Paperdoll Portfolio # 2

DUTCH MASTERS
Street Art & Urban Painting

The GEM has invited fifteen artists currently working in the Netherlands to
take part in Dutch Masters – Street Art & Urban Painting, the first ever
museum exhibition on this subject to be held in this country.

Street Art uses the street as both its canvas and its exhibition space. The
work can range from stickers, posters, stencils and spray-painted texts or
images right through to objects placed in the street – or any combination of
these. Street Art is officially illegal. Believing that public spaces belong to us
all, its creators appropriate them to bring their work and ideas to the
attention of casual passers-by. The art form traces its roots to the punk
movement and graffiti culture and these days exists underground, below the
smooth surface of the mainstream art world.

Street Art is a typically urban phenomenon and has come since the 1970s to
be an everyday part of life in major cities like New York, London, Paris,
Berlin, Barcelona and Amsterdam. Although this form of underground art
rarely makes it into the museums, it has attracted huge interest in recent
years and can now be found in magazines, on the internet and in
advertisements.

As well as Street Art (which, as the name suggests, is made only outdoors),
the exhibition will also include Urban Painting: the collective term for the
painted work of artists who work sometimes, but not always, in the open-air
urban environment. The artists featured in this exhibition in and around the
GEM have two things in common: they make and exhibit their work both in
the street and in art galleries and they help to shape the visual and youth
culture of our day. Each of them will be given a dedicated space within the
GEM. Painted work will be the main focus, but the show is also likely to
include video animations and 3-D objects.

Together with Street Art & Urban Painting, the GEM is presenting a wide
selection of Designer Toys, another phenomenon generated by the urban
arts world. The fashion for these collectors’ items originated in Japan and
Hong Kong but has now hit the US and Europe in a big way. Major artists in
the world of graphic design, graffiti, music, fashion and video are involved in
the creation of the toys, most of which are produced in limited editions. The
craze for them has given rise to a whole subculture, with online
communities, exhibitions, a magazine and heavily- attended specialist fairs.