What is street art? Who is the street artist? Why is street art a crime?

Since the late 1990s, a distinctive cultural practice has emerged in many cities: street art, involving the placement of uncommissioned artworks in public places. Sometimes regarded as a variant of graffiti, sometimes called a new art movement, its practitioners engage in illicit activities while at the same time the resulting artworks can command high prices at auction and have become collectable aesthetic commodities. Such paradoxical responses show that street art challenges conventional understandings of culture, law, crime and art.

Street Art, Public City: Law, Crime and the Urban Imagination engages with those paradoxes in order to understand how street art reveals new modes of citizenship in the contemporary city. It examines the histories of street art and the motivations of street artists, and the experiences both of making street art and looking at street art in public space. It considers the ways in which street art has become an integral part of the identity of cities such as London, New York, Berlin, and Melbourne, at the same time as street art has become increasingly criminalised. It investigates the implications of street art for conceptions of property and authority, and suggests that street art and the urban imagination can point us towards a different kind of city: the public city.

"Street Art, Public City "will be of interest to readers concerned with art, culture, law, cities and urban space, and also to readers in the fields of legal studies, cultural criminology, urban geography, cultural studies and art more generally.

If you were a graffiti writer in 1980s New York City, you wanted Martha Cooper to document your work-and she probably did. Cooper has spent decades immortalizing art that is often overlooked, and usually illegal. Her first book, 1984's Subway Art (a collaboration with Henry Chalfant), is affectionately referred to by graffiti artists as the "bible". To create Spray Nation, Cooper and editor Roger Gastman pored through hundreds of thousands of 35mm Kodachrome slides, painstakingly selecting and digitizing them. The photos range from obscure tags to portraits, action shots, walls, and painted subway cars. They are accompanied by heartfelt essays celebrating Cooper's drive, spirit, and singular vision. The images capture a gritty New York era that is gone forever. And although the original pieces (as well as many of their creators) have been lost, these powerful photos feel as immediate as a subway train thundering down the tracks.

In three guided tours, Martin Bull documents 65 London street installations by guerilla art icon Banksy. While newspapers and magazines the world over send their critics to review the latest Damien Hirst show at the Tate Modern, Bull is out taking photos of the legendary political artist's work. This collection of provocative and intriguing examples of street art boasts gorgeous color photos and includes graffiti by many of Banksy's peers, such as Eine, Faile, El Chivo, Arofish, Cept, Space Invader, Blek Le Rat, D*face, and Shepherd Fairey. Volume one of this new edition includes updated locations and an additional 25 photos.

"STRAAT Museum allows a wide audience to discover and understand the DNA of graffiti and street art, through an in-depth and unique contextualization perfectly fulfilled in Quote from the streets, its opening exhibition which is reproduced in this catalogue." - Christian Omodeo This catalogue for the new international graffiti and street art museum in Amsterdam, STRAAT, features work created on-site by the greatest artists of today's street art scene. STRAAT - Quote from the Streets tells the story of street art as a full-fledged art movement and explores the evolution of 'art in the street', in addition to the development of the new museum. The catalogue is above all a feast for the eyes, with many full-page images of the best street art talent from around the world.

"It's a must-have art collection gathering dust on the coffee table, and it's just that." - NY Journal of Books on Street Art Today 1 "One of the best books on Street Art" - Amazon.com "It is a beautiful aggregation, and certainly many of these artists have been interviewed and regularly featured on websites and other free cultural outlets like this one providing depth, context, analysis, information, and exposure. Having a hard copy of this collection of fifty in your hand will help freeze this moment for posterity as the scene/s continue to evolve." - brooklynstreetart.com on Street Art Today 1 Going beyond the cliche of street art as artistically responsible graffiti, this Who's Who of the international contemporary street art scene features 50 of the top street artists working today, complete with exclusive interviews. More than a revised edition of Street Art Today (2015), this book offers a completely new and updated roster of artists, and highlights the evolution of street art in all its multi-faceted complexity. Street Art Today is beautifully presented and written, in the main, in straightforward language accessible to all.

This theoretically and empirically grounded book uses case studies of political graffiti in the post-socialist Balkans and Central Europe to explore the use of graffiti as a subversive political media. Despite the increasing global digitisation, graffiti remains widespread and popular, providing with a few words or images a vivid visual indication of cultural conditions, social dynamics and power structures in a society, and provoking a variety of reactions. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as detailed interdisciplinary analyses of "patriotic," extreme-right, soccer-fan, nostalgic, and chauvinist graffiti and street art, it looks at why and by whom graffiti is used as political media and to/against whom it is directed. The book theorises discussions of political graffiti and street art to show different methodological approaches from four perspectives: context, author, the work itself, and audience. It will be of interest to the growing body of literature focussing on (sub)cultural studies in the contemporary Balkans, transitology, visual cultural studies, art theory, anthropology, sociology, and studies of radical politics.

