Six urban artists who make the "Wonderwalls" exhibition a must-see

From Banksy to JR

The fall exhibition season gets off to a flying start with a premiere. For the first time, urban art is the focus of a show at the NRW-Forum. "Wonderwalls. Art & Toys" brings together the really big names in the scene, and the really crazy thing is that all of the more than 2,000 works on display come from the collection of one man, Selim Varol. The Düsseldorf entrepreneur and restaurateur has been collecting urban art and designer toys for over 30 years and now owns more than 10,000 works - a record in Europe! The title of the exhibition already indicates that you will be able to see street art at its finest in "Wonderwalls", and of course this focus makes sense. After all, this counterculture and the subversive intervention of its protagonists in public space has opened the door to many other varieties of urban art, whether it's cover artwork or pop-culture-inspired sculpture. Do you like stencils, pastings or vinyl toys, would you like to travel back in time to the early hip-hop era or do you come from the skateboard and graffiti scene yourself? There is (no) way around these six urban art artists in "Wonderwalls".  

The exhibition runs from September 30, 2022 to February 5, 2023. 

Banksy 

A pseudonym that conceals a critical mind and a great deal of dark humor: Banksy is probably the best-known unknown in the urban art scene - perhaps even in the entire contemporary art cosmos. He is one of the pioneers of street art who often took high risks with their illegal actions and therefore preferred to remain anonymous. Today, Banksy's stencils, his stencil graffiti, have long been part of the art canon, but also of pop culture, and are acclaimed worldwide when they suddenly appear out of nowhere somewhere in public space. A Banksy can fetch millions at auction, and yet the artist behind it has lost none of his credibility. He makes no secret of his criticism of consumerism and his political stance, and there is no doubt that the man is always good for a surprise. Just think of "Girl with Balloon", which, having just been auctioned at Sotheby's for over a million euros, destroyed itself with a shredder hidden in the frame. Completely undestroyed and on display at the NRW-Forum, among others: Banksy's "Trolley Hunters", an archaic hunting scene involving three shopping carts. 

JR  

He too is a star of the scene, and this year is not the first time that the French photographer and street artist JR has graced the Ehrenhof with his art. In April, more than 100 Düsseldorfers unrolled a huge portrait of five-year-old Valeriia, who had fled to Poland, who, at the age of five, is bouncing happily along - an expression of solidarity with Ukraine, which JR is behind. And this action points the way: with his large-format pastings, JR gives people a voice. Most of them are close-ups of faces, often larger than life, which characterize entire (urban) landscapes. Photography and urban art mix in a spectacular way. "Portrait d'une génération" is the title of a series that you can literally approach as part of "Wonderwalls". Here, JR deals with juvenile delinquency in the banlieues - a milieu in which he himself grew up. And you too could become part of his art, more precisely the global project "Inside Out": On 29.09., 4-7 pm, 30.09., 2-8 pm, and 1.10., 12-6 pm, JR's photo truck was parked in front of the NRW-Forum, where you could have your picture taken. The photos were then pasted around the NRW-Forum - and you joined the more than 400,000 people from 138 countries who have been portrayed for "Inside Out" since its launch in 2011. 

Martha Cooper  

Are you interested in the origins of hip-hop? Then you can't get past Martha Cooper. New York, 1980: a new subculture is paving the way in the streets of the Bronx: b-boying - and a little later, b-girling. Martha Cooper is considered to be the first to capture this phenomenon, also known as "breakdancing", with her camera. The American photojournalist also took graffiti art, which was inextricably linked to hip-hop culture, seriously. The book "Subway Art", which she published together with photographer Henry Chalfant in 1984, became a milestone in writing documentation and a graffiti standard work. Generations of sprayers have trained their style on it. Why? It is probably due to the authentic approach and simultaneous appreciation with which Martha Cooper approaches graffiti, which was still widely criminalized at the beginning and lumped together as graffiti. With her photos, she conveys hip-hop as an attitude to life that has developed over the decades from a counterculture into the world's largest pop-cultural art movement.  

Os Gêmeos  

They don't just call themselves that, they are: the twins - "Os Gêmeos" in Portuguese - Otávio and Gustavo Pandolfo come from São Paulo, and it was there that they created their first graffiti in 1987. However, they didn't spray - they didn't have the money for the cans. Brushes, wallpaper rollers and affordable facade paints became their tools - and still are today. You already know all this? Then you are probably familiar with the colorful mural by Os Gêmeos on Oberbilker Allee. In 2018, the duo left one of their surrealistic murals here on the 200-square-metre side façade of the AWO youth counselling service - a detailed scene with a man with an oversized, yellow-tinged face and thin limbs at its center, both typical of Os Gêmeos. The twins have long been among the best-known mural artists in the world. With their visual language, which fuses influences from hip-hop with Brazilian folk art, they have found their very own expression. Mythology meets contemporary criticism, activism meets poetry - absolutely worth seeing.  

Shepard Fairey  

Any bets that you are also familiar with Shepard Fairey? Even if the name doesn't ring a bell: his work "HOPE" has been received worldwide and has probably burned itself into the collective memory forever, as it is the famous election campaign poster that Shepard Fairey designed for former US President Barack Obama in 2008. And you probably also know OBEY, the legendary streetwear brand that the street artist, graphic designer and illustrator launched in 2001. Whether due to the subtle slogans that expose themselves as propaganda or in view of the diverse collaborations with icons of skate and pop culture: OBEY is a cult - a cult of culture, of course, because Shepard Fairey also surfs the challenging border area between (conscious) consumption and refusal to consume, between art and pop with his fashion brand. It comes as no surprise that he, who began with illustrations on skateboards, has also made a name for himself as a guerrilla marketer. This fits in with his aim of reclaiming public space, which is increasingly occupied by advertising, and using it in a new and socially critical way. With more than 250 editions, "Wonderwalls" presents a large selection of prints by the American artist.   

Stefan Marx 

Two continents, one creative nucleus: As with Shepard Fairey, skateboards were one of the first surfaces that Stefan Marx, a Berliner by choice, took on as a designer, and designs for a fashion label were added later, as well as record covers. For example, for the Hamburg label Smallville Records. Marx continues to contribute artwork for vinyl releases there to this day. The artist has a very special sense of humor, his drawings and paintings exude a subtle irony. Marx celebrates DIY and the imperfect. This is especially true when he writes down quotes from songs or everyday conversations and deals with them graphically. The (supposed) contrast between the often minimalist aesthetic of his works and the objects that sometimes adorn them, such as a series by Königliche Porzellan-Manufaktur Berlin (KPM) or luxury carpets by Jan Kath, is fascinating. The man clearly does not want to commit himself. He seems committed only to himself. "I woke up on a sofa a few weeks later", Stefan Marx wrote these words on a wall in the foyer of the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf two years ago. I wonder what he is alluding to.  

Cover picture: Photo: TOYGIANTS - "Kaws Family", 2006, Courtesy Collection Selim Varol