In response to Bruno David –
On March 6, 2026 Bruno David Gallery will be presenting Off the Wall, an exhibition of work by Judith Shaw. From the press release for the show: “Off the Wall centers on layered paint fragments collected from the flood wall in downtown St. Louis during Paint Louis, the city’s annual graffiti mural event…. The artist wants to acknowledge and honor the graffiti artists whose layered, weathered work forms the foundation of this project.”
The members of Opaque Collective have a message: The writers are in the room – the graffiti artists are here.
Opaque is a collective of artists working on the behalf of artists. For decades, we have watched the art world and corporate entities co-opt the culture and aesthetics of graffiti for their own notoriety, clout, and profit.
For this presentation of “fragments” from the flood wall, Shaw does very little to edit the original pieces of another artist’s work – she simply “refines the edges” and places the shards in expensive, black frames with matting. These are being exhibited as original works.
There is an entire lineage of found art – the repurposing, re-engineering, re-assembling, and re-contextualizing of discarded objects in a new form. This work is not that. This is someone picking up the pieces of someone else’s art, putting a frame on it, and calling it their own. The erasure of context is not the fabrication of artwork. This is commodification of a culture. Point blank. This is cultural appropriation. Point blank.
The “fragments” taken from the flood wall represent the accumulation of 25 years of artistic collaboration and organization. Paint Louis was established in 1997 and has brought together hundreds of the world’s best graffiti artists to create original works on a 2.5 mile stretch of the St. Louis flood wall. The artists who contribute to this project are foundational to the art of graffiti. Some of them are OG’s and icons. Segments stand in memoriam to those who have passed. It is living history and an organism of culture.
There’s a precedent of graffiti being ripped from its context and resold for profit. In film and advertising, legal cases have been tried and won in favor of graffiti artists whose work has been shown without credit or compensation. Their intellectual property cannot be leveraged without their consent. Graffiti arose as the most democratic form of making and public expression, from communities who were not included in art world spaces. Now, we see the same art pillaged and displayed as a sampling of “grit and grime,” whitewashed and propped up by the framework of colonial thinking. The distance between Clayton and the Flood Wall is more than physical. It’s economic, it’s racial – it’s an ideological divide.
This exhibition marks an egregious lack of awareness and highlights the need for more DIY spaces, owned and operated by the communities they serve, to spotlight the legacy, contributions, and impact of the graffiti community, alongside other artists and mediums that sit outside of the traditional gallery structure.
The members of Opaque Collective demand that graffiti writers and their contributions to this work be directly acknowledged, and an apology issued for the misappropriated use of their original work. There is no ethical sale of this work.
We have collected sentiments from local writers below:
“What is art? To me, it’s a way to express myself and make a statement about the things I see, think and feel. It’s personal. It’s a conversation between my community and I. Coming from someone who doesn’t open up easily, it’s a way to offer an open window to others into myself. The wall these paint chips were taken from took years to create and the artist who is selling them has no connection to it at all. It took countless hours of time and effort to build up those layers of paint. It prevailed consistently through decades, through the sun, through the rain, through the politics that prevented it from happening and so so so much more. It’s a tangible piece of history that cannot be replicated any other way. For someone to show up, take pieces of it and display them in a gallery as their “art” reminds me of colonial powers who stole Egyptian artifacts and displayed them in western museums. It isn’t yours and it doesn’t belong there.
If you want to truly appreciate the time and effort it took to create these pieces, take a trip down to The Mural Mile and see it for yourself in its natural habitat. The graffiti wall is a part of St. Louis history and is held sacred to countless community members. To see it cut into pieces and displayed in a gallery is a true shame.”
“Question” - Graffaholiks Crew
“Judith Shaw…
the kind of person that probably gave herself a nickname. Her upcoming show represents everything wrong with art. The proverbial banana duct taped to the wall at Art Basel. A sickening display of hubris and cultural appropriation to the highest degree.
