Peaceful Progress Graffiti Exhibition review: A feast of graffiti

Peaceful Progress, a professional Graffiti Arts organization based in Cardiff and The Boiler House, Wales’ first Graffiti Gallery worked together to present a brilliant graffiti exhibition and to refresh people’s concepts of this unique street-art on 19 November in Cardiff.

Regardless of the pouring rain at this miserable November night, burning temperature was keeping rising among the cheerful crowd in The Boiler House where a fantastic graffiti feast—Peaceful Progress Graffiti Exhibition: Light VS Dark— was under way.

Processed with VSCO with f2 preset — Cheerful crowd, fantastic murals and delicate canvas in The Boiler House

The decision to go that far alone to a place I’ve never been to in a rainy November evening was truly a crazy one for a foreign young girl. Fortunately, all those thrills and surprises I experienced afterward didn’t let me down.

A month of hard work and preparation

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After a month of working on the walls, painting new canvas, lighting, bar setup etc, the Peaceful Progress Graffiti Exhibition turned out to be a stunning outcome. As the first solo show of Bryce Davies, a graffiti artist who works under the name Peaceful Progress, it featured fabulous huge murals and delicate canvas, which have adorned over 1500sq ft of wall at The Boiler House Graffiti Gallery in Canton, Cardiff.

Preparation process, by Peaceful Progress — Preparation process. By Peaceful Progress

14590460_10155283071552678_5319137345455056247_n — After all the former graffiti were removed, the Boiler House looked like a pure white canvas. By Peaceful Progress

The Boiler House a few hours before opening — Newborn Boiler House: a few hours before opening. By Paul Allen

Still, tonight has its special significance as the exhibition also marks 18 years legend of Peaceful Progress, whose diversified works have been spotted on the walls across Wales, the UK and abroad.

Hit The Boiler House on a rainy and windy evening

When night fell, the magic of the exhibition was unveiled. And one of the best parts of this exhibition was the free entry. When I entered this magical warehouse painted with various amazing graffiti on the wall, some of which were quite mysterious for me, the only thing I could do was to hold my breath and to keep taking pictures. Cheerful people seemed to really enjoying themselves, with a bottle of beer in their hands trying to figure out the meaning behind some abstract graffiti. Quite unexpectedly, I was surprised to see kids playing around nosily as I thought it an environment or event only for adults. Later I found the statement written on the homepage of Peaceful Progress: Kids welcome early. And I understand and do give credits for this action.

Children were enjoying themselves on the couch.

Break the stereotypes！

Peaceful Progress Graffiti Exhibition works as a great channel to gain interests and trust from younger generation and helps to break the barrier by providing a deep and original insight into graffiti, a past social evil and tumor perceived by many people. Though it’s not a long time since graffiti has been gradually accepted as a kind of street-art and, yes, cultural attitude has been changing.
And Boiler House is one of those “free creative spaces” where incredible changes occur.