Graffiti and street art have surfaced on city streets around the world and paved their way into commercial galleries since the 1980s. More recently, the streetbound art forms have entered an entirely new arena: the museum. During this past decade, museums have carved out a space to feature the artistic forms of graffiti and street art in their exhibition halls. This displacement brought about a whole new set of questions and challenges revolving around issues of authenticity, legitimacy, representation, curatorial oversight, exhibition techniques and collection practices.
Focusing on three museum shows as an entry point, City as Canvas (2014) at the Museum of the City of New York, Art in the Street (2011) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, and Street Art (2008) at the Tate Modern in London, this workshop discusses this brand new engagement between two constituents that previously operated on opposite ends of the art world.
Peter Bengtsen is an art historian and sociologist currently working at the Department of Arts and Cultural Sciences at Lund University, Sweden. He has been writing about street art since 2006, and in 2014 published his first book entitled The Street Art World (Almendros de Granada Press). Since, his ongoing research on street art and related topics has resulted in several published and forthcoming articles and book chapters. From November 2015, Peter’s main focus is on writing a new book on street art and ecocriticism.
Lois Stavsky is an educator, curator, and writer with a particular passion for global street art. Among the many books she has contributed to are: Stickers: Stuck-Up Piece of Crap: From Punk Rock to Contemporary Art, Rizzoli, 2010; C215: Community Service, Criteres, 2011 and Graffiti: 365, Abrams Books, 2011. Lois is the content provider for the highly-acclaimed App, StreetArtNYC, and the founder and editor of the popular blog, StreetArtNYC.
Nick Riggle (PhD, NYU) is an Assistant Professor at the University of San Diego. His research explores how issues in moral psychology and ethics echo and interact with issues in aesthetics and the arts. He also has an interest in the history of philosophy (especially Kant), and likes to keep a philosophical eye on contemporary ethical and artistic culture. Riggle's work has been published by The Philosophical Quarterly, The British Journal of Aesthetics, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, and McSweeney’s. He has lectured on street art nationally and internationally, and his writing on street art has appeared in The Journal of Aesthetics, Art Criticism, and Hyperallergic.
Dr. Lachlan MacDowall is an artist, curator, and researcher based at the University of Melbourne, Australia. He is head of the University’s Centre for Cultural Partnerships, a specialist research and graduate teaching program in community-based and social-engaged art in all media. Over the last decade, Dr. MacDowall has published widely on the history and aesthetics of graffiti and street art. His most recent research investigates street art tourism (with Professor Alison Young), graffiti and cultural heritage (with Sam Merrill), and the relationship between graffiti, street art, and the social media platform Instagram, the subject of a forthcoming book. He also teaches an undergraduate subject on street art in collaboration with academics in London and New York.