GORDON MATTA-CLARK:
NYC GRAFFITI ARCHIVE 1972/3

March 20–May 10, 2025
Artworks displayed across several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall are three framed photographs hung in a horizontal line; above the framed works is a long, unframed photograph that stretches across the entire left wall and extends onto the rear wall. A sculpture of a rectangular piece cut out of a car rests on a pedestal in the corner. To the right on the rear wall are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical line. Further to the right is a freestanding wall covered entirely in a vinyl photo mural of a man cutting into a graffiti-covered van with a blowtorch. A vitrine containing ephemera is positioned against this wall.
Artworks displayed on two white walls in a gallery. Hung in a horizontal line across the middle of the left wall are five framed photographs of graffiti-covered walls. Above this is a very long black-and-white photograph of a subway covered in graffiti; some of the graffiti has been hand-colored. The photograph stretches around the corner onto the right wall. Under it is a sculpture composed of a small rectangular section of a car that has been cut out.
A white wall in a gallery is hung with five framed photographs, all of walls that have been tagged with graffiti. Four of the photographs have hand-colored elements highlighting the graffiti. Above the framed works is a long, unframed black and white photograph of a subway, also with hand-coloring, which stretches across the entire wall.
A corner in an art gallery. A small sculpture composed of a metal rectangle cut out of a car door rests on a pedestal. Above it is a long, scroll-like black and white photograph of a subway, which stretches around the corner and out of the frame. Under this photograph on the left wall is a framed black and white photograph with hand-colored elements.
A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera. On a wall to the left are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical column; all of these photos are of walls covered in graffiti.
A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera.
An overhead view of a vitrine with a light blue felt background, against which lays a variety of photographs and other ephemera relating to Gordon Matta-Clark’s performance and subsequent sculptural works Graffiti Van.
A view of the top of a stairwell with a brick archway to the right. At the top of the stairs is a black and white vinyl photo mural depicting a group of people (mostly children) gathered around a graffiti-covered van. On the brick wall to the right is a set of framed ephemera relating to the graffiti artist TAKI 183. On the left wall is a spray-painted graffiti mural.
A photograph of several walls in a gallery; through the gap between two walls, a metal sculpture resting atop a plinth can be seen in a corner. On the wall above this hangs a scroll-like black and white photograph of graffiti-covered subway trains; only a portion of the long photograph can be seen before it is cut off by the walls ahead of it.
A head-on view of a painted mural in a gallery with colorful graffiti tags against a grey background. The mural stretches horizontally across the middle of the wall, with white space above and below it.
A view of artworks hung in a gallery. In the center of the image is half of a brick archway, with a framed newspaper clipping hung on the brick. On the wall to the right of the archway hangs a large painting reading “SNAKE;” the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall. On the wall beyond the archway is a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.
A view of several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall hangs a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with clouds of red and blue. A similarly-sized canvas on the right wall reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. On the rear wall are a series of framed photographs of graffiti, which are hung salon-style.
A large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below.
Two white walls meet at an angle. Taking up almost the entirety of the left wall is a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below. On the right wall are a variety of framed photographs of graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls; the photos are hung salon-style on the wall.
A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls.
A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls.
Two walls in a gallery with large windows beyond them, through which can be seen the reverse of window vinyl of a graffiti-covered subway car. There are two vitrines in front of the windows. On the left wall is a large painting that reads “COCO” in yellow letters against a black background. To the right of the painting are a cluster of four more framed artworks, and below are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc. On the right wall are more framed artworks and two more vitrines as well as a framed army jacket.
A wall in a gallery hung salon-style with 10 artworks and two vitrines centered under the works. The largest work, in the center, is a horizontal black painting that reads “COCO” in shadowed yellowish-green letters. Scrawled on the wall under this is black text that reads “WORSHIP GOD.” To the left and right of the painting are more artworks, including works on canvas by graffiti artists SHASTA 62/EARL – Earle Augustus, MICO and SJK 171.
An angled view of an art gallery. On the wall is a large painting that reads COCO in yellow letters on a black background, and five smaller framed artworks to the right. Two vitrines with ephemera relating to early graffiti culture in New York are against the wall. Four more vitrines are visible around the gallery, as well as a framed army jacket which protrudes outwards from a wall across the room.
A freestanding wall in a gallery hung with twelve framed drawings of various tags by graffiti artists. Next to each framed drawing is a corresponding photograph of that tag painted on the sides of a subway car. Against the wall under the framed drawings are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc.
A gallery filled with artwork. To the right on the furthest rear wall is a very large painting that reads SNAKE in yellow letters, surrounded by red, blue and white. To the left, past a brick archway, four artworks are hung on the wall above a vitrine. On the freestanding wall in front of this are hung a grid of framed drawings and accompanying photographs, with a framed army jacket extending from the wall between the drawings (so that the viewer can see both sides of the jacket.) Two more vitrines are against this wall.
A large painting that reads “LEE” in descending, overlapping vertical letters is hung on a freestanding wall in a gallery; the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall.. On a wall behind this is a large painting reading “COCO” in large yellow letters on a black background and, further to the right, five smaller framed artworks hung salon-style. Two vitrines are under the COCO painting.
A portion of a white wall between two brick archways is hung with four artworks in a grid. Under these is a vitrine. On the right side of the archway to the right of these artworks is a framed newspaper clipping. Through this archway can be seen a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.
A corner of a gallery. On a wall to the right of a brick archway, four framed artworks are hung in a grid above a vitrine. To the left, another vitrine stands against a window. The window has a vinyl photo mural of a graffiti-painted subway car on the outside, so from inside the gallery it is somewhat visible in reverse as light filters through.
A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. The larger wall to the rear is covered in an array of framed photographs, all of graffiti in New York in the early ‘70s.
A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif.
A gallery hung with a variety of artwork including framed graffiti tags on paper on a freestanding wall to the front, with two vitrines against this wall and, amid the framed drawings, an army jacket in a frame that protrudes from the wall so that both sides of the jacket can be seen. Around the rest of the gallery are framed photographs of graffiti, several more vitrines and a mural just visible towards the rear through a brick archway.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s. The contents include a variety of tags on notebook paper, photographs, a deck of cards, a subway map, a vintage can of spray paint, vintage advertisements for spray paint, and more.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, and a brochure that reads “United Graffiti Artists 1975.”
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, ephemera relating to “United Graffiti Artists,” as well as several vintage newspaper clippings and advertisements for spray paint.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.
A framed black and white photograph of a detail of a wall covered in graffiti, some of which reads SOUL POWER, ALGEE 129, LEE, LIL MIKE I, BUNNY and more.
A color photograph of three teenage girls in front of a wall covered in colorful graffiti tags.

