Despite, or perhaps because of his traditional graffiti background (he is one of the most central figures of European graffiti), the Briton Mode 2 has developed an offshoot style of more traditional portraiture.
His recent art installations consist of hand-drawn motives on cardboards. They thematize different themes like friendship, love and sex and often show daring nude scenes from the porn world.
Format: What do you make of the media fascination with graffiti in recent years, particularly with some of the work Banksy has produced?
Mode 2: What the public sees as “graffiti-art” had become something rather repetitive in their eyes, with a coded language that somehow excluded them from also interacting with the culture. The “street-art” movement brought a lot more sampling of known and popular imagery, breaking away from traditional painting with spray-cans, and opening the possibilities of getting up to a wider spread of wannabe street-artists. This brought a surge of new visual imagery to the public place, as well as many new activists ready to make their names. (Via Format Mag)
For some weeks, parts of his art installation for the Rik Reinking collection where shown while the “Post Graffiti Art” exhibition at the Lucas Carrerie Art Gallery in Berlin.
Today Mode 2’s next show, called “Reality, Fantasy, And The Web”, will open at Lazarides in Newcastle. He will be exhibiting new paintings and installations, as well as a selection of sketches on display on ground floor of the gallery. Ian Cox has photos of the preparations!
Inspired by Arrested Motion.
