Graffiti moves from the street into the Stables
Centraal Museum brings together more than 120 works in an exhibition about the exchange between graffiti and contemporary art. A miniature train runs through the gallery, and visitors can contribute to a growing installation.
The Stables at Centraal Museum are not a street, but graffiti is coming inside. From 10 October, the museum’s largest exhibition space will explore how graffiti and contemporary art influence one another. The show runs through 29 March 2027.
The occasion is 75 years since a patent for the aerosol can was filed in the United States in 1951. The museum brings together more than 120 works. Its press release gives the figure as 130, while the exhibition page says more than 120.
The names range from Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring to Yayoi Kusama and Lawrence Weiner. A monumental canvas by Haring and two futuristic diptychs by Rammellzee from the Wildenberg Collection are among the key works named by the museum.
Not everything hangs still on a wall. Josephine Pryde’s miniature train New Media Express (2014) moves through the gallery, and visitors can take a short ride. A growing installation by Henny Overbeek and three other artists invites visitors to contribute.
The exhibition also includes two smaller presentations on Dutch graffiti history: VHS, curated by the Dutch Graffiti Library, and Rammellzee in the Netherlands, curated by Aileen Middel, also known as Mick La Rock. The exhibition was initiated by Museion in Bolzano, where an earlier version was shown in 2025.
The Stables occupy the former stables of the Agnietenklooster and are the museum’s largest exhibition space. The address is Agnietenstraat 1 in Utrecht. Current opening hours and admission prices are listed on the museum’s website.