Galleries, museums… Places for artists to expose their art. Why not. But not only. And not for all artists. An incident took place at the Guggenheim this weekend, during normal business hours, without notice from security cameras or museum guards. Artist Mat Benote hung one of his own pieces on the famous walls, a movement he describes as “Fine Art Graffiti“.

Banksy and many others before him, did the same. So what are they? Aesthetic terrorists? Vandals? Or is this still to be considered as artistic expression? Hard to say. Maybe we should listen to what the artist has to say about his motivation:

“For instance, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art spending over $20 million to commission a piece of artwork by Jeff Koons. I think it is a shame that an artist would make a museum spend so much money acquiring pieces of work [...] I want to illustrate that graffiti can be a positive influence in a community when applied properly, and as an art form, has as much right to be displayed in a museum as any other form of art.”

We have mixed feelings about this. Is it the best way to bring attention to a complex issue about today’s contemporary art (Los Angeles County Museum of Art spending over $20 million to commission a piece of artwork by Jeff Koons) or is it another ‘incident’ created to get the spotlight on an artist? Again, hard to say. Dear Sama-Readers, what’s your opinion on that?

- Visit Mat Benote Website.