NEW YORK – Recently, I took advantage of the mild weather to check out the walls of the former Donnell Library, temporarily home to the Pantheon: A history of art from the streets of New York City. I was lucky enough to run into co-curators Daniel Feral and Joyce Manalo, who talked me through the pieces on display. Pantheon is part of Chashama’s Windows program, an effort to make unused public spaces available to hundreds of artists. It’s located just across from the MOMA, at 20 West 53rd Street.

“We organized the pieces to show an evolution of street art,” said Joyce Manalo, one of the co-curators. “It was very organic the way it came together—one artist suggesting another, then another.”

She gave me a little history on all the thirty-three artists adorning the walls of the Donnell, from old-school graffiti-pioneer LSD’s bright canvas to sculpture-artist Vudu’s bicycle-part tower to public artist Richard Hambleton’s splashy silhouette. The side-by-side pieces really demonstrate how dramatically street art has evolved from spray-paint tagging to thought-provoking pieces that speak to social and political issues. The exhibition catalog contained pictures of the works accompanied by essays by the artists explaining their work and process.

In addition to the exemplarity artwork, check Daniel Feral’s amazing and incredibly comprehensive Graffiti and Street Art diagram, inspired by Alfred H. Barr’s Cubism and Abstract Art diagram housed across the street at the MOMA. Check out pantheonnyc.com for more information.

#   #   #

ADDITIONAL IMAGES OF NOTE