Beyond the streets

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I’m not sure if it’s important to be a successful gallery artist, but graffiti and the streets are certainly a part of me and will be forever. Most of my friends are graffiti writers, most people that work at my studio are writers and, even though I’m very busy doing other things now, I’m very much connected to graffiti culture.

BTS London will be the biggest and most comprehensive street art and graffiti exhibition to arrive in the UK and will, most importantly, celebrate the city’s impact on the medium. “In the mid-90s, there was a street art explosion throughout Europe, with London being one of the key cities at the forefront,” Gastman tells Dazed. “For more than 15 years, it continued to evolve, [birthing] new ideas and new artists.” Between the beginnings of contemporary graffiti in a decaying 1970s New York and the international movement of the present day, the cultural influence and impact of the art form are nearly immeasurable. BTS explores these links deeply, featuring work from cross-cultural icons like Malcolm McClaren, Fab 5 Freddy, FUTURA2000, Goldie, Beastie Boys and Shepard Fairey, whose influence stretches far beyond just art, fashion or music. The closing chapters consist of ‘Social Commentary: Graffiti as a message’; ‘Art with Conscience’ containing works by hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, and; ‘Consideration Into Innovation’ showcasing Lisbon-based artist, VHILS, who innovatively utilizes repurposed materials to reimagine city walls. In the final chapter ‘The Next Phase’ visitors will engage with new op-art works by Valencia based artist Felipe Pantone, whose high-contrast, geometric patterns continue to challenge perspective resulting in a distinctive aesthetic of the digital age.

Barry McGee

The ‘Timeline’ chapter will take a deep dive into street culture history through archival photography, ephemera and fashion to contextualize the cross-pollination of influences across music, fashion and film. This chapter will also include a large wall vinyl by infamous feminist collective Guerrilla Girls – a deliberate nod to the fact that most street and graffiti artists, and indeed most well-known artists in contemporary art overall are men.

For Martha Cooper’s latest release, BEYOND THE STREETS dove deep into her unpublished archive of early 1980s NYC graffiti. Working closely with Cooper, BTS selected and assembled over 800 photos, carefully culling from dozens of boxes of slides, many unopened for decades to create this exclusive box set, available only on BEYOND THE STREETSSaatchi Gallery seeks to collaborate with artists in an open and honest manner with a primary aim of introducing their work to wider audiences. Perhaps you don't think of the late and legendary Margaret Kilgallen as a graffiti artist per se, but her works on the streets and trains become a connector between the bohemian and folk aspects of graffiti and street art. This book, although featuring her fine art as well, is her perfect monograph, and one of the great books of the Mission School movement. Not only did it elevate Kilgallen into one of the most important artists of her generation, it also showed just how widespread and nuanced graffiti's spirit had become. From defiant train writers to powerful large-scale muralists, over 100 international artists will be featured in BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON, opening this February. The exhibition, supported by adidas Originals, will be the most comprehensive graffiti & street art exhibition to open in the UK, and is set to take over all three floors of London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery.

