Museum of Graffiti Unveils “A Mouthful of Crome”: A Reflective Exhibition on the Evolution of a Graffiti Legend.
Crome (image courtesy of the Museum of Graffiti)
Set to debut on March 5 at Miami’s Museum of Graffiti, the “A Mouthful of Chrome” exhibition spotlights the work of Crome a graffiti artist who made his mark across South Florida in the 1990s. Alongside his roommate Crook, they tagged surfaces across Miami-Dade, Broward, and Palm Beach counties, from stop signs to massive walls. One of their most notable works was a mural painted in broad daylight on the defunct RC Cola factory wall in Wynwood, visible from I-95.
Their bold actions attracted attention from law enforcement, leading to Crook’s arrest shortly after. The State Attorney General pushed for an extravagant one-million-dollar bond, which the judge rejected, sending a message to other graffiti artists.
Despite the legal trouble, Crome continued his artistic journey. He shifted to abstract portraits on canvas and paper, exploring new avenues beyond the streets.
Crome (image courtesy of the Museum of Graffiti)
“Guests of the exhibit can expect masterful paintings that communicate the artist’s raw emotion, a dedication to a life of art, and an honest perspective on life in an urban environment where people’s dreams are often lost and free thinkers are rarely celebrated, Crome’s paintings celebrate the marginalized and the fighters that inspire him to stay in the game as a working artist.” – Alan Ket
In an unprecedented homage to one of graffiti’s most transformative periods, the Museum of Graffiti proudly presents “A Mouthful of Crome,” a showcase of new works by the artist Crome, commemorating 25 years since his pivotal role in Miami’s graffiti history. The exhibition opens to the public on March 5, 2024, at the heart of the Wynwood Art District.
“So I count 17, 18, 19, 20 people that are not from Miami,” Alan Ket observes as he scans the office tower at Biscayne and 1st Street, now an outstanding crown jewel in Miami’s graffiti scene. Emerging primarily at night during Art Basel week, this all-façade painted temple brought out an unprecedented mix of international and out-of-town graffiti writers and street artists. It’s a scene that could only unfold here, right now.
Is there more graffiti inside? “Yeah, there’s some,” Ket says. “You’d just find a spot with a broken window or something. You just would have to be really careful going in.”
Alongside Graffiti Museum Co-founder Allison Freidin, Ket gives us a rare tour from a unique set of perspectives trusted in the gallery and respected on the street – not an easy feat. Their insights bring to life a project that grew, almost mystically, in the light of day and under cover of night above Miami’s streets. This tower, despite its looming demolition that will make room for the next big development, stands tall in a city known for its explosion of graffiti and street art over the last two decades.
“Originally Atomic, with the oranges up there on top? He started in July,” Ket says, his descriptions echoing the precision of someone who’s lived and breathed the scene. “Then the word spread, and 1UP came with 004 just under the top,” he points, “then these guys filled in the bottom.” This collaboration is now a daily mind-blower, surpassing even the major Art Basel/Wynwood events without the nod from artworld gatekeepers. It happened right under their noses – and above their heads.
“Graffiti is stronger than you think,” 1UP states in their 3D-modeled deconstruction-reconstruction by video artist @yoshitravel on Instagram. This glitchy, gritty, post-apocalyptic Matterport-ish/drone tour of the power tower adds a sleek edge to an underground scene that follows its own codes and periodically shocks the cityscape in a colossal way.
The event drew graffiti artists from around the world and locally, like a family reunion. The displayed styles underscore the diversity in today’s global scene – drawing from influences as wide as your mind. The risk-taking inherent in graffiti culture is evident, with some pieces rappelled down the wall in a style more akin to Sao Paulo or Berlin. Others look half-finished, maybe left in haste to avoid getting busted. The building’s rough shape is clear, with its broken glass visible from afar. Yet, the dialogue between the artists is also evident – with collaborative overlaps and occasional overwrites, showcasing the community and competition that drives everyone to outdo each other, and sometimes, even to impress you.
