Outside in: 'Convergence x Crossroads' brings street art to the forefront

Street art can be controversial.

Yet, it adds culture to an area.

The National Hispanic Cultural Center is taking the art from the actual streets and bringing it into a museum space with “Convergence x Crossroads: Street Art from the Southwest.”

The exhibit opened on June 7 and will be on view until Feb. 23, 2025.

Outside in: 'Convergence x Crossroads' brings street art to the forefront

Rebecca Gomez, NHCC curator, says street art and artists are often misunderstood.

She says each piece carries a message.

“There’s vibrancy to this medium,” Gomez says. “The idea of bringing the street art indoors is amazing. Many of the artists we’ve worked with before, and there are others who are getting their first chance.”

Street art is also a great marker of place in so many communities.

“Street art and murals have been a core part of our soul in communities ranging from East LA to Juarez to the center’s home in Barelas,” says Zack Quintero, NHCC executive director. “Street art and mural art add color, vibrancy and a way for us to express our culture for all to see and respect. For that reason, it’s a tremendous honor to showcase an exhibition that explores that tradition across the United States and Mexico.”

The exhibit has pieces from artists across the American Southwest and northern Mexico.

Gomez says the exhibition explores the webs that connect graffiti art, murals and practices of placemaking in predominantly Hispanic and Latinx neighborhoods through a collection of more than 90 individual works of art.

“The NHCC Visual Arts team works to challenge binary understandings of ‘high’ and ‘low’ art through the artworks we display, and ‘Convergence x Crossroads’ is a perfect example,” Gomez says. “Through the work of artists using primarily spray paint as their medium, all types of surfaces are transformed, the architecture that surrounds us takes on a new life, and the landscapes of our daily lives change overnight.”

Gomez says often considered “outsider” art, street art holds a unique and somewhat contested place in the art world.

She says many artists working in the medium began by tagging buildings and exploring graffiti and choose to remain anonymous and work in the dark of night as their works often go up in “illegal” locations.

Because of that, many artists in the field have complicated relationships with museums and the nuance of their work has, at times, been overlooked.

“ ‘Convergence x Crossroads’ looks beyond the restraints of museums and related institutions, showing that at its core, street art is about skill and ingenuity, community accessibility, neighborhood reclamation, peer mentorship, and culture,” Gomez says.

The exhibit showcases a wide range of artwork from more than 30 artists who identify as Chicano/a/x, Latino/a/x, Indigenous, and Native American, working in New Mexico, Texas, Arizona, California and Northern Mexico.

The more than 90 pieces of art on display vary by medium, from canvas, to painted records, to the adorned hood of a Chevrolet Impala.

A blacklight room will showcase a specific artwork from a unique perspective. The work shows the wide variety of mediums, perspectives and styles that are part of the street art and mural movement in the Southwest.