Artist Photography: Capturing Urban Art's Soul

The marvelous paintings and illustrations by graffiti-inspired Danish artist Jakob Tolstrup describe his worldview in the humorous way of someone who was born in the middle of nowhere - the countryside of Denmark. During the last couple of years, Jakob not just pushed his amazing painting series forward, experimenting with different techniques, materials and mediums, but also worked together with different galleries and invoiced several papers and magazines for his illustration works. ...

During the IBUg 2011 preparation week I got the chance to document Berlin-based urban artist and creative mastermind Danny Doom aka Desur aka Doctor Doom while creating some nice paintings using spray-cans and brushes… Danny Doom started with graffiti, got into painting and traditional design till he ended up mixing traditional and digital art. Amongst others prices and rewards he received the reddot award, the if communication award and was winning finalist in both new york show time and new york festival award. (about Danny Doom) ...

Australian urban artist Matt Adnate is in Berlin right now, preparing new artworks for his upcoming solo-exhibition at Box32! He recently invited me to his studio… Born and raised in Melbourne Adnate, who is part of the AWOL crew, originally comes from plain letter-writing but started creating photo-realistic paintings and has also worked with larger than life canvases, wooden sculptures and mural works in the last years. His latest urban artworks combine the rough nature of spray-painted tagging styles and the fineness of portrait-painting and can also be found in some abandoned areas in and around Berlin! ...

As some of you already know my Urban Artists in Action photo-show at Westberlin Gallery finished today and will be taken to the upcoming Bright Trade Show. That’s why I took some exhibition shots showing a few insights into the show for those who had no chance to swing by and have a closer look at my photos (including mainly special edition* in an edition of three), featuring top urban artists like Buff Diss (AUS), Titi Freak (BRA), Czarnobyl (GER), Dan Kitchener (UK), Ben Eine (UK), Emess (GER), FinDAC (UK), Herakut (GER), Augustine Kofie (USA), Mode2 (FRA), Nychos (AUT), Run Don’t Walk (ARG), Remi/Rough (UK) and Morten Andersen (DK). ...

Again some self-promotion for my upcoming solo-exhibition Urban Artists in Action – Another View on Street Art & Graffiti… Because I always like watching live art performances during exhibition openings and to not just present photos of urban artists in action but also to add some action to the opening ceremony this Thursday, I asked famous Australian street artist Buff Diss to create one of his well-known tape art installations on Westberlin Gallery’s window-front! So there’s another good reason for those of you being in Berlin to join the vernissage - Admission is free as usual in Berlin. ...

Today is the day for some first official words about my upcoming urban art photography exhibition in Berlin! Entitled Urban Artists in Action - Another View on Street Art & Graffiti Westberlin Gallery will present selected photos of my Urban Artists in Action series, featuring some well-known street and graffiti artists from around the globe! His close knit, almost family bonds with prominent street artists from both Berlin and around the world including Buff Diss, Morten Andersen, FinDAC and Remi/Rough naturally developed into a large collection of intimate photographs following studio visits and street actions of some of his, and our own favourite heroes. ...

Urban Art Show | Famous French urban artist L’Atlas used, as some of you already know, the last couple of days to prepare some new artworks for his upcoming show at Skalitzers Contemporary Gallery in Berlin! For this new series L’Atlas combined stamping, painting and taping to create a new style of multi-layered abstract typography in black and white, which plays with the viewer… Seeking a universal form of urban communication, L’Atlas invents a new language for global mega-cities, a language of signs as much as words. Beginning with the tag in the early 1990s, L’Atlas went on to study Arabic calligraphy with classic and modern masters in Morocco, Egypt and Syria, taking particular inspiration from traditional Kufic calligraphy – the oldest calligraphic form of the Arabic scripts. […] The rectangular shapes of the Kufic script are applied to the Latin alphabet to create his own typography, in which he writes his name as a labyrinth. Within his script, each shape is a letter, and each letter a shape - making each message both enigmatic and aesthetic. (Skalitzers) ...

Graffiti Fine Art | Danish urban artist Morten Andersen, who is part of the London-based art label “Beautiful Crime”, started - as many well-known urban artists - his career on the streets as a graffiti artist. Since a few month, the originally Aalborg-based artist has a studio in Berlin and for that reason and because I really like his detailed and abstract artworks, I met him in his studio for a small photo-documentary… ...

Graffiti Photography | After I met famous Austrian-based graffiti artist Nychos in London, I caught up with him in Berlin a few days ago! Again we spent almost a half day on a roof somewhere in a big city and again I photographically documented his work… Nychos is well-known around the world for his main street art concept “The Rabbit Eye Movement” (REM), for what reason you can find his often angry and sometimes crazy rabbit graffiti not just in Vienna, London and Berlin, but also in Melbourne, Barcelona, Paris and other big metropolises around the globe! ...

akut graffiti Urban Art Photography | In addition to my “Top Urban Artists 2010” list, I had the idea to look back at all the nice photo-series I took in 2010 of street artist in action and to choose some of my favorites to present them to you in a bundle… I ended up with around 20, in my eyes really nice photos of some really well-known graffiti and street artists, including Buffdiss, Titi Freak, Herakut, Nychos, Ben Eine, Dan Kitchener, Liliwenn, Mode2 and others, I hope you like them! ...