Shepard Fairey (Facebook photo)
Shepard Fairey of California, who was recently commissioned by Dan Gilbert's Bedrock Real Estate Services to paint a towering mural on the Compuware building, is in trouble in Detroit.
An arrest warrant accuses him of malicious property destruction, George Hunter and Oralandar Brand-Williams write in The Detroit News. The artist is accused of illegally putting up graffiti art at 14 locations in the city. Two sites are city-owned.
“We have eight complainants who wanted to prosecute,” said Sgt. Rebecca McKay of the general assignment unit, which handles quality of life issues, according to The News. “They did not give permission to have graffiti put on their property.”
A downtown creative community leader condemns the city's action.
"Detroit: Stop acting old school," Skidmore Studio president and chief executive Tim Smith posts on his personal Facebook page. "Don't invite and pay a graffiti artist to our city and then issue a felony arrest warrant when he does EXACTLY what he does in order to earn the fees he gets. Bad move."
