Writers, Rebels, & Rejects

FEATURING: Flora, Sheva, Mavel, Biafra Inc, Wundr, Peak, Cybin, Impeach, Strae, Theory, Black Daze, Sherm, Groe, Value HM, Itse, Max315, Hank, Repo, Luis Fitch, Eric Inkala.

Curated by Cassie Garner

We have long taken for granted the idea of “property”. There is a clear divide between public and private spaces, and that even in public spaces, the deluge of images and advertisements barraging our senses on billboards and bus stops is legitimate because capital changed hands. We tend to think that money alone buys the right to our vision, but anyone with a sense of disenchantment with the status quo can spark a love affair with “getting up” that can be hard to extinguish.

Writers, Rebels, & Rejects celebrates the street artists and graffiti writers who fill our public sphere with tags, wheatpastes, characters and stickers, bringing them into a gallery setting to focus on the “art” in street art. An eclectic bunch, these artists hail mostly from the Twin Cities, with a few from New York, LA, and Canada: familiar names will be on view like Theory, Wundr, Flora, Sheva, Mavel and Impeach. This group of talented writers, painters, and designers have collectively spent thousands of hours developing their craft on open-world canvases such as railroads, bridges, billboards, and dumpsters using a diverse arsenal of tools ranging from common latex house paint to rattle cans, paint markers to stickers, and mops to fire extinguishers, making work that ranges from simple tags to complex monikers, cute character designs to bold abstract color blocks.

As well as original artworks, artists have been asked to work their magic on one of two dozen miniature white box trucks, one of many blank canvases often found in the wild. Repo, Fitch, and Biafra Inc will also be doing paste ups on 3-D printed faux electrical boxes just for the exhibition. Writers, Rebels, & Rejects brings the outdoors inside and shines light on work usually done in the shadows, giving these subcultural contributions the consideration they deserve.