The 2016 street art primary

The 2016 street art primary

Street Activists

Bernie Sanders may be trailing Hillary Clinton in pledged delegates in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination and is lagging behind Clinton and Donald Trump in the amount of airtime devoted to presidential candidates on television. But when it comes to street art, the Vermont senator is crushing the competition.

The self-described democratic socialist has inspired plenty of artists to draw his image on walls and buildings — even the side of a Vermont barn. In August, Meryl Lebowitz commissioned a California-based muralist to paint a super-sized Sanders on the side of the barn she shares with her husband.

“It’s the Bernie barn,” she told a local news station. “It just makes me happy to see him on our barn.”

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“You can see the concern in his eyes, which is something I really like,” Lebowitz added. “The side of the barn needed to be painted anyway.”

In March, a Philadelphia building owner who crowdfunded a giant Sanders mural received a letter from the city saying he lacked a permit for the blocklong painting, which officials referred to as an “advertisement.”

Max Glass, the building owner, told the Philadelphia Daily News that he considered the mural art and not an ad and planned to appeal. But within hours, the city said the violation was issued in error.
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“It was political speech, not an advertisement,” an official explained to the newspaper. “So no permit was required.”

Trump has inspired plenty of art, too, though much of it mocks the presumptive Republican nominee.

Last October, Vice spotted a mural of Trump painted on a wall in Tijuana along the the U.S.-Mexico border. The painting featured an image of Trump with a ball stuffed in his mouth next to the phrase “¡Rape Trump!” — a direct response to the former “Celebrity Apprentice” star’s campaign vow to build a wall in order to keep Mexican “rapists” and criminals from crossing the border.8680e9e70889acdf01cb3072063ad07f

The mural even included instructions on how to get to Trump Tower from Tijuana.

This month, a painting of Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin kissing appeared on the side of a Lithuanian barbecue restaurant.

The mural, painted by local artist Mindaugas Bonanu, is a nod to a famous Soviet photograph showing Communist Party leader Leonid Brezhnev and East German President Erich Honecker locking lips.

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Trump and Putin have exchanged public pleasantries. Putin once called billionaire real estate mogul “a bright and talented person, without any doubt,” and Trump returned the praise.

“It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond,” he said of Putin at a December rally.

And just this week, a mural on the side of a building showing Trump kissing former London Mayor Boris Johnson was unveiled in southwest England.

The painting was commissioned by a group that wants Britain to remain in the European Union. Johnson, a conservative, is a supporter of the so-called “Brexit” movement, and Trump has said the country would be better off outside the European Union. A referendum is scheduled for next month.

Clinton has not inspired nearly the same amount of street art and graffiti that Sanders has, though some of her supporters have brought intricately painted portraits to her rallies. And at other events, the Clinton campaign has enlisted portrait artists to paint her live, with the resulting works auctioned off to benefit her presidential bid.85d6e6e1f4943b8aa77c52b9f17d5a45

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