Catch this massive installation before its final takedown this spring. To us, it’s a reminder of the raw talent and resourcefulness of graffiti writers and street artists worldwide. Yes, Art Basel Miami, the prestigious international art fair, plays a part in energizing the scene. But truth be told, graffiti culture has long been about self-made artists putting on a show, often internationally, long before the big names took notice. This global tower of power is proof of that relentless drive.
Graffiti artists often dismiss histories or narratives not of their own making, including those from their peers. This subculture, which has continuously evolved across different cities, time zones, decades, and languages over the past 60 years, is so rich in stories and counterstories that it might take another 30 years for the aerosol to clear and reveal the origins of these tales comprehensively. One unwavering truth prevails: if you weren’t there, in the same city, during the same era, didn’t grow up immersed in that urban environment, and weren’t marking the same train lines or recognized by local crews, your credibility is questioned, and the original graffiti artists (OGs) might disregard your story.
It’s meaningful when a book like “The Wide World of Graffiti” is authored by someone like Alan Ket, a native New Yorker from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, who has firsthand experience writing on city trains. As a self-proclaimed graffiti nerd, historian of the movement, and co-founder of the Miami-based Museum of Graffiti, Ket brings a unique blend of metaphorical depth and frank authenticity to his writing. He skillfully combines scholarly insight and sociological context in his narrative, spotlighting selected kings and queens of the streets to further illustrate in their words details of the scene’s evolution and his informed insights to provide context.
Ket’s narrative style, marked by its directness and subtle wit, weaves through a tumultuous and ever-changing graffiti landscape across decades and cities. He captures the art form’s evolution, acknowledging its virtuosos, acolytes, critics, observers, and new entrants. His account includes appreciation for various influences, direct and indirect, allowing each shift in graffiti’s style and color to add to the overall narrative’s vibrancy. Ket augments the text with a wealth of illustrative photographs, showcasing graffiti and its extended family in both street settings and galleries, offering a comprehensive and exhilarating journey through the graffiti world.
Featuring an introduction by the Brazilian graffiti brothers OSGEMEOS, along with engaging profiles and interviews with notable figures such as Sane from SaneSmith, Hotboy Hert, DESA, and Doze Green, Ket allows graffiti’s history to unfold naturally in its distinctive and sometimes idiosyncratic way, enlightening the reader by describing its pathways. He showcases the global surge of interest as expressed through contemporary styles. He gives a quick class on graffiti’s influence in various artistic mediums, including on canvas and in public murals. Ket presents key examples without reducing them to mere tokens, offering a platform for authentic voices like Rime, MadC, Nani Chacon, Saber, and Jan Kaláb to elucidate further. Despite their diverse styles, each artist is united by the important contributions of graffiti culture in their personal histories and their subsequent artistic practices.
Ket’s holistic approach is inclusive and comprehensive, acknowledging related subcultures such as tattooing, skateboarding, and hip hop, while maintaining the focus on the writing culture that crafted a visual language for a youth movement that would eventually gain global prominence.
It’s his personal characterizations that ground the reader in the genuine beginnings of the movement in late 1960s/early 1970s Philadelphia and New York. “Week after week, more and more teenagers joined in, creating aliases and then going out and writing their names on the walls,” Ket recalls, depicting the grassroots creative spark that spread across streets and onto the sides of moving trains. Citing nearly 1,600 arrests of youth for vandalism in New York in 1972, Ket portrays an urban tableau rife with chaos, hunger, aspiration, beauty, and irony, remarking, “Little did they know that their mischievous actions were birthing what is arguably the world’s most popular art movement.”
In Ket’s capable hands, these stories are not only preserved but also eloquently conveyed.
Alan Ket: The Wide World of Graffiti. Monacelli Press / Phaidon. New York, NY.
