At the dawn of the 1980s, a surge of artistic energy erupted in the streets of New York, laying the groundwork for an unprecedented adventure. It was the era when graffiti, like multicolored phoenixes, rose from the ashes of everyday life, transforming the city into a living canvas. At the heart of this tumult, a new generation of artists emerged, fearless and bold, ready to defy norms and free art from the chains of convention. In this urban jungle, these young creators proved to be the determined pioneers of an artistic revolution. Armed with spray cans and boundless creativity, they broke the rules, moving from the street to the canvas.
The exhibition “Unleashed Spray” embodies this artistic epic. A story, a journey of 45 canvases revealing the depths of visual rebellion: Post-graffiti. The standard-bearer of artistic insubordination, a window into a new world, spray became the pen of a rebellious generation, transforming simple acts of defiance into a language of varied styles: abstract, figurative, lettering. An assertion of freedom and a bold response to established norms, this exhibition brimming with audacity and defiance reflects the spirit of the 1980s. The showcased works, treasures of a new cultural paradigm, are rare pieces in the construction of this new aesthetic where every stroke on canvas becomes an intrigue, every shade a revelation, with each artist an emblematic figure — a star in the firmament of this pictorial epic, capable of turning each spray into a heroic act.
Impossible to theorize, post-graffiti has its own codes, rules, principles, styles, icons, heroes, and tragic destinies. The works displayed in “Unleashed Spray” were exhibited in the 1980s by museums, major dealers, and visionary gallerists who grasped the authentic artistic essence of these teenagers, seeing them as dissident creators whose impact would transcend the ages. They understood the place this movement would hold in art history, transcending prejudice to establish a new axiom. The recognition of a counterculture turned movement, a movement at the origins of a culture, and a culture that became history.
