Urban Art

Exploring Urban Art at the Discovery Art Fair

April 4th – 6th, 2025 | Opening April 3rd, 2025 – XPOST in Cologne

Responding to the development of Street Art in the last two decades, the innovative art fair proudly introduced a new component to its program. Also in its tenth edition, the Discovery Art Fair presents its popular conceptual unit, the Urban Art Section. Specifically curated to represent the art of the street, this segment will show pieces transferred directly from the city environment, preserving their original idea and intent, without compromise.

By introducing the media originally found in the street, Discovery Art Fair extends its support to progressive artistic expressions and established styles from the world of Street Art. At the same time, the section underlines the vital socially conscious tone of Urban Art.

Whether the protagonists work “in-the-wild”, which comes with its own very unique set of challenges, or for museum walls, urban art is almost always message-based and something of a Geiger counter for the world’s most hottest topics.

Urban Art: from back-alley to gallery and back

Visitors will be invited to learn more and reflect upon the ultimately contemporary expressions that appear and grow in front of them. They will be able to expand their knowledge on the techniques of stencilling, collage, graffiti and wheat-pasting, while learning about global Street Art movements such as adbusting or culture jamming. Images from decayed walls, street corners or particular architectural settings transferred to gallery environment will prove to still possess the inherent spirit of rebellion. Urban Art combines a – often radical – message, with a location-specific context but does so, without any limitations on materials or other restrictions regarding technique and means of creation. It ranges from tiny 3D objects to large-scale murals. Thus, collectors will be able to acquire original pieces that correspond to concrete parts of the city and of the street.

As a city with a notable tradition of street art, Cologne proves to be the best place to introduce this program to the art fair public.

Supporting the New Contemporary Art Movement

The artists brought together in this area are all active in the public space. They initiate unique public interventions and explore city spaces in an abstract and suggestive manner. Each one of these figures interprets the socio-political conditions of the present related to their local or the global currents. These creatives react to repression and the injustices of different kind by acting out against them in a very wide spectrum of ways, aiming to influence the necessary change. Art is their primary means, but their greatest weapon is the army of followers who see their true messages. In their fight for freedom, these brave artists create in various techniques and media. The visitors will be presented with paintings, sketches, collages and photography that tell the story of one of the most vigorous artistic movements in the world today.

Designed to represent the currents in the world of public art, this section will reflect the local Street Art of Cologne as well. Highlighting the latest aspirations of public artists in a gallery-like environment, that Street Art Cologne spectators are used to, is put in another context, corresponding to the global art market trends.

Urban Art section is the place to discover a booming subculture of Cologne, Germany and the world, and to support it directly by purchasing an artwork.

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