The Wide World of Graffiti can be purchased directly from the gift shop at the Museum of Graffiti HERE
The Museum of Graffiti, the world’s first museum dedicated to graffiti art, will open “All Black Everything,” the first exclusively African American graffiti exhibition. The exhibition aims to highlight and honor the legacy of these artists, especially considering their foundational role in the genesis of the art form and their inspiration for countless artists in both the streets and gallery spaces and their enduring influence even today.
Celebrating the art and contributions of multi-generational graffiti artists from the African diaspora, the museum will mark the occasion with a panel discussion featuring renowned artists such as Richard “Bama” Admiral, a pioneer in the graffiti movement. The exhibition will showcase the work of acclaimed African American artists, including Bama, Blade, Daze, Delta2, Dondi White, Esteme, Ewok, Kool Koor, Noc167, Quik (Lin Felton), Skeme, Sneke, VFR, and Wane One. In addition, vintage sketchbooks and ephemera will provide a glimpse into the early artistry of the influential Web One. The exhibit will feature original graffiti paintings on canvas and works on paper spanning the past 40 years.
Allison Freidin, the co-founder of the Museum of Graffiti, explains the significance of these artists’ work within the context of their surroundings: “In the 1970s, the Bronx was burning due to economic turmoil and crime. It is no wonder that the imaginations of the African American artists living in these neighborhoods propelled them beyond their surroundings into a world of fantasy and hope. This is what you will see in the paintings by Kool Koor, Bama, and Delta2.”
Alan Ket, the curator and co-founder of the Museum of Graffiti, emphasizes the cultural impact of graffiti within the larger hip hop movement: “Many people around the world are celebrating the 50th anniversary of Hip Hop by placing an exclusive emphasis on the music. However, hip hop is a movement with great cultural contributors across many creative disciplines, including graffiti. From Bama in the North Bronx, who participated in the first graffiti exhibition in 1973, to Harlem’s cultural icon Skeme, to Wane One, who has been traveling the world for the past 30 years teaching his unique lettering style, their genius deserves recognition now more than ever.”
Join the Museum of Graffiti on June 16 at 7pm for the release party for their very first book, The Wide World of Graffiti, with over 400 pages of essays, never-before-seen photos, interviews, and more! The author and Museum co-Founder will be signing copies all evening long.
Click HERE for more details about the exhibition and the book launch.
It’s a brave and intricate undertaking, receiving someone’s painted canvas into your studio and then determining how you will alter it by painting over someone else’s work. Graffiti writers spend years developing and perfecting their ability to handle letters with a can, to coin their individual style. Partly in recognition of this, other writers avoid going over your work on the street, unless it is done with the intention to provoke.
Each partner in the Versus 3 Project, which we tie up today with some photos we didn’t publish previously, knows that the rules of the street are intentionally, and functionally broken here. The artists tell us it is uncomfortable even when permission is given. The root of collaboration in the project required passing the canvas back and forth between artists in a silent conversation, with no rules about style or materials – and the results can not be predicted accurately.
Patrick Hartl and Christian Hundertmark, as a duo called Layer Cake, repeatedly related stories last week of opening the newly arrived package, unwrapping the painted canvas, and staring intently at it.
“I think we don’t really have expectations, right?” says Hundertmark of the process.
“We know the work from the artists,” says Hartl, “so we probably know what they are about to do. In the end, we don’t know how comfortable they feel when they get not a white canvas, but a painted canvas.”
It’s relevant to mention that the collaborative works of Layer Cake have always been this way between the two – and the Versus project is simply opening up the process for new artists to participate in this way. “We had been doing this for five years already,” says Hundertmark, “so for us, it was just normal.” That practice grew into the Versus Project, a project of trading canvasses that resulted in two mounted exhibitions at Urban Nation’s special project space in Berlin. Now for Versus III, the exhibition travels to Miami with the guys at the Museum of Graffiti.
Jaime Rojo, Christian, Patrick, Alan Ket, and Steven P. Harrington. Layer Cake – VERSUS 3. Museum of Graffiti. Miami.