In a pathetic attempt to justify her art, Bruno David responds, “she has reconfigured and re-contextualized the paint fragments.” For this to be true, she would first need to actually have context for the art in the first place. She has ZERO ties to the graffiti community. She had never known the sting of razor wire cutting through flesh, sewing your friends up after they got cut during an action, or sprinting from police and jumping fence after fence to evade arrest after installing artwork for the public for free ( at the risk of our freedom ). She is an outsider stealing pieces of our history and culture and displaying them as original works. I don’t care if it is or is not for sale. I don’t care if it has a new context or if you cover it with glittering generalities. The institution and proliferation of this show and artist is an affront to myself and everyone who has given blood, sweat, tears, years in prison and their life (RIP to the fallen) to contribute to an art form that I find to be pure and true.
I have watched over the years as the corporate interests and the talentless swine who look to gain something from our culture grab hold and pillage our style. Sell it back to us and the public and make a spectacle. From stealing our art for advertisements, mass producing our clothing style, to cutting down construction fabric we put throw ups on and selling it on eBay, to sneakily getting writers to paint HO model trains for the love and turning around and selling them behind our backs on instagram… I’ve seen it all.
Our culture was born out of the poverty and squalor of the darkest days in New York history. Hip Hop brought light and hope to the hood while the fat cats drained as much money as they could from the city and demonized us for finding happiness in creativity. Now decades later they are trying to capitalize off the culture they once condemned. Placing these fragments in a “context” of fine art in the most affluent area of St. Louis is a disgrace. Taking up space in the art world where WE could be showing our works, getting paid what we deserve for our authenticity and originality. Eat the Rich, Fuck the government and to you art tourists, galleries and curators: stay the fuck out of our culture or we will throw you out.”
LUNCH WH
I feel highly disappointed in not only Judith Shaw’s upcoming exhibition, the Bruno David Gallery hosting it, but also the communication (or lack thereof) regarding it.
There are so many different ways this series of “works” could have been formed into something more community oriented, and included actual artists that were left uninvolved. Instead it was organized with a clear lack of regard for those that this show takes advantage of.
It is beyond just hanging any-old object on the wall, but rather a theft of someone else’s time, skill, and life experiences. Little alteration was made to these panels removed from the flood walll. Does putting an object into a frame make it one’s own original work? Or rather, is it simply some collectors item; not any different than a baseball in a clear case or an old record in a sleeve? If that is to be considered original work, perhaps I will say I hit the home run ball sitting on my desk, which is signed by somebody else.
Judith Shaw’s “Off the Wall” could not have existed without taking, in an entirely literal sense, pieces of other works. (Truly, it should be “off the wall” of the gallery…) Some of Judith’s other projects consist of unintentional human creation, like roadside debris and construction machinery markings. When a large body of your practice involves things made involuntarily, it would make one question if this artists feels the same way about graffiti. Do they view it as less intentional? Less purposeful? Something that does not require a skillset and knowledge to produce?
Graffiti is a huge love in my life; I devote time and effort to getting better, I take risks, and to see it appropriated in this way makes me feel frustrated for the affected artists who feel the same way that I do.
This show stands on the back of a huge amount of history and context, which is majorly lost in its presentation by an artist that would not be affected by the risk of showing their work. Often times graffiti fits an “urban aesthetic” that certain affluent communities seek out. It is repackaged to present to people far removed from the culture of graffiti. It’s very ignorant.
It is also worthy of noting: Paint Louis and the flood wall where the event takes place is documented with photos and videos (which are easy to locate on the event page and social media). I find it a reasonable expectation that, at the very least, some type of dialogue could have been initiated by Judith before the forming of this show. To extend some vague invitation to people involved in paint Louis after the fact was highly disrespectful.
One can describe their work in any type of way to make it sound well thought out and considered, but that does not mean what’s said is true. The artist and gallery can try to over-explain the complexity of this exhibition as much as they please but that will not change the impact made. Without involving writers in the presentation of their own work, this show is empty and insensitive.
It is simply taking advantage of other artists, no matter how you cut it.
ASWANG CJ
To add your comment to the local artist sentiment section, please email hello@opaquecollective.com or call 314-669-9011.