PH124392 IKEA ART EVENT 2015 LIMITED COLLECTION APRIL 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 2 PH124364 Bring the street art home We have long provided people all over the world with democratic design – affordable and functional design for all. Now, we’re launching an art initiative with no practical function, instead it’s all about evoking emotions. Creative Leader Henrik Most explains the idea behind IKEA Art Events: - Normally you could say that art has a limitation. That it’s for the few, with a lot of money, or something you see in museums and galleries. But we think that art belongs in people’s homes. And with these collections, art becomes accessible for a lot of people - you don’t need to be wealthy to buy something unique. For this years’ collection, we invited 12 street artists from around the world to create 12 unique street art posters for IKEA. The global launch is 1 April 2015, and since it’s a limited collection the posters might sell out very quickly. Our aim is that the different styles and expressions will create a better everyday life - for everyone who loves great art. IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 3 “Street art is free for anyone to enjoy, you can just grab a bike and discover art in your own hometown. It’s the most democratic art form that exists.” HENRIK MOST Creative Leader, IKEA of Sweden IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 4 From the streets of the world... Street art lives in the urban environment. It breathes the heartbeat of inner cities and started its journey in the dark subway tunnels. Today, street art has become an integral part of contemporary popular culture and also well on its way to acceptance in the world of high art. Street art has been kind of the black sheep within the art scene. Because it was, first of all, connected to a lot of stuff that didn’t happen in the art world. It was connected to music, to graffiti, to subculture. It was not connected to artists coming from academic institutions educated as artists. They came from other areas. So street art has been kind of the underdog for many years. IKEA chose street art because we felt One of the artists is taking a break after a hard day’s work in NYC. that they have been the rebels. And we like to see ourselves as a friendly rebel company. “Street art has been kind of the black sheep within the art scene.” HENRIK MOST Creative Leader, IKEA of Sweden IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 5 ...to the walls of your home It all started with the spray can, but today there are many different techniques and ways of working with street art. “Some street artists work very graphic, some black and white, some more graffiti like, some work figurative and some work very colourful. And then we have different techniques; from spraying and throwing paint to fine drawing, stencils and collage, while others have been working more digitally. Mixing all that is what shaped this into a diverse group of street artists and a diverse poster collection,” says Henrik Most. Some street artists use ink techniques, for Some work with geometric ab- One poster for IKEA is glowing in example ink splash. straction mixed with patterns. the dark. There’s a lot of work put into customising each poster to become as individual as possible - within what’s possible at IKEA. You have different kind of paper and even the printing technique is thought through down to its detail. Then you have the adding of effects - 3D (which creates a depth), glossy, different lacquer possibilities, “glowing in the dark” effects, etc. The printing techniques are thought through Most artists consider the poster to be a large format. For a street artist, to enhance exciting details. it’s just the opposite. IKEA ART EVENT 2015 PH124640 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 6 Posters were the first format that challenged the idea of art ItIt goes goes back back to to the the late late 19th 19th century century with with the the age age ofof reproduction reproduction technique technique when when you you could could start start toto make make copies. copies. Before Before then, then, art art was was exclusively exclusively somethingsomething unique, unique, like like a a painting. painting. Posters Posters soon soon explodedexploded as as an an art art form form and and became became public public art art galleriesgalleries in in the the streets. streets. As As a a result, result, art art became became moremore democratic democratic then then ever ever with with posters. posters. That’sThat’s why why IKEA IKEA decided decided to to fuse fuse street street art art with with poster.poster. So So that that everyone everyone can can bring bring home home this this urbanurban heartbeat, heartbeat, no no matter matter where where you you live. live. IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 7 Here today, gone tomorrow Street art is in its spirit fleeting. It’s here today, and it might be gone tomorrow. That goes for this art collection too. The posters are here 1 April 2015, and might be sold out tomorrow. JEROEN EROSIE JOHN CRASH MATOS ELLE M-CITY EKO NUGROHO SOBEKCIS NEVERCREW TFREAK CAROLINA FALKHOLT HUA TUNAN KORALIE AND SUPAKITCH NURIA MORA IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 8 “It was importatnt for us to not just work with super famous artists, but to create a vital mix that represents the street art scene today.” HENRIK MOST Creative Leader, IKEA of Sweden IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 9 Meet the artists What’s your story behind the IKEA poster? JOHN CRASH MATOS SOBEKCIS CAROLINA FALKHOLT NEVERCREW – The idea behind the image is what I’ve – We wanted to use all the elements – The image is a development of a – The artwork Message in a Bottle is been trying to do for the past 20 years, from our street art to make an abstract figure I first started to experiment part of a path that we’ve been following to merge the energy of graffiti with the and figurative image as an artwork. with in summer 2013, when I had the for years. We call the theme “living world around me. The lettering moving opportunity to work on a big gable in structures” and we like to see them as lyrically, the imagery, the curves, NAME Nikola Gajic the Swedish town Avesta. The idea for models of living systems. everything that I think of as New York and Ivan Gajic aka Sobekcis IKEA Art Event was to use only one City. BORN Belgrade, Serbia part of the symmetrical body from the NAME Christian Rebecchi and Pablo Avesta wall painting and see how it Togni aka NEVERCREW NAME John Matos / CRASH would turn out in poster format. The BORN Lugano and Bellinzona, BORN The Bronx, New York City, USA overall theme of my work is as always Switzerland feminism. NAME Carolina Falkholt aka Blue BORN Gothenburg, Sweden IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 10 What’s your story behind the IKEA poster? KORALIE SUPAKITCH HUA TUNAN NURIA MORA EROSIE – Each of us has a personal universe – Almost immediately I had the idea – Abstract ideas. – It’s called Horror Vacui which means and a recognisable style, but our work about an eagle. It represents the “fear of emptiness”. It’s a visual reaction goes very well together. When we put courage that I think many street artists NAME Nuria Mora to the constant overload of images I our two characters Supanimal and have. The eagle is free, colourful and BORN Madrid, Spain experience on a daily basis through the Geishka side by side they merge into brave. It’s also one of the traditional internet, advertising and just in general. one and tell a new story. animals of China. The poster is based on wall paintings I did in a similar style, where I started NAME Koralie and Supakitch NAME Chen Yingjie aka Hua Tunan from one corner and worked my way BORN Paris and Nimes BORN Foshan, China out, until the empty white walls were totally covered with an over- whelming visual overload. NAME Jeroen Erosie BORN The Netherlands IKEA ART EVENT 2015 IKEA PRESS KIT / APRIL 2015 / 11 What’s your story behind the IKEA poster? MCITY EKO NUGROHO TFREAK ELLE – The motive is an old carousel that – I’ve witnessed and read about – It’s about a person who believes in his – I wanted to make a piece that was full is constructed in the form of a city. violence and conflicts at home and in dreams and will not give up pursuing of energy, colour, animals and a strong Carousels are seen as friendly places many countries across the globe. I think happiness. woman centrepiece. I was recalling psy- for children but my version is different, that human beings no longer know or chedelic poster design from the ’70s and with wrecking balls that slowly destroy want to know what it is to be tolerant. NAME Hamilton Yokota aka T-Freak this piece was the result. the city. The figure in my poster is wearing a BORN São Paulo, Brazil T-shirt with the text “Salty NAME ELLE NAME Mariusz Waras aka M-city Tolerance”. The sentence is a little bit BORN San Francisco Bay Area, USA BORN Gdynia, Poland funny and absurd.