Khi nghệ thuật đường phố chuyển từ chướng mắt sang tiện nghi

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Julian Phethean’s first canvas in London was a shed in his backyard where he covered the walls with bold lettering in spray paint. When he moved his art to the city’s streets in the 1980s, it was largely unwelcome — and he was even arrested a few times.

These days, the canvases come to Mr. Phethean, better known as the muralist Mr Cenz. Recent facades, which he shares with his sizable following, have included an abstract mural (bức tranh tường trừu tượng) on a Tesla showroom and a portrait of Biggie Smalls, sponsored by Pepsi Max.

The gallery world took note, but it was social media and the fame of artists like Banksy, Vhils and Lady Pink that propelled it to a wider audience (đối tượng rộng hơn). What followed was a movement that experts say has been reproduced from Australia to Argentina, as street art added to a neighborhood’s cultural cachet (dấu ấn văn hóa).

Take Shoreditch in east London as an example: Decades ago, developers deemed it a run-down industrial area. Still, it was a sanctuary for artists who made use of cheap rents to build a creative enclave.

For investors, backing buildings in these districts is paying off. In Shoreditch, leasing a prime work space cost about $90 per square foot in the last quarter of 2023, according to CBRE, 112 percent higher than the same quarter in 2008. Rents in the City of London, the financial district, increased 40 percent in the same period.

The asking price for office leases in Wynwood was about $80 per square foot in the fourth quarter of 2023, 83 percent higher than the average in Miami-Dade County, according to Colliers.

Aware of the tensions, businesses have started charitable arms that their commercial projects (dự án thương mại) help fund. Some, like Global Street Art, paint murals in local neighborhoods. Others, like Basa Studio, say they want to help artists get paid fairly for their contributions.

But places like Shoreditch have already lost their edge as they have turned mainstream (trở thành xu hướng chủ đạo), Ms. Haslem of Streetsense, the consulting agency, said. “The risk in commodifying or commercializing some of this graffiti is you end up sanitizing it,” she said.

source: nytimes,