A controversial exhibition which will show a selection of graffiti and street art in a compressed form and very unusual context. For the first time this language of the street, with a stigma of vandalism, will be confronted internationally on the ground of a prestigious art gallery.
The exhibition presents top Czech writers alongside artists from the strong European scenes, such as Germany, France, the Netherlands, Spain and Poland, as well as legends from the US.
Three artists from the United States will participate in this program and lead debates and lectures about art history, traditions, and street art in the United States.
HOW’N’NOSM
Graffiti twins: the brothers Raoul and David were born in the Basque Country; their first encounter with graffiti art took place in suburban Düsseldorf, in 1989; and they made the definitive breakthrough in New York where they moved ten years later. There, joining the legendary TAT´s crew entailed a shift away from tagging and work with trains to large-scale mural and canvas painting. Over the last few years, they have worked out their own individual style characterized by the combination of black, red and silver hues, a distinct linear graphic handwriting, and an original stylization. www.howandnosm.com
SWOON
American street artist, studied painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, N.Y. She specializes in realistic black-and-white, sometimes partly coloured lifesize paper cutouts. In their making, she uses hand-drawn and linocut print models. Her dominant themes are figural, often portraying women and children. Her output fascinates by its refinement, precision and emotionally eloquent drawing with symbolic overtones. She became acquainted with Prague while a student in the 1990s, and still knows a couple of Czech phrases. www.swooninprint.com
The list of featured artists includes POINT, PASTA ONER, BIOR, EPOS 257, MASKER, SMASH 137, HONET, DELTA, ZEDZ, REBEL INK, M-CITY, OBIC, POET 73, SPINO, TRON, XDOG, and comprises both strong-minded individuals and collective projects.
The styles will range from classic writing through to large-size paintings, installations, objects and projections and even the radical, dark side of graffiti – tagging and bombing – will not be left out. Pieces, created on the gallery’s walls especially for this project, will burst out into the city and appear in several key spots in Prague, such as the iconic Nusle Bridge.
This unusual exhibition will be accompanied by lectures, presentations, projections and a catalogue documenting the project.
