The Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles presented the Art in the Streets gallery, making it the first comprehensive U.S. museum survey exhibition of Graffiti and Street Art. The gallery ran from April 17th to August 8th 2011 and the exhibition traced the development of graffiti and street art as far back as the 1970s. The Art in the Streets showcased work by fifty of the “best of the best” in graffiti and the street art community. The artists came from all over the world including London, New York, San Francisco, Sao Paulo, Paris and Los Angeles.
Upon arriving to MOCA, the first thing that one would notice was the city bus park in front of the building that Risk One had spray painted from end to end with a well executed array of colors. Once you entered the building you would see the work of ROA, a Belgium artist that painted rodents on doors, upon opening the doors one would get a X-ray type look into the rodents intestines.
The back of the museum featured the work of the infamous London stencil artist known only as Banksy, whose style of stencil resembles that of Blek Le Rat. Some of Banky’s work that was being displayed included a Stained Window, I Hate Mondays and Riot Painting amongst many others.
" “The Art in the Streets showcased work by fifty of the “best of the best” in graffiti and the street art community”.
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Crowd favorite Mister Cartoon displayed his Ice Cream truck and a blue bomb along with some older artwork. Mister Cartoon also painted a wall that showcased Los Angeles the way he sees it.
Other West Coast artists that displayed their street art were pioneer Risk One, Saber, Retna, Revok and many others.MOCA’s Art in the Streets was a complete success that attracted many spectators that would of normally never attended a museum gallery. As street art is more on the rise, I’m positive that we will see it grow as an acceptable form of art.