A new show, ‘Step Outside,’ packs Philly’s street art scene into one unique gallery space

Philly s outdoor art scene is famous for the breadth and diversity of its commissioned murals but on alleyways street signs and overlooked corners another type of artwork thrives Walk around and you will be greeted by tags wheatpastes stencils stickers and more from underground creatives Artists who typically operate in the shadows are stepping into the bright gallery lights for a new two-day pop-up show The exhibit Step Outside takes place this Friday and Saturday at Huddle gallery in Fishtown The show will include over outdoor and graffiti artists from the Philly scene This is a truly massive one-of-its-kind street art graffiti show reported Conrad Benner the founder of Streets Dept a local art blog and media platform It s very major to bring everybody together under one roof It s kind of a sneak peek from the seedy underbelly of what street art is Typically the entire sprawl of the city serves as a canvas for these creatives The indoor gallery however allows the artists to step outside the box and create sculptures installations and even live-pieces in one concentrated space Particular will be experimenting with new media The show is organized by the street artists Doomed Future and Red Hound Heavy Hammer A lot of it s going to be interactive Red Hound stated Street artists will come in and throw a wheat paste up live for everybody to see art in motion what they would do on the street but in the gallery Courtesy of Doomed Future Courtesy of Doomed Future While there are other shows that highlight the work of graffiti artists in galleries Red Hound explained that this event is unique for the sheer amount of artists involved Even though it is in a gallery space the atmosphere will mimic the subversive feeling of creating outdoors The mass amount of artists that have submitted is nuts he declared There s going to be one very large wall top to bottom every single inch is going to be artist submissions And then there will be installations hanging from the ceiling We re going to literally build additional walls for people to write and just go nuts on Unlike a few gallery shows where visitors may need prior knowledge of the artist or the subject matter to truly grasp the meaning behind the work Step Outside is for everyone from enthusiasts who are heavily involved in the city s street art scene to those who may not know much about it I hope everyone gets the bug for street art disclosed the anonymous artist Blur who goes by she they pronouns I think street art and graffiti is literally very romantic I think a lot of people look at it as vandalism I think it s a love letter to the city One of her sticker series includes an open mouth with different messages written between its lips saying phrases like What a shame your pride got in the way and If you have to beg to be valued leave Blur s messages are quick and poignant The art is universal even without understanding her personal background Still hearing how she got into street art provides a new perspective to the work Courtesy of blurstreetart on Instagram I had really really severe Lyme infection that made me have encephalitis and I lost my ability to speak for about six months she explained It was quite literally a blur and I started drawing this mouth symbol and putting my feelings in the mouth and trying to just express this crazy crazy life event One of Blur s signature mouths will hang in the gallery but instead of a small sticker it will be on a large canvas A painted hello name tag serves as the backdrop She has not yet unveiled what the saying inside will be but teases that it comes from an old poem For a multitude of street artists their work can be an outlet and a point of connection during dark periods I suffer from mild depression and high anxiety noted the artist B from Jersey or B And I just feel like art helps with all that especially during the pandemic times and the political setting and what s going on in the world B creates a variety of different kinds of materials from spray paint to art made from recycled material For Step Outside he is creating a glow-in-the-dark recreation of the Joker s face from Batman specifically Heath Ledger s version made from broken vinyl records View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bernard DelaCruz b from jersey I m years old so I grew up in the early s he noted This was North Philly in the early s So it was like early Hip Hop everywhere You know the s style hip hop graff You can see the dope tags North Philly style I saw all that on the way to school and on the way home every day So that just stuck with me Philly s just known for graffiti he added It s the birthplace of the tags Now he s passed on the torch and even creates graffiti with his -year-old son The show will be an homage to artists of all ages and backgrounds from Philadelphia Nicole Krecicki co-owner of South Street Art Mart is one of the artists who created work for Step Outside She uses the alias Taped Off TV I m just excited to see all the different types of work that are going to be on display and the different kinds of people coming together under the same roof she commented Krecicki s work references a mixture of pop heritage and politics It is often a homage to s and s TV nostalgia One of her series includes stickers of an anthropomorphic vintage television creature with teeth For the show she is bringing her creation to life through sculpture I like to spray paint on old electronics she explained I m kind of obsessed with finding CRT TVs that still work tape players radios VCRs things like that I have an old TV that I spray painted and then I hand painted on trying to make a little TV monster We have a bunch of mannequins in the store so I m trying to fix it onto legs she added Krecicki is excited that the show will represent the city s ever-changing street art beliefs including queer female and BIPOC artists If you were to ask anyone on the street name a famous street artist they re perhaps going to say Shepard Fairey or they re going to say Banksy these masculine names she explained I ve done various trades with people across the country and there s a lot of women there s a lot of femme people there s a lot of younger people which I think is really cool A sculpture from the artist Taped Off TV Courtesy of Doomed Future Inphltrate another anonymous artist is excited to be amongst the female creatives involved in the show She is making a couple pieces for the exhibit I feel like the locality of women street artists is growing she mentioned That makes me so happy to have girlies with me on the streets vandalizing and also just being girls together Inphltrate s work is very feminine often subversive and sometimes uplifting One of her artwork series tells passersby to realize your worth My goal is to help other people who are kind of feeling those tough feelings and seeing an encouraging message on the street kind of helps them get through it she noted And that s the main purpose of my work is that connection with others Inphltrate mentioned she believes there is a movement at present happening in underground art thanks in part to shows like Step Outside Street art wasn t inevitably something that was appreciated or accepted not just in Philly but in general she disclosed I feel like we re about to embark on a Renaissance of street art I feel like the city especially Philly is so accepting of art Inphltrate s work often features sing-use plastic bags Courtesy of Doomed Future Not to hate on New York but I feel like in Philly we re able to see the artists and get to know them because it is smaller she added That to me is really exciting that we re literally getting noticed now when there s more shows and it s getting taken more seriously Step Outside is a great way for visitors to get involved and become insiders of a kind in this underground movement For her part Blur is hoping that people will leave the show with a new appreciation for the craft I hope that maybe the next day when they re walking to their job the same commute that they do every day they see one of my stickers maybe or someone else s work at the show she noted And it just stops their day and they have just like a tiny little moment for themselves where that is just them and that little sticker or them and that wheat paste or that them and that tag It just makes them feel more connected to the city they live in The post A new show Step Outside packs Philly s street art scene into one unique gallery space appeared first on Billy Penn at WHYY