Colossus is the definitive showcase of epic European street art. From Berlin to Barcelona, Budapest to Lisbon it's a visual guide to both the astonishing and the epic. From figurative to abstract, geometric to photo-realistic, all of the major creative executions are covered in the expansive collection. This book is the culmination of years of obsessively keeping up with the explosion of the art form. Featuring QR codes for many of the major European cities, you too will be able to visit the artwork in person.

David Zinn's amazing street drawings are created using chalk, charcoal and found objects, and each extraordinary drawing is only ever temporary. This book preserves Zinn's art in all its colorful, hypnotic glory by collecting together never-before published images of his eye-popping creations. Created over the last two years on streets across the globe, these adorably zany and deceptively three-dimensional characters come to life on manhole covers and streetlamps, village squares and subway platforms. Zinn's most frequent characters are a bright green googly-eyed monster and a phlegmatic flying pig-but the diversity of his menagerie is limited only by the size of the sidewalk and the spirit of the day. In a brief introduction Zinn describes his creative process, explaining how he seeks out everyday imperfections to situate his art-such as sidewalk cracks and chips, tufts of weeds and sewer grates-and brief captions describe the provenance of each work. While these amazing drawings can no longer stop pedestrians in their tracks on the streets, they live on in book form to mesmerize and inspire readers of all ages.

Instafame charts the impact of Instagram--one of the world's most popular social media platforms--on visual culture in the mere eight years since its launch. MacDowell traces the intuitive connections between graffiti, street art, and Instagram, arguing that social media's unending battle for a viewer's attention is closely aligned with eye-catching ethos of unsanctioned public art. Beginning with the observation that the scroll of images on a sideways phone screen resembles nothing so much as graffiti seen through the windows of a moving train, Macdowell moves outward to give us a wide-ranging look at how Instagram has already effected a dramatic shift in the making and viewing of street art.

The Routledge Handbook of Graffiti and Street Art integrates and reviews current scholarship in the field of graffiti and street art. Thirty-seven original contributions are organized around four sections: History, Types, and Writers/Artists of Graffiti and Street Art; Theoretical Explanations of Graffiti and Street Art/Causes of Graffiti and Street Art; Regional/Municipal Variations/Differences of Graffiti and Street Art; and, Effects of Graffiti and Street Art. Chapters are written by experts from different countries throughout the world and their expertise spans the fields of American Studies, Art Theory, Criminology, Criminal justice, Ethnography, Photography, Political Science, Psychology, Sociology, and Visual Communication. The Handbook will be of interest to researchers, instructors, advanced students, libraries, and art gallery and museum curators. This book is also accessible to practitioners and policy makers in the fields of criminal justice, law enforcement, art history, museum studies, tourism studies, and urban studies as well as members of the news media. The Handbook includes 70 images, a glossary, a chronology, and the electronic edition will be widely hyperlinked.

A rare look into the world of contemporary graffiti culture On the sides of buildings, on bridges, billboards, mailboxes, and street signs, and especially in the subway and train tunnels, graffiti covers much of New York City. Love it or hate it, graffiti, from the humble tag to the intricate piece (short for masterpiece), is an undeniable part of the cityscape. In Graffiti Lives, Gregory J. Snyder offers a fascinating and rare look into this world of contemporary graffiti culture. A world in which kids, often, shoplift for spray paint, scale impossibly high places to find a great spot to “get up,” run from the police, journey into underground train tunnels, fight over turf, and spend countless hours perfecting their style. Over the ten years Snyder studied this culture he even created a few works himself (under the moniker “GWIZ”), found himself serving as a lookout for other artists engaged in this illegal activity, spent time in the train tunnels in search of new work, created a blackbook for writers to tag, and took countless photographs to document this world — over sixty included in the book. A combination of amazing “flicks” and exhilarating prose, Graffiti Lives is ultimately an exploration into how graffiti writers define themselves. Snyder details that writers are not bound together by appearance or language or birthplace or class but by what they do. And what they do is reach for fame, painting their names as prominently as they can. What’s more, he discovers that, though many public officials think graffiti writing will only lead to other criminal activity, many graffiti writers have turned their youthful exploits into adult careers—from professional aerosol muralists and fine artists to designers of all kinds, employed in such fields as tattooing, studio art, magazine production, fashion, and guerilla marketing. In fact, some of the artists featured have gone on to international acclaim and to their own gallery shows. Snyder’s illuminating work shows that getting up tags, throw-ups, and pieces on New York City’s walls and subway tunnels can lead to getting out into the city’s competitive professional world. Graffiti Lives details the exciting, risky, and surprisingly rewarding pursuits of contemporary graffiti writers.

