♪♪ >> I'm a graffiti street artist.

I express myself on walls.

>> My goal was always to democratize art, put my work in front of people.

>> It's not like everybody in the whole world loves what we're doing, but we have our place here, our playground, where we can do it.

>> They have to work fast -- quick, quick, quick.

It's like watching someone dance with a spray can.

>> It's a rare opportunity to be able to see these amazing artists do what they do but get a sense of how they do it.

>> Your work might be up for 24 hours, and then whoever owns the building paints over it.

>> You live off of rice and ketchup, and you're trying to live the dream, but you know that before you even start, what you're gonna do is not gonna last forever.

>> As a street artist, it's very important to say that you have a big mural in Wynwood.

It's everywhere.

It's on every building.

It's on every corner.

There is nothing like it.

[ Beep ] >> Goin' up!

♪♪ >> Wynwood is our special place, especially during our battle.

♪♪ Thousands and thousands of people coming in, doing murals everywhere and networking and talking and having a good time and having a party celebrating art in public, and I think it's a great place.

♪♪ I was here last year for the first time, and I really liked what I saw, and I did a single wall, and I saw a lot of other things, and then I decided, "Okay, I have to come back this year."

>> The whole Wynwood project is very special -- dear to me.

I come here every year, see a lot of friends from around the world I don't otherwise see.

♪♪ I mean, the local artists, lots of things going on, it's growing every year.

Everyone's able to paint, from graffiti artists to more street artists to all sorts.

So, I don't know many things that go off in the world this rich with variety and diversity of artistic technique.

>> I think I was in Wynwood before the birth of all this.

2004 was the first time I came to put art up here, and there was really a couple of tags here and there and some tumbleweeds.

It was desolate.

>> At the time, it was industrial.

You know, every city in the world has neighborhoods like this, so every neighbor has its own essence, its own DNA, and what was here was street art and graffiti, and some of it was great.

Some of it wasn't great.

The beauty of Wynwood was that it was this big, open canvas that, you know, anybody could really find a space and paint.

>> Wynwood started off as very, very outsider, because, you know, it was pretty grimy over here.

And as the Art Basel fair has become more and more of a phenomenon and Wynwood's become more and more of a phenomenon, they're more linked.

>> Art Basel itself has evolved, and it's grown way beyond just one, you know, exhibit at the Convention Center.

And so you have all of these satellites there.

>> There are a lot of people coming over here from the fairs, and there are a lot of people, I think, that initially were really only into street culture that are actually paying attention to the art world.

>> You can go in to the galleries, but you can also just walk the streets and see some incredible artwork.

>> Watching the evolution of Wynwood's been really fascinating because it started off with pretty much anyone who wanted to get an open space and do it.

But as it's become more saturated, the quality of the work going up has increased and the level of curation has increased, so now what you see is really the best of the best, because everyone's fighting for a spot in Wynwood, because during Basel, that's where everyone's gonna come to see what they think is the best street art not only in Miami but maybe globally.

♪♪ You can just love paintings on white walls... ♪♪ ...or you can just love street art, but why not check both out?

[ Chuckles ] >> I love this.

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ >> Everybody's calling me "Buff Daddy" these days.

I've been buffing walls for the last three weeks, actually.

But the last couple of days coming in to Basel now, it's getting crazier now, so I'm getting phone calls, like, every half-hour.

♪♪ >> In 2004, when I put stuff here in Wynwood, I had no idea that it would become what it's become, but I'm very happy to see it.

I think it's a case study that provides inspiration for people and other cities, and, you know, ironically, street art used to be seen as a symptom of a neighborhood in decline.

I think now it's seen as a symptom of a neighborhood in ascent, and that's good for artists.

And, you know, I think that the more art that's out there for people to experience, the better.

>> Wynwood is this ever-changing experimental neighborhood where you'll see things of all kinds, of all talents, and, you know, it's like a laboratory for art.

