Whether on sidewalks, walls, bridges or staircases, graffiti is a staple of city life. 

The University of Minnesota is no exception. 

Even though graffiti is a ubiquitous sight in our lives, we often ignore or look down on it. After all, how often do you actually take the time to read words spray-painted on walls as you travel through the city?

Minnesota College of Art and Design student and graffiti artist Talia Moreno said though graffiti often gets overlooked or dismissed, it’s an incredibly valuable medium that can help people develop their artistic styles and connect with their communities. 

“It’s not just art on the wall, it’s also a whole culture,” Moreno said. “It’s how you dress, how you talk and how you show up.”

Moreno said her graffiti work not only provided an avenue for self-expression but also helped kickstart her art career as the more approachable medium allowed her to feel comfortable advancing into other art forms.

“It’s the reason why I wanted to pursue an art education,” Moreno said. “It’s a way for me to put myself out there, to express myself through my characters and my tagging. It’s not only just a hobby to do, it’s kind of the lifestyle I love and fell into.”

Graffiti’s simplicity and public visibility make it an appealing medium for artists looking for a way to make a statement. On campus, intricate graffiti advocating for bodily autonomy for women adorns the sidewalks, and statements expressing dissatisfaction with the Trump administration cover bridges over the river.

Despite its visibility, the culture around this mysterious art form can seem inaccessible to the public. Anonymous local artists craft much of the graffiti we see every day. 

Moreno said even though graffiti, like any art form, has its own subculture, jargon and style limited to people in the know, social media has made it far more accessible to the public, potentially opening people’s minds to the medium.

“In, say, the ‘80s, it was seen as dirty and just a bunch of criminals doing things, but it’s truly just a way of expression and a kind of rebellion,” Moreno said.

University of Minnesota graphic design student Hayden Diaz said graffiti is often dismissed due to the legal concerns around its production, but that dismissal overlooks the expressions of city life and marginalized communities that can be contained within graffiti art.

“I feel like when you hear ‘graffiti,’ you think of the stigma and that it’s an illegal process to get it out, depending on where people do it and how they do it,” Diaz said.

Graffiti is unique in its negative reputation as an art form, as many popular and now-lauded art forms were controversial at their inception. Yet this stigma ignores the time, skill and feeling poured into works of graffiti art.

Diaz said part of the stigma around graffiti can be addressed by simply educating the public on what graffiti is and how it can be used as a productive tool for society.

“People are always going to be afraid of what they don’t know and what they don’t get,” Diaz said.

Despite the popularity of the mythologized graffiti artist Banksy, graffiti is still dismissed as a low art form compared to what we normally think of as art.

Even recently, an art installation in Canterbury Cathedral displaying questions for God in a graffiti style drew criticism from people like Vice President JD Vance and Elon Musk, who called the exhibit ugly.

Diaz said unpacking our feelings around graffiti as a medium can help us understand what other prejudices are wrapped into the disdain for the art form.

“Examining why we might have prejudices towards this certain art form is kind of an interesting path to go down,” Diaz said. “It’s like, ‘Okay, why does graffiti bother you so much, particularly?’”

While the exact ethics of graffiti may be tenuous, the fact that graffiti is a valid art form that carries meaning and importance cannot be denied.

Spray cans are not inherently less artistic than paintbrushes or clay. Walls can be canvases for huge and expansive murals, so why can’t they also be canvases for simpler sketches or statements?

After all, graffiti isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. So long as people have something to say and have access to paint or basic art supplies, artists will express themselves and make statements through public spaces.

So why not read the writing on the wall?