AMSTERDAM.- From 10 April 2026, STRAAT Museum presents the ESSENCE, an exhibition exploring the cultural significance of graffiti. Featuring objects, materials, and stories from the Dutch Graffiti Library collection—which has been documenting graffiti culture for over 35 years—the exhibition highlights the intentions, codes, and foundations of graffiti. On the occasion of the exhibition, legendary New York graffiti pioneer Bill Blast aka Wise (William Cordero) created a new work and host a blackbook signing session on Saturday 11 April.

From the handball courts and the underground in New York to the rise of the Dutch graffiti scene, the ESSENCE shows how graffiti evolved into a global visual language and laid the foundation for contemporary movements such as urban contemporary and street art. The exhibition focuses on the core of graffiti: names, tags, strokes, and repetition as the building blocks of a visual system.

Line, form, flow, and rhythm merge into a unique visual language, driven by repetition, movement, and the urge to claim a place in a self-created world. the ESSENCE reveals both the visible and the abstract, conceptual dimensions of graffiti, in which identity, reputation, and community are central.

the ESSENCE does not tell a chronological story and does not aim for completeness. Instead, the exhibition presents a concentrated visual narrative, rooted in the past but with an eye on the present, in which graffiti is shown as a living, continuously evolving practice that has inspired generations of makers and continues to influence art, culture, fashion, and design worldwide.

Collaboration between STRAAT Museum and Dutch Graffiti Library

STRAAT and Dutch Graffiti Library are entering into a three-year collaboration to make graffiti visible as culture and heritage. A portion of the Dutch Graffiti Library collection will be permanently on display. STRAAT provides an international museum context, while Dutch Graffiti Library contributes over 35 years of archive, research, and collection. Together, they create a structural presentation highlighting the history, community, and cultural significance of graffiti.

Dutch Graffiti Library

For more than 35 years, Dutch Graffiti Library has been documenting graffiti culture. In 2014, a private collection of over 15,000 objects was consolidated under the name Dutch Graffiti Library. The collection includes photographs, books, ephemera (zines, magazines, posters, and flyers), sketches, paintings, screenprints, and post-graffiti works. The core of the collection originates from the Netherlands–Paris–New York triangle, where graffiti strongly developed in the 1970s, ’80s, and ’90s. Dutch Graffiti Library regards both the objects and the stories as cultural heritage, contributing to the tangible and intangible history of the Netherlands.