Street art is punk as hell. It grew up on crushed beer cans and gritty street corners. It’s a backyard pool, a railroad car or an abandoned building. It’s an album cover, a painted surfboard or a strange sculpture. Street art is so many things that it seems impossible to fit into one all-encompassing exhibit, but somehow this is exactly what they did at the Geffen Contemporary at MOCA. 50 street artists from around the world contributed to this massive display that is the first major survey of Street Art and Graffiti in the United States.
The result is a Disneyland-esque acid trip. Whole street corners and alleys were built. A mini indoor skate park sits at the front. Strange lights, colors, & sounds are spread throughout every corner. It’s as if Stanley Kubrick and Gaspar Noe wrestled the inside of the building and won. Somehow it all came together. The skateboarders, the artists, the gangsters, the punks, the surfers, the cholos, the rappers, the intellectuals all had this one thing tying them together: Street Art. It’s art for the sake of art. No dollar signs, no profit, just pure self-expression.
Go check it out you won’t be disappointed.
The exhibit is free on Mondays, compliments of renowned street artist Banksy. His words, “I don’t think you should have to pay to look at graffiti. You should only pay if you want to get rid of it,”
ART IN THE STREETS
The Geffen Contemporary at MOCA
04.17.11 – 08.08.11