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Artworks displayed across several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall are three framed photographs hung in a horizontal line; above the framed works is a long, unframed photograph that stretches across the entire left wall and extends onto the rear wall. A sculpture of a rectangular piece cut out of a car rests on a pedestal in the corner. To the right on the rear wall are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical line. Further to the right is a freestanding wall covered entirely in a vinyl photo mural of a man cutting into a graffiti-covered van with a blowtorch. A vitrine containing ephemera is positioned against this wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Artworks displayed on two white walls in a gallery. Hung in a horizontal line across the middle of the left wall are five framed photographs of graffiti-covered walls. Above this is a very long black-and-white photograph of a subway covered in graffiti; some of the graffiti has been hand-colored. The photograph stretches around the corner onto the right wall. Under it is a sculpture composed of a small rectangular section of a car that has been cut out.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A white wall in a gallery is hung with five framed photographs, all of walls that have been tagged with graffiti. Four of the photographs have hand-colored elements highlighting the graffiti. Above the framed works is a long, unframed black and white photograph of a subway, also with hand-coloring, which stretches across the entire wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A corner in an art gallery. A small sculpture composed of a metal rectangle cut out of a car door rests on a pedestal. Above it is a long, scroll-like black and white photograph of a subway, which stretches around the corner and out of the frame. Under this photograph on the left wall is a framed black and white photograph with hand-colored elements.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera. On a wall to the left are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical column; all of these photos are of walls covered in graffiti.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine with a light blue felt background, against which lays a variety of photographs and other ephemera relating to Gordon Matta-Clark’s performance and subsequent sculptural works Graffiti Van.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of the top of a stairwell with a brick archway to the right. At the top of the stairs is a black and white vinyl photo mural depicting a group of people (mostly children) gathered around a graffiti-covered van. On the brick wall to the right is a set of framed ephemera relating to the graffiti artist TAKI 183. On the left wall is a spray-painted graffiti mural.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A photograph of several walls in a gallery; through the gap between two walls, a metal sculpture resting atop a plinth can be seen in a corner. On the wall above this hangs a scroll-like black and white photograph of graffiti-covered subway trains; only a portion of the long photograph can be seen before it is cut off by the walls ahead of it.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A head-on view of a painted mural in a gallery with colorful graffiti tags against a grey background. The mural stretches horizontally across the middle of the wall, with white space above and below it.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of artworks hung in a gallery. In the center of the image is half of a brick archway, with a framed newspaper clipping hung on the brick. On the wall to the right of the archway hangs a large painting reading “SNAKE;” the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall. On the wall beyond the archway is a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. ( A view of several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall hangs a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with clouds of red and blue. A similarly-sized canvas on the right wall reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. On the rear wall are a series of framed photographs of graffiti, which are hung salon-style.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Two white walls meet at an angle. Taking up almost the entirety of the left wall is a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below. On the right wall are a variety of framed photographs of graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls; the photos are hung salon-style on the wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls. )

