Since 2002 (updated often), your old-school website for all things stencils. Photo, video, links, and exhibit info submissions always welcome. Enjoy and stay curious.

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Did U Miss Us? Today's fun: EU zones A-Zed

Submitted by russell on
UK London Brick Lane cooljc Punks Not Dead ph BeneRegoef
Brick Lane, UK :: art: cooljc_art :: photo: BeneRegoef

We've been caught up in the CELLspace PopUp exhibit planning, but the stencils still keep showing up around the world. Today, take a stroll over the Euro zones:

Thanks to BeneRegoef, Louniki, and all you socials uploaders who put locations on your pics!

Stencil Archive News

CELLspace PopUp, 22 Aug to 10 Sep 2025

Submitted by russell on
CELLspace PopUp

 

The CELLspace PopUp exhibit, the first time there has been a CELL exhibit outside of the 2050 Bryant Street warehouse space, has classic murals and new art from CELL. The stencil artists include: Scott Williams, Icy & Sot, Regan Tamanui, Peat EYEZ, Russell Howze, and James Sellier (RIP). Sellier's 2009 Stencilada panel didn't completely survive in years of storage, but co-curator Jonathan Youtt trimmed off the rotten part and will set it up to hang on the wall with the rest of the surviving mural art. 

In the Galleries
Stencil Archive News

Reading the Illegible: Can Law Understand Graffiti?

Submitted by russell on

Reading the Illegible: Can Law Understand Graffiti? 
Authors Katya Assaf-Zakharov and Tim Schnetgoke 
Document Type Article (DOWNLOAD)
From DigitalCommons (via Connecticut Law Review)
Disciplines Cultural Heritage Law | Property Law and Real Estate 

Abstract 

This essay focuses on graffiti—the practice of illegal writing and painting on trains, walls, bridges, and other publicly visible surfaces. 

Social responses to graffiti are highly ambivalent. On the one hand, media often picture graffiti painters as “vandals” and “hooligans.” Local authorities define graffiti as an “epidemic” and declare “wars on graffiti.” On the other hand, graffiti is recognized as a valuable form of art, exhibited in mainstream museums sold for high prices. Reflecting the ambivalent social attitude, the legal treatment of graffiti is highly uneven, punishing some graffiti writers for vandalism while granting copyright protection to others. 

Scholars have made various suggestions regarding the legal regulation of graffiti, ranging from toughening the criminal sanctions to providing more legalized spaces and art programs for the painters. Yet to date, no attempt has been undertaken to understand the dissenting message of graffiti and to consider an adequate legal response to this message. As Jean Baudrillard suggested, the subtle message of graffiti “must be heard and understood.” Doing this, in the legal sphere, is the central goal of this essay. Instead of suppressing or manipulating graffiti, we propose to answer its message with redefining the boundaries of physical property so as to restrict owners’ control over surfaces that shape our urban landscape. These surfaces will then be used as a medium of free visual expression, creating a public “forum” in its classical sense: a place of discussion, opinion exchange, and purely aesthetic expression. 

Recommended Citation 
Assaf-Zakharov, Katya and Schnetgoke, Tim, "Reading the Illegible: Can Law Understand Graffiti?" (2021). Connecticut Law Review. 465. https://digitalcommons.lib.uconn.edu/law_review/465

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