Painting Over GAIA
Posted by Joshua Yospyn | August 5, 2010
“I thought someone had taken a photo in progress,” says GAIA about seeing a picture on Flickr similar to the one below. But it wasn’t an image documenting the early stages of his giant chicken and hands mural painting. In fact, the photo was taken much later when, as Lauren Gentile with Irvine Contemporary explains, a manager at Whole Foods responded to neighborhood complaints by painting over it.
“If you knew GAIA personally you would feel extra bad about the situation. I mean, the guy slept in that alley overnight to protect his ladder so nothing would stop him from completing the commission,” says Lauren. She also explains how the gallery has permission from Jim Abdo, who owns the block of buildings, to use the alley walls for art projects curated by Martin Irvine. ”It’s just unfortunate that the Whole Foods manager wasn’t in the loop. He said he would watch for new work and know what to tell people [next time].”
It took GAIA between 20-24 hours total, painting from 8 pm to 5 am over a few nights in a row, to complete the mural. ”People don’t have much of a stomach for anything besides advertisements,” he states.
Yet he doesn’t seem that upset. Maybe street artists get used to their work’s impermanence, but there’s a certain irony to this mural – it was legal. None of GAIA’s independent works in DC have been covered up, yet when Irvine commissioned him it was quickly buffed. Thankfully, Whole Foods missed a spot. The artist’s signature still looms just off the top of the building. (You can see it here). It’s the only work in DC GAIA’s ever signed.
“It’s unfortunate that the ‘complainers’ always get heard more loudly than the people who like or at least recognize the art work as a legitimate art project,” says Lauren, but she assures us that new work from this artist is soon to come. In the meantime, if you see someone asleep in an alley, holding paintbrushes and perhaps attached to a “giant-ass ladder,” odds are you’ve found GAIA. Let him paint.
One of GAIA’s murals for Irvine is still up behind the gallery, alongside several other street artists. See more
Photo Credits: Joshua Yospyn/Worn Magazine (please ask permission to use our images)
Did you enjoy reading this post? Then please support Worn by purchasing our magazine.
Comments
Did Martin Irvine pay GAIA for the mural? If so, does Wholefoods now owe Irvine some cash?
sorry to hear it gaia. It seems they will buff anything “out of the ordinary” what does that tell you? And the worst part is It was whole foods who buffed it. WOW.
GAIA created the mural pro-bono but for something that size, an artist might normally receive $10-15k.
honestly.. stupidity on part of manager.. if he’s next to an art gallery and the building isn’t fully his to begin with, you’d think he’d try asking around first before committing any actions, rash or not. i hope Irvine is reimbursed, despite the situation being a ‘misunderstanding’. can’t always get away with entitlement issues. my regrets to gaia.
Whole Foods is another bullshit corporation like any other. They are not conscientious just because they make money off of organic pesto and animal-shaped potholders. Gaia’s work is a contribution to the neighborhood’s where he choses to work. I have heard positive feedback from many people that have seen murals that he put up in Korea during his residency there that they were glad to have something other than pornographic sunglasses ads or the like. If people painted over or destroyed ads they would be vandals but erasing art is considered helping the neighborhood.
The manager had absolutely no right buffing that piece. basically vandalized the building by painting over the legal commissioned work and should be prosecuted accordingly. Both Gaia and Matt Irvine should follow through with this and make a point of bringing this to a conclusion and getting a new possibly identical piece in it’s place.
Does anyone know what the complaint was?
“I don’t like roosters?”
It’s unfortunate that those who speak the loudest are heard first and given priority, no matter how ridiculous they may be….
Whole Foods. Fail. For a corporation that prides itself to be in tune with the community, in this case they were obviously not. I guess that’s what makes street art, well street art…here today, gone tomorrow.
The whole point is that it was a commissioned piece. An agreement between a gallery a building owner and an artist… there was a process that happened to gain permission for the wall. As a result there should have been a process and discussion based around whatever public misconception that caused the piece to be buffed in the first place. You can bet if someone came into the store and told the manager they were offended by the “F” in the Whole Foods sign he would told them to go away and had a chuckle with his coworkers about the crazy person…..
Make sure to read Maura Judkis on TBD.com. It appears this boils down to a misunderstanding on all sides. I’m hoping a big positive comes out of this story, in that Whole Foods will work with Irvine to commission murals behind their store. The space back there is like a giant empty canvas.
The artist painted on a building that was solely owned by Whole Foods, without the permission of Whole Foods. What do you expect when you vandalize someone’s property and don’t give a heads up?
“It’s the only work in DC GAIA’s ever signed.”
Better check the side of Bohemian Caverns.
I will. Thanks for the tip…
“GAIA created the mural pro-bono but for something that size, an artist might normally receive $10-15k.”
this is soooo wrong. street artists rarely ever seen a penny from doing murals… if were lucky the building will supply the paint, but $10-15 for a painting that size, bullshit…..hahahahahahaha…….
Leroy – you’re right, you can barely make it out, but there’s some kind of signature on the alley off U Street.
Amoeba – maybe it’s wishful thinking, but that’s also what Irvine told me.
[...] role, if any, did WORN magazine play at the discussion? MC: Worn Magazine’s recent article on the cover-up of GAIA’s mural provided the inspiration for the conversation. We were [...]
what can we do, its public space, even if they had permission..
some people have to get up every morning to see the mural in front of their houses..
So Gaia painted three killer pieces that took about 24 hrs to complete and Irvine set it up as “pro bono”? Nice one martin. Way to take advantage of a young artist who is apparently super nice and down to earth. no one is gonna get paid by wholes foods, but Gaia should be first in line, not Irvine. and yeah moral of the story, the store manager is an idiot. cause it looks so much better with those three blotches?