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Two walls in a gallery with large windows beyond them, through which can be seen the reverse of window vinyl of a graffiti-covered subway car. There are two vitrines in front of the windows. On the left wall is a large painting that reads “COCO” in yellow letters against a black background. To the right of the painting are a cluster of four more framed artworks, and below are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc. On the right wall are more framed artworks and two more vitrines as well as a framed army jacket. )

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A wall in a gallery hung salon-style with 10 artworks and two vitrines centered under the works. The largest work, in the center, is a horizontal black painting that reads “COCO” in shadowed yellowish-green letters. Scrawled on the wall under this is black text that reads “WORSHIP GOD.” To the left and right of the painting are more artworks, including works on canvas by graffiti artists SHASTA 62/EARL – Earle Augustus, MICO and SJK 171.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An angled view of an art gallery. On the wall is a large painting that reads COCO in yellow letters on a black background, and five smaller framed artworks to the right. Two vitrines with ephemera relating to early graffiti culture in New York are against the wall. Four more vitrines are visible around the gallery, as well as a framed army jacket which protrudes outwards from a wall across the room. )

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery hung with twelve framed drawings of various tags by graffiti artists. Next to each framed drawing is a corresponding photograph of that tag painted on the sides of a subway car. Against the wall under the framed drawings are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A gallery filled with artwork. To the right on the furthest rear wall is a very large painting that reads SNAKE in yellow letters, surrounded by red, blue and white. To the left, past a brick archway, four artworks are hung on the wall above a vitrine. On the freestanding wall in front of this are hung a grid of framed drawings and accompanying photographs, with a framed army jacket extending from the wall between the drawings (so that the viewer can see both sides of the jacket.) Two more vitrines are against this wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A large painting that reads “LEE” in descending, overlapping vertical letters is hung on a freestanding wall in a gallery; the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall.. On a wall behind this is a large painting reading “COCO” in large yellow letters on a black background and, further to the right, five smaller framed artworks hung salon-style. Two vitrines are under the COCO painting.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A portion of a white wall between two brick archways is hung with four artworks in a grid. Under these is a vitrine. On the right side of the archway to the right of these artworks is a framed newspaper clipping. Through this archway can be seen a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A corner of a gallery. On a wall to the right of a brick archway, four framed artworks are hung in a grid above a vitrine. To the left, another vitrine stands against a window. The window has a vinyl photo mural of a graffiti-painted subway car on the outside, so from inside the gallery it is somewhat visible in reverse as light filters through.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. The larger wall to the rear is covered in an array of framed photographs, all of graffiti in New York in the early ‘70s.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A gallery hung with a variety of artwork including framed graffiti tags on paper on a freestanding wall to the front, with two vitrines against this wall and, amid the framed drawings, an army jacket in a frame that protrudes from the wall so that both sides of the jacket can be seen. Around the rest of the gallery are framed photographs of graffiti, several more vitrines and a mural just visible towards the rear through a brick archway.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s. The contents include a variety of tags on notebook paper, photographs, a deck of cards, a subway map, a vintage can of spray paint, vintage advertisements for spray paint, and more.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, and a brochure that reads “United Graffiti Artists 1975.”)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, ephemera relating to “United Graffiti Artists,” as well as several vintage newspaper clippings and advertisements for spray paint.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.)

Gordon Matta-Clark, Graffiti: Soul Power, 1973. Gelatin silver print, 24 × 40 in. Courtesy of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and David Zwirner. (A framed black and white photograph of a detail of a wall covered in graffiti, some of which reads SOUL POWER, ALGEE 129, LEE, LIL MIKE I, BUNNY and more.)

Photograph by Gordon Matta-Clark, 1972/73. Courtesy of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark. (A color photograph of three teenage girls in front of a wall covered in colorful graffiti tags.)

Press Release

White Columns is pleased to present GORDON MATTA-CLARK: NYC GRAFFITI ARCHIVE 1972/3, curated by Roger Gastman of BEYOND THE STREETS and Jessamyn Fiore, co-director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark.

