Project 365: Day 93

Day 93, originally uploaded by shalimargonzales.

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Little Tokyo's current exhibition is Art in the Streets, the first major U.S. museum exhibition of the history of graffiti and street art. The exhibition traces the development of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to the global movement it has become today, concentrating on key cities where a unique visual language or attitude has evolved.

Art in the Streets showcases installations by 50 of the most dynamic artists from the graffiti and street art community, including Fab 5 Freddy (New York), Lee Quiñones (New York), Futura (New York), Margaret Kilgallen (San Francisco), Swoon (New York), Shepard Fairey (Los Angeles), Os Gemeos (São Paulo), and JR (Paris).

A special emphasis (and one of my favorite parts) is placed on photographers and filmmakers who documented graffiti and street art culture including Martha Cooper, Henry Chalfant, James Prigoff, Steve Grody, Gusmano Cesaretti, Estevan Oriol, Ed Templeton, Larry Clark, Terry Richardson, and Spike Jonze.

MOCA is a massive space and Art in the Streets features several shows within the show. There is a special section dedicated to the Fun Gallery, which connected New York graffiti artists with the downtown art community in the early 1980s. The Fun Gallery installation features the work of Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and the graffiti artists who shaped the gallery’s history. A section dedicated to the seminal film Wild Style (1983), co-curated by the film’s director Charlie Ahearn, will document its influence on the global dissemination of graffiti and hip-hop culture. A highlight of the exhibition was a Los Angeles version of Street Market, a re-creation of an urban street complete with overturned trucks by Todd James, Barry McGee, and Steve Powers.

There were several school groups (middle schoolers) taking in the exhibition, which was both great and a little disturbing. There are several graphic images of naked men and women and lots of photos of penis. I'm not sure I would like to be the parent chaperon having to tell kids to move along quickly. But still, kids taking in culture is pretty damn awesome.