STREET LIFE

As longstanding champions of the Street Art genre, Maddox Gallery is proud to present Street Life, a dynamic exhibition dedicated to mapping the roots of this pivotal movement. 

People have been communicating through mark-making since the dawn of time. From describing their hunts to tracking their family trees, mankind has been compelled throughout history to leave its mark. Permission was never granted to use a wall in a cave, or the side of a building. These marks simply say, “I was here. This is me.”

Street art, by definition, is unsanctioned. Yet it still seeks to educate, to inspire and to provoke. The artists involved do not obsess over what the viewer thinks for they have total and utter freedom of expression. It’s not just a message to a rival, it’s a message to the world, and nothing is off-limits. It is self-expression in its truest form.

Street art brings together neighbourhoods in the same city, state or country, and artists from across the globe. It is one language – that of challenging those above you, of questioning existence and culture. At its core, it is ephemeral – here today and gone tomorrow.

With Street Life, Maddox Gallery explores the expressive and emotive language of the genre’s greatest mark-makers, from Basquiat to Banksy, Keith Haring to Invader. “When art history looks back on the ‘Banksy effect’, and the rise of street art, it will be recognised as one of the most significant movements in the contemporary art market of the time,” says Maeve Doyle, Artistic Director of Maddox.

Through these anonymous tags marking the world, street art gives us tools to better understand each other – tools of empathy, awareness and connection – and draws us into conversations with the creation of something shared, for everyone to see. - Maeve Doyle