From 1972 to 1973, Gordon Matta-Clark captured over 2,000 photographs of the beginnings of the graffiti art movement in New York City. Displaying a selection of the artist’s photographs from this period, the exhibition presents these alongside early, original artworks by writers and artists immortalized within Matta-Clark’s images including: SNAKE 1, SJK 171, LEE 163rd, WICKED GARY, TRACY 168, STAY HIGH 149, and FUTURA 2000 (amongst many others.) This exhibition expands upon BEYOND THE STREETS’s 2024 presentation EXHIBITION 011: GRAFFITI ARCHIVE 1972/73 at Control Gallery in Los Angeles with an accompanying presentation of original photographic works by Matta-Clark, including hand-painted prints and one of the artist’s scroll-like Graffiti Photoglyphs. GORDON MATTA-CLARK: NYC GRAFFITI ARCHIVE 1972/3 is the first time in over twenty years that Matta-Clark’s artwork has been at White Columns, and will be the second time a Graffiti Photoglyph has been presented at the gallery, following an original presentation in a group exhibition at 112 Greene Street in 1973.

 

 

Gordon Matta-Clark (1943-1978) was a prolific artist and lifelong New Yorker, as well as a central figure of the downtown New York art scene in the 1970s. In the fall of 1970 Matta-Clark, with a group of fellow artists, co-founded an artist-run alternative art space at a former rag factory in Soho called 112 Greene Street (which would later be renamed White Columns in 1980.) Writing about the founding of 112 Greene Street, Fiore has said: “The raw architecture of this building was the creative catalyst for a multi-disciplinary artistic community looking to free artmaking from the pristine white cube and traditional commercial gallery system. It was a space where they could collaborate and experiment in making bold, often ephemeral, site-specific installation and performance that changed the course of contemporary art history.”

Not long after the founding of 112 Greene Street, a remarkable transformation began to take place across the city as ordinary graffiti turned into a burgeoning art form. In the summer of 1972 Matta-Clark began to photograph the city’s exploding graffiti scene. While mainstream culture was initially hostile towards graffiti and its authors, Matta-Clark recognized the artistic merit of graffiti long before the medium became the subject of gallery shows and museum retrospectives, viewing it as a kind of people’s art movement that aligned with his own interests in socially engaged and site-specific artworks that directly incorporated or existed alongside the architecture of the city. He was one of a limited number of forward-thinking individuals who appreciated the importance of this rapidly evolving artistic movement, and his documentation of those early years of graffiti, by some accounts, even predates the now-ubiquitous tendency among graffiti writers’ (most of whom were teenagers at the time) to document their work.

Matta-Clark’s prescient embrace of graffiti as an art form in its own right reflects his lifelong interest in the relation between art and public space. As Caleb Neelon notes, “The graffiti that Matta-Clark found was fresh and full of adolescent fun and creativity. In the period between 1971 and 1974 graffiti went from being an occasional ‘I was here’ marking to a fully fleshed-out artistic game with internal rules, ranking and levels of mastery… In 1973, when Matta-Clark took this suite of images, the one-upmanship was in full play as so many of the standard hallmarks of graffiti pieces (3D letters, painted arrows, connections between the letters) were all in communal use.” Expanding on this idea in his foreword to the accompanying exhibition catalogue, Carlo McCormick writes, “Before even Wild Style, Matta-Clark saw this new geometry in the visual language of teenagers robbed of identity and future, crossing the bounds of public space, collective community, asemic writing, and fuck-you semiotics. His photographs of what would become the global language of youth in its still-nascent form are but a fragment of his oeuvre that speak to its greater influence on his art.”

Matta-Clark’s vast photographic archive of this time found its way into his own artistic practice, best demonstrated by the impressive Graffiti Photoglyphs. First exhibited at White Columns (then called 112 Greene St.) in 1973, the work took the form of a “long row of photographs of graffiti-decorated subway trains [attached] to the outside wall of a building visible through the rear windows of the gallery. The viewers had to traverse the rear of the space, looking out the windows as if they were watching a subway train passing through a station.” [1] The black-and-white photographs that comprised Graffiti Photoglyph were punctuated by hand-coloring done by Matta-Clark. Just as street artists were inscribing upon the architecture of the city, so did Matta-Clark inscribe upon their inscriptions, adding his own layer to the increasingly palimpsest-like surfaces of the city.

Presenting archival photographs by Gordon Matta-Clark alongside paintings and drawings by some of the most prolific graffiti writers of the era, GORDON MATTA-CLARK: NYC GRAFFITI ARCHIVE 1972/3 traces the story of a city through the unlikely entwinement of early street art with the evolving practice of a major conceptual artist. As McCormick observes, “The deconstructive power of graffiti—relatively new then to the cityscape but rather something of an ancient voice thoroughly anti-modern against the soulless moneyed International Style of architecture that had transformed Matta-Clark’s native city from a place of homes and neighborhoods to a corporate shrine of steel and concrete—was the lifeblood of the New York he loved and the antidote to all the changes he saw effecting it.”

