Five Days Full of Art for the 21th Century

Far beyond the German frontiers, STROKE has been known for its unique view on the art of the 21st century. Yet, this May, it will master a one-of-a-time balancing act: impetuous  urban  art  is  encountering  well-established fine art galleries and this causes the art world to totter.

“Last  year, we  almost  actually  flooded  the venue,  the Munich Praterinsel,  with nearly  13,000  visitors. From  May 1st  to 5th, we now  let  two  strong movements encounter. We are expecting another record attendance. It will be an event that Munich has never seen before”,  anticipates Marco Schwalbe, creative director of the art fair.

Save the Date & Join us in Munich!
OPEN WALLS, Booth #5
feat. Alias, YZ & more

DISSIDENTS, Group Show opening April 12th

The ongoing economic crisis and the rise of all kinds of populism in Europe demonstrate a dangerous backlash in 21st century history; meanwhile extreme industrialization, mass production & over consumption has led global warming to break all records. Quarrels over diminishing but vital natural resources and shrinking living space may well be the cause of future conflicts. However fucked up the situation our world is facing right now, there is still hope. To keep faith, we need to remember people’s abilities to protest and to resist. Protest is when I say this does not please me. Resistance is when I ensure what does not please me occurs no more. From the Arab Spring to the Occupy movement, the eastern and western worlds have both lately shown the capability to fight against establishment. Protest always starts in the streets, and so often does art. The street is a mixture of languages and a hotchpotch of voices, where the pictograms of road signs and the surreal messages written by street artists live side by side, and where the simple commercial communication runs up against the political. To the careful observer the street makes visible the underlying noise of our society.

By acknowledging the social and political unrest of our time, OPEN WALLS Gallery cordially invites you as we debut DISSIDENTS, a group show. A dissident, broadly defined, is a person who actively challenges an established doctrine, policy, or institution. Using the urban landscape as a playground, seeking truth and raising awareness, the artists that we have chosen for this show strive for non-conformity and create work representative of both political and social opposition, making them pioneers of dissident activity.

Join us on Friday April 12th in Stattbad Berlin as we contribute to the social strife of 2013 with works by:

BR1 - By ripping off advertisements from billboards or giving a new face to Muslim women BR1 is fighting the hegemonic policing of sense imposed by late capitalism . The point is to fight hegemonic ideas and to give back the public space to the public. His aim is to give social and cultural functions to billboards which, while lacking those, are imposed to society. Portraying veiled woman in their daily life, BR1 challenges the ideological isolation of the veil.

JUST – Just’s photographic work is a journey. He studied photography in Scotland where he also worked as a picture framer while taking photos of the punk- and squatter scenes that he was part of. One scene led to another, and Just then went on to focus on the graffiti and street art cultures. American photojournalist, Martha Cooper has it: “Just’s breathtaking photos are dramatic documents of daring graffiti artists in action. Through them you can vicariously experience the danger and thrills of rooftop writing.”

ALIAS - Rather than directly dealing with war or politics, Alias is focusing on how individuals are personally affected by their environment. It is like zooming on individuals and seeing things on their scale; zooming in on children in particular and observing how they experience that world and context they live in. There is a lot of compassion in Alias’ work as he delicately infiltrates the urban environment to reveal the existence of loneliness and personal crisis behind a larger catastrophe.

EMESS - Confronting the viewer with issues that would rather be swept under the rug, Emess’ work is most often motivated by political questions, for which there are perhaps no clear answers or solutions but that need to be addressed. The use of humor and his sense of aesthetics catch the viewer off guard for a moment allowing attention to be drawn to the subject. Emess sees no difference between the street or the gallery space, his work is designed to reach an audience and adapts itself to the situation.

VERMIBUS – Berlin based artist Vermibus regularly collects advertising posters from the streets, using them in his studio as the base material for his work. There, a process of transformation begins. Using solvent, he brushes away the faces and flesh of the models appearing in the posters as well as brand logos. Once the transformation is complete, he then reintroduces the adverts back into their original context, hijacking the publicity, and its purpose.

