SEARCHERS: Graffiti and Contemporary Art brings together over thirty of Australia’s most dynamic artists – from underground graffiti writers to celebrated contemporary artists – united by one charged medium: spray paint.
Introduced as a commercial product in the mid-twentieth century, spray paint quickly caught the attention of artists who recognised its unique material potential. By the late 1960s, it had become the defining tool of graffiti writing, a global art movement born from marginalised subcultures. A sprayed mark is rarely neutral: it resonates with rebellion, speed, and urban resistance. It insists, in Norman Mailer’s words, ‘I am, I exist’.
For more than forty years, spray has fuelled acts of visibility and self-assertion. Subversive and expressive, it has given voice to those working outside the institution. Graffiti artists – known as writers – have validated themselves and their communities through vibrant, unapologetic gestures that challenge systems of exclusion while shaping visual culture worldwide.
Curated by artist and National Art School lecturer Fiona Lowry and National Art School Senior Curator and Gallery Manager Katrina Cashman, SEARCHERS traces spray paint’s passage between subculture and fine art – from Sidney Nolan’s late experiments and Howard Arkley’s suburban scenes to the work of graffiti artists such as TAVEN, SPICE and MACH.
Born on the street and reimagined in the gallery, spray remains a material of anonymity, immediacy, and defiance. SEARCHERS explores its restless movement between graffiti and contemporary art, celebrating the transformative power of spray.
