Is Graffiti Art?

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Is graffiti art or vandalism?

I look at it this way . . . for me, graffiti is art . . . the graffiti I see, that I like, is decorative, colorful and fun. It's great design . . . I am not talking about tagging, which to me, isn't so much decorative or pretty, it's usually ugly lettering, sprayed onto freeway overpasses and marks the gang territory.

The graffiti I like is found on buildings that have commissioned it. I like it on canvases and in galleries, like those of artist, Gajin Fujita.

Gajin Fujita’s was born in 1972 to Japanese parents but grew up in Los Angeles. Fujita blends Eastern techniques such as anime and old school elements like geishas, warriors and demons with Western, urban imagery to create his unique style – (hip-hop, urban graffiti meets traditional Japanese painting.) His works embody the cultural and class contradictions

that are an integral part of our global village. To see more of Gajin Fujita, go to his gallery at LA Louver in Venice or to lalouver.com

A few years ago when my son wanted me to take pictures of him for his hip hop / rap album cover, we looked for a great backdrop around town and found exactly what we were looking for at The Boys and Girls Club of Venice on Lincoln Blvd. Again, this graffiti was painted probably by someone at the Club.

We did another photo shoot about a year later, when he got a band together and he asked me if we could find some good graffiti. It wasn't difficult This art was commissioned as well . . .

My personal favorite . . .

On the corner of Broadway and Cloverfield in Santa Monica, is a building completely painted in graffiti. It is the Cinergi building, painted in 1992. I was blown away the first time I saw it. It was new and exciting and as a designer I loved the use of graffiti as a creative expression of the uniqueness of what goes on inside!! I had never seen graffiti used like this before.

Today, graffiti has really gone mainstream, from the film by Banksy called "Exit Through the Gift Shop", and nominated for an Oscar, to "Art in the Streets", the current exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary Museum in downtown LA.

Banksy art on a wall . . . looks like fun, not vandalism . . . but then . . . it isn't MY wall either!! Although I think it would be kind of cool if it were . . .

The Geffen Contemporary show has created all kinds of backlash, from the director, Jeffrey Deitch, who commissioned a mural by artist Blu, for an exterior wall of the museum, but didn't see a sample before it was painted on the wall. Once it was completed and he saw it, he didn't approve of it and had it painted over...(It was a mural of coffins draped in dollar bills)

. . . to taggers spraying their way into history by painting their masterpieces all over Little Tokyo.

Blu's mural that Deitch had painted over . . .

The Veteran's administration building is across the street and he thought this was 'insensitive'

"A tagger vandalized the Little Tokyo Gold Line station across from the "Art in the Streets" exhibit, while workers quickly painted over it and which investigators suspect was related to the Geffen's graffiti exhibit."

Dozens of tags, including monikers and larger "bombs" turned up on several commercial buildings behind 1st Street, as well as on dumpsters and light poles within a stone's throw of the museum's entrance.

"These artists are good enough for the city to put their work in one of its major cultural institutions. But if they do it on the streets, where the art is meant to be seen, the city will have them arrested," Sebastian Buck, who writes the blog Unurth, said.

But remember, this is "street art" . . . it belongs in the street . . . and it IS in the mainstream now.

. . . and I love it!!

A piece of art in the exhibit

Art in the Streets . . .

We've come a long way, Baby and so has graffiti!

Is it art? You tell me . . .