We stopped by Urban Nation in Berlin last week to check out their latest project, M/7, in collaboration with Brooklyn Street Art. It is the 7th in a series named after Berlin’s UN haus building, which we’ve been following here over the past several months. A portraiture show in essence, curators Jamie Rojo and Steven P. Harrington invited 12 Brooklyn based street artists to create a portrait of his or her particular “Person of Interest”: Dain, Gaia, Don Rimx, Swoon, Specter, Esteban Del Valle, Chris Stain, Nohcoley, Cake, El Sol 25, Icy & Sot, Onur Dinc, Kkade, Nevercrew, Dot Dot Dot, and Anreas Engludn. This makes the exhibition a sort of cultural exhange program that brings together the artists with local residents of Berlin, and encourages them to consider their surroundings. Their chosen subjects are a range of idols that either offer them inspiration, or represent issues that are important to them. Some of them are active supportors of the project, such as Gaia’s subject, Fereshta Ludin, a central female figure of Berlin’s Dada movement. In another mural, Swoon pays tribute to Turkish immigrants in Berlin, the largest Turkish settlement outside of Turkey. Brooklyn Street Art shares, “Artists actually like to do research and create art that is meaningful and relevant to their personal stories… and many street passersby and art audiences are elated to find work that they can relate to – that reflects their lives, history, and culture.” Take a look at more “Persons of Interest” below, on view through June 22nd, 2015.
Dain (Portrait of Marlene Dietrich)
Specter (Portrait of Sally Montana)
Gaia (Portrait of Fereshta Ludin)
Swoon (Portrait of Turkish immigrants)
Esteban Del Valle (Portrait of George Grosz)
Chris Stain (Portrait of Charles Bukowski)
NohjColey (Portrait of Katharina Oguntoye)
El Sol 25 (Portrait of Hannah Höch)