>> Street art and graffiti are very, very competitive subcultures, and, you know, that's something that I enjoy about it, because I think it pushes me to improve, but it can also get heated.

People have beef with each other.

>> I just want to say that I love Rowan.

He's a good lad.

If I caught him in bed with my sister, I'd tuck him in, wouldn't I?

Give him a mug of cocoa.

He's taking up far too many walls.

He thinks it's his own little playground over here.

This may be his 16th piece that he's done today already.

He's just soaking up the walls, isn't he?

There's other people.

Give someone else a go.

>> It's a social gathering, really.

It's a great kind of place to connect with everyone at once, you know?

That one time of year, we're all at the same place in the same part of the world.

♪♪ >> Of course we're painting here, and a lot of painting is going on, but, also, all the people that pour in to see it -- they are all the people that are positive towards it.

We don't get haters of graffiti and muralism coming here.

I mean, it's not like everybody in the whole world loves what we're doing, but we have our place here, our playground, where we can do it, and I'm all for it, you know?

I think it's good that we gather and we have a convention here and we rejoice and we celebrate painting in public.

And everybody can appreciate it here.

[ Siren blares ] [ Beep ] ♪♪ >> ♪ Let's get party to this ♪ ♪ Let's get party to this ♪ ♪ Let's get party to this ♪ ♪ Let's get party to this ♪ >> My name's Jeremy -- Jeremy Shantz.

I'm from D.C.

I don't have a street name.

I'm more of a classical painter.

>> ♪ You feelin' me?

♪ [ Rapping indistinctly ] ♪ I'm switchin' the flame ♪ >> My name is MasPaz, and I'm from Colombia, from Bogota.

>> I'm from Australia -- Melbourne.

>> My name's John... and I go by "MDMN," which is a collective of four different artists from Los Angeles.

>> ♪ New York City ♪ ♪ Miami's so damn tight ♪ [ Rapping indistinctly ] ♪ I'm on the damn block, chillin' ♪ ♪ Old man... ♪ >> Ty T., man... throwin' it down.

♪♪ >> My name is Subi.

I'm an artist from here in Miami.

I'm pretty young.

I just started a few years ago, and here I am now, in Wynwood, painting this beautiful piece that I got so lucky to have the opportunity to do it.

>> Dytch66 from CBS Crew, Los Angeles.

There's gonna be about 16 to 20 of us working on this wall.

>> ♪ They go on this track now ♪ ♪ Fillin' me back down ♪ >> I'm Hec1.

I'm a street artist here in Miami, and I'm rocking some walls for Basel.

>> ♪ I've got to keep on the low, comin' back with the rhyme ♪ >> My name is Pat Lazo.

I'm from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

>> ♪ And you can never stay in my fight, 'cause I'm hyper than ever, dawg ♪ [ Rapping indistinctly ] >> I am Ino, from Greece.

And art will say the rest.

>> ♪ ...like this ♪ ♪ Uh-uh-uh uh-uh ♪ ♪ Check it out one time for your mind ♪♪ ♪♪ ♪♪ >> I need to be able to work quickly when I'm on the street, but I still want to do really big things, so I bring my crew with me, and we are a well-oiled machine.

We can knock out really big walls in a couple days that might take some other artists a week to do.

I love rebellion, so the idea of putting work in public that wasn't in a gallery or a museum, that wasn't filtered through this elitist art-world system, was something I liked, but I never was a tagger.

I loved to draw from when I was a little kid, took drawing classes after school, on weekends, went to art summer programs, but the thing that got me really excited about art merging with a culture I loved was skateboarding and punk rock.

So, I got into stencilmaking, which is something that I use in my street from that, but I never was part of the graffiti community.

Summer of 1989 is when I began what became the "Obey" campaign, and it's been 25 years still going.

The first thing I ever made was a very primitive sticker of Andre the Giant that came about when I was trying to teach a friend how to make a stencil and looked through the newspaper for a picture and randomly stumbled upon an Andre the Giant portrait.

