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Atlanta Embracing Graffiti Artists

Atlanta BeltLine Embraces Graffiti Artists Amid Changing Urban Landscape

As graffiti morphs from real estate blight to urban amenity, Atlanta’s style writers are driving forces in a conversation about public art.

By Brentin Mock
bloomberg.com (Link to original)
Jun 01, 2024 01:15

The graffiti-slathered Krog Street Tunnel exists at a collision between old and new Atlanta. On one end, its entrance sits blocks away from the Sweet Auburn district, birthplace of civil rights legend Martin Luther King, Jr. and the site of his tomb. On the other end are Cabbagetown, once home to mill workers, and Reynoldstown, founded by formerly enslaved African Americans, both of which have undergone dramatic neighborhood change.

SF 2023 State of Graffiti Tagging

How SF is aiding businesses clean persistent graffiti
SF Examiner (Link, with maps and graphs)

A parklet, a storefront, a billboard.

Graffiti pops up across The City seemingly as fast as it’s removed.

The City launched a pilot program to help businesses clean up graffiti last November in a press conference that featured Mayor London Breed painting over graffiti scrawled over a vacant brewery in the Inner Sunset.

Less than a year later, graffiti still abounds in not only the Inner Sunset but other San Francisco neighborhoods as well.

The $2 million “courtesy graffiti abatement” program was funded for a second consecutive year in The City budget adopted by legislators and signed by Breed last month. It employs workers who will…

An Aerosol Pollution Long Read

Aerosol pollution: Destabilizing Earth’s climate and a threat to health

by Conrad Fox on 3 March 2022
Mongabay (direct link, with photos and schematic)

• Aerosols are fine particulates that float in the atmosphere. Many are natural, but those haven’t increased or decreased much over the centuries. But human-caused aerosols — emitted from smokestacks, car exhausts, wildfires, and even clothes dryers — have increased rapidly, largely in step with greenhouse gases responsible for climate change.
• Aerosol pollution kills 4.2 million people annually, 200,000 in the U.S. alone. So curbing them rapidly makes sense. However, there’s…

Street Art Copyrights and Suing Car Companies

Life in The Fast Lane: How Urban Car Ads Depicting 'Street Art' Can Backfire

Article By:

David Halberstadter
National Law Review, Volume XII, Number 27

Vehicle manufactures and their ad agencies really love to show off their driving machines in action. Television commercials depict sturdy, reliable trucks hauling tons of cargo; four-wheel drive SUVs navigating perilous terrain in extreme weather conditions; and sleek sedans cruising through cityscapes of gleaming skyscrapers and funky urban streets.

It is on the funky urban streets where car manufacturers can sometimes steer in the wrong direction. Their commercials often feature street scenes that may include recognizable landmarks, historic buildings, public art installations like sculptures and wall murals, and even distinctive graffiti.…

Banksy Loses More Copyrights to His Art

World Trademark Review (LINK)

“This is a case about intention”: Banksy’s trademark troubles continue as EUIPO invalidates four more marks

• The EUIPO Cancellation Division upholds four invalidation applications
• Hits out at artist’s efforts “to circumvent the law” through evidence of use
• Dispute with Full Colour Black has resulted in six cancellations, one case pending

The EUIPO Cancellation Division has declared four of street artist Banksy’s trademarks invalid, hitting out at his efforts “to circumvent the…

KAVES Sues NYPD for Buffing His Wall

Renowned graffiti artist sues NYPD for painting over his street art

By NOAH GOLDBERG

NEW YORK DAILY NEWS (LINK)

JUN 01, 2021 AT 5:11 PM

A well-known graffiti artist is suing the NYPD for painting over his street mural, arguing that the police department’s recent citywide clean-up mission “endangers hundreds of valuable, recognized, and permitted artworks.”

Michael McLeer, 51, who also goes by Michael Kaves, filed his lawsuit as a class action, asking that other street artists join him in his battle against the paint police.

“Using an undiscerning eye and an obtuse brush, the untrained crew went out to blot out art from street canvases,” wrote McLeer and his lawyers in the suit filed Tuesday in Brooklyn Federal Court…

Vatican Sued for Stealing Street Art

Street artist sues Vatican for using Christ image on Easter stamp: 'I couldn’t believe it'

Nicole Winfield
Associated Press (LINK, with photos)

ROME – One night in early 2019, Rome street artist Alessia Babrow glued a stylized image of Christ she had made onto a bridge near the Vatican. A year later, she was shocked to learn that the Vatican had apparently used a reproduction of the image, which featured Babrow’s hallmark heart emblazoned across Christ’s chest, as its 2020 Easter postage stamp.

Babrow sued the Vatican city-state’s telecommunications office in a Rome court last month, alleging it was wrongfully profiting off her creativity and violating the intent of her artwork. The lawsuit, which is seeking nearly 130,000 euros ($160,000) in damages, said the Vatican…

Copyright Aspects of Street Art and Graffiti

Brooklyn Street Art (BSA) WRITER’S BENCH : “STREET ART AND GRAFFITI: THE ROLE OF COPYRIGHT” BY ENRICO BONADIO
May 4, 2021
DIRECT LINK

PHOTO: Banksy's works are frequently taken off walls, resold, etc. - all with questionable provenance. This original in San Francisco was taken off a wall and its "ownership" is still not clear beyond the fact that the artist will not authenticate the provenance.

Like graffiti writers sharing black books and styles, BSA Writer’s Bench presents today’s greatest thinkers in an OpEd column. Scholars, historians, academics, authors, artists,…

Banksy Has Legal Troubles

Banksy trademark 'at risk' after street artist loses legal battle
Anonymous artist loses case against greeting card firm over use of Flower Thrower mural

The Guardian UK
Lanre Bakare Arts and culture correspondent
Thu 17 Sep 2020 10.21 BST
Last modified on Thu 17 Sep 2020 11.31 BST

Banksy’s trademark may be at risk after the street artist lost a case that an EU panel said was brought in bad faith and was undermined by a gift shop he set up in London last year.

Banksy lost the…

2nd Circuit Upholds VARA, and 5Pointz Decision

A Stunning Legal Decision Just Upheld a $6.75 Million Victory for the Street Artists Whose Works Were Destroyed at the 5Pointz Graffiti Mecca

The ruling shuts down the defendant's claims on practically every count.

Eileen Kinsella, February 20, 2020
Artnet.com article here

In a sweeping 32-page decision eviscerating the legal arguments of a disgruntled Queens real estate developer, a US Appeals Court affirmed the rights and monetary damages awarded to a group of graffiti artists whose works were destroyed without warning or consent in 2013.

The artists sued the developer, Gerald Wolkoff, in 2013 for violating their rights after he whitewashed their work at the famous 5Pointz graffiti art mecca in New York to make way for…