Graffiti in Utrecht
Following its initial presentation at Museion from March 29 to September 14, 2025, the exhibition Graffiti will open at Centraal Museum in Utrecht on October 10, 2026, and run until March 29, 2027.
Initiated by Museion, where it was curated by Leonie Radine and New York-based artist and archivist Ned Vena, the exhibition brings together transdisciplinary works spanning seven decades to explore the relationship between graffiti and contemporary fine art. Instead of historizing graffiti as an “outsider” practice, Graffiti looks at the broader development of spray paint and at the ways in which the visual vernacular of the city and the street has entered artistic studios.
At the center of the exhibition is graffiti as a way of seeing and experiencing urban landscapes. Beginning with works by artists who have experimented with spray paint since the 1950s, the exhibition unfolds through paintings from the 1980s by legendary graffiti writers to contemporary pieces in which graffiti is an integral part of artistic engagement with urban realities, painting, image-making, and space.
At Centraal Museum, Graffiti is presented in a new configuration that brings the original exhibition into dialogue with the museum’s collection, research, and local context. The Utrecht presentation features around 130 works by 70 artists and is co-curated by Catrien Schreuder from Centraal Museum, Leonie Radine, and Ned Vena. Building on the exhibition in Bolzano, the Utrecht chapter extends its central questions with an added focus on the specific history of graffiti in the Netherlands. Additional parts of the exhibition were co-curated in collaboration with Creative Lab Utrecht, the Dutch Graffiti Library in Amsterdam, and artist and curator Mick La Rock, bringing local knowledge and archival material into the project.
The presentation in Utrecht marks an important collaboration between Museion and Centraal Museum, bringing together two institutional perspectives and allowing the research initiated in Bolzano to be reconsidered through the history, collection, and context of Utrecht.
The exhibition includes works by:
Yuji Agematsu, Chantal Akerman, Nick Atkins, Charles Atlas, Lutz Bacher, Martin Barré, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Blade, Patricia L. Boyd, Dan Christensen, Shaun Crawford, Curtis Cuffie, René Daniëls, Daze, Manuel DeLanda, Melvin Edwards, Heike-Karin Föll, FUTURA 2000, Keith Haring, Jenny Holzer & Lady Pink, Faisel JEAN Rajjab, KAYA, Jutta Koether, Michael Krebber, BradleyKronz, Yayoi Kusama, Maggie Lee, Klara Lidén, Ilya Lipkin, Colette Lumiere, Kunle Martins, Jeanette Mundt, Georgie Nettell, Armando Nin, N.O.Madski, Henny Overbeek, Clayton Patterson, PHASE 2, Charlotte Posenenske, Josephine Pryde, Lin (Quik) Felton, Lee Quiñones, Carol Rama, Rammellzee, R.I.P. Germain, Rhone, Mick La Rock, Matthew “Zexor” Rodriguez, Karin Sander, Han Schuil, Shave, Niels Shoe Meulman, Seen, David Smith, Dash Snow, Ben Solomon, Hedda Sterne, Emily Sundblad, Boris Tellegen, SoiL Thornton, Timer(Greg Oron), Alix Vernet, WANTO, Lawrence Weiner, Dondi White, Martin Wong, Wombat, Zephyr.