And so as I became a better artist, a better designer, and developed my visual vocabulary, mostly inspired by propaganda posters because I consider propaganda posters a really powerful way of attracting people's attention, but the most pervasive propaganda in the United States is advertising.

Where I think a lot of advertising is designed to come across as benevolent, but, in a way, whatever it's seducing you to do might not be so benevolent.

I went the other direction.

I had something benevolent, I think, that I was presenting, but I packaged it in a sinister way, so I became really excited about this idea of putting things up in public space that would make people go, "What is this?

What is this command to obey?

What is this really about?"

What I'm trying to do is combine not juts the command to obey with what I call the icon face, but a lot of times I'm using images that are topical.

I'm creating images about things that are happening, and, you know, in current events and things that are more timeless -- the destruction of the planet, the abuse of power, the need to question authority.

These themes are addressed more directly in my work, but I still, for the uninitiated, like to keep it within the umbrella of the Obey project.

When I started off, I had no money, so, of course, I did everything myself, and a lot of my aesthetics really evolved out of being able to work quickly on the street by myself before the police came.

Every technique I've employed in my career as an artist has really been about speed and efficiency, and I initially would create a lot of work on paper, on the floor, in my studio so that then I could put it up in a modular way, quickly, rather than having to work directly on the wall.

Now that I'm painting my murals, I'm using a stencil technique that is also very fast.

♪♪ >> My name is Lars Pedersen.

I am from Copenhagen, and I travel the world to paint graffiti and be part of the global movement that is graffiti and street art these days.

I paint a graffiti style which is basically a bunch of letters that are pimped out and colored in and made to look as good and flashy as possible.

And I do this with a bunch of other friends that also do the same kind of graffiti writing.

In Wynwood, there's also a lot of other things going on, like muralism, graphic design, and a few other things, but I'm in the division that does the traditional graffiti writing.

>> I think the Internet's had a really big part to play in what's been going on -- the fact that it's so global.

The kind of global street-art movement, I guess, has very much boomed because of that, you know?

We're all really connected across the globe -- the artists themselves -- and there's artists traveling all over and having this kind of network.

>> When's the opening?

>> There's a gallery show open tonight.

>> That's the good thing about the movement, is that we stick together.

There's a lot of unity and helping each other out.

So, if you travel, you have local people to meet, to paint with, you know you can sleep on their couch or they can take you to areas.

Like, it's all about sharing and building and elevating, and that's how the movement got strong.

If it had been a war between everybody, then we would never have been where we are today.

This whole Wynwood thing came about because of a strong network within the subculture.

That's what you see here, and that's why it's a convention for this subculture to come together, and it's becoming even stronger.

>> I've met people here that I've never met before, but I was talking to a guy from Guatemala yesterday, you know?

So now, if I go to Guatemala, I have a buddy to paint with.

I can probably stay at his house.

I can be part of his life there, and he can do the same thing if he travels out to Denmark, so that's how we built this movement together.

>> This is the first massive wall I've painted.

Before that, normally, I do commercial work or I'm doing paintings but big but not this big.

This is the first piece I've done overseas, and this is the first time I've been flown somewhere specifically to paint.

It's been really intimidating to be surrounded by so many talented artists.

But, actually, they've been amazingly welcoming, generous.

There's a real -- Like, the whole culture within street art is so open and is so much about sharing, sharing work, collaborating.

I've been really overwhelmed by that and blown away.

♪♪ [ Beeping ] >> I've always been drawing and painting, just since I was really young, and I started doing kind of like graffiti when I was a teenager.

Just a naughty, rebellious kid, like, not happy with the state of society, you know?

So, I mean, you grow up in a society that's got so many issues, like, you've got to vent it somehow, right?

So, for me, it was just a way of kind of expressing my discontent, I guess, but unconsciously.

