Unruly Gallery presents its tenth anniversary show

“See this ain't something new that's just gonna come out of nowhere. No, this is something old, and dirty.” – ODB (from the song Raw Hide)

If an artist can be born with an old soul, then an art movement can remain forever young. If you consider prehistoric cave art, graffiti is by far the oldest art form. But it is also the youngest. And it is still growing and dividing into subcategories. One of these is post-vandalism.

To destroy, to create and to make a mark, they are one and the same need. But when public space has been altered and marked, what then? Could this seemingly primitive expression and unruly behaviour grow into something sensitive and intelligent? We say it has, and aim to prove it with this exhibition.

The gesture of vandalism in these artworks implies a formative and creative act, showcasing the impact one has on their environment. When placed in the gallery, these artworks reveal their aesthetic and conceptual strength, they emit a liveliness that relates to freedom and power. The gallery strips them of their background noise, disfigured and stained, their appearance now proves both graceful and disconcerting.

Historically, we can see the origins of post-vandalism in art movements such as auto-destructive art, nouveau realisme and graffiti. One's environment is key to these approaches, they transcribe and react to the world around them, often blurring the lines between art and life.

Artists such as Gordon Matta-Clark, Hans Hartung and more recently Katharina Grosse have spurred on a new generation of artists to twist and tweak these ideals. For many of the artists involved in post-vandalism, these ideologies are underpinned by their urban background, allowing them to combine the skills they've learned in the street with more traditional art methodologies.

For the tenth anniversary of our artist-run online gallery Unruly, we are showing the work of international abstract artists with roots in the street. These artists use media such as painting, sculpture, readymades and installation. It is Unruly's take on post-vandalism and for this occasion, we dub it post>andalism.

Sadly, we failed to get any original cave drawings from Lascaux to historicize all this new work, but we will be exhibiting a series of early graffiti works by Futura and Dondi White from the vaults of Dutch collectors Jeannette and Martijn Sanders.

==

• new work by Unruly artists: CHRISTOPHER STEAD, EGS, ESTHER MIQUEL, HAMS KLEMENS, HENNY OVERBEEK, MARGOT DOMART, NIK CHRISTENSEN, NILS JENDRI, NUG, PAUL DU BOIS-REYMOND, PETRO, RONAN DILLON, SHOE, SOEMONE, STEFANO PANE MONFELI , STEPHEN BURKE, VINCENT DE BOER, XAVI CEERRE

• introducing artists selected via the #unrulyopencall ALISTAIR WOODS, DASH, JO DENNIS, JOHN CEJUDO

• with unshown pieces from the 1980s by: FUTURA, DONDI WHITE, RAMMELLZEE

• music provided by (Saturday 16 October, 17:00-24:00): RUYZDAEL, WRITERS ON WAX

• curated by: NIELS SHOE MEULMAN (artist, founder Unruly Gallery) STEPHEN BURKE (artist, managing director Unruly Gallery) GABRIEL ROLT (The Curators Room) RIEKE VOS (curator Het HEM)

==