[1] Description taken from Rosemary Mayer, Arts Magazine, November 1973, pg. 63.

 

 

White Columns would like to thank Roger Gastman/BEYOND THE STREETS and Jessamyn Fiore for their enthusiasm in realizing the White Columns iteration of this exhibition. We would like to additionally thank David Zwirner gallery for their support of GORDON MATTA-CLARK: NYC GRAFFITI ARCHIVE 1972/3.

 

 

Born in New York City in 1943, Gordon Matta-Clark studied architecture and graduated from Cornell University in 1968, returning to his native New York City the following year. Combining his activist concerns with his artistic production, he helped establish alternative spaces such as 112 Greene Street and FOOD restaurant in SoHo and engaged with peer artists and non-artists in collaboration that aimed to improve their surroundings. In the 1970s, Matta-Clark experimented across various media and began staging monumental interventions and smaller-scale installations in the charged city landscape, bringing attention to New York’s failing social policies, displaced people, and abandoned spaces. Gordon Matta-Clark died from cancer in 1978 at the age of 35. In 2007, Gordon Matta-Clark: You Are the Measure was the first full-scale retrospective organized by the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, which traveled to the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago. In 2017-2020, Matta-Clark’s work was the focus of a critically acclaimed traveling exhibition, Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect, that was on view at The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; Jeu de Paume, Paris; Kumu Art Museum, Tallinn, Estonia; and the Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Roger Gastman is a curator, writer, archivist and collector whose work is focused on elevating and historicizing the ongoing graffiti art movement. Gastman is the producer of the 2010 Academy Award-nominated film, Exit Through the Gift Shop, co-curator of Art in the Streets (2011) at the MoCA in Los Angeles, and director of the SHOWTIME documentary Rolling Like Thunder (2021), a plunge into the underground world of freight train graffiti culture. In 2018 Gastman founded BEYOND THE STREETS, an organization that presents large scale exhibitions and educational programs on graffiti and street art.

Jessamyn Fiore is a curator and co-director of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark. Exhibitions curated include 112 Greene Street: The Early Years (1970–1974) at David Zwirner in New York (2011), which led to her editing the critically acclaimed, eponymous catalogue, published by David Zwirner and Radius Books (2012) and she co-curated (with Sergio Bessa) Gordon Matta-Clark: Anarchitect at the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2017); the exhibition subsequently toured to Jeu de Paume, Paris, France (2018); Kumu Kunstimuuseum, Tallinn, Estonia (2019); and the Rose Art Museum at Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, (2019).

For further information about this exhibition contact: violet@whitecolumns.org

Gallery hours: Tuesday – Saturday, 11am to 6pm.

Participating Artists

Gordon Matta-Clark
ALL JIVE 161
A TRAIN
BAMA
CAY 161
CHARMIN 65
CLIFF 159
COCO 144
DEAD LEG 167
DYNAMITE 161
FRANK 207
FUTURA 2000
GRAPE 897
HONDO I
HULK 62
IRON MIKE
JAMAR I
JESTER I
JOE 182
K-55
KILLER 1
KING KOOL 143
LAVA  I & II
LAZAR
LEE 163rd
Michael Lawrence
MICO
MIKE 171
MOSES 147
Moses Ros / SAL 161
PHASE 2
PIPER 1
Ray B 954
RIFF 170
SAVAGE
SEX 143
SHASTA 62/EARL
– Earle Augustus
SILVER TIPS
SJK 171
SKI-168
SLIM 1
SNAKE 1
SPANKY 132
S.PAT 169
SPIN
STAFF 161
STAY HIGH 149
STITCH 1
SUPER KOOL 223
SUPER STRUT
TAKI 183
TOPCAT 126
TRACY 168
T-REX 131
WICKED GARY
& Chris FREEDOM Pape

Checklist

Related Publications

Odd Lots, Revisiting Gordon Matta-Clark’s Fake Estates
2005
Published by Cabinet Books in conjunction with the Odd Lots two venue exhibition in 2005 at the Queens Museum of Art and White Columns.
Edited by Jeffrey Kastner, Sina Najafi, and Frances Richard.