I fell in love with the textures of the walls, as well, and in Johannesburg, there's so many abandoned buildings in the city, like high-rise buildings, and they've got, like, all these little writings and scrawlings on the wall of people that were living there before, and you find it under bridges, as well, like, from stowaways.

I mean, that's the beauty of working, like, on the streets, so externally, is that, you know, the environment is 50% of the artwork -- even more sometimes.

So, it's really important to me to find spaces that have a story, a character to them, because, you know, architecture and the space around us tells such a story.

It has memory, and, you know, it's been around a long time, before us, so I like to work with the space.

Sometimes I do works that are gonna be, like, highly profiled and seen as much as possible, and sometimes I'm really happy to do something that perhaps no one will see or maybe just two or three people or people that might just randomly stumble across it or just the people in the area.

[ Beeping ] I really enjoy working outside, and it's not a problem for me.

I think the problem is that people just categorize you a lot.

I mean, one gets categorized as a street artist, but, actually, it's just one method of working, and, I mean, I've been simultaneously working in the studio all the time, as well, so I have a parallel kind of studio work going on, as well, and gallery shows and also working on some video projects of my own.

You know, I'm exploring a lot of different marks and mediums at the same time and also wanting to move more into that, as well, you know, I guess as I... evolve.

[ Chuckles ] [ Beeping ] ♪♪ >> Part of the beauty of what street artists are capable of doing is they can work on a very big scale, and they can work on a small scale.

Not all artists can do that.

Not all artists can walk up to a 100-foot wall, you know, that's 2 stories high... and produce a masterpiece.

As a street artist, you know, there are times when your work might be up for 24 hours, and then whoever owns the building comes back and paints over it.

♪♪ >> The artwork's changing over a lot, and that can be something that is great because it's always evolving, but, also, I think most artists that spend a lot of time on a piece would like to see it last for a little while.

I'm not so precious about my work because I'm used to everything being painted over by another artist or by a city, by authority, by, you know, some sort of an angry vigilante citizen.

You name it.

But it is nice to have something be visible for a while.

>> We did a big piece together two years ago, and, unfortunately, it got buffed about three months after completion.

We spent 10 days on it.

So, since then, we're really looking to come back and put a real effort and get something up that we can be proud of as part of the Basel Festival.

♪♪ >> Someone tagged the door because it had no paint on it, aside from the buff.

The owner texted me, "Bastards tagged your art."

[ Laughs ] >> The photograph's always really important to me.

I try really hard to also capture the space and the feeling of the area when I take the photograph, as well, and that's really what lasts.

There is something beautiful about being able to see something in a moment, and you're there and you see it and it's not gonna last forever and you appreciate it at that time, and, for me, it's more of, like, a philosophical thing -- just a preparation for death, really, you know?

We're all gonna die.

Nothing is permanent.

Everything is in flux all the time.

So, I look at it that way.

It's the same as, like, those people in your life.

One day maybe they pass away one day.

You have to appreciate them while they're there, you know?

So, it's the same.

If you see something and you're lucky enough to be there, you appreciate it and you take an experience from it and take it with you somehow.

It's not about holding on to it and having it forever.

♪♪ >> ♪ All the blood, sweat, and tears ♪ ♪ The hard work we've been puttin' in for years ♪ ♪ The knockout... ♪ >> Street art and graffiti have always been cultures of apprenticeship, people learning tagging in black books, then getting to go out, be part of a crew, and help with fill-ins and then getting to do outlines, learning stencil techniques, learning screenprinting techniques, learning, you know, any number of different methods most people have learned by hanging out with another artist, and I always embrace people wanting to learn, because, a lot of times, if they're good at it, they end up becoming part of the crew.

I enjoy the process of introducing somebody to these techniques, and I think the camaraderie is a really great facet of it, as well.

So, you know, people are welcome to come up, and if we're in need of help, we'll hand them an X-acto knife and say, "Cut along the line here."

