Urban Art – Do We Know What It Is?

Urban art could be one of the most significant movements in recent art history. First, we must take a look at the concept of urban art and tackle the question that has been circling in the art community for a long time. What is urban art exactly? Although it is regularly used, urban art is one of those concepts that is particularly hard to define. Most commonly urban art is seen as art that originates from urban environments. Urban Art is used to describe the works that are not made on the streets, but in studios by those artists who come from street art and graffiti background.

Recognition of Urban Art Movement:

Graffiti and street art emerged as rebellious practices connected to subculture lifestyles, hostile toward art institutions, with anti-capitalist, social and political undertones. However, in the last fifteen years, things changed immensely due to the obsessive documentation of street artworks and online photo sharing. Fueled by the Internet, urban art gained visibility on a global scale and it allowed artists to track each other’s work, establish connections and collaborations, form a scene and a base of followers. The growing visibility was followed by the crossover into gallery system and consequently high-end art market where it became one of the leading forces.

Qualities That Make Urban Art Popular and Significant:

Urban art, purposely ignorant of academic discourse and theory, immersed into everyday reality which contemporary artists ignored, naturally became movement attractive to many. Urban art was new, exciting, subversive, bold and highly democratic because of its rootedness in public, communal spaces. The social, political aspects and critical connotations were also widely praised among those who got annoyed by the fact that contemporary art has lost its sense of the social surroundings.

Endless Possibilities of Urban Art Expressions:

Because it is not limited to any particular aesthetic canon and does not follow any artistic manifesto, urban art allows a great amount of freedom to its practitioners. It is a free-spirited art movement that is equally attractive to self-taught artists and those with academic background in arts and with the engagement and collaborations of artists working in different disciplines it is constantly growing and evolving. Possibly one of the greatest qualities of urban art is that it embodies inventive and improvisational practices. With the limitless power to generate meanings and communicate on several levels with non-art audiences and art connoisseurs alike, urban art can truly be seen as the most significant recent art movement and the cultural turning point.

Artist: Shepard Fairey                              Title: Evolve Devolve

      Medium: Silkscreen & Mixed Media on Canvas    

Size: 19″ x 25″                                       Edition: AP

Description: Signed and numbered. In artist frame. Artwork is in excellent condition. Certificate of Authenticity included.

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Source: Anika D.