Every morning before school, I pass a Starbucks on the corner of Jerome Avenue in the Bronx. On its side, as I’m walking up to it, I see a graffiti piece that screams out at me, daring me not to look. It’s a wild, sprawling mural, a frenzy of colors and shapes that twist and dive through each other. One does not need to stare at it for long to decode that it’s meant to represent the Bronx. But it’s not just spray paint; the piece feels alive. It also happens to stick out like a sore thumb, as if every faded cabana, chipped sign, and rusting fire escape a few blocks down decided to sacrifice a bit of their shine and individuality and combine it in one place to make sure everyone would know where they were.
Whether it was some gimmick to get customers to spend their leftover cash from the day before on a cup of joe or something that had been an open canvas at the time for an interested street artist, this wall is my Bronx. It’s loud, unapologetic, and full of stories. The artist knew this corner, I think, and knew what it’s like to hear the rumble of the 4 train in the distance and feel the world moving fast around you, even when you’re standing still. When I walk past it every morning, the graffiti says to me: Don’t forget where you’re from.
I could probably map the whole piece out in my head with my eyes closed, the same way you could recite an old phone number. And, while over time due to weather and wear, there’s something ironic about how while the piece may not be there forever, it still reveals that there is something permanent in a city that never seems to stop changing.
That’s the thing about this part of the city. It’s a canvas that never seems to run out of room for the next person, a place where the streets speak, whether through the graffiti, the people, or even a mix of both (Who am I kidding? — it’s definitely both). And that graffiti on the Starbucks wall? Along with the others you’d inevitably see throughout the day? It makes you wonder: What happens when those same streets and walls find their way into a gallery? What stories would they tell if we brought them all together, side by side?
That’s where Futura 2000: Breaking Out, a new exhibit at the Bronx Museum on display through March 30th, 2025, comes in. It’s a celebration of the city’s hidden and unmentioned strengths. The exhibit is an art showcase based solely on street art is more than just a display of rebellious intent, but is a movement, a language, and a statement. Artists who grew up tagging the streets, including legends like TATS CRU and newer voices shaping the borough’s identity, show their work on display in a way that bridges the gap between the raw energy of the Bronx with the polished halls of the art world at the Bronx Museum.
The Bronx Museum, founded in 1971, is the perfect place for this. Around that same time, Futura 2000, began exploring graffiti as an art form. Over the years, his style evolved with techniques like spray paint and stencils, creating abstract works that revolutionized contemporary art.
Futura emerged from Brooklyn’s graffiti scene in the 1970s, but his work quickly distinguished itself with its sci-fi influences and abstract style. He drew inspiration from black-and-white TV shows, old B-movies, and iconic films like 2001: A Space Odyssey and Alien. The alien creature, the Xenomorph, from Alien even served as a model for the futuristic, otherworldly figures featured in his art.
He quickly became part of Brooklyn’s thriving graffiti movement. From the start, his work stood apart due to its focus on abstraction and science fiction. These themes were shaped by the T.V. shows and low-budget films that he grew up watching in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey was a pivotal influence, sparking his interest in space and the future. Similarly, the design of the creature in 1979’s Alien directly inspired the surreal, futuristic characters that became a hallmark of his work.
(Desara Zejnati)
An important early work for Futura was Break from 1980, the inspiration for the title of his new exhibition. In this piece, the artist spray-painted graffiti across an entire subway car. Represented in the exhibition through a photograph, the artwork bursts with bright, cloud-like pastel tones of orange, red, mauve, and blue. It serves as an excellent introduction to Futura’s style, which often combines the imagery of space rockets, stars, alien forms, atoms, and planets with backgrounds of flowing, organic-looking streaks and drips of color.
Breaking Out is described as the most extensive retrospective of Futura’s career. In fact, he views it as his first true museum show. It follows a similarly titled exhibition at the University of Buffalo that concluded last winter. This version delves deeply into the artist’s journey, featuring numerous loans from private collectors to present a comprehensive overview of Futura’s evolution and creative legacy.
The exhibition aims to celebrate an artist who remains something of an outsider, one whom the Bronx Museum argues deserves recognition alongside other prominent Black artists, such as Jean-Michel Basquiat, who also transitioned from graffiti to more traditional canvases.
Futura is embracing his role in planning the retrospective and is eager to enjoy a significant moment in New York. His success reflects his resilience and his ability to thrive as an artist against the odds. He sees this exhibition as a culmination of his improbable career and expects it to be a major milestone.
The subway car piece Break earned its title because it marked a departure from the elaborate lettering and motifs traditionally associated with graffiti art, paving the way for abstraction. Futura considers this work the starting point of his artistic journey, describing it as the foundation of everything he has done since. At the time, he was striving to explore a new creative space, which the piece embodies.
Walking into the museum feels like looking into Futura’s artistic journey. The space is sleek and simple, with an open layout that allows the eye to move from one point to the next. Taking up the entrance is a large, visually striking timeline mounted on the wall, charting Futura’s evolution as an artist. It’s a detailed and immersive display, beginning with his early days in the 1970s graffiti scene and progressing through his groundbreaking work in abstraction, collaborations, and more recent projects.
Beyond the timeline, a series of his skateboard customizations are displayed on nearby walls and in glass cases as you walk up the stairs or a ramp to the actual exhibit. The boards are a vibrant explosion of Futura’s signature style of swirling colors, bold shapes, and sci-fi-inspired imagery that transform these everyday objects into pieces of art. Some feature intricate patterns, while others feel like miniature murals of abstraction. The space buzzes with a combination of Futura’s past and present, offering visitors an intimate look at how his creative expression has changed and stayed the same over time.
The walls feature a mix of his larger canvases. These pieces explode with bold brushstrokes and oozing, organic flows of paint, where vivid neon hues meet stark blacks and whites. Each canvas feels like its own universe, a fusion of abstraction and sci-fi imagery, with swirling forms resembling stars capes or otherworldly atmospheres.
Alongside these, longer, horizontal works command attention with their unique proportions, emphasizing his graffiti work. These pieces stretch across the walls, leading the eye through streams of vibrant colors and layered textures. The neon shades pinks, oranges, blues, and greens are bold, with an energy that feels almost electric.
That’s where Futura 2000: Breaking Out, a new exhibit at the Bronx Museum on display through March 30th, 2025, comes in. It’s a celebration of the city’s hidden and unmentioned strengths. The exhibit is an art showcase based solely on street art is more than just a display of rebellious intent, but is a movement, a language, and a statement.