Artivism, is becoming a common way of denouncing conflicts, of being a megaphone of the unfairness, demanding more public space or pushing political agendas; in short, to highlight what does not work well. Artivists use art as a weapon of public and social exigency charged with particular doses of shrewdness, inventiveness, imagination, sense of humour and, above all, social impact, either throughout impressive pieces or the most subtle and invisible actions. Navigating through the curiosity, emotion and concern of the new artivists; We walk the paths of a creativity committed to reflection, criticism and the eternal pursuit of social justice.

In this volume, Milnor considers how the fragments of textual graffiti which survive on the walls of the Roman city of Pompeii reflect and refract the literary world from which they emerged. Focusing in particular on the writings which either refer to or quote canonical authors directly, Milnor uncovers the influence- in diction, style, or structure-of elite Latin literature as the Pompeian graffiti show significant connections with familiar authors such as Ovid, Propertius, and Virgil. While previous scholarship has described these fragments as popular distortions of well-known texts, Milnor argues that they are important cultural products in their own right, since they are able to give us insight into how ordinary Romans responded to and sometimes rewrote works of canonical literature. Additionally, since graffiti are at once textual and material artefacts, they give us the opportunity to see how such writings gave meaning to, and were given meaning by, the ancient urban environment. Ultimately, the volume looks in detail at the role and nature of 'popular' literature in the early Roman Empire and the place of poetry in the Pompeian cityscape.

Whether it takes the form of ephemeral graffiti or great frescoes--mural paintings are the ultimate freedom of expression, an ancient craft that reflects all the whispers and cries of our world. From Philadelphia to Johannesburg, from Santiago de Chile to Jerusalem, from Mumbai to Gdansk, the walls of our cities show all the doubts, fears, fights, violence, and hope for a better world with more equality. This photographic project, presented with music from all over the world, testifies to our history and reveals that the concerns of men are similar from one end of our planet to the other.

A celebration of the creativity of graffiti artists from all over the world. Ever controversial, graffiti or street art has become a significant art form and continues to evolve and transform urban landscapes in cities around the globe. Compiled by an insider on the New York graffiti scene, KET, this is a collection of the work of some of the world's top graffiti artists. Showcases work from artists such as Banksy (London), Can2 (Munich), T-Kid (New York), Os Gemeos (Sao Paolo) and many more. Graffiti Planet is a perfect companion to this dynamic and vibrant art form.

Graffiti writing was born in the streets of Philadelphia in the late 1960s. But it was in New York in the early 1970s that it became a full-fledged urban art, gradually taking over the landscape of the city, from its walls to its subway cars. In these years when this art form was emerging, graffiti pioneers laid its foundations through the constant game they played with the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, which they distorted and highlighted in the tags that they painted on walls. In the first section of this book, Woshe recounts the incredible story of the birth of this culture. He then offers us a detailed examination of the twenty-six letters of the alphabet, their structure and the ways in which graffiti writers have made them evolve. This study is enriched with a wealth of illustrations and examples of the customizations that artists add to their letters. At the end of the volume, ten of the international scene's most talented graffiti creators answer Woshe's questions about matters that include their practice, their relationship with letters and their backgrounds. Interviews to: BATES (Copenhague, Denmark); DARCO (Paris, France); DEMS (Elche, Spain); GESER (Connecticut USA); JURNE (Oakland, CA, USA); LOKISS (Paris, France); SERCH (Zwolle, The Netherlands); SWET (Copenhague, Denmark); SYE (New Yor, NY, USA); ZOER (Grasse, France). This is a writing manual, an inspiring collection of ideas and a beautiful book on the world of graffiti, but above all it is a declaration of love for this culture that mixes urban performance and mastery of letters. It includes a map of New York with the sites where the most important graffiti are located.

This book explores how copyright laws are perceived within street art and graffiti subcultures to examine how artists and writers view certain creative aspects of their own practice. Drawing on ethnographic research and fieldwork, the book gives voice to the main actors of these communities and highlights their feelings and opinions toward issues that are increasingly impacting their everyday life and work. It also touches on related and complementary issues, such as the 'gallerisation' or economic exploitation of these forms of art and the curious similarities between the graffiti and advertising worlds. Unique and comprehensive, Copyright on the Street brings the 'voice from the street' into the debate over the legal and non-legal protection of street art and graffiti.

