Our community, though fairly accepting, still maintains Bigotry under its surface, and art is not immune to this bigotry.

“This Is Modern Art,” produced by Blessed Unrest at Next Door @NYTW, is a true tale of a trio of Graffiti writers, who tagged a low outside wall at the Art Institute of Chicago in 2010, with the intent to disrupt the preconceived labels bestowed to graffiti as street art and not museum worthy.

Our protagonists are all men of color (Seven, Dose and JC), with the addition of Seven’s girlfriend, Selena who is a white, each wanting to take their stand against unfair power structures and confront corruption, and all are labeled many things: from rebels, insurrectionists, insurgents, to Artists.

Seven (Shakur Tolliver) sees the newly designed art museum, as an elitist space where unconventional artists are not welcomed and wants to show people that there are real artists in the city, alive today, and making an impact in the present.  Like many artists, they are all also seeking “Fame”, as it is through fame that art is able to transform life; however, it is this concept that is the cause for frequent debate over the motivations of political art … Continue reading..