What’s On announces SEEN, a new art exhibition in Dubai, at Opera Gallery DIFC, featuring the superhero work of street art legend SEEN.

More…
– Street Art special
– Art Night in DIFC
– World record art
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A special new exhibition featuring the works of one of the most iconic street artists of his generation will launch this week at Opera Gallery in DIFC.

Running from November 26 to December 11, the works of SEEN will showcase the icon’s superhero pieces and will be complimented by Taschen, the leading publisher of books on art, who will be displaying its latest DC Comics Collectors book.

Known as the ‘Godfather of Graffiti’, SEEN, real name Richard Mirando is a Bronx-born street artist whose works have decorated New York City for more than five decades, both as an individual and as part of the UA (United Artists) crew. With pals Pjay, Duster, Sin and Mad, the group were renowned for their complete takeovers of train carriages, painting the outside from top to bottom.

SEEN made the transition from the streets to galleries in the early 1980s, and has gone on to be exhibited all over the world, from Amsterdam to Tokyo and everywhere in between. In 2009 he opened the Seen Gallery (now SEEN Studios) in Paris. A hardback book, ‘They Call Me The Godfather Of Graffiti’, profiling the first eight years of his prolific career on the New York subway system, was released earlier this year.

**CHECK OUT OUR GALLERY ABOVE FROM THE OPENING NIGHT**

One of his most famous urban pieces saw him tag the Hollywood sign overlooking Los Angeles. Reflecting on it during an interview with jinwong.com in 2013, he said: “When I went on the trip to California once with a friend of mine, Blake, we climbed up to the mountain thinking that I wanted to come back and paint the sign. I tried to paint the ‘L’s and ‘Y’. Those letters are on ground surface, all the others are raised from the mountain.

“I didn’t get a chance to use all the 50 cans of paint I brought because the police came with the helicopter and the spot lights. I didn’t move for four hours until they left and I came back out and quickly finished where I started but I didn’t make it as big as I wanted to. The next morning I went back to the mountain and we took picture of everything. It was a big ordeal.”

His appearance in Dubai comes three years after signing a deal with Opera Gallery, ensuring exhibits in 12 spaces around the world.

The news is another boost for a growing sub culture in the region that is thriving to such an extent that 2014 saw the opening of Street Art Gallery, just off Jumeirah Beach Road, exhibiting works from the likes of Pursue, London Police and Tilt alongside some very talented local artists.

Opera Gallery, Gate Village, Building 3, DIFC, Dubai; daily 10am to 10pm. Tel: (04) 3230909. Taxi: Gate Village. Metro: Financial Centre. operagallery.com