New York graffiti

When a housing complex owner in Queens destroyed the graffiti on his property, he ended up paying $6.7 million to the artists whose work had been covering his walls for years.

This was some years back when a federal judge ruled that Jerry Wolkoff, the owner of the legendary 5Pointz graffiti complex in Queens, had to pay 21 artists who contributed 45 graffiti works to the space that were considered to be protected by law under the Visual Artists Rights Act.

Wolkoff destroyed the works in 2013, triggering the lawsuit in question. Before that, he had for decades allowed artists to tag the Long Island City structures, turning it into one of the city’s coolest art havens. When significant stretch of the murals at 5Pointz was whitewashed, lawyers defended the artists and called it “the world’s largest open-air aerosol museum.”

But Wolkoff found a way to cut his losses by building a sprawling residential building in place of 5Pointz. It wasn’t long ago that graffiti artists in New York City were vilified. In 1994, Mayor Rudolph Giuliani denounced the art form, saying, “The 60’s are over. Graffiti is a metaphor for urban decay perhaps best shown in A Clockwork Orange.”

3D art

Italian artist Manuel de Rita a.k.a. Peeta (previously) transforms static structures by painting colourful cubes and abstracted cylindrical shapes to appear as if they are floating above the surface of the wall. This technique was derived from the traditional 3D lettering he grew up painting, and continues to evolve as he experiments with realistic objects, like the window that protrudes from the turquoise and purple work below.

Balloon Girl

Banksy is arguably the most famous graffiti artist of all time and he’s broken more barriers for the art form than anyone else has. His most famous graffiti artwork of all time is Balloon Girl.

It shows a young girl with her hair and dress blowing forward, reaching for a heart-shaped balloon that’s being blown away. In 2014, the mural was removed from the east London shop it was created on and sold for £500,000.

In 2015, a print of the image sold for £56,250. And in 2017, a poll showed that it was the United Kingdom’s favourite artwork.

Airplane lands in middle of freeway

Drivers on an interstate near Minneapolis were presented with quite a sight this week — a small airplane, with engine trouble, coming down to land right in the middle of the highway.

The plane made an emergency landing on Interstate 35 West in Arden Hills, about seven miles northeast of Minneapolis, expertly merging in between several cars on the highway.

The Ramsey County Sheriff’s Federation said the plane appeared to have experienced an engine failure. Cameras operated by the Minnesota Department of Transportation captured the unusual landing.

Police said the Bellanca Viking aircraft collided with a car after landing, but no one was hurt. Authorities closed the freeway’s northbound lanes for several hours.

Published in Dawn, Young World, December 12th, 2020