Graffiti - Museion

29.03. –14.09.2025
Curated by Leonie Radine and Ned Vena
Press preview: 27.03.2025, 12:15
Opening: 28.03.2025, 19:00

Klara Lidén, Disco, 2020. Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam, gift of Sadie Coles HQ, London. © Klara Lidén Photo: Robert Glowacki. Courtesy the Artist and Sadie Coles HQ, London

Yuji Agematsu, Chantal Akerman, Nick Atkins, Charles Atlas, Lutz Bacher, Martin Barré, Blade, Monica Bonvicini, Patricia L. Boyd, Dan Christensen, Shaun Crawford, Curtis Cuffie, René Daniëls, Daze, Manuel DeLanda, Melvin Edwards, Matias Faldbakken, Heike-Karin Föll, Futura 2000, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer & Lady Pink, KAYA, Jutta Koether, Michael Krebber, Brad Kronz, Maggie Lee, Klara Lidén, Ilya Lipkin, Colette Lumiere, Kunle Martins, Jeanette Mundt, Georgie Nettell, Armando Nin, N.O.Madski, Clayton Patterson, Charlotte Posenenske, Josephine Pryde, Quik, Lee Quiñones, Carol Rama, Rammellzee, R.I.P. Germain, Matthew “Zexor” Rodriguez, Karin Sander, Seen, David Smith, Dash Snow, Ben Solomon, Hedda Sterne, Emily Sundblad, SoiL Thornton, Alix Vernet, WANTO, Lawrence Weiner, Dondi White, Martin Wong & LA2, Christopher Wool, Zephyr

Rammellzee, Future Futurism, 1984. Groninger Museum, loan from private collection Photo: Marten de Leeuw. Courtesy The Estate of Rammellzee

With Graffiti Museion presented a landmark exhibition about the relationship between graffiti and contemporary fine art. The first museum exhibition in Italy to investigate the art history of spray paint, Graffiti focused on how the visual vernacular of the city and the street has entered the studio. Above all, the show contended that graffiti is a way of seeing and experiencing urban landscapes.

Bringing together transdisciplinary works from across a 70 year period, the show centered on an approach that moves beyond the historization of graffiti as an “outsider” practice. Beginning with pre-graffiti spray paintings from the 1950s and 1960s, the exhibition unfolded through works by renowned graffiti writers of the 1980s, and contemporary artists who implement graffiti into their diverse practices.

Keith Haring, Untitled, 1983. Centraal Museum Utrecht Collection Photo: Gert Jan van Rooij. Keith Haring artwork © Keith Haring Foundation

Spray paint, the tool which characterizes contemporary graffiti, was patented in the United States in 1951. Between its introduction as a product in the 1950s and the late 1960s—when the form of graffiti that is widely recognized today was first practiced—there was a lapse of almost 20 years, during which fine artists also experimented with the tool. Once spray paint became the dominant style for graffiti writing, its subsequent use in any capacity became tied to graffiti. A simple line of spray paint immediately calls to mind associations with rebellion and urbanity, whether this is intentional or not.

KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch & Debo Eilers), Swarm Living is for Bodybag ONION BRAID, 2015, with N.O.Madski Style, 2025, N.O.Madski: Glyphtolyte, 2025. Courtesy of the artists and Deborah Schamoni. Exhibition view Graffiti, Museion, 2025. Photo: Luca Guadagnini.

Occupying 1,500 square meters across the two largest floors of Museion, the show features key works from the latter half of the 20th Century until the present day, as well as site-specific new works.

Graffiti took—as its point of departure—works from the 1950s and 1960s by artists such as Hedda Sterne, David Smith, Martin Barré, Dan Christensen, Carol Rama, and Charlotte Posenenske. In juxtaposition were spray paint on canvas works by seminal graffiti writers such as Rammellzee, Futura 2000, Blade, and Lee Quiñones. A selection of significant 1980s and 1990s paintings, which clearly reference or incorporate graffiti, by Lady Pink & Jenny Holzer, Martin Wong & LA2, and Keith Haring, was followed by more recent examples of spray paintings by Heike-Karin Föll, Michael Krebber, and Christopher Wool. Digital tag drawings by Georgie Nettell met Patricia L. Boyd’s photogram of a bus shelter and Karin Sander’s Patina Paintings, among many other works. This part of the exhibition further included artworks by contemporary graffiti writers such as Kunle Martins and WANTO, and a new piece by N.O.Madski in dialogue with sculptures by KAYA.

