The once coveted secrecy of graffiti artists has shifted to a public area in recent times due to the popularity of artists from Keith Haring, Banksy or Shepard Fairey.
However, a debate looms regarding the ideals of graffiti being skewed when the artwork appears on the walls of galleries instead of the within the nooks and crannies of a city.
Does street art hold the same appeal and rebellious nature within the gallery or museum cube?
It is with a dash of irony that in our current civilization we frown upon the outdoor artworks of graffiti considering cave drawings were the first form of art.
Of course, we developed as a society in creating artwork on pottery, frescoes on walls, and large scale murals while graffiti developed into the sub-culture of rebellious art. We grew to resent the governments we established or the parental eyes over us and started to express ourselves on outside walls.
Street art is the fringe of society commenting on the status of the “mainstream” world. Some create to break the law while others create beautiful pieces of artwork as a conscious dialogue meant to transcend conventional thought.
Street artists choose from a wide variety of topics, and in Richmond, VA one artist uses street art as an answer to the bold commercialism and marketing he feels everyone is exposed to without consent.
Evoking graffiti as a series of experiences akin to the daily commute or traveling, Eric Pfeiffer addresses our unconscious exposure to the numerous outlets of well-placed advertising by devising a similar technique with an adverse message.
His large-scale pieces, with bright colors popular in Brazilian graffiti and an up-close American photorealism appeal, capture the frustration and resulting desensitization from continual unrecognized media influences.
Beneath individual colors and images that pop or receded in relation to each other, broken depths and textures mysteriously lurk from the imaginative to physical.
As a graffiti artist I am inspired by my surroundings and driven by the passion to change the environment around me.
-Eric Pfeiffer
Eric Pfeiffer blog: http://www.ericscottpfeiffer.com/
