By Jennifer Glickel
DNAinfo Reporter/Producer
CHELSEA — A new exhibit at a Chelsea gallery would not have sat well with former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, as it celebrates the history of graffiti in New York City while presenting it as high art.
"Graffiti NYC: Artists of the Third Rail," which opened Thursday at Benrimon Contemporary gallery in Chelsea, is a group exhibit that demonstrates the trajectory of and changes to graffiti as both an art and a cultural phenomenon in New York from 1969 to the present.
"Graffiti art has been a part of the city’s culture since the 70s when the subways were covered and it’s evolved as an art form to include painted murals to wheat pastes and stickers," said Molly Sampson, curator of the exhibit.
"We show this through photographs, canvases, sculptures, and drawings from the artists who used to paint the trains as well as younger graffiti artists in their 20s," Sampson added.
Sampson explained that the biggest change in the art of graffiti is the style of what is depicted.
"Artists are doing more experimenting with green printing on their canvases, but the real evolution has been moving away from the lettering that was so key to the graffiti of 70s and 80s," Sampson said.
The modern trend has shifted to incorporating depictions of figures, objects and cityscapes into graffiti art, she added.
The main thing has stayed constant throughout more than four decades of graffiti in New York is the artists’ use of aerosol and paint markers in creating their pieces, a key factor to the work’s characterization as graffiti.
"The medium and iconography are what makes the more modern pieces considered graffiti," Sampson told DNAinfo.
Graffiti artists began to exhibit works in galleries and museums in the 1970s, and subsequently adapted their graffiti techniques into works that fit the gallery mold, which is reflected in Benrimon Contemporary’s exhibit.
"Because they still work on the streets, these canvas and mixed media pieces are just the way that these artists adapted to be modern and show their work in a gallery," Sampson said.
"You can’t take a graffitied grate and just move it into a gallery from the sidewalk."
"Graffiti NYC: Artists of the Third Rail" opened Thursday at the Benrimon Contemporary gallery and will run through August 10th. Benrimon Contemporary is located at 514 West 24th Street between Tenth and Eleventh Avenues.
