Once upon a time, the River City had a reputation as something of a street art and graffiti mecca. That was way
back in 2000 when
Paint Louis was happening and some of the coolest cats to ever shake a can of spray paint made pilgrimages to the city to write their names wild-style on the massive flood wall that runs along the Mississippi River near Chouteau Avenue.
The city canceled the event when tags appeared unsolicited on nearby
businesses and warehouses. In the following years, grass grew unchecked
by the wall and irreplaceable works of art by the likes of
Zephyr were mangled by amateur
taggers. Meanwhile, thanks to
Banksy
and other incredible stencil artists, street art went worldwide,
leaving St. Louis as little more than a distant afterthought in the
burgeoning global scene.
But that doesn't mean quality work from local artists stopped happening.
In fact, thanks to stencil master
Peat
Wollaeger and other dedicated individuals, the 314 is again gaining
notoriety for the innovative and impressive pieces of guerrilla art that
add many shades of color to our otherwise monochromatic brick city.
In
honor of Banksy's film "
Exit
Through the Gift Shop" opening today at the Tivoli and the graffiti
competition going down
tomorrow at 2720
Cherokee, here are ten of our favorite images, mostly pulled from
the
St. Louis Street
Art Flickr Pool.
 |
| via Flickr |
| Peat Wollaeger's "Blaster Head" is a mind blower. |
The incomparable Redd Foxx (aka Ed Box) was named
Best
Graffiti Artist by the
RFT last year for burners like this one.
"Get Up, Get God" is a recurring phrase in his art.
You Go Girl has to be one of the best tag names of all-time. Keep an eye out and you'll see his/her pieces all over the city. This one came from the Near North Riverfront:
Justin Tolentino is known more for his dark caricatures painted on canvas and screen-printed on t-shirts but his owl on a garage door on South Broadway near Chouteau's Landing is one of the most visible pieces in the city. It's been painted over a bit recently but this image captures it in its prime:
A piece obviously inspired by Banksy on the Metropolitan building in Grand Center:
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