Oakland based artist Eddie Colla just curated and participated in a show at the Ian Ross Gallery called Made in China. The purpose of the show was to probe our underlying assumptions as a society to the originality, intellectual property and the value of art. He and the other artists who participated in the show created original pieces of art then shipped them to China for reproduction. The results were displayed side by side in the show.
The ironic twist is that shortly after the show opened he discovered that one of his most popular pieces “If you want to achieve greatness stop asking for permission” is being reproduced and sold on Walmart.com with Banksy as the listed artist. Now if you know anything about Eddie Colla then this occurrence takes on another dimension.
Eddie Colla, who is known for his wheat paste and stencil art, is no stranger to the corporate world. He spent the first 15 years of his career working as a photojournalist for the news and advertising industry. When he walked away from that career he left commercial exploitation behind and purposely approached his art career knowing what he stood for and the kind of statement he wanted to make with his art.
Artists leave art on the street for a myriad of reasons. For Eddie it is simply a matter of taking back the streets and saying we don’t have to put up with the unsolicited messages that daily barrage us. When asked about his street art that is covertly pasted up Eddie quips, “Some people view what I do as vandalism. I assume that their objection is that I alter the landscape without permission. Advertising perpetually alters our environment without the permission of its inhabitants. The only difference is that advertisers pay for the privilege to do so and I don’t. So if you’re going to call me anything, it is more accurate to call me a thief.”
Eddie Colla can bend your ear on his thoughts about commercialism and taking control over your own life and ideas. His art visually challenges the viewer to question their environment and thoughts on pressing social issues and to individually draw their own conclusions about how they think things ought to be.
Eddie Colla is not taking this affront lying down. He created a message using the very image that was stolen. Yesterday he gave himself permission and pasted it up on the streets and created a piece of art that is selling on 1xrun.com as a limited edition to help pay for legal fees to right this wrong with Walmart. If you go to that page you can read an interview that is specific to this issue.
You might also be interested in this checking out this site. Unbeknownst to Eddie, several passionate individuals involved Sumofus.org to ask the public to support him by writing into their website to demand that Walmart apologize to Eddie Colla and stop stealing and exploiting activist art.
More Information
Eddie Colla, an Oakland-based artist, created his well-known piece, “Ambition” in 2009. Depicting a female graffiti writer with a spray can, the piece reads, “If you want to achieve greatness, stop asking for permission.” But in November 2013, Colla discovered an exact replica of his work marketed as an art print on the Walmart website — without his permission or any sort of legal agreement.
A big box retailer copying an independent artist note-for-note was not the kind of audacious underdog story Colla envisioned in the work’s text. “I made a piece about individuals controlling their own fate and not making their success contingent on the approval of others,” said Colla. “It then gets adopted by a neo-feudal corporation like Walmart. A corporation whose employment practices have created a 2 million person underclass in this country.”
As Colla dug deeper, he discovered that Walmart was selling the mass-produced prints of his work through a wholesaler called Wayfair, who is marketing Colla’s work as a Banksy print through Amazon and Overstock.com in addition to Walmart’s website. Eddie Colla’s name was omitted entirely and his signature was taken off the piece. Friends who visited the Walmart website after they heard Colla’s story noticed the Colla knock-off showing up in their Facebook ads and Google ads on the various sites they visited when they subsequently surfed the net — presumably because of a cookie from the Wayfair website.
The idea of big box retailers like Walmart appropriating an anti-establishment art form, street art, to further their profits is all too ironic. The bastions of conservatism and propagators of the increasing wealth gap and declining middle class, companies like Walmart have an ideology pitted against the anti-authoritarian message of Colla’s “Ambition.” Colla chose to combat the unabashed theft of his work with parody — and, of course, an impending lawsuit. A new version of “Ambition” titled “It’s Only Stealing If You Get Caught” shows the same image with altered text: “Introducing the anti-establishment, left-wing subversive vandalism collection. Glorified vandalism available now at Walmart.”
The satirical new artwork — which recently was debuted on a San Francisco billboard on the intersection of Oak St. and Divisadero St. — points out that Walmart’s greed has no limits. Even a radical art form has the potential to be swallowed up by the behemoth machine of corporate capitalism.
Colla released a print of “It’s Only Stealing If You Get Caught” with 1XRun on earlier today, December 2, to raise awareness for his cause and gather funds for the hefty legal fees necessary to sue Walmart and Wayfair for the theft of his artwork. The print sold out within one hour, but it’s only a start.
If you like that piece and Eddie’s other work you can check out Loakal Gallery and store where he has a clothing line and curates monthly art shows. Inquire about his studio art.
This appears to be the classic story of David and Goliath. Our bet is on David.
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Eddie Colla
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