Chris DAZE Ellis – Destination

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.

From April to October 2023, it was Chris DAZE Ellis’ turn to exhibit his works at Arena Studio d’Arte. The show included brand new works from the same year but also went back through is œuvre as early as 1983 with authentic sketches. Whether executed on canvas, paper or aluminium his work circles around his roots presented by subway trains, interior, stations, tunnels and scenes of the metropolitan life in New York. Hi combines these parts with abstract elements of his graffiti origins like tags, pieces or outlines.

The 80-paged softcover gives detailed information on his biography as an artist with a comprehensive index on solo shows, group exhibits and featured media like books and movies. An additional essay by Raffaela A. Caruso and impressions from the show’s vernissage round off the catalogue’s content. Destination is limited to 150 copies only and was numbered by hand.

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.

80 pages, 21 x 29,7 cm, edition of 150, numbered, softcover
Language: English/Italian
Release date: October 2023
Publisher: Arena Studio d’Arte