Press
Art Plugged: Al Diaz, SAMO© Co-Creator, Makes His UK Debut
Published by Art Plugged, 2 October 2026
Art Plugged has published a new feature on Al Diaz and SAMO : TRANSATLANTICATION, his UK debut exhibition at D’Stassi Art.
The article explores Diaz’s development of SAMO© with Jean-Michel Basquiat, the evolution of the project beyond a conventional graffiti tag, and the relationship between his historic use of public language and the new works created for London.
Exhibition
SAMO : TRANSATLANTICATION
Al Diaz
D’Stassi Art
12–18 Hoxton Street
Entrance on Drysdale Street
London N1 6NG
SAMO© as an invented language
The Art Plugged feature revisits the origins of SAMO©, which Diaz and Basquiat developed after meeting at City-As-School in New York in 1976.
Rather than treating SAMO© simply as a tag or alias, the article highlights Diaz’s description of it as an invented brand or imaginary product: a vehicle for communication, satire and disruption in public space.
“SAMO was an imaginary product. We were experimenting in hype, taking something that didn’t exist and presenting it as if it were a viable alternative. The motivation was communication.”
Diaz explains that the statements were developed collaboratively in notebooks, edited and refined before being taken onto the streets. Unlike conventional writer signatures, SAMO© was intended to speak beyond the graffiti community and interrupt the attention of anyone passing by.
New work for London
The exhibition brings together two major strands of Diaz’s current practice. The first is a new group of SAMO© canvases using spray paint, acrylic and art pen to address contemporary political and cultural conditions.
The second comes from Diaz’s long-running subway-sign practice, developed over more than sixteen years. Using the Helvetica lettering and coloured route markers of the New York subway system, Diaz reconstructs existing visual fragments into new combinations, messages and anagrams.
As Art Plugged notes, both bodies of work are connected by Diaz’s continuing interest in the power of a small number of words placed in public to interrupt routine, shift meaning and demand a second look.
D’Stassi Art on bringing Al Diaz to London
“We first met Al in New York in 2018 and there was an immediate connection. Not long afterwards, we worked together on a limited-edition release based on two of his Wet Paint subway-letter collage works. The results were beautiful, and the response from our audience was exceptional.”
“What makes this exhibition particularly exciting for us is that it isn’t about looking backwards. Al’s use of language, observation and poetry feels as relevant now as ever.”
Michael Howes and Edward Sanders, Co-Founders, D’Stassi Art
More than five decades of practice
Diaz’s practice spans painting, collage, gel transfer, public art and graffiti. His role in the creation of SAMO© in 1978 forms an important part of the history of downtown New York, but the London exhibition also places emphasis on the independent practice he has continued to develop since.
The exhibition is accompanied by public interventions in Shoreditch and a new body of work made specifically for the London presentation.
Read more
Read the full feature on Art Plugged and explore works from SAMO : TRANSATLANTICATION through D’Stassi Art.
Source: Art Plugged, “Al Diaz, SAMO© Co-Creator, Makes His UK Debut”, published 2 October 2026.