The exhibition continued in the form of a city scape, occupied by various works incorporating urban realities. This included films and photography by Charles Atlas and Manuel DeLanda, as well as numerous large-scale installations and sculptures such as Klara Lidén’s readymade trash cans and junction boxes, or Josephine Pryde’s New Media Express, a model train covered in miniature graffiti. Graffiti methods of mark making were reflected in R.I.P. Germain’s sculpture of a false storefront, a new wall installation by Matias Faldbakken, and street casts by Alix Vernet.

This exhibition inaugurated Museion’s new long-term research project THE SOFTEST HARD, which focuses on soft and non-violent forms of resistance and art as a social and urban practice.

The exhibition was co-curated by New York based artist and archivist Ned Vena (b. 1982 Boston, USA). His artistic practice, which involves paintings, sculptures, installations, and films, was deeply informed by his active practice as a graffiti writer and his profound research into the history of graffiti; and vice versa, his thorough studies of the history of painting also shaped his understanding of graffiti. Both his personal dedication and cross-disciplinary archival knowledge manifest in the exhibition.

Ned Vena says: “Graffiti was how I found my way into being an artist, but it is also how I see things; things like art, for example. Graffiti is an exhibition that includes works that are not necessarily about or from graffiti, but are works that, when I view them, conjure my experiences with graffiti.”

On March 26, 2025, prior to the opening, the exhibition kicked off with a cinema film screening of Chantal Akerman’s News from Home (1976), organized in collaboration with and at the Filmclub Bozen Bolzano.

The exhibition, initiated by Museion, is the result of a partnership between Museion and Centraal Museum, Utrecht.

Collateral program

26.03.2025
20:00

Chantal Akerman, News from Home (1976)
Film Screening

In collaboration with Filmclub Bolzano/Bozen
With an introduction by Leonie Radine & Ned Vena
at Filmclub Bolzano/Bozen

The opening of the exhibition will be preceded by a cinema screening of Chantal Akerman’s News from Home (1976). Long takes and stills of New York, where the Belgian filmmaker sought artistic exile, are accompanied by Akerman’s voice reading letters from her mother in her distant homeland. Graffiti exists in it as a key part of the rugged and unforgiving urban background, providing a stark juxtaposition to the words being spoken.

28.03.2025
20:00–24:00

Museion Art Club
Heaven Spot

A night of sound and movement inspired by graffiti culture

08.04.2025
15–17:00

STORY ENCOUNTERS (IT/DE)
with Brita Köhler

Soft Rebellion: The colorful images and writings of graffiti adorn public spaces. They are provocative and represent the non-violent form of resistance of a young urban culture. Artists also make use of their expressive power. In the storytelling gathering, we will encounter our own soft rebellion!

08.05.2025
18–20:00

IN CONTEXT
Talk with guests (DE)
moderation: Brita Köhler

Beyond the threshold of the museum and into society: The Lifelong Learning educational series In Context connects the themes of the Graffiti exhibition with local topics of urban youth culture in South Tyrol. We look forward to a dialogue with exciting guests from relevant sectors of the region.

15.05.2025
17–19:00

MUSEION INK
(IT/ENG)
with Roberta Pedrini

Creative writing encounters: In the context of the Museion Ink workshop, the works in the Graffiti exhibition will inspire participants to engage in unconventional acts of writing, prompting spontaneous, automatic, and individual processes that will give life to the most disobedient thoughts in a logic of resistance through words.

29.05.2025
19:00

Guided tour with the curator (DE/EN)

with Leonie Radine

21.–25.07.2025
9–13:00

Museion Art Club Young SUMMERLAB
with Fos studio

Fos Studio is running a week-long workshop on using natural paints for ecofriendly art in public spaces. Fos is a photography and communication design studio founded in Bolzano by Irene Lombardi, Daniel von Johnston and Filippo Viciani. They created a paint made from apple scraps that was used for art and advertising projects in public spaces.

13.–14.09.2025
18–18:00

URBAN BRIDGE
Installation and program within the 24 hours Museion and Transart anniversary event

Art Club in collaboration with Sk8project and Murarte

Born from the collaboration between Art Club, Sk8project and Murarte, URBAN BRIDGE redefines the relationship between urban space and cultural expression by bridging skateboarding, graffiti, and music inside Museion.

every Saturday and Sunday
14–18:00

ART SPEAKINGS (IT/DE/EN)
with mediation-team Museion

Group talks: During weekly art dialogues, mediators are available for individual conversations, in-depth discussions, and joint explorations.

every Thursday
19:00

WELCOME! (IT/DE)

Free evening guided tour

For duration of the exhibition

FAMILY TOUR (IT/DE/EN)

Borrowable free of charge from the Infocenter