Feb 1, 2026 – 1.34pm
Aerosol spray paint was invented in 1949 with industry in mind, but a new exhibition shows how it has gone on to influence Australian artists as diverse as Sidney Nolan, Ben Quilty and generations of masked, illegal graffitists.
Developed by American entrepreneur Edward Seymour to show off an aluminium coating he’d patented, a can of spray paint was by 1965 in the hands of Philadelphia teen ‘Cornbread’, who used it to stealthily write his street name (or “tag”) on subway cars and buses around the city.
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