[ Laughs ] ♪♪ >> What we've done here is we've really elevated the genre of street art to a level that it has never seen before.

It's taken very seriously now as a form of fine art.

Everybody should have, you know, a street art or graffiti, urban art, whatever you want to call it, in their collections.

>> My name is Stephan Keszler.

I'm the owner the Keszler Gallery in Southampton in New York.

The reason I'm dealing especially with Banksy street-art works -- I've decided only to go into Banksy's because he's the king of street art.

And to work only with the street artist only, you have to be a little gaga.

There's a demand for Banksy walls because there are not so many.

70%, 80% of them get destroyed, and they're relatively priced reasonable.

If you compare the value of these Banksys with some Damian Harris or some Vasquez or whatever, it's still very, very, very reasonable.

We sold works of his from $250,000, and the highest one we sold was $1.1 million.

This was the "Slave Labour" boy from London.

>> An artist that it would have cost $6,000 for a painting of theirs now might charge $30,000 or $40,000.

>> I think that when people do art in public, it should stay art in public.

I don't really see the point of taking something that was made out in the real world and then taking it down and then putting it somewhere else.

I think a work of art should go where the work of art was designed to go.

>> When I put work up on the street and it's stolen, I'd rather it stay on the street for other people to see, but the way I look at it is I stole the space in the first place, so touché.

And I respect the hustle.

Somebody that says, "I'm gonna get this and I'm gonna keep it for myself or I'm gonna sell it" -- it might not be the greatest character trait for that person, but I can admire the ambition.

>> Sounds like stealing.

We are not stealing and not taking.

Once Banksy and other graffiti artists paint their works on somebody else's properties, it's not his anymore, so it's legal and moral.

The ownership is by the house owner.

So, we get contacted by them.

10 days ago, they were street works.

They were pieces of wall.

Now, when we bring this to a serious art show, they become art.

>> People should take the love they have for Banksy and spread it to the whole movement.

People act like Banksy is some special person and he's not part of the movement, but he is just one of us.

>> Street art was born because there was a group of people -- the gallery, the affluent and influent, who had ownership of the walls inside the museums and the galleries.

And there was a bunch of artists who said, "You know what?

Forget trying to fight the system to get in.

We'll make the streets our gallery."

And artists like Shepard Fairey, artists like Ron English, artists like Blink just started coming to the street with their art.

They didn't ask permission.

That became the exhibit.

Other graffiti artists would write over it.

The exhibit would change.

It would morph.

So, to me, true street art -- no one, not even this Nobody, owns the street.

Anybody can write on the walls whenever they want.

You become the curator.

Your eye can say, "You know what?

It's time for the wall to change."

What's happened in Wynwood is sort of like what's in the gallery.

The building owners have decided they embrace street art, so they invite artists to come, but that's not street art, because now who has control over the walls?

The same influent and affluent group that controls the galleries and the museums -- now they control the walls on the outside.

So what you get to see is what they deem is art.

If they say, "This guy is good," you get to see him.

If another artist does tagging, "Oh, I don't like tagging."

>> Sometimes there's equal hatred for a tag as there is love for a really beautifully rendered mural, and what I always try to explain to people is that they're part of the same ecosystem, the same culture, so you can't have one without the other.

>> Tagging -- what we call "tagging" -- that's art.

That's still art.

That's a graffiti artist beginning the fundamentals of his craft.

Now, the rest of y'all may not appreciate it as art, but it's about art.

You got to crawl before you walk, and every great street artist tagged or did graffiti before he did these beautiful pieces.

♪♪ Oh, my God!

She's a tagger!

Way to go!

Oh, I got to meet you.

>> That's my friend Nobody, Koko.

Look.

Say hi to Nobody.

>> I can't see.

>> He's right there.

>> How you doing?

I just have to meet you.

>> He's a friend.

>> I do think that there is a demonizing going on in regular society, in the media.

It's always easier to put down the taggers and the graffiti artists 'cause they're the scum.

