50 Pieces Of “Vandalism” That Only Make Cities More Interesting, As Shared On This Online Group

The subreddit's title is r/Graffiti, but those with a keen eye will probably notice that many entries on this list are, perhaps, more like pieces of street art than graffiti. What's the difference between the two, you ask?

Columbia University explains the differences. For one, graffiti is word-based, while street art is image-based. Street art is also often commissioned or painted with permission.

Apparently, even the artists sometimes conflate the two and use the terms interchangeably. Lois Stavsky, curator of StreetArtNYC, explains it in more detail: "Graffiti predates street art, and street art draws its inspiration from graffiti." Graffiti artists are most often self-taught.

It's also highly personal – writers use their 'tags' to brand their works. It's also often illegal, but that's where the rebel element of being a graffiti artist comes from. Street artists are often people who have received formal training.

Graffiti artist Richard September writes in his blog that the difference is also in the audience that the artist is trying to reach. He claims that graffiti artists create their pieces to gain respect and admiration from other graffiti artists. Street artists, on the other hand, use words, images, and symbols to create pieces they hope the public will appreciate.

There are also legal differences, some of which we already discussed above. But let's use some examples: a work of street art could be a mural that the building's owner asked the artist to paint. Graffiti artists "tag their names in public spaces, mostly without permission," September writes. That includes paintings on trains, walls, bridges, etc.

Bored Panda spoke to a graffiti artist and asked him how he chooses the locations for his work. He says that the main thing to consider is how much space is available for the piece.

"I might do a five-letter piece and maybe a character if I have a lot of space to work with," Uzio tells us. "If I don't, I may just do a four-letter piece or just a character. Size plays a big role [in] how big or small your work is on a wall. And if there's a theme at that certain wall, I will follow that theme with my work."

Although Uzio considers himself a graffiti artist, he doesn't do any illegal art pieces. "I mainly do my work legally or [in] places that are secret or no one cares about. So I haven't really had conflicts with authorities yet." 

"But I haven't really [been] doing the spray paint side of graffiti for very long, so [I] haven't experienced it all as of yet," the artist admits. "As, at first, I started in the books, drawing on paper for a few years."

You might think: "Then it's not really graffiti, is it? Where's the spice, where's the illegality?" Well, the answer is much more complicated than that. Nowadays, the line between graffiti and street art is often blurry. And some artists might not have a rebellious streak – they just like the art form itself. Some artists choose to do street art illegally, like Banksy and Miss.Tic.

Let's take Banksy as an example of how complicated this whole thing is. Some describe him as a street artist, some as a graffiti artist. His pieces always appear in places without permission, so that should disqualify him from being a street artist, right? Not really. The whole point of his works is to provoke a response from the public, and that's not usually the aim of graffiti artists. 

Apparently, some graffiti artists also tend to dislike Banksy because of his style. He mainly uses stencils, and some graffiti artists consider that to be a lazy technique. "Simply spraying the back of a stencil cut out isn’t considered skillful in graffiti culture, as it requires no can control – so 'true' graffiti artists tend to avoid this style," September writes in his blog.

Now, in 2024, graffiti doesn't seem like such a rebellious act, does it? We see it in mainstream branding and advertising (think Shepard Fairey and his OBEY clothing company) all the time. That's why graffiti artists often work with branding and advertising agencies who are looking for fresh and edgy ways to capture their audience's attention.

A veteran graffiti artist, CRASH, believes that although the art form is becoming more and more mainstream, the exposure has more positives than negatives. "Facebook and Instagram really changed the game because it gives everyone the opportunity to see something that they normally wouldn't see," CRASH told Tango Hotel.

"If I had painted a wall somewhere in 1980, only the local people would know about it. Today, I could do something in Singapore, and someone in the Bronx, or New Jersey, or California could see it. It opens up the world and makes it smaller in a way, which I think is great because it's all about the conversation."

The artist also doesn't think that graffiti has lost its rebellious trait. "I've been doing [graffiti] for almost 40 years. I don't think it has lost its identity. I think it's become more mainstream, but it still has an edge. We still have issues getting into museums because of what we do, so that rebellious nature that's in the artwork holds us back a little, but also gives us the opportunity to say things that [we] couldn't say."