Post-Graffiti Pacific

Post-Graffiti Pacific was not just another graffiti exhibition. It was a statement and a definition – a bold assertion of language, history, culture, expression and the significance of place in art making. Curator Olivia Laita and her line-up of seven leading Post-Graffiti Pacific artists were proposing, with conviction, the dawn of a new movement in art.

Post-Graffiti Pacific featured the multidisciplinary work of Auckland-based artists Askew One, Benjamin Work, Berst, Elliot Francis Stewart, Gary Silipa, Misery and Route52. As leaders of this new movement, they seek, in part, to organise the way we talk about urban contemporary art. As urban contemporary artists have evolved to straddle the divide between public and studio practice, terms like ‘graffiti’ and ‘street art’ have become insufficient to describe the activities and motivations of today’s urban artists. ‘Post-Graffiti’ is now a recognised term, used to describe the work of artists whose backgrounds in graffiti inform their professional artistic practice.

In embracing the concept of Post-Graffiti, and to further crystalise their roles in and relationships to the new urban contemporary art movement, the seven Post-Graffiti Pacific artists also use their work to emphasise their cultural backgrounds as New Zealanders. Through Post-Graffiti Pacific, they intended to platform themselves as representatives of Post-Graffiti artists who hail from the greater Pacific region.

On Thursday 16 July from 6-9pm for the opening night of Post-Graffiti Pacific, where New Zealand composer Max Wehi performed his musical interpretation of the works and the Post-Graffiti Pacific artists introduced audiences to a new way of thinking about urban contemporary art.

The exhibition continued from 12-8pm until Sunday 30 August.