GIACOMO SPAZIO - Pioneer of the Italian Street Art movement, Spazio’s iconography is borrowed from fanzines of the 1970s and 1980s, from punk graphics and the album covers of those years, from documents of the underground scene and artistic-musical performances, from photos taken from publications, magazines, and daily newspapers. The mind immediately races to the silk screens of Andy Warhol and Pop Art, but it is only a superficial evocation because Spazio goes well beyond, making his own the practice of incursion and theft typical of the punk who uses information and images from the media and propose them with an ironic and desecrating, cynical and subversive intention.

NEGATIVE VIBES – Self made, street taught, Negative Vibes delivers a great deal of gravity through his existentialist and symbolic imagery.

Exhibition on display: Saturday April 13th - Saturday May 11th
Opening hours: Thursdays to Saturdays, from 15:00 to 20:00
Press & Private View: by invitation only, Friday April 12th
Vernissage: Friday April 12th from 20:00 onwards
Admission: €5 Free for Gallery members & clients

ALIAS, pasting pieces of intimacy in the public space

Alias by Thomas von Wittich © Thomas von Wittich, 2012

Pasting pieces of intimacy in the public space
Alias’ work represents mainly children, some teenagers, some adults; individuals that are alone, and dealing with situations. It is a quiet introspection, which the artist captures in black and white graphically stylised figures, to which he sometimes adds some dense red colour.

In one image, we can see a kid wounded by gunshots looking at us, as if he was telling us, “you are my witness that I have been shot”. A child is sitting on a bomb, another one is hiding his face coming back from school, or on his way to school, a girl is praying, her eyes looking at the sky, a kid is sitting on a swing with his back turned. Rather than directly dealing with war or politics, Alias is focusing on how individuals are personally affected by their environment. It is like zooming on individuals and seeing things on their scale; zooming in on children in particular and observing how they experience that world and context they live in. 

There is a lot of compassion in Alias’ work as he delicately infiltrates the urban environment to reveal the existence of loneliness and personal crisis behind a larger catastrophe.

Discreetly suggesting compassion
Alias has been carefully choosing specific spots and objects in various cities for the past twelve years, where he applies his stencils where his images are going to take place. On building walls or untransformed recycled materials, Alias captures emotions that are not only his subject but also his material as much as paint or street walls may be. While a lot of street art pieces are big and highly noticeable, Alias’ stencil paintings are discreet. Both the chosen spots in the streets, and the material he finds, are an integral part of his work. He has a way of finding special spots that are going to contribute to the expression alongside the image itself. Conveying a very personal feeling he is dealing with. Those spots are as unique as what he is depicting.

By isolating people from the social background or situation they are in, Alias is triggering a direct emotional impact. All his subjects appear as little universes, neutral lands that all seem to want peace. It is the type of compassion you can find in the work of great artists like Bill Viola. It is art that makes us feel human suffering we can all relate to and that instills in us both condolence and reverence.

(words: Florence Reidenbach for Open Walls Gallery)

STATTMARKT - AN ART MARKET IN THE BATH

STATTMARKT 2012 is an Art only edition, featuring designated artist project spaces combined with a commercial element. Each space will be individually curated presenting a twist to the traditional art market format & resulting in the most diverse array of artists to be showcased in STATTBAD Wedding to date. Works range from Leipzig-based duo DOPPELDENK whose art recourse to traditional visual media and iconographies to capture the dimensions of moral and ethical conflicts in a globalized world, to Berlin Urban Art legends ALIAS & ANTON UNAI using mostly found objects, or “golden garbage” salvaged from the streets of Berlin as a medium to bring street art inside the gallery, through to the colorful world of GIACOMO SPAZIO whose paintings take inspiration from pop culture and visuals associated with punk music.

Project Space highlights will include a large installation by MARKUS MAI & MORITZ ARNOLD whose experiments use movement and light to define space. It draws on basic physical forces and elementary characteristics of the materials used. Through the collaboration of several factors like kinetics, velocity and mirroring an architectural aspect comes into being. The installation understands itself at the same time as an investigation and its own result.

