Mapping the City

Somerset House, in association with collaborative arts organisation A(by)P, will present Mapping the City, an innovative exhibition of works by established and emerging artists from the street and graffiti art scenes. To complement the exhibition, Somerset House and A(by)P are planning a diverse series of events, including a series of film and music evenings, artists talks, performances and interactive workshops, all to inspire visitors to re-evaluate their own relationship to the cities in which they live.

The exhibition will feature works by over 50 internationally recognised artists such as Shepard Fairey, Swoon and Aryz, alongside rising stars from Australia to Argentina, Sweden to Spain and France to Finland.

Graffiti and street artists have an intimate relationship with the cities that they use as a canvas. They understand and engage with the urban landscape in unique ways – through subjective surveying rather than objective ordinance. Mapping the City will present a series of cartographic representations of the artists’ chosen cities. Ranging from literal to highly abstract, each map will be an individual response to the way these artists experience and interpret the places that they know so well.

The artists selected by A(by)P to take part in the exhibition use a wide variety of media in their practice, from digital technology to illustration, paintings to sculpture, and video presentations to performances. Over 40 of the works were specially commissioned by A(by)P, with artists using their individual aesthetic to share their knowledge of each city’s secrets and challenge visitors to look at their own urban environments in a new light.

Mapping the City follows the success of the exhibition Futurismo Ancestral: An Offering to Peru by Sixe Paredes presented in the lower levels of Somerset House in May 2014.

All the artworks presented during Mapping the City will be available for sale through A(by)P.