Street Art Conference in Gaeta

Today and tomorrow will take place in Gaeta a Street Art Conference where art bloggers, art critics, art historians, curators and I as art lawyer will discuss on street art. The Conference is part of Memorie Urbane street art festival that for the second year is invading two beautiful cities as Gaeta and Terracina.

Street artists as Lucamaleonte, Martina Merlini,Sam3, Faith47 and Daleast, just to name few, are realizing their amazing works in many points of the cities on the coast near Rome.

You can find more information here

Art v Law in Singapore

Widely reported in the last week is the arrest of Singaporean street artist Samantha Lo, known as SKL0 or the Sticker Lady.

Lo is said to be responsible for stickers which started appearing around Singapore, on traffic light buttons carrying slogans including "Press for good luck" "No need to press so hard"  "Press some more", as well as for spray painting slogans on roads.  

Singaporean police investigated the stickers and spray-painted slogans after the same were reported by the Land Transport Authority, identified SKL0 as the culprit, and arrested her for vandalism.

Under Singapore's Vandalism Act, a person who is convicted of vandalism shall be punished with a fine not exceeding $2,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding to 3 years and shall be liable to caning subjected to the Criminal Procedure Code 2010 – although, Lo could not be receive the latter penalty as corporal punishment is prohibited for women.

An online petition has been set up (here) which calls for:

• the Ministry of Home Affairs to downgrade the charges against Lo to a more minor offence (with a lesser penalty);
• the Ministry of Communication and the Arts to recognise SKL0's work as art not vandalism; and
• the Ministry of Education to address how they can claim to expand the arts education in Singapore while allowing arrests of public art, and what message they are sending in their arts education.

Obviously it seems harsh, particularly in light of all the street art we see in London, Europe and the US, for Lo to be liable for imprisonment.  It also does not appear to be disputed that Lo was seeking to be artistic, rather than to vandalise Singapore's public places. On the other hand, Singapore's harsh laws are well-known. Lo would clearly have been aware of the position in which she was putting herself and accepted the risks. Some might question the wisdom of pitting art against the law in a country like Singapore.  

Source: The Guardian, Huffington Post

Street Artists Fight Back

A Los Angeles based arts organistion, L.A. Art Machine, and three California artists, Mear One, Chor Boogie, and Shark Toof, are reported to have brought a claim in the US federal court against Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG) and the Ritz-Carlton Residences at L.A. Live, owned by AEG, for destroying $100,000 of their artwork.


In a press release from Zohar Law Firm, P.C., representing the claimants, it is said that the artwork had been loaned to AEG and the Ritz-Carlton Residences for a high-end promotional event held by AEG at the luxury condos located at L.A. Live in conjunction with the 2011 Los Angeles Art Show, but instead of being returned to the artists, the work was dismantled and discarded.

The release continues:

"Part of the event was curated by Bryson Strauss, an internationally-recognized gallery and museum curator and director of the L.A. Art Machine, a community-based arts organization. Mr. Strauss was to supply fine artwork for the real estate marketing event on January 19, 2011, designed to attract potential buyers to the Ritz-Carlton Residences’ multi-million dollar penthouse suite, which remained unsold at the time. Mr. Strauss brought in several famed artists who provided their works for display at the event, including Shepard Fairey, creator of the Barack Obama "Hope" poster, and three critically-acclaimed street artists: Mear One, Chor Boogie and Shark Toof. Other featured artworks at the event were by legendary photojournalist Henri Cartier-Bresson, David LaChapelle, and Garret Suhrie. Following the successful party and the sale of Mr. Fairey's works (which were then removed), AEG asked that Mear One, Chor Boogie and Shark Toof continue displaying their artwork because the penthouse would be shown to more potential buyers in the future. The artists agreed, but on condition that their multiple pieces of artwork eventually had to be returned, and had to be professionally de-installed under the supervision of L.A. Art Machine.

However, several months later, after Mr. Strauss and the artists had already made arrangements with AEG to retrieve the artwork, they were told that the artwork had been ordered removed by AEG and then disposed of as part of a routine cleanup."

Daniel Y. Zohar from Zohar Law says:

"What AEG did was in violation not only of my clients’ economic rights, but a violation of their moral rights as defined by federal and state law…

These renowned artists had agreed to show their artwork at the Ritz-Carlton Residences to help AEG attract affluent potential clientele to their vacant, multi-million dollar condos. Yet in return, their valuable art was coldly destroyed…

My clients were shocked by this admission and expected an apology, as well as payment for their artwork. AEG offered neither…

Apparently they thought my clients lacked the resources and courage to take on such an influential and powerful business. They were wrong."

It will be interesting to get hold of the Complaint and see what the defendants' response will be. If the facts are indeed as stated, it seems outrageous that artworks from these well-known artists were so thoughtlessly destroyed.

Source: Enhanced Online News, 14 November 2011

Has Run DMC been Brainwashed?

Friedman's original mid-eighties photograph

Thierry Guetta (AKA Mr Brainwash), rushed to fame thanks to Banksy’s Oscar nominated Exit Through the Gift Shop. Rumours abounded at the time as to whether or not he was a real artist or a Banksy hoax. Such rumours have now largely been quashed and Mr Brainwash has been established as a prominent street artist in his own right.

In fact, one of best claims to Mr Brainwash being a real person is that he has recently been sued by Glen Friedman, the photographer behind a mid eighties Run DMC photograph which Mr Brainwash uses in several of his works.

Black and white brainwashing - fair use?

Full colour stencilled brainwashing - is this use fair?

Friedman is reportedly claiming a share of “indirect profits” from a 2008 exhibition in addition to unspecified damages for, amongst other things, loss of business and dilution of the value of the copyrights.

Mr Brainwash doesn’t deny use of the photograph but claims that the use falls within US federal law’s “fair use” exception to copyright infringement claims. This exception apparently allows for the limited reproduction of copyrighted works for creative ends.

As street art becomes both more lucrative and more mainstream it is likely that such copyright cases will increase, particularly as this is an area where the detachment from traditional art has arguably led to a more infringement orientated creative approach where sampling parts of previous works is prevalent.