Alison Young Examines and Presents the “Street Art World”

Contested space is a term accurately describing the Street Artists’ relationship with the world outside your door; a place where the aesthetics are up for grabs, autonomously determined, willfully exploited.

Alison Young. Street Art World Reaktion Books Ltd. London, 2016

Drawing upon twenty years of empirical observation, scholarly study, and interviews with artists and experts throughout a constellation of cities where this art-making has flourished, “Street Art World” by Alison Young examines this contested space from every angle to present a balanced assessment for understanding our moment.

A professor of criminology at University of Melbourne, Young delivers her fourth volume on the topic of Street Art with a confidence and unique perspective that few can claim thanks to extensive travel and periodic, repeated and ongoing tracking of an evolving family of practices.

Alison Young. Street Art World Reaktion Books Ltd. London, 2016

With many points of departure, Young makes sure to ground the current movement in enough history and storytelling and informed analysis to allow even the casual reader many entry points for understanding what can at times be an enigmatic populist art subculture.

Alison Young. Street Art World Reaktion Books Ltd. London, 2016

That the movement is awkwardly gaining mainstream acceptance (sometimes against its will) is undisputed, and Young makes sure to examine its role in the gentrification of cities, its difficult relationship with its siblings graffiti and murals, its immigration into fine art and contemporary art, the dance with commercial galleries/interests, and the minx-like tacit embrace of large institutions. She even examines the difficulties that artist have in categorizing their own work and their ambivalence with labels – just one indicator of Young’s adept sensitivity to the finer shadings of a complex “scene”.

In our blurb for the book we wrote, “Alison Young understands the street art world as few people do.” Here’s the evidence.