AVANT, also known as AVANT street art guerrilla collective, was the artist group active in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

from 1980 to 1984. By 1984 AVANT had produced thousands of acrylic on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops and galleries citywide. Principal artists were Christopher Hart Chambers,

David Fried David Fried (born 1962, New York City) is an American interdisciplinary, contemporary artist. His stated conceptual focus is on dynamic non-linear and interdependent relationships found in nature and society, juxtaposed with the human de ...

, and Marc Thorne. AVANT was a group of five young New York artists working collectively who wheat pasted handmade original poster sized works of non-

calligraphic Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as ...

art in the streets of NYC. While the members of Avant assert that they began in the winter of 1980, the earliest available press documentation of their street art or art exhibitions is found in the

New York Native The ''New York Native'' was a biweekly gay newspaper published by Charles Ortleb in New York City from December 1980 until January 13, 1997. It was the only gay paper in New York City during the early part of the AIDS epidemic, and pioneered repor ...

from June 1982, wherein a later article published in the Villager places their origins at January 1981. By 1984 avant had produced thousands of

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

on paper paintings and plastered them on walls, doors, bus-stops, galleries and museums citywide, concentrated mostly in lower

Manhattan Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...

. As a group, they were capable of producing hundreds of individual paintings per week, and deployed them in the streets on a regular basis. They also mounted three-dimensional artworks to street sign poles and commandeered bus stop advertising light boxes, replacing the contents with their own original works of art, then relocking the cabinets. Over 40 exhibitions of AVANT's work were held in New York galleries and nightclubs between 1981 and 1984. Over a typical artist-gallery financial dispute, they actually managed to commandeer a gallery in Soho to open the 1982 September season with a self curated exhibition. Another fresh concept was to start an exhibition in the street that would continue into a gallery. They called this the “Drive-In Show,” which started with a dozen numbered oversized paintings pasted high up on a parking lot wall in

Soho Soho is an area of the City of Westminster, part of the West End of London. Originally a fashionable district for the aristocracy, it has been one of the main entertainment districts in the capital since the 19th century. The area was develo ...

, and continued up the block in Gabrielle Bryers Gallery starting with painting number 13.{{cite news , first=Guy , last=Trebay , title=Arts - photo caption , date=January 1983, url=http://avant-streetart.com/avant_street_art_press_nyc_80s.htm , work =The Village Voice , access-date=2009-08-29

References

External links

AVANT historical archive
Large collection of images, press, essays. Artists from New York (state) Guerilla artists Public art Visual arts genres Street culture American artist groups and collectives Arts organizations established in 1980