BRATTLEBORO, VT - After two years of preparation, the Brattleboro Museum & Art Center presents “From Street to Studio” in the Museum’s spacious main gallery. The exhibit brings together works by prominent graffiti artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, as well as new works by local graffiti artist and painter Scot Borofsky, street artist and sculptor Ken Hiratsuka, and graffiti-influenced painter Brian Gormley.

After rising to stardom in the mid and late 1980s, the hip-hop–influenced Basquiat and Haring remain two of the most famous New York City graffiti artists, and their work continues to command high prices today. Featured in the exhibit are two excellently reproduced screen prints of Basquiat’s paintings released posthumously by his estate. Part of a portfolio, the prints showcase some of his recurrent motifs, such as skulls and afro-centric faces, as well as his knack for biting social commentary and pithy poetry.

The work of Borofsky, Hiratsuka and Gormley is of a different nature from Basquiat’s and Haring’s. A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Scot Borofsky was more influenced by aboriginal, eastern and Islamic art and culture than by hip-hop. His large abstract paintings consist of cultural symbols and icons painted or spray-painted over delicately constructed color backgrounds.

A native of Japan, Ken Hiratsuka has been creating sculpture and street art in New York for over 25 years. Using a hammer and chisel, Hiratsuka carves out a single elaborate contour line that meanders over the surface of a selected piece of stone or a public sidewalk. His recent work, shown at BMAC, demonstrates a more mathematical and less free-form style of design.

Brian Gormley knew Basquiat well and was influenced by him to create graffiti art. After working in the streets of New York City for several years in the 1980s, Gormley began creating graffiti-influenced studio art that reflects additional influences of abstract expressionism. Gormley covers his canvas with chunks of vibrant color, or he paints the canvas black and then layers dozens of his own screen or block printed designs over them. His heavy use color, especially when contrasted with broad strokes of black, lends his paintings an illusion of translucence, evoking the feeling of a stained glass window.

A smaller gallery in the Museum has been transformed into a graffiti library containing ready-to-view documentary films, reference books, catalogues, rare photographs of Borofsky, Hiratsuka and Gormley, and photographs of Basquiat and Haring by renowned photographer Tseng Kwong Chi, whose work featuring the two artists helped bring them to national attention.

Also on display is a copy of Keith Haring’s Pink Book, the out-of-print catalogue from the artist’s first show at the Tony Shafrazi Gallery in New York City. With a hot pink cover and graphics designed by Haring himself, the book features dozens of photographs, prints and essays about Haring and his work. It even contains a copy of his first-ever fine for public mischief, administered to him by the New York Metropolitan Transit Agency for drawing on subway advertisements.

As an adjunct to “From Street to Studio,” the Mary Sommer Room off the main gallery, features the critically acclaimed 1983 film “Style Wars.” Directed by filmmaker Tony Silver and photographer Henry Chalfant, this documentary, created for the Public Broadcasting Service, examines late 1970s and early 1980s New York City street culture and graffiti art. With extraordinary style and neutrality, Style Wars presents an in-depth look at the art forms that developed into hip-hop culture and contributed to its origins, with a special emphasis on graffiti and street art.

The Brattleboro Museum & Art Center is a nonprofit organization founded in 1972, with a mission is to present art and ideas in ways that inspire, educate, and engage people of all ages. Compelling new exhibits by regional and internationally acclaimed artists are shown each season. The Museum Gift Shop, free to the public during regular Museum hours, features an assortment of cards, games, books, prints, educational and gift items including work of many local artists. The Museum is financially supported by grants, donations, and sponsorships, and by membership and program fees. The 2007 season is sponsored by Entergy Vermont Yankee. Visit : www.brattleboromuseum.org