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MYMO NSTERS is a platform that fosters an understanding of Mymo’s artistic works. With roots tracing back to graffiti, Mymo creates “monsters” related to the classic Graffiti Characters, but the works consistently reach far beyond these fundamentals as the artist constantly develops new possibilities of aesthetic expression with the help of various techniques (from street and canvas painting to collage, from animation films to installations).. Life, with all its ups and downs, serves as a primary inspiration for Mymo’s work, and the artist’s monsters serve as a primary medium for communicating the entire spectrum of human emotions.

Aspects of interaction and communication with urban surroundings are found again and again in Mymo’s works, works in which the architecture of a city does not simply serve as an artistic canvas but also dictates monsters’ forms and emotional expressions with its actual material structure (such as holes or cracks in the plaster).
Mymo’s works are conceived using methods of free association similar to Surrealistic procedures; that is to say, the figures have the closest possible relationship to their surroundings.

Their stark colors and unusual color contrasts (black often combined with colors like turquoise, lavender and orange as well as hues from the spectrum of neon colors) make the monsters and their grotesquely shaped bodies stand out conspicuously (they usually have stripes and wear sneakers, have huge heads, many teeth, long arms and large busts). Thus they delight and confuse the observer while at the same time transforming the urban scenery, making a new perspective possible. Typographic details serve as an additional creative element as well as making statements and providing commentary on the figures. Mymonsters are also seen time and again in dialogue with other Happy Characters Friends, providing them a means of fitting into the unique urban tableau where they make their homes. Thus these beings, citizens of a fantastic parallel universe, are meant to support interaction and communication in the urban context of the everyday, leading to a positive change in our world.
Mymo has also realized various installations in which spaces are created (such as spaces that accommodate people, like the Flamingo Beach Lotel in Berlin), and in which a cast of tangible, three-dimensional dolls of various sizes are realized as characters. At times the artist’s installations invite the observer to participate, as was the case with “Shoot the Freak” (a shooting gallery created for Urban Affairs in which painted spray cans were to be hit with balls or shot with play guns), thus combining an ironic commentary on the situation of such forms of urban art as graffiti and street art.

MYMONSTERS has already been displayed in numerous exhibitions, publications and magazines, on shirts and skateboard decks and, of course, on the streets of various cities such as New York, London, Berlin, Barcelona, Bologna, Amsterdam, Göteborg, Lissabon, Paris,
Marseille und Zaragossa, in North- and Southamerica.

Exhibitions

11/09: Los Angeles/ USA: NewImage Gallery “ 14 Artists”
11/09: New York/ USA: Brocklynnite Gallery „ ShineBox“
10/09: Berlin/Germany: Illustrative „ MYmO Workshop“
08/09: Berlin/Germany: Museum für Kommunikation „MyMos Monster Friend“
08/09: Berlin/Germany: FriendandEnemies „BonVoyage“
07/09: Berlin/Germany: Adidas 60th BB-day BredandButter Berlin
07/09: Berlin/Germany: Urban Affairs 09
05/09: London/England: Soloshow PureEvil Gallerie “JunkjardArt”
03/09: Berlin/Germany: Soloshow ATM Gallerie “IJustDidThisYesterday”

10/08: Berlin/Germany: Berlinerstrasse Group Show
09/08: Brasano de Grappa/Italy: InFart Festival
08/08: Amsterdam/Niederlande: Hanazukistore “Urban Monsters”
07/08: Arnhem/Niederlande: Subwalk Gallery “BeYouBeMeBeStupid”
07/08: Berlin/Germany: Urban Affairs
04/08: Hamburg/Germany: Bring your Friends and Enemies

08/07: Hamburg/Germany: Hinterconti. group expo
07/07: Frankfurt Main/Germany: Bright Sk8board Show Party Sommer 07
07/07: Amsterdam/Niederlande: Streetlab . MEBIKE
07/07: Amsterdam/Niederlande: Carhartt-Store.MEBIKE
07/07: NewYork/ Brooklyn/*USA: Pendu Gallery
06/07: Berlin/Germany: 48 Stunden Neu Kölln
06/07: Zaragoza/Spain: TercerAsalto Festival
01/07: Frankfurt Main/Germany: Bright Sk8board Tradeshow Winter07

11/06: Barcelona/Spain: distritoQuinto.‘obra-fusión’
10/06: Berlin/Germany: Pictoplasma.Ballhausost. “Pimp my Doll”
08/06: Hamburg/German: Hinterconti. group expo
07/06: Göteborg/Sweden: ORO Gallerie. “Brand New Secound Hand”
07/06: Amsterdam/Niederlande: Platform22.MeAndMyCharacter Exhibition
06/06: Bolognia/Italy: Arte Bastardo Festival
06/06: Heilbron/Germany: Basementizid.After.Party
05/06: Berlin/Germany: Flamingo Beach Lotel/Kitchen
04/06: Berlin/Germany: MYMONSTERS HOTEL ROOM
04/06: Barcelona/Spain: distritoQuinto “Monsters of Barna”
01/06: Frankfurt Main/Germany: Bright Sk8board Tradeshow

05/05: New Jersey/*USA: Streets 2k5 Festival
07/05: Berlin/Germany: RoboPuppetMonster Show
08/05: Berlin/Germany: Miss HeckerMyMonster Exhibition
08/05: Frankfurt/Germany: WG-Hanau Exhibition

BIBLIOGRAPHY

2009:
Uraban Art Book Berlin 09
Nylon Magazine Korea Interview, Issue 26
Glamour Spain Issue November
2009:
Nylon Magazine issue 26 Street Fashion Cluture
2008:
Rojo Magazine, 2008
Berlin Streetart 2, by Sven Zimmermann, Prestel Verlag, 2008
Peel: The Art of Sticker, by Dave & Holly Combs, Thames & Hudson, 2008
2007:
Street Art in Berlin, by Kai Jakob, Jaron Verlag, 2007
Urban Illustration: Street Art City Guide Berlin, by Benjamin Wolbergs & Donna
Wiemann, Gingko Press, 2007
Rugged Magazine, Cover and Interview, 2007
Peel Magazine No 8: Toy Issue, Interview, 2007
2006:
Graffiti Women: Street Art from Five Continents, by Nicholas Ganz, HarryNAbrams Inc., 2006
DeFish Magazine No 6, 2006
2005:
Catfight Magazine No 1, 2005
Hassler Magazine, 2005

Filmography
2008:
TV ARTE mymo Interview / ShootTheFreak
TV ARTE mymo Interview (chick) /in the FlamingoBeachLotel
MYMO & OBELISK / by Jonathan Peters
2007:
3serAsalto INterview /Spanish TV
Street2k5 Interview
A Stop Motion Movie / by Mymonsters
2006:
Ulf in the Villa /by Mymonsters

 

 

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