“Architecture Sculpture Painting Music Poetry Dance Performing Vandalism”
At first glance, these forms diverge, yet the broader realm of the arts and culture cannot deny that street art often involves vandalism. How do we reconcile this, or is the point too obvious? Some argue that vandalism discredits artistic value, with the act of breaking laws undermining the legitimacy of the message. Others see vandalism as an essential method, embedding its impact in its defiance. By choosing to act outside the law, the artist magnifies the work’s power and compels attention. Still, others view the act as a provocative, high-risk form of public dialogue, forcing questions about authority, access, and the right to occupy space—or even have a voice.
Recognizing vandalism as the illegal destruction of property is important. So is examining its context. In marginalized neighborhoods—left as open pits of decay by systems of power—street art often reclaims spaces long ignored. This challenges a public policy focus that targets graffiti artists while overlooking the larger forces of urban decay. If we have the energy and resources to pursue the teenage vandal with a spray can, shouldn’t we also jail the person who dumped chemicals into the water supply beneath the lot?
Elfo’s unauthorized wall message provokes a deeper question: if resources exist to penalize street artists, shouldn’t the same effort address the corporate or systemic neglect that leaves these walls abandoned? Elfo’s list, like much street art, demands a response—it’s his style. It forces a reassessment of how we value public spaces and who gets to define their use. Can we dismiss the artist’s work only as destruction when it activates forgotten spaces and sparks critical debate? Or does illegality override the art’s intent? Street art isn’t just visual; it’s often a direct confrontation with the systems that govern public life and urban spaces.
Urban Nation’s Love Letters to the City, curated by Michelle Houston, is both an exhibition and a fulsome, sophisticated incantation. It invites audiences to confront the layered realities of urban life through the interpretation of its anonymous visual rebels, graffiti writers, and street artists and a generous representation of activists.
The show embraces the chaotic energy of unsanctioned art in the streets while seeking to decode its deeper meanings. It moves beyond the aesthetic to probe the social and political forces that shape these messages, sometimes manifestos. With themes ranging from urbanization and gentrification to environmental degradation and social inequality, Houston challenges visitors to imagine and reimagine the role of art in public spaces and consider its potential to transform the everyday into something with weight and impact.
“Painting in public spaces is inherently political,” Houston says, emphasizing the power of public art to reflect and react to the environment in which it exists. This exhibition showcases that power, exploring how artists navigate and reinterpret public spaces to create works that are as much about dialogue as they are about visual impact. The concept of “love letters” broadens here to encompass affection, critique, sarcasm, and hope—as multifaceted as the modern city.
One of the exhibition’s defining features is its indoor and outdoor elements integration. Lady Pink’s monumental mural on Urban Nation’s façade is a vivid testament to her approximately fifty-year legacy of painting on city walls and the interconnected histories of New York and Berlin. Her work, swirling with trains and iconic tags, serves as a personal love letter and a broader commentary on the universal city—a place of movement, reinvention, and resilience. Inside, installations like Moses & Taps’ suspended parcel truck and Rocco and His Brothers’ reconstructed graffiti writers’ benches disrupt the museum space with some of the raw energy of the street, blurring the lines between the institution and the public sphere.
The show also delves into Berlin’s complex history with walls and paint, with artifacts from the Stiftung Berliner Mauer prompting viewers to consider the dualities of oppression and liberation that define the city’s narrative.
“What is it about the glorification of a symbol of oppression by painting one side, and how was that commercialized?” Houston asks, pushing audiences to think critically about how art interacts with history and commodification. These questions resonate deeply in a city where the walls bear witness to decades of struggle and transformation.
The exhibition combines an impressive roster of artists, from early pioneers like Blek le Rat and Shepard Fairey to contemporary innovators like Bordalo II and Jazoo Yang. Each work offers a distinct perspective on the urban experience, whether through critiques of environmental decay, explorations of social identity, or celebrations of urban resilience. Houston’s curation creates space for these voices to intersect, offering unity and tension as the exhibition’s themes unfold.
At its heart, Love Letters to the City is a call to reconsider how we interact daily with the designed/built/neglected/destroyed human-made environment. It asks us to see the city as a backdrop and an active participant in our lives—a canvas where personal and collective histories collide.
