Tripl's Decade-Long Graffiti Homage Repaints Every Work from Subway Art

Artist Tripl, also known as Furious, spent ten years repainting all 239 works from the seminal 1984 graffiti book Subway Art by Martha Cooper and Henry Chalfant. The project, which began as a joke in 2013, involved recreating each piece on trains in the Netherlands, adapting compositions to larger Dutch train cars, and restaging the original photographs with period-appropriate props and poses. Tripl also impersonated writers, police officers, and commuters to replicate the documentary scenes. Martha Cooper participated in several reenactments, photographing Tripl in echoes of her earlier work. The resulting book, Repainting Subway Art, published by Ryuzdael Publishing in December 2024, contains 371 illustrations over 196 pages, including working images, interviews, and new writing. The project has been exhibited at MU Hybrid Art House in Eindhoven (2023), Leicester Museum & Art Gallery (2024), Colab Gallery in Weil am Rhein (2024), and Urban Spree in Berlin (2025). A program at the Museum of the City of New York on April 4, 2025, featured Tripl with Cooper, Chalfant, and John “Crash” Matos, moderated by Edward Birzin. A companion exhibition at WallWorks New York opened April 5, 2025. The book is authored by Tripl/Furious, Edward Birzin, and Mikel van den Boogaard, edited by Ferry van Zijderveld, and supported by the Mondriaan Fund.