We visited the studio of French graffiti artist BLO, based in Berlin, as he prepares for his upcoming solo show “La Petite Mort” at Open Walls Gallery opening tonight.

La Petite Mort examines euphoric isolation of the artist, steeped in BLO’s past movements throughout the public sphere, from 1998 in the French Graffiti scene. This show has all the destructive elements of his youth – yet now he attacks his symbolic ancestors, from the Virgin Mary and Child to the Bleeding Heart.

BLO (DMV) works with many juxtapositions in his dream-like images of damage. Negating the iconic pin-up of the graffiti scene, he labours intensively over androgynous women with mechanical limbs and lead pipe bones. The sculptural curves of the paintings mirror the heavy reflex of gesture seen in the other monochrome illustrations, that are ripped from their static respite to play on a series of wooden panels and stretched cotton throughout the show.

Full set of pics here
View the online catalogue here

BLO

“La Petite Mort”
Open Walls Gallery
Stattbad, Berlin
6 July – 27 July