$40

PURCHASE HERE

Artworks displayed across several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall are three framed photographs hung in a horizontal line; above the framed works is a long, unframed photograph that stretches across the entire left wall and extends onto the rear wall. A sculpture of a rectangular piece cut out of a car rests on a pedestal in the corner. To the right on the rear wall are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical line. Further to the right is a freestanding wall covered entirely in a vinyl photo mural of a man cutting into a graffiti-covered van with a blowtorch. A vitrine containing ephemera is positioned against this wall.
Artworks displayed on two white walls in a gallery. Hung in a horizontal line across the middle of the left wall are five framed photographs of graffiti-covered walls. Above this is a very long black-and-white photograph of a subway covered in graffiti; some of the graffiti has been hand-colored. The photograph stretches around the corner onto the right wall. Under it is a sculpture composed of a small rectangular section of a car that has been cut out.
A white wall in a gallery is hung with five framed photographs, all of walls that have been tagged with graffiti. Four of the photographs have hand-colored elements highlighting the graffiti. Above the framed works is a long, unframed black and white photograph of a subway, also with hand-coloring, which stretches across the entire wall.
A corner in an art gallery. A small sculpture composed of a metal rectangle cut out of a car door rests on a pedestal. Above it is a long, scroll-like black and white photograph of a subway, which stretches around the corner and out of the frame. Under this photograph on the left wall is a framed black and white photograph with hand-colored elements.
A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera. On a wall to the left are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical column; all of these photos are of walls covered in graffiti.
A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera.
An overhead view of a vitrine with a light blue felt background, against which lays a variety of photographs and other ephemera relating to Gordon Matta-Clark’s performance and subsequent sculptural works Graffiti Van.
A view of the top of a stairwell with a brick archway to the right. At the top of the stairs is a black and white vinyl photo mural depicting a group of people (mostly children) gathered around a graffiti-covered van. On the brick wall to the right is a set of framed ephemera relating to the graffiti artist TAKI 183. On the left wall is a spray-painted graffiti mural.
A photograph of several walls in a gallery; through the gap between two walls, a metal sculpture resting atop a plinth can be seen in a corner. On the wall above this hangs a scroll-like black and white photograph of graffiti-covered subway trains; only a portion of the long photograph can be seen before it is cut off by the walls ahead of it.
A head-on view of a painted mural in a gallery with colorful graffiti tags against a grey background. The mural stretches horizontally across the middle of the wall, with white space above and below it.
A view of artworks hung in a gallery. In the center of the image is half of a brick archway, with a framed newspaper clipping hung on the brick. On the wall to the right of the archway hangs a large painting reading “SNAKE;” the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall. On the wall beyond the archway is a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.
A view of several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall hangs a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with clouds of red and blue. A similarly-sized canvas on the right wall reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. On the rear wall are a series of framed photographs of graffiti, which are hung salon-style.
A large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below.
Two white walls meet at an angle. Taking up almost the entirety of the left wall is a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below. On the right wall are a variety of framed photographs of graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls; the photos are hung salon-style on the wall.
A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls.
A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls.
Two walls in a gallery with large windows beyond them, through which can be seen the reverse of window vinyl of a graffiti-covered subway car. There are two vitrines in front of the windows. On the left wall is a large painting that reads “COCO” in yellow letters against a black background. To the right of the painting are a cluster of four more framed artworks, and below are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc. On the right wall are more framed artworks and two more vitrines as well as a framed army jacket.
A wall in a gallery hung salon-style with 10 artworks and two vitrines centered under the works. The largest work, in the center, is a horizontal black painting that reads “COCO” in shadowed yellowish-green letters. Scrawled on the wall under this is black text that reads “WORSHIP GOD.” To the left and right of the painting are more artworks, including works on canvas by graffiti artists SHASTA 62/EARL – Earle Augustus, MICO and SJK 171.
An angled view of an art gallery. On the wall is a large painting that reads COCO in yellow letters on a black background, and five smaller framed artworks to the right. Two vitrines with ephemera relating to early graffiti culture in New York are against the wall. Four more vitrines are visible around the gallery, as well as a framed army jacket which protrudes outwards from a wall across the room.
A freestanding wall in a gallery hung with twelve framed drawings of various tags by graffiti artists. Next to each framed drawing is a corresponding photograph of that tag painted on the sides of a subway car. Against the wall under the framed drawings are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc.
A gallery filled with artwork. To the right on the furthest rear wall is a very large painting that reads SNAKE in yellow letters, surrounded by red, blue and white. To the left, past a brick archway, four artworks are hung on the wall above a vitrine. On the freestanding wall in front of this are hung a grid of framed drawings and accompanying photographs, with a framed army jacket extending from the wall between the drawings (so that the viewer can see both sides of the jacket.) Two more vitrines are against this wall.
A large painting that reads “LEE” in descending, overlapping vertical letters is hung on a freestanding wall in a gallery; the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall.. On a wall behind this is a large painting reading “COCO” in large yellow letters on a black background and, further to the right, five smaller framed artworks hung salon-style. Two vitrines are under the COCO painting.
A portion of a white wall between two brick archways is hung with four artworks in a grid. Under these is a vitrine. On the right side of the archway to the right of these artworks is a framed newspaper clipping. Through this archway can be seen a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.
A corner of a gallery. On a wall to the right of a brick archway, four framed artworks are hung in a grid above a vitrine. To the left, another vitrine stands against a window. The window has a vinyl photo mural of a graffiti-painted subway car on the outside, so from inside the gallery it is somewhat visible in reverse as light filters through.
A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. The larger wall to the rear is covered in an array of framed photographs, all of graffiti in New York in the early ‘70s.
A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif.
A gallery hung with a variety of artwork including framed graffiti tags on paper on a freestanding wall to the front, with two vitrines against this wall and, amid the framed drawings, an army jacket in a frame that protrudes from the wall so that both sides of the jacket can be seen. Around the rest of the gallery are framed photographs of graffiti, several more vitrines and a mural just visible towards the rear through a brick archway.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s. The contents include a variety of tags on notebook paper, photographs, a deck of cards, a subway map, a vintage can of spray paint, vintage advertisements for spray paint, and more.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, and a brochure that reads “United Graffiti Artists 1975.”
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, ephemera relating to “United Graffiti Artists,” as well as several vintage newspaper clippings and advertisements for spray paint.
An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.
A framed black and white photograph of a detail of a wall covered in graffiti, some of which reads SOUL POWER, ALGEE 129, LEE, LIL MIKE I, BUNNY and more.
A color photograph of three teenage girls in front of a wall covered in colorful graffiti tags.

