“Graffiti is about one-upmanship, marking territory, flag-waving, peacocking – but it’s also about claiming an identity with a clan”. AROE
A major retrospective of acclaimed graffiti artist AROE has been revealed at Helm Gallery in Brighton. ‘From Then On’ runs until 2nd March 2025, and each original canvas featured in the exhibition is for sale at only £100, giving people the chance of owning a piece of graffiti history.
Brighton art veteran AROE has long had roots in everything related to hip-hop culture. An original pioneer of the Graffiti movement who was always at the forefront of counterculture, AROE set out on his artistic journey in 1983, catalysed by the Buffalo Girls video on ‘Top of the Pops’ which introduced him to the world of breaking and graffiti.
AROE started out on the UK music scene before making a global impact on the street art movement with his signature style carrying social messages, and co-founding world-famous graffiti collective ‘Heavy Artillery’. AROE’s projects span the globe from Colombia to Egypt, Denmark, Russia, Malaysia and downtown Guadalajara, to album artwork for renowned artists like Westside Gunn.
AROE’s extensive career is brought together in a visual retrospective of his artistic legacy, setting out a powerful survey which speaks to the cultural significance of graffiti worldwide. The exhibition comprises hundreds of unique, hand-painted original canvases, Helm Gallery invites visitors to explore a catalogue of AROE’s stylistic evolution, with the artist’s signature imagery spread across their exhibition hall. Hundreds of new paintings will rework his older iconic pieces. The exhibition echoes themes explored throughout AROE’s career, such as societal issues, war, commercialism, as well as male identities.
During a career of almost four decades, AROE has continued to explore the possibilities of graffiti as an art form, creating large-scale murals without preparation, sketches, or projections and exploring augmented reality with mixed media.
The first survey show of AROE’s extensive career takes places at Helm Gallery in his hometown of Brighton, where his talent for capturing the soul of graffiti on canvas brings the art of the street into the gallery space. AROE’s Helm Gallery retrospective ‘From Then On’ is testament to the worldwide cultural significance of graffiti art. Featuring hundreds of unique, hand-painted original canvases demonstrating AROE’s stylistic evolution, the exhibition is a refreshing new take on how to present graffiti in a traditional gallery space. AROE’s new, more abstract, stripped back approach is showcased in the exhibition as well as canvases that offer a retrospective look at his career. The result is a singular, fragmented mural which showcases four decades of lived experience at the forefront of counterculture. The mural appears as a vast pixelated image. Each of the available works will represent a unique snapshot of AROE’s incredibly storied career; from his iconic B-boys and Grace Jones references to images of At-Ats and Mike Tyson.
Culturalee spoke to AROE about his ground-breaking career, starting out at the forefront of the forefront of the nascent Graffiti art movement back in the 80’s and making an impact with his striking imagery around the world.
Where does the title of your Helm Gallery exhibition ‘From Then On’ come from?
It’s a play on words from a record that I made in 1990, and due to the nature of the show being a retrospective, I felt that the title should take a retrospect form.
You were a pioneer of the UK graffiti scene and embarked on an artistic journey in 1983. To what extent did the Buffalo Girls and hip-hop culture influence your work?
It changed everything, it’s the absolute nucleus of what I do. It set the tone for everything.
How would you say the graffiti scene has changed and developed since you started out in the 80s? Do you think it’s become too ‘gentrified’ with the introduction of street art to galleries and auction houses, or do you think it still maintains some of the edginess of 80s street art?
When graffiti was introduced to us in the early 80s, what was given to us was the ‘Subway Art’ book which became the bible of graffiti, and ‘Style Wars’ which was a documentary. In this documentary there’s a discussion between train graffiti writers and train graffiti writers that had started putting work in a gallery, so this discussion is in the very fabric of our introduction. So, to me this discussion is not new as the documentary was first shown in the UK in 1985. Graffiti can exist in galleries as its really about who is doing the work.
What was the original catalyst for your decision to use graffiti as a medium?
The speed in which graffiti can be created and completed was very attractive as my attention span is really short.
You co-founded the world-famous graffiti collective ‘Heavy Artillery’ who have created projects all over the world including in Colombia, Egypt, Denmark, Russia and Malaysia. How would you say the graffiti / street art scene varies in each country, and what was the most creatively exciting country you’ve worked in?
I really enjoyed the variety each country has offered, for example the amazing friendly people in Russia and how brilliant they are at art, to the enthusiasm and approach they have to graffiti in Malaysia or Mexico.
How important is it that you convey a message through your graffiti art, and do you often make political statements with your art, such as the artwork you created in Syria by painting around bullet holes to honour the turbulent past of a site.
Conveying a message isn’t essential as long as my principals and integrity remain intact.
Your daughter Eden Maseyk – co-owner of Helm Gallery – curated the exhibition. What was it like to work with her and was she instrumental in deciding how to capture your legacy as one of the OG 1980s graffiti artists in this exhibition?
Yes. It was a pleasure to work with her and her artist input was invaluable.
How has your style developed over the years and have your priorities in your art changed?
I like to adapt and constantly explore new ways of making images visually stimulating and excite myself and the viewer.
The Helm Gallery exhibition showcases a more abstract approach for you, which involves stripping back your graffiti paintings to “colour, emotion, surface & intention” in the form of a fragmented mural reflecting on forty years of lived experience at the forefront of counterculture. How did you decide what were the most seminal moments of your four-decade career that should star in the mural?
Having done graffiti for 42 years – this exhibition is a look back at my work since the turn of the millennium. It’s hard for me to be objective about my art because I’m so deeply in it, it just comes out. Invention is constant reinvention.
