by Kim Power

Art 345

September 2 – September 19

When graffiti and street art leave the urban jungle, what do they become? The elements that define the genre—spray paint drips, high-chroma colors, calligraphic lines and tagging—have become commonplace and appropriated much like the fashion world’s adoption of punk. It’s edgy and subversive. It’s underground and anarchistic. It is the visual language of urban life.  It represents the proletariat and is site specific. By its very nature, it is ephemeral, exposed to the elements and city detritus as well as to the threat of removal due to its illegal nature, making it a testament to the passage of time and decay. The Warhol-like marketing of Mr. Brainwash’s blockbuster exhibit Life is Beautiful (2008), threatened to turn it into an imitation and quotation of itself, transforming the marginal to mainstream to be consumed as a commodity rather than an integral part of the urban landscape.

See the rest of this post here: http://quantumartreview.com/2015/09/24/sublime-harlem-exhibit-review/