“When I go to a
gallery, I like to find the art on my own.”
Maser
Maser
The Irish street artist
Maser started his artistic career on the
streets as a 15-year-old.
As he explained to Lovin
Dublin’s Emma Kenneally “It was a great outlet for a young teen to express
himself. No rules, outdoors, exploring the city and painting, ticked all my
boxes.”
From his teenage tags, Maser soon incorporated typography, letterforms and sign painting
into his street work and after studying visual communication at art school his
work transitioned to graphic representation and geometric abstraction.
About which he told Berlin
Art Link “It’s very different now, but that
could be because I’ve changed too. It was a lot simpler when I started — you
wrote your name on a wall, in as many places and as stylized as possible. It
was a hobby then, taking up more and more of my time until I realized that I’m
an artist and ‘this is what I do. This sub-culture has become something much
bigger than I could have imagined, I feel blessed to be a part of it. Exciting
times are ahead.”
And part of those exciting times has
seen Maser travel the world from Australia to Berlin, from the Czech Republic
to New York for commissions, residencies and exhibitions. Due to the nature of
his work a camera is an import tool in his painter’s arsenal.
As he has said “Photography is
essential. Because I work mainly in the public space, anything can happen once
I leave the piece. It’s exposed to the elements. Sometimes the photo becomes
more precious than the piece. 95% of my outdoor work from over the past 16
years no longer exists. All I have is the photo.”
As Maser’s career trajectory moves
from the open to the confined so does his presentation of the work.
Maser explained the difference
between these approaches with regard to his Olympus Photography commission held
in Berlin’s former opera workshop, the Opernwerkstätten. “I like to see people react,
take notice, and maybe question why it’s there. It especially works in public
space because it doesn’t belong there. Space like the Olympus Photography
Playground is different, because people come expecting to see art, so I like
the idea of narrating their movement by creating an art environment. The piece
only has its true purpose when people engage with it and within it.”
Be that on the street or in the
gallery.
Maser’s latest gallery exhibition Orbiting on the Periphery is currently on show at London’s Lazarides gallery
until the 5th of May.
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