IS THE link that big money has to street art as strong as it is, to, say, Tracey Emin? Not yet. The City is always looking for ways to recycle its money but the symbiotic relationship has not quite embraced the graffitists as warmly as it has Damien Hirst.
Even Banksy has not lost his radical edge and his is among work to be shown at a gallery in Stoke Newington that claims an international reputation in the field.
Its show opening this week, Wall To Wall, will feature an original piece by the man possibly born Robin Gunningham, as well as items by Faile, Swoon, Futura, Matt Small, David Choe and Ben Eine.
The downstairs room will hold the gallery’s first installation by RUN. The Italian will present his first solo show at Hang-Up in June 2014.
The gallery says: “The exhibition will explore the multilayered aesthetic of street art to create a fuller appreciation of the art form.” In other words, take your chequebook.
Gallery director Ben Cotton says that Hang-Up has links to a network of galleries, publishers, dealers and private collectors around the world, “enabling us to source specific artwork requests quickly and efficiently”. Hang-Up’s online street art gallery, had become “Europe’s leading online urban art gallery”.
David Altheer 180314
* Wall To Wall at Hang-Up, 56 Stoke Newington High Street N16 7PB (020 3667 4552), 22 Mar-26 April 2014. Hours: see website. Limited disabled access
* Backstory: Apocalypse Stanley: Donwood in Stokey
* Emboldened underscored words in most cases indicate a hyperlink, a reader service rare among websites. If a link does not work, it is probably because the site to which the URL refers has not been maintained.