Street Art Intervention: Demonic Beauties from Berlin in the Paris Metro

Street Art Intervention: Demonic Beauties from Berlin in the Paris Metro

Berlin’s iconic subway has gotten its fair share of street art interventions, such as the train filled with leaves or the one equipped with extra surveillance cameras. Our subway stations also got temporarily adorned with some bold graffitis like the big smiley or the two hands.

Berlin-based artist and street art interventionist Vermibus also once used the Berlin subway stations as a gallery. For his bizarrely obscured advertising posters of fashion and beauty products he changes the perfect models into demonic creatures by painting over the prints with dissolvent. His work also made its way through Europe in the following years. His latest series brought him to the Metro in Paris. What a perfect match these fashion demons are for Paris!

If you want to see his work up-close and personal you should come to his new solo exhibition In Absentia that will open this Thursday on November 9th 2017 at Open Walls Gallery and run through November 25. Enjoy a making of video of his Paris intervention below.

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Art Activism by Vermibus

Art Activism by Vermibus

Berlin-based artist Vermibus uses fashion advertisements as his canvas, transforming misinterpreted glamour and beauty into deformed, ghoulish entities. You may have already noticed his works in the streets and subway stations of Berlin – his intriguing advertisements are hard to miss. Not only that, these so-called “ads” are not what they seem. Using collected advertising posters from the streets as his base; Vermibus opposes the act of painting by erasing the images with solvent; a similar process that creates pieces by removing parts of the image to reveal a new character. In doing so, Vermibus initiates discourse on contemporary ads, criticizing the representation of humans through the media’s lens. The streets of Berlin play an essential role, as people stop and stare at his dehumanized figures that were already depersonalized, no longer seen as trivial photographs, which stripped the models of their identities, replacing them with the identities of the brands. Catch a glimpse of some of his works, and find out about his upcoming exhibition in Berlin after the jump. Read on…

Fashion Week and Islam: Princess Hijab

Fashion Week and Islam: Princess Hijab

Five years ago I wrote for the first time about Princess Hijab – a street ad-busting artist (like Vermibus from Berlin)  who changes the look of advertising fashion campaigns by painting a veil over the pretty photoshopped faces of the models. Because of the current Fashion Week I was looking back into old articles and realized how on the edge her art is in this particular time. Even if she seems not active as an artist any more, I wanted to look deeper into the meaning of her artwork to see if it could help me with my thoughts about the current political situation.

Read the results of my thinking after the veil. 😉

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Positions with Vermibus

Positions with Vermibus

Vermibus is an amazing Berlin-based street artist that has been on my radar for a while since I discovered his Adbusting work at the subway stop Schönleinstraße in 2013. I think his transformation of glamorous advertising models into scary demonic creatures that almost ressemble Francis Bacon’s paintings is really fascinating. To give you an impression I have a few samples of his work and a super nice making of video of his tour through Europe for you after the jump.

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