Some artists they had met only through the Internet or social media, and others were long-time friends. Some had a special meaning because they were introduced by recommendation. Others were revered originators in the graffiti and street art scene, with well-known careers on the street stretching back decades. No two experiences were the same – with multiple variables at play, including how much time an artist took to respond with their new iteration. A few never returned their canvas at all.
“Of course, you always have something in your mind about how the canvas will look when it comes back,” says Hartl during an exhibit tour.
When working with the Berlin art couple Various & Gould, the guys thought they would send them their first layer in tones they would be pleased with. “For this one, it was exceptional because we sent them a green and yellow canvas,” says Hartl. “They opened it and said, ‘Okay, these are not the colors that we usually work with!’”
“For us it was interesting to see what was coming back. So we opened it and said, ‘Wow, they added orange!’ ”
The Swiss graffiti writer and artist Thierry Furger speaks of his ‘buffed’ paintings and relates that it was a tentative process to collaborate like this on a canvas, feeling like he was breaking the rules, but eventually, he liked it.
“In graffiti, going over or crossing other pieces is actually a no-go and sometimes connected with consequences,” he says, and it sounds like he still has some reservations. “But I really hope that if I ever meet the two guys that they do not punch me because I went over them, ha ha ha.”
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities.
Now screening: 1. Highlights of Layer Cake Opening “Versus III” at Museum of Graffiti, Miami
BSA Special Feature: Highlights of Layer Cake Opening “Versus III” at Museum of Graffiti, Miami
“Versus III” opened last night to a lively crowd of graffiti and street art, and contemporary art enthusiasts who roamed the museum freely, taking in the new 10-piece exhibition as well as the permanent installations throughout. The contrast between the very educational, historical exhibition and the days-old one just installed by the Munich-based artist duo called Layer Cake was not as pronounced as you may think due to the conscious attention in the museum’s wall text descriptions that recognized the fluid nature of urban arts evolution throughout the last 5+ decades.
Today we have a collection of video outtakes featuring Christian Hundertmark and Patrick Hartl giving verbal descriptions of their process on specific canvasses, selected outtakes from the panel discussion with the museum director, writer, historian, and graffiti encyclopedia Alan Ket and Urban Nation Museums’ Steven P. Harrington before invited guests and 360-degree views of the incredible actual layer cake just before it was cut and served by the artists.
Our special thanks to Alan Ket and co-founder Allison Freidin as our excellent hosts at the Museum of Graffiti and the whole MOG team who were so professional and helpful to us, including but not limited to Alexi, Caroline, David, Caleb, and Jamie. Thank you to all.
Versus Project 3 – Miami Museum of Graffiti
Layer Cake – The Versus Project 3. Miami, Florida. Opens today for the general public. Click HERE for more details, schedules, tickets, etc.
That’s what we found out today when we got a sneak preview of LAYER CAKE at the Museum of Graffiti with Co-founder Alan Ket leading the way. The Munich-based duo landed in Miami last night to attend tonight’s opening in the Wynwood District.
“Versus III” is the latest iteration of this back-and-forth project between Layer Cake and some of the most accomplished and avant-garde names on the European (and American) graffiti/street art scenes. Ket and co-founding partner Allison Freidin and the museum team are hosting the two former graffiti writers Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark tonight for a special reception in the main gallery. We thought you’d like to see some behind-the-scenes shots of the installation.
Come through tonight for a special talk tonight with Urban Nation’s Steven P. Harrington and Jaime Rojo with the artists about the politics, practices, and possibilities that can pop up when you ship your painted canvas off the someone else and say “do whatever you want to this – and send it back”.
The guys will be showing us photos of the stages of the process and telling the audience how their lives have changed from being graffiti writers to being regarded as contemporary urban artists.
Layer Cake: THE VERSUS PROJECT III / Museum of Graffiti / Miami
The German art duo Layer Cake (aka Patrick Hartl and Christian “C100” Hundertmark) are splashing into Miami next week with a new show at the Museum of Graffiti.
