Nine years after their legendary book ”International Topsprayer, which is out of print long-since and traded for hundreds of euros by now, Moses & Taps release a brick twice as thick: Graffiti Avantgarde is a heavyweight! With 544 pages, more than 2000 photos in ten chapters as well as a variety of exciting and subtle texts, it gives a deep insight into Moses & Taps broad work as graffiti artist since 2011. The book shows how they managed the balancing act between bombing trains and being accepted artists and explains why these two worlds are not mutually exclusive.
Why talk to a gallery owner? Quite simply because there are now a lot of graffiti writers who are already exhibiting with their work or are planning to do so at some point. But what do you show in an exhibition? Is graffiti from the street and train yards simply transferable to the white cube? We talked about this and much more with Christoph Tornow in his Golden Hands gallery in Hamburg Mitte.
Christoph has had art in public space for many years – he always uses a wide variety that the genre offers. The genre is often not really defined, or can be. This art form is sometimes just too young for that. Exhibitions with artists such asFinsta,Mode2,Mason,Felipe Pantone,Moses &Taps or Rageinclude not only illustrative and conceptual works, but also classic paintings, sculptures and installations.
Podcast Number 16 from I Love Graffiti is about exactly this variety, background and motives of curation in a gallery and what chances you can actually have in the art market if you retire from the street to a studio as a graffiti writer. Of course Christoph is one of many gallery owners in Germany and Europe, but he makes it relatively clear exactly what it is all about if you take this step. An exciting glimpse behind the scenes of a gallery that has been dealing with graffiti art for many years.
In forty years, graffiti has grown from a local New York subculture into a worldwide phenomenon with its own heroes and business models. Embraced as urban decoration or buffed by all means, graffiti has escaped a slow death, mainly thanks to the internet. Actions in the real world are increasingly carried out and documented with their digital distribution in mind, leading to refreshing self-reflection and an emphasis on the performative nature of writing.
Don’t tell the taggers, but graffiti has evolved into a mature, varied artform that doesn’t shy away from difficult themes and that combines resistance against repression with a contagious hacker mentality. Meanwhile, the kick of illegality continues to be an important motivation, inextricably linked to kudos and street credibility.??
With #ViralVandals MU presents an exhibition about the second life of graffiti. Going virtually viral will replace the street in the quest for even greater visibility. New forms of expression emerge and the DNA of the scene changes irreversibly. A monument to the international, online graffiti community—young creators and global icons—in Eindhoven.
Participants:
4608 & Fabian Sigurd, Boyscout, Brad Downey, Eewan, Good Guy Boris, Loiq, Mobstr, MOSES&TAPS™, MVIN, Nawas, Nug & Pike, Rage, Sauli Sirviö, TOY Crew, Utah & Ether, Veli & Amos, Zelle Asphaltkultur
Co-curators: Jasper van Es & Good Guy Boris
