richard hambleton new york

detail of ‘standing shadow look’ image © designboom

new york street artist richard hambleton is the subject of an exhibition at the armani teatro in milan. the show features 45 of his pieces, 15 of which have never been released before. curated by vladimir restoin roitfeld and andy valmorbida in collaboration with giorgio armani, this show is his first european solo exhibition since 1985.

‘standing shadow look’, 2009 image © designboom

richard hambleton rose to fame in the early 1980’s when like his contemporaries, jean-michel basquiat and keith haring, he used the streets of new york as his canvas for visually arresting public art, most notably his ‘shadowman’ and ‘crime scene’ series. hambleton has been labeled ‘the godfather of street art’.

detail of ‘standing shadow look’ image © designboom

the last surviving member of the east village art movement, hambleton saw what fame and drug use did to his close friends, and for the last 20 years has led a relatively reclusive life on the lower east side of manhattan. despite a low public profile, hambleton has continued to create and his works can be found in the permanent collections of various museums. amongst many, this list includes the MoMA, the brooklyn museum, the houston museum of fine art and the andy warhol museum. he was chosen for the venice biennale in 1984.

‘triple elvis shadow’, 2010 image © designboom

the richard hambleton exhibition will be open to the public for two weeks, from march 1st to march 12th, at the armani teatro in milan.

close-up of ‘triple elvis shadow’ image © designboom

graffiti art on street

‘stop 2’ 1982 image © designboom

‘6 jumpers’, 1999 image © designboom

detail of ‘6 jumpers’ image © designboom

‘jumper’, 1999 image © designboom

exhibition view image © designboom

‘graffiti kick’, 1999 image © designboom

‘wind shadow’, 2001 image © designboom

‘shadow tunnel’, 1994 (front) image © designboom

‘the 1984 rider’, 1984 image © designboom

detail of ‘the 1984 rider’ image © designboom

exhibition view image © designboom

‘silver buck’, 2010 image © designboom

detail of ‘silver buck’ image © designboom

‘marlboro man’, 1985 image © designboom

detail of ‘marlboro man’ image © designboom

‘alexandra’, 2009, ‘jane’, 1997, ‘giovanna’, 2008, ‘grace 1’, 2008 and ‘mette’, 2009 (from top to bottom) image © designboom

close-up image © designboom

richard hambleton, 2010 photo © hank o’neal