Beyond the streets

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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. Pushing the global narrative has always been of importance to us and we're honored to continue telling our story at Saatchi Gallery, whose prestige and impact are unmatched in the UK,” says BEYOND THE STREETS Founder Roger Gastman. With every exhibition we’ve put together, I always learn something new, and London is no exception,’ says Gastman. ‘The amount of stories and historical moments – some of which may have been forgotten and arguably unknown until now – are what will make our Saatchi Gallery show such a spectacle. We really hope to educate and inspire through a curious lens that digs into the nooks and crannies of all these subcultures and the massive role London played in bringing them to light on a world stage.’ Lloyd boldly takes apart the glamorised images of the sex trade encouraged by some. The author challenges the myths and misperceptions around selling sex as well as the contempt for these girls and women by the authorities and the wider public. Along with others engaged in the battle against sexual exploitation, she is determined to change the lexicon around the subject. ‘Prostitution’ denotes an element of choice that does not reflect the limited agency and complex factors that are at play in the majority of cases, especially for minors. Lloyd is at pains to explain the strong emotional, psychological and even financial ties the girls feel towards those who have exploited them and which makes it even harder to leave for good. Saatchi Gallery exists as a registered charity to provide an innovative platform for contemporary art and culture. We are committed to supporting artists and rendering contemporary art accessible to all. We strive to present projects in physical and digital spaces that are engaging, enlightening and educational for diverse audiences. OUR VALUES BEYOND THE STREETS was founded by Roger Gastman, producer of the 2010 Academy Award-nominated film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, co-curator of Art in the Streets (2011) at the MoCA in Los Angeles, and director of the SHOWTIME documentary Rolling Like Thunder (2021), a plunge into the underground world of freight train graffiti culture. BEYOND THE STREETS is an art-driven cultural and educational worldwide movement celebrating mark makers and rule breakers, agitators and instigators. Its curation showcases the best of contemporary and emerging artists, with a focus on graffiti and street art creators. Boasting over 100 artist collaborators per show, BEYOND THE STREETS is known for its massive-scale exhibitions, immersive educational experiences, and engaging pop-up events, which have played host to over half a million unique visitors between its shows in Los Angeles, New York, The Hamptons and digital showcases with NTWRK. BEYOND THE STREETS exhibitions have produced over 2.5B media impressions through global art publications, business journals and culture magazines, with new show openings coming to Shanghai and London in 2023. BEYOND THE STREETS is widely recognized for its innovative brand partnerships and premium publications, which include over 75 published and authored book titles, including works for the likes of Martha Cooper, Felipe Pantone, POSE, Paul Insect, DABSMYLA and Beastie Boys, amongst others. BEYOND THE STREETS pushes the very idea of art beyond any preconceived boundary. www.beyondthestreets.com

Some artworks are displayed as in traditional galleries – huge frame canvasses interrupting towering walls and swathes of whiteness. They’re left alone, accompanied only by explainers that illuminate the history of London’s streets just beyond the Saatchi’s walls. Other artworks spill over their confines onto the wall; in some cases, the wall itself is the canvas, creating a special ephemerality. Gazing up at these towering installations, I wonder where the art ends and the gallery begins. Perhaps that’s the entire point. VISIT The exhibition will feature new works, large-scale installations, original ephemera and extraordinary fashion that capture the powerful impact of graffiti & street art across the world and follows successful exhibitions in Los Angeles & New York. Graffiti historian Roger Gastman will curate BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON. The ‘ Dream Galleries’ chapter focuses on a selection of American and European originators, photo documentarians and cultural icons who helped contextualize and spread graffiti culture around the world. InAndré Saraiva’s Dreamseries, there is a visual articulation of how graffiti, street art, hip-hop, punk, fashion and break-dancing all sprung from the late 1970s and early 1980s into the 90s and today, and became a hybrid celebration of underground culture. For a long time, Saatchi Gallery has recognised the energy and dynamism of graffiti & street artists. We are proud to present a show that will showcase amazing art, explore how art & music genres have inspired creatives over time, and bring together iconic artists from around the globe. We are thrilled to be working with Beyond the Streets on an experience that promises to be one of the must-see shows of 2023,” says Saatchi Gallery Director, Paul Foster. BEYOND THE STREETS is important because it documents a cultural past, pre-social media, where ideas and movements developed on the streets, in clubs, and in bedrooms. It also crosses over to the current day, highlighting a new generation of artists who have crafted their trade from the streets rather than the lecture theatre.I’m not sure if it’s important to be a successful gallery artist, but graffiti and the streets are certainly a part of me and will be forever. Most of my friends are graffiti writers, most people that work at my studio are writers and, even though I’m very busy doing other things now, I’m very much connected to graffiti culture. For decades, the empty wall has served as a blank canvas for generations of prodigious guerilla artists. The very act of graffiti creates art that is readily accessible to the masses, away from the veil of art elitism, turning streets into sprawling galleries of individual self-expression. And in recent years, the preservation of street art has become increasingly important, as the anti-establishment messages portrayed in works from previous decades remain alarmingly prescient.

