Oliver says that unfortunately “a lot of kids tagging and bombing the city with their names on private property and infrastructure”. Olivier: “That’s a shame, it’s negative for all street art. Street art becomes valuable if the artist and his art truly contribute to the public space. Next to that there are a lot of artists who find their way into well-known galleries around the world. An amazing scene who make serious art, not just graffiti (btw never call a street artist a graffiti artist…) Eventually, I think street art is going to be as big as Pop Art.”

A big wish of Olivier is to start a really big (museum) exhibition with the biggest street art names in the world. Olivier: “For example Museum de Pont in Tilburg and then travel with it to Berlin, Paris, Antwerp, etc. To show a large audience the collective need for street art and show that it actually has the right to be shown in modern art museums around Europe! In my opinion the art on the street is still rather poor in Amsterdam. I would love to organize a meeting to ensure that more international artists make our city more beautiful. Come Banksy, come…”

Street art is any art developed in public spaces — that is, “in the streets”. Including traditional graffiti artwork, stencil graffiti, sticker art, wheatpasting and street poster art, video projection and more. “Art in public spaces is important for the people who live there, walk there, work there, visit there”, says Olivier. “Public art makes sure that boring areas in the city get interesting and are nicer to see and visit. It makes it exciting to walk trough the city and look for new art being added to difficult-to-reach-walls, read about peoples opinions (like Dutch artist Laser 3.14), see statements artists make regarding politics, and the environment, or artists who just want to make the city look prettier with their art.”

According to Oliver a lot international modern art museums are more currently open for Street Art. Olivier: “The best places for artists to exhibit their work and make a lot of money are New York and London. Although Paris and Berlin are also upcoming for the street art scene.”

Olivier: “Due to Banksy’s movie “Exit through the gift shop” and his intro with the Simpsons, street art gets known by the big general public. In that way not only the people who are in London during Frieze Art Fair or the Moniker Art Fair – or the cool guys with the hoodies – know about these artists. Eventually everybody should recognize the worth of these artists and more renowned galleries will present street art. I think this is a great development.”

One champion of street art is Space Invader. This French artist put up dozens of mosaics around 35 cities in the world. Great pieces visible to anyone looking. Did you notice?

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Dutch streetart and photography specialist at Look For Art. Former owner of Apart Media, a streetart gallery in Amsterdam. Also former creative director/ owner Number31. Please join his facebook group: Lookforart. His new website Lookforart will be featuring a lot of street art.