We didn’t expect to see urban art in a Fine Arts museum… And yet that’s exactly what the We are here exhibition, on view free of charge from June 12 to November 17, 2024, offers us.
It’s a real event for the Petit Palais: the museum is hosting its first urban art exhibition from June 12 to November 17, 2024. In collaboration with the Itinerrance gallery, the cultural institution is showcasing the work of street-artists in a large-scale exhibition accessible to all, free of charge.
The We are here exhibition features works by such street-art greats as Seth, Invader, Shepard Fairey (Obey), Hush, Swoon, Conor Harrington, D*Face, Inti and others. These urban art greats take up residence in the permanent collections of the Petit Palais, with monumental or more discreet installations that create a new and unexpected dialogue with the masterpieces on display in the museum. Over 200 works from all over the world are on display.
Street art, paintings, sculptures and traditional objets d’art offer an unusual and curious mix, a clash of generations and cultures that enriches all the works.
The first part of the exhibition is almost like a treasure hunt: you have to wander around the permanent collections, looking closely at the works to find the urban creations of street artists. On a statue, under a painting, in a showcase: some works are obvious, while others are hidden, like a game for visitors.
After this playful stroll full of surprises, the curious arrive in a large room, which alone contains over a hundred works of art. This small “urban art salon” features major street-art artists who have left their mark on their generation and their discipline, both in France and internationally. The diversity of the works on display reveals the richness and inventiveness of this movement.
This room is also a tribute to the Salon des Refusés, an important event in the history of modern art, which spotlighted artists rejected by the Académie des Beaux-Arts and led to the discovery of many highly talented artists.
Inequalities and civil rights, major world events, the quest for identity, protest: the exhibition also highlights the soul of this street art, which has developed from the walls of working-class neighborhoods to the walls of Paris’s biggest museums.
Lovers of street art, don’t miss this original and exciting exhibition, to be seen free of charge at the Petit Palais from summer 2024.
