WHAT
For his first solo presentation in China, the New York-born artist presents a new series of works in his unique hybrid style, which fuses aspects of gestural abstraction and graffiti writing into dynamic and surreal narratives. His style draws inspiration from his experience as a multi-ethnic American growing up in both the US and Europe. Committed to the idea that art can reflect and transmit direct reactions to oppressive political situations, he paints to create images that open up civilised and relevant discourses.

WHY
After the artist was bullied for his race in Germany, his father sent him back to New York to spend time with family over the summers. It was here that his exposure to graffiti writing activated his artistic sensibility and offered him an example of art as a tool for communication. His artistic influences, Abstract Expressionism, German Expressionism – both pre and postwar – and graffiti artists in New York, Paris, Amsterdam, and Brussels, overlap and complement each other in their impulsive and spontaneous expression. These influences merge with the artist’s personal experiences.