Graffuturism at Mirus Gallery

Denver is becoming a more worldly by the day, as the interest level for art continues to grow in the capital, it seems we are able to swing larger and more prestigious shows such as “L’avenir” (or The Future in French) at the Mirus Gallery. A group show of like-minded artists who flourish under the banner of Graffuturism, a term coined by Poesia himself, who for many years has been commentating on the scene via his blog that goes by the same name Graffuturism.com. We sat down and interviewed Poesia as a small crew of people labored away in the background building walls to hang the newly arriving pieces from all over the world.

From where is all of this art coming from?

Basically from all over, Russia to Eastern Europe, Italy to Spain … It’s coming directly from the artists so there is a lot of logistics getting all of that cleared through customs.  

Where did Graffuturism.com come from and why did you start it?

Well I am currently living in San Francisco, but when I started the blog, really Graffuturism could have been started anywhere, it [really] started on the internet. It wasn’t a local thing, it was me coming from graffiti history and seeing what was going on in the scene, I just wanted to share artists who were similar to my aesthetic or who shared the same history as me. And who weren’t necessarily getting the recognition that they deserve. This was nine years ago, when blogs were still valid.

When you are looking for artists, what is the message or the common history that you are looking for?

There was really no central idea behind the term Graffuturism, it was more for me  about figuring out a name for the blog, and then I made that term up. It was more about something that was evolving … It wasn’t specifically about futurism the Italian movement, but it was more about something that was next. That’s why this show is called “L’avenir” because it’s basically what’s next.

In so many ways, does keeping the movement slightly vague keep it accessible to a wider audience?

For me, the one thing that I will always relate to when I look at somebody’s work is that, of course I’m going to be drawn to is aesthetically or conceptually — but also, what differentiates it from me is the history, and our shared history coming from graffiti, maybe going to college, some guys weren’t even trained in college. But they kept that history and it influenced their work in the future. If there was a broader “tie-in” factor, I would say that everyone sharing the same history, coming from the same institution of graffiti.

What do you see going on with graffiti as far as commercialization?

It was basically commercial since the 1980s — when graffiti happened there was Beat Street [the movie], there was so much —  it was already commercialized really fast. But the problem is that it has its ups and downs of commercialization so … “it’s a fad” and then it comes back. Its always been up and down, but for me I don’t personally care about commercialization because for one, we are an accessible art form, we are a public art form, so we are always going to have people latching on to what we do because we are actually changing the public space.

And when it comes to gentrification like street murals?

There is “cool” for the people to latch onto, but it’s something I’m not apart of — like specifically here in RiNo, I see the same district all across America. It’s the same model [everywhere] they are just using murals to gentrify neighborhoods. And for me, I don’t care about that, It’s not why I do it. But I understand artists trying to make a living, so I’m not against it.

What is the next thing for Graffuturism?

Well the blog is dead basically, it’s still there but more as an archive — blogs don’t exist anymore. What I will more than likely do, because I feel like you always have to do something that’s against the grain, kinda what you [SALT] is doing as well going back to an analogue ways. For me, blogging is non-existent — so for me I’ll be making a catalogue for this show, and hopefully that leads me into making a quarterly [publication] with essays, because what happens is that if no one is defining the terms “street art” “graffiti” and now there are academics who are like studying street art and graffiti — so getting them to write, and getting them in a periodical to talk about what’s going on, I think that’s what Graffuturism is going to go into.