Street Art / Inventory

About

We proudly present Street Art / Inventory.

Each artist from the selected group taking part in this exhibition keeps a conceptual coherence with their work on the street, continuing to develop the same expression in different spaces, regardless of canvas. Each of them creates in their respective mediums, ranging from screen print propaganda, stencils, drawings, and collage, to adbusting and street photography, without ever diverting from the original idea of their street-based artistic activism.

Introducing these activities into a deterritorialized setting, OPEN WALLS Gallery will serve as an alternative territory for two months. It will become a place that thrusts us deep into the vitality and originality of a movement which never ceases to reinvent itself.

There’s no Better School Than the Street

As one of the most ubiquitous spaces of artistic activity, street has become an unconventional gallery of contemporary art. It is an open showroom in which creatives can display their work without compromise, a clashing point of countless styles and expressions. Street is a symbol of ultimate freedom and complete diversity.

In this public mixture of languages and melange of voices, pictograms of road signs and surreal messages written by street artists live side by side, while a simple commercial communication can easily confront the political. A careful observer can easily detect a rather noisy undercurrent of our society in the street, a dominion that generates its own methods of communication.

Every city’s streets abound with messages crying out for attention. They prompt, but also conceal the germs of a distinctive street-talk, a phenomenon that in all probability predicts many aspects of our forthcoming lifestyle. The street is a stage of the multi-colored, multi-ethnic masses, a platform for their cultural expression and a dojo for their powers of persuasion. This power is something we witness every day.

Being inherently connected to the people, the street is a natural place of inspiration for the artists of our exhibition. Our goal is to serve as an intermediary in their activities in order to support them and make their work possible. We feel that such clever forms of activism deserve broader attention, both from the public and from the artistic community. Finally, we do not doubt their immediate impact on direct observers.

From City Walls to Gallery Walls

Wandering through the last 40 years of tags, paste-ups, stencils and interventions that came and went, we can accept Urban Art as the new term for the Contemporary Street Art Movement. Developed out of the raw underground movements of Graffiti and Street Art, this postmodern expression now holds its own in the white cube. Observing both the streets and the market, this new artistic trend has spread across the world in the past decade and a half. It is still rapidly securing spots in major art galleries and collections. Internet and the expansion of social media has made the Urban Art movement more popular than ever. More people are involved with its cutting-edge visuals, terms and theories than ever before, including both art connoisseurs and neophytes.

Street Art / Inventory exhibition aims to support the movement and allow interested collectors, enthusiasts and first-timers in the art industry to attain pieces that have been created in the same way as their street counterparts. As the most authentic contemporary movement, Urban Art has proven to be of interest to new collectors, who can easily connect with its designs and slogans. Fresh approach these enthusiasts have appreciate this new language of diverse codes and styles laid upon any painted surface, silkscreen print, or paper.

Seven names curated for the Street Art / Inventory exhibition are a part of the OPEN WALLS core program. They are presented to the Berlin public as a result of an almost a decade long dedication to the cause. This eclectic group consists of Levalet, Alias, Madame, SP38, Vermibus, Jordan Seiler and Thomas von Wittich, all of whom come from different backgrounds and have different expressions. What they all have in common is the devotion to city interventions, as well as an intrinsic manner of communication with the observer. Every one of them continues to push the boundaries of public expression, staying true to their original idea. Contrary to the popular trend of large-scale murals, often sponsored by large corporations, the art of these seven renegades is conceptually thought provoking and stylistically stratified. It is created out of sincere urge to act rather than for commercial purposes, always calling the observer to contemplation and subsequently – to action.