Start This

Start This

STRAAT Museum, in partnership with Paradigm Gallery of Philadelphia, will host a solo exhibition from graffiti legend and pioneer Cornbread. The show will open with a reception on Saturday, October 9th, 2021, from 17:00 to 20:00, and will remain on view through December 12th, 2021. A special press preview will be held on Friday, October 8th, from 15:00 to 17:00 (RSVP required), at which time the museum will also release the first edition of the STRAAT Collection Catalogue.

Both the opening and the exhibition are open to the public with regular museum admission.

The exhibition will feature original artworks created in his home city of Philadelphia as well as new works made in Amsterdam.

‘Start This’ marks the artist’s first solo museum exhibition in Europe.

About Cornbread

Darryl McCray (American, b.1953), better known by his tagging name Cornbread, is a graffiti writer from Philadelphia. He is widely regarded as the world’s first modern graffiti artist, pioneering a distinct, non-gang-related tagging style beginning in 1965.

“Most people make the assumption that New York City birthed graffiti. While the Big Apple certainly made it famous, the credit actually goes to a Philadelphia legend, CORNBREAD, whose unique tag resonated through the City of Brotherly Love beginning in the late '60s.”
— Alec Banks for Rock The Bells

After a stint in a juvenile corrections center, where he earned the nickname Cornbread from a chef who refused to cook his favorite dish, the legend was born. His first major tagging “campaign” was “Cornbread Loves Cynthia”, a bold declaration for a classmate at Strawberry Mansion Junior High School. He wrote it everywhere along their walk home. This became the inspiration for ESPO’s world-famous mural series “Love Letters” along Philadelphia’s Market-Frankford train line.

In 2007, filmmaker Sean McKnight released the documentary Cry of the City Part 1: The Legend of Cornbread. In 2013, McCray was honored at the Graffiti Hall of Fame in East Harlem for his contributions to hip-hop culture. His work was also featured in the seminal exhibition “Beyond The Streets”, curated by Roger Gastman

Among his legendary feats, Cornbread is known for tagging a touring jet belonging to the Jackson 5 and sneaking into the Philadelphia Zoo to tag an elephant — an act later echoed by world-famous artist Banksy. Reflecting on the zoo incident in a 2020 interview, Cornbread said:

“I was on the bus one day, reading the newspaper and it said ‘Cornbread is shot to death.’ I knew I had to do something amazingly bizarre to let people know I wasn’t dead. So I go to the zoo. After three days of watching, I climb over the fence, into the elephant’s enclosure. I take the top off the spray paint, start shaking. The balls start rattling. He turns around, he looks at me, doesn’t pay attention. I paint ‘Cornbread Lives’ right on his side.”

Legacy

More than half a century after the birth of his legend, Cornbread uses his platform to support young Philadelphia artists who share his passion. He works closely with the city’s influential Mural Arts program, continuing to shape the culture he helped start.

Click here to download the exhibition catalog.