Singapore is playing host to an exhibition by Futura, one of the world’s most celebrated street artists, heralding a new age of graffiti. Curator Jahan Loh talks through Asia’s emerging potential in urban art.
From his early days tagging trains to his later career gracing the walls of museums and galleries and collaborating with the likes of Nike, Levis and Louis Vuitton, graffiti artist Futura, otherwise known as ‘the godfather of street art,’ has left an unforgettable mark on modern culture. A trailblazer and rebel in New York’s art scene of the 1970s and 1980s, he captured the world’s attention with his poetic, abstract street art at a time when graffiti mostly took the form of lettering. Having taken up residence in Singapore last year to create a new body of work, his first solo exhibition in Asia, CONSTELLATION, is now opening in the city. Curated by artist – and longtime Futura fan – Jahan Loh, the exhibition is breathing new life into the region’s own street-art culture. Jahan sat down with Hive Life to talk about why it’s time for Asia to get in on the graffiti game.
Futura’s creative journey began in the early 1970s in typical graffiti artist fashion – spray-painting on subway trains. Back then, graffiti was considered more of a nuisance than a viable art form. It wasn’t until later that decade when Futura returned home to NYC from his 4-year stint in the Navy that he found himself on the cusp of a new movement as street art began to gain ground in his hometown. Together with other pioneering artists such as Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he strove to expand graffiti beyond its demonised public image. 40 years on, the New York artist continues to break down the barriers between street, commercial and fine art, stamping his distinctive style on everything from graphic design to illustration, photography to clothing design.
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