Richard Hambleton:: Conversations with Art History

ACA Galleries is pleased to present an exhibition of Richard Hambleton’s work that will offer a new recontextualization of his famed street art practice. 

Opening on January 27, the show will reframe the artist’s legacy by locating his work within the context of the broader Abstract Expressionist movement that inspired him. This exhibition will include paintings and works on paper by Richard Hambleton, alongside works by leading figures of the Abstract Expressionist movement, including Franz Kline, Theodoros Stamos and Ad Reinhardt.

Widely known as the “Godfather of Street Art,” Richard Hambleton (1954-2017), was a Canadian artist celebrated for his pioneering role in the street art movement of the 1980s. Born in Vancouver, he gained widespread recognition for his enigmatic "Shadowman" series, characterized by dark and eerie painted silhouettes, found on hundreds of urban surfaces across Manhattan at the height of the 80’s downtown street art scene. His work has been exhibited internationally–featured twice at the Venice Biennale–and he even painted his Shadow men on the Berlin Wall. 

Although Hambleton’s art has been hugely influential to a younger generation of artists, this is the first exhibition to look at his work in dialogue with art history. The exhibition demonstrates how Hambleton incorporated both the painterly gestures and the hard edged zips and lines of Abstract Expressionism into a wholly unique style all his own.