Urban Nation in Berlin will be the world’s first major museum built to celebrate and preserve street art and graffiti.
The genre emerged in New York in the 1970s with artists who would spray-paint subway tunnels. Since then, it has exploded into a global movement, with artists making (usually illegal) works on cityscapes around the world.
The opening show has new works by over 100 of the world’s most famous street artists, including Shepard Fairey, Ron English and Blek le Rat.
The museum has also been given outside wall space in Berlin. “While street art and graffiti shows have been the subject of numerous exhibitions over the past five years,” notes The Guardian, “it is the biggest acknowledgment so far of urban art as a legitimate art form, with an enormous fanbase worldwide.