The 2023 exhibition City as Studio brought more than 100 works to K11 Musea in what was described as Hong Kong’s largest exhibition devoted to graffiti art.
Curated by Jeffrey Deitch, the exhibition traced graffiti from New York subway cars and Los Angeles highways to its international influence on contemporary art and popular culture.
Innovators, documentarians and later generations
The selection included Jean-Michel Basquiat, Rammellzee, Kenny Scharf, Futura, Lady Pink, Chaz Bojórquez and Mister Cartoon.
Later artists including Kaws, Aiko, JR and Osgemeos showed how street-based practices continued to evolve after graffiti entered galleries and commercial culture.
Deitch also highlighted Martin Wong, the Chinese American painter who documented New York street life and collected graffiti sketchbooks.
Historic photographs by Henry Chalfant and Martha Cooper placed the artworks within the development of hip-hop, breakdancing and Wild Style graffiti.
A relationship with Hong Kong dating to 1982
Deitch had travelled to Hong Kong in 1982 with Dondi, Futura and Zephyr, who painted a parking garage during their first visit to Asia.
That history gave the 2023 exhibition a direct connection with the early international circulation of New York graffiti.
The exhibition coincided with the 50th anniversary of hip-hop. Deitch argued that the visual innovations developed by teenagers in the Bronx, Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan became one of the most influential movements after Pop art.
City as Studio presented that history through paintings, photographs and archival material rather than treating graffiti only as a style removed from its social origins. The exhibition showed how an urban language created outside institutions became global while retaining the marks of particular streets, communities and writers.