This weekend I attended the Art in the Streets museum exhibition at the Geffen Contemporary at the MOCA in downtown Los Angeles. It was written that this was the very first major US museum display of street art and graffiti art. The obvious problem with that statement is the fact that the idea of a street art exhibition inside the whitewashed walls of a sanctioned museum is somewhat of an oxymoron. Although the display was vast and educational on the motif of graffiti and street art (and I am a fan of several of the artists), I feel like the whole thing sort of cheapened the essense of the anarchist graffiti artist. I don't think the founders and originators of the movement would have ever imagined such a spectacle. At the end of the exhibit, the old fat white security guard making sure the line to the gift shop didn't get disorderly was the metaphorical nail in the coffin for the street art movement.

Anyway, I put together a collage of my walk through the exhibit:

The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA in downtown Los Angeles is featuring the first major US museum exhibition of street art and graffiti art. The show is called Art in the Streets and focuses on the evolution of graffiti and street art from the 1970s to what it is today. Although paintings, mixed media sculptures, and interactive installations are featured from 50 well known street artists from New York, Los Angeles, London, San Francisco, and Sao Paulo; the main focus of the show is the role Los Angeles plays in the movement.

Most notably, a special section of the show is dedicated to the art related to the locals only Dogtown skate and surf movement out of Venice Beach and Santa Monica.

Art in the Streets runs from 04.17.11 until 08.08.11 and is located here.

Referenced from: OBEY