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Artworks displayed across several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall are three framed photographs hung in a horizontal line; above the framed works is a long, unframed photograph that stretches across the entire left wall and extends onto the rear wall. A sculpture of a rectangular piece cut out of a car rests on a pedestal in the corner. To the right on the rear wall are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical line. Further to the right is a freestanding wall covered entirely in a vinyl photo mural of a man cutting into a graffiti-covered van with a blowtorch. A vitrine containing ephemera is positioned against this wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Artworks displayed on two white walls in a gallery. Hung in a horizontal line across the middle of the left wall are five framed photographs of graffiti-covered walls. Above this is a very long black-and-white photograph of a subway covered in graffiti; some of the graffiti has been hand-colored. The photograph stretches around the corner onto the right wall. Under it is a sculpture composed of a small rectangular section of a car that has been cut out.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A white wall in a gallery is hung with five framed photographs, all of walls that have been tagged with graffiti. Four of the photographs have hand-colored elements highlighting the graffiti. Above the framed works is a long, unframed black and white photograph of a subway, also with hand-coloring, which stretches across the entire wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A corner in an art gallery. A small sculpture composed of a metal rectangle cut out of a car door rests on a pedestal. Above it is a long, scroll-like black and white photograph of a subway, which stretches around the corner and out of the frame. Under this photograph on the left wall is a framed black and white photograph with hand-colored elements.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera. On a wall to the left are three framed black and white photographs hung in a vertical column; all of these photos are of walls covered in graffiti.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery with a vinyl photo mural depicting a man using a blowtorch to cut into a graffiti-covered van. Against the wall is a vitrine filled with ephemera.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine with a light blue felt background, against which lays a variety of photographs and other ephemera relating to Gordon Matta-Clark’s performance and subsequent sculptural works Graffiti Van.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of the top of a stairwell with a brick archway to the right. At the top of the stairs is a black and white vinyl photo mural depicting a group of people (mostly children) gathered around a graffiti-covered van. On the brick wall to the right is a set of framed ephemera relating to the graffiti artist TAKI 183. On the left wall is a spray-painted graffiti mural.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A photograph of several walls in a gallery; through the gap between two walls, a metal sculpture resting atop a plinth can be seen in a corner. On the wall above this hangs a scroll-like black and white photograph of graffiti-covered subway trains; only a portion of the long photograph can be seen before it is cut off by the walls ahead of it.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A head-on view of a painted mural in a gallery with colorful graffiti tags against a grey background. The mural stretches horizontally across the middle of the wall, with white space above and below it.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of artworks hung in a gallery. In the center of the image is half of a brick archway, with a framed newspaper clipping hung on the brick. On the wall to the right of the archway hangs a large painting reading “SNAKE;” the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall. On the wall beyond the archway is a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. ( A view of several white walls in a gallery. On the left wall hangs a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with clouds of red and blue. A similarly-sized canvas on the right wall reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. On the rear wall are a series of framed photographs of graffiti, which are hung salon-style.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Two white walls meet at an angle. Taking up almost the entirety of the left wall is a large painting on canvas that reads SNAKE in yellow letters outlined in blue, surrounded with concentric “clouds” of red and blue. Above the painting is black hand-lettering on the wall that reads “Ya Dig!” with an arrow pointing at the painting below. On the right wall are a variety of framed photographs of graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls; the photos are hung salon-style on the wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls. )

