Street Art Seen From the Inside in Bridgehampton

When considering street art, or graffiti, its transience would not be the first thing that comes to mind. Yet the elements are unkind to the type of paint preferred by those who paint al fresco (en plein air, if you like) on concrete, brick, aluminum, or other exterior surfaces. 

Work by a group of photographers, who recorded the recent painting of a roof in the Bronx by the graffiti artists CES and YES2 and made their own interpretation of it in their art, is on view at Bridgehampton’s White Room Gallery, along with original art by the painters.

It has been some time since street artists came in from the cold, both literally and figuratively. Several galleries in New York are devoted to or regularly show street artists, and there have been quite a few shows in East Hampton, at the Eric Firestone Gallery and most recently at Allouche last summer. It might prompt one to question whether this genre’s trendiness is old hat, but the graffiti captured by the photographers Ann Brandeis, Kat O’Neill, and Guy Pierno looks fresh and exuberant.

The site of the painting and photo shoot was provided by Vinny Pacifico, a graffiti collector who owns the building in Hunts Point. He had previously brought graffiti artists to decorate the outdoor space, but a flood ruined the earlier efforts. 

Mr. Pierno said most graffiti art painted outside was very vulnerable to degradation by environmental factors, adding that the images they took in November showed the art at the time of its creation. Since then, many of the colors evident in the photographs have already turned white.

Given that the types of expression and the styles within them are highly codified, there is a timelessness to graffiti art that makes it seem old and new all at once. CES began painting or writing in 1983 on trains and then on walls. He also works on canvas and has been shown internationally. YES2 began painting on walls in 1986, inspired by what he saw on New York City subway trains in the 1970s. He too has shown internationally. Both artists were at the reception for the show on Saturday and painted new work on materials that included surfboards.

CES has a sharp, angular, writing style, whereas YES2’s writing is curvier and plump. YES2’s paintings in the galleryare on metal, a nod to subway skins of yore. CES uses canvas, taking a more traditional route and perhaps attempting to put his genre into the context of traditional art history.

The photographers in the show see themselves as artists as well. Mr. Pierno said the angles he chose and the cropping of his photographs were a result of his wanting “to put my two cents” into the enterprise.

Ms. Brandeis works in visual collage, taking strips, bits, and snippets of imagery from the artists and melding it with other material, including that of her own making. The result can look, as in “NYC,” like a postcard or billboard, or, in “The Beginning,” like a trippy black-light poster. 

Ms. O’Neill goes one step further, layering image after image into a melange that she places on metal in various shapes and sizes. Both Mr. Pierno and Ms. O’Neill like to adopt a kind of panoramic long shape for their compositions, which echo the shape of trains.

It’s a colorful and graphic show overall, and should be fun for children. It remains on view through April 24.