And I think that whole opinion amongst the public and politicians and law enforcement -- that that helps justify what happened to this young kid who got Tasered to death.

>> The budding artist was caught by police tagging private property at Collins and 71st Street.

Hernandez-Llach was also known as "Reefa," a name police say he tagged on so many South Florida buildings, he was wanted by a crime-suppression unit.

After running from officers, one fired his Taser.

The 18-year-old died at Mount Sinai Hospital after almost immediately going into medical duress.

Since then, hundreds have gathered at the vacant commercial building where it all started, adding messages and slogans of support in the form of graffiti, launching a familiar argument over whether graffiti is art or vandalism.

>> They shut down Reefa.

They killed that kid's life.

That showed no respect for us and our art culture.

I think what the cop did was egregious.

It was wrong.

I don't think they intended to kill Reefa that day, but somebody, in overexuberance, in doing the performance of their job, killed a kid.

>> I think it's horrible that any kid has to even face harsh punishment for doing graffiti, and the kid that was Tasered to death -- that's like a tragedy, you know?

It's police brutality of the worst kind.

That kid was doing the same thing that Banksy was doing.

There's nothing different between it.

So, if you like Banksy, you have to take the side of that kid who died.

♪♪ >> In 2009 in Boston, I was arrested on the way to my museum show, and two days before that, I had done a photo shoot with the mayor because they asked me to create an art piece on the outside of City Hall.

So, that was quite an ironic situation.

I had been going around, putting a lot of stuff up on the street, without permission.

I'd also been doing a lot of murals with permission.

But what really, I think, drew the ire of the Boston Police Department was an NPR interview that I did where I talked about the importance of street art without permission, even once there are gallery and museum opportunities.

And the Boston police didn't like that at all, so what they did was they looked at the museum's website, saw a map of all the murals I'd done with permission, and then, just by process of elimination, said all the other ones had to have been done without permission and said, "Okay.

So, there's 32 other spots we know about.

We're gonna charge you with 32 felonies."

♪♪ ♪♪ >> You have to go through a number of years where you live off of rice and ketchup and whatever else you can get from your friends, and you're trying to live the dream, but, at one point, you know, hopefully life smiles your way and you're able to secure some gigs and get some budgets to do some different projects.

>> The artists themselves are evolving as human beings are.

Like, their work reflects that.

And you follow the progression of an artist.

It's really interesting to see that, and I think you're gonna see it more and more, like, as artists are getting older and more, like, evolved in their work.

[ Beeping ] >> As popular as street art has become and how embraced it is by so many different cities, there are movements that don't need that validation because, you know, they emerged from street culture.

It was always about rebellion and bypassing the gatekeepers.

Structures and authority are questioned just purely in the process.

The medium is the message.

Whether the content is questioning authority, the delivery system is questioning authority.

Street art can't be tamed because there are enough people who are always willing to break rules to do it.

I still go out and put work up without permission on the streets because it's important to me to have a thread of continuity from my humble beginnings to where I am now, 'cause every single opportunity to sell art, to do a wall with permission came from putting up thousands and thousands of pieces on the streets -- stickers, stencils, posters, very small to very large, without permission, and creating a resonance for my work.

People wouldn't give me these opportunities otherwise.

So, I think that, you know, anyone that's built something from scratch understands that, you know, initially, you have to do it all yourself and you have to do it by any means necessary.

♪♪ I think the rise of street art to its current cultural level where it's embraced by galleries has been phenomenal.

It's something I wouldn't have predicted.

I still think we're a long ways away from it becoming the norm and so saturated that to do something provocative, you have to just leave your wall blank.

♪♪ >> It's a very inspiring place with a tremendous amount of energy.

And I think we all need that positive energy.

>> One more!

One more!

[ Laughter ] ♪♪ >> You can find out more information about this topic at... "Streets of Wynwood" is available on DVD for $25 plus shipping and handling.

To order, visit...