In March 2025, Museion inaugurates a fundamental exhibition dedicated to the relationship between graffiti and contemporary art. The first institutional exhibition in Italy to explore the evolution of the use of spray painting in art, Graffiti investigates how the visual language specific to the city and the street has influenced artistic practice in the studio. The exhibition offers an interpretation of graffiti practice, especially as a unique perspective to observe and experience the urban landscape.

Bringing together transdisciplinary works created over 75 years, the exhibition focuses on an approach that goes beyond the historicization of graffiti writing as an "outsider" practice. Starting from the spray paintings of the '50s and '60s, which anticipated graffiti, the exhibition unfolds through the works of renowned writers from the '80s to contemporary artists who integrate graffiti into their diverse practices.

The spray can, the tool that characterizes contemporary graffiti, was patented in the United States in 1951. From its introduction as a consumer product in the '50s, until the late '60s - when graffiti writing began to spread, a practice now widely recognized - almost twenty years passed, during which figurative artists also experimented with this tool. Once spray paint became the predominant style for creating graffiti, its use in any other context inevitably became associated with this practice. A simple line of spray paint indeed evokes immediate associations with rebellion and urbanity, whether it be a conscious intention or not.

The exhibition spans 1,500 square meters on the two largest floors of Museion, featuring key works from the second half of the 20th century to the present day, as well as new site-specific works.