FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT
On View: September 8, 2024 – March 30, 2025
FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT is a retrospective of this singular artist’s evolution from early graffiti art styles to his current practice of contemporary abstraction. The exhibition is the most comprehensive examination of FUTURA 2000’s five-decade career ever presented in his hometown of New York City. On view from Sunday, September 8 through March 30, 2025, BREAKING OUT showcases his sculptures, drawings, prints, studies, collaborations, and archival paraphernalia dating from the 1970s to the present, as well as new site-specific temporary installations.
Image: FUTURA 2000, Invasion From Blue City, 1989, Collection of agnès b.
Installation Images
Courtesy of the artist and The Bronx Museum. Photos by Argenis Apolinario, 2024
FUTURA'S ARTISTIC (R)EVOLUTION
FUTURA 2000’s practice today continues to bear his fascination with the aesthetics of science fiction and the space age. These interests led to his early adoption of sophisticated computer technology and video gaming.
Utilizing spray paint with virtuosic precision, he creates abstract cosmic compositions on canvas. Refined lines are contrasted by mists of vibrant colors and gestural brush marks while large areas are left empty—allowing forms to float freely across the surface, suggesting the expansiveness of outer space. His recurring motifs include the atom shape, symbolizing perpetual motion; a crane or linear mark, indicating a moment of rupture; and the enigmatic Pointman, reminiscent of an alien presence.
The Bronx Museum was founded in 1971, at a time when FUTURA 2000 began exploring his capacity as an artist through street art. As his aesthetic evolved, FUTURA 2000 continued using materials and techniques like spray paint, aerosol, and stencils to create abstract compositions–a revolutionary approach in contemporary art that remains his signature style today.
The exhibition’s title, BREAKING OUT, refers to FUTURA 2000’s boundary-breaking creative practice and his famous 1980 piece, Break, where the artist painted the full exterior of an NYC subway car with vibrant color and no lettering—a first for the graffiti art movement. At the time, FUTURA 2000 would “bench” in the South Bronx to watch his Break train pass by on elevated tracks—a short distance from The Bronx Museum.
About FUTURA 2000
FUTURA 2000 is the nom de plume of Leonard Hilton McGurr. FUTURA 2000’s work is included in collections such as The New Museum, New York; MOCA, Los Angeles; Groninger Museum, the Netherlands; Yvon Lambert, Galerie De Noirmont; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris, and Takashi Murakami’s Kaikai Kiki Gallery, Tokyo, Japan. His collaborations include Virgil Abloh and Rei Kawakubo of Comme des Garçons. In 2020, the Isamu Noguchi Museum presented FUTURA Akari, an installation of Akari light sculptures customized by FUTURA 2000. In the same year, the artist created a large site-specific installation at the Palais de Tokyo in Paris and was included in the exhibition Writing the Future: Basquiat and the Hip Hop Generation at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. Eric Firestone Gallery is the artist’s U.S. fine art representative. The creative and artist management agency ICNCLST represents the artist’s fine art and commercial projects globally.
Image: FUTURA 2000 Portrait, Photo by 13thWitness.
Bronx Museum X Futura Laboratories Merchandise
In conjunction with the FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT exhibition at The Bronx Museum, the Museum collaborated with Futura Laboratories on a line of limited-edition merchandise!
Where to Buy
Merchandise is currently available to purchase in-person at the Museum’s gift shop—and online via Futura Laboratories’ website.
Supplies are limited so don’t miss your chance to buy these items! All proceeds from merch support The Bronx Museum and the FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT exhibition.
SOLD OUT — FUTURA 2000's 'JUMP OFF' Limited Edition
50 signed & numbered prints, 2024
23″ x 23″ (artwork 19″ x 19″ with 2″ border)
Mohawk Superfine Ultra White, 160lb Cover
Deckled edges, Numbered in pencil
Printed by POP!NK Editions
This edition is based on the artist’s seminal 1989 painting JUMP OFF, which is on view as part of the FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT exhibition at The Bronx Museum.
“I believe JUMP OFF was one of the first paintings I made at my HOPE STREET studio. As the phrase goes, it was the ‘JUMP OFF’ for all future operations and the beginning of an actual studio practice.” – FUTURA 2000
The edition is sold out. All proceeds support the artist’s exhibition at The Bronx Museum. Prints will be available for pick-up or shipping beginning in late September 2024.
Exhibition Support
FUTURA 2000: BREAKING OUT is curated by University at Buffalo Art Galleries Director Robert Scalise and Zack Boehler, Public Art Project Coordinator at the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, and this iteration is organized in collaboration with Eileen Jeng Lynch, Director of Curatorial Programs at The Bronx Museum. The exhibition is in partnership with the creative and artist management agency ICNCLST with founding support from Eric Firestone Gallery.
