Mittenimwald and Dash3Ultra are two urban artists from Hamburg connected by their devotion for stencil paintings. While their themes and motifs are quite contrastive, the two are probably among the most interesting artists in a highly active hanseatic street art scene.

Dash3Ulstra is one of the heads of the first Hamburg Stencil Crew, ASA (Altona Stencil Artists), and enjoys great popularity along the Elbe for his series of anti-heroes. Stylistically, Dash2Ultra’s quirky pixel technique sticks out from the crowd. Content wise, his works revoke any dimunitives: Dash3Ultra devotes himself to the anti-hero; people who won notoriety through their unintentional involvement in the world’s darkest moments. For instance, Dash3Ultra portrays the pilot who dropped the first nuclear bomb on Hiroshima, or the man who provided the US administration with a reason to start the war on Iraq in 2003.

Mittenimwald, who originally followed a career in advertising, often draws on classic advertising methods in creating his stencilled paste-ups. He intertwines them with punk and tattoo elements to create a peculiar mix of sex sells and revolutionary practices. Mittenimwald’s motif selection ranges from a poster campaign about poverty, hunger and mettwurst to metal-tattooed urban beauties and skull-trimmed pop art icons. Commerce meets anarchy, punk meets advertising – Mittenimwald’s urban image world appears to be the artistic antithesis to the guerrilla marketing of the advertising industry. By means of quotations from the punk scene, Mittenimwald’s works seem to point out that each revolution will absorb its offspring: sell out or realness is a matter of perspective, but in the end it’s all about fun in this great rock’n’roll swindle!

Mittenimwald & Dash3Ultra – Quantomirokaze

Fine Art Stencil

July 9—August 8, 2010

Vernissage: Friday, July 9, 7pm

ATM Gallery Berlin

Brunnenstr. 24

10119 Berlin-Mitte

Open Tuesday to Saturday, 1—7pm