This book explores how copyright laws are perceived within street art and graffiti subcultures to examine how artists and writers view certain creative aspects of their own practice. Drawing on ethnographic research and fieldwork, the book gives voice to the main actors of these communities and highlights their feelings and opinions toward issues that are increasingly impacting their everyday life and work. It also touches on related and complementary issues, such as the 'gallerisation' or economic exploitation of these forms of art and the curious similarities between the graffiti and advertising worlds. Unique and comprehensive, Copyright on the Street brings the 'voice from the street' into the debate over the legal and non-legal protection of street art and graffiti.

For the very first time an overview is published featuring the works of Belgium's finest street art and graffiti artists. Belgian Street Art Today contains a selection of works made by 50 selected artists, such as Roa, Djoels, Dzia, Jaune, Mata One, 2 Dirty, Bue The Warrior, Joachim, Zenith... Some of these artists are working around the globe and have received international acclaim; a few of them are even represented by prestigious art galleries abroad. The selection is preceded by a brief history of street art and a never-before-published comprehensive overview of street art projects and street art and graffiti walks in Belgium. Therefore this book is a must-have for art lovers looking for insider tips and unique experiences. For more than two years, photographer Vincent Willems crisscrossed Belgium in search of the most spectacular interventions and murals, a passion culminating in this stunning book.

Following the runaway success of the original edition, this unique book collects the rest of Banksy's graffiti from the last five years. With more than 100 different locations highlighted and color photographs of Banksy's street art, this is a thoroughly up-to-date catalog of his most recent work. Also included with the photographs are trivia regarding each location, a full walking tour of the remaining work in Banksy's native Bristol, and snippets of graffiti by several other artists.

"Although the street art is generally conveyed in a very natural matter, even his dead animal paintings seem at peace." - Streetartbio.com "Detached from the artist's identity, his detailed, illustrative animal paintings have brought him back to the world. With local species of animals as his main focus, ROA inevitably starts a dialogue about human interaction with nature and the environment, whether it is painting on the walls of a museum or in an abandoned rural factory." - Hi Fructose - The New Contemporary Magazine "One of the most influential acts of street art around the world." - The Huffington Post Fascinated by nature, the anonymous muralist and street artist ROA is inspired by the beauty of its non-human inhabitants. With great attention to detail, ROA draws over-sized black and white creatures of endemic or endangered species on buildings around the world, from Moscow to Mexico City, and from Los Angeles to London. His subjects are frequently survivors; scavengers, rodents, and unusual animals that thrive in their particular milieu.

In this collection of photographs taken in over 36 countries, Christer Loefgren explores the international art of graffiti and wall paintings. From his base in Stockholm, Sweden, Loefgren travels to places where street art can be found, including places like the Antarctic, Greenland, and Svalbard, where you may not expect to see it. The book addresses the current duality of opinion about street art: it is still viewed as a criminal act in many places, and yet at the same time it is accepted as a valid and important art form. It crosses boundaries to unite communities all around the world. Organised in two sections, the first section of this book explores the methods and motivations behind the work, while the second section focuses on street art in specific countries around the world.

"We could have been called a lot of things: brazen vandals, scared kids, threats to social order, self-obsessed egomaniacs, marginalized youth, outsider artists, trend setters, and thrill seekers. But, to me, we were just regular kids growing up hard in America and making the city our own. Being 'writers' gave us something to live for and 'going all city' gave us something to strive for; and for some of my friends it was something to die for." In the age of Banksy, hipster street art, and commissioned wall murals, it's easy to forget graffiti's complicated and often violent past in the United States. Though graffiti has become one of the most influential art forms of the twenty-first century, cities across the United States waged a war against it from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, complete with brutal police task forces. Who were the much-maligned taggers they targeted? Teenagers, usually, from low-income neighborhoods with little to their names except a few spray cans and a desperate need to be seen--to mark their presence on city walls and buildings even as their cities turned a blind eye to them. Going All City is the mesmerizing and painful story of these young graffiti writers, told by one of their own. Prolific LA writer Stefano Bloch came of age in the late 1990s amid constant violence, poverty, and vulnerability. He recounts vicious interactions with police; debating whether to take undocumented friends with gunshot wounds to the hospital; coping with his mother's heroin addiction; instability and homelessness; and his dread that his stepfather would get out of jail and tip his unstable life into full-blown chaos. But he also recalls moments of peace and exhilaration: marking a fresh tag; the thrill of running with his crew at night; exploring the secret landscape of LA; the dream and success of going all city. Bloch holds nothing back in this fierce, poignant memoir. Going All City is an unflinching portrait of a deeply maligned subculture and an unforgettable account of what writing on city walls means to the most vulnerable people living within them.