After two successful exhibitions with Urban Nation Museum of Urban Contemporary Art in Berlin, the two former graff writers from Munich are bringing a brand new collection of canvases they have completed with graffiti and street artists from all over the world.
The unique show relies on unspoken communication, with no words exchanged, an aesthetic call and response that pushes each participant to dig deep and rely on their own courage to collaborate. “In this creative, non-verbal dialogue, painterly mosaics of different ideas, styles and working methods were thus created in an associative manner,’ says the press release.
The project is called “Versus” and both Hartl and Hundertmark will attend in Miami Thursday night. New canvases will be on view for the first time. Artists include Layer Cake (Patrick Hartl and Christian Hundertmark aka C100), Akue, Raws, Flying Förtress, Various&Gould, Bond Truluv, ThierryFurger/Buffed Paintings, Arnaud Liard, Rocco & his brothers, Hera & MadC.
BSA will also be there to help launch this exhibition! As ambassadors for Urban Nation, we’re proud to see these collaborations in person and to join museum director Alan Ket and the team to welcome Layer Cake.
You could watch the Olympics on you screen – and who doesn’t love those amazing athletes? So inspirational. Problem is there are so many reports across the media that Beijing is quashing dissent (NYT, Human Rights Watch, The Guardian) so its hard to separate the place from the event. The banner for this week’s collection is a sticker we saw in Berlin in October – and it’s small but shocking.
Meanwhile here in the city we’re dropping indoor masking in a number of places, and Covid cases are dropping like Kamala’s presidential expectations. So people don’t have to wear masks, but deer do? Our new Vegan mayor is giving school children Vegan Fridays for lunch and taking the bus to work – at least in his new commercials. Think Bloomberg did the same with the subway when he began too. Also, guess he called white people “crackers” way back in 2019.
No wonder our street art is frequently conflicted – full of beauty, rage, disgust, confusion, fear, flaunting, hope, and poetry. It’s a mirror to us collectively, individually.
And here’s our weekly interview with the streets, this week in Berlin, New York and Miami, featuring Tona, Batmanxi, Lahoedealer, Artist Diaz, Anne Baerun, Tinkers Trumpf, FCK WRS, C.M.B., Kiez Miez030, Huckleberry Fuckup, and Roberto Rivadaneira.
A serious bomber and a bit of a barbed bard from Brooklyn has his first virtual contemporary art show with the Museum of Graffiti in Miami. You couldn’t write a sentence like that a decade ago.
Cash4. A Tough Pill to Swallow / Museum Of Graffiti / Miami, FL (photo courtesy Museum of Graffiti)
Straddling his own chaotic line between graffiti and Street Art for a decade and a half now, this smart aleck at times is layering the abstract and hand-styling the letters like a pro sign maker. Profane and smashed imagery, nearly profound snatches of two-edged prose, and a penchant for truth-telling that gets him in trouble are all hallmarks of Cash4’s game, but this selection of new pieces is timely and searingly on-point.
Cash4. A Tough Pill to Swallow / Museum Of Graffiti / Miami, FL (photo courtesy Museum of Graffiti)Cash4. A Tough Pill to Swallow / Museum Of Graffiti / Miami, FL (photo courtesy Museum of Graffiti)Cash4. A Tough Pill to Swallow / Museum Of Graffiti / Miami, FL (photo courtesy Museum of Graffiti)
Funky Fresh pages for your fresh paint from the Museum of Graffiti in Miami today.
They’ve been doing their best to make your quarantine dope! Every week for the last month they’ve been releasing new pages in what will ultimately be the biggest most supercharged graffiti coloring book we’ve seen.
This week Volume IV is here with a special cover designed by PURE TFP, featuring art by CES, DOC TC5, DR. DAX, INTEL TCI, and MICKEY. Pick it up a hardcopy by ordering it online – and they’ll immediately send you a PDF file to print.
Don’t forget to be sure to tag your work-in-progress or finished photos at @museumofgraffiti on instagram or Facebook!
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