Walking the decadent streets of New York from the 1970s to the present day, Hank O’Neal lingered before the graffiti covering its walls. His images form an impressive archive of the greatest works of street art.
The exhibition is already over. It only lasted twelve days, so we didn’t rush to cover it. But before the Howard Greenberg Gallery opens its next exhibition, we have to take a moment to discuss Hank O’Neal, a kind of guardian of street art. A former CIA agent turned photographer, O’Neal was encouraged by his friend and mentor Berenice Abbot to undertake a project photographing the walls of New York City. Like Walker Evans and his photos of posters from the Great Depression, O’Neal has spent the last forty years documenting the works of Basquiat, Keith Haring, JR, Banksy, Mr. Brainwash and Kenny Sharf, among others.
A tireless walker, O’Neal was able to identify the graffiti, collages and drawings by several generations of streets artists no matter how inaccessible they were to others. “Street art—and the street art I photograph—must be in a public place, must be visually captivating and perhaps beautiful, must be the product of an informed intellect (not of a vandal), and must be purposeful,” says O’Neal. “It can be a jolt by a single artist or a chaotic improvisation by dozens of different hands in unexpected places, in unexpected ways.”
Pictures of walls, you might say. Nothing special. But you would be overlooking the fact that Hank O’Neal’s meticulous work represents a collection of hundreds of photographs of the most celebrated works of street art. With its narrative and contextual approach, XCIA’s Street Art Project is an ode to this forbidden art.
Jonas Cuénin
XCIA’s Street Art Project
Howard Greenberg Gallery
41 East 57th Street
New York, NY 10022
(212) 334-0010