Berlin-based artist VERMIBUS ‘borrows’ advertising posters from the streets, using them as a base material in his studio where a process of transformation begins. Kate Moss is the subject of his latest body of work.

SP38 usually paints like a human color copy machine, mixing silkscreen and paint, rabbits and urban poetry, he has become a master in the field of play on words and provocative sentences. «Vive la Crise» or “Vive La Bourgeoisie” are SP38’s trademarks. At STATTMARKT, SP38 will unveil his latest series of pop-surrealist paintings.

YZ primarily works as a painter producing artworks on kraft paper that can be put on city walls like posters. She is also a photographer and a video artist and she combines these medias to create multi-dimensional projects. Her art is centered on the question of humanity and authenticity in the context of a modern metropolis. Her work has been recently exhibited at the Fondation Cartier & the Grand Palais in Paris.

BR1 is an Italian artist fighting the hegemonic policing of sense imposed by late capitalism by ripping off advertisements from billboards or giving a new face to Muslim women. His works are designed to transmit a social message and bring collective awareness. The point is to fight hegemonic ideas and to give back the public space to the public. With his colorful images and comics-to-pop-inspired portrait, BR1 makes the city more livable and harmonious. His aim is to give social and cultural functions to billboards which, while lacking those, are imposed to society

Thomas “MAROK” Marecki founded the pop culture magazine Lodown in 1995. In addition to his work as publisher and creative director of Lodown magazine, MAROK realized personal and social art and design projects worldwide. In his installment, MAROK likes to create a parallel approach to common things, to link and connect things which are otherwise considered disparate elements, and thus creating a present that is both absurd and real - just like today’s reality.

EMESS, whose work is most often motivated by political questions, will join forces this time with STEPHEN HIAM to execute a performance resulting in abstract expressionistic artworks leaving the interpretation of their meaning open to the mind of their viewers.

Integrating various techniques and influences, the art of BLO is a smart balance between illustration and painting, earning him respect from the graffiti community as well as recognition in the contemporary art world, allowing him to display his work in prestigious venues such as Le Grand Palais in Paris.

Berlin Graffiti king, PROST, whose bold visual statements on society are a crime to miss, is most recognized for his Prostie smileys, but as the artist likes to say, “I’m always and never the same”, expect the unexpected!

KEN is a Berlin-based street artist that has walked the walk. Starting from small scale, on the street he has gone all the way to complicated monumental Stencils. He uses dark nuclear graphics that create a sensation of their own.

Last but not least, any urban art exhibition happening in Berlin wouldn’t be complete without the insiders photos from Berlin based Artist, Blogger and Photographer: JUST. His breathtaking photos are dramatic documents of daring graffiti artists in action. Through them you can vicariously experience the danger and thrills of rooftop writing.

STATTMARKT will feature a total of 15 dedicated project spaces, allowing artists & galleries, to exhibit their work in their chosen surroundings. This year STATTMARKT also teamed up with STATTLAB, our in-house independent print studio, and will be releasing a series of affordable limited edition prints that can be purchased directly from the fair. 

Admission* to STATTMARKT is €5 from Thursday to Sunday and €10 including entrance to the after show party, which takes place on December 1st from 22:00 onward. * 3€ (under 25 years-old visitors, job seekers & students)

Artists Showcased at STATTMARKT 2012
YZ, BR1, JUST, ALIAS, ANTON UNAI, VERMIBUS, MAROK, DOPPELDENK, MARKUS MAI & MORITZ ARNOLD,  SP38, BLO, PROST, KEN, EMESS, STEPHEN HIAM, GIACOMO SPAZIO, ELIOT

Galleries & Media Exhibiting at STATTMARKT 2012
OPEN WALLS, ATM, RIOT ARTS, LODOWN MAGAZINE

VISITING
Saturday 1st -­ Sunday 16th December 2012
STATTBAD Wedding, Gerichtstr. 65, 13347 Berlin
U6 (Wedding) + S-Bahn (Wedding or Humbolthain)

ALIAS #4 - Hamburg Solo Show

ALIAS solo show opened last weekend in Hamburg’s Gängeviertel. The artist has spent a couple of weeks working in Hamburg, collecting reclaimed objects in the Gängeviertel and an old train-station, re-cutting his most famous stencils from the last 10 years in order to create a series of 10 new pieces of art.

