Some of New York’s leading graffiti artists are headed to Europe to display their work at one of the world’s most prestigious exhibitions of contemporary art. Graffiti pioneers Blade, Daze, Quik, and Sharp will head to Venice, Italy for the latest Venice Biennale, which occurs, of course, every two years.
The exhibition of these American masters’ work is sponsored by New York’s American Folk Art Museum. The Museum, along with Benetton, will exhibit the work of four more artists from outside the Big Apple who are also working in the outsider/folk art genre. The eight artists will each create new pieces on-site at the Fondaco dei Tedeschi.
The exhibition is an important step in the further legitimization of graffiti as an important and valuable art form and not the illegal eyesore that some more conservative people still see it as. For more information visit the websites of the American Folk Art Museum and the Venice Biennial.
(April 11)
UPDATE: A spokesperson for the European Art Festival contacted HipHopDX, informing us that Benetton, who had planned to cooperate with the American Folk Art Museum on an exhibition of African American self-taught artists and graffiti muralists in Venice during the Biennale, announced that they will postpone the project. The site-specific exhibition was planned for the Fondaco dei Tedeschi, a property owned by the Benetton family, adjacent to the Rialto Bridge.
“This is a very large historic building and has been unoccupied for many years,” said a Benetton spokesperson. “Due to its condition, we were unable to obtain the necessary permits, certifications, and finish the modifications necessary to insure the safety of the crowds expected for this exhibition. The project has been postponed to the reopening of the Fondaco after its renovation by Rem Koolhaus.”
hell yeah- graph culture all day- every day at work i drive over a few blocks to the train yard at this factory where all the garph trains are and eat my lunch and blast real hip hop- big empty parking lot- all good – today i was bumpin PMD’s shade business album- that shit will blow all these corny mainstream clones away!!!
keep bombi the system dudes.
1 luv
STFU! fag
dryanalblaster:
your moms a pig and i mouth fucked her last night. chump- say some real shit about graph culture or get the fuck off the blog ya bitch ass maggot.
Girls, girls!No need to pull the claws out.
Me-Oww!
As a fellow bomber, not tagger, I must say this: For graffiti to recieve anymore main stream recognition would, in my opinion, destroy it. Graffiti is the antiart, its there to piss people off and inspire the few that go against the grain. So fuck main stream art and I hope yuppies everywhere get sick to their stomache when the see graffit beging refered to as art.
True words indeed..Graffiti is like only 1 hollywood movie away from becoming completely infiltrated by mainstream. Just imagine the amount of posers that would flood in, once it became “accepted”. There would be no wall space left and you’d have more toys painting than true artists. Shit..the toys we ALREADY have are annoying enough..not long ago I found one of my dope pieces that took like 8 hrs to do, gone over by a horrendous throw up that looks worse than the first shit I’ve ever done on paper..more of that, EVERYDAY? NO THANK YOU!
big ups to all my graffers out there…