Spanning all three floors of the Saatchi Gallery, Beyond the Streets is a spectacle of street art ephemera, featuring over a hundred artists that have contributed to the rise of street art and graffiti in Los Angeles, New York, and London. The show weaves together the sociopolitical narratives in the US and UK that gave rise to a class of artists that sought expression, identity, and activism in the face of social turmoil.
Following hugely successful runs in both Los Angeles and New York, the show brings graffiti and street art into the public consciousness as an art form.
The London iteration includes a wave of British artists like Robert 3d del Naja and Futura 2000 that rose alongside the punk rock movement. “The story of graffiti and street art can’t be told without highlighting the significant role London, and the UK in general played in revolutionizing these cultures and continuing to spread the word of their existence,” says curator Roger Gastman, the graffiti historian behind the exhibit.
Gastman’s personal vinyl collection is displayed within a full-scale reproduction of an independent record shop, Trash Records, that greets visitors upon entry to the exhibit. Within the shop are the classic signifiers of urban culture – hanging skateboards, vinyls, stickers, and doodles on every wall.
The record shop, like many of the other installations in this expansive exhibit, attempts to draw the visitor into this underground world. Floor to ceiling murals have been created on-site, the wall of the stairwell is completely lined with tiled photographs of New York subway graffiti, and there are several interactive installations dotted throughout the exhibit.
One highlight of the show is artist Kenny Scharf’s Cosmic Cavern, a lurid, psychedelic installation full of glowing, neon-painted detritus – television sets, radios, cups, trash – from everyday life. The installation, like everything else in this genre, is a celebration of the mundane and a rebellion against the strictures of urban life.
The show loses a bit of impact due to setting – a prestigious art gallery is far from the subway carriages of 80s New York City. Some of the work feels subdued against a white gallery wall, lacking both its original context and its ephemerality.
Still, there is a sense of irreverence and irony created by the tension between the art’s original and current contexts. With later artists such as Todd James, visitors can see a discipline and distinct visual language emerging out of the chaotic rebellion of earlier decades.
The overall show can be overwhelming, but the exhibit’s breadth and ambition is evident. The show is a spectacle of an oft-misunderstood culture and successfully integrates a huge number of artists into a cohesive narrative. The results are larger than life, representative of an attitude, rhythm, and visual language that has left an indelible mark on modern culture.