SAMO©'s Co-Creator Takes the Tag to London, Now Aimed at Misinformation
Al Diaz, the pioneering New York graffiti writer who co-created SAMO© with Jean-Michel Basquiat, is bringing his UK debut show to London. SAMO: TRANSATLANTICATION opens Friday, September 25, 2026 at D'Stassi Art on Hoxton Street in Shoreditch, and Deadline reports it connects the late-1970s origins of the SAMO© tag with Diaz's current artistic focus on misinformation. Decades after a two-word signature appeared on downtown walls, it arrives in a gallery with a new subject.
AI-generated discussion · Different perspectives
The throughline the show draws is worth noticing: a phrase from the late 1970s is being paired with a present-day argument about false information.
Or the curatorial label is doing the heavy lifting. A cryptic tag written on walls nearly fifty years ago does not need a modern cause to be worth a room; it may just need the walls' worth of context around it.