has attracted quite a lot of comments on both sides of the graffiti debate.

My favorite comment? Posted by JG:

“Simply put; graffiti is an ART form.
Where it is placed determines its legality.”

In the age of new gadgets and technology I am consistently amazed by people taking graffiti into the next dimension. This is so much more than what most people would think of when they think of graffiti. It doesn’t use spray paint, it’s not permanent, it’s not even on a wall — but it is graffiti nonetheless.

Using any light source and time lapsed photography this artist creates what is known as light graffiti.

Also, this blogger has some very cool photos of light graffiti.

The D.C. government is taking a unique step in the war against graffiti.

According to the local public radio station, WAMU, the city usually paid out nearly $800,000 to clean up graffiti in 2007. This year the city plans to give $100,000 to help local graffiti artists produce legal murals. By supporting legal graffiti the government hopes they will have fewer illegal taggers.

If this works, and the city ends up spending less to clean up illegal tags, I would think other cities may follow suit. I am impressed that D.C. is trying to get at the problem in a new way, rather than just sticking to old methods which clearly have not stopped illegal tags.

I also wonder if residents will take time to appreciate the graffiti murals as art — since, for once, they won’t have to worry about paying to cover them up. 

If spray paint on a bare wall is too 1990s for you..

“Tagged in Motion” is a project by Hamburg-based graffiti artist DAIM that creates real-time graffiti in 3D — or a virtual world of graffiti art seen through 3D glasses.

The graffiti is captured by utilizing a three-camera scheme. The artist is able to smear the virtual paint across the empty gallery space using an ARToolKIT (or Augmented Reality Toolkit), which captures the artists exact motion as he or she paints.

This is big news is the techno-gadget/virtual graffiti world –  as the graffiti artists search for ways to perform their art legally. Bloggers weigh in here and here.