'Nothing Nice' Street Art Exhibition

11 Jun 2024, 17:00

This past Thursday, Gorgeous George transformed into an unconventional gallery to celebrate local street art, hip hop, dance and of course, community. The ‘Nothing Nice’ exhinbition, curated by Kayleigh-Anne Kisten and Muneeb Omar, was truly a coming together of people and culture in a fun and enriching way.

“The idea to have a street art exhibition centred around graffiti began a year ago with the initial inspiration taken from friend and artist Malay’s (aka Muneeb Omar) work. We sat down and envisioned an idea centred around graffiti’s street culture. We felt traditional art galleries don’t always seem to acknowledge their work and thought a platform was needed. The idea stemmed around a mix of different facets of street art culture, from muralists to traditional graffiti, and bring that raw energy into the Gorgeous George’s Pink Room. We thought an ode to the culture of Hip Hop was necessary in the broader sense by including pioneering and current graffiti artists and muralists, b-boys and scratch DJs as well as a space for artists and attendees to add their voice by tagging some pieces.”

Alongside the pieces decorating the walls of the Pink Room, the beauty and power of street art was showcased in an extremely unique way with a make-shift graffiti wall made out of plastic wrap and the wooden dancefloor was bordered off to create a square canvas for attendees to create their own art. The soundtrack to the night was played by an incredible array of Dj’s like Dj Lapse, Raiko and Alvhinator, accompanied by some incredible hip hop dancers who performed on the customized wooden floor. The space was absolutely buzzing, enhancing the artwork showcased by the six featured artists- Flowrinwatr, 2kil, Mapes, KIC, Malay and Gogga.

Check-out more about the artists and see some of the nights highlights below!

Flowrinwatr

Flowrinwatr is an artist based in Cape Town. They are interested in story telling through different mediums. They are focused on painting art in public spaces, using the city as a space of creation and medium for conversation and imagination. Hip hop culture has influenced their work through Graffiti and especially the fantasy and magical realism of artists from Mitchell’s Plain such as Seth 1 and Drone.

Mapes

Mapes is a graffiti artist residing in Cape Town. She is a self proclaimed nerd, drawing inspiration from comics, science fiction novels and anime. Her work is a juxtaposition between the super adorable and the vaguely messed up.

KIC

KIC, KNOWLEDGE INSPIRED CREATION, is a self-taught, multidisciplinary artists from the segregated Cape Town. "Love using familiar and new mediums to challenge myself with detail and conceptualising consciousness in the artworks I produce."

Malay

Malay is a multidisciplinary artist born and raised in Cape Town . Influenced by radical behaviour, hip-hop and the rawness of street culture, Malay uses the skills he has developed through the practice and understanding of hip-hop as a tool of visual storytelling.

Gogga

Gogga is one of the first known graffiti writer's/artist's to popularize the art form within "Hip-Hop Kultcha," in the mid 80's, 90's, 2000's and is still pushing bounds today. 'Gogga de Devastator,' a name which became synonymous with the underground dance culture, got his inspiration from the peripheries of everyday life, where you'd "almost always see some Graff in the background."