Graffiti

Curated by Leonie Radine and Ned Vena.

With works by Yuji Agematsu, Chantal Akerman, Nick Atkins, Charles Atlas, Lutz Bacher, Martin Barré, Blade, Monica Bonvicini, Patricia L. Boyd, Dan Christensen, Shaun Crawford, Curtis Cuffie, René Daniëls, Daze, Manuel DeLanda, Melvin Edwards, Matias Faldbakken, Heike-Karin Föll, Futura 2000, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer & Lady Pink, KAYA, Jutta Koether, Michael Krebber, Brad Kronz, Maggie Lee, Klara Lidén, Ilya Lipkin, Colette Lumiere, Kunle Martins, Jeanette Mundt, Georgie Nettell, Armando Nin, N.O.Madski, Clayton Patterson, Charlotte Posenenske, Josephine Pryde, Quik, Lee Quiñones, Carol Rama, Rammellzee, R.I.P. Germain, Matthew "Zexor" Rodriguez, Karin Sander, Seen, David Smith, Dash Snow, Ben Solomon, Hedda Sterne, Emily Sundblad, SoiL Thornton, Alix Vernet, WANTO, Lawrence Weiner, Dondi White, Martin Wong & LA2, Christopher Wool, Zephyr

In March 2025, Museion will present a landmark exhibition about the relationship between graffiti and contemporary fine art. The first museum exhibition in Italy to investigate the art history of spray paint, Graffiti focuses on how the visual vernacular of the city and the street has entered the studio. Above all, the show contends that graffiti is a way of seeing and experiencing urban landscapes.

Bringing together transdisciplinary works from across a 70 year period, the show centers on an approach that moves beyond the historization of graffiti as an “outsider” practice. Beginning with pre-graffiti spray paintings from the 1950s and 1960s, the exhibition unfolds through works by renowned graffiti writers of the 1980s, and contemporary artists who implement graffiti into their diverse practices.

Spray paint, the tool which characterizes contemporary graffiti, was patented in the United States in 1951. Between its introduction as a product in the 1950s and the late 1960s—when the form of graffiti that is widely recognized today was first practiced—there was a lapse of almost 20 years, during which fine artists also experimented with the tool. Once spray paint became the dominant style for graffiti writing, its subsequent use in any capacity became tied to graffiti. A simple line of spray paint immediately calls to mind associations with rebellion and urbanity, whether this is intentional or not.

Occupying 1,500 square meters across the two largest floors of Museion, the show features key works from the latter half of the 20th century until the present day, as well as site-specific new works.

Graffiti takes—as its point of departure—works from the 1950s and 1960s by artists such as Hedda Sterne, David Smith, Martin Barré, Dan Christensen, Carol Rama, and Charlotte Posenenske. In juxtaposition are spray paint on canvas works by seminal graffiti writers such as Rammellzee, Futura 2000, Blade, and Lee Quiñones. A selection of significant 1980s and 1990s paintings, which clearly reference or incorporate graffiti, by Lady Pink & Jenny Holzer, Martin Wong & LA2, and Keith Haring, is followed by more recent examples of spray paintings by Heike-Karin Föll, Michael Krebber, and Christopher Wool. Digital tag drawings by Georgie Nettell meet Patricia L. Boyd’s photogram of a bus shelter and Karin Sander’s Patina Paintings, among many other works. This part of the exhibition further includes artworks by contemporary graffiti writers such as Kunle Martins and WANTO, and a new piece by N.O.Madski in dialogue with sculptures by KAYA.

The exhibition continues in the form of a city scape, occupied by various works incorporating urban realities. This includes films and photography by Charles Atlas and Manuel DeLanda, as well as numerous large-scale installations and sculptures such as Klara Lidén’s readymade trash cans and junction boxes, or Josephine Pryde’s New Media Express, a model train covered in miniature graffiti. Graffiti methods of mark making are reflected in R.I.P. Germain’s sculpture of a false storefront, a new wall installation by Matias Faldbakken, and street casts by Alix Vernet. 

This exhibition inaugurates a new long-term Museion research project which focuses on soft and non-violent forms of resistance—and art as a social and urban practice.

The exhibition is co-curated by New York based artist and archivist Ned Vena (b. 1982 Boston, USA). His artistic practice, which involves paintings, sculptures, installations, and films, was deeply informed by his active practice as a graffiti writer and his profound research into the history of graffiti; and vice versa, his thorough studies of the history of painting also shaped his understanding of graffiti. Both his personal dedication and cross-disciplinary archival knowledge manifest in the exhibition.

Ned Vena says: “Graffiti was how I found my way into being an artist, but it is also how I see things; things like art, for example. Graffiti is an exhibition that includes works that are not necessarily about or from graffiti, but are works that, when I view them, conjure my experiences with graffiti.”

The exhibition, initiated by Museion, is the result of a partnership between Museion and Centraal Museum, Utrecht.