ELMAR LAUSE
Elmar Lause (born 1973 in Bochum, Germany) is a collector of flattened Coke cans, scrapbook stickers, multicoloured monsters made from plastic, vintage family photographs, antlers, comic strips, newspaper tear sheets and other seemingly irrelevant small details of everyday life are what he carefully retains in boxes, albums and in display cabinets. All of them form the foundation of the artist’s odd and queer world that he evokes in his works. The 37-year-old Elmar Lause enjoys manipulating the familiar and extracting something surprising and unexpected from the habitual. He works with the setpieces of various imageries: comic and advertisement, art and lowbrow kitsch, video games and graffiti. In his paintings, collages and installations, these different elements of our reality are superimposed and in their combination yield orchestrations of a fantastic and crazy kind. “Everything that fascinates me, all that draws my attention, is incorporated into my works”, states Lause. The son of the brilliant actor and art aficionado Hermann Lause, deceased in 2005, studied painting with Dieter Glasmacher and design with Welfhard Kraiker in Hamburg, Germany. “I am a story teller”, says the artist about himself. His painted, air-sprayed, and glued stories full of surprises, horror and wit bear witness to this. WWW.ELMARLAUSE.COM
VICTOR ASH
A gigantic weightless astronaut floats above the city in the centre of Berlin. The astronaut is an impressive figure, faceless and oversized, which cannot be overlooked. The work is a classic mural but painted in the style of a huge black stencil, black paint still running and dripping down the wall. It is one of those images black on white which in a simple and effective manner imprints itself in the mind of a passer-by. After one has passed by the astronaut he still lingers on the retina for a while. In this sense Ash’s works are immediate but will stay with you for a while to make you think, to annoy you, or to make you reflect. WWW.VICTORASH.NET
PENNY
Penny was educated at Chelsea College of Art Design and Central Saint Martins and upon graduating, quickly established himself within the stencil art scene in London. He has received critical acclaim for his highly technical, intricately detailed hand-cut stencils, which he brings to life with the application of an idiosyncratic colour palette. Penny regards the complex, lengthy process of stencil production as important as the final piece and his methodology greatly informs his work. Other themes include the juxtaposition of the industrial with the organic, playing with scale, the subtle subversion of reality and the creation of narrative within the inanimate. All these notions translate equally well to canvas or street, and with every street piece, further considerations are given to the context and environment. The interaction with the environment is an important part of Penny’s work. Penny’s artworks are produced using highly complex stencils and spray paint. Penny hand cuts all his stencils using a scalpel, and one stencil alone can take hundreds of hours to cut. This process allows Penny to produce images with a yield so highly detailed that they are almost photographic. WWW.ONEPENNYPIECE.COM
HANNAH PARR
Born in 1984, based in Berlin. Hannah Graduated from Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design with a BA (Hons) Graphic Design 2006. HANNAH’s paintings are indicative of her engagement in the process. Colourful, playful and often dark, her work reflects a passionate energy that intersects the static with the fluid and invites the viewer to enter into striking combinations of colour and movement. It is her deliberate choice to paint on found wood. She thrive’s off finding a forgotten or abandoned object or piece of wood and is interested in putting it in to a new context; a rebirth. HANNAH find’s satisfaction in renewing the forgotten beauty of these unwanted pieces of old furniture, and by presenting them once again to the world they reveal a revived value which in itself calls out for new attention. WWW.HANNAHPARR.COM
NOMAD
If you ask Nomad what his profession or mission in life is, he answers : “Freedom”. Nomad is the blueprint of the contemporary Urban Artist. Educated and inspired by the Skateboarding, Hardcore Punk, Graffity, HipHop and Rave Countercultures of the 80’s, his visiual imprint on the early Berlin Streetartscene was immense. His Thousands of freestyle Roadside trash paintings and markerdrawings on Berlins streets, earned him countless admirers and collectors and made his art visible all over the world - from Blogs and books to the homes of Hollywood Stars. His style - created by his lifestyle as a a vagabond- is always evolving and incorporates “the necessary” - as he proclaims to use whatever style or material is available to maximize the focus on the pleasure of the creation. This can be a Renaissance inspired canvass in his studio, a markerscribble on a doorway or trashcan, a grafittybombing on the wall of a huge dam or a sculpture made out of some tumbleweeds in the desert.
