Kai Lippok
Kai Lippok – From “tag” to gesture.
“I have always loved to write.
Letters. Words. Texts.
I appreciated to watch my father sign my schoolwork in a dynamic
and forceful manner. I also enjoyed watching
when my mother left her very deliberately constructed
and filigree signature. I think the signatures of my parents are the most profound
and farthest reaching influences in my artistic work.”
Lippok has been involved with graffiti since 1999.
A logical consequence for a 12 year old with aspirations of self-determination and an affinity for writing. Graffiti offered a chance for self-definition and self-realization. The aesthetic image of graffiti culture and its artistic positions, whether presented as “style writing” or “character”, was worth acknowledging, respecting and learning to love.
Instead of getting lost in classic art colleges, the study of art education offered a raft on which it was possible to reach towards new shores . Lippok found a harbor in informal painting, which reminded him of his native home, graffiti.
“Working quickly with lines on different surfaces, which demands the whole musculoskeletal system,
put me in a mood that I had previously only known from spraying. The morphing of form into non-objective gestures has parallels to tagging, the most essential discipline in graffiti, in my opinion.
I put my body into an energetically charged state, which, through impulsive discharge, seemingly unconsciously carries to the outside, what I am.
My tag. It is as if I am still writing when I paint. Just not my name, but something that is even purer.”
Since then, Lippok has combined techniques from graffiti and informal painting. Grafformel is what he calls his way of painting. Exhibitions in galleries and other institutions followed.
His murals can be found in public spaces, works on transportable canvas are represented in numerous private collections.
Kai Lippok lives and works in Neu-Isenburg, Germany,
and represents “Broke.Today”, “The Infamous Faces” and “The Easy Writers”.
Kai Lippok
Kai Lippok – From “tag” to gesture.
“I have always loved to write.
Letters. Words. Texts.
I appreciated to watch my father sign my schoolwork in a dynamic
and forceful manner. I also enjoyed watching
when my mother left her very deliberately constructed
and filigree signature. I think the signatures of my parents are the most profound
and farthest reaching influences in my artistic work.”
Lippok has been involved with graffiti since 1999.
A logical consequence for a 12 year old with aspirations of self-determination and an affinity for writing. Graffiti offered a chance for self-definition and self-realization. The aesthetic image of graffiti culture and its artistic positions, whether presented as “style writing” or “character”, was worth acknowledging, respecting and learning to love.
Instead of getting lost in classic art colleges, the study of art education offered a raft on which it was possible to reach towards new shores . Lippok found a harbor in informal painting, which reminded him of his native home, graffiti.
“Working quickly with lines on different surfaces, which demands the whole musculoskeletal system,
put me in a mood that I had previously only known from spraying. The morphing of form into non-objective gestures has parallels to tagging, the most essential discipline in graffiti, in my opinion.
I put my body into an energetically charged state, which, through impulsive discharge, seemingly unconsciously carries to the outside, what I am.
My tag. It is as if I am still writing when I paint. Just not my name, but something that is even purer.”
Since then, Lippok has combined techniques from graffiti and informal painting. Grafformel is what he calls his way of painting. Exhibitions in galleries and other institutions followed.
His murals can be found in public spaces, works on transportable canvas are represented in numerous private collections.
Kai Lippok lives and works in Neu-Isenburg, Germany,
and represents “Broke.Today”, “The Infamous Faces” and “The Easy Writers”.
