The kids are alright.

I grew up in that sweet era of rap, hip hop, and graffiti as underground practices frowned upon by the general public. The creative freedom of graffiti was the hook-line-and sinker for me and since then I have been addicted. From blackbooks, to walls, to the paint selection…it’s all amazing because of the enormous freedom that surrounds graffiti.

But in the early 2000’s, as graffiti saw a surge in popularity, and became more and more accepted in mainstream art (thanks to initiatives like the videogame titled “getting up”, we saw a surge of new writers hit the streets, but it felt like something that people were just jumping on for the sake of being a part of something new.

Fast forward a few years and graffiti hit an all-time low. Street art started to get bigger, but the vandalism and letter-focus was gone.

A lot of writers had stopped writing, and it felt like less and less of us were left. But if there’s one thing that has caught my eye recently, it’s the amount of graffiti that is hitting the streets these days.

New names and new writers are out and about challenging the status quo, we see more and more innovation, and at the head of it all: young kids. It’s massive. Testament to this was the inauguration of Madrid’s own Ivigraphy photo exhibit titled “No Problem. Only Photos.”. Although not directly on the subject of graffiti, it was very close, and the influence was super clear.

We rolled up, and what we saw blew our mind. There was a line to get in - we had to wait 20 minutes or so to finally make it in, but on the bright side, this gave us enough time to be joined by the good folks from Contado Pierde (who will get a dedicated post very soon). We felt old in that crowd (mind you, we’re in our 30’s) but the energy was amazing.

With every step, a can rattled within the crowd, or a sticker was put up. When we finally made it in, we found a curated selection of backlit pictures the walls. Pictures of tunnels, of the Madrid Subway, groups of friends with face coverings exploring everything that is generally off limits for the rest of society.

We spoke to the photographer briefly, and congratulated him on the crowd he managed to bring out to the event, to which he showed much appreciation and was humble.

All this to say, that yeah, the kids are alright.

They’re coming in strong, and we can’t wait to see what the new generation brings.

Thanks for reading. Peep some pics below: