When you walk into Kulture Lab, someone will kill you -- well, metaphorically speaking. Before you can let your eyes wander to the graffiti on the walls, the DJ above you, or the mannequin with a hand down its panties, the Dead Artists at Kulture Lab stamp your hand with the word "dead," welcoming you as one of them.

The quirky art gallery's latest show, Penalty for Removal, drew quite a crowd on March 24. Featuring the work of graffiti artists around the Sound, the show invited visitors to examine why graffiti is deemed dubious artistry.

Reactions among attendees ranged from bewilderment to enthusiastic endorsement. "It's a glorification of urban . . . something, right?" said one person at the show. Others happily gobbled the proffered cake and beer as they shuffled through the gallery, all of their senses taking in the cunning displays and infectious energy of the surrounding art.

Heather Tanner, the Ledger's very own staff cartoonist, collaborated with Kulture Lab to display her art on the walls of the gallery. So is graffiti true art? According to Tanner, it fits the definition. "There's something really beautiful about what people put up there and about the temporary nature of it. It's very in the moment, it's very now," she said.

A wall in the gallery highlighted Tanner's artwork, along with the work of Tim Kapler, creator of the "Pointless" feature that runs in each issue of the Ledger, and overall helpful guy around campus. The wall featured a spray-painted power pole with a broken gilded frame surrounding it.

Graffiti art certainly occupies a different place in the art world.

"If nobody likes it, then write something over it," explained Tanner. "And it's temporary, too, so [people] will tear it down, they'll tag over it, they'll write 'you're a tool' – they'll do whatever."

Graffiti appeals because of its ephemeral, public nature as well. "That's the great thing, it's because it's happening in a public forum. When you put something up onto a wall it's for everybody to see or to ignore," she added.

"There's no hierarchy of a gallery where you have somebody telling you what it is and what it means and telling you how much it costs."

Still, bringing in graffiti art from the street to a gallery carried its challenges, according to Tanner. "Having a street art show is kind of a tricky thing. That was something Tim and I really thought a lot about. But it's part of the deal," she said. People who put their voices out on the street "have to make their living as artists."

Kapler elaborated."There're a lot of purists, too, that look down upon people, you know, 'graf guys,' who go into galleries. And one of the guys sold an $800 piece there. A couple of years ago he wouldn't have been caught dead" selling his art in a gallery.

Graffiti artists who present their work to galleries also do so because art on the streets is so temporary. "There are really successful artists…that do gallery stuff," Tanner said. "Their main body of work is actually gone ,because it's put on the streets and covered up and buffed and things like that."

Whether it is redefining art or simply displaying street artists' clever sketches, Kulture Lab's Penalty for Removal is innovative, edgy, and exciting, capturing the artists' genuine love for art in public places. Graffiti art encapsulates city life.

"It's great to be able to look at a wall and… be able to see people that I like on it," said Tanner. "So we just wanted to capture a little bit of that and show that… this is a beautiful thing, that people should look around. It's all the detritus of life and people living in a city."

Kapler added, "Hide something in a corner and maybe nobody will ever see it, but if somebody does… If one person finds it, great. If you get it, even better."

See Penalty for Removal at Kulture Lab, 608 S. Fawcett St. in Tacoma. Because the gallery is so transient at the moment, the hours are hard to guess.