For the fourth time, the capital will host Urban Art Area – the largest urban art review in Poland. The event will last from July 20 to August 25. The event is under the patronage of the Mayor of Warsaw.
– The Polish street art scene is extremely popular all over the world – said Mateusz Kostański, manager of Leonarda Art Gallery in Warsaw. – Our artists are making an incredible career all over Europe, the United States, Asia and even Africa. Their works can be found everywhere – he added.
The 4th Urban Art Area exhibition in Warsaw will open on Saturday. This is the largest review of urban art in Poland. It will present 500 objects – live painting, muralsgraffiti, screen printing, stickers and installations – nearly 80 artists.
– The exhibition invites leading representatives of the trend, but also new artists. Participants include Cekas, SEPE, Chazme718, Proembrion, NeSpoon, Pener, and this year Seikon will also join. These are figures from the 80s generation, some of the most recognizable in the Polish scene. However, we do not want to show only the most recognized figures. We try to observe the market and notice new creators – emphasized Kostański.
Urban Art Area 4 – urban art reviewUrban Art Area
“Each of them takes up an important topic”
– This edition will feature a larger representation of graffiti artists, starting with Krik Kong, Sicoer, Młody Dron, Finer and Eros. These are legendary figures. There will also be a return of one of the pioneers – Easy – emphasized Szwed-Strużyńska.
The exhibition will consist of individual spaces designated separately for each artist. Each creator will arrange them in any way they want, presenting works prepared especially for this occasion. – Each artist has their own space to develop, where they paint a mural and place works on canvas, paper or sculpture. We will present only unique works created especially for this exhibition – she explained.
– Due to the fact that the artists create works especially for the exhibition, Urban Art Area is their premiere. Guests at the vernissage will have the opportunity to be the first to see what the artists have prepared. Thanks to the original spaces, we will achieve the effect of several dozen solo exhibitions, because we enter the world of each of them – emphasized the manager. – They are all different from each other, because that is what street art is about, to have your own characteristic style – he added.
The exhibition organizer, when inviting artists, does not receive information from them about what works they will present. She designs the exhibition architecture based on knowledge of their previous achievements and mutual trust.
– Each artist sticks to their own style. When I compose the exhibition plan, I know who and where to place them so that viewers can see how diverse their work is. I am a curator in terms of selecting artists, but I try not to interfere with their artistic vision, because when I invite them I know that their art is a guarantee of the appropriate artistic level – said the originator. – Each of them takes up an important topic – about ecology, animal protection, consumerism, artificial intelligence. Street art is always “about something”, these are not just decorative works – she added.
The place is not accidental
For the second time, the event will take place in a not-accidental place – on the grounds of the Horse Racing Track in Warsaw's Służewiec. The wall surrounding the track is a symbol in the street art community. In the 90s, murals and graffiti were created there, created by the first Polish artists of this trend.
– Warsaw street art began on the Służewiec wall. Artists came from all over Poland to make, as they say in graffiti, a rip-off on this wall and almost every artist started by painting graffiti or murals on it,” the organizer explained. – This is an iconic place for the history of Polish graffiti, and thanks to the exhibition we are making a symbolic transition to the other side of the wall, added the manager.
The exhibition will be complemented by accompanying events in the form of workshops, lectures and meetings with artists. – We are organizing Urban Art School, a series of meetings with artists, and the Creative Zone in the form of workshops, where you can learn how to make murals, stickers and graffiti directly from the artists – he explained.
– The primary goal of this event is education, making recipients aware of the value of this field. Few people realize that painting on monuments is frowned upon in the community. It is not that artists support this type of activity. The creators will talk about their experiences and the projects they create all over the world – he added.
The Urban Art Area project was born out of a need to fill a gap that existed in the Polish market and artistic community. – I have been waiting for a long time for a gallery or a person to appear who would present a cross-section of Polish street art in a gallery space, in the same way as traditional contemporary art is presented. Finally, I came to the conclusion that I have to do it. I would not have done it if I had not been fascinated by this field. Now I see how artists develop year by year and create more and more interesting works – said Szwed-Strużyńska.
The exhibition will be on display from 20 July to 25 August in the grandstand 2 of the Horse Racing Track in Służewiec, Warsaw.
Main image source: Urban Art Area