/ PRESENTATION
URBAN PAINTING - street art group exhibition
from the Press Release
Street art has also reached Costa Smeralda, landing in the prestigious halls of the MdM Museum in Porto Cervo, where in the summer of 2015 the exhibition Urban Painting – street art exhibition was inaugurated. It offered a unique and engaging journey through the work of over fifty artists from five continents.
Ernest Pignon-Ernest, JR, Obey, Swoon, Vhils, Roa, Faile, C215, Faith47, Dome, Tim Biskup, Banksy, Mark Jenkins, Conor Harrington, Stelios Faitakis, Dan Witz, Herakut, Baglione, Lucy McLauchlan, DALeast, Ericailcane, David Ellis, Labrona, A1one, Ethos, Bastardilla, Judith Supine, Miss Van, Sten & Lex, Vinz Feel Free, Btoy, Mr. Brainwash, Remed, Sam3, Escif, Innominabile, Brad Downey, Stik, Pure Evil, M-CITY, The London Police, Pisa73, Czarnobyl, EVOL, Ben Eine, Logan Hicks, Guy Denning, Mobstr, and many other key voices of the international urban art scene were featured.
Urban art, street art, post-graffiti… call it what you will—hate it even, if you wish to keep your distance—but it is no longer possible to deny that it represents an important part of our time: a mark, the expression of a new, socially shared public sphere.
It is no coincidence that in recent years street art has seen a breakthrough in galleries and auction houses, alongside growing mutual interest between artists and the most forward-thinking museums. Landmark exhibitions at MOCA in Los Angeles (2011), Tate Modern (2008), and PAC in Milan (2007) are clear examples.
So it’s no surprise that, following major exhibitions on Basquiat (2014), Andy Warhol (2013), Damien Hirst, Zhang Huan, Takashi Murakami, Marc Quinn (2011), Mario Schifano (2009), and Mimmo Rotella (2008), the halls of the Promenade du Port welcomed works by Banksy, Obey, Swoon, Vhils, Roa, C215, DALeast, Sten & Lex, and many more. The exhibition featured 110 works by 55 artists from 21 countries across 5 continents, along with a series of outdoor interventions that came to life over the summer. This was the very spirit of the encounter at the museum: to discover, under soft light and with an open mind, the works of artists who bring to canvas, sculpture, or other media the language they first learned on the street. And then, to return outdoors and look at those murals with fresh eyes—as something that belongs to us, to our cities.
Spread across four levels, the exhibition felt like a world tour through urban walls—from Ireland to Brazil, from the UK to China, passing through South Africa, France, and Chile. Luigi Mauri and Tatiana Belluzzo, curators of the selection and exhibition design—created in collaboration with Rosy Fuga de Rosa (director of the MdM Museum in Porto Cervo)—brought together a significant body of work that demonstrates, which is still rare in Italy, the growing attention of contemporary urban art collectors. The works came from Italian private collections of street art—a remarkable fact in itself. Conceived by Urban Painting, the exhibition reflects a shared vision, the work of Italy’s first collectors of urban art, and the synthesis of ten years of research.
Urban Painting – street art exhibition generated attention because it confirmed a small but important success: the relevance of cultural patronage in this field and the vibrancy of an artistic movement that, from creation to reception, moves from the bottom up, in a horizontal manner—offering a guarantee of energy and authenticity (Lorenzo Mazza).