Graffiti and Street Art Custom Objects

Art history makes a clear distinction between fine art, i.e. paintings and sculptures, and decorative art, which includes all forms of art made on objects that originally have a practical use. However and since ancient times, pottery, textiles, jewelry, watches, glass objects, woodcrafts, and other objects have often been customized with art. But it was during the second half of the 19th century that the “Arts and Crafts” artistic movement was born in reaction to the impoverished interest in decorative arts and the massive production of soulless objects brought by the Industrial Revolution.

Customization of objects with art is also typical within the Graffiti and Street Art movement. Urban artists have always loved creating artworks with objects that are iconic for the movement such as subway maps, spray cans or various types of skateboards and longboards. Some street artists are also used to making their art on other types of supports, especially urban furniture and discarded materials they can find in the streets. For example, a widespread phenomenon is the use of road signs to give them a quirky makeover. Its most obvious ambassador is undoubtedly the French street artist Clet Abraham, whose customized street signs have been seen all over the world. The art of Clet Abraham is based on criticizing the strictness of road signs, which he reinterprets with humor by transforming them into unique artworks on the streets.

But the artists’ creativity has no boundaries. Some of them consider vintage furniture as their final canvas like Jana & Js and some of the others like Tona recovers elements found in the streets to bring them a second life with his stencil art, bringing at the end a kind of fragment from the streets to art collectors. But here are also artistic objects that can be surprising. Starting with the duo-artist Me Lata, a couple of lovers from Barcelona who use empty cans to paint them and spread positive messages in the streets. Not to mention the artist Onemizer and his artworks made on broken wood strips, Ollio and his unique tufted rugs in wool, the work of Amsterdam's most anonymous artist Laser 3.14 whose street poems are directly made on wooden panels, and the famous enameled sign from the Parisian metro customized by Nasty. Some of these graffiti and street art custom objects can be found online on Urbaneez.