A New York Show Revisits the Moment Graffiti Landed in the Gallery

In the early 1970s, the pioneer generation of graffiti writers from A-One to Zephyr were making their presence known on New York’s streets and subways. Theirs were wild, energetic styles that caught the ire of the authorities—but more significantly, they also captured the eye of gallerists and fellow artists. In time, it’s the latter group that would fix graffiti as an art form (and then, art market juggernaut), transplanting it from the urban jungle into the white cube. A new exhibition at the Museum of the City of New York (MCNY) revisits exactly this moment of graffiti’s evolution. At “Above Ground: Art from the Martin Wong Graffiti Collection,” you’ll find works by some of the field’s key players—Keith Haring, Lady Pink, Rammellzee, Haze, Futura 2000, Tracy 168—created not on a city wall or subway door, but on canvas. It’s a major turning point, reckons curator Sean Corcoran, during which the artists more than met the moment. “These young people had real ambitions to make work in a more traditional setting,” he told me during a walk-through of the exhibition. “Sometimes it carried that same energy that happened on the streets. Sometimes it transformed and became something totally different.” Installation view...