As Houston asserts, “Paint in public space has a different potency in the city than anywhere else.” That potency lies in its immediacy, ability to provoke, offend, and inspire, and capacity to reflect urban life’s complexities. Through this exhibition, Urban Nation affirms the enduring relevance of this kind of public art and its power to illuminate the cities we call home.
2501, Banksy, Blek le Rat, Bordalo II, Carlos Mare aka Mare139, Chop ’em Down Films, Crash, Dan Witz, Daze, Drew. Lab_One, Elfo, Evol, HA Schult, HOGRE, Isaac Zavale, James Reka, Jaune, Jazoo Yang, Joel Daniel Phillips, Johannnes Mundinger, Jordan Seiler, Kenny Scharf, Lady Pink, Liviu Bulea, Martha Cooper, Matthew Grabelsky, MILLO, Moses & Taps, Nika Kramer, Octavi Serra, Owen Dippie, OX, PAINTING DHAKA Project, Mr. Paradox Paradise, Rocco and his brothers, Sebas Velasco, Shepard Fairey, Stephanie Buer, Stiftung Berliner Mauer, Stipan Tadić, Susanna Jerger, Tats Cru, THE WA, Vhils, and Zhang Dali.
Video credits: Commissioned by Stiftung Berliner Leben. Shot by Alexander Lichtner & Ilja Braun. Post-production, additional footage, graphics, and a final version by Michelle Nimpsch for YAP Studio/YES, AND… productions GmbH & Co. KG
LOVE LETTERS TO THE CITY
September 14, 2024 – May 30, 2027. For a schedule of events, hours of operation, directions, and more details click HERE
Elfo is a graffiti writer and social commentator whose work intentionally sidesteps traditional notions of style or technical lettering. This is not about handstyle, friend. Instead, it provokes thoughts about public space, urban neglect, and societal norms around what we value and choose to see. His art invites us to reconsider our perceptions of the built environment, blending irreverence with biting irony.
For example, while critics may label graffiti as vandalism or an eyesore, Elfo often paints on crumbling buildings—structures ignored for years, despite sometimes serving as a shelter for the unhoused. This juxtaposition raises essential questions about societal priorities: Why is graffiti condemned on walls that were otherwise unnoticed? How many people now pay attention to these spaces because of Elfo’s work? In this way, his art transcends aesthetics, serving as a sharp commentary on neglect, visibility, and the role of street art in reframing our urban landscape.
“You say that this rule is to be respected – but without place and function, it is absurd,” Elfo tells us.
Maybe the extreme heat this month in Italy causes the mind to become soft.
Or perhaps the grandiosity born of difficult circumstances still pushes you to paint open pleas for attention. He wouldn’t be the first whom you’ve met.
Whatever the case, somewhere in Italy, a citizen will be contemplating this fresh text on an abandoned building and questioning nearly every word. If they understand English, they will still question every word and wonder if they should feel offended–or find Elfo and see if he is okay.
Elfo goes to the countryside in Italy and writes VIDA LOCA! Is the artist telling us to stop worrying about things and start living? As in “let your hair down and live La Vida Loca”? Or is he implying something else? By now we are familiar with this artist’s style; using words to make the point. The point here is open to interpretation, as all art is, context is everything, and in the pastoral context in which this piece is placed, the viewer might be forgiven for thinking that it’s time to move from the frenzy of the city to the bliss of the countryside. What do you think?
Elfo, the ever-witty Italian street artist, strikes again with his latest work scrawled across an abandoned building in Italy. Known for his sharp irony and pointed cultural commentary, Elfo’s simple yet profound statements challenge the norm and provoke thought.
This new one, “I’m a Figurative Painter,” reflects his signature style of engaging viewers by intertwining absurd humor with subtle critique. In an era where public relations spin often overshadows truth and even establishes it, Elfo’s art presumes to override one’s sense of sense. As ever, few will celebrate Elfo’s genius in transforming an abandoned mundane rural space into a forum for challenging the establishment and puzzling the public.
