“City as Canvas: Graffiti Art from the Martin Wong Collection”: See Some of the Greatest Graffiti Relics from 1980s New York

January 31, 2014

Artist Martin Wong moved to New York City from San Francisco in the late 1970s, and took a job at Pearl Paint in Chinatown. There, he befriended many of the city’s young graffiti artists and began collecting their works, amassing one of the largest collections of New York City street art. He donated his collection to the Museum of the City of New York in 1994, five years before his death from AIDS-related complications. The first show of his collection, “City as Canvas: Graffiti Art from the Martin Wong Collection,” opens on February 4 and comprises nearly 150 works by artists such as Keith Haring, Lee Quiñones, Lady Pink, and Futura 2000.

By         Brett Berk