Thursday, September 2, 2010

To some graffiti is a modern menace, an obscenity to the eye. But for many others, the urban art form is regarded as creative and a skill to be admired.

If you’ve yet to make your mind up about where you stand on the issue of graffiti, then make sure you head down to the Krunk exhibition at Dubai’s Cuadro Fine Art Gallery.

The display brings together three of New York’s most celebrated contemporary artists.

Futura (pictured below) began his artistic career at the age of just 15 when he decided he wanted to become famous on the streets.

He started to create designs on a Broadway train line, forging a place for himself as one of the city’s most forward thinking subway artists.
He was finally recognised in 1982 when he held his first solo show and has since exhibited around America and Europe.

Fellow artist Stash, is regarded as one of New York’s graffiti legends. He began exhibiting his work in galleries alongside established artists when he was just 17-years-old. By the 1990s he was working with Nike and Bathing Ape, a move which ensured his work reached a much wider audience and played a key role in the widespread understanding of graffiti.

The third artist, Phil Frost, uses magical worlds populated by folkloric imagery and recurring patterns in his designs. He has become one of American contemporary art’s most respected designers.

Working on canvas or objects he has found such as wooden doors and window panes, he builds intricate layers, patterns and figures. Ritualism routinely features - both in tribal motifs and in the grouping of modern-day sacred objects, such as baseball bats and bottles.

The exhibition features new pieces by all three artists. It also includes a music and film backdrop to give visitors chance to see the artists at work.
The Cuadro gallery is in DIFC. It is open from 10am - 8pm Sunday to Thursday and from 12-6pm on Saturday. For more information visit www.cuadroart.com or phone 04 425 0400.