The exhibition provides the viewer with an intimate view on ALIAS work. Particular attention has been taken to focus on up-cycling reclaimed material, as seen on the installation above.

Photos from Thomas von Wittich and Joanna Wysocka document the artist’s work in the studio as well as in the streets of Hamburg.

Available works & additional information via the gallery page.

Exhibition on display from 20.10.  to 04.11.2012

Opening Times: Friday & Saturday 15h -19h | Sunday 13h -19h

Gängeviertel e.V. Valentinskamp, 20355 Hamburg (Galerie ist vor Ort ausgeschildert!)

NEW ALIAS’ Limited Editions

This week, we received new limited editions by Alias on 160g acid free age and resistant paper. As this is a limited edition stencil work, each poster has been individually crafted by hand and may contain irregularities that add to the beauty of the piece. Each artwork is signed and numbered.

Gift from a stranger
50 x 65 cm
1/14 ex.
150€

Body Body Head
50 x 65 cm
1/14 ex.
150€

Faceless
50 x 65 cm
1/7 ex.
150€

Cut It Out
65 x 50 cm
1/7 ex.
150€

ALIAS #4 - Selected Works from the last Decade

ALIAS returns to Hamburg & opens his 4th solo show this saturday, October 20th, from 19:00 onwards. The exhibition will feature a selection of the artist’s favorite works from the last decade as well as new pieces produced in Hamburg with lost and found material reclaimed from the street. In addition, the installation will provide the audience with a unique and intimate perspective on the artist’s creative process.

At Work in the Studio, Berlin 2012. Photo: Thomas von Wittich

Street-taught, self-made, ALIAS delivers a great deal of gravity through his loaded imagery and mindful aesthetic. From barricades and buildings to gallery walls, one immediately knows whose name they bare. And although distinguishable, his stencils are always evolving and the medium constantly developing. ALIAS creates the stencils while keeping in mind the social and political activities of today. The placement of the stencils is also relevant. Aside from the symbolism, ALIAS always maintains an awareness of where the stencils are located so that the message being sent to the public is not only through the imagery, but also through its location.

Another important particularity in the work of ALIAS is that, aside from using street walls as a medium, ALIAS also works with found objects. These recycled materials, be it wood, scrap metal, paper, etc, are kept in their found conditions in order to preserve the authenticity of the work being made.

Join us with the Artist on saturday from 19:00 onwards in Gängeviertel e.V. Valentinskamp, 20355 Hamburg

Email the gallery for available works and pricing.

BERLIN ART FAIR WEEK - SAVE THE DATE

STROKE Urban Art Fair returns in Berlin from Sept. 13th to Sept. 16th. OPEN WALLS will present its complete gallery program, feat. new and exclusive artworks from YZ, BR1, SP38, ALIAS, VERMIBUS, CHOW MARTIN & GIACOMO SPAZIO. We also have a special guest: MIMI THE CLOWN.

Within the last three years, more than 60,000 visitors came to STROKE to see artists and galleries from all over the world (Poland, Brazil, Austria, USA, Italy, France, Chile, Spain, Switzerland or the UK - just to name a few). Urban Art is now! For the first time in human history, the majority of the earth’s population is living in urban residential areas. The urban environment and the corresponding lifestyle can be counted amongst the fundamental sources of inspiration for contemporary culture. The historical revolution of visual forms of expression, in which the designs of the everyday streetscape, with its tags, graffiti, street art, advertising or graphic design found their sustenance, define the progression of contemporary art. The urban environment as the literal and metaphorical platform for this development inspires and presents the artists and their work.

STROKE Urban Art Fair works as a parallel universe to the inflated classical art market of the“rich and beautiful”, driven by aggressive investment strategies, auction houses and the greed for spectacular prices. Passion and dedication are still more important than business plans and projections.

All practical information are available on the STROKE Website.