The Gallery presents curated exhibitions on themes relevant and exciting in the context of contemporary creative culture. Our educational programmes aim to reveal the possibilities of artistic expression to young minds, encourage fresh thought and stimulate innovation. BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON will open at Saatchi Gallery with over 100 international artists this February. The exhibition supported by adidas Originals, will be the most comprehensive graffiti & street art exhibition to open in the UK ever taking over all three floors of the gallery. BEYOND THE STREETS was founded by Roger Gastman, producer of the 2010 Academy Award-nominated film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, co-curator of Art in the Streets(2011) at the MoCA in Los Angeles, and director of the SHOWTIME documentary Rolling Like Thunder(2021), a plunge into the underground world of freight train graffiti culture. BEYOND THE STREETS is an art-driven cultural and educational worldwide movement celebrating mark makers and rule breakers, agitators and instigators. Its curation showcases the best of contemporary and emerging artists, with a focus on graffiti and street art creators. Boasting over 100 artist collaborators per show, BEYOND THE STREETS is known for its massive-scale exhibitions, immersive educational experiences, and engaging pop-up events, which have played host to over half a million unique visitors between its shows in Los Angeles, New York, The Hamptons and digital showcases with NTWRK. BEYOND THE STREETS exhibitions have produced over 2.5B media impressions through global art publications, business journals and culture magazines, with new show openings coming to Shanghai and London in 2023. BEYOND THE STREETS is widely recognized for its innovative brand partnerships and premium publications, which include over 75 published and authored book titles, including works for the likes of Martha Cooper, Felipe Pantone, POSE, Paul Insect, DABSMYLA and Beastie Boys, amongst others. BEYOND THE STREETS pushes the very idea of art beyond any preconceived boundary. beyondthestreets.com Categories Inspired by the rich sporting heritage of adidas – one of the world’s leading sports brands and a global designer and developer of athletic footwear and apparel – adidas Originals is a lifestyle brand founded in 2001. With the adidas archive at its foundation, adidas Originals continues to evolve the brand’s legacy through its commitment to product innovation and its ability to filter the creativity and courage found on courts and sporting arenas through the lens of contemporary youth culture. Marked by the iconic Trefoil logo that was first used in 1972 and championed by those that continue to shape and define creative culture, adidas Originals continues to lead the way as the pioneering sportswear brand for the street. adidas.co.uk/originals Categories

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After several years of thinking about how we should reprint this book—it finally happened. We worked with old CDs of images, Quark files that would not open, and other technical issues of computers past to rebuild FREIGHT TRAIN GRAFFITI the way we always imagined it could be while staying true to the original era covered and including another 500-plus images,” shares Roger Gastman.

Each of the exhibition’s chapters will explore exceptional moments in the history of this artistic movement; including the emergence of punk; the birth of hip-hop - marking its 50th anniversary in 2023; and street culture’s strong influence in fashion and film. You will be able to view a wall of Jenny Holzer’s truisms; Henry Chalfant’s photography of NYC train writers in action; together with AIKO’s timeless stencilling of delicate silhouettes and Gordon Matta-Clark’s extraordinary archive of graffiti photography. KASE2 ELKAY photo by Henry-Chalfant The Dream Galleries As for the release of his sketchbook with BEYOND THE STREETS, the artist shared that “Over the last 20 years I’ve accumulated countless drawings in my drawers that I thought would never see the light of day.”

Lloyd’s memoir is essential reading, whether or not you feel a particular connection to the subject. This is a worldwide social epidemic and we would do well to understand its complexities; if nothing else to make us more alert to what might be going on under our noses. BEYOND THE STREETS is important because it documents a cultural past, pre-social media, where ideas and movements developed on the streets, in clubs, and in bedrooms. It also crosses over to the current day, highlighting a new generation of artists who have crafted their trade from the streets rather than the lecture theatre. The ‘ Dream Galleries’ chapter focuses on a selection of American and European originators, photo documentarians and cultural icons who helped contextualize and spread graffiti culture around the world. InAndré Saraiva’s Dreamseries, there is a visual articulation of how graffiti, street art, hip-hop, punk, fashion and break-dancing all sprung from the late 1970s and early 1980s into the 90s and today, and became a hybrid celebration of underground culture. A piece that we’re really happy to show was painted by FUTURA2000, it’s called “Escape London”. He painted it live on stage with The Clash performing in 1982. It’s 30 feet long, and 15 feet tall, and it shows the merging of all of these cultures together just beautifully and sums up so much. The official BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON exhibition catalogue, compiled by Roger Gastman, provides an in-depth look into the world of graffiti and street art’s most iconic figures. This book spans multiple decades and honours the diverse and boundary-pushing stories that helped turn vandalism into contemporary art. Hardbound and 1000+ images.