I had the opportunity to attend the Art In The Streets exhibit that went down over in Little Tokyo over at MOCA. This exhibit, which is over three months long, boasts about the street art from the ’70s, props that inspired your favorite classic hiphop movies like Wild Style and Style Wars, and then some! You can check the preface above for more of the details of what the exhibit was about.

Continue Reading/View Pictures After The Jump…

This.. possible ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ exhibit lasted for three months, has brought together all walks of life under one building. From the native Angelinos, the surrounding counties, to those outside the state, this exhibit has drawn over 200,000 folks over their 17-week run, with close to 2500 people becoming members! During the 17 weeks, the average amount of visits were close to 2500 folks as well (breaking the average daily visit records), and the final week of the exhibit they’ve drawn over 32,000 folks, setting the record for their museum at an all-time high by breaking their previous records like their Andy Warhol’s Retrospective (2002; 195,00 visits) and ©MURUKAMI (2007; 149,323 visits) exhibits! With the amount of people that came by for AITS, they’re expecting the number to double by the end of the year!

When I first entered the vicinity, I felt instantly like a kid in the candy store. I literally froze up in such amazement that one person that was behind told me to ‘keep moving’. Needless to say I was holding up traffic lol. They were showcasing stuff from the LA graffiti battle history to New York hiphop and New York graffiti. They had a room specificially dedicated to Rammellzee (RIP) and his artistic styles; a section where they were showing the Wild Style movie and all of the props from it;  original sketchings from famous graffiti artists like Lee Quinones, Skeme, and a couple of heads from the Style Wars movie (directed by Tony Silver & Henry Chalfant). What tied it up altogether was the campaign ads that were fighting against the popularity of graffiti, including the commercials that were shown there. There was an original Debbie Harry portrait (if you remember in the movie Style Wars you’ve seen it) that was available to see, including the video that made her group popular in the hiphop community (Rapture – shoutout to Fab 5 Freddy)! There were treasures everywhere you looked! Although I stayed til the end of the day, I didnt get a chance to fully explore the entire venue, but I hope the pictures will do some justice in what I’ve observed!

Be on the lookout for new upcoming exhibits by checking out their site, or subscribe to their newsletter!

IMPERATIVE:  Read more about Rammellzee here..

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EricSoul

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