It seems the mainstream media is really taking a new interest in street art, which is really cool for a lot of reasons. Not only does it give the culture more exposure, but it also changes the paradigm through which it is viewed.
The LA Times just printed a great article about graffiti-transitioning-to-fine artist Smear, and the city's attempt to stop him, and you can really feel the change in tone. We think its awesome. Click the jump for more
This is a great article written by Richard Winton in which he puts it out into the open, the dirty little secret that no matter how much city officials try to crack down on it, graffiti and street art culture are celebrated. "Today, the work of people once considered vandals can be found in chic galleries, auction houses and even suburban shopping malls".
And perhaps the city is growing wise to the game because they have started to play dirty and seeking an unheard of "a one-of-a-kind court injunction to bar Christian Gheorghiu (Smear) from profiting from art bearing his telltale 'tag'."
But at the same time, it is not a particularly intelligent move by the city. It has been proven from the kindergarten classroom on up through life, that if you get in trouble by an authority figure, your peers will think its cool. And the harder the city prosecutes, the bigger the name grows. And even as the city tries to press a smear campaign agains Smear, both that name, and the artist name of Cristian Gheorghiu continue to grow in stature and fame.
Since the attempted injunction violates all kinds of constitutional and civil rights (you can't keep punishing a person for a crime after they have done their time--and Christian Gheorghiu has), the ACLU has taken up this case, and we assume that will mean a strong defense team. In our opinion, Smear has earned his success. And it is our hope is that Christian Gheorghiu, and Smear, come out of this unscathed and doing better than ever~
***The article also pointed out that Christian has thousands of dollars in fines, so if you want to show some support for Smear and the cause, visit his webstore to get some amazing art***
Picture by Brian van der Brug for the LA Times.
