The Wake

If you’ve been to Berlin, you know the colorful swirling forms a city can take. Germany’s capital is saturated in spray-paint expression, and even remnants of the Berlin Wall reflect the city’s “bombing” culture. Graffiti runs free.

Further west, individuals like Bristol-born Banksy have begun to complicate graffiti’s contested reputation even more. Banksy’s identity remains unclear, but his cheeky stencil art has gained worldwide fame. A snarky, skulking rat is his trademark, along with subversive images like a child fishing for hypodermic needles. While Banksy’s art suggests a message and a desire for anonymity, he has begun to sell indoor versions and hold elaborate exhibitions in places like London and Los Angeles. Banksy is just one example of how graffiti can represent both public space and personal sentiment.

For now, the streets of Minneapolis are blander than those in Berlin, but we can boast about a few standout individuals. Regardless of eager patrons or antigraffiti ordinances, Minneapolis graffiti artist 27 (or Deuce Seven) believes that “graffiti is going to be around until the sun collapses into the earth.”

Deuce Seven’s favorite things to cover are the train cars he hops. “I could write a novel on what draws me into trains, but for now I’ll just say that it’s a mystical experience that feels like a dream when I’m creating a rolling canvas for North America,” he says. He is inspired by “love and music” and says that “clean fresh air and warm sunlight, in a new town with new faces, gets me real stoked.”

Twenty-Seven’s paintings are intricate and fantastical, full of spindly-legged creatures that would make a killer children’s book. He “wanted to do something totally different that anyone can enjoy, especially younger kids.” He says he likes “the way characters look painted on buildings in random places; it really stands out from the everyday bullshit we have to look at.”

Like Banksy, 27 is not only interested in outdoor art. “I have a new friend in Seattle that is amazing at pinstriping and sign art. We are going to collaborate with each other and do shows together out there at a space in the Pike Place Market.” In Minneapolis, you can see his indoor work on display at Art Minion, or at Soo Visual Arts Center this January.

According to 27, “once in awhile something cool pops up” in Minneapolis, “but nobody really crushes here like they do in Europe, NYC and LA.” Yet the city has no shortage of community-supported murals. Intermedia Arts commissions kids to spray paint their walls, and Marilyn Lindstrom has created several murals and mosaics in collaboration with youth and community organizations. The Lyndale-Lake
area is especially vibrant. Around the 12th and 13th Avenue blocks of Lake Street you can find numerous painted exteriors (New York Plaza Produce, St. Vincent de Paul Thrift Store) that combine themes from many lives. It’s all right here if you look around.