White Walls is pleased to present Unism, the latest solo show by internationally acclaimed Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulmam, opening July 6, 2013 from 7-11pm. The exhibition will be on view through August 10, 2013 and is free and open to the public.
After he coined the term Calligraffiti to describe his work in 2007, artist Niels ‘Shoe’ Meulman (Amsterdam, 1967) returns to San Francisco with a new phrase and eponymous exhibition: Unism (pronounced un-ism, not u-nism).
According to the designer-turned-painter, Unism incorporates all aspects of his expressionistic work:
Unism is about the power of reversal. For example ‘turning darkness into light’ taken from a monk’s poem that describes both the illuminated letters in medieval scriptures, as well as the wisdom they brought to the dark ages. In those days, some were trying to turn lead into gold, so it’s no coincidence that I use lots of metallic paints.
But Unism also refers to modern vocabulary in which we find many new words like ‘unlike’, ‘unfollow’ and ‘undo’. I’ve been painting my signature repetitive strokes for years now. This started as a practice to get my hand, wrist, arm and body in the right flow. It became somewhat of a meditative act. The uncanny thing was that four of these strokes actually make up the letters ‘u’ and ‘n’. Since my graffiti days I realized that every word is also an image and that writing can be painting.
I’ve been working with the word ‘unruly’ for years, which basically is a reaction to our overly-regulated society. That ended up in the throwing of paint bombs which contrasted nicely with the grid-like fields of the repetitive strokes. It ties into the ultimate example of my reversal theory; order and chaos.
http://www.whitewallssf.com/blog/2013/06/press-release-unism-new-works-by-niels-shoe-meulman/
Other Articles You May Like from BSA:
Our weekly focus on the moving image and art in the streets. And other oddities. Now screening : 1. Miss Van in Wynwood, Miami 2. Cane Morto + Ema Jons 3. Virtuous Reality * Adam Void and Ryan...
You ever look at Graffiti Art magazine from Paris? It has really turned into such a great quarterly and this new issue number 20 has MOMO on the cover! Also finally an article about the fascinating oc...
It's part of the fascinating world that you inhabit when you follow street art - you have no idea what you will discover in any city at any time because of it's LIVE daily evolutionary perso...
When times are suddenly hard, you have to be creative. Many artists have gone without work in the last month across the US and Europe and elsewhere – their freelance jobs have dried up, their side...
Mad men. Not the sexy selectively nostalgic program about advertising on TV. We speak of the real guys who go mad. It could be illness. Madness may have been inflicted upon you by life or incredible ...