With Graffiti , Museion presents a groundbreaking exhibition exploring the connections between graffiti and contemporary art until September 14, 2025. For the first time in Italy, a museum exhibition is dedicated to the history of spray painting and the diverse artistic transformations of the visual languages of the city and street into the studio. Graffiti presents itself primarily as a view and perspective on urban landscapes. Spanning 1,500 square meters on the museum's two upper floors, the exhibition brings together key works from the mid-20th century to the present, as well as new, site-specific works.
The exhibition brings together transdisciplinary works from 70 years and pursues an approach that goes far beyond the historicization of graffiti as an "outsider" practice. Beginning with early spray paintings from the 1950s and 1960s, it spans the spectrum from works by legendary graffiti writers of the 1980s to works by contemporary artists who incorporate graffiti into their diverse oeuvre.
Spray paint, the signature tool of modern graffiti, was patented in the United States in 1951. Nearly two decades passed between its market launch in the 1950s and the emergence of the form of graffiti we know today in the late 1960s, during which time visual artists were already experimenting with the medium. Since spray paint became the dominant means of expression for graffiti, it has automatically become associated with this art form. Even a simple line of spray paint on canvas now immediately evokes associations with rebellion and urban culture.
KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers), installation view Curated by NOMadski – KAYA V (Kerstin Brätsch / Debo Eilers), Meyer Kainer, Vienna, 2015 Photo: Ulrich Holz. Courtesy of the artists, Meyer Kainer, Vienna, and Deborah Schamoni
Graffiti begins with works from the 1950s and 1960s by artists such as Hedda Sterne, David Smith, Martin Barré, Dan Christensen, Carol Rama, and Charlotte Posenenske. These are interwoven with canvas works by legendary graffiti writers such as Rammellzee, Futura 2000, Blade, and Lee Quiñones. Important works from the 1980s and 1990s, which combine graffiti and contemporary art—including works by Lady Pink & Jenny Holzer, Martin Wong & LA2, and Keith Haring—follow more recent spray paintings by Heike-Karin Föll, Michael Krebber, and Christopher Wool. Digital graffiti drawings by Georgie Nettell intersect with Patricia L. Boyd's photogram of a bus stop and Karin Sander's utility images, among others. This part of the exhibition also includes works by contemporary graffiti artists such as Kunle Martins and WANTO, as well as new works by NOMadski in dialogue with sculptures by KAYA.
Keith Haring, Untitled, 1983. Centraal Museum Utrecht Collection Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation
Finally, the exhibition transforms into an urban landscape populated by works that reflect the raw and creative sides of urban realities in diverse ways. Graffiti appears as a material in films and photographs, such as those by Charles Atlas and Manuel DeLanda, as well as in large-scale installations and sculptures. Josephine Pryde's New Media Express, a model train sprayed with graffiti, moves among Klara Lidén's readymade trash cans and distribution boxes. Other methods of marking urban surfaces can be found in RIP Germain's sculptural recreation of a storefront, a new wall installation by Matias Faldbakken, and the Street Casts by Alix Vernet.
Graffiti marks the beginning of a new, long-term Museion research line that focuses on gentle 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 (*1982 in Boston, USA). His artistic practice encompasses painting, sculpture, installation, and film, and is influenced by his active work as a graffiti writer and his extensive research into the history of graffiti. Conversely, his intensive engagement with the history of painting has also influenced his understanding of graffiti. The exhibition reflects not only his personal commitment to these intersections but also his interdisciplinary archival expertise.
March 29 to September 14, 2025
www.museion.it
Klara Lidén, Disco, 2020. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, gift of Sadie Coles HQ, London. © Klara Lidén Photo: Robert Glowacki. Courtesy the Artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London
