Street Text: Art from the Coasts & The Populist Phenomenon

October 2, 2010 – December 11, 2010

October 2 – December 11, 2010

STREET TEXT was a two-part exhibition examining street art and its evolution into a worldwide cultural movement. The upstairs portion of the exhibition titled Art From the Coasts was curated by Andrew Connors, Curator of Art at The Albuquerque Museum. He compared masters of graffiti art from New York and Los Angeles, including the work of Chaz Bojórquez, Gusmano Cesaretti, Gajin Fujita, John Lorne and Lady Pink, as well as the documentary photography of Henry Chalfant. The downstairs portion of the exhibition titled The Populist Phenomenon was curated by Francesca Searer of 516 ARTS. It included a mix of local, national and international artists, and examined the artists’ work as a means of expressing a message to the masses. Featured New Mexican artists included Ernest Doty, Jaque Fragua, Stevan Gutierrez, Thomas Christopher Haag and Albert Rosales; and guest artists include Shepard Fairey, Gaia, Mark Jenkins, Alexandre Orion, Chris Stain, Slinkachu, SWOON and Chip Thomas. Work included on and off-site installations, photographic documentation, portable representations of wheat-paste, stencil and canvas work methods and video clips and films of street artists in action. This exhibition was the center of a citywide series of events titled STREET ARTS: A Celebration of Hip Hop Culture & Free Expression during fall 2010, presented in partnership with the ACLU-NM and involving 25 local organizations. The project celebrated art in the urban environment and explores issues of free expression.

Click here to view New Mexico Remix, a collaboration between Idris Goodwin & Chaz Bojorquez.

PRESS

“Chris Stain: Spreading his wings in Albuquerque” Brooklyn Street Art