BLADE – The return of the King of New York

When art galleries in New York and Europe started to acknowledge graffiti writing as an art form and started to put up exhibitions in the late 1970s and early 80s only a few artists with a graffiti background made it into the art world. To this day names like CRASH, DAZE, DELTA2, KOOL KOOR, LADY PINK, SONIC, BILL BLAST, QUIK or BLADE are mentioned when it comes to writers who really established themselves as artists over decades. In 2011 Luca Cinquetti found Arena Studio d’Arte – a gallery which in the recent years held exhibitions with these major artists in Verona, Italy.

If New York graffiti ever brought out any kings Steve BLADE Ogburn is definitely one of them. With his massive output on New Yorks subways, super creative ideas and an individual style that he somehow managed to keep to this day he is without a doubt one of the most important graffiti writers ever. From October 2024 till February 2025 he exhibited works on paper, original signed Henry Chalfant photographs and canvas paintings from 1984 to 2024.

Back then and still today his works remind of 70s psychedelic vinyl cover aesthetics that he mixed with his own way of shaping letters and three-dimensional objects. The 68-paged exhibition catalogue The return of the King of New York also includes large scale photos of his works by Martha Cooper, a short biography Luca Cinquetti and an essay by Edoardo Falciono: The Invisible Sovereign: BLADE and the Reclaiming of the Metropolis. The publication is hand-numbered and limited to 150 copies only.

Since exhibition catalogues often become pricey and hard to find gems over time we recommend to get them now for the original price before they are sold out and get expensive collectibles.

68 pages, 21 x 29,7 cm, edition of 150, numbered, softcover
Language: English/Italian
Release date: 2024
Publisher: Arena Studio d’Arte