So where did graffiti originate from and how long has graffiti been around? The history of graffiti is synonymous with the documentation of the art form. Inevitably, this means books. And there are a ton of graffiti books on the subject, so much so that after nearly 50 years, there are new titles each year that build even more lore of graffiti's impact. But it's not just books by photographers. Artists themselves have documented the culture, and even some museum catalogs have captured the unique essence of what makes graffiti one of the most enduring of art movements. From defiant train writers to powerful large-scale muralists, over 100 international artists will be featured in BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON, opening this February. The exhibition, supported by adidas Originals, will be the most comprehensive graffiti & street art exhibition to open in the UK, and is set to take over all three floors of London’s iconic Saatchi Gallery. Curated by graffiti historian Roger Gastman, BEYOND THE STREETS LONDON will examine the fundamental human need for public self-expression, highlighting artists with roots in graffiti and street art whose work has evolved into highly disciplined studio practices, alongside important cultural figures inspired by this art scene. BEYOND THE STREETS was founded by Roger Gastman, producer of the 2010 Academy Award-nominated film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, co-curator of Art in the Streets(2011) at the MoCA in Los Angeles, and director of the SHOWTIME documentary Rolling Like Thunder(2021), a plunge into the underground world of freight train graffiti culture. BEYOND THE STREETS is an art-driven cultural and educational worldwide movement celebrating mark makers and rule breakers, agitators and instigators. Its curation showcases the best of contemporary and emerging artists, with a focus on graffiti and street art creators. Boasting over 100 artist collaborators per show, BEYOND THE STREETS is known for its massive-scale exhibitions, immersive educational experiences, and engaging pop-up events, which have played host to over half a million unique visitors between its shows in Los Angeles, New York, The Hamptons and digital showcases with NTWRK. BEYOND THE STREETS exhibitions have produced over 2.5B media impressions through global art publications, business journals and culture magazines, with new show openings coming to Shanghai and London in 2023. BEYOND THE STREETS is widely recognized for its innovative brand partnerships and premium publications, which include over 75 published and authored book titles, including works for the likes of Martha Cooper, Felipe Pantone, POSE, Paul Insect, DABSMYLA and Beastie Boys, amongst others. BEYOND THE STREETS pushes the very idea of art beyond any preconceived boundary. beyondthestreets.com CategoriesLloyd’s memoir is essential reading, whether or not you feel a particular connection to the subject. This is a worldwide social epidemic and we would do well to understand its complexities; if nothing else to make us more alert to what might be going on under our noses. The closing chapters consist of ‘Social Commentary: Graffiti as a message’; ‘Art with Conscience’ containing works by hip-hop pioneer Fab 5 Freddy, and; ‘Consideration Into Innovation’ showcasing Lisbon-based artist, VHILS, who innovatively utilizes repurposed materials to reimagine city walls. In the final chapter ‘The Next Phase’ visitors will engage with new op-art works by Valencia based artist Felipe Pantone, whose high-contrast, geometric patterns continue to challenge perspective resulting in a distinctive aesthetic of the digital age. BEYOND THE STREETS Publishing is pleased to announce The Rubbish Puppeteers, a comprehensive hardbound follow-up to 2019’s zine by the same name. The Rubbish Puppeteers offers an in-depth look into the artistic synergy between London’s Paul Insect and late respected Brooklyn artist BÄST. The ‘Timeline’ chapter will take a deep dive into street culture history through archival photography, ephemera and fashion to contextualize the cross-pollination of influences across music, fashion and film. This chapter will also include a large wall vinyl by infamous feminist collective Guerrilla Girls – a deliberate nod to the fact that most street and graffiti artists, and indeed most well-known artists in contemporary art overall are men. After several years of thinking about how we should reprint this book—it finally happened. We worked with old CDs of images, Quark files that would not open, and other technical issues of computers past to rebuild FREIGHT TRAIN GRAFFITI the way we always imagined it could be while staying true to the original era covered and including another 500-plus images,” shares Roger Gastman.

In the next few weeks, we will release our own new graffiti book, Nation of Graffiti Artists, a long-awaited collection of photos and words by Chris "Freedom" Pape on a unique evolution in graffiti and street art in early 1970's NYC. An excerpt: The ‘Timeline’ chapter will take a deep dive into street culture history through archival photography, ephemera and fashion to contextualize the cross-pollination of influences across music, fashion and film. This chapter will also include a large wall vinyl by Guerrilla Girls. ‘ Social Commentary: Graffiti as a message’; ‘Art with Conscience’& ‘ Consideration Into innovation’ FAB 5 FREDDY Spray Paint on Canvas The story of graffiti and street art can’t be told without highlighting the significant role London, and the UK in general played in revolutionising these cultures and continuing to spread the word of their existence. Pushing the global narrative has always been of importance to us and we’re honoured to continue telling our story at Saatchi Gallery, whose prestige and impact are unmatched in the UK,” says BEYOND THE STREETS Founder Roger Gastman. With new special commissions, the exhibition – supported by adidas Originals, marks the first time in eight years a show has taken over the entirety of Saatchi Gallery, spanning an immense 70,000 sq ft.Graffiti is something that people have been doing for centuries. It’s the voice of the city, a canvas for people who live or pass through, to speak out. We have an urge to explore our cities, and some have the urge to go further than just walking down paths. For Martha Cooper’s latest release, BEYOND THE STREETS dove deep into her unpublished archive of early 1980s NYC graffiti. Working closely with Cooper, BTS selected and assembled over 800 photos, carefully culling from dozens of boxes of slides, many unopened for decades to create this exclusive box set, available only on BEYOND THE STREETS