VARIOUS &GOULD
Various & Gould, an artist duo who have been working together since 2005. Their common interests are the love for paper, the enthusiasm for accidental beauty in everyday life, collaborations with artists and friends, especially the work in the urban area form the basis for their joint work. They’re preferred techniques are screen printing and collage. They live and work in Berlin WWW.GROBOGRAFIK.DE
ANTON UNAI
Rough and elegant artwork from traditional aesthetic boundaries. Meta-narratives, pop, science, subculture artefacts, religious iconography and a wide breath if literary references. Born in 1974 in Spain, moved to Berlin. His work has been exhibited internationally. Inspired by vegetable garden, the seaside, Leo Messi, my Father , my Mother, Sister, girlfriend and daughters. And never in this order. WWW.UNAI.TK
DOLLY DEMORATTI
Dolly Demoratti, 25, is a former East London, now Berlin based artist who has had no formal art background, but has been lucky enough to grow up with an extremely creative family who have always supported her. She works with photography, pattern, stenciling and screen printing mostly, she also finds inspiartion in typography and surrealism. Demoratti has shown her work in the art against knives exhibition alongside many other established artists, Cans Festival London and Druck Berlin last year amongst other shows. The last two years have been spent setting up Mother Drucker - a print house and gallery based in Berlin Kreuzberg. Her next projects involve photographic screen printing on a gigantic scale to be exhibited in Berlin in April.
Mother Drucker Mother Drucker is a Berlin based independent gallery and print house. Working with a diverse range of artists we bring together the best in contemporary art, in an array of forms, with one common medium - screen printing. We work in close consultation with the artists to turn their designs, illustrations, and photographs into high quality limited edition screen prints. The prints can then be viewed and purchased direct from our gallery or online. Screen printing is our passion and we constantly strive to achieve perfection in each individual print we produce. High quality solvent free water based inks are married to the finest papers on a traditional hand pulled printing table so that each artist’s work is given the justice it deserves. To ensure the exclusivity desired by both buyer and artist we will never create more than 100 prints of any piece. Situated in Kreuzberg in an old hair salon, Berlin’s creative heart, the Mother Drucker gallery is an ideal place for both established and emerging artists - not just to display their work, but to share and collaborate, move and inspire. The gallery, combined with our in-house printing facilities, makes Mother Drucker a unique feature in Berlin’s artistic landscape. We will be working with a variety of artists, from the well renowned to the less established, helping each one to promote their work with equal dedication and enthusiasm. There will also be provision for one-off pieces, originals, and installations, making Mother Drucker a creative hub for a complete spectrum of artistic styles. With our workshop and gallery, exhibitions and shows, we hope to create an accessible venue for artists and buyers alike to enjoy their passion in a sociable and relaxed atmosphere. For more information about our company or about up and coming shows please email info@mother-drucker.com If you are an artists and would like to work with us please email studio@mother-drucker.com
Mother Drucker x Art against Knives present - ‘As the Crow Flies’ an urban art screen print show. Please join us at the opening reception on Thursday March 1st 6 - 9pm at Art Against Knives Gallery, BoxPark, Shoreditch, or view the show from March 2nd - March 29th. For further details on artists or to contact them directly please email gemma@mother-drucker.com for further details. www.artagainstknives.com // www.mother-drucker.com ART AGAINST KNIVES- GALLERY Unit 55 Boxpark, Shoreditch Bethnal Green Road London E1 6JJ TEL: +44(0)207 7298968 EMAIL: gallery@artagainstknives.com