Turin, Italy remains a hotbed for free thought and experimental art in public spaces. Despite so many inroads toward capitalizing on the radical movement of street art in recent years, this part of Italy has been fertile soil for the ornery, complicated, political, and eclectic artistic impulses that first drew us to this scene. A summer show of street art veterans and more recent talents at the newly germinated NISBA Studio may be staking positions that have gotten lost in a scene sometimes awash with commercial brands and self-dealers. The studio calls itself an “observatory on contemporary society, a strategic place,” and says it is a venue and platform “within which connections are born between enthusiasts, visitors, collectors, companies, public and private administrators.”
Turin’s historical significance as a vital hub for Italian, European, and Egyptian art, including the influential Piedmontese Baroque art movement and its vibrant urban art scene, adds prestige to the city and perhaps gravitas to its opinion on the evolution of the street art scene. Its position in the development of the “urban art” scene across Europe has also had an impact, with names like Blu, Ericailcane, Alice Pasquini, Ozmo, and Lucamaleonte coming to mind.
ELFO. Money and Followers. Nisba Studio. Torino, Italy. (photo courtesy of Nisba Studio)
Using an ironic phrase that is a currency in the pinched views of a social media world, the exhibition “Money and Followers” is mounted in an inclusive space with no political affiliation, say organizers, welcoming all. The show features new works by Sten Lex, the renowned Roman duo who pioneered an innovative “halftone” stencil art. At the same time, Sam3 captivates with visually striking, black anthropomorphic figures that convey a fantastical vision. Elfo, representing an Italian avant-garde in graffiti and urban art, presents his on-point technically low-fi cultural lambast. Gec explores participatory public art and societal themes through web-based production, while BR1’s impactful posters delve into tackle themes of integration, identity, migration, and globalization.
BR1. Money and Followers. Nisba Studio. Torino, Italy. (photo courtesy of Nisba Studio)SAM3. Money and Followers. Nisba Studio. Torino, Italy. (photo courtesy of Nisba Studio)
SABATO 10 e DOMENICA 11 GIUGNO 2023 DALLE ORE 14 ALLE 20 NISBA STUDIO Via Po 25 (interno cortile) Torino
The ever-clever minimalist ELFO strikes again on some crumbling building in Italy. He calls it “A new one from nowhere,” and possibly he is in agony. Or he is hoping to cause agony. Or is offering a commentary on the current state of the art on the streets?
Saturdays and Elfo; they appear to go well together on BSA. A master of broad overstatement or obscurely uttered truths without further qualification, their work can summon the instinct to laugh – bursting from your chest before quite considering why.
Is it the unartful roller painting, the wandering scale of the message that could have said something moving, meaningful, sublime, profound? A missed opportunity or a spot-on and concise summation? Or are you projecting your own needs as an artist onto the work of someone else?
Here we have the crumbling architecture of a particular period drifting downward back into the earth where it was summoned from. En route to its final demise, Elfo gives it a swift kick in the ribs, perhaps mocking it for its earlier airs of greatness or condemning our casual disposal of buildings (and everything else). Dust to dust.
Of this “new piece in the midst of nowhere,” Elfo says, “It’ s…… ironic / auto ironic Iconic / anti iconic Dramatic / funny.”
The ironic Italian minimalist Elfo is returning with their latest intervention on an abandoned wall in their homeland. This time it contrasts the good-humored optimistic lyric of a Dean Martin classic on a crumbling building in the middle of the bush.
“It’s the best thing to do on the worst abandoned house in the middle of nowhere,” says Elfo.
Welcome to New York, where it is basically Halloween year-round when it comes to outlandish fashion on any given Wednesday on the D train or in the laundromat or at Fashion Week. Sometimes you may even think that the best costumers take Halloween off- leaving it to the amateurs. Honey, it’s all drag.
Here are some street art shots to help your mood for ’22.
In a sea of street art murals, the simplicity of a hand-rendered text piece may be deceptive sometimes because you may miss its complexity. It is also a brave move to rely upon the minimum of elements and lack of style to create something with weight, or humor.
Elfo (photo courtesy of the artist)
Tuscany-based Elfo preempts your response in this new simple piece, purporting to be an advisory against graffiti. In the process, he draws attention to the fact that anti-graffiti signage on the street is large no different than graffiti. The spontaneity of graffiti is often the source of its power, however, and this hand-rendered piece is anticipatory and contradictory.