The vanguard exhibition at M shed shows the growth of the street art from the early 1980s to the present day primarily focused on Bristol as this was one of the first UK cities to accept graffiti culture. Covering early graffiti writers such as 3D, Inkie, Nick Walker as well as many others.
What I found interesting is there was a timeline going from the 1980s showing everything which was an influence to early graffiti writing in Bristol such as style wars the early graffiti movie and also subway art the book by Martha Cooper. From that, it also showed the legal battles that certain artists face as it was purely seeing it as vandalism. What I find interesting about this exhibition is you can really see the growth of the culture and working alongside the original writers using their original sketches it really shows that people from the culture had a part in curating this show. I was impressed with how in-depth the archive images and photos were shown which really gave her perspective on the early culture.
Through the exhibition, it was really shown how transitional the street art world has been through the works of people like Banksy and how we went the more commercial route creating record covers for musicians. Which is only how to grow his brand as an artist. I was happy that there wasn’t too much of a focus on Banksy and this show shines the light on other creatives coming out as Bristol such as Nick Walker and Inkie. This really made me feel like the show was put together to honour the culture and to give a perspective on this world which isn’t necessarily easy to understand. Showcasing how from getting 100-pound fines for tags on city property to becoming a global art movement stemming from Bristol.
Really enjoyed the Mona Lisa statue by Nick Walker I think this is a perfect representation of the satirical comedy which runs to the theme throughout street art. Nick Walker from Bristol has gone on to be a commercial artist based in New York his career really stands from graffiti writing in Bristol undeveloped paying his creative practice from there. Bristol really felt like the right place for this exhibition to be held as am my personal opinion Bristol is the street art capital of the UK I love how ingrained it is in the culture and also celebrated and this exhibition did a great job of illustrating how far it’s come from being seen as mindless vandalism and how this interlinked with the culture of the music, the people and how it’s played its part in social change.