From Street To Gallery

When it comes to street art, Magda Danysz was there at the right place at the right time. And she’s telling its evolution at Artscience Museum’s latest exhibition.

- Jasmine Tay and Jennifer Chen

If the increasing legitimacy of street artists still has not alerted your inner collector’s spidey senses, consider this: The stylised red, blue and beige “Hope” portrait of Barack Obama that came to represent his 2008 presidential campaign started life as a poster sold on the street by artist Shepard Fairey. These days, his work and those of other street artists are increasingly finding their way into auction houses. At a sale of street and contemporary art in Los Angeles last year, signed pieces by Banksy went for between US$640 (S$850, Barely Legal) and US$18,750 (Umbrella Rat), with those by Fairey (Duality Of Humanity and Mujer Fatal) and Keith Haring (Untitled) fetching US$38,400 and US$28,125, respectively. The sums are a far cry from the seven to eight digits paid for the Old Masters’ works, but they signal the existence of a market for the art form. To be sure, street art has come a long way from the graffiti executed illegally in urban areas – although, according to Magda Danysz, curator of Artscience Museum’s latest exhibition, Art From The Streets, it hasn’t come far enough.