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836m is proud to announce Piecing, an exhibition and first-ever open studio of Apexer, highlighted by guest appearances from Jet Martinez, Chad Hasegawa, Paz de la Calzada, and Monica Canilao.

There are so many misconceptions surrounding graffiti and street art. If you delve into the medium and its history, you realize that street art isn’t just about graffiti. Street art has been labeled in various ways, from vandalism to fine art, depending on the marketability and profitability of the work. Street art has, in fact, often been judged not by its intrinsic qualities but by its ownership and location.

Piecing is the culmination of Apexer’s career as a public artist and a writer. It explores how the audience and community participate in his artmaking and continue to do so via his “open studio.” Apexer takes the public art practice and brings it indoors. In producing his works in this new gallery environment, he considers what constitutes gallery work. He reflects on the dualities inherent in art craft making in the United States. He plays with the similarities between what people call graffiti and another American art form, quilt making. Piecing has a double meaning. Piecing is what you call a stylized mural painting of your name that involves connecting letters like a block of patterns in the writer community. In quilting, piecing is when fabric pieces are sewn together to form a block, garment, or quilt.