Futura on view at K11 Art Foundation. Courtesy of K11 Art Foundation.
Presented by K11 MUSEA and K11 Art Foundation, City As Studio, China’s first major exhibition of graffiti and street art, will showcase the breadth and depth of the graffiti and street art scene across generations, styles and geographies.
Featuring over 100 works by more than 30 artists, City As Studio traces the global history of graffiti and street art from its emergence in the subway yards and parking lots of 1970s New York to its rise as a worldwide phenomenon. It begins with the movement’s pivotal innovators such as Fab 5 Freddy, FUTURA and Jean-Michel Basquiat who were part of the dialogue and the Downtown art scene of the late 1970s and early 1980s, and goes on to highlight artists such as Barry McGee, Mister Cartoon and OSGEMEOS, and the groundbreaking styles they created in San Francisco, East Los Angeles and São Paulo. The exhibition also documents the emergence and evolution of artists such as KAWS and AIKO who represent a younger generation of New York street artists.