WHAAM! is pleased to present a new exhibition of paintings by New York artist and filmmaker Charlie Ahearn, opening September 18.

The exhibition grew out of a visit to Ahearn's basement studio, where a painting immediately caught Anatoly Kirichenko's attention. Based on Ed Piskor's comic-book interpretation of Ahearn's iconic basketball scene from Wild Style, the work became an unexpected starting point for the exhibition. Its playful, knowingly "wrong" interpretation of Ahearn's own image—with its obsessive and affectionate details—felt naturally at home at WHAAM!, and will be paired with Ahearn's Little Hot Stuff comic-book painting.

From there, Ahearn began looking through his archive of paintings and maps, uncovering works that trace the history, geography, and visual language of New York's hip-hop culture.

At the center of the exhibition is a large painting of a "Hip Hop Map prior to 1979," charting the culture's early development across New York—from Kool Herc on the West Side and Afrika Bambaataa's Zulu Nation on the East Side to Grandmaster Flash's South Bronx and the clubs that became gathering points for the emerging movement. The map expands beyond the Bronx, acknowledging the interconnected communities and histories that helped create hip-hop across the city, including Brooklyn, Manhattan, and the many figures whose contributions have often been overlooked.

Another major work revisits Ahearn's 1983 Wild Style tour of Japan through a comic-book-like "Tokyo Wild Style Flyer," incorporating Japanese script and the energy of the film's international journey.

The exhibition culminates in a particularly personal connection to WHAAM!'s own location. An earlier map painting documents Lee Quiñones' murals throughout the Lower East Side, including the area surrounding the present-day WHAAM! space. That history is brought directly into the exhibition through Ahearn's Whaam! Flyer Painting, presented alongside smaller collector's versions of works from the show.

Together, these paintings form a visual map of New York culture—connecting graffiti, hip-hop, comics, independent film, underground art, and the constantly changing geography of the city. Rather than looking back nostalgically, Ahearn's paintings continue his longstanding practice of documenting the people, places, images, and cultural collisions that make New York what it is.

Charlie Ahearn's exhibition at WHAAM! opens September 18.

About

Charlie Ahearn is a New York artist and filmmaker whose work has been deeply connected to the city’s underground cultural history for more than five decades. He is best known for directing Wild Style (1983), the landmark film that captured the early hip-hop and graffiti culture of New York through the real artists, DJs, MCs, dancers, and musicians who shaped it.

Ahearn arrived in New York in the 1970s and became involved with the Downtown art scene and the artist collective Colab, participating in the groundbreaking Times Square Show in 1980. His practice has always moved between art, film, photography, music, and the everyday visual language of New York.

Today, Ahearn continues to work as an artist, creating paintings and mixed-media works that draw from his decades of photographs, archives, street culture, graffiti, music, and the constantly changing landscape of New York City. His work offers a unique perspective on the intersections between contemporary art and the city's underground cultural history.