Southwestern Street Art: A Style of Its Own

Street art is the most democratic of art movements, and the art of any city's streets reveals much about the culture, values and world view of that community, time and place. In January, 2011, UCLA's Fowler Museum brought together a panel of street artists, gallery owners and art experts to discuss the relationship between street art and the cities where it appears. The question at the center of this discussion was, "how does street art humanize cities?"

The panelists at the Fowler observed that street art is organic, arising from the cities in which it's created. Rich with political and social commentary, street art becomes a way of expressing a city's self-image, showcasing not only its culture, but also its perspective on the world.

The street art of the Southwestern United States has a style all its own, reflecting its complex mix of cultures, history and values. On the streets of border cities like Tucson, Arizona, street art combines images drawn from Hispanic, Native American and Anglo cultures, beliefs and mythology, with a healthy dollop of the Old West thrown in.

On walls and fences, sidewalks and doors, images appear: drawn with magic marker, posted up with glue, stenciled and painted and etched into glass. Some express the vision of anonymous artists for whom the message is more important than fame. Some serve as a public memorial for a private loss. Some speak of injustice in border politics and protest the desperate poverty on the reservations.

Although produced in public places, true street art is not "public art," although planned and commissioned public art often uses street art style and themes. Street art is an unsanctioned, impromptu expression of creativity or social and political commentary. Since it comes directly from a city's residents, this kind of art reflects a city's heart and shows the world what matters to the community. In Tucson, for example, the city is a canvas for Mayan deities, Christian symbols, skeletal cowboys and the graffiti inspired murals of young Latino artists from the barrios. On the streets of the border cities, art on walls, sidewalks and barricades celebrates Dia de Los Muertos, the Day of the Dead, tells us that God Loves Us and mourns the death of a young man named Dario.

No maps or brochures guide a visitor to the open-air gallery that is the city, but street pieces are often found in downtown areas, older neighborhoods and even schools and other community gathering places. Tucson's barrio district west of downtown and the old warehouse district on the northern fringes of the downtown area, with its railroad crossings and many abandoned buildings, showcase murals, drawings and stencils from a variety of cultures and traditions. Street art and public art projects also appear in the Fourth Avenue shopping district, with its collection of cafes, galleries and vintage clothing stores.

In the cities of the Southwestern borders, as in others all over the globe, street art not only humanizes the city, but also reflects that city's humanity to the world.