The OÖN-Promenaden-Galerie has one more attraction: the Norwegian graffiti artist Martin Whatson has designed a wall in the office, residential and business center in the heart of Linz. If you walk from the promenade in the direction of the shopping center, you will quickly notice the colorful staircase wall behind a glass door on the right-hand side. A black, white and gray skier can also be found in the colorful collection of writing, signs and pictograms. “A small character in a huge, colorful environment,” says the 37-year-old. He loves to surprise the viewer with small details.
“I am free to spray”
Documentation of his works from all over the world can be seen in the Promenaden Galerien itself. The artist Paolo Cuturi, managing director of Wimmer Immobilien, who has already had several facade walls designed by graffiti artists, invited the guests. “These works of art are an appreciation of our house,” he said at yesterday’s opening. In addition to sponsors and supporters, Mayor Klaus Luger, City Councilor for Culture Doris Lang-Mayerhofer, Art University Rector Brigitte Hütter and Manfred Grubauer and Georg Steiner from Linz Tourism were also present.
The trademark of the Norwegian – who actually studied graphics and only switched to art because he couldn’t get a job – is the combination of his colorful graffiti worlds with figures in black and white, which are created by spraying over several stencils. He combines street art and graffiti art, two directions that are actually in competition with each other. He loves both: “Stencil art is very structured, I’m free to spray graffiti. That’s my kind of art.”
The artist, whose works can be seen in Berlin, Japan, Italy and the USA, can understand that not everyone likes it: “Graffiti is public. Every passer-by sees it, whether they want to or not. It has to As an artist, I can deal with the fact that not everyone is enthusiastic about it.” (hes)
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