STRAAT MuseumNDSM, Amsterdam-Noord

Art Is Not a Crime

Now showing9 October 2026 – 13 March 2027Ticketed — see website

Photographer Henry Chalfant's documentation of graffiti culture, curated by SUSO33 with archival material from the Dutch Graffiti Library linking his lens to the Dutch graffiti scene.

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On now All of October 2026

Life-size painted subway cars roll in on an LED wall, stop for a few seconds and pull out again. You watch from a copy of the Writers' Bench, the seats at 149th Street in the Bronx where writers waited to see their work go by. Footprints on the floor trace how Henry Chalfant shot each car, one 35mm click per step, then glued the prints together by hand.

The rest is his archive from 1977 to 1987: a 25-metre wall of more than 500 whole-train photographs, cars reproduced at full size, 72 metallic prints, and sketchbooks, flyers and spray cans in vitrines. The Dutch Graffiti Library adds the local story: Chalfant's 1984 show at Yaki Kornblit's gallery, whose photos were copied and passed around Amsterdam's teenagers. Dutch graffiti started on Willemsparkweg, of all streets.

It's a photo and archive show, included in the €21.50 ticket. From 15 October it's open until 21:00 on Thursdays, with a €15 evening ticket from 17:00 and free 30-minute tours at 18:00 and 18:45.

Look for

Limited Exhibition Time
Painted subway cars pull in at full size on an LED wall, pause for a few seconds and leave, watched from replicas of the Bronx Writers' Bench.
The 25-metre train wall
More than 500 photographs of complete trains from ten years: up close each is one train, and a step back turns them into a single wall.
The footprint trail
Footprints on the floor follow Chalfant's route along a car, each one marking a single shot of his overlapping 35mm sequence.
The boombox
It plays cassette recordings of DJ Red Alert's radio show that Chalfant taped himself and kept all these years.
Henry's eye
300 photos, most never published, from New York and his mid-1980s European tour, some carrying his handwritten notes on who is pictured and where.

Good for

Evening Visits
Nerding Out
Small Kids

Skip if

You want painted walls rather than photographs: this show is Chalfant's photo, film and paper archive.

With kids

Under-13s go free with a paying adult. Kids get a daily treasure hunt through the show, a drawing table for their own graffiti pieces, and a supervised activity on Sundays from 14:00 to 16:00.