Outta Sight- 2023
Outta Sight is a group show highlighting "Street Artists" that historically use the street, walls and trains as their canvas, and not typically exhibited in museum and/or gallery spaces. These artists are influential to our society and culture because they are a voice for their marginalized communities. The name of the show is a double entendre, the street art created by these artists is literally "out of sight", yet despite the arts appearance in public spaces, it is quite often hidden from view in what is considered formal exhibition spaces. Street Art has yet to be situated within a formal historical cannon and is often considered "other" or "outsider" even though the style has evolved from the streets into different incarnations from traditional style writing to stickers to canvases.
This group of predominantly New Mexican artists on exhibit work emerged out of the late 1980's and early 1990's, and during this era the street arts community's need to create became paramount as an almost "safe" outlet. Coming from some of the marginalized populations, these artists had limited resources and oftentimes utilize tools that are given, found or stolen! During this time, some of the most unique and fleeting art was created under duress of trying to maintain basic survival, let alone having extra money for art supplies and is a proclamation to their existence within a system that oppresses and exploits. This exhibit features new works by artists who bring beauty to drab, ugly, inhospitable places creating art that is truly Otta Sight.