art oakland

The Community of Manitowoc has spoken. The Budweiser Beer Bottles will be saved. A massive advertisement somehow avoided any Manitowoc signage laws for over 30 years and when the ad came under threat of removal when the plant was bought by another company, the neighborhood rose up to protect the beer bottles. Advertising always seems to have an easier ride than murals. It can be mass produced. It is paid for by large corporations with deep pockets. They don’t seem…

A consistent challenge that muralists, aerosol writers and “street artists” face if we are concerned with the impact and integrity of the work. On one hand, the bureaucracy, low-budgets of the projects, and city mandated approval processes significantly hinder our ability to significantly build in the communities that we are painting. Unless a community design process is funded to support the artist, we often have to take on these responsibilities on our own. It is extremely difficult for “local” muralists…

CRP has already discussed the recent destruction of the mural in Atlanta’s Pittsburgh neighborhood from the perspective of community engagement.  Living Walls’ process for talking to the neighbors may been lacking to say the least. But the final point that may lead to the ultimate destruction of this wall is not their fault. Living Walls jumped through all sorts of hoops to get this mural approved. This articles shows that the mural was signed off on by three different agencies…

The Drama in the Pittsburgh neighborhood in Atlanta continues. This report shows that the battle did not end with the community painting over Roti’s mural. Instead, mural supporters backed by the Georgia Department of Transportation came back and scrubbed the paint off of the mural in an attempt to restore it. This is a powerful statement for the art and the dialogue that this creates. We wish that the buffers would be this responsive when they destroy landmarks and other…

This mural in southwest Atlanta has caused a major controversy. On one hand, the local former councilperson, Doug Dean, got together with members of the local community and erased a mural without going through any of the proper channels. As activists for mural protections, we advocate for the protection of murals and invoke the federal VARA act that requires that the artist be notified and compensated for any damages done her/his artwork. Its a bold statement when a former legislator…

Graffiti removal and traditional abatement strategies have already proven to ineffective and not cost efficient. The scandal in Burbank exposes how private abatement contractors have abused the system even further. A graffiti-removal worker was arrested for allegedly tagging various locations in Burbank and then fraudulently billing the city to remove the same tags, police said today. (Flickr) Enrique Medrano, 53, was arrested on Thursday and was booked on suspicion of vandalism, burglary, and forgery, Burbank police Sgt. Darin Ryburn said. “Medrano was employed by…

We just got a phone call from our partner Martin telling us that some of our murals were in Mister F.A.B.’s new video, “Generation Lost.” We had no idea that we had literally filmed almost half of the video in front of the Madre Maiz mural that we did on People’s Grocery earlier this year. For anyone who has been living under a rock for the past 15 years, Mister F.A.B. is a legend in Bay Area hip-hop. Notorious for…