African American Student Union Lecture: Philip Asbury “Painting the City: Graffiti and Street Art in Philadelphia”

Born in Philadelphia, the home of notorious wall writer “Cornbread” which is hailed as the birth place of modern graffiti,

Philip Asbury is a multimedia artist with a tendency toward photography and aerosol as a means to document his environment. Asbury is the co-founder of the TGE(The Great Escape) graffiti crew (including other members Curve, Jurne and Totem2), and was a participant in the “Exchange”, an international style writing project created by Rime MSK in 2005.

Heavily influenced by graffiti and street art in the 1990s, Asbury creates work in aerosol on both the gallery and street levels.  Asbury is currently a educator and art administrator at the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program, a program founded on reforming graffiti vandals by teaching them techniques in public mural making. The Mural Arts Program is almost exclusively responsible for the ubiquity of public art in Philadelphia.

Philip Asbury will present personal work in relation to the history of Graffiti and Street Art in Philadelphia; the Mural Art’s Program’s role in helping to reshape Philadelphia socially and visually; and how styles and themes in graffiti and street art evolve and spread across the world. 

Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the Public Programs Office at (617) 496-2414 or [email protected].

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