Graffiti is art that is written, painted or drawn on a wall or other surface, usually without permission and within public view. Graffiti ranges from simple written words to elaborate wall paintings, and has existed since ancient times, with examples dating back to ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, and the Roman Empire.
The Lennon Wall or John Lennon Wall is a wall in Prague, Czech Republic. Since the 1980s, this once-typical wall has been filled with John Lennon–inspired graffiti, lyrics from Beatles' songs, and designs relating to local and global causes.
Vandalism is the action involving deliberate destruction of or damage to public or private property.
Banksy is a pseudonymous England-based street artist, political activist, and film director whose real name and identity remain unconfirmed and the subject of speculation. Active since the 1990s, his satirical street art and subversive epigrams combine dark humour with graffiti executed in a distinctive stenciling technique. His works of political and social commentary have appeared on streets, walls, and bridges throughout the world. His work grew out of the Bristol underground scene, which involved collaborations between artists and musicians. Banksy says that he was inspired by 3D, a graffiti artist and founding member of the musical group Massive Attack.
Street art is visual art created in public locations for public visibility. It has been associated with the terms "independent art", "post-graffiti", "neo-graffiti" and guerrilla art.
Mural Arts Philadelphia is a non-profit organization that supports the creation of public murals in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Founded in 1986 as Mural Arts Program, the organization was renamed in 2016. Having ushered more than 3,000 murals into being, it calls itself "the nation’s largest public art program". As of 2022, the organization says it runs 50 to 100 public art projects each year; it also works to maintain existing murals.
The 34th Street Wall is a 1,120-foot-long retaining wall along SW 34th Street in Gainesville, Florida. It was constructed in 1979 by the Florida Department of Transportation to prevent erosion on the adjoining University of Florida golf course when the road was widened from two to four lanes, necessitating cutting through a small hill.
Added Art uses an existing piece of artwork for its canvas, just as traditional graffiti uses the wall of a building for the canvas. It is essentially the graffiti of artwork. Added Art is a merging of high and low art, using the concepts of graffiti, in a high art environment. Adding to someone else's work has been a very common occurrence in graffiti for decades. In the urban environment, it is typically considered aggressive or antagonistic in nature, but also form of competition. However, it is still considered a taboo in the more established high arts, even though it has been practiced for over fifty years by stalwarts such as Rauschenberg in his Erased de Kooning Drawing. In more recent examples, Banksy has done several added art pieces over Damien Hirst's "spot" painting, and Mat Benote used an untitled work by Robert Morris at the MoMA in NYC as a canvas. A very interesting example was done by the Chapman Brothers, who painted over sketches originally created by Adolf Hitler.
Graffiti in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, is a cause of much disagreement among its residents. Graffiti is seen by some as an art form adding to the Toronto culture; however, others see graffiti as form of vandalism, viewing it as ugly, or as a form of property damage.
Darren Cullen is a London-based professional graffiti artist who is commonly known by the tag name SER. Cullen emerged as an artist from the British graffiti art scene in the early 1980s.
Slave Labour is a mural that was painted by a British graffiti artist, Banksy, on the side wall of a Poundland store in Wood Green, London in May 2012. The artwork is 48 inches (122 cm) high by 60 inches (152 cm) wide, and depicts an urchin child at a sewing machine assembling a bunting of Union Jack patches. The work was a protest against the use of sweatshops to manufacture Diamond Jubilee and London Olympics memorabilia in 2012.
Marcus Rashford is an English professional footballer who plays as a forward for Premier League club Manchester United and the England national team.
Make Everything Great Again was a street art mural by artists Dominykas Čečkauskas and Mindaugas Bonanu. It was located on the wall of the barbecue restaurant Keulė Rūkė in the railway station area of old town of Vilnius in Lithuania.
Rich Simmons is a British pop artist based in London.
The UEFA Euro 2020 final was an association football match between Italy and England that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, England, on 11 July 2021 to determine the winner of UEFA Euro 2020. It was the 16th final of the UEFA European Championship, a quadrennial tournament contested by the senior men's national teams of the member associations of UEFA to decide the champions of Europe. Originally scheduled for 12 July 2020, the match had been postponed along with the rest of the tournament due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Europe.
Well Hung Lover, also called Naked Man Hanging From Window and simply Naked Man, is a mural by the anonymous street artist Banksy, on a wall in Frogmore Street, Bristol, England.
Cofiwch Dryweryn is a graffitied stone wall near Llanrhystud, Ceredigion, Wales. Author and journalist Meic Stephens originally painted the words onto the wall of a ruined cottage in the early 1960s following the decision by the Liverpool City Council to commence the Tryweryn flooding, including the community of Capel Celyn to create the Llyn Celyn reservoir. Due to its prominent location, stark message, and history of repeated vandalism, the wall has become an unofficial landmark of mid Wales. The phrase "Cofiwch Dryweryn" has itself become a prominent political slogan for Welsh nationalism, appearing on T-shirts and banners, and as replica murals.
Many artworks related to the Black Lives Matter movement have been created. These works are either seen as a direct tribute to those who have died or more broadly to the movement. Often the pieces are created in the streets as to be more publicly visible. As such several attempts have been made at preserving the art created in protest on the basis of their artistic merit and cultural significance. Increasingly, the erasure of the artwork has been a problem for preservationists. As such, the artworks below represent a fraction of the works created.
The Black Lives Matter street muralin Indianapolis is a large, colorful mural reading "#BLACKLIVESMATTER", with a raised fist, that 18 artists painted across a downtown roadway in August 2020, as part of the George Floyd protests. The mural is located on Indiana Avenue, the historic hub of the city's Black culture, on the same corner as the Madam C. J. Walker Building.