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A view of a white wall hung salon-style with framed photographic works depicting graffiti on subway cars and outdoor walls.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (Two walls in a gallery with large windows beyond them, through which can be seen the reverse of window vinyl of a graffiti-covered subway car. There are two vitrines in front of the windows. On the left wall is a large painting that reads “COCO” in yellow letters against a black background. To the right of the painting are a cluster of four more framed artworks, and below are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc. On the right wall are more framed artworks and two more vitrines as well as a framed army jacket. )

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A wall in a gallery hung salon-style with 10 artworks and two vitrines centered under the works. The largest work, in the center, is a horizontal black painting that reads “COCO” in shadowed yellowish-green letters. Scrawled on the wall under this is black text that reads “WORSHIP GOD.” To the left and right of the painting are more artworks, including works on canvas by graffiti artists SHASTA 62/EARL – Earle Augustus, MICO and SJK 171.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An angled view of an art gallery. On the wall is a large painting that reads COCO in yellow letters on a black background, and five smaller framed artworks to the right. Two vitrines with ephemera relating to early graffiti culture in New York are against the wall. Four more vitrines are visible around the gallery, as well as a framed army jacket which protrudes outwards from a wall across the room. )

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery hung with twelve framed drawings of various tags by graffiti artists. Next to each framed drawing is a corresponding photograph of that tag painted on the sides of a subway car. Against the wall under the framed drawings are two vitrines filled with ephemera relating to early graffiti, i.e. paint markers, drawings, photographs, etc.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A gallery filled with artwork. To the right on the furthest rear wall is a very large painting that reads SNAKE in yellow letters, surrounded by red, blue and white. To the left, past a brick archway, four artworks are hung on the wall above a vitrine. On the freestanding wall in front of this are hung a grid of framed drawings and accompanying photographs, with a framed army jacket extending from the wall between the drawings (so that the viewer can see both sides of the jacket.) Two more vitrines are against this wall.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A large painting that reads “LEE” in descending, overlapping vertical letters is hung on a freestanding wall in a gallery; the painting takes up almost the entirety of the wall.. On a wall behind this is a large painting reading “COCO” in large yellow letters on a black background and, further to the right, five smaller framed artworks hung salon-style. Two vitrines are under the COCO painting.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A portion of a white wall between two brick archways is hung with four artworks in a grid. Under these is a vitrine. On the right side of the archway to the right of these artworks is a framed newspaper clipping. Through this archway can be seen a vinyl black and white photo mural of people crowded around a van which is covered in spray-painted graffiti.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A corner of a gallery. On a wall to the right of a brick archway, four framed artworks are hung in a grid above a vitrine. To the left, another vitrine stands against a window. The window has a vinyl photo mural of a graffiti-painted subway car on the outside, so from inside the gallery it is somewhat visible in reverse as light filters through.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif. The larger wall to the rear is covered in an array of framed photographs, all of graffiti in New York in the early ‘70s.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A freestanding wall in a gallery is hung with a large painting that takes up almost the entirety of the wall. The painting reads LEE in huge white letters which overlap as they descend vertically, surrounded by hearts, polka dots and, in the bottom left corner, a spiderweb motif.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (A gallery hung with a variety of artwork including framed graffiti tags on paper on a freestanding wall to the front, with two vitrines against this wall and, amid the framed drawings, an army jacket in a frame that protrudes from the wall so that both sides of the jacket can be seen. Around the rest of the gallery are framed photographs of graffiti, several more vitrines and a mural just visible towards the rear through a brick archway.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s. The contents include a variety of tags on notebook paper, photographs, a deck of cards, a subway map, a vintage can of spray paint, vintage advertisements for spray paint, and more.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, and a brochure that reads “United Graffiti Artists 1975.”)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with ephemera relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, vintage paint markers and spray paint cans, ephemera relating to “United Graffiti Artists,” as well as several vintage newspaper clippings and advertisements for spray paint.)

Gordon-Matta Clark: NYC Graffiti Archive 1972/3, installation view, 2025. (An overhead view of a vitrine filled with materials relating to graffiti culture in New York in the early 1970s, including drawings, photographs, old subway tokens and other vintage ephemera.)

Gordon Matta-Clark, Graffiti: Soul Power, 1973. Gelatin silver print, 24 × 40 in. Courtesy of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark and David Zwirner. (A framed black and white photograph of a detail of a wall covered in graffiti, some of which reads SOUL POWER, ALGEE 129, LEE, LIL MIKE I, BUNNY and more.)

Photograph by Gordon Matta-Clark, 1972/73. Courtesy of the Estate of Gordon Matta-Clark. (A color photograph of three teenage girls in front of a wall covered in colorful graffiti tags.)