Openwalls |

OpenWalls Gallery in Berlin just opened the solo show of French graffiti artist Blo
(see our recent studio visit here) called La petite Mort.

Set in Stadtbad, former public baths reconverted into creative spaces, the first room presents one-off black ink hand drawings on watercolor paper.

Upon entering a second room, viewers are surrounded by a “Duels” serie,
monochrome paintings using exclusively Krink.

The grand finale consists of colorful canvases using spray paint and acrylic,
featuring erotic and androgynous figures in various oniric state.

Blo also takes a twist on the icon Mary and Child with his “Madonne”,
and created two accompanying murals.

View all the pics from the opening here

Check the online catalogue

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

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.